Useless Knowledge

As you read this, I am currently on my way to Vegas for a weekend in Sin City with Mr. Big. (insert eyebrow wiggle) I'll give you all the lovely details when we get back. In the meantime…

This week some writer friends of mine at Romance Divas started a very interesting discussion. Being writers, we tend to do a lot of research. And, often, it’s the little details that we’re after to make our fictional situations believable. I know I’ve spent hours getting lost in Google tangents trying to get that one little nugget of info that makes my scene complete. And often in our research, we stumble upon the oddest things. So, we started making a list of the useless knowledge that we’ve all acquired. Here are just a few:


Tarantulas are not deadly. All the 60's B horror movies lied to you.

Female great white sharks give live birth, usually to just one offspring because the baby sharks will eat each other in the womb.

It is impossible for a human being to lick their own elbow.

Termites can't digest wood. They have a bacteria in their digestive system that eats the wood for them.

Washing your hair in gunpowder will make it shine with red highlights.

A roach is the only living creature that can use salt as an actual food source

Your shadow always points to the center of a rainbow's arc.

A koala bear sleeps an average of 22 hours a day and it doesn't need water - it gets all the moisture it needs from the leaves it eats.

The male duck-billed platypus is the world's only poisonous mammal.

Nancy Regan was two months pregnant when she married Ronald.

The first known use of biological warfare was in the dark ages when forces laying siege to a castle or city would hurl diseased bodies over the fortifications via catapult in an effort to spread disease.

Your arm span is equivalent to your height.

Hugh Heffner worked as a circulation manager for Children's Activities magazine while raising money to start Playboy.

If you drop a carrot in the average kitchen sink, and in a toilet, the one from the sink will have more germs.

Horses can't throw up.

Louis Farrakhan used to be a calypso singer under the name "The Charmer."

Most cats do not have eyelashes.

The little plastic bit on the end of a shoelace is called an "aglet."

(And my favorite…)

Those tight little pants that football players wear are called shiggers.


So, any of you have any tidbits of useless information to share? Bring it on.


~Trigger Happy Halliday


P.S. Our auction to help out Katy, the homeless teen, raised over $3600! Thank you so much to everyone who donated and bid!!!