OBNS - Tidbits & Trivia
  • HOME
  • Ohio News
  • Weather
  • On Movies
  • Forums
  • Tim's Take
  • Travel
  • Oscar gallery
  • ELVIS
  • Tim's Theater Ticket
  • Ronald Reagan
  • Tim's Tidbits
  • Twitter
  • Gourmet Gift Baskets
  • Shop
  • Tickets

Ants cannot chew

9/25/2011

3 Comments

 
Potatoes were once feared by Europeans. They were only fed to prisoners -- and animals. Potatoes are grown in all 50 states and under my sink.

Simply put, Micronesia means tiny islands and Polynesia means many islands. Amnesia means, well, I forget.

Nero did not fiddle when Rome burned for a couple reasons. You may have heard that fiddles were not yet created. The other reason is more simple. He was out of town. He did come back to try to contain the flames. He failed.

Ants can't chew. But I can chew ants.

The blood flow of a sea squirt reverses after every 30 heartbeats. Mine does too.

Ben Green cooked cocoa butter in a coffee pot and then put it on his head. He was bald. From this came Coppertone. They year was 1944.

Apple pips contain cyanide. Gladys Knight has Pips, too. So does a pair of dice.
3 Comments

Hippos are pigs, so to speak

9/25/2011

1 Comment

 
Prohibition helped the ice cream industry. Just trust me on this one and pass me a drink.

The Battle of Bunker Hill, which actually took place on Breed's Hill, lasted roughly 90 minutes. And I mean roughly.

The anti-coagulant in vampire bats is called Draculia. Come on, even I couldn't make that up.

Greenwich Mean Times dates back to 1884. Greenwich Nice Time is still in the works. Huh?

A lobster's teeth are in its stomach.

Hippos are pigs, so to speak. But I'm not going to tell them.

The fur on a polar bear is not white. It's colorless.
1 Comment

Hit that Devil in the eye with the salt

9/25/2011

2 Comments

 
Birds really started to become extinct when humans started collecting their eggs.

When you toss that spilled salt over your shoulder, you are doing so to hit the Devil in the eye. Keeps the bad luck away. It also makes the waiter pretty angry.

Lepers used to wear bells so people knew they were headed in their direction. I still require my uncle to wear one. Why? Well, you have never met my uncle.

Starfish are not fish.

After his famous Midnight Ride, Paul Revere was captured. The guys who caught him left when they heard gunfire in the distance.

In case you are keeping score, Thomas Edison invented the phonograph before the lightbulb. Before he invented the lightbulb, what went off over his head when he had a great idea?

Herons have resting places they call Heronies. Wait a minute. I'm sure they do not call them that, it's just us.

2 Comments

Lincoln was laughing when he was shot

9/4/2011

2 Comments

 
Because he contracted malaria,  Andrew Johnson showed up to his vice
presidential innauguration drunk. He downed some medicinal whiskey and slurred through his speech. 

It was on Feb. 12, 2002 when the oldest vomit was found. And not a moment too soon. It came from an Ichthysaur. Sure it did.
 
Julius Ceasar was able to stab one of his attackers on that dreaded Ides of March. But it really didn't matter, did it?

The thunder is not what causes the milk to turn sour. It's more likely to be the weather that follows the storm.

Swans cannot sing before dying because, well, they are mute. Some
hiss, however.

Apples in the Garden of Eden? Not likely because it would have been too warm.

Abraham Lincoln was laughing when he was shot.
2 Comments

Chickens snore; so do brave people

9/4/2011

1 Comment

 
For the sake of argument, or for that matter, starting one, men wore gloves before women. At least I did. When the Alamo took place (remember?), Texas was part of Mexico.

It took longer for the news that Roald Amundsen reached
the South Pole to get to England than his expedition lasted.

If you were wondering what the hair you are born with is called, try saying lanugo. Go ahead, say it, you would be right.

Chickens snore. I should say they can if they are inclined to do so. What. brave people do not? Huh? Never mind...

You can add "pretty ugly" to that list you are compiling about oxymorons.

