Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want to know the useless facts you store in your brain..

334 replies

IseeNarcPeople · 31/07/2023 20:25

The ones that never get an outting, the chance to use them has never arisen.
For instance, from the many useless facts in my brain:
The phrases "Not enough room to swing a cat" and "Don't let the cat out of the bag" are actually about a whip "Cat O' nine tails" which was kept as a warning and punishment on ships.
Oh and snails can sleep for three years.
Please release some of yours.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
CrepuscularCritter · 31/07/2023 22:13

catwithflowers · 31/07/2023 20:38

I was in a school production of Joseph at first school, aged 9, and can still remember the song about the coat and can still remember the order of the 29 colours 😂😂😂

Me too! I often wonder what useful I formation has fallen out of my brain in order to retain this. "It was red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black...."

Parvolax · 31/07/2023 22:12

@MissJoGrant yet it’s still missing junction 7

HeyMrScott · 31/07/2023 22:05

If you get a chess board and put one grain of rice in a corner square, two grains in the next square, 4 in the next square and keep doubling as you fill all the squares, there wouldn't be enough rice in the world to complete the last square.

WrigglyDonCat · 31/07/2023 22:03

Nobel prizes.

Only 5 people have won two Nobel prizes:
Barry Sharpless
Linus Pauling
John Bardeen
Frederick Sanger
Marie Skłodowska Curie

Perhaps appropriately for the audience, the last was the first woman to win a Nobel prize, the only person to win Nobel prizes for two different sciences (physics and chemistry), the first to win one twice, and part of the most en-Nobeled (see what I did there..) family of all time, winning two herself, her husband one, her daughter one and her son-in-law one (Irene and Frederick Joliot-Curie). Furthermore, her first Nobel prize came about as her husband Pierre complained to the committee that she had been equally involved as himself and Henri Becquerel.

Only Linus Pauling of the above won each of his Nobel prizes on his own.

CherrySocks · 31/07/2023 22:01

FOUR witches??? This is astonishing information. Do you have proof of this?!

Allmyghosts · 31/07/2023 22:00

Echio · 31/07/2023 21:42

@Nodeepdiving OMG that's a brilliant one, totally bonkers. Love it!

There's another crazy stats one about gameshows and your stick or twist options that one I'm still dubious about!

Is that something about doors and you should always pick the other one?

Over50usernamesNow · 31/07/2023 22:00

Allmyghosts · 31/07/2023 21:07

Oh you mean 7x8. Sorry I get it (idiot)

🤣🤣🤣

Over50usernamesNow · 31/07/2023 21:58

englishrose1234 · 31/07/2023 20:56

You'd be a good pharmacist! 56 is a really common number in pharmacy (one tablet daily - two months supply, one table twice daily - one months supply - all 56!)

Show quote history

Damn! Why did the careers advisor never tell me this!!

Over50usernamesNow · 31/07/2023 21:57

Usernamenotavailabletryanother · 31/07/2023 20:54

Waterloo has 24 platforms and is the largest in the UK

Edinburgh Waverley has 20, so technically no.2 in the UK, with Leeds no.3 (although 2nd largest in England)

Every time I’ve posted on one of these threads someone tells me my facts are wrong, it’s dicing with death 😂

Show quote history

Thanks 👍🚂

doodlejump1980 · 31/07/2023 21:57

B&Q stands for Block and Quayle after the founders Richard Block and David Quayle. Not Better and Quicker as my Dad told me.

ElizabethBest · 31/07/2023 21:55

Shakespeare invented the names Miranda and Jessica.

J.M. Barrie invented the name Wendy.

BarelyLiterate · 31/07/2023 21:54

Timetoflower22 · 31/07/2023 21:42

Volkswagen, Audi. Seat and Skoda are all owned by Audi

Almost correct. 😉

Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Porsche, Ducati, Lamborghini & Bentley are all owned by Volkswagen AG Group.

