Page 108 - The 'X' Zone Book of Triviology

o Cattle branding in the United States began in Connecticut when farmers were required by law to mark all their pigs. o America’s first billionaire was John D. Rockefeller of Cleveland, Ohio. o The pop-top can was invented by Ermal Fraze of Kettering, Ohio, in 1959. o Cleveland, Ohio, chocolate maker Clarence Crane invented Life Savers in 1912. o The first Life Saver flavor was Pep-O-Mint. o Nabisco made 16 billion Oreo cookies in 1995 at its Chicago cookie and cracker factory. o Actor Lon Chaney was the son of a deaf-mute parents, and thus learned early to pantomime. o For over 400 years, pirates were hanged at Execution Dock on the north bank of the Thames. Today a pub called The Captain Kidd overlooks the original site of the gallows. o In London, by about 1700, “Frigate” was naval slang for “a woman” - specifically “a shady lady.” o Babe Ruth named his home in Sudbury, Massachusetts, Home Plate. o To ease overcrowding in the jails, English convicts were imprisoned in the hulls of old warships moored on the Thames. o The full name of the Simpsons character Krusty the Klown is Herschel Schmoeckel Krustofski. o The Simpson cartoonist Matt Groening’s name rhymes with “raining.” o The Beatles original name was Johnny and the Moondogs. o For a University of Maine magazine, Stephen King wrote a column called “King’s Garbage Truck.” o Two other terms for “card shark” are “mechanic” and - an older term - “greek.” o Kawaiahao Church in Honolulu is known as “the Westminster Abbey of Hawaii.” th o The word “dream” didn’t come to mean “sleep-images” until the 13 century. o In Old English it originally mean “joy,” noise,” or “music.” o Geoffrey Chaucer was the first person interred in Westminster’s Abbey’s “Poets Corner.” The other 21 interred there include Charles Dickens and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. o A “pony car” is a type of North American-built “baby Muscle car,” such as the Ford Mustang. o Before the advent of Christianity, wicces (witches) were shamans - spiritual advisers and healers. o The Simpsons character Lisa Marie Simpson is a lacto-ovo vegetarian. th o The quinceanera is a young Latina woman’s celebration of her 15 birthday. o As a boy, Julius Caesar learned several languages, including Hebrew and Gallic dialects. o “Caesar” means “hairy.” This branch of the family was known for having fine heads of hair. o The white rose (Rosa alba) was the symbol of the House of York during the “War of the Roses.” o The “White Rose” was the name of the anti-Nazi resistance movement in Nazi Germany. o In Sweden, male customers of prostitutes are known as “torskar,” which means “cod.” Torsk is also slang for “loser.” o 13 is considered a lucky number in China because its ideogram means “must be alive.” o The Navajo is the largest North American tribe in the United States. o San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park is 174 acres larger than New York’s Central Park. o Band-Aid is the trademarked name for the 1920 invention belongs to Earle Dickson. o Thor Bjorklund, a Norwegian, invented the cheese slicer in 1925. o Around the time of the Three Kingdom period (A.D. 220-265), China’s name for Japan was Wa. o “Silk Road” is a translation from the German Seidenstrasse, the term first used by German geographer th Ferdinand von Richtofen in the 18 century. o The earliest known pottery is from Japan’s Jomon culture, which emerged around 11,000 B.C. o Tokyo literally means “Eastern Capital” in Japanese.