Calendar Review: SPORCLE 2018 DAY-TO-DAY CALENDAR

Until last year, I was unaware of Sporcle. For those who are like I was, Sporcle is an online trivia website. The site is mainly devoted to all kinds of trivia quizzes. The

SPORCLE 2018 DAY-TO-DAY CALENDAR is a smaller and printed version of many of the quizzes you might find on Sporcle. There's a variety of challenges from word unscrambles (which often show up on Mondays), a list of naming four-letter words for a particular category (these usually show up on Wednesdays), matching games, choose the right answer game, listing all of the particular items in a certain category (for instance, can you name the seven states that only have one representative in the U.S. House of Representatives), and the Friday Challenge which is a general trivia question. I really enjoy trivia and participating in trivia nights. With that said, the SPORCLE 2018 DAY-TO-DAY CALENDAR really isn't like classical trivia and at times some of the games really aren't trivia (for instance, some of the word unscrambles or choose the correct word). It is different and kind of entertaining, so I understand the appeal, but personally I prefer the JEOPARDY 2018 DAY-TO-DAY CALENDAR or the 2018 TRIVIAL PURSUIT: MASTER EDITION CALENDAR.

A Little Something About Egg Nog

Just a little video from "Who Knew?" About Egg Nog. It's quite interesting.

The World's Most Typical Person

According to over a National Geographic analysis, the most typical person in the world is...

Book Review: EVERYBODY POOPS 410 POUNDS A YEAR

It might be smelly, but poop is fascinating. Just ask any kid who has read or been read to EVERYONE POOPS by Taro Gomi. The discussion of such a topic can easily lead to toilet humor, but when you’re talking about poop, that’s to be expected. EVERYBODY POOPS 410 POUNDS A YEAR is kind of the adult version of EVERYONE POOPS. It’s a tasteful, yet humorously illustrated book full of facts about poop. Through a series of illustrated diagrams, the book shows what happens to your poop after you flush it. It also tells you what different colors and shapes of poop mean, why you can see corn in your poop, the things people used to use before toilet paper, and whether or not you can use your poop for fuel. The two tidbits I found most fascinating were that:

1. When horses were still the major source of transportation, there were 100,000 horses in New York City that produced 2.5million pounds of manure a day. In the winter the city built up an interesting mixture of snow and manure that raised the street levels up to five feet. That’s why the buildings in the historic district have lifted, second-story stoops.

2. The Chicago River used to flow into Lake Michigan. However, the Chicago River is also where the city used to dump all of its waste. This was a problem because Lake Michigan is where they got their water. So, instead of actually dealing with their sewage problem, the people reversed the course of the Chicago River so it no longer flowed into Lake Michigan, but eventually flowed into the Mississippi River instead. Talk about being caught up s*#t creek without a paddle.

I thoroughly enjoyed EVERYBODY POOPS 410 POUNDS A YEAR. I found it entertaining and educational. It’s a great “adult kid’s book” (as the blurb on the back says), but I just wish it were a little longer.

Who Knew?--Crazy Horse Statue

My parents had the opportunity to see this statue over 30 years ago. I had always hoped that I would have the opportunity to see it in its finished glory.

Who Knew?--1/11/11

Real New York Blizzard Blues

I'm sick of hearing New Yorkers whine about the snow sitting in front of their driveways right now. I hate winter. However, I live in the part of the Midwest where we get our share of winter weather. I complain about the winter weather, but I do what I can before and when the stuff comes: putting salt on the sidewalk and driveways, shoveling snow, covering the windshield or scraping ice if I forget the cover, taking extra time to travel places, etc. It's a pain, but it's a part of what comes with winter. If you live in New York you would be used to lots of snow in winter. From what I've been told, the people there have access to snow shovels and salt just like we do. You can complain about the weather, but you shouldn't expect the government to come around and clean the snow out of your driveway or off your walk.

The current New Yorkers are a bunch of wusses. *From the 18th Century until the early part of the 20th Century before automobiles were standard, the streets of New York City were crowded with more than 100,000 horses at any given time. Those horses produced about 2.5 million pounds of manure each day. During the long, icy winters the city commonly built up a mixture of snow and dung that raised the street level up to five feet. That's one of the major reasons the iconic brownstones feature lifted, second-story stoops. Five feet of frozen ice and poo. That would be something to whine about.

*This info is taken from the book Everybody Poops 410 Pounds a Year by D. Flanagan and David Dudley.

Feces Facts

1. Everybody poops about 410 pounds a year.

2. The average American uses 24 rolls of toilet paper a year; altogether Americans use a total of of 7.2 billion rolls of toilet paper each year.

3. If you're poop is blue you've either eaten too much of a particular food coloring or you have a rare illness.

Wierd Trivia

After debating the issue for five minutes in 2009, the Common Council in Madison, Wisc., voted to make the pink plastic flamingo its official city bird.

