Showing posts with label facts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label facts. Show all posts

Truth Is Stranger, I've Heard

This contains interesting “facts” e-mailed to me. The truth is, I stole -- ahem -- wrote about this stuff so long ago that my readers back then have all died of old age, so think of it as an "I Love Lucy" rerun.

Now, these may or may not be true -- that’s the problem with the internet -- but they’re still interesting:



“A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why.”

Surely a federally funded study is in progress?



“In ten minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.”

But there are practical difficulties to loading a hurricane into a B-52’s bomb bay.



“On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.”

No, NO--pens. P.E.N.S. There's no "I". Get your mind out of the gutter.



“On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.”

Well, death, doesn’t jump off the ceiling and wrap its creepy-crawly little poison legs around you in the middle of the night, does it? Um ... does it?

SPIDER--Oh, wait.



“Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.”

As a result, the average New Yorker fears cabs more than spiders, death, or hurricanes.



“Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.”

Any of you ladies want to tell me something?



“Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.”

Do we really want to? I mean, it’s hard enough to adjust to changing technology year to year -- someone who lived over a century had to adjust to the idea of flying, let alone space travel, cell phones, and Michael Jackson turning white.

(I should point out that when I wrote this, Michael Jackson was alive. And white.)



“Women blink nearly twice as much as men.”

This one’s easy to explain. I blink when I hear something ridiculous, and so whenever a woman listens to a man ...



“It’s physically impossible for you to lick your elbow.”

And this is a concern why --? Seriously, what drunk college student first thought, “Gee, I wonder if I can lick my elbow?”



“The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books.”

Imagine that -- books in a library. At least they’ll have plenty of storage room in the basements.

(By the way, I’m told this is a common urban legend at libraries around the country. Possibly started by college students who got bored with trying to lick their elbows.)



“A snail can sleep for three years.”

Never thought I’d envy a snail.



“Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.”

It was made by government contract.

 

 

SPIDER--never mind.

 

 

“The electric chair was invented by a dentist.”

Well, of course it was.



“In ancient Egypt, priests plucked every hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.”

A concept that was invented by a dentist, before electricity.



“Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.”

I wonder how long the inventor of the typewriter had to work to fit in that little inside joke?



“’Go’ is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.”

Followed directly by “stop”, of course.



“A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.”

How do we know this? Maybe they’re just very polite.



“American on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.”

Not the same Americans every day. I hope.



“If Barbie was life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.”

How’d you like to be HER chiropractor?



“Barbie would then stand seven feet, two inches tall.”

I mean, she could put eyes out with those things. Sorry, we moved on.



“No word in the English language rhymes with ‘month’”

And don’t think I haven’t tried. 



Putting all these together, I’ve learned that no one knows why a duck’s quack doesn’t echo while standing under a 7 foot tall Barbie in a hurricane, but if a snail that’s been sleeping for three years doesn’t get hit by a baseball, it’s often used to pluck all the hair from an Egyptian priest who invented the electric chair while on a dental appointment to fix teeth he knocked out while trying to lick his elbow in the Indiana University library 116 years ago. Luckily, he had a typewriter and so didn’t choke on a pen, but instead was running from his personal ad date’s husband when a New York cabbie swatting at a spider didn’t see the ‘go’ sign and ran over him and his pet crocodile in front of a pizza place. During a hurricane.

I tried to fit “month” in there somewhere, but couldn’t get the rhythm right, no matter how much I blinked.


SPIDER--Oh, for heaven's sake.

 
 

Another interesting fact? You can find us all over the internet:

·        Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

·        Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

·        Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

·        Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

·        Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

·        Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

·        Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

·        Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

·        Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter

·        Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

·        Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

·        Audible:  https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

 

Remember: Reading trivia improves your trivial knowledge.

 

Tag! I'm It: 10 Random Facts About Me

 I was tagged over on ... wait, where was it? The Book of Faces? The Stack of Subs? Well, somewhere, a lovely person named Author on Wheels tagged me to present 10 random facts about me, not related to writing.

I don't think Author on Wheels is their real name, but these days who knows?

Also, although it takes away some of the fun, I won't tag 10 other authors to do the same. I always thought it made people feel like they have to do something, and there are enough things we have to do in the main periods of our lives: childhood and adulthood.

 Of course, for a lot of years now I've been telling people everything about me in my columns/blogs, so the real question is, can I surprise you with something interesting? Probably not.

 

10 random facts about me, not related to writing:

 
 
1) Everyone knows I was a volunteer firefighter, but the first time I crawled into a burning building, at age 18, the extent of my protective gear was a pair of pull-up thigh-length rubber boots. Other than that, it was jeans and a windbreaker. We don't do that anymore.
 
We were smoke eaters ... and young.
 
 
 2) After graduating high school I moved seven times in seven years, without ever leaving town limits ... and now I've been in the same house for 36 years.

3) I only spent the night in a hospital once, with mono when I was fourteen. Now you have an idea of how extreme my dumb luck is.

4) As a youth I suffered from severe shyness (no, not the same as being an introvert, although there's that, too). But I got it in my head that I wanted to be an actor, and forced myself in high school to join drama club and choir, and take a speech class. To this day, I don't know where I got the courage.

5) I have a comical inability to do any kind of physical handiwork or maintenance whatsoever without completely screwing it up. It's why I prefer my tools to be electric: Small engines and I are not friends.
 
Now, destroying things isn't a problem.


6) When they were first married my parents had no money, so on the day the previous month's comic books were priced down they'd buy a stack, and read them over the weekend. This (and the Oz books they bought) is how I became an avid reader.

7) For my entire life I've had absolutely no interest in dressing to look good; as long as I'm warm, I'm fine. Emily has turned me around a little, though.

8.) Despite being allergic to cats, there's been at least one in my home most of my life. When I was a kid I thought everyone walked around with a stuffy nose. 

You think shooting pool while sneezing is easy? It is not.
 
 
 
9.) The first time I ever got my picture in the paper was when I was very little and the first customer at a new store (My parents bought me a U.S. map puzzle). The article said I won a large stuffed animal, but I never received it.

10) I can raise or lower my own pulse rate. Sometimes I used that to mess with EMT students.


There are probably odder facts about me I haven't even thought of, but I can't think of them.

 


 

 

I’ve never blown up something while writing (well, except for that one laptop), so keep me out of trouble and buy our books here:

 

·        Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

·        Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

·        Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

·        Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

·        Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

·        Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

·        Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

·        Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

·        Substack:  https://substack.com/@markrhunter

·        Tumblr:  https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

·        Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

·        Audible:  https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

 

Remember: Reading is a low-risk activity.