^ I’ve found that one of the secrets to being happy is to get comformtable with feelings of skepticism and doubt since the rational mind is capable of understanding only tiny pieces of the total wonderment of life.
And on that note, doubt away on these…
Nine U.S. Presidents never went to college: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, and Harry Truman.
George Washington’s teeth were actually: carved from animal tusks, some of them were also somebody else’s teeth, and some of them were from animals like deer and cales.
Second and third Presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, both died on July 4, 1826.
The first woman to run for President was Victoria Woodhull, on the Equal Rights Party ballot in 1872.
George Washington named Washington D.C. “Federal City.” It was changed to “Washington D.C.” after his death.
The only President in office to weigh less than 100 pounds was James Madison.
Blueberry Jelly Belies were created especially for Ronald Regan.
No President was ever an only child.
The first-lady of the U.S. is considered a private citizen.
In 1832 Abraham Lincoln ran for the Illinois legislature, and lost.
The phone number of the white house is: (202) 456-1414.
Rutherford Hayes became U.S. President by one vote.
Only 3 mayors of U.S. cities went on to become president: Calvin Coolidge, Grover Cleveland, and Andrew Johnson.
The only U.S. president to be born on the fourth of July was Calvin Coolidge.
Ben Franklin invented crop insurance.
The first bath tub to be installed in the white house was during the time of Millard Fillmore.
There are six U.S. Presidents with the first name James: Madison, Monroe, Garfield, Buchanon, Carter, Polk.
Two U.S. Presidents with the initials “J.M.” followed each other as president.
The S in Harry S Truman stands for nothing.
A piano leg went through the floor of the white house in 1948 during President Truman’s term.
William Howard Taft had a bathtub that could hold four people installed in the white because he couldn’t fit into the present one.
William Taft is only man to become President and then chief justice.
A flock of sheep grazed during Woodrow Wilson’s term. Their wool was sold to raise money for the Red Cross during World War I.
Calvin Coolidge, was so famous for saying so little that a White House dinner guest made a bet that she could get him to say more than two words. She told the president of her wager. His reply: “You lose.”
Anyone could come to Andrew Jackson’s public parties at the White House. At his last one, a wheel of cheese weighing 1,400 lbs. was eaten in two hours. The White House smelled of cheese for weeks.
One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen.
The term ‘hay fever’ originated in England, where some people suffered allergic symptoms during hay pitching time when the symptoms became serve, workers often felt feverish.
A jumbo jet uses 4,000 gallons of fuel to take off.
The first Ford cars used Dodge engines.
The first CD pressed in the U.S. was Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA.’
Children spend more time learning about life through media than any other manner. The average child spends approximately 28 hours a week watching television, which is twice as much time as they spend in school.
The thumbnail grows the slowest; the middle nail grows the fastest.
The toes of mummies are wrapped individually.
Apples, not caffeine, are most efficient at waking up in the morning.
There is cyanide in apple pits.
When you sneeze, all your bodily functions stop, even your heart.
Our eyes never grow, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
You blink about 25,000 times a day.
If you lock your knee while standing long enough, you will pass out.
The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
Brain damage occurs at an internal temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mark Twain was the first to have written a novel [Tom Sawyer] on a typewriter.
Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
The Volkswagen was originally called the “Strength Through Joy Wagon”.
Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11’s lunar module landed on the moon.
If Texas were a country it’s GNP would be fifth largest of any country on earth.
Sterling silver contains 7.5% copper.
The active ingredient in smelling salts is ammonia.
The longest war between two nations in history, The Hundred Years War between England and France, really lasted for 115 years(1338-1453).
There are over 600,000 words in the English language.
“Lunula” is the tip of the finger and toenail that is white. It is called this this (referring to the moon) because the end of the nail is rounded like the moon.
The word “piano” is really an abbreviation for the word “pianoforte.”
Duffel bags are named after a town of Duffel, Belgium, where they were first made.
The words “volt” and “voltage” are named for a member of the Italian nobility in the 1700s named Count Voltman.
The ‘y’ in signs reading “ye olde…” is properly pronounced with a ‘th’ sound, not ‘y’. The “th” sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England use the rune “thorn” to represent “th” sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case “y”.
Some biblical scholars believe that Aramaic (the language of the ancient Bible) did not contain an easy way to say “many things” and used a term which has come down to us as 40. This means that when the bible - in many places - refers to “40 days,” they meant many days.
The term, “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye” is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, “No eye gouging,” eveything else was allowed.
The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
The term “the whole 9 yards” came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got “the whole 9 yards.”
The word gymnasium comes from the Greek word gymnazein which means to
exercise naked.
Las Vegas means “The Meadows” in Spanish.
There are only four words in the English language which end in dous: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
The longest one-syllable word in the English language is screeched.
Strength is the longest english word with only one vowel.
“Dreamt” is the only word in the English language to end in “mt.”
You speak about 4,800 words per day.
“Teh” means “cool” in Thai. (Pronounced “tay”).
Lice is the plural of louse.
The word ‘byte’ is a contraction of ‘by eight.’
The word ‘pixel’ is a contraction of either ‘picture cell’ or ‘picture
element’.
Alekthophilia is the love of chickens.
