1,001 Facts That Will Scare the S#*t Out of You: The Ultimate Bathroom Reader (83 page)

Valerie Strauss, “‘Limeade’ Packs a Punch,” Washington Post, September 29, 2004,
www.washingtonpost.com
.

625

FACT :
A 1999 Gallup poll revealed that one in five Americans believes that
the sun orbits Earth
.
Wait—it doesn’t?

Steve Crabtree, “New Poll Gauges Americans’ General Knowledge Levels,” Gallup,
www.gallup.com
.

626

FACT :
Less than 50 percent of American adults comprehend that
the Earth revolves around the sun on a yearly basis
.
These are the same folks who think that Elvis is alive and Bigfoot is real, so you can’t really be surprised.

Steve Crabtree, “New Poll Gauges Americans’ General Knowledge Levels,” Gallup,
www.gallup.com
.

Peter Strupp and Alan Dingman, Fat, Dumb, and Ugly: The Decline of the Average American (Simon & Schuster, 2004).

627

FACT : More Americans choke on toothpicks
than any other object. Toothpicks injure almost 9,000 people every year.
You have to chew them first, people.

Noel Botham, The Book of Useless Information (Perigee, 2006).

628

FACT :
Soft drinks represent the
largest single source of added sugars
in the American diet. The average American will drink fifty-four gallons of soft drinks in a year.
Know what I love? Restaurants that charge for a soft drink refill. I just paid $2.39 for three cents’ worth of cola syrup and some soda water, and they want another fifty cents for a refill.

William D. McArdle, Frank I. Katch and Victor L. Katch, Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance, 6th ed. (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006).

629

FACT :
The obesity rate in the United States doubled from 1988 to 2002.

Approximately
65 percent of adult Americans
are either obese or overweight.
But they all intend to lose it. No, really. They’re getting a treadmill.

“Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Adults: United States, 1999–2002,” National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
www.cdc.gov
.

630

FACT : .
The newborn mortality rate in America is
more than twice that of Finland, Iceland, or Norway
. The only developed country in the world where the newborn death rate surpasses the United States is Latvia.
You can’t really blame anyone for not wanting to be Latvian.

Jeff Green, “U.S. Has Second Worst Newborn Death Rate in Modern World, Report Says,” CNN, May 10, 2006,
www.cnn.com
.

631

FACT :
Can you find Iraq on a map? About
14 percent of Americans
between eighteen and twenty-four cannot, and 18 percent can’t find Afghanistan.
Which is why the Army recruits from that age group.

Peter Strupp and Alan Dingman, Fat, Dumb, and Ugly: The Decline of the Average American (Simon & Schuster, 2004).

632

FACT :
Ten percent of Americans between eighteen and twenty-four can’t
find the United States on a blank world map
.
Shhh, I’m watching
The Hills
!

Peter Strupp and Alan Dingman Fat, Dumb, and Ugly: The Decline of the Average American (Simon & Schuster, 2004).