Fun Facts You May Not Know

I always find it fascinating to learn something new. You know, a little tidbit of trivia that perhaps most don’t know. Here are some fun facts you may not know, or maybe you do! Feel free to use them when there is a lull in the conversation or if you want to impress your friends!

Throughout all of my son, Benjamin’s formative years, he would burst into the kitchen after school and say, “Mom, did you know…..”. He was filled with curiosity and inquisitiveness, always happy to share his new found information. And I did learn something new. I miss those days.

Recently I wrote a blog post on the 10 Things to Aging Well and one of the tips was about not complaining and/or waxing on about your medical issues. These fun fact might be useful if you want to change the direction of the conversation (because we don’t want to gripe or hear about hip replacements). You can use these facts and say, ” Did you know….”.

Wasps are Carnivores and Cannibals

I didn’t know this. The only reason I recently learned this is from personal experience. Remember the bird’s nest in my geranium plant? A mama bird with 4 sweet little babies? Well, each day I would go out and spy on the nest to see how the young ones were getting along. One day the nest was completely empty. However, I saw a spot of blood. Doom set in and then I noticed a dead bird (the mama?) on the ground.

There was a swarm of bees all over it. What? That prompted me to research why bees? and I discovered that some wasps are carnivores and cannibals. Within 48 hours those bees devoured that bird. They were the clean up crew. I’ve never seen anything like that ~ever. Apparently they also eat each other. Look it up. Good to know, right? I am also convinced the baby birds were big enough to fly off and live happily ever after.

Grand Central Station has a hidden tennis club

Next time you commute through Grand Central Terminal in New York City, don’t forget to bring your tennis shoes. Roughly 750,000 people pass through the station on an average weekday. But it’s unlikely many of them realize that a hidden tennis court exists on the terminal’s posh upper level.

Built in the 1960s, the Vanderbilt Athletic Club catered to an exclusive clientele for decades. It was shut down in 2009 to make way for a new lounge for MTA employees. However, the courts were moved to a new location on the fourth floor in 2011 and are now open to the public. You’ll find them behind the station’s famous vaulted windows. Photo from Railway Age.

There is a Seed Vault Near the North Pole

Deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, lies the Global Seed Vault.

Worldwide, more than 1,700 genebanks hold collections of food crops for safekeeping. Yet many of these are vulnerable, exposed not only to natural catastrophes and war, but also to avoidable disasters, such as lack of funding or poor management. Something as mundane as a poorly functioning freezer can ruin an entire collection. And the loss of a crop variety is as irreversible as the extinction of a dinosaur, animal or any form of life.

It was the recognition of this vulnerability that sparked the idea of establishing a global seed vault to serve as a backup storage facility. The purpose of the Vault is to store duplicates (backups) of seed samples from the world’s crop collections. 

Permafrost and thick rock ensure that the seed samples will remain frozen even without power. The Vault is the ultimate insurance policy for the world’s food supply, offering options for future generations to overcome the challenges of climate change and population growth. It will secure, for centuries, millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. It is the final back up. Interesting, huh?

Capitalsaurus~Washington, DC.

Workers were digging a sewer trench beneath a Capitol Hill street in 1898.  They came upon a few fossil fragments — among them, a 6-inch bone that now represents the largest piece of the District’s controversial “official dinosaur,” the Capitalsaurus.

The scientific world hasn’t yet been convinced — and the capitalsaurus name remains only an informal designation.  But D.C. Council has slightly lower standards.  They embraced the classification wholeheartedly in the “Official Dinosaur Designation Act of 1998, Bill 12-538.”  Capitalsaurus is the District’s official dinosaur and January 28 is “Capitalsaurus Day” in D.C., marking the date that Murphy presented the bone to the Smithsonian.

The block of F Street, SE where the fossil was discovered was formally dedicated as Capitalsaurus Court on January 28, 2000. Dinosaurs definitely roamed D.C. streets before they were streets.

Why Does a Chef’s Hat have Pleats?

The pleated white chef’s hat, called a toque, has pleats to signify a chef’s level of expertise. According to the Reclutant Gourmet, one chef had 100 pleats because he knew 100 ways to prepare eggs. The more experienced the chef, the more pleats. Good to know when we can go back to eating out again.

Unicorn~Scotland’s National Animal

But it’s true: the unicorn really is the official national animal of Scotland. And their love for this famous mythological creature dates back many centuries.

With its white horse-like body and single spiralling horn, the unicorn is a symbol of purity, innocence and power in Celtic mythology.

These proud, untameable creatures are fiercely independent and famously difficult to capture or conquer. This will sound familiar to anyone who has read their Scottish history. Even though unicorns are mythological, Scots have always felt drawn to what they represent.

A Whale’s Heartbeat

A whale’s heartbeat can be heard more than 2 miles away. With a 9 inch aorta and a heart the size of a small golf cart, its heart weighs approximately 30 lbs. At the surface, the whale’s heart beats 25-37 times per minute and during dives it slows to 4 to 8 beats per minute. For more whale facts, click here.

Lincoln Logs

Since we have many examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture here in Phoenix, I was surprised to find out that his son, John Lloyd Wright, designed and developed Lincoln Logs in 1916.

The idea for Lincoln Logs came to John Lloyd Wright when he was working with his father in Japan on building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The hotel’s foundation was made of beams of wood that interlocked with each other. The interlocking structure was supposed to make the building earthquake-proof since earthquakes were (and still are) an issue of concern in Japan. 

John Lloyd Wright was inspired by this foundation design and saw the potential for a building type of toy with the interlocking wooden beams. When he came back to the United States, he started the Red Square Toy Company, which was named after a famous symbol his father used in his building designs. John officially began marketing Lincoln Logs in 1918. Lincoln Logs just celebrated their 100th anniversary.

I hope you enjoyed these fun facts today! Happy Saturday. I am still at our mountain cabin. However, the picture above is not the weather lately. It finally rained, actually ALOT which is wonderful. It is nice and quiet here and I’m getting quite a bit of work done. Wishing you a fabulous weekend. Any you doing anything fun?