I conceived this page during a conversation with an old IRC friend of mine, Tuulia Myohanen. I was going to keep a list of the things I had learned (starting then, with a bit of Finnish that she had taught me). The project fell to the wayside, and I found other priorities for my Web site.
That changes now. The mundane things that I learn (and, in some cases, relearn) will be recorded here. It may include (but is not limited to): song lyrics, trivia, new words, foreign phrases, technical knowledge, pop culture and goofy things that only I will find noteworthy.
Why? I may want to remember these things (Alzheimer's Disease runs in my family). I want to further screw up search engines. And I want to let Tuulia know that I haven't forgotten about her. Heya babe.
December 23, 2006
-- Xylitol (also known as "wood sugar") can be used as a reduced-calorie sweetener and to cut cocaine.
October 18, 2006
-- The video for Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" features dancing ninjas and flying choirboys.
August 4, 2006
-- The terms "top dog" and "underdog" derive from the process of making planks for the English shipbuilding industry in the 18th and 19th centuries.
May 20, 2006
-- Bill Paxton produced and starred in the video for Barnes & Barnes' "Fish Heads".
May 8, 2006
-- Alice Cooper did ads for CompUSA.
April 15, 2006
-- In order for it to count as a save opportunity, a reliever must enter the game when his team is leading by no more than three runs.
April 11, 2006
-- "Callous" and "callus" are two separate words (but they're homophones).
March 12, 2006
-- Lisa Loeb has a nice ass.
February 12, 2006
-- Butterfingers contain neither butter nor fingers.
February 4, 2006
-- The vomiting girl ghost in The Sixth Sense was played by Mischa Barton of The OC fame.
December 20, 2005
-- 22 per cent of the United States' cabbage is grown in New York.
November 5, 2005
-- Actor Sean Astin is the son of Patty Duke and John Astin (Gomez Addams on "The Addams Family").
September 15, 2005
-- One of actor Don Cheadle's first roles was on the failed Golden Girls spin-off "The Golden Palace".
August 20, 2005
-- Singer (and occasional public masturbator) George Michael has a home in Dallas, Texas.
June 7, 2005
-- There is no such word as "profoundities". There is, however, "profundities".
January 29, 2005
-- The scientific name for the muskox is Ovibos moschatus.
January 24, 2005
-- The late Johnny Carson continued to write jokes for David Letterman, even well into his retirement.
January 19, 2005
-- President Bill Clinton's biological father died before Bill was born.
October 11, 2004
-- Porn star Ron Jeremy is an accomplished hang glider pilot.
August 22, 2004
-- To replace the structurally-suspect Bay Bridge, Caltrans is building the world's first single-tower, self-anchored suspension bridge.
May 21, 2004
-- The Cure's Robert Smith was an on-again, off-again member of goth punkers Siouxsie and the Banshees.
April 14, 2004
-- If you voluntarily surrender your vehicle to the lien holder when you cannot keep up the payments, it appears as a repossession on your credit record.
February 13, 2004
-- In order for a page to be XHTML compliant, <noscript> tags cannot nest within <p> tags.
December 22, 2003
-- Henry Martyn Robert, who wrote Robert's Rules of Order, designed the Galveston Seawall.
December 12, 2003
-- The main ingredients in baking powder are baking soda, cream of tartar and baking soda.
December 4, 2003
-- Cupio te meam mentulam sugare is Latin for "I want you to suck my dick."
December 2, 2003
-- The USPS charges 80 cents to mail a letter to the island of Miquelon, which is a small French island off the coast of Newfoundland and only about 700 miles away from Maine. However, a letter can be sent to the jungles of the Yucatan or to Alert, Canada (the northernmost permanently-habited place in the world) for only 60 cents.
November 29, 2003
-- Actor Will Ferrell's first name is John.
November 28, 2003
-- When cooking a turkey, it should initially be cooked upside-down, and with the drumsticks pointing towards the back of the oven. Apparently, the dark meat in the thigh takes the longest to cook.
November 26, 2003
-- "Aller contre" is a valid French phrase (meaning "to go against").
November 21, 2003
-- John Ratzenberger (Cliff Claven on 'Cheers') helped build the stage for the original Woodstock festival.
July 16, 2003
-- Construction of the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge was delayed for several decades by the US Army, who thought the bridge would compromise the security of the US Navy Yards in Brooklyn.
-- Eminem's song "Lose Yourself" was recorded in a modified trailer on the set of 8 Mile.
June 24, 2003
-- Much of the doctrine behind Islamicist terrorism is derived from the writings of Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian scholar and fundamentalist Muslim.
May 19, 2003
-- The title of that Sugarcult song is "Bouncing Off The Walls", not "Bouncing Off The Walls Again."
-- The 'Roche Limit' is the closest a satellite can orbit a planetary body without being torn apart by the planet's tidal forces.
April 20, 2003
-- Chrome's hit song "Everybody Wow" appears on the album "Glass Penis." (Chrome was a character from the SNL skit "Clubb Traxx" and was played by Matthew McConaughey.)
-- Spongebob Squarepants' childhood teddy bear was named "Mr. Stuffikins".
April 19, 2003
-- According to the Arcade Dictionary of Word Origins, the word (ironically) has its origins in the name of the pagan Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn, Éastre. Her festival took place in the spring, so the name was conveniently borrowed during the conversion of the British and Germanic peoples. We get "east" from the same word root.
-- If all of my MP3s were played non-stop, it would take a listener just over 258 hours to make it through my whole collection.
April 17, 2003
-- Things in Afghanistan aren't as uncivilized as I thought; at least the place has a decent Irish pub.
April 15, 2003
-- The Smashing Pumpkins' 1993 release "Siamese Dream" peaked at No. 10 on Billboard's album chart.
April 11, 2003
-- The only nearby fast food places open at 1:55 a.m. on a Friday morning are Taco Cabana and Jack In The Box.
-- The following schools have won the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey championship (number of titles in parentheses): University of Michigan (9), University of North Dakota (7), University of Denver (5), University of Wisconsin (5), Boston University (4), University of Minnesota (
April 7, 2003
-- Pedigree (the dog food people) have added a few new flavors to their Little Champions line of moist dog food. The "Traditional Ground Dinners" come with beef, beef & cheese, chicken and lamb.
April 6, 2003
-- The safest spot in the JCPenney store at Northeast Mall in Hurst, TX to be when a tornado strikes is the loading dock.
-- On a digitalized weather map, funnel clouds are marked with white rings.
April 5, 2003
-- Singer Kenny Chesney is from a small town in Tennessee. Oh yeah, I'm not the only person who thinks he may be unsure of his sexuality.
-- The British may be using half-ton chunks of precision-guided concrete to destroy Iraqi tanks.