Steve Wright’s Book of Factoids

After a newspaper reported that footballer Wayne Rooney’s fiancee Coleen McLoughlin had discarded her £25,000 engagement ring at the Formby Point Nature Reserve near the couple’s luxury home, members of the pulic searching for the ring were banned from the reserve by the National Trust in case they disturbed the squirrels there.

A student at Leeds Metropolitan University wrote a 10,000 word thesis on “chav-ology” as part of her media studies degree. It was entitled “Chavs – subculture or chavaphobia?”

Chav extra factoid … “Popney” rhyming slang includes Jay Kay for takeaway, Sinead O’Connor for doner, Fatboy Slim for gym and Noel Gallagher for a week in Malaga.

The Earth is not round – it’s actually slightly pear-shaped. We all thought it went pear-shaped years ago.

American composer John Cage created a piece entitled “4 minutes 33 seconds”which is totally silent. That’s just stupid!

There were always 55 curls in 40s child starlet Shirley Temple’s hair.

Most adults have between two and five colds a year. Toddlers have between four and eight.

No matter how low the temperature falls outside, the windows of an empty house never frost over. Unless you know different …

While he was Prince Regent, George VI used to maintain a pale, elegant appearance by being frequently bled.

Were you aware that when a female fish sees a male fish blowing bubbles, it means he’s ready for breeding?

81% of people trust their partner to buy a surprise birthday present they will really like. But what about the other 19%?

It’s a factoid that the first hard hats were worn by workers building the Vatican, but in which century was it:

a) in the late 16th century

b) in the late 18th century

c) in the late 20th century

[Answer: a) in the late 16th century.]

Petersham is a thick corded silk ribbon used for stiffening in dressmaking. So it’s not a town in Surrey, then?

Jane Austen included only 14 kisses in her novels altogether, and four of those were on the hand.

The average debt of students graduating in the summer of 2005 was £13,500 – more than 10 per cent up on 2004.

Residents in Newtown, Powys, Wales started a campaign to change their town’s name as it was shared by more than 100 others.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has bought his own island in the Caribbean to turn into a five-star resort for wealthy conservation lovers.

If you’re over 100 years old, there’s an 80 per cent chance you’re a woman. You look good for your age – are those your own teeth?

A nightclub in Somerset held its Christmas party in July so that fire crews, the ambulance service and hospital workers could come.

Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump. Well, have you ever seen one do it? Are they ever in the Olympics? Well then!

There are officially 193 countries in the world, alphabetically from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Peter Sellers’ film contracts used to stipulate that he had to be supplied with a bed pointing East-West. So that he could clearly see Leytonstone from where he was lying …

Such is the popularity of footballer David Beckham that when he revealed a hairless chest during a summer sunbathing session while on holiday in St Tropez, sales of home waxing kits soared.

Eskimos complained of a heatwave when the temperature in the Arctic soared to 19 degrees Centigrade … Suppose their igloos melted all over their pyjamas …

A magician had to pay a locksmith £130 to free him after he got trapped in handcuffs when a trick on stage went wrong. Muppetry.

After bad reviews for his early films, Harrison “Indiana Jones” Ford gave up acting to become a carpenter.

But please, no jokes about his acting being wooden – Harrison is a fine actor … and a very good friend.

The most impossible item to flush down a toilet is a ping-pong ball, but obviously the researchers have never tried an elephant.

Maria Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon tennis champion, turned up at the following year’s event with 10 pairs of £500 trainers, flecked with 24-carat gold.

Elvis Section (#ulink_33c117d3-4a9b-5e87-9642-b8ea85694009)

Between shows, Elvis used to snack on chicken soup with crackers. As the crowd called “More!” he ate more.

It’s reported that when Elvis was introduced to Eric Clapton, he said to Slow Hand “And what do you do?”

Elvis impersonators are officially known as “Elvii” – just Ask Elvis. And don’t they say that by the year2080, every other citizen will be an Elvis impersonator?

Elvisbought hundreds of silk scarves to throw to fans at his shows, mainly from Tie Rack on Victoria Station.

The most successful music act of all time is Elvis Presley, having spent nearly 2,500 weeks in the UK charts alone.

RCA, the record label Elvis was on, always had to use the pressing plants of other record labels right from his first song with them to keep up with demand.

Elvis used to always call his daughter Lisa-Marie “Buttonhead” or “Yisa”.

Graceland is the second most visited home in America, after the White House. He bought Graceland for $102,500 in March 1957. Well, do you know how much it’s worth now … ?

You could only enter Elvis’s bathroom with his permission. It boasted a padded toilet, a poster of Sarah Kennedy and a giant Blue Peter badge. That’s not widely known – keep it to yourself.

Nobody apart from the British royal family has appeared on the stamps of more countries than Elvis.

Elvis wore high turned up collars because he believed his neck was too long, and he never wore underpants. In fact, his collars were named after two giraffes at Memphis Zoo, and he could never find underpants in his size, and he found them restrictive.

Elvis has left the building.

Less than seven per cent of the population donates blood.

Four per cent of women have hurled what at a man?

a) abuse

b) drink