A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile Services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance)
but did not renumber the other channel assignments. That is
why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".
Hang On Snoopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from
the days of old when the engines were pulled by horses. The
horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to
walk up straight staircases.
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
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.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
Spades - King David
Clubs - Alexander the Great
Hearts - Charlemagne
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has
both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the
horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result
of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on
the ground, the person died of natural causes.
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their
unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses
down -- hence the expression "to get fired."
Only two people signed the Declaration of
Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the
rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added
until 5 years later.
"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. (I think it would be, "No.")
The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter
pilots in the Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground,
the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet,
before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their
ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards."
Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old
English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with
anything wider than your thumb.
An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain.
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one
mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are
usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
David Prowse was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in
Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he
was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the
screening of the movie.
The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.
The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as
many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the
state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate
toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously. (Okay, all you mystery writers, start typing...)
If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four
pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in
coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl. (Maybe that's the Saints' problem)
The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver."
The only two days of the year in which there are no
professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day
before and the day after the Major League All-star Game.
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."
In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
There are an average of 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac bun.
The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars.
The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per year.