25 Random Facts

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Lord have mercy, it's been heavy around here lately.

So, completely without any forethought or planning, I'm going to do my best to be completely frivolous.

The title just came out of thin air, and so will most of these facts...although they will all be true.  I promise.

1. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is not located in Indianapolis.  It is in, I kid you not, Speedway, Indiana.

2. Every ear of corn has an even number of rows.

3. Sir Isaac Newton's dog was named Diamond.


4.  Rats cannot vomit.

5.  In early drafts of 'The Lord of the Rings', the character 'Strider' was  a hobbit who wore shoes, because his feet were wooden prosthetics.


6.  In those same early drafts, Frodo's original name was 'Bingo'.

7.  The Wise Men did not come to the stable.

8.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say there were three of them, either.

9. The initial skirmish of what became the first battle of the American Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run, was fought on the farm of a gent named Wilmer McLean.

10.  After that battle, McLean moved his family about 120 miles south, to avoid further involvement.

11.  The name of the little crossroads town that McLean selected for his new home was Appomatox Court House.

12.  General Lee formally surrendered to General Grant in the parlor of Wilmer McLean's house.

13.  There are 4 generations of Monarch Butterflies every summer.

14.  The life expectancy of the adult butterflies in the first three generations is two to six weeks.

15.  The 4th generation of monarchs lives 6 to 8 months, migrating to a tropical climate, then returning north to lay the eggs that will be the first generation in the following year.

16. Scientists still do not know how cats purr.

17. Buddy Ebsen was cast as the Tin Woodman in the 1939 MGM production of  'The Wizard of Oz' when the show first went into production.

18.  He had an almost fatal reaction to the aluminum powder used in the makeup and had to withdraw from the production.

19.  The ensemble numbers had already been recorded, and were not re-recorded with his replacement, Jack Haley.  So it is Buddy Ebsen's voice we hear on those songs.

20. A kernel of popcorn reaches an interior pressure of about 135 psi and temperature of  356 °F before the outer skin ruptures and the kernel explodes.

21.  Ludwig von Beethoven was completely deaf when he composed and finally conducted his 9th symphony.  One of the female soloists had to turn him around so he could see the people standing and cheering at the conclusion of its debut performance.

22. Tomatoes were thought to be poisonous by Europeans when they first encountered them and were cultivated as ornamental plants.

23. The weather phenomena that causes the most annual deaths in the US is not hurricanes or tornadoes or flooding or lightning...it is heatwaves.

24. Despite being nicknamed 'Killer Whale', orcas are actually the largest of the dolphins.

25.   Cashew nuts are never sold unshelled, as the shell is toxic, containing oils similar to that found in poison ivy.


26.  This was a lot harder than I thought it would be!  :-)