Futility Closet » Trivia http://www.futilitycloset.com An idler's miscellany of compendious amusements Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:06:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Misc http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/19/misc-33/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/19/misc-33/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:02:24 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=25189
  • No point in Great Britain is more than 75 miles from the sea.
  • MOONLIGHT = THIN GLOOM
  • 2427 = 21 + 42 + 23 + 74
  • Sweden had a Charles VII, but no Charleses I-VI.
  • “If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he entitled to happiness?” — Stanislaw Lec
    • ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/19/misc-33/feed/ 0     Compass Trouble http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/16/compass-trouble/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/16/compass-trouble/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:13:35 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=25143 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_US_Map_48states.svg

    North East, Pennsylvania, is in northwest Pennsylvania.

    Northwest, Virginia, is in southeast Virginia.

    AM IN MARKET HARBOROUGH, G.K. Chesterton once telegraphed his wife. WHERE OUGHT I TO BE?

    ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/16/compass-trouble/feed/ 0     Small World http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/12/small-world-6/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/12/small-world-6/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:59:12 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=25097

    There is just one spot on earth from which, in an hour’s driving time or less, a motoring tourist can reach either Athens, Belfast, Belgrade, Bremen, China, Denmark, Dresden, Frankfort, Limerick, Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico, Naples, Norway, Oxford, Palermo, Paris, Peru, Poland or Vienna. The spot is situated at about 44° 9′ north latitude, 69° 51′ west longitude, in the county of Sagadahoc, state of Maine, U.S.A., and it is surrounded by towns bearing these names, no one of them more than fifty-five miles away.

    – Gary Jennings, Personalities of Language, 1965

    On a board in front of a stage-office in Buffalo, I once read, ‘Stages start from this house for China, Sardinia, Holland, Hamburg, Java, Sweden, Cuba, Havre, Italy, and Penn Yan.’

    – James Freeman Clarke, On Giving Names to Towns and Streets, 1880

    ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/12/small-world-6/feed/ 0     Low Profile http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/07/low-profile-3/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/07/low-profile-3/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 06:33:27 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=25009 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WashMonument_WhiteHouse.jpg

    No building in Washington, D.C., is taller than the Washington Monument.

    The city enacted a height restriction in 1899 to protect Thomas Jefferson’s vision of an “American Paris” with “low and convenient” buildings on “light and airy” streets.

    ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2012/01/07/low-profile-3/feed/ 0     Misc http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/28/misc-32/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/28/misc-32/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:53:25 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=24898
  • Canada’s coastline is six times as long as Australia’s.
  • Rudyard Kipling invented snow golf.
  • ENUMERATION = MOUNTAINEER
  • Can you see your eyes move in a mirror?
  • 26364 = 263 × 6/4
  • “If a man who cannot count finds a four-leaf clover, is he entitled to happiness?” — Stanislaw Lec
    • ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/28/misc-32/feed/ 0     Trivium http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/27/trivium-3/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/27/trivium-3/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:30:15 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=24886 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wvmapagain.png

    Weirton, W.Va., is the only town in the United States that borders two different states on opposite sides.

    The town borders Ohio directly on the west and Pennsylvania on the east.

    ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/27/trivium-3/feed/ 0     Misc http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/18/misc-31/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/18/misc-31/#comments Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:50:28 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=24766
  • Hastie Love was convicted of rape in Tennessee in 1968.
  • Zebra stripes are white.
  • 14641 = (1 + 4 + 6)4 × 1
  • Spain’s national anthem has no words.
  • LION + TIGER = LOITERING
  • “Character is that which can do without success.” — Emerson
    • ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/18/misc-31/feed/ 0     No Peeking http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/08/no-peeking/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/08/no-peeking/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:31:35 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=24630 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2010_Official_Downing_Street_pic.jpg

    10 Downing Street has no keyhole.

    ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/12/08/no-peeking/feed/ 0     Trivium http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/08/14/trivium-40/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/08/14/trivium-40/#comments Sun, 14 Aug 2011 06:00:25 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=22679 Beetle Bailey and Lois Flagston, of Hi and Lois, are brother and sister.

    Both comics were created by Mort Walker.

    ]]>     http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/08/14/trivium-40/feed/ 0     Overtime http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/07/24/overtime-5/ http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/07/24/overtime-5/#comments Sun, 24 Jul 2011 06:51:24 +0000 Greg Ross http://www.futilitycloset.com/?p=22458 Between 1963 and 1987, a tortoiseshell cat named Towser caught an estimated 28,899 mice in Scotland’s Glenturret Distillery. (Mice like barley.) Her prowess earned her a bronze statue and a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

    Her paw prints appeared on each bottle of Fairlie’s Light Highland Liqueur.

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