When you find yourself with time on your hands and nothing better to do it can be entertaining to have some things to contemplate. Perhaps you might think about something like why is that you cannot swallow and breathe at the same time or hum while holding your nose or that you cannot touch your elbow with your tongue. (Bet you just tried to do at least one of these things!)
There are also many other things to ponder that may seem weird but are, in fact, true. For example: even though they carry the name, a peanut is not a NUT. Since they grow in the ground they are in fact a legume or a BEAN! So, I guess that would make our beloved peanut butter nothing more than bean jam, and then to that we also may add jelly! Also, it is a fact that the oil from that same peanut is used to make glycerol, the main ingredient in nitroglycerin (BOOM)! And, while we are on the subject of nuts, did you know that one of every four hazel nuts is used in the production of the now very popular Nutella? It is also interesting to note that around 4% of ALL the cheese made in the world gets stolen, some of which winds up on the Black Market!
We already know that strawberries are not berries, but that bananas, watermelons and avocados are actually berries, but did you know that “French” fries originated in Belgium and are only referred to as “French” because of their shape which is known as a French cut. Also, white chocolate has no chocolate in it at all and a pound cake doesn’t weigh a pound but rather takes its name from the original recipe for the batter to make several cakes which called for a pound each of butter, sugar, flour and eggs. (Can you picture the size of the oven it would require if you used all the ingredients in that recipe to make just one cake)? And, given the cost of a whole lobster today it is hard to imagine that in the early 1900s lobsters were shunned by members of the “upper crust” and were either tossed back into the water or fed only to the homeless, servants or inmates. It wasn’t until after World War II that the aristocratic classes decided lobster was a delicacy and from there the price shot up!
If we did not already know the historical facts related to the sinking of the Titanic we have recently been exposed to the movie detailing, even if primarily romantically, the ship’s collision with an iceberg near Newfoundland that resulted in hundreds of deaths due to a shortage of lifeboats. What is most interesting, if not a bit weird, is that Morgan Robertson, an American writer, published a novella originally titled “Futility” or “The Wreck of the Titan” which told the story of a large ship named Titan, touted as being unsinkable, that sailed from England and sank in April when it struck an ice shelf near Newfoundland, which resulted in hundreds of deaths due to a shortage of lifeboats. And, although the Titanic did, in reality, sink in April 1912, “The Wreck of the Titan” had been published in 1898. Also interesting was Robertson’s short story entitled “Beyond the Spectrum,” published in 1914 which dealt with a Japanese attack on American Naval ships in Hawaii, and although it was by the Japanese Navy (not Air Force), it was thought to have predicted the future war between the two nations.
There are also a number of factual oddities about the animals in our world. Were you aware that the lowly snail has 14,000 teeth that under the right circumstances can even kill a human, or that bullfrogs never sleep? In the Himalayas there is a honeybee that produces hallucinogenic honey which is of course collected by the local tribes there (and a good time was had by all). In Florida you will find both alligators and manatees, but it is the manatee that holds sway there as the alligator always yields the right-of-way when the two are in close proximity! Then there are the elephants which are, in addition to being extremely intelligent, very social as they talk to each other, make friends, bury their dead and travel to funerals. When it comes to dogs, they have been banned from Antarctica because it is feared they might pass a disease on to the seals there, and for those of you who prefer dogs to cats, did you know that there is a cat breed known as a “puppy cat” that is specifically bred to behave like a dog. In case you think a dog’s life would be a terrible thing, remember that more than 1,000,000 dogs have been named to inherit everything in their owner’s wills. And finally, we have probably encountered those little turtles that are inhumanely sold as souvenirs at fairs but when brought home are usually totally neglected. Well, sometimes turtles can grow to be big and strong and the world’s largest turtle (a leatherback) was recorded in 1988 in Wales, where it was estimated to be at least 100 years old, right at 9 feet long and weighed more than a ton (2,016 lbs. to be exact).
Been comparing websites for the best hotel rates recently? If so you should know that Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Hotwire.com, Orbitz, Trivago and Travelocity are all owned by Expedia Inc. In Japan you stand the same chance of dying from a lightning strike as you might from a gunshot and if you go to Japan looking for the ever popular ninja shows you can forget it as properly trained ninjas are a dying breed. The human nose can remember 50,000 different scents and studies show that if a bookstore has a chocolate smell the customers were almost 3.5 times more likely to be found looking at books in the Romance section and almost 6 times more likely to buy one. You know those little slips of paper that come in fortune cookies? Well, back in 2015 the Wanton Food Inc. company’s fortunes correctly predicted the winning lottery numbers for 110 individuals (you might want to try it).
You’ve heard of the oxymoron “jumbo shrimp?” Well oxymoron is itself an oxymoron as it comes from the Greek oxy (sharp) and moros (stupid). For those of you who would like to avoid mosquitoes you should know that DEET, the major ingredient in insect repellent, is 10 times LESS effective at this job than plain catnip! Not sure what you go to Walmart to buy but they sell more bananas than any other single item there. Want to get rich? Well if you earned $1 every second for 2,921 years you just might have more money than Bill Gates who now has more than $92 billion dollars! No doubt you have heard the expression and may even have said “the greatest thing since sliced bread,” but did you know that sliced bread was first available in 1928 and while some note that television was invented two years later than bread, others claim the first electronic TV was actually made in 1927!
Yes, some of these do seem to unbelievable but they are, along with many other weird things, actually factual! Maybe next time we can talk about brains, beaches, surgeons and tea bags!
