January 4 is National Trivia Day

Today is National Trivia Day. Why? Here’s your first bit of trivia:

National Trivia Day was invented by Robert L. Birch, leader of Puns Corps, who also brought us A’phabet Day. It celebrates those of us who possess knowledge of facts that might not matter much at all. Here’s your chance to receive a doctorate in “uselessology.” Memorize the following and use as desired.

1. The Pony Express only ran for 19 months.
2. Some cats are allergic to humans.
3. Forty is the only number whose letters are in alphabetical order.
4. In 2009, a woman sued the maker of Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries because the cereal contained “no berries of any kind.” (The case was dismissed.)
5. The mask used by Michael Myers in the movie Halloween was a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
6. Fredric Baur invented the Pringles can. When he passed away in 2008, his ashes were buried in one.
7. An airplane’s flight data recorder is painted orange, so why is it called a “black box”? No one knows but theories abound.
8. People love lists.

Need more? The word trivia is derived from the Latin trivium (place where three roads meet) which refers to the “lower” liberal arts: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. They form the foundation of the quadrivium, which consists of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

Happy National Trivia Day!