Random Fun Fact of the Day

In an attempt to inspire my co-workers, I randomly post fun-facts and words of the day on our little dry-erase board next to our lockers (which are almost never locked). In fact, the only ones that are locked are the ones that aren't in use. Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Anywho, this week's random fun fact was that there are currently more plastic pink flamingos in the United States than real flamingos. In fact, over twenty million have been produced since they were first introduced to the American populace in 1957. (You, too, can read this great fun fact and other random useless information from Harry Bright and Harlan Briscoe's book So, Now You Know... A Compendium of Completely Useless Information)

Think about that for a moment. Some poor family has a flock of fake flamingos in their front yard. Not just one family, but several families in fact.

I actually had one co-worker tell me that when she was in college, she and some friends had thought about playing off the wandering gnome theme and "borrowing" flamingos from neighboring yards. The idea was to gather fifty of them and put them in her mother's yard to celebrate the mom's upcoming 50th birthday. They never went through with it though, much to the chagrin of all those pink flamingos, I'm sure.

Speaking of flamingos, did you know that the birds' natural pigment is actually white? They get their glorious pink color from the keratine in all the shrimp they eat (also from the Compendium).

So, I'm sure you're wondering how this is supposed to inspire my co-workers. I'm not sure it is really. But it's nice to have a different little quirky tidbit posted up there now and then. I'm trying to keep to a tropical theme, seeing as how we work at Tommy Bahama.

So there. Enjoy your random fun fact of the day. Or week. Or month. Or year. Who knows how often I'll update this page. :)