313 There is no evidence that 'ring a ring a roses' or it's American relative have anything to do with the plague, either in the C14 or in the C17. Some speculator has picked and chosen from the many versions of this rhyme to construct this fanciful theory; indeed it may be that the current choice of wording has been influenced by the theory and not the other way about; local versions that fitted less were superseded over time. The rhyme has only been in print since the 1880s and even then in various wordings but they did not fit so well; one or two have no arguable connection with the plague or its supposed symptoms at all.(The theory was still being taught to children in the 1950s in the UK; our words by then were almost all explicable in its terms )

By the way, where is this house that keeps catching fire (238)?

319.. No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times.
False; I just did it. Did you mean "folded in half"? If so, then it depends on the thickness of the paper. Most typing and notebook paper probably can't be, but much thinner paper can.

322.. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
False. A pin oak in my front yard, planted in 1977, has produced acorns since I moved in, in 1988. I am sure that it is not unique.

327.. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
This has been discussed before on AP. Clockwise and counter-clockwise depends on the position of the viewer. A planet that rotates clockwise when viewed from over one pole will rotate counter-clockwise when viewed from over the other. Thus, all planets rotate both clockwise and counter-clockwise.

338.. All Polar bears are left handed.
No zoo responded when I checked this a year ago. One has to assume that either the fact is so obvious that it was beneath their dignity to answer, or that the 'fact' is so absurd that they think asking about it is a joke. I have looked at about 50 sites that are devoted to the study of polar bears; none mentions this.


329.. The 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.

Originally, this one read "represents the number of products" but since that has been disproven, it was switched to "varieties of pickles."
"It was in 1896 that Henry Heinz came up with one of the most recognized slogans in advertising history: "57 Varieties." This catch phrase had nothing to do with the actual number of varieties produced by H. J. Heinz, though, which by then totalled over 60 (including plum pudding, strawberry preserve, India relish, olive oil, spaghetti, euchred pickle, currant jelly, chili sauce, peanut butter, and celery soup). Rather, Heinz was riding an elevated train in New York when he spied an advertising placard in the train car promoting "21 styles" of shoes; struck by the concept, and recognizing that catchiness and resonance were far more important qualities for a company slogan than literal accuracy, Heinz cast about for the perfect number to use for his own company's version of the phrase. Settling on fifty-seven, Heinz soon put the number to work, and within a week the sign of the green Heinz pickle bearing the words "57 Varieties" was everywhere Heinz "could find a place to stick it." " - http://www.snopes.com

348.. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
Ridiculous.

350.. Between 1937 and 1945 Heinz produced a version of Alphabetic Spaghetti specially for the German market that consisted solely of little pasta swastikas.

"However, Heinz did take the time to research the issue and follow up with additional information several days later:

'This is in response to your inquiry regarding the recent internet rumor associated with the H.J. HeinzCompany. According to the Heinz archivist, the H.J. Heinz Company did not produce pasta, in any shape, for the German market during World War II.' " - http://www.snopes.com/swastika

I enjoyed your research on Heinz, DG.

Kendor, if nothing else, you have given us something to do! Like #39:

Devertebrated (13 letters, all properly typed with the left hand on a standard keyboard) is longer than stewardesses (12 letters). Maybe there is one longer somewhere. This one has been around a long time and is "known fact" - NOT!

quote:

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Originally posted by methos:
I've always loved #18 for the ease with which it can be disproved. Anyone with a 5 in their wallet care to count ?

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No need. When I was a kid, the US only had 48 states, and all of them were named on the Lincoln Memorial -- but they go all the way around.

Alan Moore

AskOxford.com (as in the dictionary) comments on some of the language ones.

quote:

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Originally posted by Doriangreyed:
14.. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."

I think the thruth was _stretched_ a bit for this one, too.

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Scratched, scrounged, scrunched, stretched, straights, strengths, scraughed, scrinched, scritched, scrooched, sprainged, spreathed, throughed, thrutched, and scraunched are also listed by Oxford.

quote:

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Originally posted by Fourbrick:
No 17. "Dreamt is the only word to end in mt" what about "undreamt"?
...

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Oxford calls it "pedantic" but also notes adreamt.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kendor:
133.. The three words in the English language with the letters uu are: vacuum, residuum and continuum.

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Also, menstruum and triduum. Interestingly, AskOxford missed residuum. Any of our British friends care to correct them? They don't provide an email address (probably to avoid being swamped) and I simply don't have the motivation to send international mail over this.

quote:

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Originally posted by Kendor:
267.. The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter "uncopyrightable."

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Also, dermatoglyphics.

not from AskOxford, but:

quote:

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Originally posted by Kendor:
364.. "Typewriter" is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

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other 10 letter words:
pepperroot, pepperwort, perpetuity, pewterwort, pirouetter, prerequire, pretorture, proprietor, repertoire, repititory, shakalshas, and tetterwort.

Recap

Items found to be false, probably false, or misleading-

2
14
17
18
23
31
33
35
39
41
60
99
115
133
142
159
213
219
226
278
257
313
319
322
327
329
338
348
350
366

13.. Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
False. New Jersey doesn't even grow as much as Florida, and the Time Almanac for 2003 doesn't list eggplants in the top ten agricultural products of Florida.

