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".
