A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobileservices (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did notre-number the other channel assignments. That is why your TV set haschannels 2 and up, but no channel 1.The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with theshutter on backwards.The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways.The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated,dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets o fScarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms whichare antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating aletter is uncopyrightable.Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correctorder, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on theAustralian coat of arms for that reason.Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only haveabout ten.The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "ShahMat," which means "the king is dead".Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."Camel's milk does not curdle.In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to cleanelephants.The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.All porcupines float in water.Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligatorwhile he was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom."Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire townhall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days ofyore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabledon the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straightstaircases.Non-dairy creamer is flammable.The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus thename of the Don McLean song.)Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flagat the same height as the U.S. flag.The only nation whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end inan "A" is Afghanistan.Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the firstbaby born on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence.When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." Theyactually pass out from sheer terror.The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch everyyear because when it was built, engineers failed to take into accountthe weight of all the books that would occupy the building.