Bret Burquest is a former award-winning columnist for The News (2001-2007) and author of four novels. He has lived in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Kansas City, Memphis and the middle of the Arizona desert. After a life of blood, sweat and tears in big cities, he has finally found peace in northern Arkansas where he grows tomatoes, watches sunsets and occasionally shares the Secrets of the Universe (and beyond) with the rest of the world.

Trivial Trivia

Posted Friday, February 19, 2021, at 1:40 PM

In his 1918 book titled TRIVIA, British Author Logan Pearsall Smith (1865 - 1946) wrote "I know too much; I have stuffed too many of the facts of History and Science into my intellectuals. My eyes have grown dim over books; believing in geological periods, cave dwellers, Chinese Dynasties, and the fixed stars has prematurely aged me."

Over the years, I've saved an occasional piece of interesting trivia -- for those you who thrive on useless trivia, I offer the following:

• The average person falls asleep in 7 minutes.

• The average person's left hand does most of the typing.

• "Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

• There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

• A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

• There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

• "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends with the letters "mt."

• Maine is the only state in the USA whereby the name is only one syllable.

• Al Capone's business card listed his occupation as a used furniture dealer.

• The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

• A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

• A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.

• Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

• The average life of a five dollar bill is 5 1/2 years before it is replaced due to wear.

• The Sunday New York Times, the largest newspaper in the world, has nearly a thousand pages, weighing up to 7+ pounds. It takes nearly 20 acres of wood pulp to produce one Sunday edition.

• During 1968 to 1974, a woman in rural Iowa, Marva Drew, typed the number from 1 to 1,000,000 on a standard typewriter, filling nearly 2,500 pages.

• ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC is an acronym used by the U.S. Navy, meaning "Administration Command Subordinate Command Amphibious Forces Pacific Fleet"

• The English word "set" has close to 200 meanings, 60 as a noun and 120 as a verb, depending on the context in which it is used.

• You can't have everything, where would you put it?

• If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

• On the other hand, you have different fingers.

• Those who laugh last, think slowest.

• The things that come to those who wait may be things left by those who got there first.

• The cure for insomnia is to get more sleep.

• Snowmen fall from the sky unassembled.

• I got a sweater for my birthday, but I wanted a moaner or a screamer.

Quote for the Day – "Is there another word for synonym?" George Carlin

Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and requires more than 7 minutes to fall asleep.