Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Extraordinary Book of Facts: And Bizarre Information (17 page)

What was John Tyler doing when he was informed that William Henry Harrison had died, making Tyler president? He was on his knees playing marbles.

John Tyler had 15 children by two wives.

Number of times Abraham Lincoln slept in the Lincoln Bedroom: zero.

Abraham Lincoln survived two assassination attempts before being killed by John Wilkes Booth.

Ulysses S. Grant sometimes smoked as many as 20 cigars a day. He died of throat cancer.

Chester A. Arthur once sold a pair of Abraham Lincoln’s pants at auction.

Grover Cleveland got more popular votes in the 1888 presidential election, which he lost, than he got in the 1884 presidential election, which he won.

President McKinley’s pet parrot was named Washington Post.

Theodore Roosevelt had 24 pets in the White House, including four guinea pigs, two cats, and a bear.

Theodore Roosevelt was the most prolific writer among the presidents, authoring 40 books.

Woodrow Wilson’s second wife, Edith, learned to ride a bike down the halls of the White House.

Woodrow Wilson’s typewriter could be altered to print in either English or Greek.

Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as president of the United States by his father, a justice of the peace.

Americans consume 16,000 tons of aspirin every year.

Twenty-five percent of Americans believe in ghosts. Ten percent say they’ve seen one.

According to a poll by Progressive Insurance, 63 percent of Americans talk to their cars.

Eighty percent of Americans live in cities.

Three percent of all photographs taken in the United States are taken at Disneyland or Disney World.

One in five Americans cannot say which president is on the $1 bill.

About 4 percent of Americans are vegetarians.

Only 17 percent of Americans can identify Andrew Jackson as the guy on the $20 bill.

When asked what they think is the most stressful event of the year, 20 percent of Americans say filling out income tax forms. Twenty-five percent say visiting relatives at family gatherings.

Roughly one third of Americans live within five miles of a lake.

Foreign city most visited by Americans: Tijuana.

Some 19 percent of American taxpayers say “avoiding an audit” is their number one priority when filling out tax forms. Thirty-three percent say “taking as many deductions as possible” is.

JACKPOT

Meaning:
A huge prize

Origin:
“The term goes back to draw poker, where stakes are allowed to accumulate until a player is able to ‘open the pot’ by demonstrating that among the cards he has drawn, he has a pair of jacks or better.” (
Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, Vol. II
, by William and Mary Morris)

HOOKER

Meaning:
Prostitute

Origin:
Although occasionally used before the Civil War, its widespread popularity can probably be traced to General Joseph Hooker, a Union soldier who was well-known for the liquor and whores in his camp. He was ultimately demoted, and Washington prostitutes were jokingly referred to as “Hooker’s Division.”

CALCULATE

Meaning:
Add, subtract, divide, and/or multiply numbers or money

Origin:
“In Rome 2,000 years ago, the merchant figured his profit and loss using what he called calculi, or ‘little stones’ as counters. So the Latin term calculus, ‘pebble,’ not only gave us calculate but . . . our word calculus . . . one of the most complicated forms of modern mathematics.”
(Word Origins
, by Wilfred Funk, Litt. D.)

DOPE

Meaning:
Drugs

Origin:
“This word was originally a Dutch word, doop, meaning a sauce or liquid. Its first association with narcotics came when it was used to describe the viscous glop that results from heating opium. Then, by rapid extension, it came to mean any narcotic.” (
Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, Vol. III
, by William and Mary Morris)

DOOZY

Meaning:
Something wonderful, superior, or classy

Origin:
“The word comes from Duesenberg, an eminently desirable motor car of the 1920s and ’30s. The Duesenberg featured a chromed radiator shell, gold-plated emblem, hinged louvered hood, stainless-steel running boards, beveled crystal lenses on the instrument panel, Wilton wool carpet, and twin bugle horns. Magazine ads for the luxury car carried the slogan: ‘It’s a Duesie.’” (
The Secret Lives of Words
, by Paul West)

MANURE

Meaning:
Animal excrement used to fertilize plants

Origin:
“From the Latin manu operati, ‘to work by hand.’ Farming was constant manual labor, especially the fertilizing, which required mixing by hand. Genteel folks who objected to the word dung, the excrement of animals, were responsible for its euphemistic displacement with the more ‘refined’ manure.

“Even manure became objectionable to the squeamish; they preferred fertilizer. According to a famous story about Harry S Truman, the president was explaining that farming meant manure, manure, and more manure. At which point a lady said to the president’s wife: ‘You should teach Harry to say “fertilizer,” not “manure.”’ Mrs. Truman replied, ‘You don’t know how long it took me to get him to say “manure.”” (
The Story Behind the Words
, by Morton S. Freeman)

ADMIRAL

Meaning:
High-ranking commissioned officer in a navy or coast guard

Origin:
“This is an artificial spelling of the French
amiral
. The Arabian word
amir
, commander, is commonly followed by al, as in amir-al bahr, ‘commander of the sea,’ from which amiral resulted.” (
More About Words
, by Margaret S. Ernst)

TEMPURA

Meaning:
A Japanese dish of deep-fried vegetables or seafood

Origin:
“Neither a native Japanese dish, nor a Japanese name. When the Portuguese arrived in the 17th century, the Japanese noticed that at certain ‘times’ (Portuguese, tempora), notably Lent, they switched from meat to fish. With typical subtlety the Japanese concluded that the word meant a variety of seafood.” (
Remarkable Words with Astonishing Origins
, by John Train)

It takes 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds for the moon to go through all of its phases (from one full moon to the next). This is close to the length of a month—which is why the word
month
means “moon.”

