42 Fun Facts That Are As Wild As They Are Random | Random List #219

"That orange couch" from Television series The Wire was originally found in a dumpster by the set crew and used in the Pilot. A month later when the show was picked up, they spent $5,000 building a new couch from scratch because someone threw out the old one.

27. Morgan Freeman played a singing vampire obsessed with vegetables on The Electric Company in the 1970s.

28. When John F. Kennedy met Joseph Luns, the former Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kennedy asked for his hobbies and he answered: "I fok horses", Kennedy, struck with surprise responded: "Pardon?", Luns replied: "Yes, paarden!". 'Fokken' means 'to breed', and 'horses' means 'paarden' in Dutch

29. MTV contacted Weird Al and told him they would not air his "Don't Download This Song" video if references to filesharing programs were not in some way removed, so he "made the creative decision to bleep them out as obnoxiously as possible, so that there would be no mistake I was being censored."

30. Birds that live close to the ground have low pitched calls that burst with chatter, allowing the sound to cut through ground clutter effectively. Birds that live high in trees have long, high pitched calls, which is more suited for traveling long distances through the air.

The postage stamp of The Statue of Liberty depicts not the real statue in New York, but the replica in Las Vegas.

32. The guy getting punched in the face on Pantera's album Vulgar Display of Power got paid $300 in total for it. The reason was that it took 30 tries to get it just right.

33. Wearing a white t-shirt with a large letter "T" on the front is scientifically proven to make you 10% more attractive to women.

34. When actor Jackie Gleason needed $200 for a train ticket to New York (he was afraid of flying), he went to a local storekeeper and asked for a loan. When the shopkeeper asked for ID, Gleason took him to a movie theater to watch a movie he was in. Gleason got the loan and paid it back promptly.

35. The 19th-century biologist Sir John Lubbock experimented on ants by getting them drunk. He discovered that sober ants would carry their drunken ant comrades back to their nest if they were from the same colony, but they threw drunken strangers into the ditch.

Neil Armstrong's 82-year-old grandmother told him to have a look around and not step on the moon if "it didn't look good". Neil agreed he wouldn't.

37. Inventors of bubble wrap were originally trying to make plastic wallpaper.

38. The Tempest Prognosticator was a 19th-century device that kept 12 leeches inside small bottles. They attempted to climb out of the bottles when a storm was approaching, causing a bell to ring. The number of times the bell was struck indicated the likelihood of a storm.

39. Richard II (1393) passed an act in the UK for all pubs to have a sign outside the establishment. "Whosoever shall brew ale in the town with intention of selling it must hang out a sign, otherwise he shall forfeit his ale."

40. Elaine's father on Seinfeld, played by Lawrence Tierney, was supposed to be a recurring character, but he horrified the cast and made threatening gestures toward Seinfeld with a knife.

An orca from Seaworld named Kandu V attempted to bite a Corky, a newcomer ocra, but broke her own jaw and bled to death in front of thousands.

42. There is a disease that strikes starfish "that causes the creatures’ arms to crawl in opposite directions until they tear away from the body, causing the insides to spill out."