Fun Facts

Sometimes it is fun to know things, so here is a random assortment of information collected over the years.

  1. Mr. Sines actually tutored Socrates, who in turn taught Plato, who then taught Aristotle, who then taught both Alexander the Great and Chuck Norris. (Okay, that's not true, sorry).
  2. Seqoya is the name of the man who recorded the Cherokee language.
  3. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
  4. An inch of rain is equivalent to 15 inches of dry, powdery snow!
  5. Every second, Americans collectively eat almost 100 pounds of chocolate! (Why did I not put this as number 1?)
  6. The world's oldest trees are 4,600 year old Bristlecone pines in the USA.
  7. The ten most popular dogs (AKC, 2007) are in order: Labrador Retriever, Yorkshire Terrier, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Beagle, Boxer, Dachshund, Poodle, Shih Tzu, and Bulldog.
  8. Did you know that there is actually a McDonald's size larger than super-sized? They made it in honor of Chuck Norris...you just ask to be "Chucksized."
  9. Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day...Craig sleeps only 1. (Update in 2012: Still true).
  10. It took 6 years for Leo Tolstoy to write War and Peace. Ironically, it takes the same amount of time to read it.
  11. Each of the suits on a deck of cards represents the four major pillars of the economy in the middle ages: heart represented the Church, spades represented the military, clubs represented agriculture, and diamonds represented the merchant class.
  12. Scientists working on the Manhattan Project in the early 1940s measured the time it took for an imploding shell of uranium to reach critical mass an initiate spontaneous fission in "shakes of a lamb's tail." One "shake" equaled 1x10^ -8 seconds (one hundred-millionth). Apparently, it takes almost 3 shakes of a lamb's tail.
  13. Peanuts are an ingredient of dynamite.
  14. Author Edgar Allen Poe and singer Jerry Lee Lewis both married their 13 year old cousins.
  15. The letters of the word SHAZAM, which was shouted to conjure up comic-book hero Captain Marvel, stood for Solomon's wisdom, Hercules's strength, Atlas's stamina, Zeus's power, Achilles's courage, and Mercury's speed.
  16. There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo!
  17. Mr. Sines was on Man vs. Wild once. Wild lost.
  18. Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of a blue whale.
  19. The names of Popeye's four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye!
  20. Clinophobia is the fear of beds.
  21. The average life span of a major league baseball is 5-7 pitches! Ironically, the average life of peanut butter cups in Mr. Sines desk is 5-7 seconds.
  22. Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows…I’m pretty sure 1/10th of those happen at my house. The barn cats must love us.
  23. Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue twice as much as any other color.
  24. Dolphins sleep with one half of the brain at a time, and with one eye closed. I wonder if that’s where Metallica got their inspiration?
  25. Chuck Norris bench presses park benches.
  26. Mr. K. once ordered a steak in a restaurant. The steak did as it was told.
  27. Montana has three times as many cows as it does people.
  28. The city of Juneau, Alaska is about 3,000 square miles large. It is actually bigger than the entire state of Delaware.
  29. 171,000 people are martyred each year.
  30. Australia's biggest farm is 24,000 sq. km., which makes it larger than the entire country of Israel.
  31. I find fact number 14 slightly disturbing.
  32. The last 4 words of Netflix's "Gilmore Girls" mini-season are...really kind of a nice way to wrap everything up. But, there are still lingering questions. Oh Amy Sherman-Palladino, if only I could talk to you.