20 Trivia Tidbits That Braised Our Short Ribs

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20 Trivia Tidbits That Braised Our Short Ribs

It was the most unlikely of things that I enjoy this list of odd facts. The idea of a list of odd facts is odd itself. The idea of me enjoying such an endeavor is equally so. Yet here we are. This list of odd facts is a collection of all my favorite odd facts, arranged by categories and sub-categories, and with explanations where needed. It is a sort of “best of” for odd facts, since all the odd facts here have already appeared on a site. I am not going to say that all of these facts are the best. 

There are thousands more facts in my book (and I may add some more here, too). But this list is a collection of all the odd facts that I like the best. And I enjoy this list of odd facts as much as I enjoy my book. This is the first list of odd facts. In fact, it is my very first list of odd facts. But it won't be my last. 

A fortune cookie really had lucky numbers for 110 people.

In 2005, one Powerball drawing had 110 second-place winners, instead of the usual 4 or 5. CRACKED.COM All of the winners attribut- ed their luck to a fortune cookie which just so hap- pened to correctly foretell five of the six winning numbers. Each winner took home between $100,000 and $500,000.

NY Daily News

Will anyone buy our waffle shaped like Wyoming?

Two Virginia sisters sold a cornflake that was shaped like the state of Illinois for $1,350. GRACKED.COM Monty Kerr, the owner of a trivia website from Austin, Texas, bought the cereal flake from eBay, explaining that he was starting a col- lection of pop culture and Americana items for a traveling museum.

NBC News

Children of identical twins share 25 percent of their DNA.

Children of identical twins are genetically siblings, not cousins. GRACKED.COM Cousins whose parents are identical twins share 25 percent of their DNA, instead of the usual 12.5 percent, making them ge- netically the equivalent of half-siblings.

The Tech

A stolen coffee pot resulted in a free stay at the Roosevelt Hotel.

The Roosevelt hotel gave away a 7-night stay and spa treatment services to someone who stole a coffee pot. GRAGKED.COM The hotel was running a contest to see who could steal the most outrageous item from the premises. Leigh Guglielmo, thanks to the historic coffee pot she nicked, won the hotel package worth $15,000.

The Ehrhardt Group

Sunglasses were invented in 12th century China.

Sunglasses were originally designed for Chinese judges to hide their facial expressions in court. CRACKED.COM Sunglasses were originally made out of smoky quartz in 12th century China, where they were used by judges to mask their emo- tions when they were ques- tioning witnesses.

Glasses History

Religious websites give you the most viruses.

You're more likely to get a computer virus from visiting religious sites than porn sites. CRACKED.COM Security firm Symantec found that the average number of security threats on religious sites was around 115, compared to adult content sites which carried around 25.

PC World

A full fridge is an efficient fridge.

The fuller the fridge, the more energy-efficient it is. CRACKED COM The more empty space in the fridge, the more cold air is displaced by warm air when you open the door, requiring the appli- ance to generate cool air to replace it.

The Kitchn

The military is to thank for McDonald’s drive-throughs.

McDonald's introduced drive-through service due to the military. McDonald's GRAGKED.COM Military rules forbade the sol- diers from wearing their mili- tary uniforms in public, so the Sierra Vista, Arizona restaurant cut a hole into a wall to allow members of the military to pick up their or- ders from their car.

AZ Central

Bonobo apes are really Bolobo apes.

The name bonobo resulted from a misspelling. CRACKED.COM Researchers reputedly first found the animals in the town of Bolobo, Zaire, in the '20s, but the name of the place was mis- spelled Bonobo on the shipping crate.

NY Times

You can become part of a reef after you die.

There's a company that turns dead bodies into an ocean reef. CRACKED COM Eternal Reefs mixes the cremated remains of a person with con- crete, which is then encased in a reef ball that is dropped into the sea.

Eternal Reefs

The first blue-eyed person had a mutation thousands of years ago.

All blue-eyed people are related to a mutant named The Founder. GRACKED.COM Danish researchers believe the identical gene sequence displayed in blue eyed indi- viduals comes from a single person called the found- er, whose genes mutated between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Business Insider

Nearly all the garlic consumed in the U.S. comes from Gilroy, California.

Nearly all the garlic consumed in the U.S. comes from Gilroy, California. GRACKED.COM The area grows around 90 percent of the garlic Americans eat, which is around 150 million pounds per year.

LA Times

Jimmy Carter saw a UFO.

Jimmy Carter filed a report in 1973 for a UFO sighting four years prior. CRACKED.COM Carter, as well as 10 to 12 other people who wit- nessed the same event, described the object as 'very bright chang- ing colors and about the size of the moon.'

History

The Golden Gate bridge is orange, not gold.

The official color of the Golden Gate Bridge is International Orange. CRACKED.COM Architect Irving F. Morrow undertook color studies, which resulted in the unique color because it blended well with the near- by hills and contrasted with the ocean and sky.

Golden Gate

Pirates thought precious metals had magic healing powers.

Pirates wore earrings because they thought it improved their eyesight. CRACKED.COM Some pirates were convinced that wearing an earring would improve or even cure bad eyesight, as they be- lieved that the precious met- als in an earring possessed magical healing powers.

Live Science

There were no ‘immaculate innings’ between 1929 and 1952.

There were more 'immaculate innings' in 2017 than from 1929-1952. NEW YORK 34 CRACKED.COM An immaculate inning is when a baseball pitcher strikes out three batters with only nine pitches. 1929 to 1952 saw zero such innings, while there were 8 in 2017 alone.

MLB

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