Random Fact Sheet #329 – World of Random: 30 Mind-Blowing Facts That Will Expand Your Horizons

26Marfan Syndrome

Marfan Syndrome

The average NBA player has a wingspan-to-height ratio greater than the diagnostic criteria for Marfan syndrome; a disorder that results in abnormally long limbs.



27. Catacomb saints are skeletons exhumed from Roman catacombs and decorated with gold and jewels to serve as "replacement relics" for those destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. It is unlikely that any of those skeletons are actually of the people they are reputed by tradition to be.



28. Emerson Romero was a silent film actor who was deaf. When movies with sound were invented, deaf actors got fewer roles and the intertitle text was removed. This led him to make an early form of movie captioning in 1947 so that movies would still be accessible to deaf people.



29. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin decided on his frosty prefix because his then English wife once told him to drink his tea before it got “stone cold.”



30. During the early day's American colonies, if you fell asleep during a Puritan church service you would be poked by a Tithingman. It was a long wooden pole that on one end had a hard knob or point and the other a bit of fur. When men were caught nodding off, they were given a tap on the head, and women who dozed got a tickle with the fur.