DID YOU KNOW …? Was a popular French fashion designer actually a Nazi spy?

Be sure you’re here next week.

Next week’s column is going to be one of the most special I’ve ever produced, because it celebrates something I never thought would happen.

No, I won’t share any hints beyond those, but whatever you do, don’t miss next week’s installment of “Did You Know …?” because it’s going to be a very special one, one that took over nine years to create.

Be here.  Same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.

Did you know …

… nowhere in the book Through the Looking Glass is the character of Humpty Dumpty ever referred to as an egg? In the classic, written by Lewis Carroll (born Charles Dodgson, 1832-1898), the character of Alice is given an egg by a sheep, and as she approaches the egg it gets larger and develops into a person who looks somewhat like an egg. The important fact here is that Humpty Dumpty himself is not an egg; he just grows out of one and somewhat resembles one. Alice even comments that Humpty looks like an egg, but Humpty emphatically points out that he is not one. (So if you thought he was an egg, the yolk’s on you!)

… every year, more people are killed by teddy bears than by grizzly bears? The most common hazard with teddy bears, of course, is that small pieces such as eyes can pop off and cause choking hazards. Tripping and falling over teddy bears is also a major safety hazard. To give you an idea of the statistics behind this, note that over the past 90 years, a total of 82 Americans have been killed in grizzly bear attacks. Over that same time frame, teddy bears (and other toys) have caused about 22 deaths per year. (I can bear-ly stand it!)

… some good deeds really are punished? Take, for example, the fate of the crew of the American seal-hunting ship Nanina. In 1812, the Nanina, under the command of Captain Charles Barnard (1781-1840), discovered the shipwrecked crew of the British whaler Isabella stranded on Eagle Island, one of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Barnard rescued the crew of the Isabella even though the U.S. and Britain were at that moment at war with each other. While Barnard and his crew were out on a hunt for more provisions to take care of the Isabella’s crew, however, the British seized the Nanina and left Barnard and his crew behind. The Nanina’s real crew was rescued a year later by two British ships, the Asp and the Indispensible. (And you thought Robinson Crusoe had it rough.)

… the first ruler known to history to recognize human rights did so in 539 BC? Persian King Cyrus the Great (600 BC-530 BC) issued that year the first-ever recorded decree on the rights of human beings. Cyrus freed slaves, established racial equality, and decreed that all people had the right to choose their own religions. (Good job, Cyrus!)

… a popular French fashion designer is now believed to have been a spy? Coco Chanel (born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, 1883-1971) was romantically linked with a Nazi officer during World War II. Hans Günther von Dincklage (1896-1974) was a jurist under the Nazis and was also heavily involved in espionage for the Third Reich. Since the death of Chanel, extensive evidence has reportedly surfaced showing that she was an undercover operative for the Nazis during the war, though there was no proof offered of collaboration with the Germans during her interrogation by the Free French Purge Committee in 1944. Chanel and von Dincklage lived together for a period of time after the war in Switzerland. (Gives a new meaning to “undercover,” doesn’t it?)

… a sequel to the classic movie E.T. the Extraterrestrial was written but not filmed? Scripted by Steven Spielberg (born 1946), the sequel brings the character of Elliot back to receive a radio signal which leads him to think his alien buddy has returned. What Elliot doesn’t know is that the signal came from another alien race which landed on Earth after picking up E.T.’s “phone home” distress call. The aliens capture Elliot and torture him but all ends up well when E.T. and his crew return and vanquish the evil aliens. (I don’t think I’d have enjoyed that movie.)

… a Texas town tried to change a standard greeting between people? In 1997, the governing body of Kleberg County, Texas, encouraged its residents to stop saying “hello” to each other. The greeting was to be replaced by saying “heaven-o.” (I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what was behind that idea.)

… one of the space stations that orbited Earth had weapons on it? In August of 1974, the Soviet Union launched the Salyut-3 space station, one of three designed in their Almaz military station program. The Almaz stations were designed with military purposes in mind, though they were publicly designated as the civilian-styled Salyut stations. Salyut-3 had, in addition to a large Earth-observation telescope and high-definition cameras, an onboard self-defense gun. The gun wasn’t a science-fiction-styled ray gun or anything similar; it was more like a cannon which fired shells similar to anti-aircraft guns. The station only saw one live crew dock with it, and that crew didn’t use the weapon. Salyut-3 fell out of orbit in January 1975, burning up over the Pacific Ocean. Additional trivia note: of the other two Almaz stations, Salyut-2 never made it to orbit, and Salyut-5 was not an armed station.

… you may have seen a foofaraw? You may even have been involved in one. What’s a foofaraw? Well, it can be one of two things: a shiny trinket or bauble, or a disturbance over something trivial or insignificant. (It could also make a really effective curse if you yell it loud enough.)

Now … you know!