“Bicycle face”, blushing turkeys, Albert Einstein’s eyeballs and an official yeti hunter

The brainy BBC quiz QI, hosted (at least for the moment) by the eternally droll Stephen Fry, is a staple of our viewing here at Dolores Delargo Towers. Now, just in time for Xmas, the "QI Elves" (the nickname for the programme's tireless researchers) have compiled a new book - 1,234 QI Facts to Leave You Speechless.

From (of all unlikely places to find facts) the Daily Mirror, here are 60 of the most bizarre...

• The Big Bang was quieter than a Motörhead concert.
• The scientist who analysed the plutonium for the first atomic bomb was called Mr Doom.
• The president of the World Chess Federation believes that, unless we play more chess, the world will be destroyed by aliens.
• The world champion of French Scrabble doesn’t speak French.
• The ancient Greek cure for cataracts was to pour hot broken glass into the eyes.
• There are at least 17 types of ice, but only one exists outside the laboratory.
• Magic mushrooms grow in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.
• Table tennis was banned in the USSR from 1930 to 1950 on the grounds that it was harmful to people’s eyes.
• Wearing white at Wimbledon began as a way of hiding the fact that women sweat.
• In 19th century London, fake ice cream was made from mashed turnip.
• Kim Jong-un is the only person in North Korea called Kim Jong-un.
• The four most common first names among New York cabbies are Mohammad, Mohammed, Muhammad and Mohamed.
• Not a single car was sold by Buzz Aldrin in the six months he worked as a car salesman on his return from the Moon.
• More people monitor the internet for the Chinese government than serve in its armed forces.
• Four million songs on Spotify have never been played.
• Kaiser Wilhelm II loved riding so much he sat at his desk astride a saddle. He said it helped him think more clearly.
• Albert Einstein’s eyeballs are in a safety deposit box in New York.
• Dolphin’s milk is as thick as toothpaste.
• In the late 19th century, women cyclists were warned they might get “bicycle face”, giving them a jutting chin and bulging eyes.
• In 1900, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle caught fire during a cricket match at Lord’s. The ball hit a box of matches in his pocket.
• In 2011, two Iranian football players were suspended for celebratory bottom-patting.
• Mini golf was invented for women not allowed to play real golf.
• The Pope cannot be an organ donor because his body “belongs to the whole Church”.
• Baths kill more people than terrorists.
• In 2014, more bets were placed on who killed Lucy Beale in EastEnders than on the Champions League football final.
• 15,000 years ago, cannibalism was practised in Somerset.
• Immediately after the Wright brothers’ first flight, a gust of wind flipped their plane over and broke it.
• When male turkeys see female turkeys, they blush.
• A live chicken strapped to the body was thought to cure plague In the Middle Ages.
• Mary Shelley kept Percy Shelley’s heart wrapped in a poem for 30 years after he died.
• Abraham Lincoln was a licensed bartender.
• Rod Stewart lost his job as a wallpaper designer because he was colour-blind.
• Vladimir Putin’s grandfather was a chef for Stalin, Lenin and Rasputin.
• The Ancient Greek translation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the longest text in that language since 3AD.
• Agatha Christie talked to imaginary friends well into her 70s.
• Afghanistan is the world’s most accurately mapped country.
• The first cow to fly in a plane was Elm Farm Ollie in 1930. Cartons of her milk were parachuted down to spectators.
• Jingle Bells was the first song played in space.
• Americans eat 350 slices of pizza every second.
• After six months monitoring two suspected Chinese spy drones invading their airspace in 2013, the Indian army discovered they were Jupiter and Venus.
• The Tlatelcomila cannibals of ancient Mexico ate human flesh with chilli sauce.
• Ninjas sent secret messages using coloured grains of rice.
• Every hour, one US war veteran commits suicide.
• Bhutan has an official yeti hunter. (Found any? Not yeti).
• US chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer was at school with Barbra Streisand. She had a crush on him.
• Teddy bears are named after US President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.
• Roosevelt’s sons Theodore and Kermit were the first Westerners to shoot a giant panda.
• The Hodges Meteorite is the only meteorite known to have hit a person: it slightly injured Mrs Ann Hodges in Alabama in 1954.
• Walt Disney put his testicles in ice to boost his sperm count.
• Under medieval Welsh law women could divorce their husbands if they had bad breath.
• Aztec mothers who died in childbirth were regarded as highly as warriors who died in battle.
• One of the world’s biggest lift firms is called Schindler’s Lifts.
• Misbehaving policemen in Thailand have to wear Hello Kitty armbands as a punishment.
• In 1952, the Great Smog of London was so bad that blind people led sighted people home from the train stations.
• Due to heavy snow in 1891, the 3pm train from Paddington to Plymouth left on 9th March and arrived on 13th March.
• Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest.
• Eating chocolate improves your memory, but only if you eat so much it’s bad for you.
• There is a village in Russia where every single person knows how to tightrope walk.
• You can smell a flock of Macaroni penguins from six miles away.
• Actor Basil Rathbone led covert First World War missions disguised as a tree.

QI (Quite Interesting) website