Facts You Probably don’t Need

• Twinkies used to be filled with banana cream until WWII, when bananas were rationed due to a shortage.

• A hippopotamus’ sweat is red, but it is not their blood.

• Hedgehogs can run a top speed of 5 to 6 miles per hour.

• The phrase “hands down” comes from horseracing and refers to a jockey who is so far ahead that he can afford to drop his hands and loosen the reins.

• The scientific name for the Striped Skunk is Mephitis mephitis, which, in Latin, means “stinky stinky.”

• Only female wasps are able to sting.

• You have no muscles in your fingers. All muscles that control fingers are in your forearm and palm.

• The first professional song Jon Bon Jovi ever recorded was called “R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas” on a 1980 album called “Christmas in the Stars.”

          Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.