Fast facts


Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Things you always never wanted to know

  • Denzel Washington was turned down for the role of Sgt. Elias in "Platoon." The role, originally intended for an American Indian, was eventually given to Willem Dafoe.

  • The average size of bras sold at Frederick's of Hollywood in 1966 was a 34B. Today, it's a 36C.

  • The five favorite school lunches nationwide, according to the American School Food Service Association, are, in order, pizza, chicken nuggets, tacos, burritos and hamburgers.

  • Ty Cobb, who broke many batting and base-stealing records while playing with the Detroit Tigers (1905-1926), never had his uniform number retired. Simply, Cobb was never issued a number. Major League Baseball clubs didn't start putting numbers on uniforms until the 1930s.

  • Politically and socially, Switzerland is one of the most stable nations in the world. This is remarkable, considering its small size and limited supply of primary resources. The country also has significant ethnic diversity.

  • A cheetah covers between seven to eight meters in a single stride, and can complete four strides per second.

  • The state of Oregon has one city named Sisters and another called Brothers. Sisters got its name from a nearby trio of peaks in the Cascade Mountains known as the Three Sisters. Brothers was named as a counterpart to Sisters.

  • The largest jellyfish in the world has a bell that can reach eight feet across and tentacles that extend over half the length of a football field.

  • In cooking, herbs should be added near the end of the cooking process to preserve more of the herbs' volatile oils, which are dissipated by heat.

  • Two out of three adults in the United States have hemorrhoids – but don't worry, they're not contagious.