Fast Facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Things you've always never wanted to know
The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.
The state with the longest coastline in the U.S. is Michigan.
"Pulp Fiction" cost $8 million to make, with $5 million going to actors' salaries.
"Underground" is the only English word that begins and ends with the letters "U," "N" and "D."
The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer.
If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but closer to 4,950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.
The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F.
Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula," and can be abbreviated to 3.6 percent of its size, "L.A."
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
"Facetious" and "abstemious" contain all the vowels in the correct order.
A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge. A dime has 118.
"Diddle for the middle" is a slang expression used for the start of a darts game. Opposing players each throw a single dart at the bull's eye. The person who is closest starts the game.
"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
"Guddling" was the act of fishing with one's hands by reaching under stones along river banks. It is now a largely obsolete term.
A bowling pin needs to tilt only 7.5 degrees to fall.
A cluster of fireworks that revolves is called a "girandole."