You've probably seen fact lists like these in your inbox before. Just for fun, I decided to try verifying these facts. Most are either true, or would require more research than I'm willing to do in order to confirm or deny. I've offered supporting linkage in cases where it was available.

The hard part about fact-checking these items? Search results tended to turn up this same list posted elsewhere, rather than independent confirmation.

Tell a lie often enough, and it becomes the truth.

(Snopes says: false)

2. Pearls melt in vinegar.

3. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."

4. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

5. The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

(Snopes says: not any more)

6. It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.

7. Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.

8. The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)

9. The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," which uses every letter in the alphabet was developed by Western Union to test Telex communications.

10. Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.

11. Debra Winger was the voice of E.T.

12. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down-hence the expression "to get fired."

3. Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.

14. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David; Clubs - Alexander the Great; Hearts - Charlemagne; & Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

(Snopes says: false)

15. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

16. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

17. Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.

18. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.

19. The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

(True: 3,213 feet Mt. Davis vs. Arikaree River - 3315 feet)

20. The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All Star Game.

21. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

22. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

23. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

24. Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating.

25. Actor Tommy Lee Jones and vice-president Al Gore were freshman roommates at Harvard.

26. The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.

27. It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.

28. The man, who plays Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) on Star Trek, is missing the entire middle finger of his right hand.

(Millions of Trekkie geeks say: true)

29. The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

(Snopes says: false)

30. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

31. All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

(Snopes says: false. "Most of the clocks in Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20 (but not all — when the kid receives the watch it's set at 9:00").

Posted by: Harvey at 06:03 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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