Tell Me Something I Don't Know

[Jay 2K Winger]

The ampersand (&) used to be pronounced "and per se and," and was commonly considered the 27th letter of the alphabet.

[fireheart]

South Aussie Trivia Time!

-South Australia is the only state in Australia to be surrounded by all other states barring Tasmania (that is, my state shares borders with every other state)

-Despite the well-known fact that Australia itself was established as a penal colony, South Australia was one of the few states NOT to be started by prisoners. We were meant to be the ideal embodiment of British society. Key word: "meant." (the rest is Fratching-worthy)

-We are the only state to have a guided busway, known as an O-Bahn. This basically is a bus travelling on a railway track. It starts in the CBD, but once it hits a certain point, it switches over to a railway-esque track. Despite the increased signage and warnings that "THIS IS FOR BUSES ONLY" several cars still go on the track-and subsequently lose their oil pans.

-In the early 90's, my state was going to have a Multifunction Polis, aka "City of the Future" erected just north of the capital. Unfortunately funding for it fell through, but it still lives on and is now known as Mawson Lakes and is more of a "planned suburb" if anything, albeit surrounded by high-tech industry and research.

-The film December Boys was filmed on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. The film Picnic at Hanging Rock was also filmed in parts of South Australia, as was Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Gallipoli, Jaws (yes-Jaws) and Rabbit-Proof Fence (apparently some of the scenes were shot in a national park a few short kms from my house ).

-My state invented the double-cut roll, the frog cake and the pie floater.

-While, not nearly as prominent, on the list of "BIG" things around Australia, we have the World's Biggest Rocking Horse. Apparently this was originally used as a lookout by the Country Fire Service. We also have the Big Lobster in Kingston.

-If you've ever travelled on an airplane or come across Beerenberg jam/honey/marmalade in hotels, congratulations, you've just eaten something from my state. In fact, you can even visit the farm and pick your own strawberries during particular seasons.

[Kit-Ginevra]

There are as many people on Facebook in 2012 as the entire population of the world in 1804.

The flags of Haiti and Liechtenstein were identical and they didn't know it until they happened to meet at the 1936 Olympics (this vexallological fact is brought to you by Ferninand T.Flagg)

Whilst many American sports teams have transferred to a completely different city,only one British one has-the MK Dons(and got rather lambasted for doing so).

Because of the change of calendar and the change of New Year from March to January, the year 1752 only lasted for 9 1/2 months.

[crazylegs]

Paramedics in the UK don't work under doctors orders, they're autonomous practitioner who decide what drugs to use when, within national guidelines. If a paramedic can justify stepping outside those guidelines they may do so.

[fireheart]

You are actually allowed to transport live stock on Sydney harbour bridge between 12am and 5am, provided that you also give notice. Because of the location however, nobody has invoked this in the last 50 years.

ETA: To further clarify, this means that you can shepherd them across the bridge

[wolfie]

There are 2 sub-national jurisdictions (state/province/territory/etc.) that border on 4 of the 5 Great Lakes: Ontario, which borders on all but Lake Michigan, and Michigan, which borders on all but Lake Ontario.

[fireheart]

This song was originally banned on radio in every state APART from South Australia. No idea why, although Cold Chisel do have partial origins in Adelaide.

[Jester]

In the Western world, the first restaurants were places you went to eat soup, which was considered a "restorative", which led to the name "restaurant."

The very first restaurant in the world was in France.

The food was probably great, and the service snooty, even back then.


The oldest magic trick in the world is The Cups and Balls. If you've ever seen any variation of a routine where the performer made balls appear, disappear, and pass through a set of three cups, that's it!

The trick is a classic, and has such has been performed for thousands of years. The best practitioner of it that I've ever seen is a magician by the name of Gazzo, who has appeared the world over, performing not only as a street performer extraordinaire, but also with some of the most famous magicians in the world, including (but not limited to) Penn and Teller. I was lucky enough to arrive in Key West when he was still performing at our famous Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square, and over my first several years here, got to witness his act hundreds of times, and actually got to know Gazzo pretty well. This is not a shameless plug for him, as I haven't a clue where he is these days, but I felt it would be remiss of me to mention the oldest trick in magic and not tell about the greatest rendition of it I've ever seen.

