Mid Life Career Change Knowledge Base
Mid-Life career change; Finishing degree in Criminal Law; grants, loans, etc? I am seeking information about how to finish a degree in Crimial Law as a continuing education student; My biggest concern is funding my education while paying my living expenses; Are there any scholarship or grants available to adult students that will not only fund part or all of the tuition but also provide a living-stipend of some sort, or offer employment in the chosen field of study? (Doing a mid-life career change...)
Mid-life career change? I want to go back to college to get a degree. The problem is is that if I go back? I do not want to get a degree of my field of work, which is accounting. I do like accounting but the degree program is just a little "dry" for me. I like the bookkeeping end, not the tax end. On the one hand I feel like if I am going back, spending my time and money it should be for something I would be passionate about (such as journalism or psychology). On the other hand, I do like bookkeeping and I could make a lot more $ doing it with a degree and my years' experience (just hate taxes, which is what accounting ultimately about). I feel so torn . . . any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I am currently unhappy with my current job and would like a Mid Life Career Change, where can I get advice? I am 43, and in Restaurant Management. I have been a server manager for 10 years and have been with same company for 3 years. During the last 12 months I have been passed over for a GM position 3 times (getting ready to be the 4th), having been told that I am not ready. However, my reviews have always been solid and I have worked and gotten better in areas that required work. The current GM has less knowledge than myself, the staff knows this and has no respect for his incompetence and treats me with the respect and responsibility of a GM. A little more history, we were recently bought out by a new company with promises of growth in the future. Should I hold on to the hope that we shall grow or is it time to begin anew?
Mid Life Career Change - Plumber? I have a stable career , but im finding that its not going to give me long term prospects. Allways had an interest in DIY / Plumbing so im thinking of a long term goal of self employed plumber ... anyone offer and advice as to training, qualifications etc?
I need a mid life career change.? I am currently a university technician and my educational background is chemistry to MSc. I am very unhappy in my current job and I need a change. One of the reasons for being unhappy is related to disability. I have several mild hidden disabilities and I'm partly deaf. Many people have commented that I can teach well but I've never wanted to teach children and I think the disabilities would leave me open to teasing and other problems with handling children. However, I would like to teach adults and I've been wondering what it's like to teach adult literacy and numeracy. I've found an organization who deal with such teachers but they had an answerphone and I've not yet heard back from them. Does anyone know what training is needed, how long for and if the career can be rewarding?
mid life career change? Im 35 and work in a dead end factory job where i can barely pay my bills and struggle sometimes to make ends meet.I want to know if anyone out there has changed their career for the better and am i too old now to start afresh
Mid-Life Career Change? I'm 30 years old, and I had thought about becoming a teacher, but wasn't able to pass the certification test on the first try, and the test is pretty expensive, and financial aid doesn't pay for it. So my next question is, what other ideas can you guys suggest I do with my life? I have a Bachelors in Sociology and don't want to be stuck behind a desk all day. I would love to maybe work in a hospital, but don't really want to go back to school if at all possible for a masters degree (unless the hospital later pays for it lol). Any ideas would be welcome. Please keep it clean, thanks so much!
Can an adult open a 529 for a mid-life career change - will be going to school full time in 2 years.? I am currently attending Community College part-time taking the prerequesites to attend nursing school in about two years. I have been in the work force for about 15 years and I'm ready to do something more rewarding. My wife and I are pretty much debt-free except the house and would like to stay that way. Attending school full time for two years will be difficult to do without debt. In order to prepare, I thought about opening a 529 in my name and putting away as much money as possible over the next two years. Can a 40-year old open a 529 plan and sock away money for school two years later? Is my assumption correct that I will be getting a tax break on this money and that it will grow tax-free as well? Do you have any other thoughts or advice? I live in Texas if that makes a difference. Does money in a 529 have to remain there for a certain length of time before you can use it? Thanks for your help!
"Mid life crisis" career change? I'm 40 years old and have been doing the same job (albeit with different companies) since I was 17. I am in a declining industry (worsted wool textile manufacturing) and have a specialised job with no apparent transferable skill (woven suiting fabric design). Although it is fairly well paid and has allowed me to travel to different countries I am bored rigid with it and can not see the industry lasting more than another 10 years (I have been made redundant several times in the last 23 years). There are other opportunities in sales and buying but I want out of textiles altogether. Now the real problem - I have abslolutely no idea what I want to do! I have tried looking for careers advice in my area, but there are only DSS run services which are not set up to offer proper advice to people in my position. Can anyone offer any sensible advice on how I could start changing career paths?
Have you successfully changed careers in mid-life? How did you do it? I am a 35 year-old college-educated professional who is interested in changing careers after spending 13 years in sales and sales management. I recently left a lucrative position in sales management because I was being forced to relocate out of California and I didn't want to relocate. The problem I have is that I don't know what to do next and am not sure how I should go about exploring opportunities. I'd like to hear stories of how other people have "started over" again in different careers after working many years in one field. How did you find the 2nd career? How did you make the transistion? What advice would you give me?
Mid life change to advertising copywriter? I'm a 52 year old chartered accountant, partner in a West End firm. I have felt unhappy in my work for some time. An aptitude test book suggests that a career in advertising copywriting might suit me. Does anyone know how easy or hard this would be? What sort of starting salary might I expect?
How do I get experience in Human Resources? I want to go into the Human Resources field, but every position listed says one has to have at least 2 years experience. Where do I get that experience? This is a mid-life career change, so interning is not an option.
Mid- Career Change &/or biz set-up..? I've set myself some burning life goals. I am passionate to set up a company with international flavour, social value, minimal capital less than S$20K amd financially rewarding..$100k profits sharing a year. I have background experience in retail/consumer banking- both frontline customer service and backroom support operations, children education in Perth, real estate and financial services. I attained post graduate degree in International management (Melbourne). Any ideas to share of my goals..Gals & guys who have gone through such humble beginnings and have achieved your goals, do you mind sharing your success stories.....Thank you. P.S. I would also like to hear out any controversial views & suggestions.
What are the requirements to become a grief counselor? I am wanting a career change(mid-life crisis I suppose) since I will be having a milestone birthday later this year. I feel a strong pull towards grief counseling but do not know where to begin. My pastor says I should be looking for a program that is faith-based. Can anyone give me some suggestions?
Where do i begin to look for money for school??? im a 36 year old prospective student returning to school in the fall, does n e one know where to begin to look for free money , government sponserships, grants,?? n e thing?? id like to go full time, and work only part time,giving serious attention to a mid life career change. i am a vetern, but my g i bill has since expired, ive heard of fed. government paying tuition in exchange for a 2 to 4 year job commitment. i am trying to get into the radiological field. will someone please help!!!!!
Moved home in my mid 30s for a couple of months to reconsider career change and come to terms with myself.? I have come upon a turning point in my life. I'm in my mid 30's and due to circumstances because my career, relationship, loss of my place of ten years in SF, bad finances....moved to be with my folks in a small town of Augusta GA to rethink what my next move should be. I've realized I've made some mistakes that have put me in this situation and try to focus on the positive, but with few job options in my field out here, and the discission to move back to get the job i want seems so far away at times, I've become depressed and find it hard to focus.....even a resume' seems hard, and the more I'm out here...the worse it gets.....finding a clear objective is important i know, but sometimes I feel my options are low... what should my next move be......keep my contacts, explore new options, find other ways my talents could be used? Confused.... I also need to mention that I'm in some debt, so that puts the pressure on me, but that is not my main focus. The focus is the career I want to have back in SF when I return with more confidence. I was in the photo production world for 7+ years and want to stay in the visual type marketing world, if not the photography side as well and want to move on this fast, but I do realize how fortunate I'm to have these 2 months to really reflect on that. Putting it all on paper is a good idea and I've also made a 2 year forcast as to what my salary should be and to pay off my debt in 2 years. Now my next big move is to really feel the self-esteem come back somehow. I've started counseling as well, but sometimes I want answers fast and want to move forward quicker....I know it take s some time for this...but it's hard to realize sometimes....this is only a short time in my life...., but I want to bring it all together somehow....
Paralegal wanna be help? Having a mid-life career change. Does anyone know about becoming a paralegal in Dallas? Does it pay well? Any ideas on work in that field while you learn? Maybe work that will also pay the school tuition? I already have a BSW.
VETS ONLY please? Is a veterinary science a good choice for a mid-life career change?
