Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (13 page)

ATCHOO!

Meaning:
The sound you make when you sneeze

Origin:
“Excluded from dictionaries, this imitative word corresponds oddly with the French
à tes souhaits
(pronounced ‘a tay soo-eh’), their version of ‘God bless.’ It even sounds like it, though
à tes souhaits
follows the sneeze. Is this overlap a mere fluke, or has somebody really been listening?” (
The Secret Lives of Words
, by Paul West)

POSTHUMOUS

Meaning:
Something that arises from or occurs after one’s death

Origin:
“Posthumous comes from the Latin
postumus
, ‘last’ or ‘lastborn,’ which, strictly speaking, could be applied to the last child born
of a particular mother and father, without reference to death. The
h
crept into
postumus
by association with
humus
(earth or ground) and perhaps with some help from
humare
(to bury). The modern spelling and meaning were fixed by Posthumus Leonatus, hero of Shakespeare’s
Cymbeline
, who received this name, as the audience is informed at the start of the play, because he was born after his father died.” (
Devious Derivations
, by Hugh Rawson)

TATTOO

Meaning:
A permanent mark on the skin made by ingraining an indelible pigment

Origin:
“When Captain Cook sailed to Tahiti in 1769, he unwittingly introduced tattoos to sailors. Upon studying the island’s inhabitants, Cook described how ‘both sexes paint their bodys.’ Cook called it ‘tattow,’ his rendition of the Tahitian term
tatau
. The word was derived from the Polynesian
ta
, ‘to strike,’ a reference to the puncturing of the skin ‘with small instruments made of bone, cut into short teeth.’” (
The Chronology of Words and Phrases
, by Linda and Roger Flavell)

LUKEWARM

Meaning:
Barely warm

Origin:
“Luke was a Middle English word, now obsolete, meaning ‘warm,’ which was based on
lew
, another word for ‘warm.’
Lew
, in turn, was derived from the Old English word
hleow
, meaning (guess what?) ‘warm.’ You have probably realized by now that lukewarm actually amounts to saying ‘warm-warm,’ but this sort of redundancy is common when obsolete words are carried over into modern usage.” (
The Word Detective
, by Evan Morris)

SEEDY

Meaning:
Somewhat disreputable; squalid

Origin:
“During the seasons when rye, barley, oats, and other grains were being planted, a fellow who spent his days in the fields was likely to be covered with seeds. Once the derisive title entered common usage, it came to mean anything run-down—from shacks to individuals.” (
Why You Say It
, by Webb Garrison)

Anemology:
The study of wind

Conchology:
The study of shells

Dactylology:
Communication using fingers (sign language)

Hippology:
The study of horses

Ichthyology:
The study of fish

Mycology:
The study of fungi

Myrmecology:
The study of ants

Neology:
The study of new words

Nosology:
The study of the classification of diseases

Oenology:
The study of wines

Otology:
The study of ears

Potamology:
The study of rivers

Rhinology:
The study of noses

Sinology:
The study of Chinese culture

Trash in landfills keeps its original weight, volume, and form for 40 years.

The average pencil will draw a line 35 miles long.

Even clean air may contain as many as 1,500 specks of dust per cubic inch.

A cubic yard of air weighs about two pounds.

Most avalanches travel downhill at a rate of 22 mph.

The only rock that floats in water: pumice.

Sand melts at 3,100°F.

Sound travels a mile in five seconds through the air. Under water, it travels a mile in one second.

Scientific name for the dust we kick up when in motion: the “Pigpen effect.”

The average smell weighs 760 nanograms.

There are an estimated 30 billion billion molecules in a cubic centimeter of air.

It takes about 3 1/2 hours for sound waves to travel from San Francisco to New York.

Scientists don’t completely understand why thrown stones skip across water.

Helium-filled balloons float because helium is seven times lighter than air.

Hot water weighs more than cold water.

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

Left to its own devices, one ton of iron can turn into three tons of rust.

Lead melts at a temperature of 620°F. Tin melts at 446°F. Mix them together and they melt at 356°F.

Dry ice doesn’t melt. It evaporates.

Canada was the second country to legalize medical marijuana. (First: Belgium)

Canada has the second coldest national capital: Ottawa. (First: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)

Canada is the second largest foreign investor in Chile. (First: United States)

Canada has the second highest university enrollment rate in the world. (First: United States)

Canada has the second most tornadoes. (First: United States)

Canada is the second in pork exports. (First: Denmark)

Canada has the second highest amount of gum chewed per capita. (First: United States)

Canada has the second highest broadband Internet access in the world. (First: South Korea)

Canada was the second country to publish a national atlas. (First: Finland)

Canada has the second highest freshwater use per capita. (First: United States)

Canada has the second highest water quality. (First: Finland)

Canada is the second largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases. (First: United States)

Canada has the second most biotech companies. (First: United States)

Canada is the second largest exporter of red meat. (First: Australia)

Canada is the second biggest market for U.S. seafood. (First: Japan)

Canada is the second largest foreign investor in Korea. (First: United States)

A penguin with a six-inch stride can run as fast as an average man.

