I'm 56 and can still do Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty" speech that I learned in 7th grade.

My birthday is the same day as Shakespeare's.

I saw Tom Wolfe in a white suit and pink shirt, the whole get up, actually, in Piazza Signoria in Firenze. I think it was my favorite celebrity sighting.

It was once believed that tomatoes were poisonous.

In early hospitals you were required to pay your burial fees upon admittance - survival was not expected or anticipated. Go in for tomato poisoning - and die from infections due to lack of sanitary conditions.

LOL..can't you imagine some newbie to Fodor's clicking this thread on before looking at any other thread. The poor dear would think we were all writing from whatever facility we were locked up in, dontcha think?

My institutional facility is better than your institutional facility :-)

Now I know something useful: we love useless information!

I am allergic to work :))

The distance across Texas is farther than the distance from either of Texas' borders to the closest coast (Atlantic/Pacific)

My pups ate my money last week.

Indiana is the smallest continental state west of the Appalachias.

(Have to say "continental" as Hawaii is smaller.)

German Chocolate cake is good for breakfast .

Chocolate cake is good for any meal.

(I'll just leave off the German part. More worthless knowledge - I don't like coconut.)

Faina, I am a longtime activist against working. Work is hazardous to your health!

;)

I once got a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall for flying a paper plane from the balcony onto the stage during a Phil Ochs concert.

I went to HS with Ralph Malph.

"Unser platen speiler ist kaput" was one of the lines in a German dialog I studied in 7th grade.

I have skated on the Rockefeller Ice Rink without skates when it was closed. ( Security threw us out)

All this useless information is tryin my magination. ((8))

I did a Christmas visit to the White House with friends in the late 90's.

During the long, long wait to go in I espied a pile of pooh in the bushes. I swore to my friends it was the First Dog's (Buddy's) pooh. I asked people around me if they had a plastic sack I could borrow to keep a mememto. Everyone else was bored too so they patronized me but no bag.

Then on the tour we got to meet Buddy for real. He came through the library from the rear lawn with his handler (who was NOT Bill Clinton.) In fact Buddy was only a prop and did not stay with Clinton after exiting office. Buddy stayed with his real owner.

Buddy was killed by a passing car in front of the Clinton residence on January 3, 2002. Sad story.

How do you know it was not Bill's pile in the bushes?

Well I guess I don't know why I thought it was Buddy's pile and not Bill's. Hmmm.

That's sad about Buddy. :-( He was an amazingly well behaved pooch.

mikemo,
Isn't tuna one of the "mecury" fish ?
What is tuna cactus ?
I grew up in the Southwest and never heard of tuna cactus.
Is it native to SMdA ?
I have however heard of Greater Tuna:-D

Sign me:
R Curious 5

PS
indy,What time is the intervention ?

"Tunas" are a cactus. Go to San Jose. You see them sold there all the time.

Well Raz-Daz, I'm sure I hear the intervention sirens now. Until they get here I'll just have to mix another drinky-poo. :-)

"Sit on a potato pan Otis" is my favorite palindrome. My zip code is a palidrome too 46164. (What the heck. We all knew I live in the Indy area!)

Well starrsville, I never!!!

Can you actually PROVE your institutional facility is better then mine? Mine has TV's, broadband connection, CD & DVD players, great food, lots of wine and uhm nice employees..well when they aren't popping pills or drinking all the wine that is. But nothing is perfect is it? :'(

Planet Earth is a fine institution. Looks like the imates are running the asylum.
This is a great thread.

R5,
Tuna is the amazing cactus flesh. Atun is tuna fish.
M

OK, for those who know no Mexican geography, we are in the virtual center of the country, in the mountains, and many hundreds of miles from any salt water beach.
Thankfully, way away from the majority of gringo tourists.
M

On this date in 1793, the first public zoo, the Jardin des Plantes, opened in Paris.

Dang! You win, LoveItaly. Your I.F. is much better than mine! :-)

Enjoy!!!

West Virginia would be bigger than Texas if they ironed it out flat and got rid of all the mountains.

Okay, maybe that last one is just a boast and not necessarily factual.

It is 15 hours ahead from Oregon to Japan ... if you want to make a phone call :)

<i>just in case you too have a baby boy or girl who needs to hear from you..((L))</i>

Scarlett
That is useful information. Please try again.

I work in an institution...says so on my ID card ;)

I'm highly allergic to cantaloups and honeydews.

I memorized the entire periodic table in high school because I was too lazy to refer to it constantly in class.

And from the West Coast of the US Italy is 9 hours ahead of our time..6 hours ahead from the East Coast of the US.

Now who said this is &quot;useless information&quot;!

Useless information: Our Solano County voters voted against raising the sales tax about 1/8 of one percent so that our local roads, I-80 and various public transporation options (such as the ferries to SF) could be improved.

I worked my way through college working at Macy's in the Fine China and Crystal department. I can identify many, amy china , crystal and silver patterns at a glance by name and manufacturer... talk about a head FULL of uselless information! :) I do however find personal satisfaction when snobby people have &quot;tacky&quot; pieces displayed!

ahotpoet..forgive me, I got carried away~

useless, useless,..... Pup yodels at horses. ((&amp;))

I had the pleasure of telling Carol Burnett that the men's store I worked in on Maui didn't sell men's purses in 1982. My heart was beating wildly because I used to love her on tv!

A cluster of bananas is called a hand. A banana is called a finger. :^o

A cornish game hen is really a really young chicken of no more than 2lbs. ~:&gt;

Every person has a unique tongue print. :P

We lose an average of 40-100 strands of hair a day. :O

Ah Scarlett
Much better

Ackee and saltfish is the national dish of Jamaica.
Ackees are poisonous if picked before they are ripe.

Jamaica's flag has three colours and each colour represents something :
Gold : sunshine
Black : Hardship
Green : Grass

The meaning of the Jamaican Flag: Though there is hardship, the grass is green and the sun shines!

:)_

There is only one US state capital city whose name incorporates the name of the state in which it is located.

That would be Oklahoma City. :-)

Lothar Matth&auml;us of Germany has the most appearances as a player in Football World Cup Games ever: 25.

The fastest goal in World Cup history was scored by Hakan S&uuml;k&uuml;r of Turkey in a match against South Korea in 2002: 11 seconds into the match.

And one bit of semi-useless information:
ahotpet's sentence of German would have to be
&quot;Mein Plattenspieler ist kaputt.&quot;

Here is some more information I'm itching to share: P_M can yodel :))

Are we ready for Jeopardy now?

HSV
Guten Himmel! I had all I could do to say, it much less spell it. But the line definitely was &quot;Unser&quot; maybe spelled unsere
The next line was &quot;Das ist aber schade&quot;
Later on I expanded my repetoire to include, &quot;Wo ist die Jugendherberge?&quot;