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

[IseeNarcPeople]

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.

Rats don't have gallbladders.

The New Zealand basketball team is nicknamed 'the Tall Blacks'.

The chemical symbol for lead is Pb, derived from the Latin plumbum, which is where the word 'plumber' comes from. Oh, and lead has 82 protons in its nucleus (WHY DO I KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT LEAD? I WORK IN I.T.).

The Brooklyn bridge isn’t anchored to the river bed on one side - it was so deep that the workers were getting sick from decompression sickness so they stopped before they got there

The four stomachs of a ruminant animal are the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. (Farmers daughter, do not work in farming or vetinary or move in any circles where this would be useful or interesting information!)

Also, the one French word I never forget is épouvantail - Scarecrow. How handy!

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!!)

The word used to describe the smell of rain is Petrichor.

Leeds railway station has the highest number of platforms for a non-London station in the UK. It has 18.

That's quite interesting! What station has the most platforms in the UK?? Is it kings cross?

I always tell my class 5, 6, 7, 8 to help with that. 56 = 7x8

The word for the feeling of the sun in winter is Apricity. I love that word.

My remembered French word is Eclair, which means lightning. Useful in a recent pub quiz.

Bees don't have lungs

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 😂😂😂

The dog's bollocks and bog standard both come from the same etymology. Apocryphally

Box Deluxe and Box Standard in Meccano.

Following on with the plumbers theme, plumbers in Chile are called gasfiters. It's a spanishification of the name used when Americans installed gas to Chilean homes.

One of the reasons newborns generally cry straight after birth is to create pressure changes in the thoracic cavity to force fluid out of their lungs and inflate them so normal breathing can occur.

Foetal circulation pre and post birth is different. It’s actually pretty amazing, but I am a physiology geek so.……😂

Margaret Thatcher campaigned for Britain to Remain in the European Community in the 1975 referendum.

If someone accidentally touches your foot in Mongolia, they have to grab your wrist. Freaks out tourists.

Wow, all of these are genuinely interesting!
My brain is going to have to make more space.

P&O stands for The Peninsular and Oriental (Steam Navigation Company).

The longest escalator on the London Underground is at Angel station. The shortest is at Stratford.

Polar bears fur is actually see-through, not white.

Humans are more sensitive to the smell of petrichor than sharks are to blood

If you line up all the planets on the solar system, you could fit them between the Earth and the Moon.

There are 4 witches in Macbeth. Not 3 like everyone thinks.

And Frankenstein is the name of the doctor who created the monster, not the monster's name - he doesn't have one.

Shakespeare died on his birthday.

Same with most white animals. The hair is hollow and allows miniscule particles to enter the skin, hence white animals are more likely to have skin allergy problems.

The monster was called Adam.

My dad's car registration from about 50 years ago, my family phone number from 50 years ago, every main holiday I've been on for the last 40 years in chronological order, the order of the planets

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 😂