Did a queen drown because her subjects were afraid to save her?

So, how did you do?

Last week, of course, was the annual April Fool’s column, with three things that were patently false. Your challenge was to find them. So, to check yourself, here they are:

1. The Pilgrims did not land at Plymouth Rock on November 11, 1620. Their first landfall was on that date, but it was at what is now the town of Provincetown on Cape Cod. Plymouth Rock and their first settlement came five weeks later.

2. Ninjas in Japanese history did not wear black costumes. The “traditional” uniform comes from centuries of folklore and fiction. In reality, ninjas wore regular everyday clothing that would allow them to blend into daily life.

3. The War of the Worlds did not cause a nationwide panic. Newspapers covered the tiny number of people who didn’t catch on that it was a radio show, and played the stories up in a way to discredit radio – which they saw as advertising competition.

If you got all three, give yourself a cookie! If you didn’t, well, there’s always next year.

Now on to this week’s trivia, certified 100% factual, even if it’s not believable!

Did you know …

… the first animated feature film was made in Argentina? Many people believe that 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, from Disney, was the first animated feature-length motion picture. But in 1917, El Apóstol, a silent political satire cartoon, was made in Argentina. It ran 70 minutes and was made up of 58,000 individual drawings. (Political cartoons were popular a hundred years ago … who knew?)

… the tallest mountain peak on Earth is not the closest point on land to outer space? Sure, you’d think that the top of Mt. Everest, 29,028 feet above sea level, would be the closest place to space you could be and still stand on Earth. But that honor actually belongs to Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador. While Mt. Chimborazo is only 20,548 feet high, it sits very near the Equator, and the equatorial bulge of the Earth means its summit is the closest land to space. (How you get to the top of either one is your business.)

… the Bible has been translated into more than 3,000 languages? Among them are the fictional languages of Elvish, Na’vi, and Klingon. (The mind boggles …)

… earaches have a patron saint? Saint Polycarp of Smyrna (69 AD-155 AD) is recognized as the patron saint of relief from earaches. Polycarp was martyred in 155 AD when Roman leaders ordered he be burned alive, but the flames did not harm him. A centurion had to use a dagger to put the elderly man to death. Why Polycarp is the patron saint of earaches is not easily determined. (Why his name means “many fish” isn’t too easy to figure, either.)

… a queen drowned because her subjects were afraid to save her? On May 31, 1880, the first Queen Consort of Siam, Sunandha Kumariratana (1860-1880), was on her way to the country’s Summer Palace in Bang Pa-In when the royal boat capsized. Many onlookers saw the event, but no one helped the queen, even as she screamed for assistance. Siamese law at the time mandated the death penalty for anyone who so much as touched the queen. As a result, the queen drowned. A guard on another boat ordered people to do nothing under the law, but he was later punished for his strict interpretation. The queen was one of the four wives and 92 consorts of King Chulalongkorn, Rama V of Siam (1853-1910).

… bats give birth while hanging upside-down? They catch the newborn bats in their wings as they drop. (And may Heaven help the bat who drops the baby in that instance!)

… a NASA astronaut’s space suit costs about $12 million to manufacture? (Gee, at that price, you’d think they’d at least be fashionable.)

… a famous blonde actress would not allow other blondes on the set of a film with her? Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962) was notorious for refusing to allow other blonde actresses to be on a movie set at the same time she was there. Ironically, Monroe’s hair was not naturally blonde – she was a brunette. (Sometimes the jokes are too easy.)

… the world’s largest padlock weighs 916 pounds? Created at the Pavlovo Arts College in Russia, the lock is 56.8 inches tall, 41.3 inches wide, and 10.2 inches deep. (Imagine the size of the door that lock is on!)

… ducks were once as large as horses? Between 40,000 and 25 million years ago, horse-sized ducks lived in Australia. (To be honest, the dromoris – that’s what the bird is actually called – looked more like an ostrich, but it technically was in the duck family.) For the flip side, you’d have to go back a lot farther in time, to 55 million years ago, to find the eohippus, an early ancestor of the modern horse. The eohippus was about the size of a large modern duck. (Well, isn’t that just ducky?)

… paper money was invented by the Chinese? They developed it in the ninth century AD, calling it “flying money” because of the ease with which it could be carried away by the wind. The Chinese found it impractical at the time, however, and only used it for a short period. It would not be until the 18th Century in France when paper currency would be more consistently used. (I call it “flying money” too, because of how easily it flies out of my wallet.)

… the most widely cultivated fruit in the world is the apple? If you’re interested, the second most widely cultivated is the pear. (That applies if you aren’t interested, as well.)

… women mature at a faster rate than men? (Yeah!!!!)

Now … you know!

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