Useless Facts about anything

[nigeninja]

Bruce lee die before he saw the finished film Enter the Dragon,the film that made him a world superstar

Brandon lee (bruce lee's son) die before he saw the finished film The Crow,the film that is widely belived would have made him a world superstar.

[Beady]

Your foot is the same length as the distance between your wrist and your elbow

[Rich H]

And 50% of you have just tried to put your foot against your arm...

[mayevora]

Scooby Doo's first real name is Scoobert

[Roger 912]

From "That Was The Week That Was" from the 1960's.

If all the students in the World were placed head to toe around the equator, I would not be at all surprised.

Did you know that 7 out of 10 doctors leaves three.

[The Veg]

And 50% of you have just tried to put your foot against your arm...

I succeeded.

[esprit22]

The phrase "happy as a sand boy" ... anyone know its origin?

[dodgy]

American readers will probably be more familiar with 'as happy as a clam', which originated in the USA in the 19th century. The Australian version is 'as happy as Larry', which (probably) originated there. Other creatures that are reputedly more than usually happy are larks, dogs with two tails and pigs in shit.

The word 'sandboy' brings to mind images of a child playing on the beach, making sand-castles and the like. In fact, sandboy was the name of those who delivered sand to public houses, theatres and homes in the 18th and 19th centuries. Children were used in that trade, but most sandboys were adults. This use of 'boy' has frequently been used for low-status male workers, as in tea-boy, barrow-boy, house-boy etc.

The use that the sand was put to was as a crude floor covering - a precursor to sawdust in what later became known as 'spit and sawdust' establishments - public spitting wasn't then reviled as it is now.

The earliest printed citation of the phrase that I can find is from Pierce Egan's Real Life in London, 1821:

"...appeared to be as happy as a sand-boy, who had unexpectedly met with good luck in disposing of his hampers full of the above-household commodity. "

As happy as a sandboyCharles Dickens made an oblique reference to the variant form of the phrase, 'as jolly as a sand-boy', in his 1840 novel The Old Curiosity Shop, in which the inn The Jolly Sandboys features. The original printing of the book included etchings, one of which shows the 'sandboys' in party mood. Dickens describes the place like this:

"The Jolly Sandboys was a small road-side inn of pretty ancient date, with a sign, representing three Sandboys increasing their jollity with as many jugs of ale".

Carting sand may have been hard and dusty work, but the sandboys' reputation for happiness seems more straightforward than with clams or 'Larry' - they were often intoxicated.

Edited September 12, 2011 by Dodgy

[esprit22]

Good one Dave.

True that in the "olden days", in London, the wooden floors of public houses were covered with sand collected in buckects from the nearby Thames by young boys. At the end of the evening, the boys swept up the old sand and more often than not found coins that had been dropped by customers...hence the saying "happy as a sand boy"

[Iconic Ride]

There are six million parts in the Boeing 747-400

Is that true?

It's actually five million nine hundred thousand nine hundred ninety-nine, but they rounded up for simplicity.

.

Did you know that 7 out of 10 doctors leaves three.

True.

And 10 out of 7 bloggers are dyslexic.

[rogerch]

Global warming is caused by politicians, "hot air"

[Iconic Ride]

Gee, and all this time I thought global warming was caused by an increase in temperature.

[oneshot]

And 10 out of 7 bloggers are dyslexic.

Technically it is dyscalculia that people suffer from if they misplace numbers.

[Iconic Ride]

True.

And 10 out of 10 moderators are transpositional pedantic anoraks.

[oneshot]

I knew you knew that really.

Now what do they call someone who mixes up their words...........

[rogerch]

[lrg_machine]

I knew you knew that really.

Now what do they call someone who mixes up their words...........

Answer = Drunk

Pentheraphobia is a fear of a mother-in-law.

[Petrol feet driven]

the longest word in the English language has 189,819 letters. Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl............................................................................you get the idea............................................................................................isoleucine is the chemical name of the largest known protein titin. Lexicographers have argued however that chemical compounds should not count. The largest non-technical word is antidisestablishmentarianism, with a mere 28 letters.

Edited September 15, 2011 by Petrol feet driven

[Mike6]

Going to the council dump with sackloads of garden rubbish, overreaching into the skip just stopped myself falling in but damaged my ribs and now cannot do anything

[lrg_machine]

the longest word in the English language has 189,819 letters. Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl............................................................................you get the idea............................................................................................isoleucine is the chemical name of the largest known protein titin. Lexicographers have argued however that chemical compounds should not count. The largest non-technical word is antidisestablishmentarianism, with a mere 28 letters.

I thought the longest non-technical word was

floccinaucinihilipilification

and is one letter longer

Edited September 15, 2011 by lrg_machine

[Petrol feet driven]

Well done you are infact right..

Now give me your glassess so I can snap them in half and them tape them back up for that perfect look. I will now have to buy a new pair as I can no longer where mine.

[Iconic Ride]

Antoine Lavoisier, "the father of modern chemistry," was also a member of Ferme Generale, an organization of 28 fuedal tax collectors, for which he was guillotined on 8 May 1794 during the French Revolution.

Moral of the story:

If you want to be a chemist and keep your head, stick to your day job.

[USAndretti42]

I thought the longest non-technical word was

floccinaucinihilipilification

and is one letter longer

I thought smiles was the longest word as there is a mile between the first and last letters.

[ramjet]

Fact: Reading this thread will possibly improve your knowledge of the useless and contribute possibly nothing to the good of the world.

However, those who do not know history are destined to repeat it.

Bummer, now I wish I didn't know who invented post-it notes.

[basalte]

The mother of Mike Nesmith, the original singer with the Monkees, invented Tipp-ex.