10 36 pm pdt   [ trivial ]

The principles of lust
are easy to understand.
Do what you feel,
feel until the end.

The principles of lust
are burned in your mind.
Do what you want.
Do it until you find...
love.

How could anyone not like Enigma?

Tonight I had dinner with my dad at a Thai place called Tew, which I am now going to put on my list of favorite restaurants.

In looking at my second Guide article I realized that I absolutely love trivia. Whenever I quote some obscure fact, Matthew asks me how much the human head weighs, which is a reference to Jerry Maguire (1996) in which the little boy says out of the blue "The human head weighs eight pounds."

Some trivia I find fascinating:

• Fred and Wilma Flintstone were the first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television.
• Coca-Cola was originally green.
• Africa is 28% wilderness, North America is 38% wilderness.
• It costs $6,400 to raise a medium-size dog to the age of eleven.
• Tom Sawyer was the first novel ever written on a typewriter.
• The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National monuments.
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history -- Spades: King David, Clubs: Alexander the Great, Hearts: Charlemagne, and Diamonds: Julius Caesar.
• If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
• The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
• No NFL team which plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl.
• The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League all-stars Game.
• The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosy is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring around the rosy..."), these sores would smell very badly so common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores ("...a pocket full of posies..."). People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease ("...ashes, ashes, we all fall down!").
• Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace.
• The most popular boat name is Obsession.
• There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year.
• 40% of all people who come to a party snoop in your medicine cabinet.
• Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
• Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
• The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
• American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
• China has more English speakers than the United States.
• If Barbie were life-size her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human's neck.
• February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a fullmoon.
• No word in the English language rhymes with month.
• Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by women.
• Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."
• Shakespeare invented the words "assassination" and "bump."
• Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
• One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 30's lobbied against hemp farmers-they saw it as competition.
• Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
• On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
• You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider
• There are more people killed by donkeys (annually) than killed in plane crashes.
• In ancient Egypt, Priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies.
• Starfish don't have brains.
• Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, dogs only have about ten.
• A snail can sleep for 3 years.
• The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds, which is more than any other animal.
• A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
• Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
• Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
• The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 3 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

two years ago today: "He is having me proof all of his information. I love to do so and am considering being an editor for some period of time in the future."

one year ago today: "I dreampt last night that my thesis advisor was trying to introduce me to a bunch of film theorists, who had come to Berkeley just to meet me."

May 1998
May 1999
May 2000

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