The Promotional Idea Showcase - Fall 2001 - Updated Quarterly

UNQUESTIONABLY STRANGE FACTS!

The following nuggets, drawn from various sources, are unquestionably strange, weird, bizarre, trivial, outlandish and, occasionally, even a little upsetting. They’re also all true. We offer them as a possibility for a fun (or serious) offbeat inspiration or ingredient in one or more of your upcoming promotions. Your counselor can help you select appropriate or related products.

  • The Lone Ranger’s horse was originally (on the radio show) named Dusty, not Silver. (“Hi-oh, Dusty?” Nah...)
  • Ouch. Priests in ancient Egypt plucked every hair from their bodies, including brows and lashes.
  • The official name of Broadway is Highway 9. The street is also 150 miles long, stretching from Lower Manhattan to Albany.
  • Two-thirds of the U.S. population are named after someone else. Of those, 60% are named after a relative, 40% after someone famous.
  • The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
  • Mel Blanc, known for 40 years as the voice of Bugs Bunny (as well as many other
    classic cartoon characters), was allergic to carrots.
  • Butterflies were originally called flutterbies (which actually makes more sense).
  • Mexico City and Bangkok are both sinking.
  • It’s against the law to hunt whales in Oklahoma.
  • Italy completely surrounds not one, but two other countries: Vatican City and San Marino.
  • Each year, Americans spend more on dog food than on baby food.
  • The plane in the crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper was named American Pie.
  • Major trivia: In the vintage TV show Gilligan’s Island, the characters Gilligan and the skipper had full names, but they were only mentioned once during the entire series. Gilligan’s first name was Willy. The skipper’s real name was Jonas Grumby. 
  • Sigmund Freud was afraid of ferns.
  • The very first bomb the Allies dropped on Berlin during the second World War killed only the elephant in the Berlin Zoo. 
  • Michigan was the 16th state to legalize hunting for the blind. All they need is someone 18 or older with good vision to accompany them.
  • The cable cars in San Francisco are the only national monuments that are mobile. 
  • In an average day, 6,619 tennis racquets are purchased; another 34,480 are restrung.
  • Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer was the first novel ever written on a typewriter. 
  • It’s impossible for space travellers to cry; in a zero-gravity atmosphere, tears simply cannot flow. 
  • In a year, more money is printed for the game Monopoly than real money printed throughout the world.
  • 39% of Americans admit that they’ll peek into a host’s medicine cabinet; 17% have been caught doing it. 
  • The word “testify” has its origins in ancient Rome, where men avowing to a statement made in court were required to swear on their testicles. 
  • The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds. 
  • It requires 3,000 cows to provide enough leather for a year’s supply of footballs for the NFL.
  • Opossums aren’t playing when they “play possum.” They actually pass out from fright.
  • Eleanor Roosevelt ate three chocolate-covered garlic balls each day to improve her memory. She was also the only strapped first lady – she regularly carried a loaded revolver.
  • Moles can dig 300 feet in a single night.

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