Bizarre "facts"

[Bunnylump]

I like to have a store of generally useless trivia on hand. You never know when it's useful to have to diffuse an argument! (Seriously, try it. If you find two people having a row, all you need to do is to interject something like"HANG ON A MINUTE I NEED TO SAY SOMETHING! Did you know that Kitchener's camel was called Lightning?" They are generally so astounded it stops them in their tracks... ) Here are a couple I found today.

Muppets creator Jim Henson first created Kermit in 1955 - as a lizard. He was made from Henson's mother's coat and two halves of a Ping-Pong ball (no flipper feet or eleven-point collar).

When using the first pay telephone, a caller did not deposit his coins in the machine. He gave them to an attendant who stood next to the telephone. Coin telephones did not appear to 1899.

The monkey wrench is named after its inventor, a London blacksmith named Charles Moncke.

Did you know...
The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck.

[LAT]

Thank you bunny! I'll let you know if I manage to use one of those facts in conversation!

So Kermit is almost as old as I am. hmmm. That makes me feel good actually. Also, do you know why Kitchener called his camel lightning?

Is there a ball on top of a flagpole? I don't remember seeing one on the pole outside our back gate

[Bunnylump]

Also, do you know why Kitchener called his camel lightning?

No, but I'd be interested to know!

You have a FLAGPOLE outside your gate? Is that so you can surrender?

[LAT]

yes, I would also be interested to know the reason.

Maybe it just struck him as an original name.

Doesn't everyone have a flagpole to tell them when it's safe to go out?

[Bunnylump]

No but I wish I did.What I actually need is an alarm system which warns me when the man opposite is about to come out. He's a carer for his very disabled wife and his autistic son so never goes out. He also doesn't appear to have any friends, so if he ever sees me that's it. I know I'm there for at least an hour and a half...

Mind you, the good thing is that he makes a brilliant neighbourhood watch. He spends his time looking out of the window, so virtually knows my every move. He's actually asked me things like "So where was it you were going a week last Tuesday at about 10am? It's not like you to wear high heels..." Another one was "Where was your husband off to at 1 30am?" (Bearing in mind I didn't know my husband had been out at 1 30am - and I was in the house - transpires he was out looking at the foxes playing in the road... ) I'm just waiting for "So who was that man you took into your house last week?" Can't wait to tell him it was someone I met on the internet. That'll cause a bit of gossip...

[LAT]

Serves you right for invitating strange characters into your home.
But I bet he has his uses. (the neighbour that is, not the strange character you met on the internet )

I went to a drinks party at Looby's last year and chatting to neighbours of hers had to admit I'd met her on a forum on the internet!

[Bunnylump]

Oh, the strange character I met on the internet does have some uses. Well, that's what he tells me, anyway.

[MBH]

I'm just waiting for "So who was that man you took into your house last week?" Can't wait to tell him it was someone I met on the internet. That'll cause a bit of gossip...

LOL - That was my adopted brother that I found on the Internet. I fancied a replacement for the brother my parents gave me, and he sounded safe enough on the forum....

[strep98]

I went to a drinks party at Looby's last year and chatting to neighbours of hers had to admit I'd met her on a forum on the internet!

People I work with find it hard that I have all you lovely people here to talk to. They think it is a dating site I'm sure

[Bunnylump]

Isn't it? Damn. There was me thinking I might just end up with a sugar Daddy who liked puzzles... Most of my friends now refer to me as "the puzzle nerd". And when I was at work a while back, I got a text from MBH (just after he'd had his operation) with a picture of him with a giant plaster on his nose. I thought it was really funny so showed it to a colleague. She asked me how I knew him and I said I'd "met" him on the internet. She looked perplexed. "So you met a strange man on the internet who is now sending you photos of him in bandages...? I'm looking at you in a WHOLE different light now!"

[strep98]

Put it like that it's worrying isn't it

[clvrlad]

well she worrys me......

[Bunnylump]

Cockroaches are among the biggest contributors to global warming, since they break wind every fifteen minutes. Furthermore, they continue to release methane gas for eighteen hours after they die.

[Scurra]

Well that's nonsense for a start. Not the basic fact, but the idea that they contribute specifically to global warming. Given that cockroaches have been around for, what, 300m years... That's the sort of "fact" that is used to make global warming sound trivial.

[Bunnylump]

Well, I'm not so sure. Insects are by far the most populous type of creature on the earth. If they're all at it, I'd say it probably would have an effect...

... and actually I only posted that because it was such a ludicrous assertion it made me laugh. Hence the thread title Bizarre "facts"

[Scurra]

No, you're missing my point. Yes, there are a lot of insects. But they've been around for hundreds of millions of years. Therefore they can't suddenly be contributing to "global warming", which is what the original wording implies. The cockroach hasn't suddenly started farting in the last couple of millennia!
I also don't think it's a particularly bizarre fact, itt's just stating the obvious. Unless you are suggesting that discovering that another animal breaks wind is bizarre. Now, claiming that kangaroos don't fart - that woul;d be a bizarre fact. (Sadly, it's also not a fact, although it seems to be a fairly widespread belief.)

[Bunnylump]

Well, I wouldn't say it suggests that there's anything sudden about it, and presumably global warming / cooling is a continuous process anyway. Otherwise we probably wouldn't have had desert phases and ice ages over the years.

Not that I'm belittling the importance of avoiding unnecessary SPEEDING of the warming process by unnecessarily releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In fact I'm already regretting eating the butternut squash, aubergine, onion and pepper concoction I ate for my tea... I just wish those pesky cockroaches would be a bit more considerate too...

[Scurra]

No, my point is that those sorts of "facts" keep being posted with wording like that in order to make it sound as though there's nothing we can do about "global warming" since the cockroaches et al are doing more than enough. When, as we both clearly understand, their contribution has always been the same. Anyway, we've drifted onto politics which is bad. So I'll stop.

18000 mummified cats were sold at auction in Liverpool in 1926. Now that's a bizarre fact.

[giraffe]

It's a bizarre fact that you two could have a heated debate about cockroach farts.

[eirian]

It's a bizarre fact that you two could have a heated debate about cockroach farts.

I suspect those two could have a heated debate about any subject you could possibly think of, but I must admit, cockroach farts is definitely one of the more bizarre!