Morning!
Picked up this book at my thrift store hoping to find some juicy nuggets, and I wasn’t disappointed ;)
[“That’s A Fact Jack!” by Harry Bright and Jakob Anser]
Lots more facts on life in general than money, but I plucked out my favorites in an attempt to WOW you this morning, and hopefully you’ll pay it forward by slipping them in normal conversations today ;)
Double the points for going with the wombats or tampons one!
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Interesting Money Facts:
Mr. Potato Head was the first toy advertised on television.
Men who kiss their wives goodbye in the morning earn higher salaries than men who don’t.
The word “salary” comes from Latin salarium, meaning “payment in salt.” Roman soldiers were paid partially in salt, a highly valuable commodity at the time.
You are more likely to be crushed by a vending machine, give birth to identical quadruplets, become president of the United States, or die in an asteroid apocalypse than win the [Mega Millions] lottery.
The phrase “I laughed all the way to the bank” comes from the famously ostentatious Liberace. The pianist responded with this quip when a critic panned the kitschiness of his act.
In the century since its establishment by Congress in 1913, the Federal Reserve has overseen a 96 percent drop in value of the U.S. dollar. In other words, a 2013 dollar would have been worth four cents in 1913. The dollar’s purchasing power had remained constant during the entire century prior to the Fed’s establishment.
Warren Buffett, legendary investor and self-made multibillionaire, filed his first income tax return at age 13, reporting revenue from a newspaper delivery job. He claimed a $35 deduction for his bicycle.
If the minimum wage had risen as fast as the top 1 percent of incomes over the past half century, the lowest-paid workers in the U.S. would earn close to $33.00 an hour.
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Interesting Life Facts:
Butterflies are cannibals.
Humans swallow a quart of snot a day.
Wombats poop cubes.
There are more Subway sandwich shops in Manhattan (176) than there are actual subway stations (147).
Bubble gum is pink because Walter Diemer, a Fleer employee, had only pink coloring left when he mixed up his first successful batch.
You can put out a fire with sound waves.
Potatoes have more chromosomes than humans do (48 versus 46).
The word “deadline” originated in Civil War prisons, where lines were drawn that prisoners passed only at the risk of being shot.
The average lifespan of an NHL hockey puck is seven minutes. Those that don’t fly into the stands are removed because they warm up from friction and bounce on the ice.
Tampons were originally designed to plug bullet wounds. The word “tampon” comes from the French tampion, a piece of cloth used as a stopper.
On March 15, 1985, Symbolics.com became the first registered Internet domain. (And it’s now an internet museum – click it! :))
Charlie Chaplin once lost a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
A cockroach’s brain is spread throughout the body. If you chop off its head, it can continue to live for up to a week. If finally dies because it can’t eat.
Every 20 minutes, one or more species of animal or plant life is wiped out – roughly 27,000 species per year (and probably even more these days with how global warming is going! This book was updated in 2013.)
The Bible is the most shoplifted book in the world.
You can tell the temperature by listening to a cricket chirp. For the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37.
When Thomas Edison died in 1941, Henry Ford captured his last breath in a bottle.
When Buzz Aldrin joined Neil Armstrong on the surface of the Moon, he had to make sure not to lock the door behind him because the Eagle lunar module had no exterior handle.
Wedding rings date back thousands of years. The ancient Romans and Egyptians both believed that a vein called the vena amoris ran directly from the ring finger to the heart.
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And there you go… Your brain just got bigger :)
For hundreds more of these, check out the library or Amazon: That’s A Fact Jack!: A Collection of Utterly Useless Information
And if you REALLY want to up your game, try out this hack by my man Tom!
Happy Friday,
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Fun to read. Thanks
You’re welcome!
“The Bible is the most shoplifted book in the world.” I laughed. Such irony.
I’ve always heard that the armed forces still use tampons in med kits. I don’t know if it’s official gear.
The bible is also the most published book in the world, so I guess the odds are in their favor ;)
Happy Friday!
Happy Friday! :)
That is some interest facts! Happy Friday……
**INTERESTING**
**GLAD YOU LIKE THEM** :)
TIL on Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/
Nice!! Heard of it but never actually checked it out if you can believe that…
Some juicy stuff there!
Way to add some fun and education to my Friday! I not-so-kindly use the phrase “$hit gold bricks” when referring to someone’s reaction to something that less than acceptable. I wonder if I can substitute s/he’s gonna poop wombat cubes? Thanks for the grins and giggles!
I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU!
“Men who kiss their wives goodbye in the morning earn higher salaries than men who don’t.”
I’ll be sure to thank my wife for helping me get closer to FI every day.
The key is just to make sure she never divorces you :) That tends to cost a few pennies, lol…
These were fun. Thanks!
You’re welcome, fellow J!