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THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU DIDN’T KNOW
Amongst her many outstanding qualities, Hildie has the rare knack of buying me Christmas (and other) presents that always hit the mark precisely and accurately - and last Christmas was no exception.  Familiar, as she is, with my enthusiasm for meaningful trivia (of which there’s been plenty of evidence in this ‘ere blog over the years) and my love of trivia’s main tv outlet - QI - she killed two birds with one stone and gave me 1,339 QI Facts To Make Your Jaw Drop.

So I’m devoting this blog to both Hildie and her marvellous gift, which has managed to fuel my senses of wonder and curiosity at the same time.

There used to be a regular slot on The Nightshift, and subsequently on this blog, called Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know.  This is the ‘industrial strength’ version.

These facts have been chosen entirely at random by letting the book fall open wherever it wanted to and then sticking a pin in the page…

* New York City gets 15 times as much snow as the South Pole
* People who die of old age are more likely to die at 1100 than at any other time
* The average British woman owns 22 items of clothing that she never wears
* There’s a sports accessory store in Toronto called The Merchant of Tennis - for proof, see photo
* It’s impossible to suck water up through a straw more than 34ft (10.4m) long
* Prozac makes fish angry
* In 1673 Dover and Calais were joined by ice
* Astatine is an element so rare that there’s only one ounce (28.4 grams) of it in the whole world
* The ingredient that makes Brussels sprouts bitter is cyanide
* Snow which has been trodden to a mush is called ‘snowbroth’
* Only 2% of Kuwaitis are over 65
* Buzz is Arabic for ‘nipple’
* In England, spiders outnumber people by 500,000 to 1
* Half of all animal and plant species live in one country and nowhere else
* La Paz, in Bolivia, was the first South American city to get an electricity supply - it was powered by llama dung
* 70% of Americans believe in angels
* Adolf Hitler bit his nails
* Mice can cough
* The French for ‘grand piano’ is piano à queue, which means ‘piano with a tail’.

And finally…
Where we say cheese when being photographed, the French say ouistiti (‘marmoset’), Bulgarians say zele (‘cabbage’), Estonians say hernesupp (‘pea soup’) and Thais say pepsi.

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AGM XLII
The first AGM since Adam was a lad will take place at 1100 this upcoming Thursday 6 February at Oliver’s in Grainger Market.  Admission - one amazing piece of trivia.

You’d better be there because the next AGM isn’t scheduled until August 2017.

So see you on Thursday

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CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or email me:  truckshunters@googlemail.com