Fun Facts For You

Whenever something interests me or tickles my funny bone, I’ll print it, save it or tag it for later.  This is something I have been doing for many, many years. 

I’m sure you already noticed my interest in quotes, as I have so often shared them with you during past posts. Whenever I find a quote that touches me in some way, I’m always quick to write it down so that I can add it to my notebook, where I have stored many over the years.

Quotes aren’t all I collect.  Another favorite of mine are any tidbits where I can learn about fun facts.  This may be useless information to some but I am always interested to learn new facts, especially when they are about day-to-day activities or items I never have a second thought about. 

So I thought I’d share some of the fun facts I have accumulated over the years.  Since my blog is about writing, I thought I’d start by providing fun facts that have to do with words:

·         Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”

·         Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable

·         No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple

·         “Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only the left hand and “lollipop” with your right

·         The sentence: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter of the alphabet

·         The words “racecar,” kayak” and “level” are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (they are called palindromes and these are just a few)

·         There are only four words in the English language which ends in “dous”:  tremendous, horrendous, stupendous and hazardous

·         There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order:  “abstemious” and “facetious”

·         “Typewriter” is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard

So how’s that for some fun facts?  Do you enjoy learning something new about what you thought you already knew? 

Here’s a question for you: 

Do you know the name of the first novel ever written on a typewriter?  It was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  Mark Twain used a Remington typewriter in 1875 to write his book.  Wow…that’s only 137 years ago! 

Don’t know what a Remington is?  Here’s a photo of mine.

I don’t type on it, of course.  It’s a keepsake.  It’s what my grandfather used to type on all the time even into this century.

Okay.  How about this one…if you were to spell out numbers beginning with the number one (“one” “two” “three” “four” and so on), how far would you have to go until you would find the letter “a”?

Give up?  Believe it or not, that answer is One Thousand! 

That one made me scratch my head because it seemed unlikely it would take that long before the letter “a” would appear. 

You tell me if I’m wrong…I’m still running the words through my head just to make sure…