If you read my post on Friday and yesterday, you’ll know that my computer has been causing me some major headaches.  So I’m continuing the Random Trivia theme for this week’s Random Tuesday Thoughts just so I can play along.  Trivia is Fun.  And I need some Fun right about now!  Enjoy!

The most played song on American radio during the twentieth century was You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling which was written by Barry Mann, Phil Spector, and Cynthia Weil.  Although recorded by different artists, the song is the only one in history to be played over 8 million times on the radio. That amounts to about 45 years if the song was played back to back!  Three songs were played 7 million times: Never My Love, Yesterday, and Stand By Me (in that order).

There are approximately ten million bricks in the Empire State Building.

From space, the brightest man-made place is Las Vegas, Nevada.

The most common invention of the 19th century was the washing machine.  Between 1804 and 1873, at least 1676 patents were issued by the United States Patent Office for various forms of this device.

The five most stolen items in a drugstore are batteries, cosmetics, film, sunglasses, and – get this – Preparation H. Apparently people are just too embarrassed to purchase the last item.  And, just in case you are curious, one of Preparation H’s main ingredient is shark liver oil.  The oil not only helps shrink hemorrhoids, but will shrink any tissue.  As a result, many older women in Florida use the stuff to help reduce the appearance of wrinkles!

It’s widely (or not) known that Alexander Graham Bell beat Elisha Gray to the patent office by a mere two hours with his application to patent the telephone.  However, ten years after Bell’s patent was issued, patent examiner Zenas Wilber admitted in a sworn affidavit that he had taken a $100 bribe from Bell, had taken a loan from Bell’s patent attorney, and had given Bell the complete details of Gray’s caveat.

In four separate instances between October 1987 and February 1988, small pink frogs rained down from the sky on to various parts of Great Britain. Scientists are still uncertain as to where these frogs originated, although some have traced them back to the Sahara desert.

The Malaysian government decided to solve their disease-carrying mosquito problem by spraying the infested areas with DDT.  This worked, but the cockroaches then devoured the dead mosquitoes.  This was followed by the region’s gecko lizards consuming the roaches.  The geckos did not die from the residual poison (surprisingly), but their central nervous systems were greatly affected, causing the lizards to slow down. Moving up the food chain, the cats ate the slow-moving lizards and started to die off in large quantities. Of course, fewer cats meant more rats, and the country’s rat population soared.  As a result, the World Health Organization was forced to step in and ban the DDT.  In an effort to restore the ecological balance, they flew in plane loads of cats to kill the rats.

Two hundred and twenty six soldiers lost their lives way back in 1850 when they crossed a suspension bridge that spanned the Maine at Angers, France. It turns out that they were all marching in step and had caused an increased resonance (vibration) to the bridge. Ever since, troops are ordered to rout step (march out of step) when crossing a bridge.

The phrase “Often a bridesmaid but never a bride” actually comes from an advertisement for Listerine mouthwash.  The text was written by Milton Feasley and first appeared in 1925.  The advertisement was so successful that it ran for more than ten years.

Richard Milhous Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word “criminal.” The second? William Jefferson Clinton.

No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times.

If you want actual Random Thoughts, head over to Keely’s place for some Random Fun!

randomtuesday

Quick Note:  If you’re reading this is in IE7 or earlier, you won’t be able to leave a comment – I’m still trying to find out why…meanwhile, if you insist on using IE as your browser of choice, upgrading to IE8 resolves the issue and comments can be left.  Or you can jump on the bandwagon of Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome and have way less headaches… 😉

25 Comments

  1. I am loving this trivia post! I knew two of them, the Las Vegas thing and I heard about the frog incident, as a matter of fact, there was a movie that used the concept, I cannot remember it’s name. Happy Tuesday!
    .-= Otin´s last blog ..Random Tuesday Thoughts =-.

  2. Random trivia for Random Tuesday’s Thoughts brought to you by Stacy’s Random Thoughts. Even in randomness, there seems to be a sense of order.

    Some of those pieces of trivia were tested by the Myth Busters– the bridge and the folding of paper. I found the paper one most interesting since they got a piece of paper the size of a gym and still couldn’t fold it more than 7 times.

    Thank you for your randomness,
    .-= Christopher (AKA: CaJoh)´s last blog ..RTT: Spinning Wheels =-.

  3. I am so sorry about your computer problems. Let me know if there is any way I can help (although I lean towards the throw it out the window type of solutions). I don’t know what I would do if it started to rain pink frogs. I can’t even imagine my reaction. Probably call my husband and ask him to fix it. I have to admit, I tried the paper folding thing. I haven’t found one yet, but I am still looking :).
    .-= Anne´s last blog ..Random Tuesday Thoughts =-.

  4. This was an awesome trivia post. I love trivia! The bit about the frogs in Britain was extra weird. The DDT thing was interesting. It doesn’t surprise me that it screwed up their whole ecosystem.

    Have a great day!

    Raven
    .-= Raven´s last blog ..Randomly Yours =-.

  5. OMG, these were GREAT! I cannot believe the whole Malaysian thing! They really air lifted cats there? OMG, hysterical!

    Hmmm… now I have an urge to try and fold a piece of paper more than 7 times.

    Justine 😮 )
    .-= Justine´s last blog ..I’ve Got Nothing But An Idea =-.

  6. Sorry about the continuing computer problems … hope they get resolved soon. Loved the trivia … never heard of pink frogs and as for the DDT, let’s hear it for unintended consequences. I used to tell my students about the 7 fold thing … they always tried to prove me wrong 😉
    Hugs and blessings,
    .-= storyteller´s last blog ..What on my mind … =-.

  7. Come on, what could possibly be embarrassing about hemorrhoid ointment…

    Of course the washing machine was popular, can you imagine doing five loads of laundry on a washboard.

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