10 Odd And Interesting Facts

I like odd facts. I’ve been collecting these online for the last month:

1. Perhaps one of the lowest moments in sports history was perpetrated by the members of the 2000 Spanish Paralympic basketball team. How low did they go? After the team snagged a gold medal, it was revealed that 10 of the 12 players had never been tested, and were, in fact, not mentally challenged.

2. Chinese Checkers is not Chinese. It was created in America to circumvent the patent for a popular boardgame called Halma, invented by a Boston surgeon named George Howard Monks.

3. Hysteria was a once common medical diagnosis made when female patients complained of anxiety, insomnia and a large variety of other symptoms. Remedies included the use of electric vibrators, or before they became available, vaginal massage (often by a male physician)

4. In 1976, the Chicago White Sox were nearly laughed off the field when they wore Bermuda Shorts as a new uniform to battle the summer heat.

5. In Japan it is customary have to buy Hole-In-One Insurance because it is customary to buy gifts for your foursome all the drinks that night, AND you have to send 10,000-30,000 yen gifts to all of your golf friends for being so “Lucky”.

6. The United States almost owned Cuba.  President James Buchanan lobbied to buy it—however, his plans ground to a halt when Congress refused to give him the dough to purchase the island, believing the president would take the money and skip the country.

7. The two busiest commercial ports in the United States do not border the Atlantic or Pacific, but the Gulf of Mexico: They’re in New Orleans and Houston.

8. A person from Nigeria is a Nigerian, while a person from Niger is a Nigerien.

9. Napoleon wasn’t short. At 5 feet, 7 inches, he was taller than the average French man of the era. The popular myth about his height is the result of his nickname, Le Petit Caporal (The Little Corporal). Early in Napoleon’s military career, French soldiers used the moniker to mock his low position on the Army’s Officer totem pole. Unfortunately for Napoleon, the nickname stuck.

10. It doesn’t matter how fresh-picked they are by Juan Valdez, coffee beans are actually tasteless until they’re roasted.

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Reader's Comments

1. 

   RE: Hysteria

   I remember once seeing a movie that claimed the founder of Kelloggs was a big proponent of this. I think it may have been “The Hudsucker Proxy”…

   Reply to this comment
2. junkyard on 30 Oct 2008 11:08 am
3. 

   Great read, thanks

   Reply to this comment
4. Henry Pitch on 22 May 2009 7:53 am