Random Fun Facts: Carla Rea’s Weekly Dose Of “I’ll Bet You Didn’t Know…”

It's time for my weekly, "hey, I'll bet you didn't know that..."

A few fun facts to have in your back pocket to impress the kids, to be a pompous ass at parties, or to just know - a la Cliff Clavin. (Kids, google him)

As you probably already know by now, I love useless information.

Knowledge is seen as "attractive," and people who express their knowledge of random facts to others are often thought of as intelligent (do I seem smarter yet?).

These are the kind of useless facts that will help you beat your know it all family member at Trivial Pursuit, or maybe just win a free Miller Light at Trivia night at Dotty's.

Here you go:

1. In 1983, NASA engineers asked Sally Ride if 100 tampons would be enough for her one week in space.

2. It's illegal to pretend to practice witchcraft in Canada, but it's legal to practice witchcraft if you're doing it for real.

3. Canadians are required to complete a basic math problem, without a calculator, before claiming lottery winnings. It's basically to work around gambling laws. It could be something like "What is (5x4) - 10?"

4. Americans spend twice as much suing each other as they do on cars.

5. Elevators and escalators made by the Otis Elevator Company carry around two billion people a day. Which means they transport the equivalent of every person in the world approximately every four days.

6. You're 50th cousins or closer with every single person on Earth.

7. In South Korea, red, white, and blue-striped poles are used for barbershops AND brothels.

8. Elton John's version of "Candle in the Wind" in memory of Princess Diana is the second-best-selling single in history, and he's only performed it in public ONCE, at her funeral. (Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" is the #1 best-selling single.)

9. The sound of most toilet flushes is in the key of E flat

10. When the first typewriter was created in 1868, the creators saved money by not including keys for a zero or a one. They figured people could just use "O" and "I."

11. In 1945, a German U-boat sank in the North Sea due to "misuse of the new toilet," which caused water to flood the submarine.

12.  Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the U.S. combined.

13. The temperature in Miami has never gone over 100.  In fact, it's only  hit 100 once, on July 21st, 1942.

-Carla Rea