12 Trivia Tidbits for Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Scientists tested the smell theory by taking two sets of sharks six miles from their home, then letting them find their way back. The control set made it back without a problem, but the set that had cotton shoved up their nostrils somehow had trouble pulling off a Homeward Bound.

She started Dollywood because, as a child, she vowed to give her hometown something as thrilling as she found the county fair. But building a theme park was a completely selfless act: “I have a tendency to get motion sickness. Also, I’m a little bit chicken. I got so much to lose, like my wig or my shoes. I don’t like to get messed-up. I’m gonna have some handsome man mess it up, I don’t want some ride doing it.”

Pope Benedict’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, copied over 1,000 documents and leaked them to ravenous reporters, leading to the tell-all book The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI. Benedict later pardoned Gabriele.

The bodies of 318 non-Pharoah humans were discovered inside the tomb of the Pharaoh Djer. Unless he was collecting dead bodies for a few years, it seems more likely that he ordered his servants and retainers to be murdered upon his death.

The Antarctic Ice Marathon and the Antarctica Intercontinental Marathon are the only two officially recognized marathons in Antarctica, but that’s two more than you might have thought. Temperatures can get as low as -20 Celsius, and runners compete at an altitude of 3,000 feet.

Kejonuma Leisure Land is a now-abandoned theme park built next to a famously haunted lake. “Kejonuma” translates to “pond of the ghost woman,” the ghost woman in question being a young mother who tragically gave birth to a snake-baby, was driven mad by its cries and walked out into the lake to drown herself.

The Scoville scale is a well-known measurement of pepper spiciness, but the more official, professional scale is called ASTA scale, and is used to measure both color and pungency of a chili.

Everyone knows about his hammer, Mjolnir. But he might not even be able to grip that thing without a pair of iron gloves called Jarngreipr, that also came with a staff and a nice belt. He was gifted these garments by a goddess who saw that Loki was about to have the big man assassinated.

Instead of mushy, skin-on fish and French fries, New Zealand has a dish called “shark and tatties,” usually consisting of a crispy, fried chunk of rig shark.

The Pentagon saw an early draft of the 1983 thinly veiled military propaganda film The Right Stuff, and requested they cut down on all the naughty language. They were afraid that if it got an R-rating, it would be seen by fewer impressionable American teens (the Army’s number one source of cannon fodder).

Any time a high-profile event takes place that might attract widespread protests, the government will have police track down and “escort” any well-known dissidents in the area on an all-expenses paid vacation to basically anywhere else. It is a real vacation, but it is not optional.

Clovis Paleo Indians were a prehistoric culture that are genetically related to about 80 percent of all existing Native American cultures. They mysteriously disappeared about 13,000 years ago, along with a good chunk of animal and plant life. Rock specimens studied at multiple sites have found unusual amounts of platinum, which is a common ingredient among asteroids.