Did a dog receive a vote for an Academy Award™ for Best Actor?

A couple of weeks ago, in this very column, I made a reference to the fourth, now-forgotten, member of the Rice Krispies character team, Pow.

On social media, I heard from several of you who felt rather sorry for Pow, being ousted from the team so soon after being added. Sure, it’s all well and good to be concerned about fireflies and their short life spans, but what about Pow? Is anybody thinking of him?

A friend of mine at valorguardians.com came to my rescue on that point. According to him, it turns out that Pow was able to resurrect his career in entertainment after all.

During the 1960s, he was one of the on-screen printed sound effects you saw whenever there was a fight on the Batman series.

It’s nice to know that Pow earned enough to retire!

Now, on to this week’s trivia …

Did you know …

… a famous chef once supervised the catering at a presidential wedding reception? When President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) got married to Edith Bolling Galt (1872-1961) at the bride’s home in 1915, the reception was catered by Hector Boiardi (1897-1985). If you’re wondering who Boiardi was, you’ve heard of him – or at least of the line of Italian foods he created and sold under the name of Chef Boyardee. Boiardi used that spelling of his last name to help Americans pronounce it correctly. At the time of the presidential nuptials, Boiardi was working at the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia, where the actual reception was held. Even though he was only 17 years old at the time, he was placed in charge of all catering for the reception. (I wonder how many presidential recipes Chef Boyardee sold?)

… the largest moon in the Solar System is bigger than a planet? Ganymede is one of the four “Galilean” moons of Jupiter, discovered in 1610 by astronomer, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). It is the largest moon in the Solar System and is actually larger than the planet, Mercury. (Talk about being the big fish in the little pond!)

… you may be a sufferer of taphephobia? I know I am. It’s the fear of being buried alive. (I’m actually also afraid of being buried dead.)

… about half of the people who win lottery jackpots go back to work after winning? (Of course they do. They have to wait until the lottery people write that big check.)

… the law in Tulsa, Oklahoma, puts a three-minute time limit on kissing? (And just who is standing by on the stopwatch, huh?)

… our calendar repeats itself every 400 years? (So hang on to those 2020 calendars … they’ll be good again in 2420. Maybe it’ll be a better year then.)

… the first “Best Actor” Academy Award™ could have been given to a dog? In 1929, the first Oscars, or Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Awards, were given out. A Warner Brothers executive cast a fake ballot for Best Actor for “Rin Tin Tin” (1918-1932), a German shepherd who starred in several action-packed silent films for the studio. The ballot was cast to show his contempt for the voting process, and Rinty’s vote was not considered an official ballot. When the real ballots were counted, the Best Actor award went to Emil Jannings (1884-1950), who starred in the movies “The Last Command” and “The Way of All Flesh.” He was awarded the Oscar for both pictures. (You could say the award almost went to the dogs!)

… it is illegal in Marshalltown, Iowa, for a horse to eat a fire hydrant? (Eating a metal fire hydrant would be a test of the horse’s mettle.)

… one continent on Earth does not have native ants? Ants are found native to every continent except Antarctica. (The obvious pun is the one I won’t do.)

… Swedish meatballs are not Swedish? They became popular in Sweden after King Charles XII (1682-1718) brought the dish back from Turkey in the early 18th Century. (Boy, you can’t believe anything they tell you anymore, can you?)

… a vegetarian spider exists? The tiny spider, identified as Bagheera kiplingi, was discovered in Central America in the 19th Century, and lives by eating the specialized leaf tips of acacia shrubs. The spider has to evade ants that guard the leaf tips, so its hunting skills do come into play. It’s unique among the world’s 40,000 or so species of spiders, the rest of which are strictly carnivorous predators.

… the little bird that is used as the symbol for Twitter has a name? He’s named Larry, after basketball Hall of Famer Larry Bird (born 1956). (Get it? Larry “Bird?”)

… an octopus only has six arms? Yes, I know an octopus has eight tentacles, but only six of them are used in a way we could call “arms” to forage for food. The other two are used as “legs” to move about the sea floor.

… snow has fallen in the Sahara Desert? On February 18, 1979, snow fell for about 30 minutes on the hottest desert on Earth. It’s happened at least twice since. (But never as heartstoppingly weird as the first time, I’m sure.)

… tea bags are not used the way they were originally intended? The first patents for tea bags were issued in 1903, and the original plan was for the user to remove the tea from the bag and steep it in a cup. The tea measured out into the bags was perfect for exactly one cup. Nobody bothered to tell the first users to take the tea out, however, and people began just dropping the whole bag into their cup of hot water. (… and the rest, as they say, is his-tea-ry.)

… flirting was illegal in some places? An old law in New York City, apparently still on the books, says that a man who “gazes suggestively” at a woman could be fined $25. (It can also get you a punch in the nose, depending on who you’re looking at.)

Now … you know!

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