Things You Should Know but Probably Don't

I got this e-mail forward from my godmother that I thought was really interesting. I'm sorry, I don't know the source information on who originally wrote this.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW BUT PROBABLY DON'T

1. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton. (Didn't know, but makes sense. I don't know which is better for the environment...probably cotton?)

2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper. (Hmm!)

3. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a 'tittle.' (Never knew this.)

4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top. (Useless piece of information, but interesting nonetheless.)

5. Susan Lucci (Who?) is the daughter of Physllis Diller. (Who?)

6. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals. (This is surprising to me.)

7. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled. (That's reassuring..)

8. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino. (Seriously?)

9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents, daily. (This is extremely upsetting to me.)

10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister. (OK.)

11. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small-sized dog. (I did know this one, but not the specifics.)

12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode. (That's awful, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.)

13. Most lipstick contains fish scales. (Yum! Glad I don't wear lipstick.)

14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants. (Give me a break.. It's a duck, not even a human!)

15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as medicine. (What?!)

16. Upper- and lower-case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower' because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. (That's really interesting!)

17. Leonardo Da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time, hence multi-tasking was invented. (Nice.)

18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood. (Cool!)

19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. (Don't want people to see how much time they're wasting, I'm sure.)

20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before! (I like this fact... very interesting. That's the same with Olivia from Shakespeare. I checked this with behindthename.com and apparently it was very rarely used before 'Peter Pan' as a nickname for Gwendolen.)

21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange and purple. (I knew this one.)

22. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips. (Are you serious?! I don't know if you know, but that original painting is also very - surprisingly - small.)

23. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (I wonder who figured this one out. And that's sad... even if they are vicious, dangerous little creatures.)

24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original 'Halloween' was a Captain Kirk's mask painted white. (Hmm.)

25. 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. (Useless piece of information, haha.)

26. By raising your legs and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand. (I knew this one.)

27. 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. (I think I'd heard this. There are a lot of crazy things like this.)

28. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola. (Cool.)

29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It's the same with apples. (Are you sure with apples? That's sweet, though.)

30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying! (Neat!)

31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. (Certified, even. That's good.)

32. Guiness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries. (That's great!)

33. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it. (Interesting!!)

34. George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart, "Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she's behind bars. O.J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama Bin Laden, too, but they take the ONE woman in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and they haul her off to jail." (Hahaha.)