Random Fact Sheet #139 – 35 Unusual and Eccentric Facts

The only difference between Tylenol Cold and Tylenol Flu is the box. They have exactly the same medical ingredients.

2. Hall of fame boxer, Sugar Ray Robinson once backed out of a fight because he had a dream that he was going to kill his opponent in the ring. After a priest and a minister convinced him to fight, Robinson went into the ring and killed his opponent, Jimmy Doyle in the fight.

3. The chains that you can see hanging under school buses and trucks are there to provide traction in snow. With the flip of a switch, the chains will lower automatically and the centrifugal force sends the chains into action.

4. Netflix monitors what is being illegally downloaded on BitTorrent and other pirate sites in order to work out what shows they ought to try and purchase.

5. Nicolas Cage won China's 'Best Global Actor' award in 2013.

A Bosnian man named Amir Vehabovic faked his own death including forging a death certificate and bribing undertakers, just to see who would come to his funeral. Only his mother showed up.

7. A Japanese stock trader named Takashi Kotegawa turned $13,600 into $156 million over 8 years and he still "eats cup ramen for almost all of his meals."

8. The waffled style ice cream cone, hamburgers, hot dogs, iced tea, cotton candy, and Dr. Pepper, were all first introduced to mass audiences or popularized at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

9. Jams are made from fruit, while jellies are made from juice. Preserves have chunks of fruit, conserves have dried fruit or nuts, and marmalades have peel and pulp. Fruit butter is slowly cooked to a smooth consistency.

10. Yang Yuanqing (Lenovo's CEO) received a $3 million bonus as a reward for record profits, which he in-turn redistributed to about 10,000 Lenovo's employees. He did the same thing again in 2013.

John Swartzwelder, a writer for the Simpsons used to write episodes while sitting in a booth at a coffee shop, "drinking copious amounts of coffee and smoking endless cigarettes." When California passed an anti-smoking law, he bought the diner booth and installed it in his house.

12. "Strawberries" and "peaches" in Quaker Instant Oatmeal are actually flavored dehydrated apples. The "blueberries" are flavored dried figs.

13. A Colombian drug trafficker named Carlos Lehder bought himself an island in the Bahamas where he put an airstrip which controlled the drugs coming in from South America and entering the United States. He became so wealthy that he offered to pay Colombia's foreign debt for amnesty.

14. Reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone in 1995 changed the entire geography of the park as elk were displaced, saplings that would have been eaten by elk were spared, riverbank erosion was brought under control, and streams and rivers shifted their courses.

15. Horseshoe-crab blood, at $60,000/gallon, is valued to such an extreme degree because it is not only employed worldwide in bacterial contamination tests, it is also used in testings for every single drug approved by the FDA, making it a $50 million/year industry.

Actor Rick Moranis was fired from the set of The Breakfast Club movie after he kept playing the janitor as a goofy Russian character.

17. When a journalist innocently asked Pope John XXIII, "Your Holiness, how many people work in the Vatican?" He replied, "About half of them."

18. For those who have trouble sleeping, researchers say that one week of camping, without electronics usually resets our biological body clock and synchronizes our melatonin hormones with sunrise and sunset.

19. Paper can be recycled only six times. After that, the fibers are too weak to hold together.

20. Sir Jeffrey Hudson, the Court Dwarf of Charles I, challenged a man who insulted him to a duel on horseback. The man thought it was a joke, and showed up to the duel with a water gun, instead of a real pistol. Unfortunately, Hudson was quite serious and shot the man in the head, killing him.

Woody Harrelson's dad (Charles Harrelson) was a hitman and died in prison while serving a life sentence for killing a Federal Judge.

22. There is a Royal Navy superstition that whistling on a ship can summon strong winds. Traditionally, the only person allowed to whistle is the ship's cook, as it means he's not eating the food.

23. Cockle bread was a bread baked by English women in the 17th century, which was supposed to act as a love charm. The dough was kneaded and pressed against the woman’s vulva and then baked. This bread was then given to the object of the baker’s affections.

24. A 480-pound woman named Gayle Laverne Grinds died after having spent her last 6 years of her life stuck in a couch and died attached to the couch as well. By the time of her death, her skin had literally become one with the fabric of the sofa.

25. During the London riots of 2011, the looting and vandalism which took place throughout the city were almost totally avoided by bookshops. One man said his store would probably stay open during the unrest, stating: "If they steal some books, they might actually learn something."