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Useless Facts

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
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Apart from the fact that three of those do have rhymes (orange/Blorenge, silver/chilver, purple/curple/hirple), this "fact" is pretty odd, since it's been estimated that there are more rhymeless words than rhyming words in the English language. Some English words that actually don't have rhymes include angel, penguin, nothing and, amusingly, the word poem itself. The fact that English has so few rhyming words has actually been one of the most serious hurdles in providing a good translation of The Divine Comedy - the whole thing is in terza rima and it's so difficult to sustain a terza rima epic in English that several translations just don't bother.

EDIT:
Pig-serpent said:
How do they not? If you break them into syllables you get
O-Ver
Sil-Ver

It's totally the same sound.
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Masculine rhymes don't count. If they did, then orange rhymes with binge and purple rhymes with angle, which is plainly absurd.
 
Teh Ebil Snorlax said:
EDIT:

Masculine rhymes don't count. If they did, then orange rhymes with binge and purple rhymes with angle, which is plainly absurd.
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Oh, I guess I was missing something. And for whatever reason I always though Orange is one syllable. (sounds awkward to say it as two I guess.)

Plus I was going for syllable as a whole, so pur-ple and an-gle wouldn't rhyme. I guess this is why English is my worst subject :P
 
Pig-serpent said:
I would like to argue that "Over" and "clover" rhyme with "silver".
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???? Do you pronounce, "silver," as, "Solver?" Clover wouldn't rhyme with silver even if the i was an o, so I declare your argument invalid.

And now, useless information fed to me by my brother:

  • Newborn koalas are the size of jellybeans.
  • Romans take up to five baths a day.
  • Butterflies taste through their feet.
  • At one point (and possibly currently), New Zealand featured a Pikachu on its one dollar coin.
  • A statue of an ear made of clay, which was an exact replica of the artist's boss' ear, sold for 50 million at an auction.
  • James Earl made only 7,000 for his acting as Darth Vader in Star Wars.
  • The color of an egg depends on the color of the chicken's earlobe.
  • A British company has actually developed a video game placed in the inside of toilets that help men control their stream.
  • The sound caused by cracking your fingers does not cause arthritis- rather, it is the sound of gas bubbles popping.
  • The honey badger really is the Guinness Book of World Record's, "Most Fearless Creature."
  • The voice of Minnie Mouse is married to the voice of Mickey.
  • Oprah Winfrey's name was really Orpah- but it was spelled wrong on her birth certificate.
  • Nearly half of college graduates never read another book after graduation.
  • According to Harvard's research, children who are embraced become happier adults.

I could go on for hours, but I must stop here.
 
Time for...AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY!!!

  • Only ten incumbent presidents of the United States have ever been defeated in a re-election bid: Adams (#2), Quincy Adams (#6), Van Buren (#8), Cleveland (#22), B. Harrison (#23), Taft (#27), Hoover (#31), Ford (#38), Carter (#39) and H. W. Bush (#41).
  • Additionally, five incumbent presidents failed to even win their party's nomination to run again: Tyler (#10), Fillmore (#13), Pierce (#14), Johnson (#17), Arthur (#21).
  • The shortest president was Madison (#4) at 5'4", while the tallest was Lincoln (#16), exactly one foot taller.
  • The lightest president was...also Madison (#4), at only 45 kilograms, while the heaviest was Taft (#27), who peaked at 136 kilograms and required the installation of a new bathtub that could handle his girth.
  • Eight presidents have died in office, four of assassination (Lincoln (#16), Garfield (#20), McKinley (#25), Kennedy (#35)) and four of illness (W. H. Harrison (#9), Taylor (#12), Harding (#29), D. Roosevelt (#32)).
  • The longest inauguration speech (10,000 words) was given by W. H. Harrison...in the freezing snow, which likely contributed to his death exactly one month later. The shortest was Washington (#1) at just 135 words.
  • Former presidents Adams (#2) and Jefferson (#3) died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826. Forty-six years later, future president Coolidge (#30) was born on the very same day.
  • The first president to be born a US citizen was Van Buren (#8).
  • The only person to hold the presidency on two non-consecutive occasions was Cleveland (#22 AND #24).
  • Four presidents have held the office without winning a popular majority in the election: Quincy Adams (#6), Hayes (#19), B. Harrison (#23) and W. Bush (#43).
  • The only unanimously elected president was Washington (#1). The closest second was Monroe (#5), who won all but one electoral vote, the last being withheld by an elector who wanted to preserve Washington's achievement.
 
