A gentle reminder, we are not talking about a butter substitute.  We are just having fun, again, with a bunch of random trivia and weird facts. 

They might come in handy when there is a need to fill an awkward pause in conversations, which even has a name!  It’s called the “seven-minute lull”—a lull in conversation every seven minutes.  Some say every 20, for bigger groups.  We don’t want you forced, in desperation, to bring up the weather just to fill dead air time.  We’ve got your back!

Let’s start out with tomatoes.  The tomato was once known as the poison apple.  For real.  You died if you ate one on a pewter plate.  The acidic tomatoes leached the lead from the plate and poisoned the eater.  And, early American farmers thought green tomato worms were as poisonous as a rattlesnake.  Nope.  Finally, in the late 1800s, science proved tomatoes are healthy and nutritious.  Thank heavens!  The world without pizza?!!

In 1870, a Reynoldsburg, Ohio, citizen figured out how grow, harvest, and pack tomatoes to be sold commercially.  Now they are grown in space.  Scientists developed dwarf tomatoes to diversify astronauts’ diets while they orbit the earth in the International Space Station.  Zucchini and sunflowers have also been grown in a spaceship, but one astronaut refused to eat them because he considered them crew members.  

There are four times more chickens on earth than people.  They can recognize our faces.  Want them to lay eggs?  Be nice.  Don’t kill any in front of the others.   They will panic and stress out, ruining the taste of your favorite chicken recipe.  They do establish “pecking orders” and are descendants of the T. rex!!!  What??  A dinosaur??  Hmmm.  We’ll still go to KFC and Raising Cane’s.

Pigs don’t sweat.  What more is there to say?

People with freckles can be carriers of—red-headed offspring.  It’s science.

Mango skin contains the same irritant as poison ivy and poison oak that causes allergic reactions.  It’s called urushiol.  Think about having someone peel your mango for you.  Let them itch and scratch.  If mangoes aren’t your favorites, all the more reason to justify never buying one!

Bagpipes originated in the Middle East; the Scots made them famous.

Bubble wrap, invented in 1957 in New Jersey, was supposed to be part of textured wallpaper.  Huh?  It flopped.  No kidding.  Then IBM cleverly used it to wrap a huge computer for shipping.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

Those dark purple bruises we oldies often get from bumping into stuff have many names.  Our favorite?  Senile purpura.   

There really was a “devil’s advocate,” created by the Catholic Church in 1587.  It was a lawyer who would argue why a venerated person’s miracles didn’t deserve sainthood.  Pope John Paul II checked the power of the role and reduced the waiting period for the sainthood process from 50 to five years after the prospective saint’s death because he wanted to canonize individuals we actually recognized.  The world sure needs more saints.  Good luck with that.

Didn’t remember that British journalist Christopher Hitchens played devil’s advocate when Mother Teresa was being considered for sainthood.  He noted the “obviousness of the fakery” of one of the miracles attributed to her and argued that she was not a friend of the poor but a friend to the worst of the rich.  Whoa!  He lost.

Humans invented alcohol before the wheel.  Makes total sense to us.

And, our closing piece of trivia…people who curse are more resilient emotionally and more honest and direct.  Interestingly, swearing can boost pain tolerance.  Shout obscenities when you stub your toe! 

So, our Wrinkled Wisdom for today?  Maybe cook your tomato sauce in stainless steel pots?  You won’t kill anyone and no leeching metals means the food won’t taste metallic.  Today, we call someone who expresses a controversial opinion just to provoke debate a devil’s advocate.  Don’t want to play that game?  Walk away.  Or swear!  Swearing can be so cathartic.  Damn straight!