Curious Trivial Facts (8/7)

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This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

The Batmobile was built on the chassis of a Chevy Impala.

Charles Dow, the financial report who founded The Wall Street Journal and created  the Dow Jones Industrial Average, never graduated from high school.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

Curious Trivial Facts (7/31)

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

Alexander Graham Bell never set out to invent the telephone.  It was a by-product of his efforts  to create a device that might help his wife and mother, both of whom were deaf, hear and communicate better.

American dentists use 26,000 pounds of gold per year for fillings, crowns, and inlays.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

Curious Trivial Facts (7/24)

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

The rock song with more cover versions than any other is Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday.”  It has been recorded by more than three thousand artists.

Honey never spoils . . . ever!

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

Curious Trivial Facts (7/17)

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

Irish step dancing (now recognizable worldwide, thanks to “Riverdance”) was created after the British conquest of Ireland in the 1600s outlawed music, and cultural traditions had to be performed secretly.  The dance form that evolved–body and arms kept stationary, movement confined to the feet–ensured that if the English glanced at the locals through a window, they would be unable to tell that anyone was dancing.

The odds of a good golfer making a hole in one are 1 in 8,606, which averages out to one in every 478 rounds.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

Curious Trivial Facts (7/10)

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

Everyone knows that a standardized set of letters is called an alphabet.  They might now know, however, that the word comes from the first two letters of the Greek  alphabet, “alpha” and ‘beta.”

The first ballet originated during the Italian Renaissance of the late fifteenth century, surfacing as a dance interpretation of fencing.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

Curious Trivial Facts (7/3)

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

Nine months after reading a 1954 LIFE magazine report on illiteracy that concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring, Dr. Seuss created his classic, THE CAT IN THE HAT, using only words culled from an average first-grader’s vocabulary list.

The underground interterminal train that has been operating at the George  Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston since 1981 replicates the exact mechanical design of Disney World’s Tomorrowland PeopleMover.  It is the only transportation system outside of a Disney theme park that was built by the Walt Disney Company.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

Curious Trivial Facts (6/26)

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

The first single to officially be awarded a Gold Record was Perry Como’s “Catch a Falling Star.”  The first album to receive the award was the soundtrack to the film version of “Oklahoma.”

“Uncopyrightable” is one of the two longest words in the English language that is composed of entirely different letters.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

Curious Trivial Facts

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This informative post will be posted on Saturday along with my usual writing.  We can all appreciate some of the lesser known facts from around the world.

More pizzas are sold and delivered on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year–a primary reason that Super Bowl Sunday ranks second (behind Thanksgiving) as the biggest day for food consumption in the United States.

The penny is the only currently minted U.S. coin featuring a profile [President Abraham Lincoln] that faces to the right.

These facts have been discovered in I NEVER KNEW THAT by David Hoffman (2009).

Big Sky Treasures

2019 July Montana Trip 006

While traveling Interstate 90, a photo opportunity at a rest area in eastern Montana offers a look at the landscape.

Growing up in Montana and spending about 50 years living there certainly makes me a citizen for life.  This short feature will shine the spotlight on three questions about the “Last Best Place” called Montana.

Here are three questions which will be answered in a moment or two.  Good luck with your responses.  Bonus points are awarded for anyone who scores a perfect 100%, without searching on the Internet.

  • What is the coldest temperature ever recorded in the lower 48 states of the United States?  Where did it occur?
  • What are the two most popular nicknames used for Montana?  What is the background behind each name?
  • What is the most sparsely populated county in Montana?

The coldest temperature ever recorded is -70F on January 20, 1954.  The location was Rogers Pass, which is located on Montana Highway 200 along the Continental Divide at an elevation of 5,610 feet.  The thermometer malfunctioned because of the extreme cold, and a laboratory tested the broken thermometer to make a final determination on how cold it was on that January night.

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Source:  Pinterest.

Montana’s two most popular nicknames are the Treasure State and the Big Sky Country.  The Treasure State has gained a presence because of Montana’s rich gold and silver deposits.  The Big Sky Country was popularized to promote tourism in the state.  With permission of author A. B. Guthrie, the state acquired the use of his best-selling novel’s title The Big Sky.  Guthrie’s writing was honored with a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1950.

Last of all, the most sparsely populated county (out of 56) is Garfield County.  Depending on the population figures used, the statistics may vary just a bit.  The county covers 4,849 square miles (of Montana’s 147,164) with an estimated population of 1,268, which equals an astonishing .261 people per square mile.  For comparison’s sake, the state of Connecticut has a land size of 4,858 square miles, with a population density of approximately 738 people per square mile.

Thanks for your participation.  Stay tuned for future posts about the “Last Best Place” of Montana.