Did a scientist’s curiosity lead directly to his death?

Time to channel some Jolson, folks!

The April showers have come this way, now let’s see flowers, that bloom in May …

Yes, it’s May.  The fifth month of the year.  Baseball season is now in full swing (you’ll pardon the pun) and the flowers are blooming and the birds are singing and the Sun is out and the days are getting longer and …

What do you know?  I ran out of things to run on in my sentence.

One thing I haven’t run out of, as you’re about to note, is trivia.  So let’s dive into this week’s collection!

Did you know …

… the seeds of twenty apples contain enough cyanide to kill an adult human being?  That’s the bad news.  The good news is, the seeds are only potentially lethal if you chew them before you swallow them.  (But why in the world would you want to do that?)

… the tiny pocket in your jeans had a purpose?  Normally found in the right front pocket, the small pocket was designed to hold a – ready? – pocket watch.  Originally, jeans had the two large pockets and watch pocket in the front and only one pocket in the back.  (Thank you, Levi Strauss!)

… an actor suffered an ironic injury on a film set?  While filming the movie Troy in 2004, actor Brad Pitt (born 1963) was cast in the role of Achilles.  As we all know from our Greek history, the only part of Achilles’ body that could be injured was his heel.  During the filming of an epic battle scene, Pitt suffered an injury – to his Achilles tendon.  He was out of action for two months.  (I don’t believe in coincidence, but if anything qualifies, this does.)

…the first woman to run for president did so in 1872?  Victoria Woodhull (1838-1927) was a leader of the American women’s suffragist movement, trying to secure the right to vote.  There were a couple of issues with her candidacy – one is, she was a woman and  at that time was unable to vote for herself.  But a second, larger issue was that, in 1872, Woodhull was 34 years old, and not old enough under the Constitution to serve as president.  Had she been victorious, she would not have turned 35 until seven months after her inauguration.  Her vice presidential running mate was Frederick Douglass (1817-1895).

… the heart of a hummingbird beats more than 1,000 times a minute?  (Overdrive.)

… scientific curiosity led directly to a scientist’s death?  On September 25, 1957, a snake was brought into the Chicago Natural History Museum from that city’s Lincoln Park Zoo for identification.  Herpetologist Dr. Karl P. Schmidt (1890-1957) thought the snake was an African boomslang, but wasn’t sure.  As he was examining the snake, it bit him on the left hand.  Rather than seek medical treatment, Schmidt began describing in his journal the effects the snakebite was having on him.  He methodically noted the effects of nausea, vomiting, bleeding and fever, and the following day he died of respiratory paralysis.  The snake was indeed a boomslang, one whose venom is quite potent and which acts quickly.  Additional trivia note:  Hours before he died, Schmidt was strongly advised to seek medical help which perhaps could still have saved him, but he refused, saying, “That would upset the symptoms.”  And the antivenom for boomslang snakes was only available in the reptile’s native Africa anyway, a fact of which Schmidt was aware.

… dinosaurs were here on Earth for a very, very long time?  To the best of our knowledge, almost all of the dinosaurs died off about 65 million years ago, when an asteroid collided with the Earth.  But the mighty beasts had been on this planet for quite some time, first appearing in the evolutionary record about 250 million years ago.  Let me put it to you this way:  the best-known of all dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, lived closer to our time than it did to the time of another well-known dino, the Stegosaurus.  Those armored beasts died out 145 million years ago, and T-rex was still around when the asteroid came a-callin’.  (Well, they made it long enough to be the basis for a TV sitcom, anyway.)

… you’ve probably never heard the sound made by a pyrophone?  This unusual musical instrument was patented in 1873 by Frederic Kastner (1852-1882).  The pyrophone was an organ-like instrument that featured glass tubes instead of big brass ones, and inside each glass tube was a flame.  The flames in each tube created sound-like vibrations that the, uh, pyrophonist would play.  (Now that’s some pretty hot music, right there.)

… the Italian town of Ivrea has a very unusual way to celebrate Ash Wednesday?  In the town, located near Turin, the people celebrate Ash Wednesday with a battle of oranges.  According to tradition, the battle is a reenactment of a medieval uprising which overthrew the rule of a local tyrant.  As a part of the event each year, the person selected “tyrant” is pelted with oranges by the townspeople.  Since he’s not the actual tyrant, the person being pelted is wearing hockey-style protective gear during the pelting.  (And he gets all the orange juice he can drink.)

… Great Britain was the first country to issue postage stamps?  They began doing so in 1840.  Postage stamps began to be used in the United States in 1847.  Additional trivia note:  Prior to 1847, postage was paid by the recipient of the mail in the United States, not the sender.  Mail could be refused by a recipient if they did not want to pay for the postage.  A classic example of this came in that year, when General Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) originally refused to accept – and pay for – the letter informing him of his nomination by the Whig Party for the presidency.  (Sounds like a collect call to me.)

Now … you know!