(Message inbox:4608) Return-Path: agu@nearinc.com Received: from HAWAII.NEARINC.COM (HAWAII.NEARINC.COM [192.108.93.8]) by cs.rice.edu (8.7.1/8.7.1) with SMTP id SAA05773 for ; Wed, 11 Sep 1996 18:13:23 -0500 (CDT) Received: from cuba.nearinc.com by HAWAII.NEARINC.COM with SMTP; Wed, 11 Sep 1996 16:00:12 -0700 (PDT) Received: by cuba.nearinc.com (5.x/SMI-SVR4) id AA11807; Wed, 11 Sep 1996 16:08:21 -0700 Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 16:08:21 -0700 From: agu@nearinc.com (agu) Message-Id: <9609112308.AA11807@cuba.nearinc.com> To: Chris.Decker@conner.com, MBERKMAN@gcwf.com, ai@tibco.com, awinarsk@us.oracle.com, burke@nearinc.com, daniel@ia-us.com, decker@alumni.caltech.edu, djb@mitre.org, eluce@aol.com, ian@cs.rice.edu, jdestefa@bbn.com, jeffk@nmss.com, jgarcia@cse.ucsc.edu, jlove@nearinc.com, joel@cse.ucsc.edu, julian@freebsd.org, jun@zentropa.com, koblas@novomedia.com, kovar@NDA.com, kristen@synopsys.com, laurie@embezzle.stanford.edu, lib@nearinc.com, murban@violet.berkeley.edu, nitzberg@nas.nasa.gov, rcu@engr.sgi.com, rgf@parcplace.com, rja@cen.com, rmiller@synopsys.com, sison@ix.netcom.com, tung@cmgm.stanford.edu, urban@odi.com, urban@rto.dec.com Subject: fwd From urban@odi.com Thu Sep 5 06:12 PDT 1996 From: Lisl Urban Subject: Useless trivia to impress your friend (fwd) To: agu@nearinc.com (anne urban), urban@rto.dec.com (robert urban), nurban@garnet.berkeley.edu (urban), murban@violet.berkeley.edu (margaret urban), tsk@rational.com (tim keith) Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 09:04:02 -0400 (EDT) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Forwarded message: From bsmith Thu Sep 5 08:18:43 1996 From: Bill Smith Date: Thu, 5 Sep 1996 08:16:15 -0400 Message-Id: <199609051216.IAA01855@ima.odi.com> To: humor Subject: Useless trivia to impress your friend It's quite lengthy but very interesting: Witty trivia to impress all your friends... Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball. If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon will be about three statute miles away. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural. Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams. Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula." Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella. Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono. Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. The company providing the liability insurance for the Republican National Convention in San Diego is the same firm that insured the maiden voyage of the HMS Titanic. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth...and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd." The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children. If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life" It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees) Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight. Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. The "L.L." in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood. Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since. Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself. The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off... Thus the saying. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself. The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows." A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie. 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand. The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth. A whale's penis is called a dork. Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs -- it will let you go instantly. Reindeer like to eat bananas. A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of geese is called a gaggle. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess. A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament. Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. The phrase "sleep tight" derives from the fact that early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with rope stretched across the bedframe. A tight sleep was a comfortable sleep. "Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing. ------- end ------- (Message inbox:6649) Date: 16 Jan 1997 10:46:32 EDT To: daveadam , ecowper , bjugan , David_Blair , "carragher.family" , bowslaud , davidd ***, jennifer , idickson , seanf , dominik , ngreen , mebrown , "Laurie.Jenkins" , mprairie , dprairie , catmgsch , "reg.thompson" , ad956 , "dave.mackie" , smackie , thirumalai , ian , jeroen , breaden , elfp150 , majewski , "innovat.limited" , cmackie , Theresa_Thomson , Wiseman_Joe , BESTTEAM , narancsi From: Dean Mackie Subject: JOKE: Factoids a-gogo Return-Path: Dean_Mackie@otppb.com Mime-Version: 1.0 part text/plain 5826 Press to show content...To: amichm @ MICROSOFT.COM ("A. Michael Mondry") @ internet, aep @ interlog.com ("'Andrew Platzer'") @ internet, andrewsk @ MICROSOFT.COM (Andrew Skowronski) @ internet, antoine_patte @ montreal2.discreet.qc.ca ("'Antoine Patte'") @ internet, blauzon @ MICROSOFT.COM (Benoit Lauzon) @ internet, bathomas @ interlog.com ("'Bob Thomas'") @ internet, brucesc @ MICROSOFT.COM (Bruce Schoor) @ internet, charm @ MICROSOFT.COM (Charles Migos) @ internet, clea @ MICROSOFT.COM (Chris Lea) @ internet, labrie @ nortel.ca ("'Dany Labrie'") @ internet, Dean_Mackie @ otppb.com ("'Dean Mackie'") @ internet, francoi @ MICROSOFT.COM (Francois Dussault) @ internet, gkhouzam @ cgl.uwaterloo.ca ("'Gilles Khouzam'") @ internet, belig00 @ DMI.USherb.CA ("'Guylaine Beliveau'") @ internet, jydeveau @ MICROSOFT.COM (Jacques Yves Deveau) @ internet, janickv @ MICROSOFT.COM (Janick Valois) @ internet, kenj @ nortel.ca ("'kenj@nortel.ca'") @ internet, luist @ MICROSOFT.COM (Luis Talavera) @ internet, mhebert @ MICROSOFT.COM (Marc Hebert) @ internet, mdecoste @ MICROSOFT.COM (Marc-Andre Decoste) @ internet, marceq @ MICROSOFT.COM (Marc-Eric Quesnel) @ internet, mjrodrig @ MICROSOFT.COM (Marianne Rodrigues) @ internet, blais @ iro.umontreal.ca ("'Martin Blais'") @ internet, msheasby @ MICROSOFT.COM (Michael Sheasby) @ internet, NStartse @ atitech.ca ("'Natalia Startseva'") @ internet, nmichaud @ MICROSOFT.COM (Nicolas Michaud) @ internet, pam.hanington @ icis.on.ca ("'Pam Hanington'") @ internet, pwalsh @ MICROSOFT.COM (Patrick Walsh) @ internet, peterba @ MICROSOFT.COM (Peter Barszczewski) @ internet, crnokrak @ bio1.lan.mcgill.ca ("'Peter Crnokrak'") @ internet, pibrahim @ MICROSOFT.COM (Peter Ibrahim) @ internet, rhill @ MICROSOFT.COM (Raymond Hill) @ internet, rleclair @ direct.ca ("'Rob Leclair'") @ internet, rogerta @ MICROSOFT.COM (Roger Tawa) @ internet, slavier @ kaydara.com ("'Sebastien Lavier'") @ internet, sophiega @ MICROSOFT.COM (Sophie Gaudreau) @ internet, sophiep @ MICROSOFT.COM (Sophie Pronovost) @ internet, thomaskr @ MICROSOFT.COM (Thomas Krul) @ internet cc: (bcc: Dean Mackie/OTPPB) From: andrewfo @ MICROSOFT.COM (Andrew Forget) @ Internet @ WORLDCOM Date: 15/01/97 05:07:42 PM CST Subject: JOKE: Factoids a-gogo Thanks Sebastien for the joke... > >Enjoy! > >BTW: Webster's dictionary describes jiffy as "moment, instant", but doesn't >specify how long it actually lasts :) > > > Some incredibly interesting facts to get you through the week: > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > > 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 > > If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the > air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the > air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse > has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. > > No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and > purple. > > Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without > killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get > fired." > > Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". > > There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. > > Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John > Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the > last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. > > "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. > > The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South > Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber > machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into >the > fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the > whole 9 yards." > > The most common name in the world is Mohammed. > > The word "samba" means "to rub navels together." > > The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. > > The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. > > Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots. > > Until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in Sweden. > The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5pm. All traffic > stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent > accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too > sleepy to realize that *this* was the day of the changeover. > > The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II > killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. > > Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice." > > In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam." > > Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson." > > More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. > > The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from > Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye > gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified > was to poke someone's eye out. > > A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. > > The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. > > Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them > looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt. > > Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton. > > Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. > > The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from and old English law > which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything > wider than your thumb. > > An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain. > > The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds >