Random Fact Sheet #192 – 35 Quirky Trivia Bits to Liven Up Your Day

United States anticipated so many casualties in the planned invasion of Japan during WW2, that it is still awarding Purple Hearts originally manufactured during the war and intended for troops of that invasion.

27. Jazz violinist Joe Venuti, known for practical jokes, once called every double bass player in the New York phonebook, asking them to meet with him on a street corner. Over 50 arrived with their instruments, creating a minor roadblock. Venuti later had to pay them all, as mandated by the AFM.

28. Although there is no specialized sensory organ for time, our perception of time nevertheless depends on the rate of change in different sensory modalities. In the absence of sensory input, e.g. under anesthesia, the sense of time is often lost or impaired.

29. 17 miles (27km) from Mount Rushmore, a gigantic sculpture is being carved in the Black Hills, showing Native Chief Crazy Horse on his steed, pointing east. The construction started in 1948 and will take another 50 years to be completed.

30. The US reached peak coal mining employment in 1923, when there were 883,000 coal miners employed in the US. Today, there are only 50,000 coal miners in the US. Nevertheless, the US produces about 50% more coal than it did 100 years ago.

The highest point (The peak of Mount Whitney at 14,494 feet / 4,418 meters) and the lowest point (The Badwater Basin area of Death Valley at -282 feet / -86 meters) in the Contiguous United States are both in California, both in the same county in California, and only 88 miles apart.

32. The 1981 Cadillac Eldorados were fitted with a metal plate under the driver's seat to fix a balancing problem. This saved mob associate Frank Rosenthal's life when the plate shielded him from the force of a car bomb exploding under his Eldorado.

33. A stray dog in Russia named Malchik made a Moscow train station his home, acting as the resident guard dog. In 2001, a woman fatally wounded Malchik, stabbing him multiple times with a kitchen knife. The woman was arrested and tried. A statue, named "Compassion", was erected in honor of Malchik.

34. The Olympic flag's colors are always red, black, blue, green, and yellow rings on a field of white. This is because at least one of those colors appears on the flag of every nation on the planet.

35. Wes Craven placed a torn poster of Jaws in the background of "The Hills Have Eyes" to communicate to the audience that he believed his movie was much scarier. Later, Sam Raimi places a torn poster of The Hills Have Eyes in The Evil Dead to communicate the same message towards Craven.