Did a television network try to re-boot the classic 1960s comedy series, “Mister Ed” in 2004?

December at last.

Since March, 2020 has been a year for the books—not the good books, mark you, but the books we file away and prefer to forget.

COVID-19, murder hornets, riots, double hurricanes, asteroids skirting close to Earth, and so much more … one has to wonder who has our world’s voodoo doll and why do they keep sticking pins into it?

Now I’m not naive enough to believe that four weeks from now, when it’s finally 2021, this nonsense will stop. It may begin to taper off, but I seriously doubt it will stop.

But I know what I’m asking Santa Claus to bring me for Christmas this year. And I suspect you feel the same way.

So let’s get on to the first December trivia of the year, while we work on those letters to Jolly Old St. Nick.

Did you know …

… a bird’s vision has a much higher threshold for detecting movement than a human’s? It’s so high, in fact, that it is believed that if a pigeon were watching a movie at today’s rate of projection, the bird would see it as a series of flashing slides rather than movement. (Which, considering the state of movies these days, would probably make it better.)

… only one domesticated animal is not mentioned in the Bible? The only one not mentioned is the cat. (The reason, of course, is that the cat would not allow itself to be mentioned.)

… a famous cartoonist was once fired by a newspaper company? Walt Disney (1901-1966) was working for the Kansas City Star in 1923 when his bosses dismissed him for “lacking creativity.” Disney—or at least the company he founded—got his revenge in 1996, when the company bought ABC, which owned the Star. (The best revenge is, of course, a life well lived. Right, Walt?)

… a popular early 1960s situation comedy about a talking horse was offered as a reboot in 2004? “Mister Ed,” the comedy about a talking horse, which starred Alan Young (1919-2016) as architect, Wilbur Post, ran from 1961 to 1965. The show was based on a series of short stories by Walter R. Brooks (1886-1958), one of which was made into a whimsical pilot called, “The Wonderful World of Wilbur Pope.” The pilot film sold the show despite the entire cast—even the horse—being replaced by the producers. In 2004, an attempt was made by the Fox Network to reboot the series, taking a family from New York City—named the Pope family again—to a farm in upstate New York. The family, this time, had two children, and the farm came with a farm hand and a talking horse, voiced by Sherman Hemsley (1938-2012). To the simplicity of the original story were added teenage concerns of the early 21st Century and a plethora of sexually-themed jokes, and it’s no wonder that the reboot didn’t sell. Additional trivia notes: Mr. Ed himself was played by a horse named Bamboo Harvester (1949-1970) and was voiced by character actor, Allan “Rocky” Lane (1909-1973), who made his name in western films. The “effect” of making the horse’s mouth move when Mr. Ed spoke was created by nylon fishing line strung through his lips and pulled from offstage. In the 2004 reboot attempt, Mr. Ed’s mouth was computer-generated – not very convincingly, I might add. (Admit it—you just sang the theme song, didn’t you? Of course, of course.)

… the first fast food restaurant was a White Castle? The original home of the tiny square hamburger, now called a slider, White Castle was started by J. Walter Anderson (1880-1963) and Edgar “Billy” Ingram (1880-1966) in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas. Anderson is also credited as the inventor of the hamburger bun, the kitchen assembly line, and the “replaceable” cook, thus creating the modern fast food restaurant. (And lifetimes of indigestion – but oh, how good a White Castle hamburger is!)

… the longest non-medical word in English has 29 letters? Floccinaucinihilipilification is the word, and it means declaring an item to be useless. (Pronounce it. I dare you.)

… Fort Knox is not the location of the world’s greatest stockpile of gold? That particular stockpile can be found five stories beneath the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The 540,000 gold bars make up 25% of the world’s gold reserves, and there’s more there than at Fort Knox. But it doesn’t belong to us, not all of it; most of the gold there is the property of foreign governments. (And none of it is mine. Not one atom of it.)

… some species of birds are intelligent enough to create and use tools? (Ever see one build a bird house? Neither have I.)

… you need to take shelter if your hair stands on end in a storm? Positive charges rise from the ground through your body, reaching up toward the negatively charged part of the storm, and making you likely to be hit by lightning. (Shocking, isn’t it?)

… most people in ancient Egypt were illiterate? Those who could write were thought to have power from the gods, specifically the god, Thoth. Thoth was the messenger of the other gods and patron of scribes and learning in ancient Egypt. (What? You mean writers don’t have the power of gods? What a letdown!)

… owls are not able to move their eyes from side to side? In order to bring anything in their peripheral vision to the front, they have to turn their entire head. (They can, however, tell us how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop, so there’s that.)

Now … you know!

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