How do I deal with an early mid-life crisis? I have had a decent career as a Manager at an Ad Agency or printing company. I’m divorce and I have a 4 yr old daughter. I live in CT, but I’m dating a woman that lives in MA. I’m on the verge of moving to MA with her. In some ways this is good; I get to start my life over. But I feel like things could fall part if I don’t have a plan. My concern is the stress in my life. Lots of changes are stressful as is my job. It pays well, but I know its affecting my health. I’m looking forward to a change. If I can find a way to support myself in Massachusetts, I would be happier. But, I’d really like to do something else, but dread having to go back to school and take a pay cut to re-establish myself in some other career. Ideally I’d like to have a business of my own, but what is that? Any advice on how I can find some stability on my life and be content would be appreciated. I have this great opportunity to start over; I just don’t want to stumble around in life blindly. No religious answers please I certainly live up to my responsibilities as a dad and my daughter is my first priority. I love her and she loves me. But, I only get to see her every other weekend. You have no idea how hard that is on me. I would be living about an hour and fifteen minutes from her, so no big deal. I think I will be an even better dad if I get my own life in check.
what can I do to stop my husband from driving me nuts!!? My husband is transitioning into a mid life career change, to his dream job. We are looking to get a stable income for semi-retirement. Instead of being happy and calm with this change, he's turning into a nutcase. His mind races all the time with the possibilities. He works all the time (still has a regular job) and is talking about making millions (not the simple income we had wanted). He isn't on any drugs and has no history of bi-polar. He's totally realistic about the potential of the new career. He's not unhappy, but he's not happy either. He distracted all the time and no fun. I've become a very ignorable person in his life which really bothers me. Any ideas or suggestions?
Can I become a nurse if I am taking anxiety medication? I would like to go back to school and have a strong desire for a mid-life career change. I would like to get another bachelors degree and become an RN. I found out that it is much easier to do than I thought since I already have a bachelors degree. My concern is, I am taking lexapro and recently started taking klonopin for panic attacks (which thankfully I haven't had any more in the past 6 weeks). Would me taking medication prevent me from becoming an RN? Thanks!
Need help with a possible career decision...? IM going through a mid-life career change from hotels at age 40. Been in hotels for 15 years and am burned out and want out. I'm looking at three possible career choices that has stability, has a decent salary, has an action-oriented environment, benefits, easiest to break into and highest respect. I would be a very good fit for all three. I need to break into the fastest and climb fast in the career since im getting older. Which is the best out of the three career choices? A career in criminal justice such as a cop or detective. A career in communications such as a TV anchor or public relations associate. A career in education such as a teacher or principal.
Paralegal wanna be help!? Having a mid-life career change. Does anyone know about becoming a paralegal in Dallas? Does it pay well? Any ideas on work in that field while you learn? Maybe work that will also pay the school tuition? I already have a BSW.
Life change? I am 39 years old and feel as though I am going thru a mid-life crisis. I want to totally overhaul my career from an Accountant into something different. The greed and horrible culture has burned me out. Are there any others that have had the same experience?
Hairdressers only: I am too old for cosmetology school? I am a mom of two teens; have attended some college but no degree; and am considering changing careers. (I currently work for a municipality.) I am rather limited in what I can do - other than clerical/administrative assistant positions. Do you think this is too late in life for me to do? Would I have a difficult time finding work at my age? I know many adults who are returning to school for various career changes in mid-life. Would I feel out of place at a beauty school learning with high school/college age young women? Thanks for sharing your thoughts....
How do I become a graphic designer? (second career)? I am a 42 year old former senior manager. I gave up my job and I am looking for a change. My previous job was not very creative, and since leaving I have been studying photography, Photoshop etc. and really enjoy it. I'd like to try a career in design/photography of some sort, obviously I would have to get back on the bottom rung of the career ladder but maybe my management skills would help in some way. What would be the best way to get into graphic design and what training should I undertake? I desperately need a job with a creative side, it makes me feel like a different person when I am being creative. I can't go back to my old life!! Suggestions on mid life changes in general as well as graphic design most appreciated!!
I am thinking about a career change...? I am an environmental scientist, got a BSc, MA and MSc and 20 years of experience behind me as a CEO of a government agency. I just started my own consulting firm with a few partners...But I am sick and tired of the corporate world and I need to do something more meaningful. I am thinking about teaching ESL in Asia (I am fluent in English & French, and I also speak a couple of other latin languages), where I have traveled extensively in the past 20 years. Aside from ESL teaching, what other people-oriented work could I do with my background and experience, in a non-profit volunteer-type sector in Asia? Salary is not really an issue, although I am not Mother Theresa and would still need to be able to afford a relatively decent living by Asian standards, not North American's. I guess you can say that I am having a mid-life crisis...so it's time for a real change.
Give up my job for a quality life? I am married and in my mid forties living in the UK . I am not wealthy, but I have a respectably paid job. However, I have done a fair amount of career building and I am getting sick of the 'rat race' and the stress and responsiblity in my job. . I am wondering about giving up 'quantity' and getting a better 'quality' of life. This would mean a big change, give up my job, less money, move home, but less stress. Some epople say, change when you retire, but who knows what the future holds. I'm ready for change now, but should I take the plunge?
Change in career, suggestions? Here is the dilemma. I am burned out, done with computers professionally. The downside: I don't want to impact the family's quality of life. In order to do this, I need to switch to a job that makes mid $60k or better. I am versatile, handy, mechanically inclined, have electronic training (way back though!) and oodles of experience in computers and networking. I would really like to work outdoors! What do you suggest as alternatives?
What kind of earnings can a mechanic expect to earn? I am doing a mid-career change and am tired of working in the white collar world. I am going to go to night school to learn to become an mechanic as I love to work on cars. I have done some research, but wanted to hear some real life answers to what kind of earnings a mechanic can expect. Thanks.
Am I too old for cosmetology school? I am a mom of two teens; have attended some college but no degree; and am considering changing careers. (I currently work for a municipality.) I am rather limited in what I can do - other than clerical/administrative assistant positions. Do you think this is too late in life for me to do? Would I have a difficult time finding work at my age? I know many adults who are returning to school for various career changes in mid-life. Would I feel out of place at a beauty school learning with high school/college age young women? Thanks for sharing your thoughts....
Is it practical to try to get a psychology degree as a part-time student? I'm thinking about a career change and am very interested in Psychology. However I need to continue my main career so that I can support myself. It seems like certain degree programs still don't tend to be offered in a way tailored to the older student who might want to switch careers around mid-life. Business and IT programs sometimes seem to cater to this, but other programs really seem to ignore anyone who isn't fresh out of high school. I live in the Chicago area. Any thoughts or suggestions on good schools where this might be possible? Chicago-specific answers would be great, but any general info would help.
Resume or Curriculum Vitae ? When one is changing careers at mid-life, does it make sense to list past work experience that is not related to the field one is entering into, or is it more realistic to include the total of life experience as it may pertain to the ask at hand?
Should I change career? Been a nail technician for the last 11yrs and have become disillusioned with the market place. Everyone just wants cheap as you can get nails from these foreign nail bars where they don't speak English and wreck your nails with a drill. Nobody appears to be interested in quality. Should I go back to an office job and after 11yrs is anyone going to employ me outside of Tesco's?. Think Im having a mid life crisis
How do I become a graphic designer? (second career)? I am a 42 year old former senior manager. I gave up my job and I am looking for a change. My previous job was not very creative, and since leaving I have been studying photography, Photoshop etc. and really enjoy it. I'd like to try a career in design/photography of some sort, obviously I would have to get back on the bottom rung of the career ladder but maybe my management skills would help in some way. What would be the best way to get into graphic design and what training should I undertake? I desperately need a job with a creative side, it makes me feel like a different person when I am being creative. I can't go back to my old life!! Suggestions on mid life changes in general as well as graphic design most appreciated!!
How do I become a graphic designer? (second career)? I am a 42 year old former senior manager. I gave up my job and I am looking for a change. My previous job was not very creative, and since leaving I have been studying photography, Photoshop etc. and really enjoy it. I'd like to try a career in design/photography of some sort, obviously I would have to get back on the bottom rung of the career ladder but maybe my management skills would help in some way. What would be the best way to get into graphic design and what training should I undertake? I desperately need a job with a creative side, it makes me feel like a different person when I am being creative. I can't go back to my old life!! Suggestions on mid life changes in general as well as graphic design most appreciated!!
Life changes... My husband wants to go to dental school!? My husband and I are 28 and 27. We both have great jobs and he is doing great as a bank manager. HOWEVER - he says he feels unfulfilled in his job and wishes he had more of a "real career". He thinks he wants to go to dental school. We are both worried about the enormous strain this will put on our finances. He will have to quit his job for school and we will have to take out lots of student loans, etc. Not only that, but he is also going to have to take about 1 year's worth of undergrad science before he can take the DAT and apply! Then we are looking at about 4 more years of dental school. We have enough money to live comfortably as we are now, so it is more about being fulfilled in his job. I want him to be happy. My questions - hopefully to someone who has experienced this are - How hard is it? How's the payoff and is it worth it? Are you happy now? How did it affect your marriage? Is he too old to make this change? He will be mid 30s when he starts practicing! Help And we dont' have any children yet. He wants to have them in a few years and he will still be in school. Before all this, we were thinking of trying in a year or so... I just want to make sure the student loans are not an insurmountable black hole that you get lost in! And to those who assume I am not supportive to him - they are wrong and that is not the impression I intended to give... LOL - My husband and I are very happy and we are a great team! And thanks to the guy who mentionned the army, but my sweet guy has asthma... LOL - they won't take him. :) Sorry.
