... Buddy's Trivia Page 7 ...

  1. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

  2. There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll.

  3. There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

  4. There are 35 million digestive glands in the stomach.

  5. There are 88 keys on a piano - 52 white and 36 black.

  6. There are an average of 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac bun.

  7. There are five words in the English language that contain all the vowels once, and only once, and those vowels are in alphabetical order. The two most well known are abstemious and facetious. Same can be said for arsenious (containing arsenic), caesious (bluish or grayish green), anemious (growing in windy conditions), and annelidous (of or related to worms).

  8. There are more chickens than people in the world.

  9. There are more than 1,00 chemicals in a cup of coffee.

  10. There are more than 1,700 references to gems and precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible.

  11. There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script.

  12. There are more than 50,000 earthquakes every year throughout the world.

  13. There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.

  14. There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

  15. There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous .

  16. There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.

  17. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

  18. There is about 200 times more gold in the worlds oceans, than has been mined in our entire history.

  19. There was once a town in West Virginia called "6”.

  20. Thimble ... from the Scotch, Thummle, originally "Thumb-bell," because it was worn on the thumb. It is a Dutch invention, introduced into England in 1695 by John Lofting, who opened a thimble manufactory at Islington.

  21. Thirty-five meters of hair fiber is produced every day on the average adult scalp.

  22. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. The other 65% want to be. (The grass is always greener...)

  23. This one I can't guarantee, but the oldest man of modern times is reputed to be Thomas Carn, that's if we may rely on the parish register of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. There it is recorded that he died in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, aged 207. He was born in 1381, in the reign of Richard II lived in the reigns of ten sovereigns, and died in 1588.

  24. Thomas Jefferson invented the dumbwaiter.

  25. Three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

  26. Throwing rice after a bride was an old Indian custom ... rice being, with the Hindus, an emblem of fecundity. The bridegroom threw three handfuls over the bride, and the bride did the same over the bridegroom. With us the rice is thrown by neighbors and friends.

  27. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

  28. Tim-Berners Lee might be considered the father of the Internet.

  29. Tip is private information or a secret warning. In horse-racing, it means such secret information as may guide the person tipped to make "the right" bets advantageously. A "straight tip" comes straight or direct from the owner or trainer of the horse in question. A man will sometimes give the police the "tip," or hint where a gang of confederates lie concealed, or where law-breakers may be found ... Thus, houses of ill-fame and keepers of clandestine gaming houses in league with the police, receive the "tip" when spies are on them or legal danger is abroad.

  30. Tit for Tat ... might come from the Dutch "Dit vor dat" (this for that), "Quid pro quo." There's the phrase, "tat for tat," perhaps from the French phrase, "tant pour tant."

  31. Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg.

  32. To be in quod in prison, which is a corruption of quad, which is a contraction of quadrangle, is really to be in an enclosure in which prisoners were allowed to walk, and where whippings used to be inflicted ... ah, that beautiful quadrangle.

  33. To carry coals to Newcastle ... the French say,"Porter de l'eau ŕ la rivičre.”To do a work of supererogation; to paint the lily, or add another perfume to the violet, or perform any other superfluous or ridiculous excess.

  34. To cry wolf ... means to give a false alarm ... The allusion is to the well-known fable of the shepherd lad who used to cry "Wolf" merely to make fun of the neighbors, but when at last the wolf came no one would believe him.

  35. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs ... it will let you go instantly.

  36. To go to the world ... is an expression meaning "to get married" ... at one time used by Catholics to exalt celibacy into "a crown of glory." Seems they divided mankind into celibates and worldlings (or laity) ... The former were monks and nuns, and the latter were the monde (or people of the world) ... Shakespeare uses the expression ... "Everyone goes to the world but I, and I may sit in a corner and cry heigho for a husband."Much Ado About Nothing ... and "If I may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world, Isabel and I will do as we may."All's Well that Ends Well.

  37. To haul over the coals is to bring to task for shortcomings, or to scold. At one time the Jews were "bled" whenever the kings or barons wanted money, and one very common torture, if they resisted, was to haul them over the coals of a slow fire, to give them a "roasting" ... (See Ivanhoe, where Front-de-Boeuf threatens to haul Isaac over the coals) ... says a lot for "beautiful royalty."

