Fun Fact
why we should have a fact in our back pocket
I once had a man message me on a dating app “what do you know” and it stumped me for a moment. I know a lot of things, I’m well educated, I come from a well educated family that take pride in knowing things and doing well at quizzes. What this man didn’t know is that twice a week my brother and I go to the gym together, and while we work out we share fun facts that we’ve learned. So I think he was a little shocked when I replied “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’s theme song and Malcolm in the Middle’s theme song were written by the same band, They Might Be Giants, who also wrote and perform Istanbul (Not Constantinople).” Because then he’s asking me how I know that and I’m left looking at my phone like an idiot thinking what the fuck did he expect me to say other than a fun fact?! I’m sucked into wasting these fun facts on a man who I’ve no real interest in, however he does tell me that the temperature of absolute zero is around -237 degrees Celsius, which is kind of a neat to know.
“Did you know,” my brother looks up at me expectedly from the bench he lies on.
“Maybe, let’s see,” I reply as he starts his set, counting his reps and waiting as he sits up. The gym is busy, we’re currently under a speaker and it’s playing awful gym remixes of club classics.
“They changed the definition of up.” He says it so matter-of-factly and I know I’m looking at him with my mouth agape because any other person would think he’s pulling my leg but I know he’s not. He explains to me how they really have changed the definition of up, using physics, some string, and a mercury mirror.
“I did not know that.” I tell him.
“I have a fun fact.” I say, we’re at the fly machine now and a part of me is procrastinating because it’s my least favourite machine, “did you know,” I say, because that is how you must start a fun fact, “that birds have bellybuttons.”
“What?!” He’s gawking at me and immediately pulling out his phone when I tell him to search it but don’t look at the photos, its too late. “I did not know that,” he says with a slight grimace, closing the tab, because that is how you reply when someone tells you a fact you did not know. (I mean it don’t search the photos unless you’re okay seeing a baby bird taken from it’s egg too soon).
I enjoy pulling out did you knows whenever I can. Did you know a horse is measured in hands I say to my friend I did, you already told me that one, she replies because I’ve lost track of who I’ve told what to.
Sharing is caring I’ve been told all my life and though much of that was so I wouldn’t complain when my Dad took a bite from my apple or my Mum took a mouthful of my drink, it is true in all factors of life. Sharing is caring like my friend telling me to watch his favourite show the second I tell him I like the Star Wars prequels. Sharing is caring like my flat writing five good things that happened to us that day and spending an hour sharing that list with each other every night.
All of my friends, even some of my coworkers, know that my brother and I share facts with each other every week, so much so that they now give me their own facts, like how the penguins we know today are not from the original pinguinus family and are not the original penguins. Or that beer prevents scurvy.
I do not share food unless I truly cannot finish it, I am not a very good gift giver, and physical touch has never been my forte. But I work in information, information is what I know and what I have always known since my parents taught me animal sounds by lying to me about what sound a cow makes (its not baahh). Sharing is caring, so here are some fun facts to share with your friends, family, and random people who message you on dating apps to make them think how do you know that;
The Mexican Wave was named that as it was popularised at the televised 1989 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, but it actually started at an NHL game by a man named Krazy George and was loved by college students who then took it to college football and eventually the FIFA World Cup. It even appeared at the Olympic football final in 1984, two years before it’s televised appearance.
A second is called such because it is the second division of an hour. The word comes from the Latin pars minutes seconds (second small part), and minute comes from pars minutes prima (first small part).
Crocodiles can gallop but Alligators can’t.
If you are shot by a sniper at range, the bullet hits you before you hear the gun shot.
The Hungry Judge Effect, where it is thought that a judge’s verdict is more lenient after a meal break. The research surrounding this then led to a multitude of projects concerning hunger and its implications on economic and social behaviour.
A flame is hollow on the inside.
Mercury is, on average, the closest planet to all other planets in the solar system.
Nibbler’s shadow was in the first airing of Futurama. IYKYK
The morse code distress signal (. . . — — — . . .) came before the phrase SOS or the backronym ‘Save Our Souls’. It was agreed to be the international distinctive code for distress over radio in 1906.
Lord Byron is possibly one of the most interesting historical men I’ve ever read about and his poetry isn’t half bad either.
His daughter, Ada Lovelace (a magnificent women in her own right), is known as the mother of computing and the first computer programmer.
He fought the Ottoman Empire on the side of the Greeks and was then renowned as a folk hero.
He was close friends with Mary Shelley, her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John William Polidori. Stuck indoors together due to a storm, the group turned to telling stories, leading the authors to produce Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, and The Vampyre.
Fun facts are things that bring us closer. They’re a good way to get to know strangers, and start discussions at parties. They feel like a secret that is yours, waiting for the right recipient. They are a small piece of excitement, a little achievement that you can give yourself for learning something new. They change lives and habits, like finding out that the first or last toilets in a public bathroom are usually the cleanest (the more hidden or out of the way the better), or that you’ll actually get more wet running in the rain than walking. They make you interesting and smarter, learning things that you would have never otherwise known. They also are incredibly handy at a Pub Quiz, especially when the fact is so unheard of that you have the table snapping their heads to you with why do you know that, how do you know that, and when did you find this out.
I laughed out loud and had to start reading it out loud to the room. 🤣🤣🤣