Columbus traveled at an average speed of 2.8 miles per hour on his first voyage across the sea.

Water can flow through a plant at four miles per hour.

The speed of a roller coaster increases an average of 10 miles per hour when it’s raining.

Good thing they’re hauling gas: giant oil tankers get about 31 feet per gallon.

Flying fish “fly” at 40 miles per hour.

Top speed of a chicken at full gallop: 9 miles per hour. Top speed of a pigeon in flight: 90 miles per hour.

When you pop a champagne cork, it can travel as fast as 100 miles per hour.

Average speed of a golf ball in flight during the PGA Tour: 160 miles per hour.

Peregrine falcons can dive at speeds up to 240 miles an hour.

Barbie (the doll) has a last name: Roberts. Ken’s last name is Carson.

World’s largest manufacturer of female apparel: Mattel. (They make Barbie clothes.)

Chance of meeting someone with Barbie’s human-scale measurements (36–18–33): one in 100,000. Chance of meeting someone with Ken’s: one in 50.

Easy-Bake Ovens have been sold since 1964.

If you lined up all the Slinkys ever made, they could wrap around the world 126 times.

You can buy a gold-plated Slinky for $100. Sterling silver: $400.

Play-Doh was used as a wallpaper cleaner before it became a toy.

Lego has manufactured more than 189 billion pieces in 2,000 different shapes since 1949, about 30 Lego pieces for every living person on earth.

Annual sales of G.I. Joe increased by 46 percent in 2002—following the 9/11 attacks.

The import of stuffed animals and female dolls is banned in Saudi Arabia.

Nearly 21,000 people are injured every year from air rifles, paintball pistols, and BB guns.

In 1958 Crayola changed its “Prussian blue” to “midnight blue” in response to teacher recommendations that children could no longer relate to Prussian history.

World’s most popular “laptop”: the Etch A Sketch.

First food eaten by an American in space: pureed applesauce from a tube.

There are 27 chemicals that can be added to bread without being listed on the label.

The first cereal to come in a box? Shredded Wheat.

First food product permitted by law to have artificial coloring: butter. (It’s naturally white.)

One of the most popular soups in 1929: peanut butter soup.

The first canned foods appeared in 1810, but the can opener wasn’t invented until 1858.

Most of the egg rolls sold in the United States are made in Houston.

Lemon Pledge has more lemons than Country Time Lemonade.

Six weeks after an aluminum can is recycled, it’s back on the shelf in the form of a new can.

World’s First Dictionary:
Explaining Words, Analyzing Characters
(A.D. 100), by Xu Shen. Chinese words and definitions.

World’s First Fantasy Story:
The Castaway
, published in Egypt circa 1950 B.C. The story of a man who is shipwrecked on an island ruled by a giant bearded serpent with a deep voice and an ability to predict the future.

World’s First Sci-Fi Story:
True History
, by Lucian of Samosata, published in the 2nd century A.D. Adventures in outer space, in unknown seas, and on the moon. Everyone in space speaks Greek.

World’s First Book of Firsts:
Origins of Ages
(100 B.C.), author unknown. Lists the founders of the ruling families of China.

World’s First Novel:
Cyropaedia
(360 B.C.), by the Greek author Xenophon. An account of the life of Cyrus, founder of the Persian empire. The book offers “an idealized account of Persian society, contrasting with the unsympathetic views of most Greeks.”

World’s First Autobiography:
Memoirs of Aratus of Sicyon
, published after his death by poisoning in 213 B.C. Critics commend Aratus for admitting his own weaknesses in the book, but fault him for being “insultingly critical of people he disliked.”

World’s First Book of Ghost Stories:
Tales of Marvels
(early 3rd century), by Chinese author Tsao Pi. Stories include a haunted house and a man who convinces a ghost that he’s a ghost, too.

World’s First Joke Book:
Forest of Jokes
, by Harn Darn Jun, a Chinese author, around A.D. 200.

If you had $1 billion and spent $1,000 a day, it would take 2,740 years to spend it.

One billion people would fill roughly 305 Chicagos.

It took until 1800 for the world’s population to reach 1 billion, but only 130 years more for it to reach 2 billion—in 1930.

One billion people lined up side by side would stretch for 568,200 miles.

First magazine in history to sell a billion copies:
TV Guide
, in 1974.

More than 1 billion people on earth are between the ages of 15 and 24.

One Styrofoam cup contains 1 billion molecules of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons)—harmful to the earth’s ozone layer.

A single ragweed plant can release a billion grains of pollen.

To cook 1 billion pounds of pasta, you’d need 2 billion gallons of water—enough to fill nearly 75,000 Olympic-size swimming pools.

The ratio of billionaires to the rest of the U.S. population is 1 to 4.5 million.

Nearly 1 billion Barbie dolls (including friends and family) have been sold since 1959. Placed head to toe, the dolls would circle the earth more than three times.

The first billion-dollar corporation in the U.S. emerged in 1901—United States Steel.

One teaspoon of yogurt contains more than 1 billion live and active bacteria.