SWSK – A Potpourri, Did You Know?

This week, let’s have some fun with a wide variety of fun facts from different subjects. In this group you will find something about anything or anyone and we guarantee that some of these fun facts will surprise you. So let’s all have some fun with this edition of “SWSK”.

New York City has the biggest subway system in the world, but they were not the first to have a subway, that honor goes to Boston who had a subway several years before new York’s first one.

Before he became an actor John Forsythe of “Dynasty” fame, was the public address announcer for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

In Arizona the PHX Sky Train located at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport crosses over an active airport taxiway so you can actually see planes land and takeoff while you are on it. It’s the first system in the world to do this!

Singer Rod Stewart is one of the world’s biggest model railroaders. Over a twenty five year period he built an entire train setting of New York and Chicago with some buildings stand five feet tall.

Everybody loves pizza but what topping is the most popular. According to various surveys 52% of people prefer pepperoni, 34% sausage and 31% for mushrooms as the three most popular.

What state has more chickens than people by a 200-1 ratio? Delaware, our second smallest state is home to over 200 million chickens every year.

One of the top ten TV shows of all time was M*A*S*H depicting life in Korea during the war with humor. The authentic setting for all the episodes of the show were done in, of all places, Malibu, California. The set was located on a mountain less than 30 minutes from the beach.

If you like riding trains then we have one for you. The Trans-Siberian Express is a six-day train journey which starts in Moscow and ends in Vladivostok. The entire trip covers 5,753 miles.

In 1931, a 17-year old girl, Jackie Mitchell, strikes out New York Yankees stars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition baseball game at Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Southern League Chattanooga Lookouts sign her to a contract but MLB commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis voids the contract, saying women have no place in men’s baseball.

Today just about everyone has a cellular phone. It was invented by Martin Cooper an engineer at Motorola in 1973, but was never put into commercial use until 1983. Since that time almost 40 years ago over 1.38 billion cell phones have been sold.

What do actress Geena Davis, comedian/actor Steve Martin and director Quentin Tarantino all have in common? They are all regarded as geniuses as members of MENSA. All three have IQ’s of 150 or better.

During WW II the U.S. produced 296,000 airplanes of every type. 32,000 of those were heavy bombers (B-17’s, B-24’s, etc.), 100, 000 were fighter planes (P-47’s, P-51’s, P-38’s etc.) all in a four and half year period.

“All in the Family” is one of the greatest sitcoms to ever be on TV. But did you know that Carroll O’ Connor was not the first choice for Archie Bunker? The network wanted Mickey Rooney for the role but he refused saying he did not want to play a bigot. O’Connor had always played bad guys in movies, but Norman Lear was convinced he could play the role so he got the part and the rest, as they say, is history.

Just some fun facts to store away in case you ever make it to “Jeopardy!” We hope you all have a great week ahead.