Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 394, click here.
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. Donnie Darko was filmed in 28 days which, coincidentally, virtually matches the time that transpired in the film. The movie took place between October 2nd, 1988 to the weekend party scene before Halloween on October 31st, 1988. – Source
2. Harper Lee’s friends gave her a full year’s salary for Christmas in 1956 so that she’d be able to take a year off from work to write. Lee used that time to write “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which has since sold over 30 million copies. – Source
3. John Francis, an American environmentalist, decided to stop speaking for a day to learn to listen better to his opponents. He turned it into a 17-year vow of silence. During those 17 years, he went to school and even earned a Ph.D. – Source
4. 1-800-COLLECT was so popular in the 90s that AT&T launched a competing service, 1-800-Operator. However, AT&T later discovered many people misspell Operator with “er” instead of “or” at the end, and that unfortunately, 1-800-COLLECT owned the misspelled number and had been taking their customers. – Source
5. Naked mole rats can survive 18 minutes without oxygen and suffer no lasting effects. They achieve this feat by switching their metabolism to use fructose, instead of glucose, something typically only done by plants. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. A Medal of Honor recipient from WWII embarrassed a sitting U.S. senator (who was also a KKK member) by publicly praising the efforts of African-American veterans. – Source
7. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s parents used to beat him because they thought he was gay since his bedroom walls were covered with posters of men instead of women. – Source
8. Bill Darden (the founder of Red Lobster) opened his first restaurant, a luncheonette called The Green Frog in Wayward, Georgia at 19 in 1938. He refused to segregate customers by race. Segregation was a state law in 30’s Georgia. – Source
9. Honeybees let out a “whoop” when they bump into each other. This vibrational pulse, long thought to be a signal to other bees to stop what they are doing, might actually be an expression of surprise. – Source
10. Elton John answered an ad for a talent search. After failing the audition he told the person behind the desk that he can’t write lyrics. He was handed an envelope with lyrics by another person who answered the ad and failed the audition Bernie Taupin, who then wrote the majority of Elton’s songs. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. Joe DiMaggio was so devastated after Marilyn Monroe’s death that he had a half-dozen red roses delivered three times a week to her crypt for 20 years, never married again and his last words were: “I’ll finally get to see Marilyn.” – Source
12. Britain’s power stations have to learn television schedules to anticipate when there will be a huge power draw as everyone turns on their electric kettles during a break in a soap opera or sporting event. – Source
13. Japan has a sociological phenomena known as Hikikomori, in which there’s an estimated 1 million Japanese who choose to completely isolate themselves from society. – Source
14. There is a specific order to Adjectives for the English language. Native speakers can just tell if it sounds right or not, and it may not be apparent to non-native speakers at first, in general, the order is: opinion, size, age/shape, color, origin, material, purpose. – Source
15. The residents of a neighborhood complaining of mysterious ailments from a new cell phone tower. During a meeting, the owner revealed that the tower had been off for over a month. Residents didn’t show up to the follow-up meeting. – Source
For # 15 Im just curious what the racial/ and ethnic backgound of that neighborhood was..?