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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:
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7
Curiousquestion124 · 01/08/2023 10:08

AnImaginaryCat · 31/07/2023 23:36

I've always been under the impression that petrichor is the smell of the earth after it has rained.

Specifically earth that was dry because it hasn't rained in a while. Which might explain why I can't smell petrichor now!!

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I thought it was the smell of dust after rain

WednesdaysMentor · 01/08/2023 09:14

Guinea Pigs and Humans are the only mammals that cannot produce their own Vitamin C

MeThinksTime · 01/08/2023 09:09

CherrySocks · 31/07/2023 22:01

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

Haha! It's true. Act 3, scene 5. There are the 3 witches plus a 4th called Hecate - she is like the 'head' witch.

WednesdaysMentor · 01/08/2023 09:08

Pablo Escobar offered to pay off Columbia's National Debt of £8 billion if they changed the law so he couldnt be extradited to the US. They refused.

TheDogthatDug · 01/08/2023 09:01

Hedgehogs never stop growing.
Lino is made from pine resin which is naturally antibacterial.

RonObvious · 01/08/2023 08:59

Seagulls drink seawater. They have built in desalination filters, and the concentrated saltwater comes out of their salt glands.

AhhSlippedOnMahBeansRitaaa · 01/08/2023 08:57

Bearpawk · 31/07/2023 23:59

I know it by heart too!

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There are so many of us! It pops into my head when I'm trying to go to sleep I don't think I'll ever forget it 🌈🧥

Laiste · 01/08/2023 08:10

Foal slippers - good lord they make me shudder!

I forget i know about them and then every couple of years i read about them again on 'ere. I think my brain blocks them out! 😳

HairyMcHairyFace · 01/08/2023 08:05

RumNotRun · 31/07/2023 23:23

Wouldn't that be COMRA?

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Argh, Briefing not Meeting!

sashh · 01/08/2023 07:09

CherieBabySpliffUp · 31/07/2023 23:04

There's a word for throwing someone out of a window...defenestration. I can't imagine that I would ever need to use it.

I can name all of Santa's reindeer with ease thanks to learning it in primary school some 40 years ago

My carer quite often threatens me with it. Not in a serious way before someone calls social services.

We have that kind of relationship, I once asked him to check the bathroom as I thought there was a leak.

He cam back threatening to beat me over the head with the leaek I'd left in there.

Fun fact, on the ISS salt and pepper are liquids.

Belindablinked2 · 01/08/2023 07:01

MillicentTrilbyHiggins · 31/07/2023 23:00

Joseph's coat was...
Red and yellow and green and brown and scarlet and black and ochre and peach and Ruby and olive and violet and fawn and lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve and cream and crimson and silver and rose and azure and lemon and russet and grey and purple and white and pink and orange and blue.

Anyone else just sing that. ?

Catsmere · 01/08/2023 06:44

Edinburgh is on about the same latitude as Moscow and Copenhagen.

MaryJanesonabreak · 01/08/2023 06:42

Britain is on the same latitude as the Hudson Bay.

Riapia · 01/08/2023 06:33

Light is invisible.
If you sail due east from New York harbour the first country you come to will be Portugal.

timegoingtooquickly · 01/08/2023 06:20

SheilaWilde · 31/07/2023 23:50

You can't fold a piece of paper more than 7 times is something I know but still can't fathom how it's true.

I remember this from Why Don't You 🤣

HollyBerri · 01/08/2023 05:59

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!!)

That’s lodged in my brain too for exactly the same reason.

maddiemookins16mum · 01/08/2023 05:55

Bonjovispjs · 31/07/2023 23:29

First single I ever bought 😁

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@Bonjovispjs me too. I still remember queuing outside a record shop with my 66p.

Catsmere · 01/08/2023 05:04

Rabbits were not, as previously thought, introduced to Britain by the Normans. They were introduced by the Romans. A rabbit bone discovered at Fishbourne Palace (which was built around 75AD) was carbon-dated and proved to be from the time, and since it showed no marks of butchery and analysis suggests it lived in a confined area, it was presumably a pet!

HappiDaze · 01/08/2023 04:59

Via their mothers placenta

HappiDaze · 01/08/2023 04:58

Here's a fact I love

When you are pregnant a tiny amount of free floating cells with your baby's DNA 🧬 can pass through the placenta into your body forever and vice Versa.

It's called Microchimerism

And for each subsequent pregnancy, cells not only pass from each new foetus to the mother but some of the previous foetus cells can be passed on to their subsequent siblings.

Catsmere · 01/08/2023 04:52

CliffsofMohair · 31/07/2023 23:52

St Patrick (famous Welshman, ended up tending pigs and driving snakes in Ireland) is the patron saint of Nigeria.

Driving snakes, you say?

To want to know the useless facts you store in your brain..
HappiDaze · 01/08/2023 04:37

Two all beef patties special sauce lettuce cheese pickle and onion all on a sesame seed bun Grin

If you memorised that and said it in McDonalds in the 80's you got a free burger

It just popped into my head as a very useless fact

And the first king of England was King Athelstan

Catsmere · 01/08/2023 04:28

wishihadagoodone · 31/07/2023 23:11

They're qualified to run for public office then

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Overqualified, I'd say!

Catsmere · 01/08/2023 04:27

CherieBabySpliffUp · 31/07/2023 23:04

There's a word for throwing someone out of a window...defenestration. I can't imagine that I would ever need to use it.

I can name all of Santa's reindeer with ease thanks to learning it in primary school some 40 years ago

A word familiar if one's read about the Thirty Years War, kicked off by the infamous Defenestration of Prague in 1618.

Catsmere · 01/08/2023 03:46

ChocolateCinderToffee · 31/07/2023 21:46

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

That's always been my ambition ...