A compendium of the silly, the sublime, and the simply outrageous

Huh?

If you are what you do, when you don’t, you aren’t. 

Since octopi (not octopuses? Who knew?) have no bones, their bodies are incredibly flexible. They can squeeze through openings not much bigger than their eyeballs.

The runner-up in career NBA assists is held by a player with the initials M.J., but surprisingly, it’s neither Magic Johnson nor Michael Jordan. The playmaker in question is Mark Jackson.

 The space between your pointer finger and thumb is called the “purlicue.”

A person of average size and weight burns about 60 to 70 calories each hour just by sitting and watching television.

“Second string,” meaning “replacement or backup,” comes from the Middle ages. An archer always carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.

11% of the world is left-handed.

80% of animals on earth are insects.

A beaver’s teeth never stop growing.

A chef’s hat is tall and balloons at the top so as to counteract the intense heat in the kitchen. The unique shape allows air to circulate around the scalp, keeping the head cool.

A fly hums in the middle octave, key of F.

A googol is a 1 followed by 100 zeros. Mathematician Edward Kasner supposedly asked his nephew Milton Sirotta to suggest a name for the number, and he came up with this word.

Another way of expressing a googol is ten duotrigintillion.

            First off, I’m glad Google changed the spelling when they adopted their name.  I like the audacity of their ambition.

Now I don’t know about you, but who sat down at the piano to harmonize with that fly?

And have you ever seen a beaver who needs a dentist?