The World's Greatest Book of Useless Information by Noel Botham Read Free Book Online Page A

speak different languages.
    More than twenty-?six dialects of Quichua are spoken in Ecuador.
    Native speakers of Japanese learn Spanish more easily than English. Native speakers of English learn Spanish more easily than Japanese.
    Polish is the only word in the English language that, when capitalized, is changed from a noun or a verb to a nationality.
    Rio de Janeiro translates to River of January.
    The correct response to the Irish greeting “Top of the morning to you” is, “And the rest of the day to yourself.”
    The D in D-?day stands for “day.” The French term for D-?day is J-?jour.
    The Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan “Finger-?lickin’ good” came out as “Eat your fingers off” in Chinese.
    The three best-?known western names in China are Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.
    The stress in Hungarian words always falls on the first syllable.
    No Spanish words begin with the letter W (except for those of American-?English origin).
    The Eskimo language has more than twenty words to describe different kinds of snow.
    WAS IT AT CHUCK E. CHEESE?
    The earliest document in Latin in a woman’s handwriting is an invitation to a birthday party from the first century C.E.

SPECIAL OCCASIONS
    World Tourist Day is observed on September 27.
    October 10 is National Metric Day.
    November 19 is Have a Bad Day Day.
    November 29 is National Sinky Day, a day to eat over one’s sink and worship it.

COMMON THREADS
    The most common name for a goldfish is Jaws.
    The most common name in Italy is Mario Rossi.
    The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
    The most common Spanish surname is Garcia.
    The most common Russian surname is Ivanov.
    The most common Swedish surname is Johansson.
    The most common name for a boat in 1996 was Serenity.

ON THE MENU

WATER WORLD
    Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent.
    Forty-?eight million people in the United States receive their drinking water from private or household wells.
    In the typical Canadian home, 45 percent of water is used for the toilet, 28 percent is used for bathing and personal matters, 23 percent is used for laundry or dishes, and 4 percent is used for cooking or drinking purposes.
    It’s impossible to get water out of a rimless tire.
    Less than 2 percent of the water on Earth is fresh.
    A tea in China called white tea is simply boiled water.

THE HOUSE THAT RONALD BUILT
    Ray Kroc bought McDonald’s for $2.7 million in 1961 from the McDonald brothers.
    Seven percent of Americans eat McDonald’s every day.
    Four hundred quarter-?pounders can be made out of one cow.
    A man named Ed Peterson is the inventor of the Egg McMuffin.
    The big M on McDonald’s signs in Paris is the only one in the world that is white, rather than yellow; it was thought that yellow was too tacky.
    McDonald’s in New Zealand serves apricot pies instead of cherry ones.
    The McDonald’s at The Skydome in Toronto is the only one in the world that sells hot dogs.
    On average, there are 178 sesame seeds on each McDonald’s Big Mac bun.
    SODA OR POP?
    Carbonated water, with nothing else in it, can dissolve limestone, talc, and many other low-?Mohs hardness minerals. Coincidentally, carbonated water is the main ingredient in soda pop.
    The citrus soda 7-Up was created in 1929; “7” was selected because the original containers were seven ounces. “Up” indicated the direction of the bubbles.
    Fanta Orange is the third largest selling soft drink in the world.
    Coca-?Cola was first served at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta in 1886 for only five cents a glass. The formula for Coca-?Cola was created by pharmacist John Pemberton. Only two people in the world know the secret recipe for Coca-?Cola.
    Earl Dean developed the bottle design for Coca-?Cola.
    Coca-?Cola was originally green.
    A can of Diet Coke will float in water, while a can of regular Coke sinks.
    Coca-?Cola owns the world’s second largest truck fleet.
    Coke is used to clean up blood spills on