Thanks to Valentine’s Day, approximately 110 million roses—the majority of them red—will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period.

Almost 2,500 ASU freshmen are from the top 10 percent of their high school class. That’s more than Harvard, Yale, or Princeton.

The Gila monster, which calls Arizona its home, is the only poisonous lizard in the United States.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is one of the ten busiest airports in the world, with a $90 million daily economic impact. On a typical day, more than 1,200 aircraft arrive and depart, and more than 100,000 passengers arrive and depart. It was purchased by the City of Phoenix in July of 1935 for $100,000: the city paid $35,300 in cash and took out a $64,700 mortgage.

In 1900, the top three boys’ names were John, William, and James, while the top three girls’ names were Mary, Helen, and Anna.

Before the days of mattresses, beds were square frames elevated from the ground, with ropes tied across in a sort of weave. It was similar to a hammock in concept. In order to sleep well, the “mattress” couldn’t sag, so the bed had to be “tight.” Hence, “Sleep tight!”

The meteor crater in Northern Arizona is nearly a mile wide and 570 feet deep. The meteor itself weighed roughly 300,000 tons and was traveling at a speed of 28,600 miles per hour. The explosion created by its impact was equal to 2.5 megatons of TNT, or about 150 times the force of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Dr. Martin Cooper, a former general manager for the systems division at Motorola, is considered the inventor of the first portable handset and the first person to make a call on a portable cell phone in April 1973. The first call he made was to his rival, Joel Engel, Bell Labs head of research.

The warmest temperature ever recorded in March in Arizona was 100 degrees. The coldest was 25 degrees.

By Alana Stroud

Gymnast and gymnasium—Greek athletes were required to train in the nude to allow their bodies to have maximum freedom of movement. Thus the Greek word gymnaszo, “to train naked,” gives us the words gymnast (literally someone in the nude exercising), and gymnasium, a place where naked exercises are done. My, how times have changed!

The Arizona Cardinals football team (and its predecessor teams), founded in 1898, is the oldest continuously run professional football franchise in the nation.

That lovely smell after it rains in Arizona is provided by the creosote bush, which has been used as an herbal supplement for centuries. It was used by Native Americans in the Southwest as a treatment for many maladies, including sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, chicken pox, painful menstruation, and snakebite.

There are 45,000 words in the Constitution of the State of Arizona. Rhode Island’s contains 6,650 words (the briefest), and Louisiana’s contains 201,423 words (the most prolific).

Supposed haunted establishments in Arizona: Chandler High School, the San Carlos Hotel in downtown Phoenix, Casey Moore’s Oyster House in Tempe, the Birdcage Theatre in Tombstone, and the Hassayampa Inn in Prescott.

As of November 9, 2009, the last earthquake in the Arizona region was felt fifteen miles east of Boulder City on October 9, 2009 and was rated a 3.5 on the Richter scale.

A little lamb named Dolly, born July 5, 1996, was the first mammal to be cloned from the adult body cells of another and was named after Dolly Parton. She died February 14, 2003.

In fiscal year 2008, the Arizona Lottery had revenues of $472.9 million from lottery ticket sales. More than $262 million in prizes was paid to players, and $31.3 million was paid to retailers for sales commissions.

By Alana Stroud

1. Strawberry Schoolhouse in Strawberry was built in 1884 and is Arizona’s oldest log cabin one-room schoolhouse.

1. Arizona’s largest pumpkin was 469 pounds and was grown by a man in Ahwatukee.

1. Dogs have been man’s best friend for over 15,000 years. That’s a long time!

1. During the Mexican-American War, the United States purchased the land that would eventually become Arizona from the Republic of Mexico for $15 million dollars (equivalent to $368 million today).

1. Tears produced during emotional crying have a chemical composition that differs from other types of tears: they contain significantly greater quantities of the prolactin and adrenocorticotropic hormones, the neurotransmitter leu-enkephalin, and the elements potassium and manganese.

1. During World War II, German and Italian POW camps existed where the Phoenix Zoo stands today.

1. While driving in India, the right-of-way is given in this order: cows, elephants, heavy trucks, buses, official cars, camels, light trucks, buffalo, jeeps, oxcarts, private cars, motorcycles, scooters, auto-rickshaws, pigs, pedal rickshaws, goats, bicycles (goods carrying), handcarts, bicycles (passenger carrying), dogs, pedestrians. Notice that people are last!

1. WalMart is Arizona’s largest private employer, with with 17,343 employees in 2008.

1. Deer Valley Airport is the nation’s busiest general aviation airport without regularly scheduled commercial flights.

1. The word diamond comes from the Greek word adámas, meaning “proper,” “unalterable,” “unbreakable,” or “untamed.”

By Alana Stroud

The term fly off the handle originally stemmed from American pioneer days when axes were handmade and axe heads were crudely fitted to the helve. The heads often flew off the handle in mid-chop, sometimes injuring the axe man or people nearby.

