Interesting Trivia

AA friend sent me this in an e-mail this morning. I love trivia and decided to include it in a post for today.

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We have company this weekend, Gully and Celia. Gully is Gregg's Dad as some of you might remember and Celia is his wife of 17 months. They live 200 miles south of here and are up for the weekend. We are going into Washington DC in a little while as Gully wanted to show Celia The American History Museum.

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We learned yesterday that one of Gully's old shipmates passed away. The last time Gregg and I saw him was at their annual shipmates reunion back in October. He went by the name of 'Red' and was a lovely gentleman from North Carolina. We have been seeing Red every year in October for the last several years, and for Gully it has been much longer as their friendship goes back to the 1940s. He was one of a kind and he will be missed by all of us, always so upbeat and a very kind man with a genuine twinkle in the eye. The last time we talked with him he told us some wonderful stories from his childhood. I can see his face so clearly, he had a lovely way of making you feel like one of the family, and was a true southern gentleman.

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This past week has gone fast. We have been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with son Brad. His fiance Lisa came over one day and she and I had lunch together and also wrote out wedding invitations from our side of the family. Lisa did all the writing and I supplied the addresses and lunch. We had a great time together and it was fun. I also had lunch with 'the girls' - friends from the British Tea Room we all worked at. I've mentioned them before off and on since I started this blog.

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That's been about it. Now for the trivia.

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Alaska: More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska

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Amazon: The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States .

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Antarctica: Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica . This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice (all but 0.4 percent of it, I.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

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Brazil: Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

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Canada: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ' Big Village .'

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Chicago: Next to Warsaw , Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

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Detroit: Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road any where.

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Damascus, Syria: Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

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Istanbul , Turkey: Istanbul (AKA Constantinople), Turkey , is the only city in the world located on two continents.

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Los Angeles: Los Angeles' full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula - and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.

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New York City: The term 'The Big Apple' was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression 'apple' for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple. There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

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Ohio: There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio , every one is man made.

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Pitcairn Island: The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia , at just 1.75 sq. Miles.

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Rome: The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome , Italy in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.

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Siberia: Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.

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S.M.O.M: The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.MO .M.). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.

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Sahara Desert: In the Sahara Desert , there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island . There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

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Spain: Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.'

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St. Paul, Minnesota: St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant who set up the first business there.

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Roads: Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A is 1%, in Canada 75%.

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Texas: The deepest hole ever made in the world is in Texas . It is as deep as 20 empire state buildings but only 3 inches wide.

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United States: The Interstate System requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

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Waterfalls: The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet. It is 15 times higher than Niagara Falls

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Added note: I have to thank my good friend Léia who supplied me with the following information. She said that the name of the country Brazil actually comes from a kind of tree called "Brazilwood" which was abundant when the Portuguese first arrived there. Thanks Léia :) Hopefully everything else is correct but if anyone has any contrary information on the other trivia I would be happy to hear it. I don't want to be putting anything out there that isn't a fact.

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Also, if anyone is wondering about the photograph I used today, it was taken a few years back in The Bishop's Garden of Washington Cathedral. The statue was entitled "The Prodigal Son."