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Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024

3:33am EST

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A Catalogue of Useless Facts

by BD Mitchell

Rated: E · Book · Educational · #2105953

One hundred facts that are interesting but ultimately useless.

presenting:

A Catalogue of Useless Facts

- introduction -

Whether I'm at work or out with friends, I have a reputation as the person who knows things. Not useful things, mind you; not once has it been profitable to know the reason why dogs have wet noses, or the meaning of the linguistic term "glottal stop", or the difference between a bug and an insect. If anything, all the aimless wandering on Wikipedia keeps me from finishing my other writing projects.

But there is a purpose to this eclectic mishmash of trivia, and it ties into my own major philosophy: stuff is interesting. The world is often rough and depressing, but if I can find one neat little factoid, everything seems a little less meaningless.

And this brings us to the point of this blog. Lately, it feels like my various newsfeeds are full to bursting with anger and bickering. As a generally positive person, I wanted to counteract this in some way -- only I'm not so adept with inspirational quotes or pithy wisdom. What I can offer, though, are useless facts.

Over the past few months, instead of filing these accidental info-bits in some dusty corner of my brain, I've been taking notes. Before long, I had enough for a solid month of trivia. I collected a few more and thought instead I'd do a "Factoid Friday" every week for a year. But I'm a curious person by nature, and can't help but stumble on new things. Maybe I'm eating lunch one day, I suddenly wonder where ketchup comes from, and bam! I learn something new!

So here come the facts. They may be short, or they may be long. They may cover language, biology, history, mythology, or any number of other subjects. Many of you may know some of these, and some of you may know many of these. But hopefully, at least once between now and the time my collection runs dry, you'll be inspired to say, "Huh! That's actually kind of interesting!"

-BD Mitchell

Blog is currently on hiatus.

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#100. Pliny the Elder
ID #908794 entered on April 10, 2017 at 5:46pm

#99. Loofahs
ID #908713 entered on April 9, 2017 at 3:06pm

#98. Barber Poles
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#97. Purple Flags
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#96. "Okay"
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#95. The First TV Show
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#94. Ball o' Bees
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#93. "Car"
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#92. The Underwater Waterfall
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#91. The World's Best Voice-Actor
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#90. "Hors d'oeuvre"
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#89. Cold Welding
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#88. Mondegreens
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#87. "Sheriff"
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#86. QWERTY
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#85. Malapropisms
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#83. "Clone"
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#82. "Robot"
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#81. Panda Diets
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#80. Nightingale Floors
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#77. Stage Ninja
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#76. Shrews and Booze
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#75. "Panic"
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#74. The First Marathon
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#73. Pi (π)
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#72. "Cartoon"
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#71. Daylight Saving Time
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#70. "Sandwich"
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#69. The Fisher King
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#68. Carmine
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#67. Coral Castle
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#66. False Friends
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#65. Moray Eels
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#64. Trenchers
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#63. The Red-Eye Effect
ID #906007 entered on March 4, 2017 at 3:49pm

#62. The Photophone
ID #905936 entered on March 3, 2017 at 4:06pm

#61. "Pomegranate"
ID #905861 entered on March 2, 2017 at 5:15pm

#60. Ketchup
ID #905760 entered on March 5, 2017 at 4:50pm

#59. "Buckaroo"
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#58. Exploding Lakes
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#57. Eyeshine
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#56. MacGuffins
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#55. Circular Breathing
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#54. Navigation Bridge
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#53. "Dude"
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#52. Icebergs
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#51. Peter the Eagle
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#50. "Reindeer"
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#49. Turkey Comas
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#48. The Golden Milestone
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#47. "Violin", "Viola" & "Cello"
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#46. Reeded Coins
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#45. The Giantest Flowers
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#44. "Piano"
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#43. The Oldest Tree
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#42. The Mines of Paris
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#41. "Umbrella"
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#40. Generic Trademarks
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#39. Second Bananas
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#38. "Dollar"
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#37. The Ampersand
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#36. Platypus Venom
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#35. Aluminum
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#34. Minced Oaths
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#33. "Hero" & "Villain"
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#32. The Tiniest Frog
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#31. Infrasound
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#30. The Dollar Sign
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#29. Chickens
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#28. Fortune Cookies
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#27. Octopuses
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#25. Bluetooth
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#24. Portmanteau
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#23. Bubble Algae
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#22. "Spatula"
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#21. The Scarlet Pimpernel
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#20. The Blackest Black
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#19. "Camouflage"
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#18. Coconut Crabs
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#16. Pangrams
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