Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Thursday Thirteen - Things You Might Not Know - 6/26/08

This week's list is 13 things you might not know. Once you read it, you will know everything I know.

1. The book "Gadsby" written in 1939 by Earnest Wright does not contain a single word with the letter "e" in it. This is it: Gadsby

2. The heart of a blue whale is the size of an automobile.

3. Earth is the only planet not named after a God.

4. The metal can was invented 48 years before the can opener. Instructions on early cans called for a hammer and chisel.

5. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi never won a Nobel Peace Prize but Yasser Arafat did.

6. Istanbul Turkey is the only city in the world that is located on two continents.

7. Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. In some Spanish dialects, Colgate means "go hang yourself."

8. The Olympic, Titanic's sister ship, sailed the seas for 25 years.

9. The snap made by the tip of a bullwhip results from exceeding the speed of sound. It is a tiny sonic boom.

10. Watermelon, which is 92% water originated from the Kalahari Desert in Africa

11. The name Thailand literally means "land of the free." It is the only southeast Asian country to never be occupied and ruled by a European power.

12. Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world

13. The hymn "Amazing Grace" was written by a slave ship captain

13 comments:

Unknown said...

This was great..The size of a car? Holy cow thats big. Hubby loves trivia like this!

Hubby has a giveaway at this blog. All ya gotta do is share your memories from the 80s. Head over to www.valtool.blogspot.com

Hope you will visit us both!

Mia Celeste said...

You are totally right. You taught me somethings today. For example: I didn't know anyone could wrote a book without the letter e.

Kara said...

Interesting about Colgate, and the size of a whale's heart! That's enormous!

Bubba said...

As a hoarder of useless information...I love your list! Some of those I knew...but some really cool stuff in there!

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the world.

SandyCarlson said...

I enjoyed this. Didn't know that about Chicago, Earth, or a whale's heart. Lots of good stuff here. God bless.

paisley said...

#1 how the hell did he do that???? i will have to investigate this further... amazing!!!

Cindy Swanson said...

This is an amazing list...I really did learn some things I didn't know! I'm blown away by the book with no "e's" in it.

About "Amazing Grace"--I'm pretty sure the slave ship captain, John Newton, gave up the slave trade some time after becoming a Christian.

Anonymous said...

very cool facts! thanks for sharing... great info to pass a long. have a great weekend - happy TT

Lucy said...

first of all Rick... How the heck do you know all this stuff?? and Second of all... if you're sure we will know all you know after reading these.... Are these 13 things ALL you know??
And unlike many who commented... I didn't know ANY of these!
I will be taking Gadsby out of the library tomorrow!

Go Figure said...

You forgot to add that 'Lead Creek' is named for its fine pristine mountain water! HA!

Redheels said...

Well, I knew none of these. So I have learned something new today and that is a good thing!

Eaton Bennett aka Berenice Albrecht said...

Interesting TT! The only one I knew was about Amazing Grace and the story behind it. :)

Forgetfulone said...

I realize this is last week's, but I never got a chance to read it then, and it's great! I love trivia.