Wit ought to be a glorious treat like caviar; never spread it about like marmalade.-- Noel Coward
This week, however, The Jesters provide us with some completely useless information.
- African lions catch about 20% of the prey they chase. Dragonflies catch 95%.
- A “cronut” is a cross between a doughnut and a croissant.
- Amazon.com was originally called a cadabra.
- A human loses about a million skin cells per 24 hours.
- Rabbits can see behind them without moving their heads. They also sleep with their eyes open.
- Even though the blue whale is the largest animal on earth, it can’t swallow anything bigger than a beach ball.
- Every year, about 100 billion servings of instant ramen are sold each year, or about 14 bowls per person.
Mistletoe has no scent.
- A Chihuahua and a dachshund mix is a “chiweenie".
- The Hungarian word for "quotation marks" is "macskaköröm," which literally translates to "cat claws."
- There are no seagulls in Hawaii.
- The sound of Darth Vader’s difficult breathing was made with a scuba regulator.
- Luke Skywaker was originally named Luke Skykiller.
- A moonbow is a rainbow produced by moonlight rather than direct sunlight.
- The # symbol isn’t officially called a hashtag or a pound. It’s technically called an "octothorpe." The “octo-” means “eight” to refer to its points.
- "Respair" is a 15th-century word meaning ‘fresh hope’ or a recovery from despair.
- A group of stingrays is called a fever.
- The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac.
- The term "lawn mullet" means having a neatly manicured front yard and an unmowed mess in the back.
- Raccoons have four times more sensory cells in their paws than most mammals. This allows them to "see" with their hands and get images of the object they touch without even looking at them.
Being compassionate to others--as well as oneself--leads to greater happiness.
- Snow-bones are the lines of snow or ice left at the sides of roads after the rest of the snow has melted.
- Toxic people undermine, discourage, sabotage, and take advantage of you. "Nutric" people do the opposite, which is why it is so important to surround yourself with them.
- The word "good-bye" is a contraction of "God be with ye."
- Believing in Santa Claus cultivates a child's imagination and the ability to think of possibilities and potentialities.
- The Greek name for the mosquito is "anopheles," which means “good for nothing.”
- A “50% off” sign increases sales, even if shoppers don’t know the original price or what a reasonable price for the product would be.
- The sea otter is the largest member of the weasel family, a group that includes skunks, weasels, wolverines, and badgers.
- The neighbors of lottery winners are more likely to go bankrupt because they try to keep up with their neighbor’s new spending habits.
- One of the NBA’s top scorers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made only one 3-point shot his entire 20-year career.
- The Eiffel Tower was initially considered to be an eyesore. Its usefulness as a radio tower saved it from being dismantled in 1909.
- Reading rewires your brain for higher intelligence and empathy.
- The word "parakeet" literally means "long tail."
- A "griggle" is an apple left on the tree because its too small to pick.
- The chess term “checkmate” is from a 14th-century Arabic phrase, “shah mat," meaning “the king is helpless.”
- A "cama" is the hybrid offspring of a camel and a llama.
- Someone who suffers from "anatidaephobia" believes that somewhere, somehow a duck or goose is constantly watching them.
- The word "everywhen" means all the time or always.
- Beaver eyelids are transparent so that they can see through them as they swim underwater.
Royalty-free pictures from PEXELS.