Trivia

News from my world: Nuthin', I tells ya! I got nuthin'!!!!! And because of that, here is another trivia post--courtesy of mental_floss, of course.

--The Grammy's 'Best New Artist' award has seemed to be the kiss of death to whoever received it. A partial list of those being awarded and never being heard from again (or not very often, at least): The Starland Vocal Band, Debby Boone, Rickie Lee Jones, Men At Work, Tracy Chapman, Mark Cohn, Hootie & the Blowfish. (I believe Christopher Cross may be on this list, too.)

--The first professional sportsperson to have his jersey number retired was Lou Gehrig (#4) in 1939.

--In 1982, the rising price of copper made the penny's material more expensive than the penny itself. To remedy the problem, the US Mint began making copper-coated zinc pennies.

--Around the turn of the 19th century, scientists had no way of photographing images under a microscope. Beatrix Potter--of 'Peter Rabbit' fame--did watercolors of fungi for scientific publications. She became a well-respected mycologist and was one of the first scientists to study lichens.

--11 women have received the Nobel Prize in Science.

--8% of the science/engineering PhDs awarded in 1966 were to women. 38% of the degrees in 2005 were awarded to women.

--1999 was the last year that more men than women received science bachelor's degrees in America.

--Danica McKellar, aka 'Winnie' from The Wonder Years, grew up to be a mathematician. She even has a theorem named after her.

--An international group of geneticists has determined that roughly 0.05% of the world's population is directly descended from Genghis Khan.

--Donor 48QAH--a sperm donor at the Fertility Center of California--is thought to have fathered more than 100 children.

--Betsy Ross is one of only a few real people to ever top a Pez dispenser.

--October 24, 2001 is the first time the iPod was mentioned in print--in The New York Times. Barack Obama was mentioned first on February 6, 1990 and Donald Trump was mentioned on January 28, 1973.

--The average human body has enough fat to make 7 bars of soap, enough sugar to fill a jam jar, and enough sulfur to rid a dog of fleas.

--Demodex folliculorum has eight stumpy legs and a tail, is about a third of a millimeter long, and will reside in the warm, oily pits of your hair follicles. Most adults have this mite, usually on the head, but especially in the eyelashes. And, often, they are in nipples. (Excuse me while I go and sterilize myself!)

--If it weren't for the slimy mucous that clings to and lines the walls of your gut, your stomach would readily digest itself.

--A man weighing 200 pounds would provide enough meat to feed 100 cannibals at one sitting.

--Theodore Roosevelt became America's first judo brown belt.

--John Adams--President no. 2--spoke with a lisp because he refused to wear dentures.

--James Madison--no. 4--was only 5'5" tall and weighed 100 pounds.

--James Buchanan--no. 15--was domestic partners with Alabama Senator William R. King for many years. Although there is no hard evidence of a sexual relationship, Buchanan may have been our first gay president.

--James Garfield--no. 22--could simultaneously write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other.

--William McKinley's--no. 25--wife suffered from epilepsy. If she went into a seizure during a dinner party, he would cover her head with a napkin to prevent guests from having to watch her face contort.

--Herbert Hoover--no. 31--didn't like to look at his servants, so he installed a bell system in the White House. Three rings signaled that he was approaching, meaning it was time for them to hide in a closet or behind a bush.

--No.32: During a speech in 1933, an assassin shot at Franklin Delano Roosevelt five times and hit five people surrounding him. One was the mayor of Chicago, who later died.

--No. 38: Gerald Ford was a male model who once was on the cover of Cosmopolitan.

--The job of sniffing out truffles used to be exclusively pigs' domain. Not anymore. Poodles are the choice to hunt truffles these days. Apparently, they are easier to train.