... party strategy number nine ...

At the Christmas party - four of the facts below will interest and fascinate other people - reciting the others will encourage people to make their excuses and leave you alone - both very successful party strategies - but which facts are which? Your mission is to read and decide.

Butterflies taste with their feet. (hopefully not on the pavements around here)

A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.

In ten minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.

On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year. (the pen is mightier than the sword)

On average people fear spiders more than they do death.

Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

Elephants are the only animals that can't jump. (would you want them to - what about hippos?)

Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. (I was told I needed a new hobby, officer)

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow.

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, Engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. (that'll teach them to cut the engineering book budget)

A snail can sleep for three years.

No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH." (and orange ... and chimney)

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

The electric chair was invented by a dentist! (does this surprise you)

All polar bears are left handed.

In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.

"Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. (A?)

If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. (fortunately I can turn the shower onto cold)

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day. (makes for a very large table)

Almost everyone who reads this e-mail will try to lick their elbow. (I tried to lick someone else's elbow after reading this - but the magistrate was understanding - and told me about this club he goes to - where there is this nice lady called Yvonne - who ...)

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