- Georgia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut didn’t ratify the Bill of Rights until 1939.
- Wilt Chamberlain never fouled out of a game.
- 3864 = 3 × (-8 + 64)
- What’s the opposite of “not in”?
- Alaska has a longer coastline than all other U.S. states combined.
- “To do nothing is also a good remedy.” — Hippocrates
Trivia
Stork Fatigue
When Silvia Morello de Palma was seven months pregnant, she flew to Antarctica to join her husband, the commander of Argentina’s Esperanza research base.
When their son, Emilio Marcos Palma, was born safely on Jan. 7, 1978, he became the world’s southernmost birth — and the only person in recorded history to be the firstborn on a continent.
Trivium
The highest point in the contiguous United States is less than 80 miles from the lowest point.
Mount Whitney, in California’s Sequoia National Park, rises 14,505 feet above sea level.
It’s 76 miles west of Badwater, in Death Valley National Park, which is 282 feet below sea level.
The Adam Bomb
On Aug. 10, 2004, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Adam Dunn hit a ball entirely out of Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. It landed on Mehring Way, 535 feet from home plate, hopped another 200 feet or so, and came to rest on a piece of driftwood on the edge of the Ohio River.
That part of the river belongs to Kentucky. This makes Dunn the only player in major league history to hit the ball into another state.
See Pop Fly and Four-Dimensional Basketball.
Misc
- Douglas Adams claimed that the funniest three-digit number is 359.
- Romeo has more lines than Juliet, Iago than Othello, and Portia than Shylock.
- Friday the 13th occurs at least once a year.
- “By nature, men love newfangledness.” — Chaucer
- John was the only apostle to die a natural death.
Feature Set
Short film titles, from Patrick Robertson’s Film Facts (2001):
- A (Japanese, 1999)
- E (British, 1993)
- F (Japanese, 1998)
- G (British/German, 1974)
- H (Spanish, 1997)
- I (Swedish, 1966)
- K (Hungarian, 1989)
- M (German, 1931)
- Q (French/Italian/Belgian, 1974)
- W (Filipino, 1985)
- X (Korean, 1982)
- Y (Colombian, 1992)
- Z (French/Italian, 1968)
- $ (U.S., 1972)
Darren Aronofsky’s 1998 film π concerns a mathematician who seeks patterns in strings of numbers.
Its running time is 1:23:45.
Misc
- Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital.
- Hamlet has 1506 lines, fully 39 percent of the play.
- 736 = 7 + 36
- NOOK combines two antonyms.
- “Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.” — Plato
Misc
- Q is the only letter that does not appear in any U.S. state name.
- 6455 = (64 – 5) × 5
- North Dakota’s record high temperature (121°F) is higher than Florida’s (109°F).
- UNNOTICEABLY contains the vowels A, E, I, O, and U in reverse order.
- “An odd thought strikes me: We shall receive no letters in the grave.” — Samuel Johnson
Trivium
The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
Offside
Only 23 U.S. states are entirely south of Canada’s southernmost point, Middle Island in Lake Erie.