Facts You Probably don’t Need

• The first DVD released commercially in the U.S. was 1997’s “Twister.”

• Alaska’s Aleutian Islands extend far enough west they’re in the Eastern hemisphere, making Alaska the northernmost, westernmost, and technically, the easternmost U.S. State.

• The word “factoid” means “a piece of incorrect information that is asserted as a fact.” But now that it has colloquially come to mean “a small bit of trivia,” the definition of a factoid is itself, in fact, a factoid.

• Peacocks sleep in trees.

• The dots on dice are called pips and the dots on a ping-pong paddle are also called pips.

• Dr. Seuss invented the word “nerd.” It was first used in his story “If I Ran the Zoo” which was published in 1950.

• There are 118 ridges on dimes, 119 on quarters, 150 on half dollars, and 198 on dollar coins.

• Basset hounds have the densest bones of any dog breed.

          Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.