MissJoGrant · 31/07/2023 21:51

DismantledKing · 31/07/2023 21:08

Dogs can’t look up

Let's go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over.

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 31/07/2023 21:51

In the Braille alphabet, the letters A-J are formed from combinations of the top four dots in the Braille cell (dots 1,2,4,5). Letters K-T are the same as letters A-J but with the addition of dot-3. Letters U, V, X, Y Z are the same as letters A-E but with two additional dots (dots 3,6). Letter W is out of sequence because the alphabet is essentially French (c.f. Louis Braille) and they didn't use a W so it had to be added later.

WaitingForSunnyDays · 31/07/2023 21:50

I'm guessing the game show one is the Monty Hall problem? A well known statistical puzzle. From Wikipedia:

Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No. 1, and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No. 3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No. 2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice?

Monty Hall problem - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem

MillicentMargaretAmanda · 31/07/2023 21:50

Also not a fact, but I can remember all the words to 'It's 'Orrible Being In Love When You're 8 1/2' which is definitely useless.
There is important information displaced by that nonsense!!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TWte2_oDsX0

Claire & Friends - It's 'Orrible Being In Love (When You're 8 1/2) (1986)

Charted at #13 on UK Singles chart in 1986. Clair became an Irish dancer and toured in a production of Riverdance! Written by D M Coleman. B-side is "Big Sis...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TWte2_oDsX0

doris9034 · 31/07/2023 21:49

Over50usernamesNow · 31/07/2023 20:33

Seven eights are fifty six.

I remember learning, and re-learning, and re-learning that over and over as a kid because I couldn't get it! Eventually it just got completely and permanently lodged there.

I cannot remember once ever finding this a useful thing to know as a adult. 🙂 Noone has ever asked me "what are seven eights?" And it doesn't seem to have been a necessary piece of knowledge in any area of my life (and I did statistics as part of my university degree!! So not averse to maths generally!!)

This was also my nemesis as a child and is probably the only times table I can now instantly recall at any given moment!!

ChocolateCinderToffee · 31/07/2023 21:46

The opposite of hibernate is estivate, in other words, sleeping through summer.

DismantledKing · 31/07/2023 21:45

DismantledKing · 31/07/2023 21:44

I think that it’s that the Pacific end of the Panama Canal is further west than the Atlantic end.

Show quote history

Further east not west 🙄

DismantledKing · 31/07/2023 21:44

Nodeepdiving · 31/07/2023 21:43

Something to do with the East opening of the Panama Canal being further West than West opening. I'm sure someone will be along to explain it better in a minute 😊

I think that it’s that the Pacific end of the Panama Canal is further west than the Atlantic end.

Nodeepdiving · 31/07/2023 21:44

Echio · 31/07/2023 21:42

@Nodeepdiving OMG that's a brilliant one, totally bonkers. Love it!

There's another crazy stats one about gameshows and your stick or twist options that one I'm still dubious about!

Which one??

Soubriquet · 31/07/2023 21:44

Nodeepdiving · 31/07/2023 21:41

Yup. Use cloth people!

Show quote history

Not too sure if a baby would enjoy a cloth person Grin

HappyJoyousFree · 31/07/2023 21:43

Akiddleetivy2woodenchu · 31/07/2023 21:26

Not really a fact, but I learned The Pobble Who Has No Toes to recite at a Brownie concert about 50 years ago and I can still remember all of the words.

I had to learn Albert and the lion in Yr 5 at school for a play and I remember that. I tell the dc it at bedtime just so I can feel it has some use and not just taking up random space

Nodeepdiving · 31/07/2023 21:43

Something to do with the East opening of the Panama Canal being further West than West opening. I'm sure someone will be along to explain it better in a minute 😊

barbarahunter · 31/07/2023 21:43

Daleks can go upstairs. I distinctly remember seeing a dalek kind of floating up the stairs when watching Dr Who in the 60s.