50 DAYS OF MIKE

I turn 50 in less than 50 days now - but my good friends Carol and John daclared 50 days of Mike turning 50, the day before the 50 days begun. Since then - I've received lots of daily tributes: Krispy Kreme, Bublles in an Ice Cream shaped dispenser, Kool Pops, poetry and factoids. He is one of them, heavily researched or otherwise concocted by my other good friedn, Charles Arms:

Fifty 50 facts

1. The Roman numeral for for 50 is 'L'.

2. The U.S. fifty dollar bill features a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant. The 'S.' in his name was not given at birth. He adopted it only after being erroneously nominated for congress with the false middle initial.

3. Rapper 50 Cent's first album was called "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" and featured the lead single "In Da Club."

4. The United States of America is comprised of 50 states. The first being Delaware and most recent being Hawaii.

5. The above mentioned Hawaii celebrates its 50th year of statehood this year, making Hawaii "5 - 0".

6. According to Paul Simon, there must be 50 ways to leave your lover. They include, but are not limited to, "slip out the back," "make a new plan," "hop on the bus," and "drop off the key."

7. Celebrities turning 50 years old this year include Val Kilmer, Judd Nelson, Kevin Spacey, Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Jason Alexander.

8. The 50th wedding anniversary is called the "golden wedding anniversary".

9. The 1911 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost offered an amazing 50 horsepower engine. By contrast, the 2009 Corvette ZR1 produces about 620 horsepower.

10. The 50th most popular baby names in 2008 were, male, "Aaron" and female, "Alexa".

11. The 2004 romantic comedy "50 First Dates" starred Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore.

12. The Browning .50 caliber machine gun has been used extensively the United States military from the 1920s to the present day. With firearms, caliber refers the diameter of the tube. In English measurements, it represents the decimal equivalent of an inch. So, a .50 caliber machine gun fires a half-inch diameter bullet.

13. In the 1958 cult classic film "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman ", the 50-ft woman was played by Allison Hayes.

14. The square root of 50 is 7.0710678118654755

15. For more than 500 years, each year certain Muslim and Hindu parents drop their infant children from the top of a 50-ft temple. The children are caught in cloth sheets. This is done to bring good luck to the children.

16. A 50-mile race on foot is called an Ultra marathon.

17. The world record for the 50 meter freestyle swim is 20.94 seconds. It is held by Frederick Bousquet of France.

18. Number 50 on the list of the Top 100 Billboard songs of 1959 was "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles.

19. The prime factorization of 50 is 2 x 5 x 5.

20. The U.S. 50 cent coin ceased being minted for general circulation 2001. It features the profile of President John F. Kennedy. The last 90% silver 50-cent piece was produced in 1964 and also featured Kennedy. Prior to Kennedy, the half dollar featured Benjamin Franklin.

21. In photography, a 50 mm lens is often referred to as "normal" lens, as it tends to display a view in the view finder very similar to what you see with the naked eye.

22. The phrase "fifty-fifty" means that given two possible outcomes, one is no more statistically likely than the other -- a coin toss.

23. College band turned mega-stars R.E.M. is estimated to have sold 50 million records.

24. Bernard Madoff is thought to have robbed investors of as much as $50 billion using something known as a ponzi scheme.

25. A 50-year-old Glenfeddich Scotch whiskey was recently released for sale at $16,000 per bottle.

26. 50 cents is sometimes referred to "four bits". Why? The U.S. colonial dollar was modeled after the Spanish milled dollar, which featured intentional scores in the coin so that it could easily be cut or broken into 8 equal "bits." So fifty cents, a half dollar, would be four bits. This is same reason you hear the reference to currency in the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean" to "pieces of eight."

27. Fifty years ago, in 1959, the Academy Award for Best Picture was awarded for the film "Ben Hur."

28. While we Americans traditionally think of the midline of a football field as the 50 yard line, a Canadian rules football field actually has two 50 yard lines as the field (excluding the end zones) is 110 yards.

29. While tradition has it that it would take 50 pairs to shoe a centipede, this is not necessarily true. Some varieties of centipedes may have as few as 30 legs while others may have more than 100.

30. The 50th modern World Series was won by the New York Yankees in 1953. The Yankees have won 26 World Series, more than twice the number of the 2nd place St. Louis Cardinals at 10. The 1959 World Series was won by the Chicago White Sox.

31. Boasting the atomic number of 50 on the periodic chart of elements is Tin. The chart symbol is Sn. In modern times tin is used in many alloys, including Pewter, which is 85-90% tin. Another large application for tin is corrosion-resistant tin plating of steel. Due to its low toxicity, tin-plated metal is also used for food packaging, giving the name to tin cans, which are made mostly out of aluminum or tin-plated steel.

32. Biblical Scripture states that the Commandments were given to Moses and the Jews 50 days after the exodus of Egypt. Further, Pentecost, or the assent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and other followers of Jesus, occurred 50 days after the resurrection of Christ.

33. The 50th top grossing film of all time is Disney Pixar's Cars with the total gross of $244,082,982.

34. According to a 1999 survey, 50 percent of Americans with annual incomes of $15,000 - 25,000 expect to fund retirement by winning the lottery.

35. The 50th most populous city in the United States is Arlington, Texas.

36. The Daytona International Speedway is 2.5 miles around, yet race cars can travel the complete lap in 50 seconds or less, averaging speeds greater than 180 MPH. This is roughly equivalent to the world record time for
a man to sprint around a 400 meter track.

37. An investment of $50 in Microsoft at the initial public offering on March 13, 1986 would have a current value of $16,361.

38. Country legend George Strait holds the record on the country music charts with an amazing 50 number one hit singles.

39. The most recent survey of college students ranks Notre Dame University as the 50th best college in the United States.

40. Rounding out the list of the top 50 most popular dog breeds in the United States is the Pekingese. The Labrador Retriever is number 1.

41. 50 is the new 40, making 40 the new 32, I suppose, and changing the legal drinking age to 26 years 3 months.

42. Of the four points on the Earth with the Latitude/Longitude of 50/50 only one falls on land. 50 degrees North by 50 degrees East. Should you find yourself there, you would be in far western Kazakhstan about 80 miles
south of the Russian border.

43. Giant squid are the world's largest invertebrates and can reach lengths of 50 feet.

44. In the history of the game, only 25 major league baseball players have hit 50 or more homeruns in a season. Oddly enough, Hank Aaron, who until recently held the career record of 755, is not on that list.

45. The record for most touchdown passes thrown in a single season is 50. Tom Brady, New England Patriots, 2007.

46. A typical roll of Aluminum foil contains 50 square feet of the product, enough for 50 baked potatoes, 600 fuse box repairs or 25 anti-alien hats.

47.There are about 50 thousand miles of highway in the U.S. interstate system. Driving them all in a Cadillac Escalade would cost about $10,000 in gasoline.

48. Endurance athletes often have resting heart rates as low as 50 beats per minute. None of us knows how many he'll get, but that same athlete is using about 10 million fewer each year than the average American
couch potato.

49. If every man, woman and child in the United States made a $50 payment to the national debt, it would reduce it by only a little more than 10 percent.

50. On September 26th of this year, Mike Meiners will be 50 years old.

I'll post the others too.