David K. Israel
Tuesday Turnip
by David K. Israel - August 11, 2009 - 7:00 AM
bloghead_tuesdayturnip1

The Tuesday Turnip is back! We gave it a BIG break to give the Internet time to catch up with us, which it has, which means all new interesting searches on Tuesdays! In case you’re not familiar with the Turnip, it’s a whimsical Google search, wherein I type a random phrase and we see what kind of interesting pages “turn-up.”

As always with this feature, the _floss is not responsible for accuracy. If you know one of the below statements/links to be untrue, by all means, let the world know in the comments below.

Today I typed “the shortest ever” into Google, unearthing the following:

Turnip #1

Picture 3George Washington’s second inaugural address was the shortest ever given. His speech was only 135 words long. His speech was given in Philadelphia in Congress Hall at 6th and Chestnut Streets on March 4, 1793

Turnip #2

Picture 4The shortest-ever winning performance for Best Supporting Actress belongs to Dame Judi Dench, who won an Oscar in 1998 for less than 8 minutes of screen time playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.

Turnip #3

Picture 5The shortest song ever recorded by the Beatles was “Her Majesty” which was the last track on “Abbey Road”. It goes for 24 seconds.

Turnip #4

Picture 6Researchers have found a way to generate the shortest-ever flash of light – 80 attoseconds (billionths of a billionth of a second) long.

Turnip #5

Picture 7How tall was the shortest ever player in an American basketball NBA side? Muggsy Bogues was only 5’3 when he played. Chosen by the Washington Bullets with the 12th overall pick in the 1987 NBA Draft, the 5-3 Bogues is the smallest player in NBA history…One of the NBA’s all-time leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio….One of the most popular and inspirational players of his era.

Turnip #6

Picture 8The shortest ever [MLB player] is the 3’7″ Eddie Gaedel, who had one at-bat as a pinch hitter for the St. Louis Browns under legendary showman Bill Veeck in 1951. Wearing the number 1/8, he walked on four straight pitches.

Turnip #7

Picture 9Rapper TINCHY STRYDER will become the shortest ever adult male to sit at the summit of the top 40 this weekend.

Turnip #8

Picture 10Steffi Graf won 6-0, 6-0 in 32 minutes against Natasha Zvereva in the 1988 French Open final. This is the shortest ever Grand Slam final.

« Previous Post   -   Next Post »
Click here to get a Risk-Free issue of mental_floss magazine
Comments (4)

  1. I love the turnip!

    posted by Mangesh Hattikudur on 8-11-2009 at 11:13 am

  2. #6 is great. Bill Veeck is a legend. You could have an entire month worth of Turnips with Veeck’s various baseball oddities (showers in the bleachers at Comiskey, the Exploding Monster scoreboard, the White Sox “shorts” uniform that lasted three games.)
    We need another Bill Veeck to get the MLB back to having fun with its fans, rather than gouging them at every turn.
    Go go Sox!

    posted by Mike on 8-11-2009 at 12:42 pm

  3. #5 Bogues was teammmates is Washington with the tallest player in NBA history 7’7″ Georghe Muresan.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 8-11-2009 at 1:16 pm

  4. Re: #2…if I am not mistaken, Beatrice Straight won Best Supporting Actress in 1976 for only 6 minutes of performance in “Network.”

    posted by Marty on 8-11-2009 at 4:10 pm

Comment

commenting policy