A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to
mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance)
but did not renumber the other channel assignments. That
is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk,
with the shutter on backwards.
The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different
ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-
coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through
the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough,
he coughed and hiccoughed."
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two
synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without
repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the
correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing
arsenic."
Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the
Australian coat of arms for that reason.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only
have about ten.
The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase
"Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead".
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
Camel's milk does not curdle.
In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used
to clean elephants.
The United States has never lost a war in which mules
were used.
Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially
for Ronald Reagan.
All porcupines float in water.
Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by
an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's
Wild Kingdom."
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New
Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive
$.10 from the town.
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from
the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses.
The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured
out how to walk up straight staircases.
Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie."
(Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly it
s state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.
The only nation who's name begins with an "A", but
doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.
Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being
the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of
Canada's independence.
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing."
They actually pass out from sheer terror.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
every year because when it was built, engineers failed to
take into account the weight of all the books that would
occupy the building. (But you'd think that all the light-
weights and airheads that "study" there would balance that
out.)
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to
mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance)
but did not renumber the other channel assignments. That
is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk,
with the shutter on backwards.
The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different
ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-
coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through
the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough,
he coughed and hiccoughed."
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two
synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without
repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the
correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing
arsenic."
Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the
Australian coat of arms for that reason.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only
have about ten.
The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase
"Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead".
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
Camel's milk does not curdle.
In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used
to clean elephants.
The United States has never lost a war in which mules
were used.
Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially
for Ronald Reagan.
All porcupines float in water.
Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by
an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's
Wild Kingdom."
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New
Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive
$.10 from the town.
The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from
the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses.
The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured
out how to walk up straight staircases.
Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie."
(Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly it
s state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.
The only nation who's name begins with an "A", but
doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.
Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being
the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of
Canada's independence.
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing."
They actually pass out from sheer terror.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch
every year because when it was built, engineers failed to
take into account the weight of all the books that would
occupy the building. (But you'd think that all the light-
weights and airheads that "study" there would balance that
out.)