The Signs of Business

You may have seen this floating around emails and blogs for a while. I’ve made some comments, corrected some urban myths and provided documentation and resources for your perusal. Please don’t believe everything you read in an email!

1. Money isn’t made out of paper, it’s made out of cotton (75% cotton, 25% linen). – The Secret Service was originally formed to combat widespread counterfeiting in the mid-1800′s.
2. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. – FALSE: You’ve got to be high to believe this one. The document that is in the National Archives is parchment, which of course is made from animal skin. So, put that in your pipe and smoke it, PETA!
3. The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a “tittle”.
4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top. – 7up works far better though.
5. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller. – FALSE: Read more
6. 40% of McDonald’s profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
7. 315 entries in Webster’s 1996 Dictionary were misspelled. -UNCONFIRMED: I found no proof of this so it is most likely false.
8. The ‘spot’ on 7up comes from its inventor, who had red eyes. He was albino. – FALSE: Most albinos have blue or gray eyes and many have brown or hazel eyes! Red, pink and even purplish eyes are possible, though there is no know documentation that the inventor of 7up (Charles Leiper Grigg) was an albino. Sorry, but this appears to be an urban legend.
9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents… daily. – This is one of those delicious rumors that are so fun to throw around. I have no documentation proving or disproving this.
10. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
11. Chocolate affects a dog’s heart and nervous system; a few ounces will kill a small sized dog. – In fact it isn’t the caffeine that does it. It’s another chemical called Theobromine that has the most effect. And it’s not just dogs that are affected, cats can have the same reaction. Read more about it on about.com
12. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark’s stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode. – There is very little documentation to even support orcas attacking sharks much less their modus operandi. Orcas feed mainly on seals, sea lions and octopii. There’s no reason for them to casually hunt sharks.
13. Some lipstick contains fish scales (eeww). – TRUE: Read more
14. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn’t wear pants. -FALSE: Sorry folks, this is false!
15. Ketchup was sold in the 1830′s as medicine.- TRUE (probably), it is still being touted by the Heinz Corp as being healthful.
16. Upper and lower case letters are name ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the upper case letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller ‘lower case’ letters.
17. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one had and draw with the other at the same time. Apparently multi-tasking can be counted among his myriad other inventions.
18. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood. – FALSE: They were actually plaster. The only wooden award (which also featured a movable mouth) was given to a ventriloquist dummy in 1938 as an honorary award.
19. There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos. – Windows are very difficult to find as well.
20. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan; there was never a recorded Wendy before. – Unless, of course, you don’t count the two Chinese Emperors named Wendi (one in the Han dynasty BC 179-157 and the other in the Sui dynasty (541-604 AD)
21. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple or silver. – Must be true, I couldn’t find any.
22. Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. – FALSE: Come on! The guy invented all kinds of crazy stuff, can’t you just be satisfied with the things he did invent and invision? Read more
23. A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death. – This is most likely untrue since a scorpion isn’t affected by its own venom. Though I would be angry too if someone threw liquor on me.
24. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original “Halloween” was a Captain Kirk’s mask painted white.
25. If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
26. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can’t sink in quicksand.
27. The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. – MOSTLY FALSE: Read more
28. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola. – Kinda True (if you believe Wikipedia)
29. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It’s the same with apples!
30. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
31. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
32. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries. – UNCONFIRMED: It seems every website has a different theory on this one. Among the top winners are the Bible, Koran, books on the Occult, and books on homosexuality.
33. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages it. – FALSE: I’m going to call this one false even though I’ve done absolutely no research for it. It may have been true in the 70′s but I seriously doubt the same suit that protects the inhabitant from solar radiation and extreme cold and has been specially made so you CAN go potty if the need arises, gets damaged if a little gas is passed. Also, everyone’s body chemistry is different. For some people (like my brother), anything you eat makes you toot.
34. George Carlin said it best about Martha Stewart: “Boy, I feel a lot safer now that she’s behind bars. O.J. Simpson and Kobe Bryant are still walking around; Osama bin Laden too, but they take the ONE woman in America willing to cook, clean, and work in the yard, and they haul her fanny off to jail.”

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