Did a man disappear in 1876 only to reappear in 1950 in New York?

Since the headline question this week has a rather long answer, I’m going to keep the introduction to the column short (You’re welcome).

Lots of trivia ahead, so don’t detour … take the straight road to fun! Read on!

Did you know…

… It’s good to be the queen? Especially in an ant colony. While the average worker ant has a life span of between five weeks and two years, depending on species, queen ants have it made – they can live for up to 28 years (Royally happy about that!).

… Polar bears are very territorial? For instance, there is a recorded incident where a polar bear actually attacked a U.S. Navy submarine. In the bear’s defense, the USS Connecticut had broken through the sea ice near where it was hanging out in 2003, thus giving the bruin a reason to attack (That bear still tells the story of the day he scared off a submarine, too).

… Weather forecasters in Moscow try very hard to be accurate? In Russia, especially the capital, meteorologists can face fines if their forecasts are inaccurate (It could be worse. They could be sent to Siberia, where their forecasts would be accurate if limited to the word “cold,”).

… Mondays are the most unproductive days of the week? According to a study, on average only about three and a half hours’ work is actually done on Mondays (The rest of the day is spent complaining that it’s Monday, I would guess).

… Butter and cheese were the first food products allowed by law to have artificial coloring (Guess that natural purple color wasn’t selling very well)?

… A man from 1876 is believed to have time-traveled to 1950? According to the story, on an evening in June 1950, a man suddenly appeared in the middle of the street in Times Square, New York. The man was wearing very old-fashioned clothing and had a hairstyle that was at least 70 years out of date. He panicked, began to run, and was hit by a taxi and killed. When his body was taken to the morgue, his unusual clothing had unusual contents – a token for a beer, good at a saloon nobody had ever heard of; a bill for the care of a horse and carriage; $70 in banknotes that were decades out of date; a card with the name “Rudolf Fentz” on it; and a letter to the said Mr. Fentz from Philadelphia dated 1876. Police quickly tried to ascertain who this mysterious person was, but nobody at the address on the letter had ever heard of Rudolf Fentz. A telephone book from fifteen years earlier had a Rudolf Fentz, Jr., in it, but Police learned that person had passed away. That person’s widow, however, was found and related the tale that her husband had told, of his father suddenly disappearing without a trace – in 1876. Did a man disappear in 1876 only to reappear 74 years later in Times Square? Well … no. It turns out the whole urban legend had originally been a science fiction short story written in 1951 by Jack Finney (1911-1995) called “I’m Scared.” The story was identical to the tale told, down to the name of the man and even the Police captain who pursued the truth. The tale of Rudolf Fentz became urban legend after Finney’s story was reprinted in the Journal of Borderland Research without his consent and with all notation that it was fiction removed. Read and believed by many fans of the paranormal, it became popular in the 1970s, but it did not actually happen (Would’ve made a great Twilight Zone episode, though, wouldn’t it?).

… Humans have some odd notions about safety? For example, take the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in the Roman Empire in 79 AD. During the eruption, more than 2,000 citizens of nearby Pompeii ran into the cellars of their homes to wait – they thought in safety – for everything to blow over. They were still there when excavators found them more than 1,800 years later (Safe, perhaps, but still there).

… The average American will eat about 35,000 cookies during a lifetime (A lifetime? I did that in one year)?

… There are more ways to shuffle a standard deck of playing cards than there are atoms on Earth? A computer once determined that there are 80 septensexagintillion (that’s an 80 followed by 67 zeroes) ways to shuffle a standard deck of 52 playing cards. Scientists estimate that there are “only” about 1.33 septendecillion (a 133 followed by 54 zeroes) atoms in the entire Earth. In other words, every time you pick up a deck of cards, that deck is arranged in a way that no other deck ever has been before, or ever will be again, except by pure random chance – unless it’s a brand new deck, with all the cards in order (Random order … it’s in the cards).

… Less than 5% of the world’s oceans have been explored by humans? That means we have absolutely no idea what kind of life could exist in the 95% we haven’t been to yet (Which makes me somewhat uneasy).

… Skipping breakfast causes you to gain weight? Your body is tricked into believing that you will want higher-calorie foods later in the day if you don’t eat breakfast (So that’s what did it!).

… Handshakes originally were methods of proving someone was unarmed? The hand clasp itself proved that you weren’t carrying a weapon, and the shake motion was supposed to dislodge any hidden weapons you might have up your sleeve (Nothing up my sleeve … presto!).

… The Indiana Jones series of movies were created because of rejection? Director Steven Spielberg (born 1946) wanted to make a James Bond movie, but he was turned down. Spielberg shared the story with his friend, George Lucas (born 1944), and Lucas said he had an idea on how to make a Bond movie – but better. Thus was the character of Indiana Jones born (“We named the dog Indiana!”).

Now … you know!

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