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Trivia Page Four

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The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during times of peace or war. A portion of the flag is blue, while the other is red. The blue portion is flown on top in time of peace and the red portion is flown in war time.

The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.

It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.

A baby eel is called an elver, a baby oyster is called a spat.

The arteries and veins surrounding the brain stem called the "circle of Willis" looks like a stick person with  a large head.

Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time.

Lake Nicaragua boasts the only fresh-water sharks in the entire world.

The gene for the Siamese colouration in animals such as cats, rats or rabbits is heat sensitive. Warmth produces a lighter colour than does cold. Putting tape temporarily on Siamese rabbit's ear will make the fur on that ear lighter than on the other one.

There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.

Venetian blinds were invented in Japan.

Armoured knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand.

Medieval knights put sharkskin on their sword handles to give them a more secure grip; they would dig the sharp scales into their palms.

"Freelance" comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, i.e. not pledged to one master.

Giving the Finger
Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers.  Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future.  This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").  Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew!  PLUCK YEW!"  Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture.  Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker," which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F', and thus the words often used in  conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter.  It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird."
(This is but one possible explanation that I know of)

It was illegal to sell ET dolls in France because there is a law against selling dolls without human faces.

In the 1983 film "JAWS 3D" the shark blows up. Some of the shark guts were the stuffed ET dolls being sold at the time.

Spider Monkeys like banana daiquiris.

Dinosaur droppings are called coprolites, and are actually fairly common.

The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk.

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON.

Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry.

Cyano-acrylate glues (Super glues) were invented by accident. The researcher was trying to make optical coating materials, and would test their properties by putting them between two prisms and shining light through them. When he tried the cyano-acrylate, he couldn't get the prisms apart.

A full moon always rises at sunset.

If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide  poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.

Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama.

Urea is found in human urine and dalmatian dogs and nowhere else.

Human birth control pills work on gorillas.

The Earl of Condom was a knighted personal physician to England's King Charles II in the mid-1600's. The Earl was requested to produce a method to protect the King from syphilis. (Charles the II's pleasure loving nature was notorious.) The result should be obvious.

There is no word in the English language that rhymes with orange.

Neck ties were first worn in Croatia.

A banana tree is not a tree; it is an herb.

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.

Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language.

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 realise what is occurring, relax and correct itself. At about that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground i's rib cage absorbs most of he impact.

The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.

The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up hen the creator, Frank Blum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."

During WWII the city of Leningrad underwent a seventeen month German siege. Unable to access the city by roads, the Russians built a railroad across the ice on Lake Lagoda to get food and supplies to the citizens.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Elton John's real name is Reginald Dwight. Elton comes from Elton Dean, a Bluesology sax player. John comes from Long John Baldry, founder of Blues Inc. They were the first electric white blues band ever seen in England -1961.