Nothing To Do With You-Know-What 2000

With all the hype and hoopla about the upcoming “event” in Chicago, I thought it might be nice to provide a respite. Obviously, it’s important from a business perspective to read this special show issue of Modern Machine Shop. There’s a ton of good information in this robust edition. However when it gets to be too much, take a break and relax with the following disconnected bits of trivia:

It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year’s worth of footballs.

Debra Winger was the voice of E.T.

The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable (kind of like this column).

An average life span of a major league baseball is seven pitches.

Each king in a deck of cards represents a historical figure: spades—King David; clubs—Alexander the Great; diamonds—Julius Caesar and hearts—Charlemagne.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

111,111,111 × 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

Long ago, when a group wanted to get rid of someone in the village, they would burn down his or her house. Hence the term “to get fired.”

Hershey’s kisses get their name because the machine that makes them looks like it is “kissing” the conveyor belt.

The mask used by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

The Eisenhower interstate road system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in case of war or other emergencies.

All of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.

Stewardesses is the longest word that can be typed using only the left hand.

The airplane that Buddy Holly died in was the American Pie (thus the name of the Don McLean song).

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

The three most valuable brand names on earth are Marlboro, Coca-Cola and Budweiser, in that order.

Pearls melt in vinegar.

The sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses all of the letter in the alphabet. It was developed by Western Union to test telex machines.