FACT OR FICTION
1) Why is 13 considered an unlucky number?
Many people believe that fear of the number thirteen goes back to the Last Supper. Jesus and his apostles numbered thirteen at that meal, and within a day Jesus was crucified. Truth is though, that this superstition predates the Last Supper, going back at least to Norse mythology.
According to Norse tradition twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla. Loki, the evil god, wasn't invited to this party but crashed it anyway, bringing the number of guests to thirteen. During the evening, Loki, always looking to cause destruction, shot the god Balder with a mistletoe arrow, killing a favorite of the gods.
As a result of this story, the number thirteen became a source of anxiety for people. By the time Jesus began preaching, the superstition had already been established, but the Last Supper reinforced it.
2) Martina Navratilova was the first Czechoslovakian to win the Wimbledon women's singles tennis title.
3) The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
4) Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
5) 114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped this year!
2,000,000 documents will be lost by the IRS this year
2.5 million books will be shipped with the wrong covers
20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written this year
315 entries in Webster's Dictionary will be misspelled
6) The chicken can travel up to 9 miles per hour.
7) Martina Navratilova was the first Czechoslovakian to win the Wimbledon women's singles tennis title.
8) 160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road!
9) The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
10) What is the largest amount of money, in coins, that you can have without being able to make change for a dollar?
three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies (you have $1.19)
11) Since 1901, 15 people have intentionally gone over the Canadian side of Niagra Falls. (2 people went over twice). Five out of 15 (1/3) have lost their lives. The first person to do so was Annie Edson-Taylor. She made the trip in a wooden barrel and survived.
12) Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously! Please people, don't misuse your spices!
13) America's first nudist organization was founded in 1929, by 3 men.
14) In Sparta during the 4th century, if you were male and over 20 years of age, you were required by law to eat 2 pounds of meat a
day. It was supposed to make a person brave.
15) aprox. 1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire a strung across the U.S!
16) Since Neptune's discovery in 1846, it has made about three-quarters of one revolution of the sun.
17) The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was,
"No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke someone's eye out.
18) A silicon chip a quarter-inch square has the capacity of the original 1949 ENIAC computer, which occupied a city block.
19) Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp.)20)
21) The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. (In case you ever want to talk to the penguins!)
22)Per capita, pets in Great Britain have the highest standard of living! 60% of all pets in Great Britain have some form of health insurance. (Why the lucky dogs!!)23)
24) Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation. (Haven't these people heard of Pepsi????)
25) Contrary to popular belief, dogs do not sweat by salivating. They sweat through the pads of their feet.
26) The word "samba" means "to rub navels together." {Anyone want to samba?}
27) Lobsters, like Grasshoppers - feel no pain. They have a decentralized nervous system with no cerebral cortex, which in humans, is where a reaction to painful stimuli proceeds.
28) The Pastern is the part of a horse located on the foot between the fetlock and the hoof.
29) J.S.Bach had 20 children, 7 with his first wife and 13 with his second.
30) Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
31) The letter "O" is the oldest letter. It has not changed in shape since its adoption in the Phoenician alphabet c.1,300 BC
32) A skunk will not bite and throw its scent at the same time.
33) The underwater mating song of the toadfish is so loud that sometimes it can be heard by humans on the shore.
34) The pyramids in Egypt contain enough stone and mortar to construct a wall 10 feet high and 5 feet wide running from New York City to Los Angeles.
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