Hang gliding is banned at national parks in Ethiopia to prevent stampedes. Antelopes often mistake the contraptions for vultures.

Real names of some fictional characters:

"Comic Book Guy" on The Simpsons: Jeff Albertson
Policeman in Monopoly: Edgar Mallory
Shaggy from Scooby-Doo: Norville Rogers
The Professor on Gilligan's Island: Roy Hinkley

--All of these bits of trivia can be found in the latest edition (Nov.-Dec. 2010) of Mental Floss magazine.

Come On, America! Are You Really That Dumb?!

- Almost 60% of Americans know the names of the original THREE STOOGES, but just 17% are able to name three former or current U.S. Supreme Court justices.
- 8 out of every 10 e-mails that are sent are spam.
- 14% of Americans between 18-24 can't find Iraq on a map, %18 can't locate
Afghanistan, and %10 can't locate the U.S. on a blank world map!
- 70% of Americans cannot identify the source of the phrase "life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness."
- Most political speeches are geared to the comprehension level of an average 7th grader. 50 years ago political speeches were, on average, spoken to people who had graduated high school.
- "karoshi" is a Japanese phenomenon of being worked to death, but even the Japanese take more vacation time than Americans.

Taken from the book 1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*T Out of You by Cary McNeal

Some Fun Facts

-Lightning strikes the Earth more than 5,000 times every minute.
-Once lightning enters a building, it may run through the electrical system, phone lines, plumbing, tv and radio antennas, and cables. It is also possible for lightning to pass through metal in concrete walls or flooring.
-Male desert rats can copulate up to 150 times in an afternoon.
-A tiger shark's bit is powerful enough to slice through a hard turtle shell.
-Sharks find the colors yellow and orange particularly irritating.
-A giraffe has 12-inch hooves and legs that can kick in all four directions; giraffe kicks have been known to decapitate lions.
-Swans have been known to capsize boats, attack humans on jet skis, and strangle dogs to death.
-A polar bear can rip the head off a human with one swipe of its paw.
-Pigs can become alcoholic.

These facts are taken from the book 1,000 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You by Cary McNeal.

Interesting Facts.

Just some more interesting facts from a book I'm reading, 1001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You.

*The Bible is the most shoplifted book in the world.
*The human stomach must produce a new lining every day to protect itself from its own acid.
*The acid in the human stomach is so powerful it can dissolve a razor blade in less than a week.
*Continuous human farting for 6 years, 9 months would create enough energy equal to that of an atomic bomb.
*A person can live without eating for weeks but only survive 11 days without sleep.

And what did I learn from all of this, it's highly improbable that Bobba Fett survived being swallowed by the Sarlaac in Return of the Jedi. Notice I said improbable, not impossible.

Interesting Facts About Food

Here are some interesting facts I learned today from reading the book 1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S**t Out of You.

*According to government and industry estimates, almost 40% of bottled water is ordinary tap water, often with no additional treatment.

*Red-colored grocery items like fruit punch and strawberry yogurt are often dyed with carmine, which is made from ground-up cochineal beetles. For some, carmine can case severe allergic reactions and can even lead to anaphylactic shock.

Today's Trivia

The first fruit eaten in space was a peach.

Trivia for Today

Before Jim Henson settled on FRAGGLE ROCK the series was tentatively titled WOOZLE WORLD.

The groove between your nose and your upper lip is called the philtrum.

Spartacus

Here's something I learned this past week. Have you ever seen the movie SPARTACUS? At the end when the slaves and gladiators have been defeated by the Romans they come for Spartacus and ask where he is. Each of the men stand up and say "I am Spartacus" so that the Romans won't know who Spartacus is. The movie ends showing the road of crucifixions where the rebels where killed. It is truly that Romans crucified 6,500 of Spartacus' followers along the Appian Way from Brundisium to Rome. What the movie never revealed, though, is that the Romans knew who Spartacus was and that his body was never found. Roman historians Plutarch and Appian claimed that Spartacus was the last man standing of the rebels, but was slain. However, because his body was never found there are many who believe that Plutarch and Appian made that part up to not make the Romans look bad. It was rumored that Spartacus was able to escape (about 10,000 of his followers who weren't fighters probably did escape across the Alps) and traversed the Alps where he eventually went to Gaul.

Amazing. And just think what a great story that would make!

Today's Trivia

Sauerkraut, the common German vegetable dish of cooked cabage, actuallly was first invented in China.

Camels' milk does not curdle naturally.

I LOVE LUCY was the first television show to broadcast reruns It happened in 1953 while Lucille Ball was on maternity leave.

A sphygmomanometer measures blood pressure.

The famous Apache warrior and chief, Geronimo, rode in President Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade in 1905.

Potatoes were the first food grown in space.