Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Fun facts!

People who live in Liverpool are Liverpudlians. People who live on the Isle of Mann are called Manx. They are not British and have no tails. People who live in Manchester are Mancunians. People who live in Phoenix are Phonicians.

New York is called the Big Apple. Philadelphia is called the City of Brotherly Love and has bombed its citizens. Chicago is called the Windy City. Vichy is a water and a city. Vichyssoise is neither.

Mozart was 35 when he died. Edgar Allen Poe died at 40. Marilyn Monroe died at age 36. Dylan Thomas died at age 39. Virginia Woolf drowned. Natalie Wood drowned. Dennis Wilson Drowned.

The state of New Hampshire is 1.2% African American. The city of Detroit is 81.6% African American. The largest city in Africa is Cairo. The population density of New York City is 27,440 people per square mile.

New York City citizens are the highest users of mass transit in the USA. As a result, NYC's gasoline usage is only what the USA's average usage was in the 1920s. NYC saves the equivalent of 1.8 billion gallons of oil each year because of its high use of mass transit. New York City is one of only 4 major U.S. Cities with drinking water so pure it doesn't require processing by water treatment plants (the water comes from the pristine Catskills and is naturally filtered on the way.)

The largest city in the Western Hemisphere is Sao Paulo, Brazil. Great Britain is the 9th largest island on earth. Iceland was called that to discourage possible invaders from trying to settle there in that beautiful land. Greenland was named for the opposite reason. Nobody was fooled.

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, contains thousands and thousands of items on display: among them are the limousine President Kennedy was assassinated in; the chair Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated; a stoppered test tube containing the last breath of Thomas Edison (a best friend of Henry Ford.)

The mansion house of Robert E. Lee is still standing - in what is now Arlington National Cemetery. The Union took his house during the Civil War for back taxes -- they passed a law requiring the owner to pay the taxes in person. He didn't.

12 comments:

  1. Sao Paulo, the largest city in terms of populace or geographical area?

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  2. And the UK population has just passed 61 million for the first time. I don't really know if that fits in the fun category. Probably it does though, because it's the birth rate that has increased - not so much immigration.

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  3. OK, so I went and checked on Sao Paulo myself. It's the largest, in terms of population, for the "city proper" although both Mexico City and the New York City Metropolitan areas are larger in terms of population (and, with regards to NYC, in terms of size as well).

    But that's still pretty interesting because I'd never even heard of the place. Unreal, actually.

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  4. Last BREATH? I'm sure I read wrong because now I've forgotten what it said. Nice post though.

    In case you're puzzled as to who the heck I am, I used to read BritishSpeak.

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  5. I always thought Rio de Janeiro was bigger than Sao Paulo, so I've learnt something today. Thank you. :) They're both a very long way away from me, that I do know.

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  6. My son just gave a presentation in San Paulo. He said it was much like Miami, Florida to him!

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  7. @Stephanie B - In terms of the number of people living in the city itself.

    @A. - I will admit that is a fun fact. :)

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  8. @Stephanie B - Well, I guess. Not so much fun when you count whole states in the city's population though. There are quite a few cities who have larger land areas inside their city limits than either NYC or Mexico City. Or Sao Paulo, for that matter. If you don't count the smaller cities in Alaska or Montana and so forth, who have huge land areas but relatively low populations, or Honolulu which has a sizeable population but much water inside the city limits, I guess probably the largest city in terms of land within it's city limits which also has a pretty decent-sized population, would be Jacksonville Florida which is bigger in area than all of those other big cities. But, sheese, that's not fun. It's like choosing the world's largest bank by the number of stories in it's office building. Houston is pretty big in terms of Area and population both. I guess the only way to do it would be to find the largest city in population which has the lowest density. That will have to be your job. Not a rocket scientist here. :)

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  9. @Patchwork - Well, I had trouble believing that myself, but that's what the sign by the exhibit said. I mean, how do you know when it's a person's last breath, right? One of the last, probably. Maybe not even Edison. Maybe Edison's dog. Charlatans. All I know is I'm not going to be the one to unstopper it and smell inside. :) I remember Britishspeak, too.

    @Sheila - Rio is closer to you than me. :)

    @Debbie - Really? How cool is that! Did he decide to stay down there or what? A great adventure for him. You should go again, you know. (Maybe not. :)

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  10. I like your fun facts - do some more! Especially the last two paragraphs, but then I bet you guessed that...

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  11. Thank you jagath. I appreciate it.
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    Alison, I will do more. And I will try to find some that will interest your special tastes. :)

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