Trival Tidbits and Fun Facts

Happy MONDAY! Welcome to this week's installment of Trivial Tidbits and Fun Facts. As you may know, we are striving to make the work week just a tad more palatable. Many of these facts may be useless, but can be fun to pull out when you find the stress of the day gets to you. So, without any further ado, let's have some fun...

If you have a pearl necklace and want do clean it, DO NOT put it in vinegar. Vinegar melts pearls.

For you aeronautics buffs, did you know that the wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the Wright brother's first flight?

Do you ever remember playing Chinese checkers? Remember all the marbles and holes? Did you know that the Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes? All I remember about Chinese checkers is that our "game" degraded into a more fun game of flicking marbles all over the place... I missed my calling.

For the food buffs of this reading group: Did you know that Worcestershire sauce was originally created from fermented (aka - spoiled) anchovies? The basics of Worcestershire sauce can be found during the Roman Empire.

Did you know that A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel and raisins?

Did you know that ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States? In the 1830's it was sold as Dr. Miles' Compound Extract of Tomato.

How many of you think that bananas grow on trees? HA! Bananas do not grow on trees but on rhizomes. Next logical question - what, exactly is a rhizome? Per Wikipedia, a rhizome is typically a horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, and usually sends out roots or shoots from it's nodes. The banana fruit is actually what grows from those shoots. Wow, some serious information to baffle your friends, coworkers and family with...

Did you also know that bananas are slightly radioactive because of their high potassium content?

Have you ever counted how many kernels are on an average ear of corn? Better yet, did you ever stop to count how many rows were on a "regular" ear of corn? The average ear of corn has eight-hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows. Bet you won't look at an ear of corn the same again.

For you candy nuts out there, do you remember that Jelly Belly jelly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space? They went up with the astronauts in the June 21, 1983 voyage of the space shuttle Challenger.

More on Jelly Belly jelly beans - did you remember that President Ronald Reagan kept a jar of them on his desk in the White House and on Air Force One?

So that M&M's fans don't get upset - M&M's were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky.

The estimated umber of M&M's sold each day in the United States is 200,000,000. That is a LOT of candy.

Do you know what the letters M&M stand for? The letters stand for the last names of Forrest Mars, Sr. (the candymaker) and his associate Bruce Murrie.

Clans of bygone days that wanted to get rid of unwanted people without killing them would burn down their homes. That is most likely where the expression "to get fired" came from...

For those of you who are dealing with the new legalization of medical marijuana - one of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 1930's lobbied against hemp farmers. The cotton farmers saw the hemp farmers as competition (you have seen hemp clothing...). Marijuana is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol or caffeine.

So, now that you have had your Trivial Tidbit and Fun Facts "fix" for the week, go out there and baffle your friends and family with your new-found knowledge. Have fun and don't forget to laugh. Life is always tough, laughing will help make it just a little less difficult to deal with.

Until tomorrow...