Yes, porcupines are born with quills, but they are covered with a membrane that protects mom.

George Washington became commander in chief first; president came later.
1 Comment

Pop Goes the Weasel is a tool

9/4/2011

1 Comment

 
Let's face it, if the Leaning Tower of Pisa did not lean, it would be just
another building.
 
When William Howard Taft ran for president, he gave no campaign speeches. Neither did Martin Van Buren. Ah, the good old days.

Termites mate for life, without Viagra.

Pop Goes the Weasel does not refer to an animal. It's a tool. My uncle's a tool and a weasel. Go figure.

Cockroaches do indeed sleep. Do not ask me how I know this. The answer is quite disturbing and involves my Uncle Willie.

Ben and his wife were so scared to turn on the lights in their house, they
had their servants perform the task. The house was the White House and the scared couple was President Harrison and his wife.

Jerry Lewis would give jokes to JFK so he could insert them into his speeches, if he so desired. I guess he so desired. Let's move on, shall we?

1 Comment

North Pole is invisible, you say?

9/4/2011

2 Comments

 
There was a time in warfare when you could witness the cannonball rolling toward you. All you had to do was step out of the way or jump over it. Sure, if you were a coward, that is. Yes indeed, it was considered cowardly to do that. Call me a coward then.

Rats cannot vomit. Believe me, I've tried to get them to. I'm lonely.

The North Pole is actually a term used for a pole up north. Wait a minute, I lost track. The North Pole is actually several "invisible" surface points
located in the Arctic Region.

When Roswell Downer installed a telephone in his home, he was happy. It
didn't take him long before he was downer. So Roswell was really a downer because he could not talk to anybody. Nobody he knew had a phone. In fact, it was so early in the phone game he decided to hook one up at his bank, too.

What Galileo thought he saw around Saturn were moons, not actually rings. As for Uranus, make up your own joke right now.

A sloth may take up to a week to digest a meal. They have nothing on my uncle.


Sales of TV dinners really got a boost when it was revealed that Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower enjoyed eating them. They are long gone, but I still eat them but do not call them TV Dinners.


2 Comments

Loch Ness Monster is protected, you know?

9/4/2011

2 Comments

 
No need to explain. Just read and enjoy the things that pop into my head as the trivia flows. Now, these will be seven at a time, that's it. One for each day of the week.

The man who gets the honor of having Mt. Everest named after him never climbed to the top. He was the first person to accurately survey its peak. The key here is the first because there have been others and the peak changes. 

If it does exist, the Loch Ness monster is protected, so do not kill it.

Right before the famous Boston Tea Party, taxes were actually lowered
on tea. The party went on anyway.

The Spanish Fly is not a fly. It's a blister beetle. I have a blister
that is not really a blister, and I own many Beatle records, but that is another story.


Soldier and worker termites are sterile. What does this mean? Simply
put, their development was arrested early. And I really miss "Arrested
Development."


It has been estimated by those who estimate things that falling vending
machines kill up to 13 people a year. The number could be much higher if people didn't lie about it. "Well, how did Bob die?" "A massive coronary due to
...blah, blah, blah." In reality, he was kicking the crap out of the vending
machine trying to get to the Cheese Nips and it fell on him. You get the
picture.

Some say the longest graveyard in the world is the Great Wall of China.
OK, I'll say it, too.



2 Comments

    Author

    For years I had a weekly trivia column published in The Big E, the product I ran and wrote for Sauk Valley Newspapers. Before that I was a researcher for L.M. Boyd and his Crown Syndicate and for other syndications as well. Two of them were Sports Features Syndicate and World Features.

    Archives

    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Categories

    All
    Tidbits

    RSS Feed

news now!  

Google Adsense ​ google.com, pub-5516681449600579, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
​Want a newsroom secret? They use press releases and rewrite them. You can, too. PR Newswire USA.gov DOD White House news Entertainment  FDA CDC U.S. Senate U.S. House Democrats - DNC RNC - Republican AAA Inside Radio Ad Age Business Wire Polls

OBNS

O'Brien News Service

Twitter

@Timobns

Email

timobns@gmail.com