Wednesday, September 30, 2009

My Head is Stuffed With Useless Facts

Do you like facts? You know, those little bits of information that you can wow your friends with and astound people who are watching Jeopardy!

I love miscellaneous facts. That minutae that just makes your brain go ZING! and the eyes of your friends and family glaze over. Oh yes, I love minutae and I am sure that some day there is going to be a need for me to pipe up and tell someone, off the top of my head that:

1. At the Battle of Midway none of the battleships and aircraft carriers that participated in the battle ever actually saw each other. I can also name the four aircraft carriers that the Japanese committed to the battle : Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu (all of which were sunk).

2. If you plant your bell peppers beside your tomatoes then the peppers will be stunted. Also, always cook your peppers and onions well before adding the tomatoes because the addition of tomatoes stops the peppers from cooking.

3. It is illegal to own the 1933 US Gold Double Eagle ($20 coin). There are only a few in existence and that is because they were stolen by a US mint employee in 1933 and sold. Most were recovered by the government, all but two. One resides at the Federal Reserve in NYC and the other is privately owned with the permission of the US government.

And the "motherlode"...........

4. I can list all the Kings and Queens of England from George I onwards as well as accompanying commentary.
George I: boring
George II: double boring
George III: died in 1820, who for the last 10 years of his life was crazy as a bed bug and didn't actually reign. They kept him stowed away while his son was the Prince Regent
George IV: 1820-1830, had multiple illegitimate children but only one legit, a girl (Caroline) who died giving birth to her first child. George hated his wife passionately and vowed to have no more children with her.
William IV: 1830-1837, brother of GeorgeIV, also no legitimate issue, no intention of fathering legitimate issue. That set off a "baby race" between his brothers which resulted in...
Queen Victoria: 1837-1901: longest reigning monarch (but QEII is closing in), poor fashion sense, loads of children who were married out to all the heads of state, grandsons were Kaiser Wilhelm and Czar Nicholas II
Edward VII: 1901-1910, playboy, lightweight (only in style of reign, HEAVYWEIGHT in weight), married to Alexandra who was deaf in one ear and who turned a blind eye to his many affairs.
George V: 1910-1936: stern, staunch, king during tough times, married the woman who was the intended bride of his older brother who died.
Edward VIII: 1936, 11 months to be exact. Abdicated to marry twice divorced American commoner Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson. Nazi sympathizer, Gov. of Burmuda, Duke of Windsor, playboy.
George VI: 1936 -1952, "the Spare" who never thought he would be king.
Queen Elizabeth II : 1952 - present. And heaven help the United Kingdom when her wacky son, Prince Charles, comes to the throne. The guy's car runs on recycled red wine for the love of Pete. Seems a waste of red wine if you ask me.

Sometime, somewhere I am going to need to spout this out. I just know it!

6 comments:

  1. When we lived in the UK a British friend taught me a rhyme to remember all the kings and queens of England...I think he said they learned it in primary school. Believe it or not I've pulled that little rhyme out on more than one occasion! I even wrote about it in one of my very first blog posts (http://joyce-fromthissideofthepond.blogspot.com/2009/01/of-castles-and-kings-otherwise-known-as.html)

    You never know when that useless information is going to be good for something!

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  2. Wow. You are my smart friend!

    I've had something on my counter for you for quite some time now. If only I could locate my stamps!

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  3. I want to know what "recycled" red wine is. Or do I??

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  4. That's a lot of knowledge! And I totally should have talked to you before planting my green bells about 12 inches from my tomato plants!!!! Ugh! No wonder they're the size of walnuts!
    Elle

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  5. I am so with you.

    Have you ever been to the quiz website sporcle.com it is so up your street- name the countries of the world, us state capitals, presidents first names, middle names, shipping forecast areas, oscar winners, most number 1's, films starring jonny depp..... it is a slight "addiction" but my random knowledge has improved.

    Sorry if you now lose several hundred hours of your life.

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  6. I LOVE this type of information, I really do. You crack me up.

    I gave you an award on my blog!

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Thank you SOOO much for commenting. We bloggers, of which I am such a minnow in such a big pond, live for our comments.