Polly's Utterly Useless Facts

You never know what could save your life someday... but it's fairly safe to say these won't.

Useless facts:
  1. Guam has seven public elementary schools.

  2. Nepal's flag isn't rectagular. Or square. It's two triangles, sorta.

  3. Newfoundland's time zone is half an hour off of all the others. So are Iran's, bits of India's, Afghanistan's, Burma's, and Nauru's. And some other islands. Like Australia.

  4. The capital of Andorra is Andorra la Vella.

  5. The Republic of San Marino is the world's smallest republic (24 sq. miles) and possibly the oldest state in Europe (founded 4th century AD, according to tradition.)

  6. If you could cut out the United States, its center of gravity would be at Friend, Nebraska.

  7. In 1984, 13,126 people were arrested in Federal drug cases.

  8. When Coca-Cola began to be sold in China, they used characters that would sound like "Coca-Cola" when spoken. Unfortunately, what they turned out to mean was "Bite the wax tadpole". It did not sell well.

  9. When Gerber baby foods began to sell in parts of Africa, they continued to use their usual packaging, with the cute baby on the front. They didn't realize until later that where they were selling it, it was a common practice to help illiterate people buy things by putting pictures on the wrapper of what was inside....

  10. In cats, the calico and tortiseshell coats are sex-linked traits. All cats displaying these coats are female... or ocassionally sterile males.

  11. It's impossible to sneeze without closing your eyes.

  12. Manganese was discovered by Gahn in 1774.

  13. Czar Paul 1 banished soldiers to Siberia for marching out of step.

  14. Shock treatment for epilepsy was once administered by electric catfish!

  15. Michael Tolotos, who died at the age of 80, never saw a woman.

  16. Hairstylist Anthony Silvestri cuts hair while underwater.

  17. Charles Dickens earned no more for his twenty novels than he did from his lectures.

  18. The male scorpion fly gets other males to bring him food by imitating a female fly.

  19. Despite a population of over a billion, China has only about 200 family names.

  20. To strengthen a Damascus sword, the blade was plunged into a slave.

  21. WWI flying ace Jean Navarre attacked a zeppelin armed with only a kitchen knife!

  22. Shakespeare's most talkative character is Hamlet. None of his other characters have as many lines in a single play. (Falstaff, who appears in several plays, has more lines total).

  23. From 1702 until 1709, the Governer of New York was a spendthrift transvestite.

  24. In 1982, the last member of a group of people who believed the Earth was hollow died.

  25. John Bellavia has entered over 5000 contests... and never won anything.

  26. The famous painting of "Whistler's Mother" was once bought from a pawn shop.

  27. The largest school in the the world is a k-12 school in the Phillipines, with an enrollment of about 25,000.

  28. Catherine the Great relaxed by being tickled.

  29. A coward was originally a boy who took care of cows.

  30. ''Wherefore'' means ''Why''... not ''where''. So, for example, in Romeo and Juliet (by William Shakespeare), when Juliet says ''Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?'', she's asking why he's named Romeo, not where he is. (This fact isn't completely useless, because getting it wrong in my presence my result in grevious bodily harm. To you, that is.) :)

Last Updated December 2nd, 1995, by Polly Esther Fabrique (mrosenbluth@pomona.edu). All Rights Reserved, Preserved, and Hermetically Sealed. Thanks to Sinclair for his contributions!

Up to Polly Esther Fabrique's Page O' Wonders.