Trivia

The giveaway is now closed! I'll draw a winner later on today. Stay tuned!

Thank you so much for all your entries; your kind words; and your bits of trivia, general and personal! I'm sharing the general knowledge-y bits here, because there were so many fantastic random facts.

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"My colleague's roommate had pet snake, it slept coiled up next to her. Over the next few months it started un-coiling and lying straight next to her. She asked a snake expert why. It was MEASURING itself against her to see if it could eat her (it couldn't, but still). True story!" - Vintage Seen. [This story freaked me out - Andrea]

"Did you know that a million seconds is about 12 days, but a billion seconds is about 31 years?" - Tarynkay

"Polar bears have clear, hollow fur and black skin." - Sal

"Odontophobia is the fear of teeth." - Nina

"In the department of random: the author Patricia Highsmith kept snails. In the 1960s she had up to 300 snails in her house. She also took five or six of her favourite snails with her whenever she was traveling." - The Waves

"Here's my trivia: A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph." - Overcaffeinated

"As my 'odd fact,' yesterday I was reading about the humorous one-man attempt to invade Sark in 1990. The man in question was an unemployed French nuclear physicist who gave the island's leaders a deadline of noon. He was arrested by the volunteer constable while sitting on a park bench with a semi-automatic gun, waiting for midday to arrive." - R.

"My random factoid is that the city of San Francisco consumes more Fernet Branca than the rest of the US combined. And since most people I meet have no idea what Fernet Branca is, I should probably also tell you that it's an Italian herbal spirit, technically a bitters, that is traditionally served as a digestif but which is usually taken as a shot here in SF, often with a serving of ginger ale as a chaser." - Audi

"Did you know that the first chocolate chip cookie originated in Germany?" - TrueFoodieForever

"A fact hot off the scientific press: recent research has shown that if a person's ring finger is longer than their index finger on their dominant hand, then that person would have been exposed to more female hormones in-utero. This means that they will tend to show more feminine attributes. The converse is also true; if the ring finger is shorter than the index finger they would have been exposed to less female hormones and therefore less feminine attributes. Apparently the growth of the ring finger is affected by the presence of female hormones (i.e. oestrogen and progesterone) more so than the other digits. This goes for both men and women." - Mervat

"My random factoid: a common cause of Vitamin B12 deficiency in non-vegan, non-anaemic people is parasites. I made the mistake of telling my hypochondriac friend that, today, when she was certain she was dying from a B12 deficiency. Now she's worried about tape worms. Sometimes, it's best to keep my mouth shut!" - Cara

"Did you know that the length from your elbow to your wrist is your neck size?" - Robin

"Winnie the Pooh was named after the city of Winnipeg, by a Canadian Lieutenant who purchased a Black Bear Cub from a hunter. Winnipeg is also the Slurpee capital of the world. I don't know how those two things are related, besides their association to Winnipeg, but there you go!" - Lisa

"Random fact: Earth's MOON is bigger than Pluto." - Kitty

"The length from your elbow to your wrist is also your shoe size." - Jan

"As for odd bits of information ... since I'm getting ready for my first beekeeping season, I might as well tell you that an average honeybee only contributes about an 8th of a teaspoon of honey to the hive. To get it, they have to fly as far as twice to the moon and back. How's that for a poetic life mission?" - Milla

"The average family owns over 10,000 items. (I'm sure the majority of that is Lego ... )" - Wild Tea Party [Agreed! - Andrea]

"Did you know that Winnie-the-Pooh is such a popular character in Poland that a Warsaw street is named after him - "Ulica Kubusia Puchatka" ("the Street of Winnie-the-Pooh")? (You can actually see the street on Wikipedia.)" - Agnieszka

"Elephants can't jump." - K.P.

"Odd bits: There are three golf balls on the moon. People close their eyes when sneezing, it's a reflex you can't prevent. Most people can't do the Vulcan greeting, can't touch their other hand over the shoulder behind the back and can't raise just one eyebrow. I can do them all. And finally (you might already know this): one of the worlds wealthiest heiresses, Miss Huguette Clarks, 105 years old next June, has been isolating herself from society for decades. Very few people have seen her for the past 3 or 4 decades, and not very many know what she even looks like nowadays. She resides now in a hospital/nursinghome somewhere in New York and her 42-room apartment in Manhattan remains untouched, including all her collected art, furniture, personal belongings, vintage clothing, hats, handbags, shoes, just collecting dust. Isn't that amazing!" - Rhia

"The first actual cheeseburger ever was supposedly made here in Denver, CO!" - The D

"Let's see. Random fact ... American poet Lucille Clifton was born with twelve fingers, and so was her mother, and so was her daughter." - Megan

"According to a Gallup poll, tall Asian American males are the happiest demographic in the U.S. Isn't that weird?" - Flora

"Random bit of information: The planet Neptune orbits the Sun so slowly, it hasn't even completed one orbital period since its discovery in 1846." - Marina

"Did you know that Emily Bronte's brother tried to take credit for Wuthering Heights? According to the introduction in the Modern Library edition, "...theory which attributes 'Wuthering Heights' to the poor ineffectual dipsomaniac brother, Bramwell Bronte, who boasted to his friends that it was his work, but who, so far as has transpired, never wrote a good line of verse or prose in his life." (Rose Macaulay, Introduction page V)." - Amanda

"The shrimp's heart is in its head (nice). A close second; the elephant is the only animal with 4 knees." - Vikki

"Also, random factoid - if you are trying to figure out if a waistband of a skirt/trouser will fit you, just wrap it around your neck. Doesn't quite meet? It's too small. Overlap? Buy, buy, buy!" - Bianca

"Count me in, for i can tell you there are 46 different kinds of ladybirds in the U.K (and only 26 of which look like a 'classic ladybug')!" - Cup of Kitten Tea

"Tucson, Arizona is host to both the US's largest non-motorized parade (the fantastic Day of the Dead procession) and the street voted the U.S.'s ugliest (Speedway Boulevard) ..." - Gina

"An odd bit of information: most Brazil nuts are wild-harvested." - Ikkinlala