Life changes... My husband wants to go to dental school!? My husband and I are 28 and 27. We both have great jobs and he is doing great as a bank manager. HOWEVER - he says he feels unfulfilled in his job and wishes he had more of a "real career". He thinks he wants to go to dental school. We are both worried about the enormous strain this will put on our finances. He will have to quit his job for school and we will have to take out lots of student loans, etc. Not only that, but he is also going to have to take about 1 year's worth of undergrad science before he can take the DAT and apply! Then we are looking at about 4 more years of dental school. We have enough money to live comfortably as we are now, so it is more about being fulfilled in his job. I want him to be happy. My questions - hopefully to someone who has experienced this are - How hard is it? How's the payoff and is it worth it? Are you happy now? How did it affect your marriage? Is he too old to make this change? He will be mid 30s when he starts practicing! Help And we dont' have any children yet. He wants to have them in a few years and he will still be in school. Before all this, we were thinking of trying in a year or so... I just want to make sure the student loans are not an insurmountable black hole that you get lost in! And to those who assume I am not supportive to him - they are wrong and that is not the impression I intended to give... LOL - My husband and I are very happy and we are a great team!
Should I join the armed forces? I am a mid level web developer that's been out of work for a year. Before that, my company basically went broke but not bankrupt and I lost my job. No one has taken a chance on me since, and there are few training opportunities for me. I have no one in my life to help support me... I've been wanting a change of career/LIFE as a result of the frustrations. I want something that will demand me on a local level- something that makes me feel good like protection services- police, firefighter, paramedic. The army offers a sign on bonus that would eliminate my credit card debt from being out of work. Plus it will re-train me as a firefighter. I've been unable to get volunteer firefighting work, i dont' see there's another way to get the training except for more debt from going to a fire academy. The only thing that makes me hesitate is that I dont' agree with our government's current use of the military.
Awesome facts with a couple questions? Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33. The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.) Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die'. These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord. The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container. David Prowse, was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie. The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY There are only thirteen blimps in the world. Nine of the thirteen blimps are in the United States. The existing biggest blimp is the Fuji Film blimp. Naugahyde, plastic "leather" was created in Naugatuck, Connecticut. The Swiss flag is square. The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin, and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British Pound Sterling comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation. Sames goes for the Italian lira which uses the same abbreviation ('lira' coming from 'libra'). So British currency (before it went metric) was always quoted as "pounds/shillings/pence", abbreviated "L/s/d" (libra/solidus/denarius). The three largest land-owners in England are the Queen, the Church of England and Trinity College, Cambridge. The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline. If you come from Manchester, you are a Mancunian. No animal, once frozen solid (i.e., water solidifies and turns to ice) survives when thawed, because the ice crystals formed inside cells would break open the cell membranes. However there are certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. These frogs make special proteins which prevent the formation of ice (or at least keep the crystals from becoming very large), so that they actually never freeze even though their body temperature is below zero Celsius. The water in them remains liquid: a phenomenon known as 'supercooling.' If you disturb one of these frogs (just touching them even), the water in them quickly freezes solid and they die. The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula. Madrid is the only European capital city not situated on a river. The name for fungal remains found in coal is sclerotinite. The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. Emus cannot walk backwards. It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear. The shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada has the largest water clock in North America. Both writer Edgar Allen Poe and LSD advocate Timothy Leary were kicked out of West Point. The word posh, which denotes luxurious rooms or accomodations, originated when ticket agents in England marked the tickets of travelers going by ship to the Orient. Since there was no air conditioning in those days, it was always better to have a cabin on the shady side of the ship as it passed through the Mediterranean and Suez area. Since the sun is in the south, those with money paid extra to get cabin's on the left, or port, traveling to the Asia, and on the right, or starboard, when returning to Europe. Hence their tickets were marked with the initials for Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, or POSH. The top layer of a wedding cake, known as the groom's cake, traditionally is a fruit cake. That way it will save until the first anniversery. The German Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered arm and often hid the fact by posing with his hand resting on a sword, or by holding gloves. The forward pass was created by the football team at Saint Louis University. In every show that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks) wrote, there is at least one song about rain. A kind of tortoise in the Galapagos Islands has an upturned shell at its neck so it can reach its head up to eat cactus branches. The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii, located approximately twelve miles west of Honolulu. Parthenogenesis is the term used to describe the process by which certain animals are able to reproduce themselves in successive female generations without intervention of a male of the species. At least one species of lizard is known to do so. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten. The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat", which means "the king is dead". The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen. "Quisling" is the only word in the English language to start with "quis." All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel. Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag (it looks like two pennants glued on on top of the other) Libya has the only flag which is all one color with no writing or decoration on it The only borough of New York City that isn't an island (or part of an island) is the Bronx. The 1957 Milwaukee Braves were the first baseball team to win the World Series after being relocated. The tune for the "A-B-C" song is the same as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield it's first consumable fruit. The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light. Linn's Stamp News is the world's largest weekly newspaper for stamp collectors. Tennessee is bordered by more states than any other. The eight states are Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. Des Moines has the highest per capita Jello consumption in the U.S The Western-most point in the contiguous United States is Cape Alava, Washington. There are only three animals with blue tongues, the Black Bear, the Chow Chow dog and the blue-tongued lizard. The first fossilized specimen of Austalopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the palentologists' favorite song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, by the Beatles. Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head." The geographical center of North America is near Rugby, North Dakota. The infinity sign is called a lemniscate. Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey. If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long. There are six five words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate and duumvir, residuum. The "Calabash" pipe, most often associated with Sherlock Holmes, was not used by him until William Gillette (an American) portrayed Holmes onstage. Gillette needed a pipe he could keep in his mouth while he spoke his lines. Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F. Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211. The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular. The shortest French word with all five vowels is "oiseau" meaning bird. Camel's milk does not curdle. "Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison. The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck. A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this is the only palindromic nationality. The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate, demodulate." Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after he had died. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state. Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time. Hamsters love to eat crickets. The only "real" food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts. The word "queueing" is the only English word with five consecutive vowels. The first Eagle Scout west of the Mississippi is buried in San Marcos, Texas. In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. Roberta Flack wrote "Killing Me Softly" about singer Don McLean. The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint. Spencer Eldon was the name of the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana's album All three major 1996 Presidential candidates, Clinton, Dole and Perot, are left-handed. The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs. The book of Esther in the Bible is the only book which does not mention the name of God. Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortned to Sheriff. An animal epidemic is called an epizootic. Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third. The silhouette on the NBA logo is Jerry West. The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus. Soweto in South Africa ws derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship. Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants. The Andy Griffth Show was the first spin-off in TV history. It was a spin-off of the Danny Thomas Show. Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils. Walt Disney's autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo. Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes. The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used. The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths." Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps. Hence, the postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin. However, every stamp carries a relief image or a silhouette of the monarch's head instead. Images for picture stamps in the United States are commissioned by the United States Postal Service Department of Philatelic Fulfillment. Artist Constantino Brumidi fell from the done of the U.S. Capitol while painting a mural around the rim. He died four months later. Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games. There were no squirrels on Nantucket until 1989. Cathy Rigby is the only woman to pose nude for Sports Illustrated. (August 1972) Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan. Will Clark of the Texas Rangers is a direct descendant of William Clark of Lewis and Clark. When ocean tides are at their highest, they are called "spring tides." When they are at their lowest, they are call "neep tides." February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. The last NASCAR driver to serve jail time for running moonshine was Buddy Arrington. Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000. The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design located on their apron (belly.) The male blue crab has the Washington Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol. It takes a lobster approxiamately seven years to grow to be one pound. The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding. The lot numbers for the cyanide-tainted Tylenol capsules scare back in 1982 were MC2880 and 1910MD. Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds. The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator. At latitude 60 degrees south you can sail all the way around the world. A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes. The hyoid bone, in your throat, is the only bone in the body not attached to another bone. Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra. Sunbeams that shine down through the clouds are called crespucular rays. Very small clouds that look like they have been broken off of bigger clouds are called scuds. On a dewy morning, if you look at your shadow in the grass, the dew drops shine light back to your eye creating a halo called a heilgenschein (German for halo.) The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself." Giraffes have no vocal cords. Joe DiMaggio had more home runs than strikeouts during his career. All porcupines float in water. Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio. A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel and raisins. Many northern parishes (counties) of Louisiana did not agree with the Confederate movement. To show their disapproval, they changed their names. That's why there is a Union Parish, Jefferson Parish, etc. The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites. Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.) The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' symbolizes 'two women living under one roof'. German has a wood for the peace offerings brought to your mate when you've committed some conceived slight. This is "drachenfutter" or dragon's food. In Chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same. No word in the English language rhymes with month. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired." The poisonous copperhead smells likefresh cut cucumbers. In Disney's "Fantasia", the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.) The smallest mushroom's name is "Hop-low." Anne Boleyn had six fingernails on one hand. Mustard gas was invented in the McKinley Building on the American University campus. Additionally, preliminary work on the Manhattan Project was done in that building. The government used the McKinley Building because of its unusual archticture. If there would be any type of large explosion inside the building, the building would implode onto itself, containing any lethal gas or nuclear material. The building now houses the Physics Department. When angered, the ears of Tazmanian devils turn a pinkish-red. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. The naval rank of "Admiral" is derived from the Arabic phrase "amir al bahr", which means "lord of the sea". The Les Nessman character on the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati wore a band-aid in every episode. Either on himself, his glasses, or his clothing. A coat hanger is 44 inches long if straightened The roads on the island of Guam are made with coral. Guam has no sand. The sand on the beaches is actually ground coral. When concrete is mixed, the coral sand is used instead of importing regular sand from thousands of miles away. Mt. Vernon Washington grows more tulips than the entire country of Holland. Jamie Farr (who played Klinger on M*A*S*H) was the only member of the cast who actually served as a soldier in the Korean war. The southern most city in the United States is Na'alehu, Hawaii. Alaska was the only part of the United States that was invaded by the Japanese during WWII. The territory was the island of Adak in the Aleutian Chain. Woodward Ave in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere. Michigan was the first state to plow it's roads and the first to adopt a yellow dividing line. Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119. The shortest verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept." Way back when they were using marble columns, the people selling the columns would carve out the centers and fill it with wax.So the people buying them started asking "Is it without wax?" Or in other words "Are you sincere?" Zaire is the world leader in cobalt mining, producing two-thirds of the world's cobalt supply. No modern language has a true concept of "I am." It is always used linked with are in reference of another verb. Little known Cathedral Caverns near Grant, Alabama has the world's largest cave opening, the largest stalagmite (Goliath), and the largest stalagmite forest in the World. The only person ever to decline a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was Sinclair Lewis for his book Arrowsmith. Maine is the only state that borders on only one state. There are almost twice as many people in Rhode Island than there are in Alaska. Kudzu is not indigenous to the South, but in that climate it can grow up to six inches a day. Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ? The word 'byte' is a contraction of 'by eight.' The word 'pixel' is a contraction of either 'picture cell' or 'picture element.' Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz. Bananas do not grow on trees, but on rhizomes. Astronauts in the Space Shuttle are weightless not because there is no gravity in space, but because they are in free fall around the Earth. St. Augustine was the first major proponent of the "missionary" position. Lizzie Borden was acquitted. Alexander Hamilton was shot by Aaron Burr in the groin. Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every Dewey-decimal category. Roger Ebert is the only film critic to have ever won the Pulitzer prize. A scholar who studies the Marquis de Sade is called a Sadian, not a Sadist (of course). Tribeca in Manhattan stands for TRIangle BElow CAnal street. Soho stands for SOuth of HOuston street. Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church. Theworld's largest wine cask is in Heidleberg, Germany. Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an aligator while he hosted "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom." Cat's urine glows under a blacklight. Seven Olympic gold medal winners eventually went on to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World Kerimski Church in Finland is world's biggest church made of wood.The St. Louis Gateway Arch had a projected death toll while it was being built. No one died. The average ear of corn has eight-hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows. A cat has four rows of whiskers. Vincent Van Gogh comitted suicide while painting Wheat Field with Crows. An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes. Jelly Belly jelly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space when they went up with astronauts in the June 21, 1983 voyage of the space shuttle Challenger (the same voyage as the first American woman in space, Sally Ride). Baseballer Connie Mack's real name was Cornelius McGilicuddy. If you were standing in the northernmost point in the contiguous (48) states, you'd be standing in Minnesota. Only thirty percent of the famous Maryland blue crabs are actually from Maryland, the rest are from North Carolina and Virginia. Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Not all of West Virginia voted to go with the North. When the State of West Virginia was formed from Virginia in 1863 the three western counties in Virginia voted to go with West Virginia, but West Virginia didn't take them because they were poor. Instead they took three counties that voted to stay with Virginia, because they were richer and they had the B&O railroad. Those counties since split and are 5 Jefferson, Hampshire, Berkley, Mineral, and Morgan. The first Ford cars had Dodge engines. The Dodge brothers Horace and John were Jewish, that's why the first Dodge emblem had a star of David in it. Studebaker was the only major car company to stop making cars while making a profit from them. Studebaker still exists, but is now called Worthington. Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan, Mitsubishi built Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant call Diamond Star. On the new hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10. The top three cork-producing countries are Spain, Portugal and Algeria. (Cork comes from trees.) In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy's last name is Gail. It is shown on the mail box. If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the late M*A*S*H star McLean Stevenson were both once assistant football coaches at Northwestern University. The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three. All swans and all sturgeons in England are property of the Queen. Messing with them is a serious offense. Michael Di Lorenzo, who plays Eddie Torres on New York Undercover is one of the lead dancers in Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video. Only two people signed the Decleration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on Augest 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 year later. October 4, 1957 is a historic date to be remembered, it is the day both "Leave it to Beaver" and the Russian satellite Sputnik 1 were launched. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. It takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni, and about a gallon to clean the pot. The antifungal, nystatin, which is sometime used for treating thrush, is named after New York State Institute for Health (Acronym) QANTAS, the name of the Australian national airline, is a (former) acronym, for Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service. The world's largest four-faced clock sits atop the Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Almonds are members of the peach family. The first video ever played on MTV Europe was "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits. If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) the total is 5050 The "Grinch" singer and voice of Tony the Tiger is a charming man named Thurl Ravenscroft. The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom." As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to "Star Trek" lore. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe. Ham radio operators got the term "ham" coined from the expression "ham-fisted operators", a term used to describe early radio users who sent Morse code (i.e. pounded their fists). While the Chinese invented gunpowder, they were not the first to develop firearms. Sam Colt invented the "revolving pistol." Therefore, all revolvers are correctly called pistols. A 12 gauge "rifled slug" does not spin, even though there are grooves on it's bearing surface. A slug actually travels like a dart. Revolvers cannot be silenced, due all the noisy gasses which escape the cylinder gap at the rear of the barrel. A bullet fired from the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge (also called the .308 Winchester) is still supersonic at 1000 yards. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." The home team must provide the referee with 24 footballs for each National Football League game. The maximum weight for a golf ball is 1.62 oz. A flea expert is a pullicologist. A bear has 42 teeth. M&M's stands for the last names of Forrest Mars, Sr., then candymaker, and his associate Bruce Murrie. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle. Table tennis balls have been known to travel off the paddle at speeds up to 105.6 miles per hour. In Irian Jaya exists a tribe of tall, white people who use parrots as a warning sign against intruders. In the Dutch province of Twente people live on average half a year shorter than in the rest of the Netherlands. Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because all knights used to be right-handed. When the intruding army would climb the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding the sword because of the difficulties in climbing the stairs. Left-handed knights would have had no troubles except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil. Duddley DoRight's Horses name was "Horse." If the Spaceship Earth ride at EPCOT was a golf ball, to be the proportional size to hit it, you'd be two miles tall. On Sesame Street, Bert's goldfish were named Lyle and Talbot, presumably after the actor Lyle Talbot. The word "hangnail" comes from Middle English: ang- (painful) + nail. Nothing to do with hanging. Louis IV of France had a stomach the size of two regular stomachs. Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain smoked forty cigars a day for the last years of his life. Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain was born on a day in 1835 when Haley's Comet came into veiw. When He died in 1910, Haley's Comet came into view again. Pepsi originally contained pepsin, thus the name. Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age. The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. If you were born in Los Alamos, New Mexico during the Manhattan project (where they made the atomic bomb), your birthplace was listed as a post office box in Albequerque. Robert Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel, the same hotel that housed Marilyn Monroe's first modelling agency. Ronald Regan sent out the army phoyographer who first discovered Marilyn Monroe. Carbonated water, with nothing else in it,can dissolve limestone, talc, and many other low-Moh's hardness minerals. Coincidentally, carbonated water is the main ingredient in soda pop. Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox, Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T. The newest dog breed is the Bull Boxer, first bred in the United states in 1990-91. The first hard drive available for the Apple ][ had a capacity of 5 megabytes. South of Tucson, Arizona, all road signs are in the Metric System. In many cases, the amount of storage space on a recordable CD is measured in minutes. 74 minutes is about 650 megabytes, 63 minutes is 550 megabytes. The real name of Astro (the dog fromThe Jetsons) is "Tralfaz" -- his real owner appeared one day to claim him but wound up giving him back to the Jetsons. Charlie Brown's father was a barber. The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin was a little Chinese boy." Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intraveinously When a film is in production, the last shot of the day is the "martini shot", the next to last one is the "Abby Singer". Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp.) Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union. It is a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly -- so says City Ordinance No. 352 in Pacific Grove, California. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar. Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life! What about milk, you say? