Facts You Probably don’t Need

• Green Beans are a fruit.

• The year on the bottle of wine is the year the grapes were picked, not the year the wine was bottled.

• Barns are traditionally red colored because farmers used to add rust to the linseed oil, which they used in place of paint because of its availability, to prevent fungi, mold, and moss growth. 

• The area code of Brevard County, FL is “321.” This is due to the county being home to the Kennedy Space Center.

• In 1959, the winner of the city council election in Sao Paulo, Brazil was Cacareco, a rhino at the local zoo. All votes for the rhino were deemed to be legitimate with one voter commenting: “Better to elect a rhino than an ass.”

• The phrase “balls to the wall” comes from aviation. Ball-shaped handles controlled the throttle and fuel and putting those handles closer to the wall resulted in the fastest possible speed.

• The largest Japanese character is called Taito. It consists of 84 strokes and means “the appearance of a dragon in flight.”

• The world’s largest jellyfish, the lion’s mane, can grow longer than a blue whale.

            Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.