35 Random Bits of Trivia We Ordered off the Secret Menu

MiniShow, August 16, 2024

Tidbits, animal style

August 01, 2024

Does Buzz Aldrin have mommy issues? You be the judge.

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35

The sex of an alligator is based on temperature of the egg. CRACKED COM In the extreme, tem- peratures over 93 de- grees F during incuba- tion will produce only males, and below 86 degrees F only females.

34

Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name is Moon. CRAGKED.COM Marion Moon was the daughter of an Army chaplain and married Buzz's father, Edwin Eugene Aldrin, a colo- nel in the U.S. Air Force.

33

JFK made sure to get his hands on Cuban cigars before he placed an embargo on them. CRACKED.COM John F. Kennedy had his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, purchase 1200 of the cigars and before signing the documents that made the embargo against Cuba official.

32

Dr. Horace Emmett thought injecting yourself with red squirrel testicles was the secret to eternal youth. CRACKED.COM One year after he an- nounced this at a Cambridge lecture, touting his newfound virility as proof, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

31

Prison and jail are technically not the same thing. M CRACKED COM In the U.S., jail is run by county sheriff's of- fices, while prison is run by the Prisons and Corrections office of each state.

30

Native American chief Sitting Bull was born Jumping Badger. GRACKED.COM His father's name was Jumping Bull and his mother's was Her-Ho- ly-Door. Не was renamed at age 14 by his father for his bravery after a raid of a Crow camp.

29

The Green Bay Packers got their name from a packing company sponsorship. a 1i INFU L CRACKED.COM Thanks to just $500 in sponsorship from the Indi- an Packing Company in 1919, the Packers came to be. The future NFL team's co-founder, Earl Lambeau, worked for the packing company at the time.

28

MLB teams Red Sox and White Sox use the sox spelling because of a brief movement to simplify the spelling of socks. SOX CRACKED.COM Socks became SOX for a time, even in such publi- cations as the Chicago Tri- bune. Many teams were named after uniform col- ors, which gave us the Red and White Sox.

27

An artist in Japan served his own genitals to dinner guests. GRAGKED.COM Mao Sugiyama had his tes- ticles and penis removed when he was 22 and served them to dinner guests at $250 per plate (a total of 6 plates). Не was charged with indecent exposure.

26

Oprah Winfrey's real name is Orpah. CRACKED.COM Orpah is a woman mentioned in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible. Winfrey changed it simply be- cause most people mispronounced it as

25

One punishment for adultery in 4th century BC Athens was shoving a radish up the offender's butt. GRACKED COM Called rhaphanidosis, it is also allegedly a punishment for other sex-related crimes, such as promiscuity and homosexuality.

24

You are about 40% more likely to survive a commercial plane crash if you sit in the back row. GRACKED.COM According to a study done by Popular Mechan- ics covering every acci- dent aboard commercial planes from 1971 to 2007, the back row is 40% safer compared to the front.

23

Brett Favre's first completed pass ever thrown was caught by himself. CRACKED.COM In his first official play in the NFL during the second game of the 1992 season, Favre threw the ball only to have a defender deflect it back. Favre caught the ball and was tackled for a loss of 7 yards.

22

The record for the longest filibuster is 24 hours. CRACKED.COM Senator Strom Thurmond spoke for an amazing 24 hours, 18 minutes straight in 1957 in opposition of the Civil Rights Act. Не read the Bill of Rights and other doc- uments, even his grand- mother's biscuit recipe.

21

There are more, not less, slaves in the world today. CRACKED COM There are more slaves in the world today (around 27 million) than were in America just before the Civil War, and possibly more than any other time in known human history.

20

One of the early names for Iceland was Butterland. CRACKED.COM The settlers first called it Snowland, although Butterland was also suggested as the grass was so rich it seemed to drip but- ter.

19

There is no such thing as a banana tree. CRACKED.COM Technically, the flowering stem that bananas (which are actually berries) de- velop on is an arbores- cent perennial herb and the largest herbaceous flowering plant.

