The Promotional Idea Showcase - Summer 2003 - Updated Quarterly

UNQUESTIONABLY STRANGE FACTS!

• If you counted 24 hours a day it would take 31,688 years to reach 1 trillion. 
• Slugs have four noses.
• The average iceberg weighs 20 million tons. 
• The first country to recognize the United States as a country in 1776 was Croatia. 
• Essentially useless talents, part 45: President James Garfield, being ambidextrous, could simultaneously write in Latin and Greek.
• Bananas are a favorite food of reindeer – when they can get ‘em.
• Most people average 1,460 dreams annually. 
• In Thailand, it’s illegal to leave your house without wearing underwear. 
• Glass is actually a highly viscous liquid, not a solid.
• There are approximately 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald’s Big Mac bun (unless this gets reduced to help slash budgets).
• The youngest pope was only 11.
• Though most people think of him first, D’Artagnan was not one of the original Three Musketeers. They were Aramis, Porthos and Altos. 
• Sharks are immune to all known diseases. 
• The emerald is the only gemstone that has a gemstone cut named after it.
• The pitcher who threw Babe Ruth’s very last home run and Joe DiMaggio’s very first home run was the same person – Guy Bush, aka/the “Mississippi Mudcat.”
• More people walk to work in Alaska than any other state. 
• Ah, entrepreneurism, part deux – you can actually buy something called Chocka Ca-Ca. It’s a real diaper with a lump of chocolate inside. 
• In Columbus, MS, the fine is higher for waving a gun in public than for firing one.
• The ancient Egyptians were the first to properly calculate Pi. 
• The book most often stolen from public libraries is the Guinness Book of World Records.
• The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breed’s Hill, which is nearby.
• One of every four Americans has appeared on TV at some time. 
• A duck’s quack does not echo. Absolutely nobody has been able to figure out why. 
• Eleven-square-miles of Southwest Kentucky is separated from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River. To get there, you have to cross a bordering state first. 
• Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA was the first CD pressed in the United States.
• Karl Marx, who more or less created the concept of Communism, once wrote, “I don’t trust any Russian. As soon as one worms his way in, all hell breaks loose.” 
• Talk about quality control – a razor found in King Tut’s tomb was still sharp enough to shave with. 
• Pigs are the only animals besides humans that can get sunburned. 
• Libra, the Scales, is the only zodiac sign that’s an inanimate object. 
• In an average day, Americans spend $434,246,575 on toys. 
• A container of table salt bore the message, “Warning: High in sodium.” 
• Where else? LSD was legal in California until 1967. 
• About 29% of Americans completely ignore RSVPs, whether they’re attending or not. 
• U.S. currency isn’t made from paper, but linen and cotton. 
• Italy entirely surrounds not one, but two other countries: Vatican City and San Marino. 
• Wearing headphones for only an hour increases the number of bacteria in your ear canal by 700 times. 
• Frisbees – the originals by Wham-O – were originally called Pluto Platters, and were a commercial flop until the name was changed. The name Frisbee was derived from the Frisbie Baking Co. in Connecticut, which sold its pies in tin plates embossed with its name. Yale students discovered that tossing the empty plates to each other was a fun game, and called it “playing Frisbie.”
• Cat urine glows under a black light.