Fast facts


Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, February 9, 2005

  • Ash Wednesday is named for the practice of putting ashes on one's forehead as a sign of penitence.

  • More than 17 percent of all airplanes nationwide have been found to have fecal coliform bacteria in their drinking water. Bring your own water.

  • The monastic hours are matins, lauds, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline.

  • If you come from Manchester, you are a Mancunian.

  • Libya has the only flag that is all one color with no writing or decoration on it.

  • The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infrared and ultra-violet light.

  • The tune for the "A-B-C" song is the same as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

  • The first fossilized specimen of Australopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the paleontologists' favorite song, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," by the Beatles.

  • Des Moines has the highest per capita gelatin consumption in the United States.

  • There are only three animals with blue tongues: the black bear, the Chow Chow dog and the blue-tongued lizard.

  • The infinity sign is called a lemniscate.

  • Hacky-sack was invented in Turkey.

  • There are six words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum, continuum, duumvirate, duumvir and residuum.

  • Hamsters love to eat crickets.

  • Roberta Flack wrote "Killing Me Softly" about singer Don McLean.

  • All three major 1996 Presidential candidates, Clinton, Dole and Perot, are left-handed.

  • The Madagascar hissing cockroach is one of the few insects that give birth to live young, rather than laying eggs.

  • Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have a seven-vertebra neck.