Nine Bits of Trivia

I'm pretty tired (after all my New Year's celebrating?), but I've come up with nine bits of trivia that probably won't help you at all in 2011 - unless you're appearing on Jeopardy.

Nine Food Groups:  The nine food groups reflecting foods with generally similar nutritional characteristics are: (1) cereals, (2) starchy roots, (3) legumes, (4) vegetables and fruits, (5) sugars, preserves, and syrups, (6) meat, fish, and eggs, (7) milk and milk products, (8) fats and oils, (9) beverages.  (http://www.britannica.com/)

Nine Lives:  Some people believe in the superstition that cats have nine lives because cats can survive falls from high places with few, if any, injuries. This gives rise to the myth that cats return to life after suffering serioius accidents.  (http://www.coolquiz.com/)

Nine Magnitude Earthquakes:  Earthquakes with a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale occur rarely and cause major damage affecting a large region over 1000 km (Chile 1960, Alaska 1964, and west coast of British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, 1700).  (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/)

Nine Million Americans:  The FTC estimates that as many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year.  Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personally identifying information, like your name, Social Security number, or credit card number, to commit fraud or other crimes.  (http://www.ftc.gov/)

Nine Muses:  The Muses were nine goddesses presiding over the arts and the sciences. (www.greek-gods.info)  In Greek mythology, the nine muses, all sisters, were believed to inspire poets, historians, flutists, dancers, singers, astronomers, philosophers, and other thinkers and artists.  (www.cummingsstudyguides.net)

Nine Presidents:  Nine Presidents never attended college: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland, and Harry Truman.  (http://www.infoplease.com/)

Nine Senses:  There are between nine and twenty-one human senses, depending on who you ask, and how they define a sense. It is generally agreed that nine is the minimum. These are touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing, thermoception, nociception, equilibrioception, and proprioception.  (http://www.wisegeek.com/)

Nine Years of Marriage:  If you know someone celebrating their ninth wedding anniversary, keep in mind the traditional gift is pottery, the modern gift is willow, and the alternate gift is leather.  The flower is poppy, and the stone is lapis lazuli (alternate stone is amethyst).  (http://www.happy-anniversary.com/)

Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer:  When it comes to determining this song's true history, the best guess is that it's an American version of "Ten Green Bottles," a 19th-century English children's song - which itself has several variations.  (http://ask.yahoo.com/)

Stay tuned.