Useless Trivia

[NowhereMan]

The Ozone layer smells faintly of geraniums.

[Venkman]

Ever wonder why we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

For the first one (parkway), blame Robert Moses. He created the early highway system on Long Island (New York, little nub hanging east of Manhattan) that connected Brooklyn and Queens with the beaches and parks to the east. Those streets became the way to the park(s).

The driveway is simpler: it's the way you drive to a house, which around the same time on Long Island, was a fair distance from the main road.

[Nevermore]

Today I learned that John Tyler, 10th President of the United States, has two still living grandchildren.

[Nebu]

Today I learned that John Tyler, 10th President of the United States, has two still living grandchildren.

That's very cool.  Do you have a link?

Edit: Used my Google-fu.  Snopes has a write-up here.

[pxib]

On similar notes: The Great Pyramid was older than Cleopatra during her time than she is during ours, the Stegosaurus had been extinct for more years when Tyrannosaurus Rex roamed the earth than Tyrannosaurus Rex has today, and Oxford University predates both the Inca and the Aztec empires.

The Maya, on the other hand, had been around for 2000 years when the Spanish conquered the last of their cities in 1697... but their empire had fallen to civil war in the 10th century, just as the Umayyad Caliphate was beginning to shatter into the warring kingdoms that would eventually be reunified into what we think of as Spain in 1492. In fact, the founding of the Roman Province of Iberia in 218 BCE was only a smattering of decades from the founding of the first Mayan city in ~250 BCE.

In historical terms, Spain and the Maya were contemporaries.

[Signe]

Today I learned that John Tyler, 10th President of the United States, has two still living grandchildren.

The United Kingdom has had the same queen for at least 300 years. 

[NowhereMan]

No it just feels that way to her son.

On a point of fun trivia, during the 19th century the British Navy, due to it's dispersed nature, fell into the habit of basically allowing Captains to be gods on their own ships with no oversight unless there was a more senior officer actually on the ship. This led to hilarity such as naval uniforms depending entirely upon the the whims of said captain, some ships had lots of gold braid, some didn't have any. One ship had officers wearing white top hats.

Another captain also had to conduct a burial abroad but lacked consecrated ground. He appointed one of his men as a bishop in the Church of England in order to consecrate it and then demoted him back to the laity after the burial. It's unclear what role this had in the apostolic succession. Another ship kept a bear as a pet, which only ended when the bear woke up and rolled out the wrong side of it's net while the ship was under way and the Captain didn't feel he could justify turning round to try and rescue it.