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and grass is living! When Saigon fell the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio. The Fort George Point in Belize City was formed by the silt runoff of Hurricane Hattie. If you lace your shoes from the inside to the outside the fit will be snugger around your big toe. Only 1/3 of the people that can twitch their ears can twitch only one at a time. The expression "What in tarnation" comes from the original meaning: "What in eternal damnation" Gary Burgough who played Walter Radar O'Reily on M*A*S*H has a deformed left thumb. If you watch closely you will see that he never shows his left hand. Only two states' names begin with double consonants: Florida and Rhode Island. The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean Ingrown toenails are hereditary. The Cincinnati Reds baseball team name was officially changed to the Redlegs during the anti-communist movement. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance. "Xmas" does not begin with the Roman letter X. It begins with the Greek letter "chi," which was used in medieval manuscripts as an abbreviation for the word "Christ" (xus = christus, etc.) The ampersand (&) is actually a stylised version of the Latin word "et," meaning and." The largest city in the United States with a one syllable name is Flint, Michigan. The most common name in the world is Mohammed. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. On the cartoon show 'The Jetsons', Jane is 33 years old and her daughter Judy is 15. In Mel Brooks' 'Silent Movie,' mime Marcel Marceau is the only person who has a speaking role. Only humans and horses have hymens. No NFL team which plays it's home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl. (Texas Stadium, home of the Cowboys, is not a dome, there is a large hole in the roof.) The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver". Wally and Beaver had a baby alligator which they kept in the toilet. In the great fire of London in 1666 half of London was burnt down but only 6 people were injured The most eastern part of the western world is located in Ilomantsi, Finland. "Hara kiri" is an impolite way of saying the Japanese word "seppuku" which means, literally, "belly splitting." The term the "Boogey Man will get you" comes from the Boogey people,who still inhabit an area of Indonesia. These people still act as pirates today and attack ships that pass. Thus the term spread "if you don't watch out the Boogey man will get you." The Saturn V moon rocket consumed 15 tons of fuel per second. The state with the longest coastline in the US is Michigan. Race car is a palindrome. We will have four consecutive full moons making two blue moons in 1999 (January 2 and 31, March 2 and 31.) The only other time it happened this century was in 1915 (January 1 and 31, March 1 and 31.) The Basset Horn, a kind of alto clarinet, was named after its inventor -- a man named Horn. "Basset" is from "Basetto," or "little bass" in Italian. There are more bald eagles in the province of British Columbia then there are in the whole United States. Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son. The "second unit" films movie shots that do not require the presence of actors. Pulp Fiction cost $8 million to make - $5 million going to actor's salaries. The world's second largest pipe organ is located at the Organ Grinder on 82nd avenue in Portland, Oregon. Games Slayter, a Purdue graduate, invented fiberglass. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers -- they saw it as competition. It is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine. Olympic Badminton rules say that the bird has to have exactly fourteen feathers The music group Simply Red is named because of its love for the football team, Manchester United, who have a red home strip. In case you ever find yourself piloting a dogsled, shout "Jee!" to make the dogs turn left and "Ha!" to go right. Richard Nixon left instructions for "California, Here I Come" to be the last piece of music played at his funeral ("softly and slowly") were he to die in office. The earliest document in Latin in a woman's handwriting (it is from the first century A.D.) is an invitation to a birthday party. Spot, Data's cat on Star Trek: The Next Generation, was played by six different cats. Captain Jean-Luc Picard's fish was named Livingston. Hydrogen gas is the least dense substance in the world, at 0.08988 g/cc Hydrogen solid is the most dense substance in the world, at 70.6 g/cc The longest U.S. highway is route 6 starting in Cape Cod, Massachusetts going through 14 states, and ending in Bishop, California... The movie "Paris, Texas" was banned in the city of Paris, Texas, shorty after its box office release. The 'y' in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pronounced with a 'th' sound, not 'y'. The "th" sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England use the rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y". Pickled herrings were invented in 1375. The number of the trash compactor in Star Wars (20th Century Fox, 1977) is 3263827. Each year there is one ton of cement poured for each man, woman, and child in the world. At McDonalds in New Zealand, they serve apricot pies instead of cherry ones. The word "samba" means "to rub navels together." 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 Baseball All-Star Game. The international telphone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. A byte, in computer terms, means 8 bits. A nibble is half that: 4 bits. (Two nibbles make a byte!) A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer. Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball. If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom. The airport in La Paz, Bolivia is the world's highest airport. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. Chicago is closer to Moscow than to Rio de Janeiro. Original copy of the Declaration of Independence is lost. The copy in Washington D.C. is what is referred to as a holograph. That is a term for a handmade copy of a document and is not the same as a laser produced hologram. Singpore is the only country with one train station. The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called 'mantles') are radioactive--so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear reactor. When measuring fonts 'point size' refers to the height of capital letters (one point being one 72nd of an inch). 'Pitch' is a horizontal measurement of the number of letters which can be printed in an inch. The only capital letter in the Roman alphabet with exactly one endpoint is P. In the movie "the Right Stuff" there is a scene where a government recruiter for the Mercury astronaut program (played by Jeff Goldblum) is in a bar at Muroc Dry Lake, California. His partner suggests Chuck Yeager as a good astronaut candidate. Jeff proceeds to badmouth Yeager claiming they need someone who went to college. During the conversation the real Chuck Yeager is playing a bartender who is standing behind the recruiters eavesdropping. General Yeager is listed low in the movie credits as 'Fred.' "Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when your talking about someone and they show up people say "Speak of the Devil" Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable. There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. Nauru is the only country in the world with no official capital. (Its government offices are all in Yaren District, but there's no official capital.) South Africa is the only country with three official capitals: Pretoria, Cape Town, and Bloemfontein. Lucy Ricardo's maiden name was McGillicudy. Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy. The red giant star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than that of the Earth's orbit around the sun. If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon wil be about three statute miles away. The one-hundred eleventh element is known as "unnilenilenium" The longest muscle name is the "levator labii superioris alaeque nasi" and Elvis popularized it with his lip motions. The longest time someone has typed on a typewriter continuously is 264 hrs., set by Violet Gibson Burns. The Dutch town of Leeuwarden can be spelled 225 different ways. There was once a town named "6" in West Virginia. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older A cat has 32 muscles in each ear An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. The oldest word in the English language is "town" The sea wasp is half an inch long at best and more poisonous than any other jellyfish known to man. Tigars have striped skin, not just striped fur. Gerald Ford pardoned Robert E. Lee posthumously of all crimes of treason. The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie Barbarella. There are 22 stars surrounding the mountain on the Paramount Pictures logo. After human death, post-mortem rigidity starts in the head and travels to the feet, and leaves the same way it came -- head to toe. Police dogs are trained to react to commands in a foreign language; commonly German but more recently Hungarian or some other Slavic tongue. A Laforte fracture is a fracture of all facial bones. It would allow one to pull on another face and remove it like a mask if not held on by skin. Debra Winger was the voice of E.T. Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were all cousins through one connection or another. (FDR and Eleanor were about five times removed.) The Earth-Moon size ratio is the largest in the our solar system, excepting Pluto-Charon. Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5! Though it goes to 10, 9 is estimated to be the point of total tetonic destruction (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided.) Most snakes have either only one lung, or in some cases, two, with one much reduced in size. This apparently serves to make room for other organs in the highly-elongated bodies of snakes. A twelve-foot anaconda can catch, kill, and eat a six-foot caiman, a close relative of crocodles and alligators. While these snakes are not usually considered to be the *longest* snake in the world, they are the heaviest, exceeding the reticulated python in girth. Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600s by a translator. It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her. Cinderella is known as Tuhkimo in Finland. If you come from Birmingham, you are a Brummie. The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with, e.g. Asia, Europe. There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs six times: Indivisibility. The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia. According to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, it is possible to go slower than light and faster than light, but it is impossible to go at the speed of light. In most advertisments, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch. Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono. Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. The "heat" of peppers is rated on the Scoville scale. Until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5pm. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize *this* was the day of the changeover. In left hand drive countries, such as the UK, Ireland, Japan, and Australia, drivers sit on the right hand side of the car. Except for Sweden, where drivers sat on the left, as in North-America. Japan is the third most densely populated country in the world. First is the Netherlands, followed by Belgium. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery. The "D" in D-day means "Day". The French term for "D-Day" is "J-jour". Female orcas live twice as long as male orcas. The larger numbers of female orcas in a pod are because of the female's longer lifespan, not because the males have collected a harem. Most spiders belong to the orb weaver spider family, Family Aranidae. This is pronounced "A Rainy Day." The Mongol emperor Genghis Khan's original name was Temujin. Genghis Khan started out life as a goatherd. The type specimen for the human species is the skull of Edward Drinker Cope, an American paleontologist of the late 1800's. A type specimen is used in paleontology as the best example of that species. The first word spoken by an ape in the movie Planet of the Apes was "Smile". The two lines that connect your top lip to the bottom of your nose are known as the philtrum. Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan" Hummingbirds are the only animals able to fly backwards All the dirt from the foundation to build the World Trade Center in NYC was dumped into the Hudson River to form the community now known as Battery City Park. The Holland and Lincoln Tunnels under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York are an engineering feat. The air circulators in the tunnels circulate fresh air completely every ninety seconds. The dirt road that General Washington and his soldiers took to fight off General Clinton during the Battle of Monmouth was called the Burlington Path. The only social fraternity founded during the Civil War was Theta Xi fraternity, at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1864. The Hudson River along the island of Manhattan flows in either direction depending upon the tide. Several buildings in Manhattan have their own zip code! The World Trade Center has several. Lucifer is latin for "Light Bringer". It is a translation of the Hebrew name for Satan, Halael. Satan means "adversary", devil means "liar". A cat's jaws cannot move sideways. Geller and Huchra have made three-dimensional maps of the distrubution of galaxies. In each layer of the map some galaxies are grouped together in such a way that they resemble a human being. Avocado is derived from the Spanish word 'aguacate' which is derived from 'ahuacatl' meaning testicle. The company providing the liability insurance for the Republican National Convention in San Diego is the same firm that insured the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays. Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. The smallest port in Canada is Port Williams, Nova Scotia. The Canadian province of Newfoundland has its own time zone, which is half an hour behind Atlantic standard time. Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have a very high probability of having six toes. The second longest word in the English language is "antidisestablishmenterianism"... Rats like boiled sweets better than they like cheese. Big Ben was slowed five minutes one day when a passing group of starlings decided to take a rest on the minute hand of the clock. The Velvet Underground was named after a book on the S&M culture. The Velvet Underground's first manager was Andy Warhol, who also produced their first album and designed the cover artwork. The cover artwork for the album (called "The Velvet Underground and Nico") featured a bright yellow banana that could be peeled off to reveal a bright pink banana underneath, with the label "Peel Slowly and See." "Peel Slowly and See" is the title of the Velvet Underground comprehensive boxed set, which is the only currently-available Velvet Underground recording to feature a peelable banana. The peelable banana caused substantial delays in the production of the VU's first album and contributed to Lou Reed's firing Andy Warhol as the group's manager. The "wild" horses of western North America are actually feral, not wild. Native speakers of Japanese learn Spanish much more easily than they learn English. Native speakers of English learn Spanish much more easily than they learn Japanese. New Zealand kiwis lay the largest eggs with respect to their body size of any bird. Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean. When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a "portmanteau." Sting got his name because of a yellow-and-black striped shirt he wore until it literally fell apart. Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by Harold Edgerton. The topknot that quails have is called a hmuh. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth ... and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd." The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint -- no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers. There is a type of parrot in New Zealand that likes to eat the rubber strips that line car windows. New Zealand is also the only country that contains every type of climate in the world. Cockroaches' favorite food is the glue on envelopes and on the back of postage stamps In 1969, the last Corvair was painted gold. Ralph Kramden made 62 dollars a week. The only way to stop the pain of the flathead fish's sting is by rubbing the same fish's slime on the wound it gave you. Betsy Ross was born with a fully formed set of teeth. Betsy Ross's other contribution to the American Revolution, beside sewing the first American flag, was running a munitions factory in her basement. Devo's original name was going to be De-evolution. They shortened it to Devo. Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book 'The Naked Lunch'. Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman. Andy Warhol created the Rolling Stone's emblem depicting the big tongue. It first appeared on the cover of the 'Sticky Fingers' album. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the two left-handed Beatles. Chris Ford scored the first ever NBA three-point shot. Of all the East Coast States, New Hampshire has the shortest coastline, about fourteen miles. New Hampshire is also the only State name the has four consecutive consonants in it (in the same word). Ontario is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes. Alaska has the longest border with Canada of all the fifty states. Montana has the longest border with Canada of the lower forty-eight States. Montana also borders the most Canadian Provinces of all the fifty states. It borders three of them. Arkansas is the only US State that begins with "a" but does not end with "a". All the other States that begin with "a", Arizona, Alabama and Alaska, also end with "a". Only three angels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer. Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice." Wilma Flinestone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker. Lenny Kravitz's mother played the part of "Helen" on "The Jeffersons." The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should become a saint, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view. Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works. The term "Mayday" used for signaling for help (after SOS), it comes from the French term "M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help Me" Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 did start in a barn belonging to Patrick and Katherine O'Leary. The O'Leary's house was one of the few that survived the fire. The O'Leary's house had to be guarded by soldiers for weeks afterwards, however, because many enraged residents wanted to burn it down. The biggest bell is the "Tsar Kolokol" cast in the Kremlin in 1733. It weighs 216 tons, but alas, it is cracked and has never been rung. The bell was being stored in a Moscow shed which caught fire. To "save" it the caretakers decided to throw water on the bell. This did not succeed in -- the water hit the superheated metal and a giant piece immediately cracked off, destroying the bell forever. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. The smallest mountain range in the world is outside of Marysville, California and is named the Sutter Buttes. The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children. Many species of bird copulate in the air. In general, a couple will fly to a very high altitude, and then drop. During their descent, the birds mate. Sometimes the couple gets too involved and SPLAT! If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die because they need gravity to swallow. There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere, therein, herein. You would have to count to one thousand to use the letter "A" in the English language to spell a whole number. The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard. Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sidewards, like a scissor, to extract the juices from the food. The letters H I O X in the latin alphabet is the only ones that look the same if you turn them upside down or see them from behind. The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator". When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city. In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam." Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson." Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott". Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. The metal part of a lamp that surrounds the bulb and supports the shade is called a harp. The metal part at the end of a pencil is twenty percent sulfur. John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show" was the narrator of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Vietnamese currency consists only of paper money; no coins. Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting while he was alive, Red Vineyard at Arles. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. Skin is thickest is at the back -- 1/6 of an inch. The most sensitive finger is the forefinger. Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern state; it also has the highest latitude,the most eastern longitude and the most western longitude. Some of Beethoven's symphonies were performed in Kentucky before they were performed in Paris, France. The word denim comes from 'de Nimes', or from Nimes, a place in France. Dublin comes from the Irish Dubh Linn which means Blackpool Scottish is the language called Gaelic, whereas Irish is actually called Gaeilge. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life" A penguin only has sex twice a year. Mr. Spock's (of Star Trek) blood type was T-Negative The Dutch town of Abcoude is the only reasonably sized town/city in the world whose name begins with ABC. A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. New Jersey has a spoon museum featuring over 5,400 spoons from every state and almost every country. Eleven square miles of southwest Kentucky (Fulton County) is cut off from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River. If you wish to travel from this cut off section to the rest of the state or vice-versa, you must first cross a bordering state. Point Roberts in Washington State is cut off from the rest of the state by British Columbia, Canada. If you wish to travel from Point Roberts to the rest of the state or vice versa, you must pass through Canada, including Canadian and U.S. customs A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. The only city in the United States to celebrate Halloween on the October 30 instead of October 31 is Carson City, Nevada. October 31 is Nevada Day and is celebrated with a large stret party. On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner. No words in the English language rhyme with orange, silver or purple. A peanut is not a nut; it is a legume. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. "Evian" spelled backvards is naive. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Maine is the toothpick capital of the world. "Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" are the only words in the English language with three consecutive double letters. Paul McCartney's mother was a midwife. The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during times of peace or war. The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope. It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright. A baby eel is called an elver, a baby oyster is called a spat. Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box. The arteries and veins surrounding the brain stem called the "circle of Willis" looks like a stick person with a large head. Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time. On a trip to the South Sea islands, French painter Paul Gauguin stopped off briefly in Central America, where he worked as a laborer on the Panama Canal. The Ganges River in India boasts the only genuine fresh-water sharks in the entire world. The gene for the Siamese coloration in animals such as cats, rats or rabbits is heat sensitive. Warmth produces a lighter color than does cold. Putting tape temporarily on Siamese rabbit's ear will make the fur on that ear lighter than on the other one. There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts." The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root. "John has a long moustache" was the coded-signal used by the French Resistance in WWII to mobilize their forces once the Allies had landed on the Normandy beaches. Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed. Brooklyn is the Dutch name for "broken valley" There are four states where the first letter of the capital city is the same letter as the first letter of the state: Dover, Delaware; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a ten-dollar bill. Venetian blinds were invented in Japan. The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought at neighbouring Breed's Hill. Former US Senator Barry Goldwater attended the opening night ceremonies and festivities at Bugsy Siegel's famous Las Vegas casino. They left him out of the movie Bugsy. He is pissed. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.) The first electric Christmas lights were created by a telephone company PBX installer. Back in the old days, candles were used to decorate Christmas trees. This was obviously very dangerous. Telephone employees are trained to be safety concious. This installer took the lights from an old switchboard, connected them together, strung them on the tree, and hooked them to a battery. White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees) The "huddle" in football was formed due a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him. There is no such thing as naturally blue food, even blueberries are purple. In the 1983 film "JAWS 3D" the shark blows up. Some of the shark guts were the stuffed ET dolls being sold at the time. Walt Disney had wooden teeth. The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Perriwinkle Blue. Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off. The coast line around Lake Sakawea in North Dakota is longer than the California coastline along the Pacific Ocean Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. The legbones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk. Kitsap County, Washington, was originally called Slaughter County, and the first hotel there was called the Slaughter House. Seattle, Washington, like Rome, was built on seven hills. Dinosaur droppings are called coprolites, and are actually fairly common. School busses in the United States are Chrome Yellow and used to be Omaha Orange. The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and the Beatles at a religious retreat in India. The tailless dinner jacket was invented in Tuxedo Park, New York. Thus it is called the "tuxedo dinner jacket" and is named after the town...not the other way around. The state of Maryland has no natural lakes. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world. Rhode Island is the smallest state with the longest name. The official name, used on all state documents, is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The chemical formula for Rubidium Bromide is RbBr. It is the only chemical formula known to be a palindrome! St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man who ran a saloon there. The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON. The first letters of the names of the Great Lakes spell HOMES. The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand. Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry.
