Random Fact Sheet #45 – 40 Weird and Wonderful Facts

Armadillos of the genus Dasypus (the only ones found in the US) give birth to four genetically identical young that split from the same embryo; i.e. they always have identical quadruplets. They are the only known vertebrate animals to exhibit this "polyembryony".

2. The coins that are tossed into many of the world's most famous fountains are collected and donated to charities. The Trevi Fountain in Italy alone collects about $15,000 a week!

3. Jesse Spencer, the actor who plays Dr. Chase in House M.D., has three siblings, all of whom are doctors.

4. The Can-Can dance was originally considered scandalous as it became popular in the mid-19th century because many women of that time wore pantalettes, which had an open crotch, meaning that a high kick could be unintentionally revealing.

5. The stereotypical American southern accent is an aristocratic British accent with a southern lilt.

A French philosopher named Jean-Paul Sartre hallucinated seeing crabs for most of his life after taking mescaline (psychedelic alkaloid).

7. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is based on a poem Tim Burton wrote in 1982 while working at Disney, who had purchased the film rights but felt it was too weird. Years later (after being fired from Disney) Tim realized they still owned the rights and convinced Disney to greenlight the movie.

8. The parody Twitter account DPRK_News has been quoted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and Fox News as if speaking for the real North Korean state news agency.

9. Bladerunner is so visually stunning partly because of the 1980 Hollywood Actors Strike, which gave the film's Art Department and Designers an extra 3 months to improve and refine significantly their futuristic sets and props.

10. Actress Veronica Lake, famous for her "peek a boo" hairstyle with one eye covered, changed her style during World War 2 in order to encourage women to adopt safer hairstyles when working in factories.

The bald eagle hasn't been considered an endangered species since 2007.

12. Sardine isn't actually a species of fish but rather a generic name given to various small, oily fish within the herring family of Clupeidae.

13. The cast/crew of Star Wars: A New Hope flew coach to England due to a low budget. Carrie Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, called George Lucas to complain about her daughter flying coach. Fisher took the phone from Lucas and said "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you fu*k off?!" and hung up.

14. The Count of Monte Cristo has never been out of print in most modern languages.

15. October 31, 2017, will be the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting the 95 Theses, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

If you send a letter to Israel addressed to God, they will place it in the Western Wall, where visitors traditionally place handwritten notes of prayer and wishes in the cracks between its stones.

17. During the Irish Potato Famine, the poor were given construction jobs, so they could earn food rather than receive it as a handout. However, to avoid taking jobs from other workers, these people built useless projects, like roads in the middle of nowhere, and piers in the middle of bogs.

18. Despite its name, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", the show hasn't actually aired live since 2004, when censors were unable to properly bleep a swearing rant from actor Thomas Jane.

19. Warriors on the Pacific Island of Kiribati fought with porcupinefish helmets and wooden swords lined with shark's teeth.

20. When famed reclusive author Thomas Pynchon appeared as himself on The Simpsons, he refused to speak one of the lines in which he was supposed to call Homer a "fat a*s," arguing he couldn't possibly say anything bad about his "role model".

Phasing out large currencies reduce crime and corruption because smaller currencies increase the amount of space and weight needed to transport, store, and process cash while maintaining the same value.

22. "Chemo curls" is a documented phenomenon that can occur after chemotherapy where one's hair structure can completely change from blonde to dark and/or straight to curly and vise versa.

23. Several high school friends formed the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America (CEPTIA) in 1968, which eventually led to laws banning pay toilets in several states.

24. In order to eliminate gender bias, many orchestras use blind auditions in which the candidates play their instrument behind a screen.

25. There are now more overweight than underweight people in the world.