SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

~ The peace symbol ☮ was created by Gerald Holtom in 1958. It was designed for the British "Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament". The design was created by superimposing the flag semaphore letters 'N' and 'D' (Nuclear Disarmament) onto a circle. Flag semaphore is a system of communication using two hand held flag to convey information based on what position each flag is held at. The letter 'N' in flag semaphore is created by holding both flags at an angle below the horizontal line. This forms the two angled lines on the Peace Symbol. The letter 'D' is created by holding one flag straight up and one straight down. This forms the vertical line of the Peace Symbol.

~ From 1909 through 1982, the US penny was made from 95% copper and 5% zinc. As of October 2009, the metal in one pre-1983 penny can be melted and sold for 1.8 cents. The scrap value for pennys from 1982 and earlier is more than the coin is worth as currency.

~ In botanical terms, a fruit consists of the ripened ovary and seed of a flowering plant. What most people consider the strawberry "fruit" is not technically a fruit. The strawberry is considered an "accessory fruit". The fleshy part is derived from the peg at the bottom of the hypanthium that held the ovaries, and not from the ovaries themselves which form the "seeds". So from a technical standpoint, the seeds are the actual fruits of the plant, and the flesh of the strawberry is modified receptacle tissue.

~ The modern bikini was invented by a French designer in 1946. It was named after Bikini Atoll, the site of US nuclear weapon tests a few days earlier in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause would be like the nuclear device. 

~ Hydrogen peroxide bubbles on wounds not because it is killing germs, but because it decomposes into water and oxygen gas in the presence of enzymes from broken skin cells.

~ Ketchup has not always been made out of tomatoes. It started out as a general term for sauce, typically made of mushrooms or fish brine with herbs and spices. Mushroom ketchup is still available in some countries, such as the UK. Some popular early main ingredients include anchovy, oyster, lobster, walnut, kidney bean, cucumber, cranberry, lemon, and grape.

~ To make Pop Rocks, the hot sugar mixture is allowed to mix with carbon dioxide gas at about 600psi. The carbon dioxide gas forms tiny, 600psi bubbles in the candy. When you put the candy in your mouth, it melts and releases the bubbles. What you are hearing and feeling is the 600psi carbon dioxide gas being released from each bubble.

~ Campbell's "Chicken Noodle" soup wasn't always one of Campbell's most popular soups, and it didn't start out as "Chicken Noodle" soup either. Introduced in 1934, it was originally called "Chicken with Noodles" and enjoyed only moderate success. Later that same year an innocent misstatement on the "Amos 'n' Andy" radio program caused sales to sky-rocket. Amos misread his copy and accidentally called the product "Chicken Noodle" soup. Suddenly the soup company started receiving large orders for their "new" product. The soup was formally renamed "Chicken Noodle" after the erroneous turn of phrase caused high demand for the soup. Today, Campbell's uses nearly a million miles of noodles in the production of their Chicken Noodle soup every year. That is enough noodles to circle the equator over 40 times.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

December was the 10th month of the Roman Calendar.

The name December comes from the Latin word ‘decem’ meaning 10.

The birthstone for December is Turquoise or the mystical Blue Topaz.

The flower representing this month is Holly.

On December 18th 1977 – the movie "Saturday Night Fever" opened in New York, and the soundtrack album sold 25-million copies worldwide.

On December 3rd,  1947 —- the Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire” opened on Broadway starring Jessica Tandy as Blanche and Marlon Brando as Stanley.

In December of 1803 the Louisiana Purchase took place.

The Charles Dickens classic story ‘A Christmas Carol’ was 1st published in December 6, 1843.

December 5th is National Blue Jeans Day.

December 6th is the day many people celebrate the patron Catholic saint of children  — St. Nicholas.

December 17th was know for centuries, as the beginning of the Roman/Pagan Saturnalia Festival, held in honor of the God of Agriculture.

December 21st marks the beginning of the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere of the world.

December 28th has been celebrated as Childermass, also known as ‘The Holy Innocents Day’, which commemorates King Herod’s order to kill all the male children under 2, in order to kill the Messiah.

SUNDAY TRIVIA - Is brought to you by the letter "T", for Thanksgiving

Did You Know...

Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as an annual holiday to be held on the last Thursday in November, where as earlier the presidents used to make an annual proclamation to specify the day when Thanksgiving was to be held.

The first Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.  

The first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims  in 1621.

President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in the year 1789 and again in 1795.

The state of New York officially made Thanksgiving Day an annual custom in 1817. 

The Wampanoag Indians were the people who taught the Pilgrims how to cultivate the land. 

Californians are the largest consumers of turkey in the United States. 

Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.

Sarah Josepha Hale, an editor with a magazine, started a Thanksgiving campaign in 1827 and it was result of her efforts that in 1863 Thanksgiving was observed as a day for national thanksgiving and prayer. 

The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade tradition began in the 1920's. 

In 1941, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution making Thanksgiving Day the fourth Thursday in November rather than the last.

