Expand your arsenal of random knowledge!

I enjoy collecting odd nuggets of information. Here are some that I find interesting and surprising. You never know when some of these might come in handy – at a party (that’s where a large group of folks gather to drink and socialize), while waiting in line for your vaccine or perhaps on Jeopardy! Disclaimer: Not recommended for use on dates.

American Geography

• Reno, Nevada (nearly 400 miles from the Pacific Ocean) is further west than both Los Angeles and San Diego California. Say what?
• Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas (I was taught at UT that everything was bigger in Texas?) and more than 550 times the size of Rhode Island (where you can drive across the entire state in 45 minutes). Yet, more people live in Little Rhody than in our largest state.
• Thirty of our fifty states have a shoreline on either an ocean or one of the Great Lakes. (New York is the only state with a shoreline on both an ocean and one of the Great Lakes). And surprisingly, Florida has more coastline than California – by a lot, more than 60%.
• Over half of the states either touch or drain water into the Mississippi River, including its numerous tributaries. The Missouri River is considered a tributary of the Mississippi for some reason even though the Missouri is actually 100 miles longer. Just north of the Lou is the only place where you can see both rivers.
• There are apparently more cities in the U.S. named Springfield (41) than named Lincoln (35). Does that mean that Homer Simpson is more popular than our greatest President?

American Presidents

• Americans have a strong preference for Presidents who are tall. Indeed, while the average height for a male in the U.S. is 5 feet 9 inches, not a single President since Harry Truman was elected (in 1952) has been 5 foot 9 or shorter. There have been some shorter Presidential candidates but they didn’t fare so well – Michael Dukakis in particular stands out. Our tallest President? Not Dishonest Donald, despite what he may claim (though he’s third), but rather Honest Abe. Lincoln stood a towering 6 foot 4 in an era where the average height was just 5 foot 7.
• Americans also apparently prefer a President with a very short name. Indeed, no President in the last 60 years, except Obama, has had a last name with more than two syllables. And there hasn’t been a President whose last name had more than seven letters since Eisenhower was elected in 1956. I’m not sure if this reflects the simplicity of the electorate and the need to have a name we all can remember or is evidence of minority and/or anti-immigrant bias. My bet is on the latter.
• Presidents tend to present themselves as strong, independent and verile. So it must have been pretty embarrassing for President Taft when word leaked that he got stuck in the White House bathtub and needed six men to extract him from his predicament. (No word on whether they were able to retrieve his rubber ducky). Some historians claim that the century-old legend is false. But his status as our heaviest President at 340 pounds remains intact. At the other extreme, President Madison was our lightest President, tipping the scales at barely over 100 pounds. For those measuring in the kitchen, 3 1/2 servings of Madison equals one Taft.
• July 4th, our official date of independence, is actually a rather sad and morbid day in American history. John Adams AND Thomas Jefferson – historical giants, rivals and our second and third Presidents – both happened to die on July 4th. And in the same year – on the 50th anniversary of our nation’s independence no less. Talk about a party buzz killer! If that weren’t enough, James Monroe – the 5th President and the last living Founding Father at the time – lost his battle with tuberculosis on July 4, 1831 – exactly five years later. And then there was our 12th President, Zachary Taylor. Only 16 months into office, Taylor made an effort to join his predecessors when while celebrating the Independence Day holiday in 1850, he imbibed a concoction of cherries and milk laden with “killer”bacteria. But the man known as “Old Rough and Ready” apparently was neither that rough nor quite ready as he succumbed to his death a few days later.

Animals

• Americans love animals – at least the ones we consider pets and not game for hunting. Of the roughly 122 Million households in the United States, nearly half have a dog. Given my great admiration for man’s best friend, I’m not the least bit surprised. Then again, about one-third of U.S. households own a cat. Really? But the most populous pet in the United States by far? Freshwater fish. There are nearly 140 million of them swimming around in tanks without, as far as I can tell, any human interaction. Most were bought I suspect for kids who promised to feed them every day and clean the tank once a week. How long did that last? All combined there are far more American pets than there are Americans.
• Most humans have 32 teeth (at least those of us who don’t play ice hockey). It takes a lot of time and effort to clean and floss them. In fact, according to the Oral Health Foundation, the average person with good dental hygiene (i.e. it excludes folks from rural Missouri, Kentucky and Arkansas) spends more than 82 days in their lifetime brushing their teeth! And that’s not even counting dental visits and orthodontics. But the man (or woman) upstairs cut us a break. Giant armadillos typically have 100 teeth, dolphins often 250 teeth and snails as many as 25,000 teeth! My entrepreneurial ortho buddy Randy and unofficial godson Nehi are no doubt working on how to capture those markets.
• Numerous species of animals engage in homosexual conduct, including sheep, penguins, giraffes and all kinds of apes, including chimpanzees with whom humans share a whopping 98.7% of their DNA. How do the religious haters of this conduct in humans explain how God could let this happen?
• An elephant is one giant dude. But it’s not even close to being the heaviest animal. At 11,000 pounds or so (more than 30 President Tafts!) it is a tiny fraction of the weight of a blue whale that weighs a remarkable 418,000 pounds. Incredibly, the whale’s tongue alone can weigh as much as an elephant!

Humans

• Women live on average five years longer than men – just more reason why they are the superior species. The oldest person in the world currently is Kane Tanaka of Japan. She just turned 118 in January. The oldest verified person to ever have lived was Jeanne Calment from France who made it to 122 and a half (at that age you really have to give her credit for half-birthdays). Then again, there are those who believe the literal word of the Bible that Methuselah (who lived before the advent of science and medicine and was a man) somehow managed to live to age 969! I’m not buying it.
• We humans love to eat. Most rarely miss a meal. Indeed, if we haven’t eaten for a few hours many will disingenuously complain that they are “starving.” Humans can actually go without any food (though not water) for a very long time. Indeed, the current fasting record is 382 days – more than an entire year!
• We also love our sports. The first sport? Wrestling – over 15,000 years ago. It makes sense since it requires no equipment and closely resembles the oldest activity – mating. The first team sport in the U.S.? Lacrosse, which apparently dates back to the 1630’s. It sure took a long time to gain traction but it’s now reportedly the fastest growing sport in America. The first sport among the Big 4 in the U.S.? Surprisingly hockey. Even more astonishing, its earliest form originated in Ancient Greece in 600 B.C. where the temperature never got below freezing. Clearly, it wasn’t being played on ice at the time.
• And, finally, in the “nothing short of incredible” department. A lady from Shuya, Russia in the 1700’s allegedly established the record for the most babies ever delivered by one person in a lifetime. It’s the single record that I am most confident will never be broken. Between 1725 and 1765, she somehow birthed 69 children, including 16 twins, 7 triplets and 4 quadruplets! No singles for her. And for the biggest slight and most sexist account in history? The record book doesn’t even bother to mention her name but only that of her husband Feodore Vassilyev, whose “work” I think we can agree was rather limited. If that weren’t humiliating enough, the historical record refers to her merely as his first wife! I suppose Feodore became disappointed with her when she could no longer bear him children?!

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