The origin of Arizona’s name comes from the Indian word Arizonac, meaning “little spring.”

Though the roadrunner is New Mexico’s state bird, they are rampant in Arizona because they are desert dwellers that nest in cacti. It is the largest North American cuckoo and can run up to 20 mph!

No one is permitted to ride a horse up the stairs of the county court house in Prescott, Arizona.

No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven times.

Arizona is roughly the size of Italy.

“We believe really strongly that there’s a whole new way of eating—by aerosol.” Stated by David Edwards, Harvard professor, on creating inhalable chocolate dubbed Le Whiff.

Arizona Highways has an approximated 85 percent circulation rate outside the state of Arizona.

Arizona produces more than 1 million metric tons of lettuce each year.

By Alana Stroud

Located in Fountain Hills is one of the world’s tallest fountains, appropriately named The Fountain. It held the record of world’s tallest fountain for over a decade after its creation.

In Arizona, it is against the law for donkeys to sleep in bathtubs.

At the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, one single stamping machine can produce 10,000 coins every minute of every hour of every day of the week.

The largest freshwater striped bass caught in Arizona was at Bullhead City and weighed 59 lbs. 12 oz.

“It’s my lawnmower and my yard, so I can shoot it if I want.” Statement from a Milwaukee man who shot his lawnmower with a sawed-off shotgun after it wouldn’t start in July of 2008.

A man named Robert P. McCulloch Sr. purchased the original London Bridge on April 17, 1968, at a cost of $2,460,000. The 10,246 blocks were shipped stone by stone to Arizona and reassembled over a lagoon at the edge of Lake Havasu at a cost of $3 million. The bridge opened in 1971.

There is a possible sentence of 25 years in prison for cutting down a cactus in Arizona.

The amount of copper on the roof of the Arizona Capitol building is equivalent to 4,800,000 pennies.

Arizona has more parks and national monuments than any other state, more mountains than Switzerland, and more golf courses than Scotland.

By Alana Stroud
Laughing lowers stress hormone levels and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

The first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built in 1903. It used a tomato can as a carburetor.

It cost $7 million to build the Titanic and $200 million to make the 1997 film about it. Kate Winslet’s salary was $2 million, while Leonardo DiCaprio’s was $2.5 million. The Titanic’s Captain Edward John Smith’s “handsome” salary was merely $6,250 a year.

“I just hate the image that we give to our kids that if you’re beautiful, you’re beautiful and you don’t have to be smart.”–West Virginia state lawmaker Jeff Eldridge, who has proposed a bill that would ban sales of Barbie in the state, just days before the doll’s 50^th birthday.

In most watch advertisements, the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because the arms frame the brand of the watch and make it look as if it is smiling.

As of May 2008, 13 percent of the 100 top-grossing films of all time were made by either Steven Spielberg or George Lucas.—The Week Magazine, 5/2/08

76 percent of American commuters drive to work alone.—The Week Magazine, 6/6/08

The term “lost cause” came from the cause of the South in the Civil War and was first recorded as the title of a book in 1866, a year after the South lost the war.

By Alana Stroud

27,000
The number of people who are victims of Identity Theft every day. Arizona has the most identity theft cases of any state.

The TOP 5 Richest People in 2008
1. Warren Buffet (stocks and investments)
2. Carlos Slim Helu (Mexican telecom mogul)
3. William Gates III (Windows and more)
4. Lakshmi Mittal (world’s largest steelmaker–India)
5. Mukesh Ambani (petrochemicals giant, Reliance Industries–India)

13
The fear of number 13 is called triskaidekaphobia, with triskaideka meaning thirteen in Greek. The word was coined in 1911.

2008 was Arizona’s 14th wettest year, with the most rainfall since 1998.

“It’s not based on any particular data point–we just wanted to choose a really large number.” - a Treasury Department spokeswoman explaining how the $700 billion number was chosen for the initial bailout, quoted on Forbes.com, Sept. 23.

Facebook
While not everyone in America is on Facebook (just over 8% of the adult population is, including almost 47% of Washington, D.C.), Facebook users are representative of a very important young, educated, and connected demographic.

bored.com/bighoaxes
This Web site features every hoax that you’ve ever fallen for. Read through them to see which are fact and which are merely myth.

Top-grossing movies of 2008
1. United States – The Dark Knight
    $530,723,626
2. Japan – Ponyo on a Cliff
   $164,241,290
3. United Kingdom – Mamma Mia!
   $100,526,508

Monopoly was invented during the 1934 Depression and at first was rejected by Parker Brothers because of some errors in design. Street names in Monopoly were originally taken from Atlantic City, New Jersey. It is estimated that Monopoly has been sold 250 million times throughout the world.

The Great Wall of China
It is a common mistake to say that The Great Wall of China is visible from outer space. It is too thin to be noticed from such a great distance. Only two man-made structures are visible from space: The Pyramids of Giza and the Hoover Dam.