Teh Ebil Snorlax said:
Time for...AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY!!!

  • Only ten incumbent presidents of the United States have ever been defeated in a re-election bid: Adams (#2), Quincy Adams (#6), Van Buren (#8), Cleveland (#22), B. Harrison (#23), Taft (#27), Hoover (#31), Ford (#38), Carter (#39) and H. W. Bush (#41).
  • Additionally, five incumbent presidents failed to even win their party's nomination to run again: Tyler (#10), Fillmore (#13), Pierce (#14), Johnson (#17), Arthur (#21).
  • The shortest president was Madison (#4) at 5'4", while the tallest was Lincoln (#16), exactly one foot taller.
  • The lightest president was...also Madison (#4), at only 45 kilograms, while the heaviest was Taft (#27), who peaked at 136 kilograms and required the installation of a new bathtub that could handle his girth.
  • Eight presidents have died in office, four of assassination (Lincoln (#16), Garfield (#20), McKinley (#25), Kennedy (#35)) and four of illness (W. H. Harrison (#9), Taylor (#12), Harding (#29), D. Roosevelt (#32)).
  • The longest inauguration speech (10,000 words) was given by W. H. Harrison...in the freezing snow, which likely contributed to his death exactly one month later. The shortest was Washington (#1) at just 135 words.
  • Former presidents Adams (#2) and Jefferson (#3) died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826. Forty-six years later, future president Coolidge (#30) was born on the very same day.
  • The first president to be born a US citizen was Van Buren (#8).
  • The only person to hold the presidency on two non-consecutive occasions was Cleveland (#22 AND #24).
  • Four presidents have held the office without winning a popular majority in the election: Quincy Adams (#6), Hayes (#19), B. Harrison (#23) and W. Bush (#43).
  • The only unanimously elected president was Washington (#1). The closest second was Monroe (#5), who won all but one electoral vote, the last being withheld by an elector who wanted to preserve Washington's achievement.
[/spoiler]
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Furthermore:

  • James Buchanan was the only bachelor
  • Both Harry S Truman and Ulysses S Grant lacked middle names; their middle initials were just that, initials
  • William Howard Taft was Chief Justice of SCOTUS after being President, thereby becoming the only person to head two different branches of the federal government
  • John Quincy Adams served in the House of Representatives after being President, and Andrew Johnson in the Senate
  • The person who has amassed the most electoral votes without ever being President is William Jennings Bryan, who ran three times in the early 20th century; next is Thomas Dewey, who ran twice in the 1940s
  • The first President born in the 20th century was JFK
  • The two Johnsons are the only Presidents to share a surname but not be related
  • Counting only completed terms, Obama's second term will mark only the second time that three two-term Presidents have served in succession (Clinton/Bush/Obama; the other case is Jefferson/Madison/Monroe)...
  • ... however, counting tickets rather than individual Presidents, the 20th century saw a run of 44 years of two (or more) term tickets, from the election of FDR in 1933 to the completion of Nixon's second term (by Ford) in 1977...
  • ... though perhaps we should stop that sequence in 1969, with the end of Johnson's second term, since Ford was never on a ticket with Nixon, making him the only person to serve as President without ever being elected to either the vice-presidency or the presidency.
  • Van Buren was the only President whose first language wasn't English (it was Dutch)
  • The longest-lived President was Ford, reaching an age of 93; the shortest was JFK, who was assassinated at the age of 46
  • The President who lived the longest after leaving office was (and is) Jimmy Carter; he overtook Warren Harding only a few months ago. The shortest retirement span was James K. Polk's, who died 107 days after leaving office.
  • Speaking of JFK's age, he was the youngest President ever elected; Teddy Roosevelt was younger, but he ascended to the Presidency following McKinley's assassination
  • James Garfield served exactly 200 days
  • And finally, perhaps the most useless fact in this list: Taft become the oldest living President twice, once when he was first elected and the second time when he outlived his successor, Woodrow Wilson

ETA: also, I'm reasonably sure the Monroe faithless elector thing is apocryphal.
 
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Is that fact limited to Ancient Romans, or does it hold true for the citizens that inhabit Rome today? :p
 
If you're talking about ancient Romans, they only bathed once a day. Hard to do more when the times the baths were open were segregated by sex.
 
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