Fun Facts for Friday

It's Friday (actually, it's Thursday night right now), and I thought we should end the week on a funny note. So here are a few random and crazy facts* for you. 

*These facts are true facts based on the fact that I found them on the internet so they must be true.

1. There’s a basketball court on the top floor of the U.S. Supreme Court Building. It’s nickname?  “the highest court in the land.” 

2. Walmart has a lower acceptance rate than Harvard. Harvard has an 8.9 percent admittance rate. Only 2.6% of Walmart applicants are accepted.

3. There is a technical name for the “fear of long words”. It’s called “hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.”

4. Hunting unicorns is legal in Michigan. Lake Superior State University in Michigan offers a unicorn hunting license.

5. An art collector once paid $10,000 for a “non-visible” sculpture created by actor James Franco. The artwork was billed as an “endless tank of oxygen.”

6. It officially takes 364 licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Well, at least according to engineering students at Purdue University, who used a proprietary “licking machine” rather than a human tongue.

7. Cows moo with regional accents. “In small populations such as herds you would encounter identifiable dialectical variations which are most affected by the immediate peer group,” explains one UK professor.

8. The Cookie Monster has a real name. It’s Sid. No, seriously.

9. China censored the word “censorship.”

10. Barry Manilow didn’t write his hit song “I Write the Songs”. And before he recorded it, Barry didn’t even think it was a particularly good song.

11. You’re twice as likely to be killed by a vending machine than a shark.

12. The blob of toothpaste that sits on your toothbrush has a name. It’s called a “nurdle.” 

13. In Switzerland, you can hire a clown to stalk your kid and creepily smash a cake into their face on their birthday. 

14. Monowi, Nebraska, is the only town in the United States with an official population of one person. Yes, she owes taxes … To herself! She’s in her 80s, and she’s employed as the village’s mayor, librarian, and bartender.

15. The actual U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a real website devoted to “zombie preparedness.”

So did you know any of these facts already? Which ones do you believe are true?