50 Random Facts List #13

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1Bill Watterson

Bill Watterson, the author of "Calvin and Hobbes", believed that adapting the comic to any other medium would compromise its integrity. He believed this so strongly that he turned down personal calls from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas offering to make animated movies.

2. Robin Williams will prevent Disney from using his name, taped performances or voice recordings for 25 years after his death

3. After the death of Steve Irwin, in what was speculated to be a series of revenge killings, at least ten stingrays were found dead and mutilated on the coast of Queensland

4. The Vatican had music which was forbidden to be copied and was only played twice per year. The piece was kept secret for almost 150 years until a 14-year-old Mozart listened to it and transcribed it from memory.

5. Kim Jong-il's real name was Yuri Irsenovich Kim and that he was born in Russia.

6Play it by ear

There's a video game where the main character is blind, so you play the whole thing with a black screen, having to carefully listen to the sounds to navigate the story.

7. Credit card "chip" technology (aka EMV) that is being rolled out now in the US is almost 25 years old

8. Private companies are now providing trained birds of prey to take down hostile drones and protect their clients' airspace

9. When Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded, the first blow missed her neck and struck the back of her head. The second blow severed the neck, except for a bit of sinew which was cut by hand. When the executioner held her head aloft, the hair turned out to be a wig and the head fell to the ground.

10. A bug fix in software is called a "patch" because when computers were programmed by punch cards, bugs were fixed by literally placing a patch over one hole and punching another.

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11Bad breath

Bad breath wasn't considered a real problem until Listerine, who said their mouthwash cured "Halitosis", a non-medical term.

12. A photo of a man stealing a wallet in a store was on the bottom of The Lewiston Tribune on December 14, 2007. Above it was an unrelated photo of a man painting a business. Readers noticed both men were wearing the same clothes. They were identified to be the same person leading to his arrest.

13. A 12 year old named Calvin Graham lied about his age and enlisted in the US Navy during World War 2. He became a decorated war hero by 13.

14. In 1979, a woman named Elvita Adams jumped from the 86th floor of the Empire State building, only to be blown back onto a ledge on the 85th floor by a gust of wind.


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A Herculaneum, a neighboring city to Pompeii that suffered the same fate but is better preserved.

17. Eminem is commended in the 2015 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most words in a hit single, 'Rap God', totalling 1,560 words in 6 minutes, 4 seconds.

18. Potatoes are the lowest cost source of dietary potassium, a nutrient lacking in the American diet and important for reducing the risk of high blood pressure

19. T.G.I. Friday's began in Manhattan in 1965 as one of the world's first singles bars. It was very successful, in part because 480 stewardesses lived next door to the first location. The restaurant became family-oriented only after expanding to the suburbs.

20. Margaret Cho was rejected by a producer on her show All American Girl. Still, heart broken, she looked him up 17 years later to find out that he had bludgeoned his wife to death and put her in his attic where she partially mummified. She wrote a song about him.


Puma, Cougar and Mountain Lion are named for the same exact animal.

22. Stephen Colbert exists in the Marvel Universe. After departing from a campaign event, he saw Spider-Man battling Grizzly. He tried to help by pushing a statue off the building. It hit Grizzly on the head, Spider-Man thanked him for his help and gave him a ride home.

23. A sparrow was shot because it knocked over 23000 domino bricks, just 4 days prior to the Domino Day Event. The shooter was later fined for shooting an endangered species.

24. During the making of 'O Brother, Where Art Thou' the Coen brothers had someone on set just to catch snakes using a golf club. When asked what to call somebody with this profession, he said 'an idiot.'

25. Many famous works of art were defaced with fig leafs under the order of the Catholic Church. The statues and paintings had fig leafs plastered on their genitals to comply with the Church's chastity rules.


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