Now, That's Interesting! A Collection of Fascinating Facts

By Jonny Katz

Amuse your friends and family as you read, enjoy, and share the hundreds of fascinating facts found in this treasury of knowledge.

Walk into any room and say the words, "Did you know…?" and see all eyes turn toward you.

In "Now, That's Interesting" You'll Learn Fascinating Facts About:

• Famous Military Failures
• Fun and Freaky History
• Fun and Funny Facts
• It's about Time
• Musical Notes
• Pop Culture
• Presidential Pets
• Accidental Discoveries
• Toying Around
• Where There's a Will
• (And lots more)

Written in a clear, large font (14 point) this book is perfect for curious people of all ages.

Get your copy now!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jonny Katz
• Release date: May 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201421939

Book preview

By

Jonny Katz

Copyright 2022

Jonny Katz

Table of Contents

All about Benjamin (Franklin) ...................... 1

Animals on the Job .................................... 6

At the Movies Q & A ................................. 10

Brand Names That Have Become Words ........ 25

Brands and Slogans ...................................  29

Eponyms ................................................. 33

Essential Slang That’s Just Plain Fun .............  43

Famous Military Failures ............................  48

Fascinating Animal Facts ............................  53

Food & Drink ...........................................  61

Fun and Freaky History ............................... 68

Fun and Funny Facts ..................................  73

Goldwynisms ..........................................  78

It’s about Time .........................................  82

Quotes from Yogi Berra ..............................  86

Musical Notes .......................................... 91

Nature, Earth, and the Universe ..................  94

Numbers ................................................  99

Accidental Discoveries ..............................  104

Pop Culture of the 1980s ............................  110

Presidential Pets .......................................  115

Remember the Seventies? ........................... 123

Royalty ................................................... 132

Say That in English .................................... 138

Science .................................................... 142

Spies, Spying and Secrets ............................ 147

Sports and Games ...................................... 153

The Fabulous Fifties ................................... 157

The Tumultuous Sixties .............................. 163

The Human Body ...................................... 169

Toying Around ......................................... 174

TV Trivia Q & A ....................................  .. 180

United States Post Office ............................ 194

Where There’s a Will ................................. 201

You Can Buy This on eBay!? ...............  ....... 207

All About the Benjamin (Franklin)

Benjamin Franklin was a politician, prolific, skilled writer, scientist, inventor, diplomat, Founding Father of the United States and avid swimmer.

As a young man, he considered running a swimming school.

He invented his own swim fins.

In 1968 Franklin was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

In 1929, his face was selected to grace the $100 bill; often called a Benjamin in his honor.

Benjamin Franklin owned a printing company and one of the New World’s first newspapers, Pennsylvania Gazette.

At one point, his company also printed all of the paper money for New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

Benjamin Franklin developed a vocabulary of some 25 words to describe electricity and electrical components. These terms include: battery, charged, conductor, and even electrician.

In addition to his other achievements, Ben Franklin organized the first volunteer fire company in 1736. He nicknamed his Union Fire Company, the Bucket Brigade.

In one of his articles on fire prevention he coined the phrase, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Not only is Franklin responsible for the lightening rod, bifocal glasses, and the Franklin stove, he also came up with a wide variety of other things in use today.

His other inventions include:

A mechanical arm for reaching books on high shelves.

A stepstool with a seat that could be lifted and folded down to make a short ladder

The rocking chair

The flexible urinary catheter.

A writing chair with an arm on one side made to serve as a writing surface.

The odometer. This was used to measure distance along colonial roads used by the postal service.

A pulley system that enabled him to lock and unlock his door from his bed.

In 1761 he invented the glass harmonica - which he called armonica. This instrument was so popular that composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Handel. Franklin would later write that, Of all my inventions, the glass armonica has given me the greatest personal satisfaction.

Ben Franklin had numerous pseudonyms. The most famous of which was Richard Saunders - the one he used to write Poor Richard’s Almanac.

Other pseudonyms included:

Silence Dogood, a middle-aged widow who wrote satirical letters to The New England Courant

Polly Baker. In The Speech of Polly Baker, Ben Franklin assumes the identity and writes as a colonial woman put on trial for having an illegitimate child.

Alice Addertongue, Caelia Shortface and Martha Careful, a busy body who wrote gossip stories about local businessmen

And then there was Benevolous. While in London, Franklin, as Benevolous, wrote letters to newspapers correcting negative statements made about Americans by the British press.

Franklin was one of the most well-travelled men of his times, crossing the Atlantic Ocean 8 times - the first time at age 18 and the last at 79. Twenty-seven years of his life were spent overseas.

This man, considered the most brilliant American of his age spent just two years in school before joining the family candle and soap making business. 

