Welcome to the very first officially sanctioned event of 2019 – World National Trivia Day.
You can be forgiven for not having circled this one on the calendar. Trivia is after all by definition something you don’t NEED to know.
But now that you do, let’s play it for all it’s worth…
For two years, from 1835-1837, the city now known as Melbourne was named Batmania after Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer John Batman.
Some suspect this might be a case of a well-known quote being misattributed to a famous identity – but according to the theory: no more bees – no more pollination – no more plants – no more animals – no more us. (I thought there were other creatures that pollinate flowers – butterflies, hummingbirds, hoover flies, even bats?)
American teenager Adrianne Lewis (her picture is NOT photoshopped) makes Gene Simmons from KISS look tongue-tied by comparison.
1823 – German chemist Wolfgang Debereiner invents the first cigarette lighter. 1826 – English chemist John Walker invents the first self-igniting match.
The Blue Whale and the sperm whale are the two loudest animals in the world and can both make a sound up to about 188 decibals (dB). For comparison, a jet engine at take off is about 140 dB, and the human pain threshold is about 120dB. Humpback Whales are not as loud, but they’re more like the Mariah Carey of the whale world as they have really complex whale songs with a really wide frequency range.
The world record for the fastest growing plant belongs to certain species of the 45 genera of bamboo, which have been found to grow at up to 90 cm (35 inches) per day or at a rate of 0.00003 km/h (0.00002 mph).
Slapstick outlandish but interesting all round I reckon.
And absolutely perfect fodder on WORLD TRIVIA DAY.
Ps. Your bonus this week is my end-of-year tribute to another blog I read ACCIDENTALLY INSPIRED. Take it in HERE
Scenic Writer's Shack 
Glen, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of 2018 posts – some interesting facts and some very interesting trivia – all good – look forward to 2019 continuing in the same way.
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That comment boosts me a lot.
It is nice to be appreciated.
And that is no trivial thing.
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Amazing stuff. The one that gets to me the most is the growth rate of bamboo. It grows so fast, I guess you can actually SEE it grow.
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It’s like the grass on my front lawn: during a rain-soaked steamy Australian summer I swear some days I can almost see it growing.
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It would be great if Melbourne was still called Batmania, wouldn’t it? Or no?
And, boy, Matt should be honored. That was quite an apotheosis of his blog!
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I can really apotheosis when I get going can’t I?
I’d like to give that same red carpet treatment to a few other deserving blogs I follow Stacey but Father Time won’t allow it.
In the process I’ve taken moments over this Xmas/New Year period to unsubcribe from roughly two dozen blogs whose content I had become dissatisfied with due to a couple of common factors. The most reoccurring reason was the fact their owners had long ago apparently decided there was no further need to make even the slightest attempt to entertain their readers but instead were content merely to serve up repeating and laborious accounts of (A) what they had for lunch that day (B) what hilarious (to them but nobody else) antics their children got up to the previous week or (C) a detailed rundown of their latest doctor visit and /or computer problems or (D) their latest mundane bunch of holiday snaps. That sort of guff I expect on Facebook (a place I rarely frequent) but on blogs I want topics explored indepth and garnished with wit and at least above average writer’s skills.
The second reason prompting the digital de-clutter was blogs that post too often (7 days a week pretty much ensures the quality has long ago dropped through the floor all the way to the basement) or at the other end of the scale ones that are on obvious life-support but their owners don’t have the where-with-all to do the right thing and pull the plug to flatline something whose glory days are now some kind of distant memory.
Life is just too short to endure twaddle from strangers on the internet that, if there was anything even remotely resembling quality control going on, would never have seen the light of day in the first place. And some of these blogs have 20 000 plus subscribers! I’ve never been able to work out the numbers game when it comes to popular taste.
From 2019 onwards the blogs I follow amount to a mere handful – ACCIDENTALLY INSPIRED, KNIGHT OF ANGELS, INVISIBLE FORMS, MY RAINBOW TRIBE, LAUGHTER OVER TEARS (yours), YEAH, ANOTHER BLOGGER and a couple more, while always keeping a little room for any new blogging ‘talent’ that presents itself.
I think the reason I connected with Matt’s ACCIDENTALLY INSPIRED blog from half a world away over here in Australia is, despite the fact I’m a good 15 years older than he is, we have a few things in common –
(A) We’re both school teachers
(B) We’re both fathers of children under 10
(C) We’re both admitted atheists
(D) We both harbour some mild literary ambitions (or at least I used to)
(E) We’re both runners
I think even if we had none of those things in common I’d still find his blog writing just as engaging. His similes and metaphors are often from the school of altered consciousness and I’ll always have a soft spot for those.
As to the Australian city of Melbourne once being officially known as BATMANIA, after having just seen the eye-popping AQUAMAN (starring Jason Momoa) in all it’s insane-action-sequences glory, I am at this moment ready to rename Australia’s number one beachside playground THE GOLD COAST (1 hours drive from where I live in Brisbane and where the movie was shot) – AQUAMANIA!
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Oh Glen, your comments are as wonderfully entertaining to read as your blogs! And would you believe we shared a classroom block for four years and yet I never knew that you were a runner!!! Makes total sense of course but you have never, ever mentioned it. And thank you for staying interested in my little blog. I was getting worried as I read that I had succumbed to your mundane and boring list, a fate worse than death for any budding writer!!! Thank goodness I’ve survived 🙂
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MY RAINBOW TRIBE has not only survived my cull but I declare it is positively flourishing!
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Haha why thank you Glen. High praise from you. 😘
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Love love love trivia Glen! You have nailed some really interesting stuff in this blog. I must ask where you found this stuff out? I’m ashamed to say that my trivia these days is limited to either the list of questions published in the daily paper during school time (our staffroom is obsessed) or otherwise, those choice little ‘Oddspots’ on the back of feminine hygiene products. Go World Trivia Day!
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Thanks Shannon.
As you can see with WORLD TRIVIA DAY I am not one to bypass life’s big events and worthy causes. I feel similarly about WORLD KISS A GINGER DAY (as opposed to WORLD KICK A GINGER DAY) fast approaching on January 12th. And then there’s the big one for all Batman fans – PENGUIN AWARENESS DAY on January 20.
But the one I really save myself for each year and put in neural truckloads of pre-thought lliterally until my head begins to throb as to the whys and wherfores of my commemoration is WORLD THINKING DAY on February 22nd.
Yes siree – that is a day of unification that mostly all of us can participate in.
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I’m honored, too, to have survived the chaff removal! But whenever that happens, it DOES create a little bit of performance anxiety…….! Lol.
I also am overwhelmed by those who post every day, several times a day. I just don’t understand how they find the time. Some people always have pretty cool facts/topics, even the often-posters. But many do not. In the same vein, when people take pictures of their meal and post it on social media, the top of my head always threatens to blow off. I also can’t stand proselytizing on FB. That seems like a very private issue that should remain within the family. I don’t want the bible quoted at me. The bible makes no sense to me.
“Apotheosis”–my word of the day! (Someone else actually used it in a sentence and I had to look it up. Now I’m in love with it!)
Finally, props and kudos to you and Shannon Louise and all other teachers for one of the most important jobs on earth. How teachers can possibly be underpaid (maybe–I hope–it’s not the same in Australia) is really beyond comprehension and is almost criminal, in my opinion.
Well, good day to you in the beautiful city of Aquamania!
2019–could be a good one!
Hope lives ! ! !
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Proselytize! Proselytize! Proselytize!
Apotheosis! Apotheosis! Apotheosis!
I now also can’t stop saying those two words.
And yeah, I definitely had to look both of them up.
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