Futility Closet

Short film titles, from Patrick Robertson’s Film Facts (2001):

• A (Japanese, 1999)
• E (British, 1993)
• F (Japanese, 1998)
• G (British/German, 1974)
• H (Spanish, 1997)
• I (Swedish, 1966)
• K (Hungarian, 1989)
• M (German, 1931)
• Q (French/Italian/Belgian, 1974)
• W (Filipino, 1985)
• X (Korean, 1982)
• Y (Colombian, 1992)
• Z (French/Italian, 1968)
• $ (U.S., 1972)

Darren Aronofsky’s 1998 film π concerns a mathematician who seeks patterns in strings of numbers.

Its running time is 1:23:45.

• Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital.
• Hamlet has 1506 lines, fully 39 percent of the play.
• 736 = 7 + 3⁶
• NOOK combines two antonyms.
• “Everything that deceives may be said to enchant.” — Plato

The word Mafia is never used in The Godfather.

(Perhaps the Corleones are really zombies.)

• Q is the only letter that does not appear in any U.S. state name.
• 6455 = (6⁴ – 5) × 5
• North Dakota’s record high temperature (121°F) is higher than Florida’s (109°F).
• UNNOTICEABLY contains the vowels A, E, I, O, and U in reverse order.
• “An odd thought strikes me: We shall receive no letters in the grave.” — Samuel Johnson

The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

Only 23 U.S. states are entirely south of Canada’s southernmost point, Middle Island in Lake Erie.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Three of the first five U.S. presidents died on Independence Day.

• SCINTILLESCENT contains 7 pairs of letters.
• Rub two pennies together and you’ll see a third between them.
• Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the same day.
• 1285 = (1 + 2⁸) × 5
• Squeeze an orange peel into a candle flame and you’ll produce a burst of fire.

Twenty-one U.S. states have names that end in A.

Longest game of Monopoly:

• played upside down: 36 hours
• played in a bathtub: 99 hours
• played underground: 100 hours
• played in a treehouse: 286 hours
• ever played: 1,680 hours

Parker Brothers rejected the game in 1933, citing “52 fundamental playing flaws.”