Steve Wright’s Book of Factoids

c) footwear

[If it was a) or b) I’m sure the figure would be higher, but it’s actually c) footwear. Clearly our better halves not only like to shop for them they like to throw them as well.]

In Japan, 20% of all publications sold are comic books.

The odds of being killed by falling out of bed are one in two million.

After a concert on the Isle of Man, the Rolling Stones climbed through a toilet window to avoid screaming fans.

Chart anorak factoid, courtesy of Paul Gambaccini – In 1976, Rodrigo’s ‘Guitar Concerto de Aranjuez’ was No 1 in the UK for only three hours because of a computer error.

200 babies are born worldwide every minute.

One out of every 70 people who pick their nose eat what they find!That is sick! Get help.

43 per cent of men speak to their mums on the telephone at least once a week.

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

90 per cent of women who walk into a department store immediately turn to the right.

Walking fast uses eight times as many calories as writing. Especially when you’re carrying a tortoise.

A study has revealed that people are more likely to catch colds when their mothers-in-law come to stay – too much stress brings down their immune system.

The tranquiliser Valium is the most widely used drug on earth.

In the native Indian language Manhattan means “the place of drunkenness”.

One count of the word “and” in the Bible showed that it appears 46,227 times.

14 per cent of cat owners think their cat is more important than their job.

The lion has the smallest heart of all beasts of prey.

Thesharkis immune to all known diseases.

The frog’s tongue grows from the front of its mouth, which makes it easier to catch flies.

People in Southern England eat six million more cloves of garlic a year than the northern French.

Red-haired men are more likely to go bald than anyone else.

A foetus acquires fingerprints at the age of:

a) 3 weeks

b) 3 months

c) 9 months

[Answer: b) three months.]

Three-quarters of the world’s population wash from top to bottom in the shower.

More money is spent on gardening than on any other hobby.

£25,000 is the highest price paid for a donkey in the UK. The prized beast was a racing donkey called Minstrel.

Many sailors believe a cat on board a ship means:

a) a lucky trip

b) an unlucky trip

c) Rolf Harris is filming a new series of Animal Hospital

[Answer: a) a lucky trip. Although it would be unlucky for the cat if it suffered from seasickness.]

It’s estimated that only 5 to 10 per cent of the world’s information has been digitised.

A Scottish taxi driver earned £12,000 driving a woman with a fear of flying 16,000 miles around America.

Austria was the first country to ever use postcards.

UK fish and chip shops currently use 60,000 tonnes of fish and 500,000 tonnes of potatoes a year …

…and we eat around 300 million servings of fish and chips a year – five for every person.

The role of Hamlet is the largest part in any Shakespeare play with 1,422 lines.

There are no female speaking parts in the whole of the film Lawrence of Arabia.

Movie factoid, courtesy of Jonathan Ross – Gone with the Wind is the only Civil War epic ever filmed without a single battle scene.

California has issued six drivers licenses to people named “Jesus Christ”.

Charles Dickens mentions a fried fish shop in his novel Oliver Twist – but it was not until the 1860s that the trade took off. So Dickens invented them!

The world’s first mobile phone was invented by Martin Cooper in April 1973.

In China, fish and chips are served with:

a) sugar

b) soy sauce

c) a smile