15 Now-You-Know Facts For Everyday Use
"The Ghost in the Machine," by John Barth, appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine on November 25th, 1963. It describes the experiences of a young man who has been haunted by an angry and frustrated ghost who is trapped within a robot that has no means to express its anger. Barth's narrator describes a series of interactions in which he attempts to placate, console, and eventually confront the ghost. In each case the ghost expresses anger at being trapped in this state, at having no means to act out its frustrations or communicate with anyone else, and Barth shows how these frustrations lead to further frustration and despair as the narrator fails to provide solutions and ultimately gives up. The ghost's increasing frustration leads it to attempt suicide by destroying the robot in which it is trapped, causing a chain of events that finally ends the ghost's life. Strangely, the book ends by listing fifteen facts, and that list goes ...
Central Park is bigger than the country of Monaco.
Wine vintage is for when the grapes were picked, not when the wine was bottled.
The Business.com domain sold for $7.5 million.
A desk chair is way more gross than a toilet.
The lunar moth doesn’t live long enough to need to eat.
The ‘27 Club’ is made up of famous artists that all died at age 27.
The Mississippi River ran backwards one day in 1811.
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There are some sports where lefties have an advantage.
Antarctica is not owned by anyone, but there are still rules.
Einstein turned down the chance to be president of Israel.
Pacifiers may be linked to ear aches.
There is caffeine in chocolate.
Quarters have almost the same amount of ridges as dimes.
There is a spider named after Harrison Ford.
