Facts You Probably don’t Need

• If pronounced as one syllable (which is apparently debatable), “squirrelled” is the longest single syllable word in English.

• The first splinter-free toilet paper was marketed by Northern Tissue in 1935.

• Lemons aren’t naturally occurring, they were created through the breeding of bitter oranges and citrons.

• Woodpeckers’ tongues wrap around their skulls to protect their brain while pecking.

• The lighter (1823) was invented before the match (1826).

• Since its discovery in 1930, Pluto has yet to orbit the sun and won’t until March 23, 2178.

• According to linguistic and genetic evidence, the first settlers of Madagascar came not from Africa, but from Asian Islands near what is now Indonesia or Borneo.

• If our Sun was the size of a white blood cell, our galaxy would be the size of the continental United States.

          Facts by Sean McVeigh, fac­tologist.