KILLING
TIME
By Aaron R. Fodiman
During 2020, I found myself
with a lot of extra time due to
the cancellation of everything
I usually did, from parties to
performances, not to mention dining
out at least twice a day. When I was
younger, I could have easily found things
or girlfriends to take up the extra time.
However, during this last year that wasn’t,
I started to make a list of some unusual
facts I came across primarily by reading,
since my eyes are the only parts of my body
that still seem to function as they once did.
Some of what I read was easily verifiable,
or at least seemed to be. However, I
realized that many of the so-called facts I
had learned might or might not be true.
A goldfish’s memory may only span 3
seconds as claimed, but I’m not sure how
this was ever established as a fact. On the
other hand, it is possible to establish that
there are 118 ridges around the edge of a
dime. Here are some facts I’ve been told
are true. But I am willing to vouch for
only some of them, such as the fact that
you cannot lick your elbow, as I bet you
are doing right now.
FUN FACTS
A cat has 32 muscles
in each ear.
A crocodile cannot
stick out its tongue.
The average person’s
left hand does 56%
of the typing.
118 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021
A “jiffy” is an
actual unit of
time for 1/100th
of a second.
A dragonfly
has a
lifespan of
6 months.
A shark is the only
fish that can blink
with both eyes.
An ostrich’s
eye is
bigger than
its brain.
A snail can sleep for
three years.
The phrase, “The
quick brown fox
jumps over the
lazy dog,” uses
every letter
of the alphabet.
Your stomach has to produce a new
layer of mucus every two weeks;
otherwise it will digest itself.
Women blink
nearly twice as
much as men.
“Typewriter” is the longest word that
can be made using the letters only
on one row of the keyboard.
“Stewardesses”
is the longest
word typed
with only the
left hand and
“lollipop” is the
longest with
your right.
Although your eyes
remain the same size
from birth, your nose
and ears never stop
growing
In the last
4,000 years,
no new animals
have been
domesticated.
The words “racecar,” “kayak” and
“level” are the same, whether they
are read left to right or right to left.