  38. To have a thing on the tip of one's tongue means to have it so pat that it comes without thought ... it also means to have a thing on the verge of one's memory, but not quite perfectly remembered. (In Latin, in labris natat.)

  39. Toilet paper was invented in 1391 by the Chinese. Their Bureau of Imperial Supplies began producing 720,000 sheets of toilet paper a year, each sheet measuring two feet by three feet, for use by the Emperors.

  40. Tokyo has had 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other with the traditional Japanese greeting.

  41. Tomahawk ... a war-hatchet. The word has slight variations in different Indian tribes, as tomehagen, tumnahagen, tamoihecan, etc. So when peace was made between tribes in hostility, it was the tomahawks that were then buried with certain ceremonies; hence, to "bury the hatchet" means to make peace.

  42. Torquemada was the Inquisitor-general of Spain, 1420-1498. A Dominican of excessive zeal, who multiplied confiscations, condemnations, and punishments to a frightful extent; and his hatred of the Jews and Moors was diabolical.

  43. Touch and go ... means a very narrow escape or a very brief encounter. It's a metaphor derived from driving when the wheel of one vehicle touches that of another passing vehicle without doing mischief ... It was a touch, but neither vehicle was stopped, each went on its way.

  44. Touch bottom ... means to know the worst ... it is obviously a sea phrase.

  45. Tower of London ... the architect of this remarkable building was Gundulphus, Bishop of Rochester in the time of William I ... In this "Tower" lie buried Anne Boleyn and her brother; the guilty Catherine Howard, and Lady Rochford her associate; the venerable Lady Salisbury, and Cromwell the minister of Henry VIII; the two Seymours, the admiral and protector of Edward VI.; the Duke of Norfolk and Earl of Sussex (Queen Elizabeth's reign) ... and the Duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II; the Earls of Balmerino and Kilmarnock, and Lord Lovat; Bishop Fisher and his illustrious friend More. When little children play, sing, or encircle: "London Towers Falling Down" ... little do they know what's doing up there ... it's a might crowded tower (fer sher).

  46. Towers of Silence ... these were towers in Persia and India, some sixty feet in height, on the top of which Parsees placed the dead to be eaten by vultures. The bones were picked clean in the course of a day, and were then thrown into a receptacle and covered with charcoal.

  47. Town ... is the Anglo-Saxon tún, a plot of ground fenced round or enclosed by a hedge; a single dwelling; a number of dwelling-houses enclosed together forming a village or burgh. In earlier times, in time of war, people would cast a ditch, or make a strong hedge about their houses, and these houses got the name tunes annexed into them (as Cote-tun, now Cotton, the cote or house fenced in or tuned about; North-tun, now Norton; South-tun, now Sutton). In troubled times whole "thorpes" were fenced in, and took the name of tunes (towns) and then "stedes" (now cities), and "thorpes" (villages), and "burghs" (burrows).

  48. Trade winds have nothing to do with "trade" ... they are winds that "tread" in one track (from the Anglo Saxon, tredde-wind, a treading wind, i.e. wind of a specific "beat" or tread) ... In the northern hemisphere they blow from the north-east, and in the southern hemisphere from the south-east, about thirty degrees each side of the equator. In some places they blow six months in one direction, and six in the opposite. It is a mistake to think it's derived fom the word "trade" (commerce), under the notion that they are "good for trade."

  49. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory ... March 25, 1911, catches fire, 147 die, all but 13 girls. Many jumped to their death rather than burn. The mostly young women were trapped by the lack of fire escapes and management's practice of locking all the exits to keep workers from leaving the job for breaks. The factory's owners were indicted, but a jury acquitted them, fanning the outrage over the tragedy. New laws were later imposed after must political wrangling to toughen municipal building codes and more for more stringent factory inspections in New York and elsewhere

  50. Triskaidekaphobia (tris-ky-dek-uh-FO-bee-uh) ... fear of the number 13

  51. Trolly ... was a cart used in mines and on railways. A railway trolly was worked by moving a treadle; a coal-mine trolly used to be pushed by trolly-boys (coal mining never was easy); eventually they were pulled by ponies. Eventually the "trolly car" was used to move people; first pulled by horses, then moved with electric power cables overhead connected to the trolly-car by a swinging pole.

  52. Turkey ... a bird with a red wattle and native of America. At one time it was thought to have come from Turkey, whence the name.

