Beech Tree News Network

I’ve come across quite a bit of trivia lately. Trivia has been defined as pieces of information of little importance or value. I guess the value would depend on how badly a person needed to know. Recent information that interested me is listed below in no particular order.

•Daylight Savings time starts next Sunday, March 12, and a full moon is predicted for Sunday night as well.

•When asked about responses to the morning alarm, about 57% of Americans admit to hitting snooze at least once. 

•Research has shown that children who garden and play in dirt develop healthier immune systems.

•The most popular garden plant is the tomato, with about 86% of American households planting them.

•To live longer, read 3.5 hours per week.

•The average time spent at a doctor’s visit is 84 minutes, but just 20 of those minutes is with the doctor or health care provider.

•Sixty-five percent of drivers admit to having been distracted in the car by their dogs.

•Fifty-six percent of holiday shoppers splurged on something for themselves. 

•Grocery stores sell 186 million pies each year, and 7% of the buyers let others believe the pies were homemade.

•American wooden toothpicks are cut from birch wood or made from plastic. Plastic toothpicks are often called dental pics.

•Research suggests that 1 out of 3 adults has prediabetes. And more than one in every 10 adults over 20 years of age has diabetes. For seniors, the number rises to more than one in four.

•Based on a Pew Research Center analysis, during 2014 approximately 29% of adults lived in lower-income households, 51% lived in middle-income households, and 20% lived in upper-income households.

•In 2014, American pets included an estimated: 95.6 million cats, 83.3 million dogs, 20.6 million birds, 8.3 million horses, 145 million freshwater fish, 13.6 million saltwater fish, 11.6 million reptiles, and 18.1 million small animals. Americans spend about $60 billion per year on pets.

•The number of recreational visitors to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in 2016 was about 11.31 million.

•On February 28, President Trump gave an address to a joint session of Congress, not a State of the Union address. Traditionally, a president of the United States would be in office for a year before giving a “State of the Union address.”

•In 2012, more movies were viewed online than in all other physical formats combined.

•A new car can still be found for less than $15,000, but a new truck would be much closer to the $20,000 mark.

•Kentucky produces about 95% of the world’s bourbon. More barrels of bourbon reside in the state of Kentucky than there are people: 4.7 million barrels of bourbon are aging within the state, compared to 4.3 million people aging within the state. 

•Montana has three times as many cows as it does people.

•The seven rays on the crown of the Statue of Liberty represent the seven continents, and the broken shackles at her feet signify freedom from oppression and tyranny.

•The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

•J.C. Penney plans to close 130 to 140 stores. A list of the locations closing will be released mid-month.

•According to U.S. climate data, the average snowfall for neighboring Bowling Green is 8 inches: 3 inches in January, 3 inches in February, 1 inch in March and 1 inch in December.

•In 2016, HGTV (launched on December 1, 1994) became the third most-watched cable channel in the United States, behind Fox News Channel and ESPN.

My late husband used to say that he had a lot of useless information stored in his head. And newscaster David Brinkley said, “When there is no news, we will give it to you with the same emphasis as if there were” (http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/trivia). Trivia has its place and will entertain even when it’s not truly critical information.