18

Matt Groening named many of the Simpsons characters after his own family. CRACKED.COM Matt had a father named Но- mer, a mother named Marga- ret, sisters named Maggie and Lisa, and a grandfather named Abe. Не chose the name Bart, despite his brother be- ing named Mark, because it was an anagram of brat.

17

People look better in groups thanks to the cheerleader effect. CRACKED CON When we look at a group, we average the features of the individu- al members, and aver- age faces are more at- tractive than when we see them individually.

16

A coma patient briefly 'woke up' for 18 hours. CRACKED.COM Officer Gary Dockery had been in a vegetative state since being shot in the head in 1988. Eight years later, after undergoing lung surgery, Dockery woke up and began talking normally with his relatives, only to fall back into a coma hours later.

15

An American actor named Franklyn Farnum appeared in 1,100 films. CRACKED.COM Farnum had a career span- ning from 1916 to 1961 (the year of his death). Не was also cast in more films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture than any other performer in the American film industry.

14

The words gymnasium and gymnastics come from the Greek for nude. CRACKED.COM The Ancient Greeks commonly exercised naked, and athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would partici- pate in the nude.

13

Mickey Rourke quit acting in the '90s to box professionally. CRACKED.COM After three years and a series of serious in- juries he decided to quit, but he did so with an undefeated record of 6 wins and 2 draws.

12

A German sailor spent 58 days crossing the ocean in a kayak. CRACKED.COM Franz Romer crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Lisbon, Portugal to the Virgin Islands in 1928 aboard a kayak that looked a bit like a sailing canoe.

11

Simon Cowell hijacked a bus when he was 12. CRACKED.COM As Cowell describes it, he pointed a toy pea gun at the bus driver as a joke, instruct- ing him to take him to a town 10 miles away. Cowell thought the driver was playing along, but police were waiting for him at his destination.

10

Beatrice Straight who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for just 5 minutes of screen time. CRACKED.COM Straight won the Oscar for her role in 'Net- work' (1976), in which she appeared for just one scene that was 5 minutes and 40 sec- onds long.

9

Will Smith was happy Keanu Reeves accepted the role of Neo in 'The Matrix' after he turned it down for 'Wild Wild West.' GRAGKED.COM Smith says, When you see somebody do it like Keanu, you think, 'Thank God.' I don't think I was mature enough as an actor at that point to get out of the way and just let it be and allow the directors to make the movie.

8

A WWI soldier lost part of his frontal lobe and never slept again. CRACKED COM Hungarian soldier Paul Kern was shot in the head during the war, but he was able to function more or less normally, be- sides never sleeping again. Не died in 1955.

7

MTV was only available in New Jersey when it first launched. CRACKED.COM Only certain cable sub- scribers in NJ were able to watch the new station and the first music video they decided to play, Video Killed The Radio Star, on August 1, 1981.

6

A 17-year-old sold a kidney for an iPad and iPhone in 2011. CRACKED.COM Xiao Zheng said, I wanted to buy an iPad2, but I didn't have the money. When I surfed the internet, I found an advert posted online by an agent saying they were able to buy a kidney.

5

The masculine form of nymphomania is 'satyriasis!' CRACKED.COM Nymphomania derives from the Greek nymphe, meaning bride, and sa- tyriasis derives from the Greek satyr, which were half-goat deities that liked to get it on.

4

Ryan Gosling was suspended from school for throwing steak knives at his classmates. CRACKED.COM Gosling blames the spell 'First Blood' put on him and says, I went to school the next day and bought a Fisher Price kit and I put steak knives in there and I took them and threw them at all the kids during recess.

3

Sudan crucified prisoners as recently as 2013. CRACKED.COM Under Article 168 of the Sudanese Penal Code, if you commit armed rob- bery you are to be hanged, and if you kill someone during the rob- bery, crucifixion follows.

2

All clownfish are born male. CRACKED.COM If the female of a group dies, the domi- nant male will then begin to gain weight and will become the female of the group.

1

Мое from the Three Stooges was a Shakespearian actor. GRACKED.COM Мое Howard dropped out of school and joined a Shakespearian acting troupe that performed on the riverboat, Sunflower, before the Three Stooges was formed.

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