And it would be a bit rude of me to speak so highly of his performance and not share it with you. Gazzo's no longer performing at Mallory Square, but I found a great video of his act there. Yes, it's long. Yes, it's I'm three parts. Yes, it's worth it. Watch all three parts--unless you're easily offended, in which case, you won't want to watch any of it. Because, in addition to is amazing ability as a magician and street performer, Gazzo is known for being very, very obnoxious.

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

[Kit-Ginevra]

Some slightly out of season music...

Summer Nights was still No.1 in mid-November 1978 and hung around in the Top 40 over Christmas.

Meanwhile,in 1985,Do They Know It's Christmas? and Last Christmas were still in the Top 40 at the start of March...

[Jester]

It's been brought up in other threads, partly by me and my annoyance at being called an Arizonian, when in fact I'm an Arizonan, but here is a list of what you call people from each state:

Alabama: Alabamian
Alaska: Alaskan
Arizona: Arizonan
Arkansas: Arkansan
California: Californian
Colorado: Coloradan
Connecticut: Connecticuter
Delaware: Delawarean
District of Columbia: Washingtonian
Florida: Floridian
Georgia: Georgian
Hawaii: Hawaiian
Idaho: Idahoan
Illinois: Illinoisan
Indiana: Indianian
Iowa: Iowan
Kansas: Kansan
Kentucky: Kentuckian
Louisiana: Louisianan
Maine: Mainer
Maryland: Marylander
Massachusetts: Massachusettsan
Michigan: Michiganian (though I've always heard Michigander, pretty much from people from Michigan.)
Minnesota: Minnesotan
Mississippi: Mississippian
Missouri: Missourian
Montana: Montanan
Nebraska: Nebraskan
Nevada: Nevadan
New Hampshire: New Hampshirite
New Jersey: New Jerseyan
New Mexico: New Mexican
New York: New Yorker
North Carolina: North Carolinian
North Dakota: North Dakotan
Ohio: Ohioan
Oklahoma: Oklahoman
Oregon: Oregonian
Pennsylvania: Pennsylvanian
Rhode Island: Rhode Islander
South Carolina: South Carolinian
South Dakota: South Dakotan
Tennessee: Tennessean
Texas: Texan
Utah: Utahn
Vermont: Vermontian
Virginia: Virginian
Washington: Washingtonian
West Virginia: West Virginian
Wisconsin: Wisconsinite
Wyoming: Wyomingite

This list does not include common nicknames, such as Cheesehead, Hoosier, Tar Heel, Mountaineer, Volunteer, or Buckeye. Or less known regional nicknames, such as Zonies from Arizona or Cracker from Florida.

[SongsOfDragons]

On the subject of demonyms, or 'words that describe where a.person comes from'...

The technically grammatically correct demonym for Venus is Venereal, not Venusian, which is described as 'awkward'. However since the correct demonym has a meanig which may not be appropriate, astronomers and others who study Venus use the demonym 'Cytherean' which serves just as well, being the Latin translation for the island where Aphrodite came ashore after her birth - Kythera.

Which is a genuine island in the Aegean, I think, with a little island close by called Antikythera, whose claim to fame was the discovery of a sunken ship containing what appear to be large-scale Ancient Greek computer parts. Current mainstream thought is that the Antikythera Mechanism was a giant orrery, a working not-to-scale model of the solar system. (Or at least it was a few years ago )

[wolfie]

Regarding demonyms and islands in the Aegean, does this mean it's possible for a man to be a Lesbian?

[Kit-Ginevra]

Or are they Lesbosians?

[sms001]

Antikythera Mechanism was a giant orrery, a working not-to-scale model of the solar system....

Anyone interested in either astronomy or ancient artifacts should check this out, it's crazy cool.

[Zellie Crescent]

Hawaii has it's own time zone, and early concept art showed that the main character Sora of Kingdom Hearts was suposed to be a "Sonic type" lion that had a chainsaw sword instead of being a human with a keyblade.