  53. Turning the tables .... rebutting a charge by bringing forth a counter-charge. Thus, if a husband accuses his wife of extravagance in dress, she "turns the tables upon him" by accusing him of extravagance in his, club. The Romans prided themselves on their tables made of citron wood from Mauritania, inlaid with ivory, and sold at a most extravagant price- some equal to a senator's income. When the gentlemen accused the ladies of extravagance, the ladies retorted by reminding the gentlemen of what they spent in tables.

  54. Turtles can breathe through their butts.

  55. Twelve ... is a magical number. It's divisible by two, three, four, and six. There are twelve months in a year, twelve hours on a clock, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve tones in the musical scale, and twelve in a dozen, twelve inches in a foot, twelve Knights of the Round Table, twelve members in a jury (usually), twelve labors of Hercules... twelve must have something going for it.

  56. Two (II) seems to have been an unlucky number in the dynasties ... witness:

    • Ethelred II the Unready, was forced to abdicate.
    • Harold II was slain at Hastings.
    • William II was shot in New Forest.
    • Henry II had to fight for his crown.
    • Edward II was murdered at Berkeley Castle.
    • Richard II was deposed.
    • Charles II was driven into exile.
    • James II was forced to abdicate.
    • George II was worsted at Fontenoy and Law-feld, his reign was troubled by civil war, and disgraced by General Braddock and Admiral Byng.
    • Charles II of France, after a most unhappy reign, died of poison.
    • Charles II Of Navarre was called The Bad.
    • Charles II of Spain ended his dynasty, and left his kingdom a wreck.
    • Charles II of Anjou (leBoiteux) passed almost the whole of his life in captivity.
    • Charles II of Savoy reigned only nine months, and died at the age of eight.
    • Francois II of France was peculiarly unhappy, and after reigning less than two years, sickened and died.
    • Napoleon II never reigned at all.
    • Napoleon III really the second emperor, was á most disastrous prince.
    • Franz II of Germany lost all his Rhine possessions, and in 1806 had to renounce his title of emperor.
    • Friedrich II Emperor of Germany, was first anathematized, then excommunicated, then dethroned, and lastly poisoned.
    • Jean II of France, being conquered at Poitiers, was brought captive to England by the Black Prince.
    • Juan II of Aragon had to contend for his crown with his own son Carlos.
    • Felipe II of Spain sent against England the "Invincible Armada," and lost.
    • Francesco II of the Two Sicilies was driven from his throne by Garibaldi.
    • It was Romulus II in whom terminated the empire of the West.
    • Peter II of Russia died at the age of fifteen, and he was a disgrace to the name of Menschikoff.
    • Pietro II de Medicis was forced to abdicate, and died of shipwreck.
    • James II of Scotland was shot by a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh.
    • James II of Majorca, after losing his dominions, was murdered.
    • Alexander II of Scotland had his kingdom laid under an interdict.
    • Alexander II the Pope, had to contend against Honorius II the anti-pope.
    • Alexis II Emperor of the East, was placed under the ward of his father and mother, who so disgusted the nation by their cruelty that the boy was first dethroned and then strangled.
    • Andronicus II Emperor of Greece, was dethroned.
    • Henri II of France made the disastrous peace called La Paix Malheureuse, and was killed by Montgomery in a tournament.

  57. Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

  58. Type-setting used to be done with a ‘composing stick" ... a hand instrument into which a compositor placed the letters to be set up. Each row or line of letters was pushed home and held in place by a movable "setting rule," against which the thumb pressed. When a stick was full, the matter set up was transferred to a "galley," and from the galley it was transferred to the "chase" ... it was called a stick because the compositor would stick the letters into it.

  59. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

  60. Tyrant did not originally mean a despot, but an absolute prince, and especially one who made himself absolute in a free state. Napoleon III would have been so called by the ancient Greeks ... Many of the Greek tyrants were excellent rulers, as Pisistratos and Pericles, of Athens; Periander, of Corinth; Dionysios the Younger, Gelon, and his brother Hiero, of Syracuse; Polycrates, of Samos; Phidion, of Argos ... from the Greek, "turannos" ... meaning an absolute king.

    took to their horses to ride from Boston to Concord, MA to warn the citizens of the approaching British army. The warning was, "British are coming!" Only Prescott galloped all the way to Concord. Revere was corralled by a British cavalry patrol near Lexington, MA; Dawes and Prescott escaped.

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