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.

The dot on top of a letter i is called a tittle.

The gunfight at the OK Coral took place in Tombstone Ariz which is usually shown as a rough simple small desert town.
In fact it had a country club with tennis courts. There were two or three newspapers and gas street lighting.

@SirSmellyJohn

A friend's father visited Peru, heasked a couple of local children to be his guides (I think they were begging) at the end of his stay he ws invited tot he family home for a meal.

Afterwards the parents said next time they would cook him 'Winnipeg' he couldn't work out what they meant, until they took him outside tot he shed where there were ginea pigs running round.

I thionk he was quitwe relieved he wasn't going back.

The platypus and the echidna are the only two egg laying mammals (I have lots of random animal facts).

They don’t have nipples. The pups just lick the belly as milk is secretes through the fur

And they lay eggs, pee and poo through the one channel - the cloaca. Sorry for mental image. They are called 'monotremes' - this refers to this fact.

Kangaroos produce hardly any methane. Scientists are looking into this for ways of reducing cow methane.

True fact!
The loudest fart in the world was recorded at 118.1 decibels, on May 11th, 1972 in Flint, Michigan by Paul Hunn. The fart lasted for two minutes and forty-two seconds!
A thunderclap, chainsaw and oxygen torch come just above at 120db!

The loudest burp goes to Neville Sharp of Australia. Registered at 112.4db, in Darwin on 29th July 2021, which was louder than an electric drill or a trombone!

Everyone expected the Spanish Inquisition. They would write with an appointment beforehand.

London is the smallest cathedral city in England.

I just googled that, and it said that St David's was the smallest cathedral city in England.
Also I disagree with one of the pp - I'm sure David Attenborough said in one of his programmes that wombats passed cube shaped feces

I just googled that, and it said that St David's was the smallest cathedral city in England St David's is in Wales

I didn't know Elizabeth I kept guinea pigs. Did she eat them?

The outer part of animal horn ( eg cow, goat, pig) has properties similar to some types of plastic. In medieval times it was a useful commodity and taken from animals slaughtered for food. It can be carved, put in hot water and bent and shaped and sliced extremely thinly to produce translucent pieces. If you put an animal horn in boiling water you can detach and unwind this layer to get flat pieces. The inner horn core was not of much use and archaeologists sometimes find pits of them buried and it is a sign that animal industries ( butchery, tanning etc) were probably nearby.

That should be cow, goat sheep ( of course)! 🐄🐐🐑

If you tap two eggs together, only one will crack. I use this method and find it works

We need to tell Google that, because it very confidently says that the answer is St David's. It's so reliable and useful so much of the time that it comes as a bit of a shock when it cocks up so blatantly.

I can't believe that Google doesn't know St David's is in Wales! I'll never trust it again.

Some friends and got that as a question in a pub quiz years ago, and we nearly came to blows over the answer. One friend thought it was Wells, and was adamant he was right, because he has a first in theology. A theology degree obviously doesn't prepare you for what is almost a trick question.

Motorways are numbered after the A road they were built to relieve traffic from - the lowest number motorway that doesn't exist is the M7.

The mileage to a town/city on a motorway sign reflects the distance to the central post office.

(I have nothing to do with motorways, it's just a coincidence I find those two fascinating!)

Can't believe no one has posted the name of the song that kept Vienna by Ultravox off the #1 spot!

I know the words to both the French and Dutch national anthems, could sing them to you if wanted.

Never had cause to sing the latter.

Joe Dolce?

I always thought Ripon was the smallest cathedral city in England

Yep - I think its an inherently British trait to quote this fact upon hearing Vienna!

I thought the done thing was that if anyone ever says the word Vienna in your earshot you have to immediately croon 'this means nothing to me' and then carry on as if nothing happened.

Like if someone mentions swans - you politely inform that one will almost certainly break your arm then move on swiftly without further explanation. It's actually considered one of the most effective citizenship tests.

It's Wells, is it not?

Dunblane is the smallest cathedral city in Scotland.

Things that look like postage stamps but aren't valid for postage are called 'Cinderella stamps'.

You're right - I stand corrected 😊