Young Benjamin made up for his lack of schooling by spending what little money he earned on books, often going without food to afford new volumes.

He also honed his composition skills by reading essays and articles and then rewriting them from memory. 

He received honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, the College of William and Mary, the University of St. Andrews and Oxford.

Franklin was a fashion icon in France. For example, when he traded his usual fur cap for a white hat during the signing of the 1778 treaty between the France and the United States, white colored headgear instantly became a fashion trend among the men of Paris.

Although he owned two slaves during his life, he spent his later years as an abolitionist.

In 1790 he presented a petition to Congress urging it to grant liberty to those unhappy men who alone in this land of freedom are degraded into perpetual bondage. He included a provision in his will that required his daughter and son-in-law to free their slave to get their inheritance.

All of this is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the accomplishments of the brilliant man and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Ben Franklin’s and His Glass Armonica

Animals on the Job

Dogs tend to make great guard animals, but they're not the only creatures that you can count on to watch your back. In fact, donkeys, dolphins, geese, ostriches, emus, llamas, and alpacas are also used as guard animals around the world—doing everything from protecting sheep to patrolling harbors for the U.S. Navy.

Dogs have replaced ball boys during professional tennis matches, playing ‘fetch’ along the sidelines.

Canines also play a large roll in airport security. The Beagle Brigade and their handlers, working at the baggage claim areas at airports, seize about 75,000 prohibited agricultural products a year. Experienced beagles have a 90% success rate, and can recognize almost 50 distinct smells.

Highly trained explosives detection canine teams are a reliable resource at detecting explosives and provide a visible deterrent to terrorism directed towards transportation systems at airports, train stations and other public transportation sites.

The South African railway once employed a baboon, named Jack as a signalman. In his eight years of service, Jack never made a single mistake.

Carefully trained African Giant Pouched Rats are heroes, sniffing out land mines left over from armed conflict. Magawa, a recently retired service rat received one of Great Britain’s highest honors given to animals, a gold medal for his lifesaving work. In his four years of explosives detection, Magawa cleared more than 2.4 million square feet of land, sniffing out 71 land mines and 38 other potentially explosive devices.

During World War II, a Great Dane named Juliana was awarded the Blue Cross Medal. She extinguished an incendiary bomb by peeing on it!

Pet therapy animals offer comfort to the sick and disabled. Dogs and cats are most commonly used in pet therapy; however, fish, guinea pigs, horses, and other animals that meet screening criteria can also be used.

Many distilleries, bars, vineyards, and breweries employ cats to keep their establishments mice and rat-free and entertain visitors.

Ferrets have been used for decades as an electrician’s right-hand animal. These small, energetic, smart, industrious creatures can be taught to carry wires through conduits too small for a human. A ferret helped run wires through 40-foot-long conduits at the U.S. Space Command Center in Colorado. Others ran TV cables under Buckingham Palace to help prepare for the broadcast of Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s wedding.

Miniature guide horses have been trained since 1999 as assistance animals for the visually impaired. These animals make ideal service animals for people who are allergic to dogs or who want a guide animal with a longer life span. These horses typically live for 30 to 40 years. (A miniature horse stands at 34" or less.)

Since 1998, the town of Rabbit Hash, Kentucky (population 315) has elected four canine mayors. According to the town’s official website, The people of Rabbit Hash generally elect mayors based on the candidate’s willingness to have their belly scratched.

The U.S. Navy trains and utilizes sea lions and dolphins to assist in finding and retrieving equipment lost at sea, identifying intruders swimming in restricted areas, and detecting underwater mines.

Clever capuchin monkeys in the United States are now helping the physically disabled with housework such as taking out the garbage, switching on the microwave and fetching the telephone. These furry helpers also provide company and companionship.

During WWI, a carrier pigeon named Cher Ami was shot by the enemy yet survived and was still able to deliver his message and save the lives of 194 soldiers.

In Africa, honeyguide birds lead people to honey. The birds flutter in front of humans, tweet and fly from tree to tree to guide honey seekers to hidden bee colonies, frequently inside hollowed-out trees. The humans hack open the trees to find honey and the birds can dine on beeswax, their favorite food.

Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office is the official title of the resident cat at 10 Downing Street, the resident of the prime minister of the United Kingdom. There has been a resident cat in the English government employed as a mouser and pet since the 1500s.

At the Movies Q & A

Which Seinfeld actor voiced the part of Hugo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Jason Alexander

Which Ghostbusters star played Frank Cross in the 1988 Christmas comedy Scrooged? Bill Murray

What movie did this quote come from and which character or actor said it? You had me at hello. Jerry Maguire was the movie and the line