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Travel Trivia
Kirby's Korner · December 22, 2000

I was, uh, sitting around, trying to decide on an unusual column topic for this, the first of the new millennium.

I nearly crapped out of ideas until I looked around and noticed a Christmas gift, Uncle John's All-Purpose Extra-Strength Bathroom Reader ("Our Lucky 13th Edition!"). This is one of those trivia books designed for moments when you have nothing better to do than read but don't have the fortitude for anything serious.

A quick perusal revealed many travel- and tourism-related items. A sampling follows. The headlines are mine, the "facts" backing them up are from the John -- so don't blame me if they turn out to be wrong.

Geezers are on the other side of the country
Yellowstone National Park contains more than half the geysers in the world.

You thought your commute was bad
The longest Main Street in the United States is 33 miles long, in Island Park, Idaho.

You were expecting Las Vegas?
Vatican City has the lowest divorce rate in the world, at 0 per 10,000 residents.

They didn't ask about cell phones in New York
Mongolia is the only country where horses outnumber people.

That tickles!
Queen Mary Having
Bottom Scraped
-- Real headline from unnamed publication

And the last to ban beer
Air Canada was the first airline in North America to ban smoking.

I would have guessed ABBA
A British airport plays Tina Turner albums to frighten birds off its runways.

I thought they said snow falling on mountains
Winnipeg, Canada, was named by one study as the dandruff capital of the world.

Forty-six are impressed
Forty-six million foreign tourists visit the United States in an average year.

We're still looking for the River I
The world's shortest river, at 120 feet, is Oregon's River D.

Almost as many as in Washington, D.C.
Papua New Guinea boasts more than 700 spoken languages.

Let's not forget mopeds
Donkeys kill more people every year than do plane crashes.

And right next to Really Old Delhi
Old Delhi, India, sits next to New Delhi.

Who was that stiff I saw you with last night?
It is worth 500 frequent flier miles to funeral directors each time they ship a corpse out of Daytona Beach International Airport.

The good ones wear roller blades
The 5,000-seat Royal Dragon Restaurant in Bangkok is the world's largest eatery, forcing waiters to wear roller skates.

I say we blame Orlando
Florida, the Sunshine State, has more thunderstorms and lightening than any other in the United States.

Must be all those thunderstorms
Any place in Florida is within 60 miles of a beach.

I still say we blame Orlando
The United States has 90 percent of all tornadoes in the world.

Replaced by The Airline Executives
In 1900 the name of Los Angeles' professional baseball team was The Tourists.

Why you can't find a cab in New York
Mexico City, with more than 60,000 taxis, has more than any other location on earth.

Today, it's still third class, but even more expensive
A cruise from New York to the United Kingdom, on a third-class ticket, cost $10 in 1904.

Seen any interesting travel trivia? Send it along to david@ticked.com, and I'll spread it to loyal readers.

David Kirby is the Director of Travel Intelligence for iJET Travel Intelligence and was the founding editor of Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at david@ticked.com.