THINGS YOU HAVE TO KNOW
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy
disk, with the shutter on backwards.
The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine
different ways. The following sentence contains them
all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman
strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling
into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two
synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and
separate.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without
repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in
the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning
"containing arsenic."
Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on
the Australian coat of arms for that reason.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs
only have about ten. The word "Checkmate" in chess comes
from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the
king is dead".
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
Camel's milk does not curdle.
In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman
somewhere.
An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used
to clean elephants.
The United States has never lost a war in which mules
were used.
Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for
Ronald Reagan.
All porcupines float in water.
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
If you take a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New
Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $10.00
from the town.
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from
the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses.
The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured
out how to walk up straight staircases.
Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American
Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly
its state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.
The only nation who's name begins with an "A", but
doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not
"playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror. The
Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
every year because when it was built, engineers failed
to take into account the weight of all the books that
would occupy the building.