"In 1997, eggplant was produced on 1,700 acres in Florida, with a total yield of 544,000 cwt (yield per acre = 320 cwt/acre) and a total value of $14,144,000 (cf. New Jersey -- 900 acres; 194,000 cwt; 215 cwt/acre;" - www.agribusinessonline
One site mentioned that, when asked about "Eggplant Capital of the World," a New Jersy Agriculture official laughed, and said he knew nothing about it.

22.. The largest cabbage weighed 144 lbs.
Not according to Guinness.

"Heaviest Cabbage
A cabbage grown by Bernard Lavery of Llanharry, Rhondda Cynon Taff, Wales, in 1989, weighed 56.24 kg. (124 lb.)." - http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com
(Search for "cabbage")

30.. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."
Unproven at best. According to the Internet Movie Data Base, "Bert and Ernie are *not* named for the characters in It's a Wonderful Life (1946); it's a coincidence."


67.. A stretched out Slinky is 87 feet long.
Not even close.

"How much wire does it take to make a Slinky®?
About 63 feet." - Official Slinky Site

83.. The largest pumpkin weighed 1262 lbs.

Not according to Guinness.

"Largest Pumpkin
A pumpkin weighing 513 kg (1,131 lb) was grown from Atlantic Giant seed stock by Gerry Checkon of Altoona, Pennsylvania, USA. It was weighed at the Pennsylvania Pumpkin Bowl on October 2, 1999. The pumpkin was nicknamed "Moony" because of the way it looked at night reflecting the moonlight in the garden." - httpwww.guinnessworldrecords.com (Search for 'pumpkin')

180.. The ballpoint pen was invented in 1938 by Laszlo and Georg Biro.
I accepted this until I was given the answer that it was invented in the 1880s. I checked, and it was. It was an off-shoot of a device for marking leather.

181.. The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger.
I reseached this over a year ago, and found no consensus on which nail grows the fastest.

189.. The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.
Avocado - 8 oz.=370 cals.
Dates - 8 oz.=490 cals

198.. The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states.

Nope.

"Minnesota ranks frist (sic) nationally in overall turkey production." - www.hungersolutions.org
"Minnesota is currently ranked first for turkey production in the United States. Minnesota’s turkey farmers raised approximately 45 million birds in 2003... " - www.bah.state.mn.us

"Turkey production in the United States for 1995 was 296 million. The number one production state was North Carolina with production of 63 million and Minnesota was second with production of 41.0 million. In November of 1991, one of the four large California integrators, announced they would discontinue their California operation by May 22, 1992. They did close out their feed mill, processing plant a nd left 28 turkey production facilities empty. With this change in the numbers of turkeys produced, California's national rank slipped to fourth and the number produced dropped from 29 million to 24 million for 1992 and bottomed out at 21 million in 1994." - animalscience.ucdavis.edu

I think we still have more turkeys than anyone in the United States. But we are down one while John Edwards is on the campaign trail

302.. The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

Off by 13 years. The first couple was Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns, in 1947. This information was also posted in AnswerPool.com somewhere in Trivia.

314.. The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.


Unlikely.
Introduced in 1929 in St. Louis as "Bib-label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda", the product did well, despite poor timing. (2 weeks before the stock market crashed, and it was priced higher than the other 600+ lemon-lime sodas available.It was also carmel colored, an odd choice for a citrus drink.)
No mention of how the name got changed is on the official web site, but this may be a clue:
"The earliest 7 Up advertising featured a winged 7 Up logo and described the soft drink as 'a glorified drink in bottle only. Seven natural flavors blended into a savory, flavory drink with a real wallop." - http://www.7up.com/index.aspx

[This message was edited by Doriangreyed on 02-23-04 at 09:14 PM.]

quote:

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Originally posted by coldfuse:
I think we still have more turkeys than anyone in the United States. But we are down one while John Edwards is on the campaign trail

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You haven't seen our most recent ballot propositions yet. California is re-entering the race for most turkeys.

Alan Moore

And in our last election, we had the biggest turkey, too. Now he wants to amend the US constitution so he can become President.

The only conclusion I can draw from all this is that I can't trust anyone's answers.

What a bunch of spoilsports!

Please, Jelp, we prefer the term "killjoys"

PS. Just noticed references to 'eggplant'; a bit late to pick it up but this plant is what Europeans call 'aubergine'. Looks as though even Florida produces most of it only if you just count places that call it 'eggplant' This may be the USA alone nowadays

The world's biggest producer is China which produces well over 2,000,000 tons a year ( e.g 1992 : 2,420,000 tonnes) out of a total world production of nearly 6,000,000 tons (1992 5,740,000 tonnes).So it produces over a third of the world crop. Florida, cited by DG, is only producing 544,000 cwt which is 5,440 tons (US) isn't it ? Even the fifth largest producer, Italy, produced 240,000 tonnes in 1992, way behind Turkey (740,000), Japan (500,000) and Egypt (340,000).

quote:

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Originally posted by methos:
Please, Jelp, we prefer the term "killjoys"

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All right, Methos, I'll keep that in mind from now on.