Need Advice on a New Career? Here is my dilema: I am burnt out, I need a new job, and I also need to find a career. For ten years, I have been at several jobs, all of which involved appointment setting, the call center and telesales (to various degrees). Talking on the phones all day long and dealing with demanding and unreasonable people has finally taken it's toll. I have been in my current postion as a mortgage loan officer for over five years and there is the constant threat of being written up or fired for not meeting sales goals and the ever constant change in the compensation (my income has dropped drastically to the point that I am beginning to live from paycheck to pay check--and I have always lived within my means). I have a BA in English Lit. I really do not know what kind of field I want to go into, but I have to get out of the mortgage business. I really do not want to teach because the Michigan Public Schools are horrible: the teachers are always getting laid off and the pay is ridiculous. All I know is that sales is too stressful for me and I need to find a new position--but more importantly, a new career. The problem is that I do not know what I want to do with my life. I am in my 30's and feel like I am having a mid-life crisis. I have researched positions like becoming a professor (takes too long and not enough pay), Med or Vet school (I don't think I am smart enough), Financial field (hate Corporate America), Physical Therapy (Michigan market seems to be flooded with outsourcing agencies; job market does not seem to be stable), and working with animals (I would love to do this, but not enough pay). If someone could offer some advice--any advice--I'd be grateful. Right now, I feel totally worthless and clueless. Or even if you are in the same position as I, please write back. I need to feel that I am not alone (misery loves company, I guess).
Anyone seen these facts? Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33. The dollar symbol ($) is a U combined with an S (U.S.) Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. The Statue of Liberty's tablet is two feet thick. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die'. These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord. The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container. David Prowse, was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie. The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY There are only thirteen blimps in the world. Nine of the thirteen blimps are in the United States. The existing biggest blimp is the Fuji Film blimp. Naugahyde, plastic "leather" was created in Naugatuck, Connecticut. The Swiss flag is square. The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin, and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British Pound Sterling comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation. Sames goes for the Italian lira which uses the same abbreviation ('lira' coming from 'libra'). So British currency (before it went metric) was always quoted as "pounds/shillings/pence", abbreviated "L/s/d" (libra/solidus/denarius). The three largest land-owners in England are the Queen, the Church of England and Trinity College, Cambridge. The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline. If you come from Manchester, you are a Mancunian. No animal, once frozen solid (i.e., water solidifies and turns to ice) survives when thawed, because the ice crystals formed inside cells would break open the cell membranes. However there are certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. These frogs make special proteins which prevent the formation of ice (or at least keep the crystals from becoming very large), so that they actually never freeze even though their body temperature is below zero Celsius. The water in them remains liquid: a phenomenon known as 'supercooling.' If you disturb one of these frogs (just touching them even), the water in them quickly freezes solid and they die. The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula. Madrid is the only European capital city not situated on a river. The name for fungal remains found in coal is sclerotinite. The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. Emus cannot walk backwards. It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear. The shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada has the largest water clock in North America. Both writer Edgar Allen Poe and LSD advocate Timothy Leary were kicked out of West Point. The word posh, which denotes luxurious rooms or accomodations, originated when ticket agents in England marked the tickets of travelers going by ship to the Orient. Since there was no air conditioning in those days, it was always better to have a cabin on the shady side of the ship as it passed through the Mediterranean and Suez area. Since the sun is in the south, those with money paid extra to get cabin's on the left, or port, traveling to the Asia, and on the right, or starboard, when returning to Europe. Hence their tickets were marked with the initials for Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, or POSH. The top layer of a wedding cake, known as the groom's cake, traditionally is a fruit cake. That way it will save until the first anniversery. The German Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered arm and often hid the fact by posing with his hand resting on a sword, or by holding gloves. The forward pass was created by the football team at Saint Louis University. In every show that Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt (The Fantasticks) wrote, there is at least one song about rain. A kind of tortoise in the Galapagos Islands has an upturned shell at its neck so it can reach its head up to eat cactus branches. The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii, located approximately twelve miles west of Honolulu. Parthenogenesis is the term used to describe the process by which certain animals are able to reproduce themselves in successive female generations without intervention of a male of the species. At least one species of lizard is known to do so. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten. The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat", which means "the king is dead". The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen. "Quisling" is the only word in the English language to start with "quis." All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel. Nepal is the only country without a rectangular flag (it looks like two pennants glued on on top of the other) Libya has the only flag which is all one color with no writing or decoration on it The only borough of New York City that isn't an island (or part of an island) is the Bronx. The 1957 Milwaukee Braves were the first baseball team to win the World Series after being relocated. The tune for the "A-B-C" song is the same as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield it's first consumable fruit. The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light. Linn's Stamp News is the world's largest weekly newspaper for stamp collectors. Tennessee is bordered by more states than any other. The eight states are Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia. Des Moines has the highest per capita Jello consumption in the U.S The Western-most point in the contiguous United States is Cape Alava, Washington. There are only three animals with blue tongues, the Black Bear, the Chow Chow dog and the blue-tongued lizard. The first fossilized specimen of Austalopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the palentologists' favorite song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, by the Beatles. Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head." The geographical center of North America is near Rugby, North Dakota. The infinity sign is called a lemniscate. Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey. If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long. There are six five words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate and duumvir, residuum. The "Calabash" pipe, most often associated with Sherlock Holmes, was not used by him until William Gillette (an American) portrayed Holmes onstage. Gillette needed a pipe he could keep in his mouth while he spoke his lines. Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F. Dirty Harry's badge number is 2211. The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular. The shortest French word with all five vowels is "oiseau" meaning bird. Camel's milk does not curdle. "Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison. The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck. A person from the country of Nauru is called a Nauruan; this is the only palindromic nationality. The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate, demodulate." Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after he had died. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state. Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time. Hamsters love to eat crickets. The only "real" food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts. The word "queueing" is the only English word with five consecutive vowels. The first Eagle Scout west of the Mississippi is buried in San Marcos, Texas. In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. Roberta Flack wrote "Killing Me Softly" about singer Don McLean. The Greek version of the Old Testament is called the Septuagint. Spencer Eldon was the name of the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana's album All three major 1996 Presidential candidates, Clinton, Dole and Perot, are left-handed. The Madagascan Hissing Cockroach is one of the few insects who give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs. The book of Esther in the Bible is the only book which does not mention the name of God. Sheriff came from Shire Reeve. During early years of feudal rule in England, each shire had a reeve who was the law for that shire. When the term was brought to the United States it was shortned to Sheriff. An animal epidemic is called an epizootic. Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third. The silhouette on the NBA logo is Jerry West. The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus. Soweto in South Africa ws derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship. Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants. The Andy Griffth Show was the first spin-off in TV history. It was a spin-off of the Danny Thomas Show. Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils. Walt Disney's autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo. Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes. The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used. The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths." Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps. Hence, the postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin. However, every stamp carries a relief image or a silhouette of the monarch's head instead. Images for picture stamps in the United States are commissioned by the United States Postal Service Department of Philatelic Fulfillment. Artist Constantino Brumidi fell from the done of the U.S. Capitol while painting a mural around the rim. He died four months later. Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games. There were no squirrels on Nantucket until 1989. Cathy Rigby is the only woman to pose nude for Sports Illustrated. (August 1972) Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan. Will Clark of the Texas Rangers is a direct descendant of William Clark of Lewis and Clark. When ocean tides are at their highest, they are called "spring tides." When they are at their lowest, they are call "neep tides." February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. The last NASCAR driver to serve jail time for running moonshine was Buddy Arrington. Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000. The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design located on their apron (belly.) The male blue crab has the Washington Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol. It takes a lobster approxiamately seven years to grow to be one pound. The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding. The lot numbers for the cyanide-tainted Tylenol capsules scare back in 1982 were MC2880 and 1910MD. Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds. The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator. At latitude 60 degrees south you can sail all the way around the world. A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes. The hyoid bone, in your throat, is the only bone in the body not attached to another bone. Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra. Sunbeams that shine down through the clouds are called crespucular rays. Very small clouds that look like they have been broken off of bigger clouds are called scuds. On a dewy morning, if you look at your shadow in the grass, the dew drops shine light back to your eye creating a halo called a heilgenschein (German for halo.) The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself." Giraffes have no vocal cords. Joe DiMaggio had more home runs than strikeouts during his career. All porcupines float in water. Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio. A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel and raisins. Many northern parishes (counties) of Louisiana did not agree with the Confederate movement. To show their disapproval, they changed their names. That's why there is a Union Parish, Jefferson Parish, etc. The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites. Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.) The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' symbolizes 'two women living under one roof'. German has a wood for the peace offerings brought to your mate when you've committed some conceived slight. This is "drachenfutter" or dragon's food. In Chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same. No word in the English language rhymes with month. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired." The poisonous copperhead smells likefresh cut cucumbers. In Disney's "Fantasia", the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.) The smallest mushroom's name is "Hop-low." Anne Boleyn had six fingernails on one hand. Mustard gas was invented in the McKinley Building on the American University campus. Additionally, preliminary work on the Manhattan Project was done in that building. The government used the McKinley Building because of its unusual archticture. If there would be any type of large explosion inside the building, the building would implode onto itself, containing any lethal gas or nuclear material. The building now houses the Physics Department. When angered, the ears of Tazmanian devils turn a pinkish-red. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. The naval rank of "Admiral" is derived from the Arabic phrase "amir al bahr", which means "lord of the sea". The Les Nessman character on the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati wore a band-aid in every episode. Either on himself, his glasses, or his clothing. A coat hanger is 44 inches long if straightened The roads on the island of Guam are made with coral. Guam has no sand. The sand on the beaches is actually ground coral. When concrete is mixed, the coral sand is used instead of importing regular sand from thousands of miles away. Mt. Vernon Washington grows more tulips than the entire country of Holland. Jamie Farr (who played Klinger on M*A*S*H) was the only member of the cast who actually served as a soldier in the Korean war. The southern most city in the United States is Na'alehu, Hawaii. Alaska was the only part of the United States that was invaded by the Japanese during WWII. The territory was the island of Adak in the Aleutian Chain. Woodward Ave in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere. Michigan was the first state to plow it's roads and the first to adopt a yellow dividing line. Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119. The shortest verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept." Way back when they were using marble columns, the people selling the columns would carve out the centers and fill it with wax.So the people buying them started asking "Is it without wax?" Or in other words "Are you sincere?" Zaire is the world leader in cobalt mining, producing two-thirds of the world's cobalt supply. No modern language has a true concept of "I am." It is always used linked with are in reference of another verb. Little known Cathedral Caverns near Grant, Alabama has the world's largest cave opening, the largest stalagmite (Goliath), and the largest stalagmite forest in the World. The only person ever to decline a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction was Sinclair Lewis for his book Arrowsmith. Maine is the only state that borders on only one state. There are almost twice as many people in Rhode Island than there are in Alaska. Kudzu is not indigenous to the South, but in that climate it can grow up to six inches a day. Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ? The word 'byte' is a contraction of 'by eight.' The word 'pixel' is a contraction of either 'picture cell' or 'picture element.' Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz. Bananas do not grow on trees, but on rhizomes. Astronauts in the Space Shuttle are weightless not because there is no gravity in space, but because they are in free fall around the Earth. St. Augustine was the first major proponent of the "missionary" position. Lizzie Borden was acquitted. Alexander Hamilton was shot by Aaron Burr in the groin. Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every Dewey-decimal category. Roger Ebert is the only film critic to have ever won the Pulitzer prize. A scholar who studies the Marquis de Sade is called a Sadian, not a Sadist (of course). Tribeca in Manhattan stands for TRIangle BElow CAnal street. Soho stands for SOuth of HOuston street. Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church. Theworld's largest wine cask is in Heidleberg, Germany. Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an aligator while he hosted "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom." Cat's urine glows under a blacklight. Seven Olympic gold medal winners eventually went on to win the Heavyweight Championship of the World Kerimski Church in Finland is world's biggest church made of wood.The St. Louis Gateway Arch had a projected death toll while it was being built. No one died. The average ear of corn has eight-hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows. A cat has four rows of whiskers. Vincent Van Gogh comitted suicide while painting Wheat Field with Crows. An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes. Jelly Belly jelly beans were the first jelly beans in outer space when they went up with astronauts in the June 21, 1983 voyage of the space shuttle Challenger (the same voyage as the first American woman in space, Sally Ride). Baseballer Connie Mack's real name was Cornelius McGilicuddy. If you were standing in the northernmost point in the contiguous (48) states, you'd be standing in Minnesota. Only thirty percent of the famous Maryland blue crabs are actually from Maryland, the rest are from North Carolina and Virginia. Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Not all of West Virginia voted to go with the North. When the State of West Virginia was formed from Virginia in 1863 the three western counties in Virginia voted to go with West Virginia, but West Virginia didn't take them because they were poor. Instead they took three counties that voted to stay with Virginia, because they were richer and they had the B&O railroad. Those counties since split and are 5 Jefferson, Hampshire, Berkley, Mineral, and Morgan. The first Ford cars had Dodge engines. The Dodge brothers Horace and John were Jewish, that's why the first Dodge emblem had a star of David in it. Studebaker was the only major car company to stop making cars while making a profit from them. Studebaker still exists, but is now called Worthington. Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan, Mitsubishi built Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant call Diamond Star. On the new hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10. The top three cork-producing countries are Spain, Portugal and Algeria. (Cork comes from trees.) In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy's last name is Gail. It is shown on the mail box. If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the late M*A*S*H star McLean Stevenson were both once assistant football coaches at Northwestern University. The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three. All swans and all sturgeons in England are property of the Queen. Messing with them is a serious offense. Michael Di Lorenzo, who plays Eddie Torres on New York Undercover is one of the lead dancers in Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video. Only two people signed the Decleration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on Augest 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 year later. October 4, 1957 is a historic date to be remembered, it is the day both "Leave it to Beaver" and the Russian satellite Sputnik 1 were launched. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. It takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni, and about a gallon to clean the pot. The antifungal, nystatin, which is sometime used for treating thrush, is named after New York State Institute for Health (Acronym) QANTAS, the name of the Australian national airline, is a (former) acronym, for Queensland And Northern Territories Air Service. The world's largest four-faced clock sits atop the Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Almonds are members of the peach family. The first video ever played on MTV Europe was "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits. If you add up the numbers 1-100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 etc) the total is 5050 The "Grinch" singer and voice of Tony the Tiger is a charming man named Thurl Ravenscroft. The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom." As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to "Star Trek" lore. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe. Ham radio operators got the term "ham" coined from the expression "ham-fisted operators", a term used to describe early radio users who sent Morse code (i.e. pounded their fists). While the Chinese invented gunpowder, they were not the first to develop firearms. Sam Colt invented the "revolving pistol." Therefore, all revolvers are correctly called pistols. A 12 gauge "rifled slug" does not spin, even though there are grooves on it's bearing surface. A slug actually travels like a dart. Revolvers cannot be silenced, due all the noisy gasses which escape the cylinder gap at the rear of the barrel. A bullet fired from the 7.62x51mm NATO cartridge (also called the .308 Winchester) is still supersonic at 1000 yards. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their