Thanksgiving is celebrated in Canada on the second Monday in October.  

The first Thanksgiving wad celebrated in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  

The "drink" that the Puritans brought with them on the Mayflower was beer.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.

There's only one city in the United States named merely "Beach." It is found in North Dakota, which is a land-locked state.

Baskin Robbins once made ketchup ice cream. This was the only vegetable flavored ice cream produced.

Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

Fingerprints serve a function - they provide traction for the fingers to grasp things.

A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.

Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.

If you go blind in one eye, you'll only lose about one-fifth of your vision (but all your depth perception.)

It takes 17 muscles to smile --- 43 to frown.

An adult bedbug can survive up to one year without feeding.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

An average beaver can cut down two hundred trees a year.

Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any state of the United States.

Only full-grown male crickets can chirp.

Richard M. Nixon is the only US president to have resigned.

Average number of hummingbirds required to create the weight of 1 ounce: 18.

Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love.

The human brain is about 85% water.

The honeybee kills more people world-wide than all the poisonous snakes combined.

Teeth are the only parts of the human body that can't repair themselves.

Cats average 16 hours of sleep a day, more than any other mammal.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

Giraffes are the only animals born with horns. Both males and females are born with bony knobs on the forehead.

Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day

Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph.

Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee.

On average women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2000.

Roughly 80% of all human beings on earth have one or more internal parasite infestations. For america, the estimate is 95%. Almost all human beings will suffer from internal or external parasites at least once in their lifespan and may never even know it.

Mosquitoes prefer children to adults, and blondes to brunettes.

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Over 96% of American households purchase bananas at least once each month.

In Hershey, Pennsylvania, the streetlights along "Chocolate Avenue" are in the shape of Hershey Kisses.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

The only active diamond mine in the United States is in Arkansas.

The leap of an average flea is equivalent to a 100 pound man leaping 1,000 and enduring a g-force of 20,000 pounds with an acceleration greater than that of a space shuttle.

The only lizard that has a voice is the Gecko.

The sound of a snore (up to 69 decibels) can be almost as loud as the noise of a pneumatic drill.

Women's hearts beat faster than men's.

The average duration of sexual intercourse for humans is 2 minutes.

Worker ants may live seven years and the queen may live as long as 15 years.

The average elephant produces 50 pounds of dung each day.

The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta.

The only one of his sculptures that Michelangelo signed was the "The Pieta," completed in 1500.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

The only repealed amendment to the US Constitution deals with the prohibition of alcohol.

The pecan tree is the only naturally growing nut tree in North American. It is native to the Texas, Mississippi and Mexico River Valleys.

The average human body contains enough:
iron to make a 3 inch nail, 
sulfur to kill all fleas on an average dog, 
carbon to make 900 pencils, 
potassium to fire a toy cannon,
fat to make 7 bars of soap,
phosphorous to make 2,200 match heads, and 
water to fill a ten-gallon tank.

The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.

A hedgehog's heart beats 190 times a minute on average and drops to only 20 beats per minute during hibernation.

Every square inch of the human body has an average of 32 million bacteria on it.

It takes a lobster approximately 7 years to grow to be one pound.

American and Russian space flights have always included chocolate.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did You Know...

A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph.

A fingernail or toenail takes about 6 months to grow from base to tip.

Elvis Presley made only one television commercial - an ad for "Southern Maid Doughnuts" that ran in 1954.

A cockroach can live for up to a week without a head.

Columbus brought cacao (chocolate) beans back to Spain on his fourth voyage in 1502.

The penguin is the only bird that can swim, but not fly. It is also the only bird that walks upright.

A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.

After spending hours working at a computer display, look at a blank piece of white paper. It will probably appear pink.

An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.

As bananas ripen, the starch in the fruit turns to sugar. Therefore, the riper the banana the sweeter it will taste.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did you know...

Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20 percent of the world's peanuts.

"Video Killed the Radio Star" was the very first video ever played on MTV.

The average age of an Italian barista is 48 years old. A barista is a respected job title in Italy.

Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith. He set out to invent a game to occupy students between the football and baseball seasons.

Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been over mixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.

Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on "Scooby-Doo.

More money is printed daily for the Monopoly game than by the U.S. Treasury.

Anteaters prefer termites to ants.

Cheryl Ladd (of Charlie's Angels fame) played the voice, both talking and singing, of Josie in the 70s Saturday morning cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats.

If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

There are only three cities that are named exactly after the state they are located in: Maine, ME; New York, NY; and Wyoming, WY.

The first time the word "hell" was spoken on TV was in an original "STAR TREK" episode entitled "City on the Edge of Forever". The exact quote was "...let's get the hell out of here...", spoken by William Shatner.

Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.

A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did you know...

Mockingbirds can imitate any sound from a squeaking door to a cat meowing.

About one-tenth of the earth's surface is permanently covered with ice.

A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue).

Elephant tusks grow throughout an elephant's life and can weigh more than 200 pounds. Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks.

All gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high official.

The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.

A zebra is white with black stripes.

About 10% of the world's population is left-handed.

Gerald Ford, George Bush, Tommy Lasorda, Ted Koppel, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Bill Clinton are all left handed.

A magic potion or charm thought to arouse sexual love, especially toward a specific person, is known as a "philter."

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did you know...

Canada is an Indian word meaning 'Big Village'.

A Holstein's spots are like a fingerprint or snowflake. No two cows have exactly the same pattern of spots.

"Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.

The largest body of fresh water in the world is Lake Superior.

The ZIP in Zip-code stands for "Zoning Improvement Plan."

The idiom "pillar of salt" means to have a stroke, or to become paralyzed and dead.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 885,000,000 people in China that speak that language.

The last person hanged in the US for being a pirate was Capt. Nathaniel Gordon, in New York City on March 8, 1862. Gordon had been smuggling slaves into the US.

A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.

The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida covers 30,500 acres (46 square miles), making it twice the size of the island of Manhattan, New York.

Europe has no deserts - it is the only continent without one.

The word "assassination" was invented by Shakespeare.

The last thing to happen is the ultimate. The next-to-last is the penultimate, and the second-to-last is the antepenultimate.

A Cornish game hen is really a young chicken, usually 5 to 6 weeks of age, that weighs no more than 2 pounds.

Mexico City is the oldest capital city in the Americas.

The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.

The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.

A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times it's own weight each year.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did you know...

Baskin Robbins once made ketchup ice cream. This was the only vegetable flavored ice cream produced.

George Washington is the only man whose birthday is a legal holiday in every state of the United States.

In 1969, "Midnight Cowboy" became the first and only X-rated production to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. (Its rating has since been changed to R.)

Libra, the Scales, is the only inanimate symbol in the zodiac.

The only one of his sculptures that Michelangelo signed was the "The Pieta," completed in 1500.

The only rock that floats in water is pumice.

There is only one Q in a Scrabble game.

Woodrow Wilson was the only US president to earn a doctorate.

'Soldiers disease' is a term for morphine addiction. The Civil War produced over 400,000 morphine addicts.

The chemical n-acetyl-cysteine found in raw eggs is proven to help hangovers.

Baseball rules were codified in 1846 by Alexander Cartwright of the Knickerbocker Baseball Club.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

Golfers use an estimated $800 million worth of golf balls annually.

The first professional football team to sport an insignia on their helmets was the Los Angeles Rams in 1950, who hand painted yellow horns on their blue leather helmets.

The oiuja board was invented by Isaac and William Fuld, and was patented July 1, 1892.

There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different color combinations possible on a Rubik's Cube.

Until 1967 it wasn't illegal for Olympic athletes to use drugs to enhance their performance during competition.

SUNDAY TRIVIA

Did you know...

On average women say 7,000 words per day. Men manage just over 2000.

A penguin swims at a speed of approximately 15 miles per hour.

Approximately 850 peanuts make a 18 oz jar of peanut butter.

Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City hung Matisse's ‘Le Bateau’ upside-down for 47 days before an art student noticed the error.

Three-hundred-million cells die in the human body every minute.

Women's hearts beat faster than men's.

Uranus is the only planet that rotates on its side.

There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph.

Most men have erections every hour to hour and a half during sleep.

A 1.5 oz. milk chocolate bar has only 220 calories.
A 1.75 oz. serving of potato chips has 230 calories.

Frederic-August Bartholdi sculpted The Statue of Liberty.

Sea water is approximately 3.5 percent salt.

Ancient Chinese artists would never paint pictures of women’s feet.

A honey bee must tap two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

The largest stained-glass window in the world is at Kennedy International Airport in New York City. It can be seen on the American Airlines terminal building and measures 300 feet long by 23 feet high.

Aunt Jemima pancake flour, invented in 1889, was the first ready-mix food to be sold commercially.

An arabica coffee tree can produce up to 12 pounds of coffee a year, depending on soil and climate.

3 medium size bananas weigh approximately 1 pound.

Chocolate was introduced into the United States in 1765 when cocoa beans were brought from the West Indies to Dorchester, Massachusetts.

Raw coffee beans, soaked in water and spices, are chewed like candy in many parts of Africa.

A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks.

Since Hindus don't eat beef, the McDonald's in New Delhi makes its burgers with mutton.

The difference between apple juice and apple cider is that apple juice is the juice of the fruit only, and apple cider is the whole apple-skins, seeds, and all- which gives it the fuller body and deeper color. The juice is pasteurized and the cider is not.

In 1995, KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken for every man, woman and child in the US.

In Hershey, Pennsylvania, the streetlights along "Chocolate Avenue" are in the shape of Hershey Kisses.

The average person will consume 10,000 chocolate bars in a lifetime.

Beethoven who was a coffee lover, was so particular about his coffee that he always counted 60 beans each cup when he prepared his brew.