The light that comes from the moon is sunlight reflected off the moon’s surface. It takes 1.25 seconds for the light to travel to Earth.

The moon is 2,160 miles in diameter—about a quarter of Earth’s diameter.

A 3-foot jump on earth would carry you 18 feet, 9 inches, on the moon.

There is no sound on the moon. Nor is there weather, wind clouds, or colors at sunrise and sunset.

The side of the moon we always see is called “the near side.”

The side we never see from Earth is “the far side.” That’s probably where Gary Larson got the name of his comic strip.

Astronauts have brought over 843 pounds of moon samples back to Earth.

If you weigh 120 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 20 pounds on the moon—one-sixth of your weight on earth.

If Earth were as big as a fist, the moon would be the size of a stamp . . . placed 10 feet away.

The moon is moving away from Earth at the rate of about one-eighth inch a year.

In the three weeks that baby sparrows are in the nest, their parents make 5,000 trips for food.

The Arctic tern flies as far as 10,500 miles when it migrates.

Some breeds of vultures can fly at altitudes of 36,900 feet.

Male cardinals take three times as long as females to learn a new song.

A hummingbird consumes the caloric equivalent of 228 milkshakes per day.

Most hummingbirds weigh less than a penny.

The average American bald eagle weighs nine pounds—“about the size of a well fed housecat.”

When a roadrunner is content, it purrs.

Most parrots are left-handed.

When mating, a hummingbird’s wings beat 200 times per second.

The fastest way to wake up a penguin is to touch its feet.

Lonely parrots can go insane.

Flamingos can only eat with their heads upside down.

When a turkey is panicking, it whistles.

In some parts of Africa, ostriches are used to herd sheep.

If birds could sweat, they wouldn’t be able to fly.

Leprosy is the oldest documented infection—first described in Egypt in 1350 B.C.

Among the “treasures” found in King Tut’s tomb: several vials of pimple cream.

Doctors in ancient India closed wounds with the pincers of giant ants.

The world’s first recorded tonsillectomy was performed in the year 1000 B.C.

Acne treatment, circa A.D. 350: “wipe pimples with a cloth while watching a falling star.”

In medieval Japan, dentists extracted teeth with their hands.

The Hunza people of Kashmir (India and Pakistan) have a 0 percent cancer rate. Scientists link it to the apricot seeds they eat.

Oldest form of surgery in the world: trepanning (drilling holes into the skull).

In the Middle Ages, Europeans “cured” muscle pains by drinking powdered gold.

Sixteenth-century French doctors prescribed chocolate as a treatment for venereal disease.

Doctors in the 1700s prescribed ladybugs, taken internally, to cure measles.

England’s Queen Victoria smoked marijuana to cure her cramps.

Between 1873 and 1880, some U.S. doctors gave patients transfusions of milk instead of blood.

During World War I, raw garlic juice was applied to wounds to prevent infection.

The ancient Chinese would swing their arms to cure a headache.

Tom Hanks is related to Abraham Lincoln. He is Lincoln’s third cousin four times removed.

Bela Lugosi was buried in the cape he wore as Dracula.

Michael J. Fox’s middle name is Andrew.

John Wayne was related to Johnny Appleseed.

After starring in two movies with Elvis, actress Dolores Hart became a nun.

The Three Stooges appeared in more movies than any other comedy team in U.S. film history.

Marlene Dietrich’s beauty secret: to emphasize her high cheekbones, she had her upper molars removed.

The odds that a stage or screen actor has changed his or her name is about three out of four.

In 1947 Marilyn Monroe was crowned the first Queen of Artichokes.

Actor with the most leading roles in Hollywood films: John Wayne, at 141.

Cowboy star Tom Mix had tires made with his initials imprinted on them so that when he drove down dirt roads he would leave a trail of
TM
s.

Shirley Temple made $300,000 in 1938, but her allowance was only $4.25 a week.

Sylvester Stallone’s payment for his first major film role, in
The Lords of Flatbush
, was 25 T-shirts.

Twenty-five percent of Americans think Sherlock Holmes was a real person.

Gadsby
, a 50,000-word novel by Ernest Wright, contains no words with the letter
e
.

Earliest use of the flashback in Western literature: Homer’s
Odyssey
.

In how many Agatha Christie mysteries did “the butler do it”? None.

Charles Dickens’s original phrase for Scrooge was “Bah! Christmas!” not “Bah! Humbug!”

One self-help book in Japan claims clenching your butt 100 times a day fights depression. Try it.

There’s a Cinderella story in Finnish folklore. But the girl’s name isn’t Cinderella. It’s Tuna.

Goldilocks was originally named Silver Hair.

The first names of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are Henry and Edward.

Little Red Riding Hood’s first name is Blanchette.

Marco Polo dictated the book about his travels while he was a prisoner of war in Genoa. When it was published, everyone thought it was fiction.

There were two streetcars in Tennessee Williams’s
A Streetcar Named Desire
.

The book
Green Eggs and Ham
contains only 50 words.