Fast Facts
April 18, 2006
- A baseball catcher squats an average of 16 times an inning, not counting warm-ups.
The singular of the word scampi, as in shrimp, is scampo.
The reason beers steins had lids was to keep flies out.
All polar bears are lefties.
An undertaker was called “”doctor”” during the Civil War.
We throw rice at weddings, but the Romans threw wheat.
Until Thomas Edison suggested using “”Hello,”” most people answered their phones by saying “”Ahoy.””
If the headwind is greater than a plane’s maximum speed, the aircraft will fly backwards.
Dogsleds delivered mail in Alaska as late as 1963.
The average person sheds about 40 pounds of skin in a lifetime.
There are 570 miles of shoreline in New York City.
A male lion can wolf down 75 pounds of meat in one meal.
A baby whale is called a calf.
Telephone polls in Kenya and Uganda are higher than in other parts of the world because they have to allow for the height of giraffes.
An adult moth never eats.
No matter how low or high it flies, an airplane’s shadow appears the same size.
Ancient Arabians who bathed regularly were tax exempt.
