Tidbits from professors or others, knowledge you'll never use anywhere:

* English prof expounding on a poem by FROST, apple-picking: "When you think about it, the (arch/instep) is *exactly* where you would feel pain while on a ladder..."

* (Read somewhere.) The Romans, rough'n'tough, were almost endearingly afraid of the high sea.

* History prof: The Civil War veterans had gotten lots of compensatory benefits---land out West and LOTS more, and about 20 years after the war, letters to the editor started popping up all over the country, with people starting to complain, "The veterans have gotten ENOUGH!1"

Actually, this *is* useful.

Or "three roads." Where three roads met, the Romans would throw up signs with current events information.

Thus, trivia.

"...but NOT THIS ONE."

As things turned out EVERYTHING I ever learned about economics was useless.

and he finds out and is getting all in your face about it, that's not - repeat, NOT - the time to tell him that you were diddling his wife the last few weeks and you're really disappointed in him because he never trained her how to ... well, I'm not gonna say any more because the courts are still fighting this one and I'm under some kind of bullshit "non-disclosure" agreement.

Not even when they invite you.

:scared:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLb9Pv7EM2M

I think the most useless thing I know is that American English is technically closer to Shakespearean English than modern British English. We in the colonies preserved a lot of older words, expressions and pronunciations. So some of the lines in Shakespeare rhyme with an American accent but not a modern British one. So sucks to British actors who say Americans can't play Shakespeare and I'll be sure to tell one if I ever meet one. Otherwise... useless.

A possibly-apocryphal stunt pulled by a college student, who was reportedly injured riding the eponymous carriage down a long hill. My drama professor used this as an illustration of quixotic heroics in discussion of the death of Cuchulainn in Yeat's On Baile's Strand.

Then there was a chem professor's tale of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. He claimed that the arrogant Spanish forces, determined not merely to win, but to eradicate the English Navy, had decided to use only the finest rifle powder in their cannons. Finer-grained powder is certainly unsuitable for use in the much longer barrels, and the prof told us of split guns found on the ocean floor.

I've been unable to substantiate this story, and have to suspect that it's bullshit.