National Trivia Day

[gnomi]

I'm informed by the talented and brilliant cbpotts that today is National Trivia Day. I will therefore kidnap her request in that vein:

Post your favorite bit of trivia in honor of National Trivia Day.

Comments

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

one of my favorite bits:

after the brits lost the battle of hastings, the only way the survivors could identify king harald was by the "edith" tattooed on his chest.

[saxikath]

The country of Nauru has intrigued me since I had to look up its stats for an appendix on all the countries of the world in a sixth grade social studies book. Two triviata about it: it has no official capital (all its government offices are in one district, so you'll sometimes see Yaren listed as the capital, but per the CIA World Factbook, it doesn't officially ave one), and its native language is a palindrome (Nauruan).

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

If the 10th of Tevet falls on Shabbat, the fast is observed anyway, but under the fixed calendar the 10th of Tevet never falls on Shabbat.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

The only three presidents buried in Arlington National Cemeterery were John F. Kennedy, William H. Taft, and Ignacy Paderewski.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Paderwski was a prime minister, not a president AFAICT. And he's not there any more.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

You'll note that I wrote the sentence in the past tense, since he isn't there and he was, in fact, the President of Poland in Exile during World War II.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

ok - I agree that the way you wrote the sentence was correct, I was just tickled by the notion he got up and left. I couldn't find references to his being President in Exile, just to being head of some Polish committee during WW 1, but I'll take your detailed knowledge over my quick scans via google.

Do you know any details about

In April 1918, he met in New York City with leaders of the American Jewish Committee, including Louis Marshall, in an unsuccessful attempt to broker a deal whereby organized Jewish groups would support Polish territorial ambitions in exchange for support for equal rights. However, it soon became clear that no plan would satisfy both Jewish leaders and Roman Dmowski, head of the Polish National Committee.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

I was unaware fo such an attempt. I'll have to look into it.

A decade or so ago, I did see a very strange adaptation of Ther Three Musketeers done by the Brothers Karamazov in which he was cast in the role of Buckingham.

[lisafeld.livejournal.com]

Flamingos are not naturally pink. Their feathers are naturally white. The feathers turn pink due to the large doses of carotene from the shellfish in their diets.

Also, it costs 2.5 cents to produce a quarter.

[tinnean.livejournal.com]

The boots that Boris Karloff wore when he played Frankenstein's Monster weighed 42 lbs.

[ragingpixie.livejournal.com]

The olfactory lobes of the brain and olfactory nerves are absent in all toothed whales, indicating a lack of smell.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

indicating a lack of smell.
Or at least, lack of a sense of smell. :>)

Adolf, my toothed whale has no oflactory lobe or nerves in his brain ....

[ragingpixie.livejournal.com]

HEH, I should have added that part, yes. :)) All that fish, I'm sure they tend to smell a little bit.

[aunt-becca.livejournal.com]

Julius Caesar had 12 toes.

[doeeyedbunny.livejournal.com]

My great-great grandparents were among the founding families of Tel Aviv.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

The last word in the dictionary is "zyzzyva" which is a tropical American weevil.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Except in Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary (of weird and obscure words), in which it's zzxjoanw ("ziks-jo-en"), a kind of Maori drum.

[celli]

The first tax code, from 1913, was approximately 25 pages long. Today's Internal Revenue Code is approximately 4,850 pages.

:D

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

The famous photo of Einstein sticking his tongue out was taken because he was trying to get a group of reporters to leave him alone.

[fynixsoul.livejournal.com]

3263827 is the number of the trash compactor that Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie fall into on the death star in Star Wars.

(sorry I'm a few days late--does it still count?)