i like trivia. top marks goes to any fact which can have no bearing on anything whatsoever. yesterday i discovered a belter.
st john’s wood is the only london underground station which does not contain any letter from the word ‘mackerel’.
ta-da.
in the interests of rectitude i wondered whether this was actually true and had a bit of a google. wikipedia has this wonder:
In recent years, the station has achieved a small amount of notoriety due to it being the only London Underground station that has no letters in common with the word ‘mackerel’, a fact that has frequently appeared in quizzes since the fact was publicised, for example, in “This Book”, a trivia compendium. The word ‘mackerel’ is by no means unique in this feat, however, as several hundred words (’algebra’, ‘blackberry’, ‘paperclip’…) satisfy the same property of having letters in common with all stations except St John’s Wood.
Furthermore, St John’s Wood is not unique in being able to satisfy such a restriction, and there are at least 84 stations for which words exist that have no letters in common with exactly one station (for example ‘wavelength’ and Oxford Circus; ‘photocopying’ and Russell Square).
i have no idea why this appeals to me. all i can say is that it does.
