Warning: This thread will make you gasp, and go, "No!" out loud to yourself, so you might want to do it in the privacy of your own home. Nicole Cliffe asks really great questions on Twitter, to which she receives some great answers back. Recently, she asked people to share their favorite weird facts. About anything at all! Some are historical, some are about biology, some are about grammar, but they are all fascinating.
Now, a disclaimer– I have no fact-checked these facts. Some I've heard before and know to be true. Others I am taking at face value. This is entertainment for you to scroll through while you're on the toilet at work avoiding your responsibilities. Oh, believe me. I know what you're up to. Anyway, enjoy these super cool, weird facts!
Cliffe recently asked — no — demanded that the Internet share their favorite weird facts with her.
And they did. Buckle in folks, because these are good.Hemingway and Dorothy Parker
@Nicole_Cliffe Ernest Hemingway wrote a mean poem about Dorothy Parker and recited it to their mutual friends and t… https://t.co/1UfCuCilQI— Alexandra Petri (@Alexandra Petri)1544560469.0
Kittens
@Nicole_Cliffe The same litter of kittens can all be from different fathers.— Lucy Huber (@Lucy Huber)1544555191.0
Turtles
@Nicole_Cliffe TURTLES BREATHE OUT OF THEIR BUTTS— alanna (@alanna)1544549520.0
Partyboob!
@Nicole_Cliffe Boobytrap spelled backwards is partyboob.— megan thee scallion (@megan thee scallion)1544554412.0
Black American men's names
Immediately after the American Civil War, there was a fad among newly-freed slaves to name their newborns after fig… https://t.co/E9tsVvImuK— Iron Spike (@Iron Spike)1544586731.0
Wizard
@Nicole_Cliffe If you take the word wizard, and replace every letter with its reverse (A becomes Z, B becomes Y, C… https://t.co/GO45io6ZTZ— Patton Richard (@Patton Richard)1544567263.0
Paul Cezanne's parrot
@Nicole_Cliffe Paul Cezanne had a parrot that he taught to say, "Cezanne is a great painter!"— Amy Guglielmo (@Amy Guglielmo)1544564185.0
Jimmy Carter
@Nicole_Cliffe Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president born in a hospital.— Adam Tschorn (@Adam Tschorn)1544597255.0
Al and Rose
@Nicole_Cliffe We have lived in 3 houses since we've been married, all 3 next door to couples named "Al and Rose".… https://t.co/qhyfhbJyx9— pc brown (@pc brown)1544568061.0
Frank Beard
@Nicole_Cliffe The only member of ZZ Top who doesn’t have a beard is Frank Beard— Joe Wilson (@Joe Wilson)1544558022.0
Pineapple
The pineapple plant is closely related to certain species of carnivorous plants, and actually has digestive enzymes… https://t.co/p47GMJlTfD— Alycia (@Alycia)1544588984.0
Virginia Woolf's pet monkey
Woolf's pet monkey saved her and her husband from the Nazis, which is basically definitive proof that everyone needs a pet monkey.Hippopotamus milk
@Nicole_Cliffe Hippopotamus milk is pink. And there are 1,000 calories, give or take, in a pint— Kathleen ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤 (@Kathleen ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤)1544564154.0
Alice Cooper and Groucho Marx
@Nicole_Cliffe Alice Cooper was friends with Groucho Marx and would come over and watch old movies with him when Gr… https://t.co/kMCDQE51l5— 𝐎. 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞 (@𝐎. 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞)1544545612.0
New Mexico whiptail lizard
@Nicole_Cliffe The New Mexico whiptail lizard is an all-female species. Their eggs grow without fertilization and a… https://t.co/Tduuoi5EsC— Elle (@Elle)1544557451.0
Buffalo Buffalo
This is my favorite crazy grammatical fact! I also realized that this person copy-and-pasted the first sentence from the Wikipedia entry about this sentence.BBC News' night off
@Nicole_Cliffe On April 18, 1930, the BBC’s news announcer came on and said “There is no news” and played piano music instead.— Kristicuse (@Kristicuse)1544558553.0
Marisa Tomei
@Nicole_Cliffe Marisa Tomei is an anagram for “itsa me, Mario!”— No Context Lily Sloane (@No Context Lily Sloane)1544577201.0
Wendy
@Nicole_Cliffe Wendy wasn’t a name until Peter Pan.— Carol McAlpine (@Carol McAlpine)1544558769.0
20 weeks
@Nicole_Cliffe At 20 weeks the female fetus has developed all the eggs it will ever carry. This means part of me wa… https://t.co/Zf3P98hQ0u— Jenny D Fine (@Jenny D Fine)1544594976.0
Barry Manilow
@Nicole_Cliffe Barry Manilow wrote hundreds of songs, but he didn’t write “I Write the Songs”— Rick, sad there’s no more nog (@Rick, sad there’s no more nog)1544549832.0
Largest living thing
@Nicole_Cliffe The largest living thing on earth is a (mostly subterranean) fungus in Oregon. It covers about four… https://t.co/vUAhDCOsxP— Big Hairy Socially-Distant Masked Lizard-Person™ (@Big Hairy Socially-Distant Masked Lizard-Person™)1544671144.0
History's timeline
My eyes got really wide when I read this. Like, what?! It's hard to comprehend."Total Eclipse of the Heart"
@Nicole_Cliffe Total Eclipse of the Heart was originally written as the love theme for a Nosferatu musical.— Scott Purdy (@Scott Purdy)1544550029.0
Goats have accents
@Nicole_Cliffe Goats have accents and if you take two goats from different parts of the world they won’t be able to understand each other— splash the fash (@splash the fash)1544563459.0
Sand
@Nicole_Cliffe This is what a grain of sand looks like magnified 300 times. https://t.co/FS0jHoSojV— Tracy Chiles McGhee (@Tracy Chiles McGhee)1544579414.0
Epic fire
@Nicole_Cliffe There is a fire in Pennsylvania that’s been burning since 1962.— Bill Weir (@Bill Weir)1544555642.0
George Washington
@Nicole_Cliffe George Washington died in 1799. The first dinosaur fossil was discovered in 1824. George Washington… https://t.co/4FSXe7AQd3— Suraj Lakhani (@Suraj Lakhani)1544572993.0
Volunteering during the war
@Nicole_Cliffe Oh wait one more! Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman both volunteered to help during the Spanish Civ… https://t.co/dUEZgRmM5w— Alexandra Petri (@Alexandra Petri)1544561004.0