Pinoy Trivia

I borrowed a book from an officemate titled “Pinoy Trivia” by Bong Barraneda. In it are facts and trivia about common knowledge not everybody would particularly know about. And no, just because it’s titled “Pinoy Trivia” does not mean it’s everything Filipino related. There are facts and odd news from other parts of the world. Below are but a few trivias that really stuck in my head and I want to share it here for knowledge keeps. ^^

1) Why is the wedding ring traditionally placed on the third finger of the bride’s left hand?

The custom dates to the ancient Egyptians who believed this finger carried a vein leading directly to the heart. Writers later gave it the name vena amoris, or “love’s vein”.

2) “Here Comes the Bride” – played at almost all traditional weddings as te happy couple march to the altar – is actually the “Bridal Chorus” of Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin. And it’s sung in quite a different setting. In this opera, the chorus starts singing as the hero, Lohengrin, accompanied by his new wife, Elsa, enters the bridal chamber, which is dominated by a very large bed. Their attendants then help them disrobe for their wedding night. Because of this sexually oriented scene, some religious sects have objected to using the “Bridal Chorus” as a wedding march.

3) A Japanese puppy named Haichi went to a Tokyo railroad station to see his master off, as usual, one day in 1925. That afternoon, at 5 o’clock, he went to meet the train his master always came home on. But that afternoon his master wasn’t on it. The puppy had no way of knowing his master had died in the city. Never giving up hope, Haichi went to the railroad everyday for the next 10 years – the rest of his life – and waited for the 5 o’clock train. Then, when his master didn’t appear, he went sadly home. When he died, the Japanese government put up a statue of Haichi on the spot where he had waited and sent small replicas to all schools in the country.

4) What language has the biggest vocabulary?

English, with abouot 490,000 words plus another 300,000 technical terms. It is doubtful, however, if any individual uses more than 60,000 English words.

5) There are many ways to play the ten opening moves in chess. How many – millions, billions, trillions, or even more?

Even more – there are at least 170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (17 x 10²⁵

6) A Friendly Reminder. The World Health Organization estimates that smoking the one cigarette stick shortens the smoker’s expected life span by 5 minutes.