Random Fact Sheet #2 – 40 Super Weird Yet True Facts

In 41 states, parents without high school diplomas or GEDs are permitted to homeschool their children

2. Stephen King's formula on writing is "Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer." He sets out each day with a quota of 2000 words and will not stop writing until it is met.

3. In 1987, Fisher-Price manufactured and sold a camcorder (PXL-2000 camcorder) capable of recording video footage to standard audio cassettes.

4. In the late 60s, a group of imposters from Texas pretended to be the British rock band the Zombies and toured throughout the U.S to sold out shows. Two of those imposters (Dusty Hill and Frank Beard) would go on to form ZZ Top.

5. Marvel sued City of Heroes (a superhero based online game) because their users were making heroes based on Marvel characters. It later turned out that Marvel's own investigators had made many of the characters cited in the lawsuit.

Oliver Sipple, who saved then President Gerald Ford's life from an assassin, was subsequently outed as gay by the press, disowned by his family and ultimately died regretting saving the President

7. The "Stranger Things" font is the same one used in the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook from the late '80s.

8. The Canadian government established one of the most northern settlements in the world (Grise Fiord) by tricking 8 families into living there and then not allowing them to leave.

9. American outlaw Billy the Kid was fluent in Gaeilge (the Irish language) and he once acted as a translator for the daughter of an Irish ranch owner when she needed to converse with American ranch hands because she was only fluent in Irish

10. In old U.S elections, the President could not choose his vice president, instead, it was the candidate with the second most vote

Even though he was a teenager during the Great Depression, John F. Kennedy confessed he really didn't know about it until he read about it at Harvard.

12. The last Emperor of Brazil Pedro II became ruler aged 5. He had a grim, lonely childhood studying for duty. He won 3 wars, turned Brazil into a global power & abolished slavery. After 58 years he grew weary, accepting a military coup. He lived his last days alone in Europe on very little money.

13. JK Rowling's first husband named Jorge Arantes was a 23-year-old student who claimed that he was the first to read Harry Potter. Their marriage fell apart less than a year later after he forced her out of the apartment with their baby daughter at 5 in the morning

14. There are mysterious tunnels in South America, some thousands of feet long, thought to have been dug by extinct giant sloths.

15. Tesla became a gambling addict, lost all his tuition money, dropped out of school and suffered a nervous breakdown.

The modern English word phoenix derives from the Middle English word phenix, itself from the Old English Fenix, which was borrowed from Medieval Latin phenix, which is derived from Classic Latin phoenix

17. There is a reply to "Liar, liar, pants are on fire", it's "I don't care, I don't care, I can buy another pair"

18. Ted Lindsay one of the greatest players in NHL history refused to attend his own Hall of Fame ceremony because women weren't allowed to attend. The league changed the rules to allow women the following year.

19. Overfishing in US waters is at a historic low, with only 16% of US stocks overfished compared to 63% globally, and that 39 US fisheries have recovered from overfishing since the 1990s

20. A hot dog stand in the center of the Pentagon was rumored to be the target of a Soviet missile strike during the Cold War because the Soviets reportedly thought it was the Pentagon’s most top secret meeting room, and the entire Pentagon was a large fortress built around the hot dog stand.

James Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, gave the Peter Pan copyright to Great Ormond Street Hospital, the leading children's hospital in London, which helped support the institution's work for 70 years after his passing.

22. Being sexually aroused reduces men's feelings of disgust. Scientists have found that when men are already aroused, things they would normally say are gross become more appealing, including sex with animals and watching a woman urinate

23. In 2000, a man named Rick Norsigian looking for a barber chair at a garage sale purchased a two deteriorated boxes of items for $45. He later found the boxes contained 65 glass plate negatives from photographer Ansel Adams worth $200 million.

24. Fuller Cut is a barbershop that gives a $2 discount if a child reads aloud while getting a cut. The $2 discount is given to the child after the cut.

25. Although Freddie Mercury was known for his large vocal range, he was actually a baritone. He didn't believe that his fans would recognize his voice unless he sang as a tenor.