A Few Miserable Facts

After we finished writing 11,002 Things to Be Miserable About, my brother Nick and I decided to start a humor blog called, Things to Be Miserable About. (Ok, so we’re very creative when it comes to misery, but not quite as creative when it comes to titles.)

The book is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a list of 11,002 things to be miserable about.  It starts with "Death," "Life," "Hitler," and "Erectile dysfunction" and goes from there.  But for the blog, we figured we’d take a more topical approach. Things to Be Miserable About is a collection of the most depressing news, facts, figures, photos, and video from around the globe. (As you can imagine, at the moment it’s practically writing itself.)

One of our features is called the Miserable Fact of the Day.  I was going through our archives recently and decided to share a few of my favorites (actually, I should say "least favorites" … because they’re really all quite horrifying):

• On average, one in five people has genital herpes.  (And it’s one in four New Yorkers).  So if you’ve had sex with more than five people (or more than four New Yorkers) you’ve likely been exposed.

• The average person’s body contains detectable quantities of 148 different synthetic chemicals.

• One third of high school graduates will never read another book for the rest of their lives.

• Statistically, you are three times more likely to be murdered by someone you know than by a stranger.

• There are more bacteria in the ice machines at fast food restaurants than in toilet bowl water.

• The average bed houses over 6 billion dust mites.

• Upon reaching the age of 35, people begin losing approximately 7000 brain cells – which will never be replaced – each day.

• Surgical tools are left inside approximately 1500 patients in the U.S. every year.

• Fifteen percent of Americans hold strong anti-Semitic beliefs.

• The average length of sexual intercourse in humans is two minutes.

Want more?  You can sign up to receive the Miserable Fact of the Day via email.  And who knows?  This time next year, there may be a page-a-day calendar.

Lia Romeo, co-author of 11,002 Things to Be Miserable About, is guest blogging on Jewcy, and she’ll be here all week. Stay tuned.

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Preview 11,002 Things to Be Miserable About, visit the book’s website, or check out book trailers and videos on YouTube.