miss b loves .......'1339 Facts to Make Your Jaw Drop' (and a few random ones about me!)

I've always been intrigued by trivia.....random facts about random topics. I read about this fascinating little book in a newspaper article during a very long flight. I thought it might make a quirky gift and I actualy bought three copies!

Here are a few snippets to whet your appetite...

*The word 'journey' is from the French 'journée' and once meant the distance one could walk in a day.

*Only 5% of the world's population has ever been on an aeroplane.

*Johnny Depp collects Barbie dolls.

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*In 1950, 7% of American women dyed their hair. In 2013, it was 75%.

*Mothers over 40 are twice as likely to have left-handed children as women in their 20s.

*Mo Farah, Sir Roger Bannister, Sir chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Sir Steve Redgrave were all born on March 23rd

Mo Farah doing his signature pose
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*Jenga means to build in Swahili.

*Julius Caesar had two sisters both called Julia.

*In 1379, more than 600 years ago, a baby girl in Yorkshire was christened Diot Coke.


*On any given day, half of the world's population are wearing jeans. 

*Dame Judi Dench has the James Bond theme as her ring tone.

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*JK Rowling has no middle name. 

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*There's a carpet shop in Dublin called Lino Ritchie.

*A moment is officially defined as 90 seconds.

*One jar of nutella is sold somewhere in the world every 2.5 seconds.

*For 214 years until 2012, it was illegal in Paris for women to wear trousers. (Read more here)

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*111,111,111 x 111,111,111
           =
 12,345,678,987,654,321

Amazing .... and at the end of the book there's even a web address where you can type in the page number to find the source and verify the fact!

Talking about trivia, a few weeks ago Ms Madge from the lovely Chinwags and Tittle-Tattles nominated me to write a few random facts...... about me....so here goes........

*I'm left-handed. The only other person in my family to be left-handed was my Grandad who was forced to use his right hand at school. How times have changed - thankfully! 

*I have almost as many French books(mainly from my student days) on my book shelves as English ones and my plan is to reread them at some point.

*I'm obsessed with books set in Paris or about Paris

I bought two more last week ......

*I was a student in Lancaster for four years (quite a while ago!!) and this interesting little city has recently been named as one of the '19 Delightful English Towns Everyone Should Visit Once'

The Ashton Memorial
in Williamson Park, Lancaster

*I've mentioned before that I had ballet lessons from the age of  four to seventeen and every year we performed in a show.  Dressing up of course was all part of the fun....from a flamenco dancer....to an icicle(!)...the roles were varied! I no longer have any of the tutus or costumes but I still have the castanets! 

*My interest in fashion began when I was about eight and I started to make outfits for my Sindy and Tressy dolls. Tressy was the doll whose hair grew too!

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Her bouffant bob could be transformed into endless styles by pressing a button in her tummy and pulling out a thick strand of hair (A key in her back was turned to retract the hair back inside the doll - clever!) 

I'm sure I am meant to nominate a few bloggers to write random facts about themselves but I know how busy people are. However, if you have time, you may like to join in the fun ......

Sheri at Red Rose Alley
Sara at C'est Moi, Sara Louise
Arni at Travel Gourmande
Evi at Sexta-feira