The Very Best of Trivia Fun

It is with great pleasure that I present the best of Trivia Fun. As long-time readers of this blog (Alphonse "Curly" Butterbutt of Olympia, Washington) are well aware, Trivia Fun has become a beloved feature of this blog. While every item presented is a treasure onto itself, I have painstakingly gone over all previous posts and selected a best of. All trivia fun facts have been independently verified by one of the following: NASA, the Smithsonian Institute, the Brookings Institute, the CIA, The French Embassy or The Hortense Culpepper Institute for Factual Trivia. Please enjoy.

The Department of Transportation has an entire division devoted to the pogo stick. 

It is little remembered that Monday Night Football replaced Monday Night Seance.

Snow White was originally conceived as a police procedural.

Due to a clerical error in 1889 a few lepers were accidentally sent to a leopard colony.

While he was on trial, Charles Manson guest hosted The Tonight Show for a week.

Oddly, Wilt Chamberlain was terrible at dunking donuts.

Radio Station KSFO in San Francisco once booked a mime troupe to do a live on air show. Ratings were abysmal. 

Adolph Hitler often absent-mindedly heiled himself when looking in a mirror.

Before doing his own compositions, Johannes Brahms led a Beethoven cover orchestra.

The Battle of Gettysburg was delayed when a collie ran out on the battlefield.

Because there are billions of stars in our galaxy that could support life on a planet, it is estimated that there may be as many as million people in the universe named Barney Fife.

Jeffrey Dahmer took dietary supplements.

In ancient Rome, members of PETA used to go the Colosseum and root for the lions.

The musical “Hello Dolly” was originally to be about a small ornamental paper with a lace pattern and was to be called “Hello Doily.”

Before peanuts and cracker jacks were sold at ballparks, most vendors hawked beets or crayfish.

Babe Ruth once hit a pop up so high that by the time it came down it was caught for the first out of the next day’s game.

In Europe, the poet Ezra Pound was known as Ezra Kilogram.

A great believer in reincarnation, Kaiser Wilhelm insisted that someday he'd come back as a K-pop star.

While Francophobia is the fear and contempt of the French, Frankophobia is the fear and contempt of people named Frank.

Abraham Lincoln’s brother Gordon opened the first Dim Sum restaurant west of the Alleghenys.

According to a NASA study, 98% of the time a person types LOL, they have not literally laughed out loud.

For his historic trans-Atlantic flight, Charles Lindbergh wanted a flight attendant.

The Renaissance was delayed due to a teamster’s strike.

Biblical scholars believe that John the Baptist was actually an Episcopalian.

In Canada Cinco De Mayo is celebrated in October.

In the original script for 2001: A Space Odyssey, instead of a monolith there was a barber’s pole.

Just to be contrary, the rock group the Rolling Stones, will, while on tour, gather moss.

Samuel Beckett wrote a never performed sequel to “Waiting for Godot” entitled, “Godot Finally Arrives, Was Stuck in Traffic.”

Scientists and theologians agree that the Hokey Pokey has little or nothing to do with “what it’s all about.”

In the first draft of Moby Dick, instead of a whale, Captain Ahab was pursuing an annoying seagull.