Random Fact Sheet #170 – 30 Fascinating Nuggets of Trivia

Under Ontario traffic laws, it is illegal to operate a horse-drawn sleigh on public roads with fewer than two sleigh bells attached to it. Penalty on conviction is a fine not exceeding $5.

2. Captain Robert Knox (1641 – 1720) of British East India Company was imprisoned for 20 years in the south Asian island of Ceylon. Upon his escape, he bought back a "strange intoxicating herb" unheard of in Europe. The herb is known today as Cannabis Indica.

3. There is an exclusive club in Antarctica called Club 300. In order to become a member one have to warm themselves in a 200-degree sauna, and then run outside naked and touch the Ceremonial South Pole where it's 100 degrees below.

4. Lucy's Law bans pet shops and dealers in England from selling puppies and kittens. It was named after Lucy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who developed fused hips, a curved spine, bald patches, and epilepsy after years of mistreatment in the puppy farming system.

5. The discovery of oil as fuel was an environmental miracle for whales as it made hunting whales for their oil far less competitive.

The casting of Daniel Craig to play James Bond was highly criticized. Throughout the making of the film, internet campaigns expressed their dissatisfaction and threatened to boycott the film in protest. However, upon its release, it became the highest grossing James Bond film until that time.

7. In 2017, a frat party in a Maryland house tested positive on a breathalyzer because there was so much alcohol in the air.

8. William Burke killed with his partner 16 people and sold their bodies for use as specimens in anatomy classes of Edinburgh Medical School. He was hanged for his crimes and his corpse was publicly dissected and preserved in the anatomical museum of the same school.

9. JH Kellog, the inventor of granola, was estranged from his brother WK Kellogg. He wrote a letter seeking to reopen the relationship. His secretary decided her employer had demeaned himself in it and refused to send it. The younger Kellogg did not see it until after his brother's death.

10. "Type A" personalities (stressed workaholics prone to angry outbursts) and "Type B" (more relaxed and agreeable) are "to a large extent a construct of the tobacco industry" and "the tobacco industry was a major funder and stimulant of research on stress."

In 1959, Prince Edward County, Virginia decided to close its entire public school system rather than integrate black children into their schools. It then created all-white private schools funded by state tuition grants and county tax credits. Many black children had no education for 5 years.

12. American actor Dick Van Dyke dropped out of high school during his senior year in 1944 to join the military. He went on to earn his diploma in 2004 at the age of 78.

13. In 1958, filmmaker William Castle came up with one of the most famous movie marketing stunts of all time. Upon purchasing a ticket to the Movie “Macabre” you were also given a $1,000 life insurance policy. If you died of fright during the film, the film promised to pay out to your heirs.

14. A male grey wolf, dubbed OR-7 or Journey, migrated more than 1000 miles in 2011, alone through Oregon and California in search of a mate.

15. If you clap your hands at the base of a Chichen Itza pyramid, it makes a “bird” sound.

The Legend of the Christmas Spider is an Eastern European folktale explains the tinsel on Christmas trees. According to the story, a poor widow couldn’t afford to decorate her tree. A spider covered it in cobwebs overnight and morning sunlight turned the webs into gold and silver. The family then never lived in poverty again.

17. The raised reflectors in between lanes on the highway also indicate direction. Normally they reflect white or yellow but if they appear red, it’s because you are going the wrong way.

18. There is a public high school named James Madison High School in Brooklyn that produced 5 Nobel Prize winners, 3 US Senators, 1 Supreme Court Judge and numerous other scientists, artists, and entertainers.

19. If a tail shed by a Tokay gecko as a decoy was not eaten by the chasing predator (and the lizard gets away too), the lizard would return to eat its own tail. Turns out the shed tail is a great source of fat to regain the energy lost in its getaway.

20. ‘Shturmovshchina’ is a Russian term for working frantically to meet a deadline after having not done anything for a month.

Shaq (Shaquille O’Neal) is an electronic music DJ, and goes by the name 'DJ Deisel.' He put out an album in 1993, which went platinum. He did spend most of 1992-2011 on the basketball court, but Shaq also recorded four more studio albums and one compilation album.

22. Americans eat 100 acres of pizza every day. That’s 350 slices every second.

23. It takes four or five generations of monarch butterflies to complete the annual migration from Mexico to northern USA/Canada in the spring but in the fall a single "super generation" completes the entire 3,000-mile journey.

24. A 6th-grade student named Hunter Scott did a research project on the USS Indianapolis in 1997 which eventually led to the exoneration of Captain Charles B McVay, who had widely been held responsible for the sinking of the ship in 1945 by Japanese forces. McVay committed suicide in 1968.

25. In 2018, 12 camels were disqualified from a Saudi beauty pageant when a veterinarian was caught injecting their noses, lips, and jaw with botox to make them more attractive.