Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Weird Facts Wednesday

While researching for my books, I come across a lot of weird and interesting facts. I have a file full of these little tidbits, kept forever in the slight chance I might find one useful in a story. I thought I'd share a few of them with you :)

- Lizzie Borden was actually acquitted of killing her parents with an ax (after only an hour of deliberation)

- the black box of an airplane is really bright orange

- ship captains (unless specifically ordained) can't legally perform marriages


- porcupines float in water

- the electric chair was invented by a dentist (like I needed more reasons to be afraid of the dentist!)

- there are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos

- bats always turn left when leaving a cave

- electric eels are really fish, head cheese is actually a meat, Douglas firs are really pine trees, koala bears aren't bears but marsupials, a titmouse is really a bird, english horns aren't horns but are closer to an oboe, catgut is actually made out of sheep, and Welsh rabbit is actually melted cheese on toast (let's hear it for confusing names)




*disclaimer - I did not verify these statements, merely stumbled across them in my various searches, found them interesting, and jotted them down.*

12 comments:

Stephanie McGee said...

Very interesting. Hmmm...

Matthew MacNish said...

Whether true or not they're lot of good, weird fun!

Jennifer Shirk said...

I love nifty little information like this. :)

Unknown said...

Really cool facts. Love the ones about animals.

CD

Kay said...

i find the people that obtain an obscene amount of nonsensical knowledge always the most interesting...

amazing the information we retain.

thanks for adding to the list haha

Carolyn V. said...

Oh my gosh. The electric chair was invented by a dentist? What was he thinking? that just scares me. *cringe*

Anonymous said...

Wow neat! This is a really great site! I am wondering if anyone else has come across something
similar in the past? Keep up the great work!

Conda Douglas said...

Okay, strange--and I keep thinking there's stories somehow in left-turning bats...

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I went to Vegas for my honeymoon and I can attest that there are no clocks in the casinos. (At least there weren't WAY back then - LOL!

Jennifer said...

I feel sufficiently geeky, as I knew almost all of these! Yay, geekery! :D

Jennifer said...

Oh, another one for you (and my personal favorite): Termites produce so much methane gas that they're contributing to the hole in the ozone layer. Boo, termites!

Jennifer said...

Oh, another one for you (and my personal favorite): Termites produce so much methane gas that they're contributing to the hole in the ozone layer. Boo, termites!