“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”
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What better way to start October than by arming yourselves with a few choice facts?
So here is a random selection of twenty totally unrelated pieces of information.
Enjoy.
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Because it’s growing about half an inch a year,
a person climbing Mount Everest today
would have to go 27 inches further to reach the peak
than Sir Edmund Hillary did in 1953.
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It is said that in 10th century Burma,
King Theinhko ate a farmer’s cucumbers without permission.
The farmer killed the king and took the throne.
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Walt Disney’s famous “logo” signature wasn’t really his;
it was designed by a staff artist.
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John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22nd, 1963,
overshadowed the deaths of two prominent authors:
Aldous Huxley and C. S. Lewis.
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Three months after Charlie Chaplin died
his corpse was stolen by two Swiss mechanics
in order to extort money from the family.
The robbers were captured and
Chaplin’s body was found eleven weeks later.
To prevent further attempts,
he was reburied under concrete.
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The Kit Kat bar got its name
from the Kit Kat Club in London’s West End,
a joint famous for bringing dance-band music to the city in the 1920s.
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Philo Farnsworth, an American television pioneer,
was inspired by a farmer’s plowing of a field
– the parallel rows giving him the idea of ‘scanning’ a picture.
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In the 1940s, Eleanor Abbott invented the board game Candy Land
as a diversion for children recovering from polio.
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In early 1900s America, “jay” was a slang term
used to describe a naïve or foolish person.
Thus, when such a pedestrian decided to ignore traffic signals and street signs,
he or she was referred to as a “jaywalker.”
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Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, once sworn political enemies
(though after retirement they became quite friendly),
both died on July 4th, 1826 (America’s 50th anniversary).
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Before aspirin was produced,
ailing patients chewed the bark of the white willow tree
(from which aspirin is derived)
to help alleviate fever and pain.
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Those doves released at weddings and other formal ceremonies
are actually white homing pigeons.
True ring-neck doves are bred to be kept as pets
and rarely survive out of captivity.
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Nutella was invented during WWII
when an Italian pastry maker mixed hazelnuts into chocolate
to extend his chocolate ration.
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King Louis XIV lived and ruled so long (72 yrs) that he is
not only the longest reigning ruler of Europe,
but his successor, Louis XV, was neither his son,
nor his grandson, but his great-grandson.
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Contrary to popular belief, the crash test dummy
(proper name, Anthropomorphic Test Device)
was first developed, not the automobile industry,
but for the Air Force to test ejection seats.
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Chemotherapy drugs are designed to kill any rapidly dividing cells.
Unfortunately, our hair follicles are some of the fastest-growing cells in the body,
which is why most cancer patients lose their hair during treatment.
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Some deaf people sign in their sleep.
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We all know that actor George Clooney
catapulted to fame as Doug Ross in the smash series ER,
which began in 1994.
However, 10 years earlier, Clooney starred as “Ace” Kolmar
in the ill-fated series E/R.
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Ian Murphy is the king of the old-school computer hackers.
In 1981, he and three accomplices broke into the AT&T phone system
and changed its internal clocks so that customers
would get midnight discounts in midday,
while late-night callers got stuck with outrageous bills.
For the incident, Murphy became the first hacker
to be charged with a computer crime.
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When Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show,
Ed was recuperating from an arm injury
and the host was Charles Laughton.
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fasab 
Te one that stuck out for me was the Nutella, for a memorable experience I had with another substitute. The wife and I were visiting Ottawa, and stopped through a local chain grocery store for some supplies. I am a disinterested shopper at best, so I was wandering around in the area where my wife was looking for some coffee. I was glancing past the various jars when I saw the gourmet coffee group, and right in the middle, was a fancy-shmancy coffee substitute for those who couldn’t handle the acidity of real coffee. The stuff was the EXACT recipe the Germans used for “ersatz” (substitute) coffee in WW2 – in the GOURMET section! I was standing in a grocery store, ROARING with laughter, barely able to explain it to my wife (who busted out laughing as well), with everyone else – especially the staff – staring at us as if we’d lost our minds! 😀
Some great items in this one, my friend. Special kudos for the AT&T hacker – I heard about it from my dad, who was working for Illinois Bell (later absorbed into Ameritech) at the time.
Thanks John, good comment. Love the Canadian story. There is a word to describe ersatz coffee, but ‘gourmet’ wouldn’t be it 🙂 .
I didn’t know that about Charlie Chaplin! And now i know how jaywalking got its name! These are all good ones.
Thank you. I always say it’s a sad day you don’t learn something 🙂