What kind of ball was used in the first-ever game of basketball?

As we conclude the first month of 2021, let’s take stock:

At least it isn’t 2020 all over again.

Everything is still in a state of flux, holding over from the debacle of last year, but maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel—light that isn’t the headlight of an oncoming train, I mean.

Silver lining to the clouds, as it were.

In other words, keep your chin up! (Or in my case, chins up.)

Things are slowly but surely getting better. Whether they return to “normal” or not has yet to be decided.

The one thing you can count on, at least here, is trivia, so let’s take a look at this week’s offerings!

Did you know …

… in Oklahoma, it’s illegal to take a bite of another person’s hamburger? (Kind of dangerous, too, especially if the other person is holding it.)

… the Ouija board was invented in 1892? Brothers Isaac (1865-1939) and William Fuld (1870-1927) created it. The name comes from the French and German words for “yes” – oui and ja. (I ought to use one to ask them why they chose that name, since most of the questions the board is asked have “no” answers.)

… the first pizzeria in America opened in 1905? Lombardi’s Pizza in New York City is still going strong today. When the restaurant celebrated its 100th birthday in 2005, Lombardi’s offered entire pizzas for five cents—the going rate when the pizza palace opened.

… jaguars are frightened of dogs? (That’s because dogs chase jaguars—a silly thing, really, because if the dog caught one, he couldn’t drive it.)

… the bubonic plague, known as the “Black Death,” in the Middle Ages, was spread because people didn’t like cats? During those days, cats were considered to be associates of the devil and were systematically executed. This allowed rodents to proliferate, and the rodents had fleas—fleas that carried the germs that caused bubonic plague. The plague killed more than 75,000,000 people in Europe from 1347 to 1351. (So there, dog lovers!)

… the first basketball game was played without a basketball? When Dr. James Naismith (1861-1939) invented the game of basketball in 1891, there was, of course, no such thing as a basketball. So the first game under Dr. Naismith’s rules used a soccer ball, which was tossed into peach baskets hung on either end of the gym. Additional trivia note: The first few basketball games were long, drawn-out, and very low-scoring affairs. Why? Because in all of the details he devised for the game, Dr. Naismith forgot one thing—taking the bottoms out of the peach baskets so the ball could go all the way through. Whenever a basket was scored, the game had to be stopped and a ladder brought onto the court so the ball could be retrieved from the basket. (Details, it’s all in the details.)

… you can be certain the first landing on the Moon in 1969 was real? It would have cost NASA more to fake it than to actually achieve it. (Of course, considering the way the government wastes – er, spends money, you can’t really be too certain, can you?)

… a Nike commercial for its “Just do it” slogan ended up embarrassing the company? In 1989, the shoe company filmed a series of commercials of people using languages other than English to say, “Just do it.” One of those commercials featured a Samburu tribesman from Africa. What nobody realized until much later, however, was that what the tribesman said in his native Maa language was not “Just do it,” but rather, “I don’t want these, give me bigger shoes.” After an American anthropologist called the company out on the matter, a spokesman for Nike sheepishly admitted that they knew what the tribesman had said all along, but didn’t think anyone in America would understand it. To save face, perhaps, the company said they’d planned to use an accurate translation as a subtitle to provide a humorous end for the commercial, but went with the original slogan at the last moment. (Suuuuure. And if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.)

… the worst grade level for bullying is sixth grade? Researchers who look into things like that have determined that bullying generally begins in the middle years of elementary school, reaches a peak by sixth grade, and dissipates by high school. (Funny how none of the people with whom I went to school had ever heard of this.)

… the Middle Ages offered us some very strange cures for illnesses? To give you one example, a German legend from the time tells that people believed kissing a donkey would take away the pain of a toothache. (Hee haw!!!)

… the recycling program of Sweden is so successful it causes problems? The country has, in recent years, asked neighbor Norway for their trash to power their own “waste-to-power” plants. Sweden doesn’t have enough non-recycled waste to power the system. (So, I guess there really is such a thing as being too successful, eh?)

… the first law against marijuana did not make the drug illegal? The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 imposed a very high tax on the drug—so high that its legal sale and use became almost impossible. (And when that didn’t work…)

… it is illegal to shine a flashlight on a sea turtle on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina? (But it’s legal for the turtle to shine one on you.)

… it takes about a week to make a jellybean? (And less than a second to eat it!)

Now … you know!

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