Roy Exum
For a number of years I have been a reader of a wonderful website with the unfortunate name, “Kick Ass Facts.” I know nothing about how the site works but it is absolutely delightful, as you will soon see as I share Random Facts List No. 179 that I got in my clutch of daily email on Tuesday.
Every fact is substantiated – the source given on each -- and I’ll admit a few worm their way into my daily offerings because some are just too tasty. On Oct. 15 there appeared “An Announcement” with that day’s fact list and perhaps the most startling fact of all is the website is written by just three people! And they send out about three offerings every day.
All of this is a hobby, mind you, and last month’s announcement warned us that our service might be temporarily interrupted for a day or two.
Here’s part of that announcement that confirms the three men who create it every day are a delight. “As our regular readers may have noticed we have now consistently been posting three articles a day for the past couple of months. The first and the most regular writer, Mr. A., who is responsible for 1-2 articles a day, consistently has come down with heavy fever and we all have agreed that his health is a priority, so we have recommended him to take some rest and not to worry about anything.
“I myself (Mr. J.) am responsible for daily specials (LPT, YSK, Minerals, Uplifting News, Special segments etc.,) and I am on vacation. The third writer, Mr. M, who is responsible for weekly specials such as AskUs and some Random Facts articles is on an unexpected business trip. While I am the only one right now available to write any articles, I am in a place with really bad Internet coverage and am currently writing this with a really unreliable Internet connection.
“All three of us are employed professionals who write for this site in our free time as a hobby. While our team really takes care to have articles ready in case of vacations or future commitment, we really have hit the wall this week. So we are really sorry to inform our readers that we won’t be able to write any articles for a few days. If you are a new reader, do check out our older articles and if you are one of our older readers all we can say is just stay tuned.”
With that, here’s Random Fact List No. 179 and if you enjoy it, go to kickassfacts.com and make arrangements for a free subscription. That way you’ll always be as smart as me!
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1. “Spirit Halloween” shops that pop up around Halloween are owned by Spencer Gifts and make up nearly half of the company’s revenue in the two months they’re open each year.
2. Bob Ross never received any money from his show, The Joy of Painting. His company, Bob Ross Inc., sold art supplies, how-to videos, and he gave art lessons.
3. In 1976, the mummified body of Elmer McCurdy was found in a funhouse in California. McCurdy had died in a shootout in 1911 and his body had been used ever since as a sideshow attraction. His discoverers only realized it was a human body when his arm broke off, revealing bone and muscle.
4. ETS, a “non-profit” organization, has a monopoly over graduate testing, pays its CEO more than a million dollars a year, has 36 Senior VPs or VPs earning $400,000+ a year, made $7,000,000 in profits in 2009, and maintains a 360 acre campus with swimming pools, heliports and hotels.
5. Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers.
6. When Mister Rogers passed away in 2003, his death was so impactful in the world of children that PBS felt compelled to make a guide for parents called “If your child asks about Fred Rogers’ death.”
7. Because of cold war regulations, every street in China is slightly in the wrong place on Google Maps.
8. With 25 billion hours (2.85 million years) of total game playtime, people have played Call of Duty for longer than the course of human existence.
9. The U-bend (S-trap without a 90 degree bend) used in toilets and sinks to prevent sewage gasses from entering the house was invented by a man named Thomas Crapper.
10. In 2014, a mysterious lake, over 10m deep, appeared overnight in the Tunisian desert.
11. The common garden snail can pass over the edge of razor blade without harm.
12. Areas where it is common for people to live over 100 years are known as “Blue Zones.” There are five on Earth: Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Loma Linda, California; and Icaria, Greece.
13. It is not uncommon for successful people to underestimate and devalue their own achievements, and even believe that their own success/competence/intelligence is fraudulent. This mindset is known as Impostor Syndrome.
14. Ching Ling Foo and Chung Ling Soo were two magicians from the early 20th century who were bitter rivals. While Ching Ling Foo was genuinely Chinese, Chung Ling Soo was actually a New Yorker named William Robinson.
15. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s first WWF persona was Rocky Maivia, a face (good guy). The audience rejected him due to his cheesy character, with chants of “Die, Rocky, die!” After this, he became a heel (villain), referring to himself in the third person as “The Rock” and insulting the audience.
16. Old grazing animals die of starvation because their teeth wear down and they cannot eat.
17. At 78, Sam Whittemore was the oldest colonial soldier in the American Revolutionary War. He ambushed a British unit killing one by musket and two by pistol. He was shot in the face, bayoneted and left for dead in a pool of blood. Colonials found him alive, trying to reload. Despite a grim diagnosis, he lived to 96.
18. Karl Patterson Schmidt, a herpetologist (amphibian expert) who was fatally bitten by a boomslang snake and, knowing he would die, created a scientific account of his own dying process by keeping track of his symptoms right until the very end of his life.
19. In 2010 Mazda recalled 52,000 cars due to spider infestation in the fuel system.
20. Before 1934, film in Hollywood used to be extraordinarily liberal during a period called “Pre-Code.” Before laws about decency were passed, films in that era would give today’s rated-R movies a run for their money, featuring nudity, homosexuality, drug use, intense violence and more.
21. An American tourist believed that he was taking part in a completely legal goat-burning tradition when he burned down a giant version of a traditional Swedish Yule Goat figure made of straw. He spent 18 days in jail and was fined 100,000 SEK ($11,785).
22. Survivors of Australia’s infamous “Ash Wednesday” bushfires reported houses exploding before the fire could touch them due to the air pressure change, steaks found cooked well-done in deep freezers, a car moved 90 meters from the cyclonic fire storm and sand turned to glass.
23. Canada has the highest levels of greenhouse gas emissions per capita in the world. Higher than the United States and China.
24. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was made before the first color image of earth existed.
25. A prestigious high school in California had to be told, in 2014, that serving fried chicken, corn bread, and watermelon in recognition of Black History Month might not be a good idea.
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Now you see how much fun it is? As Henry Ford once said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
royexum@aol.com