Did a well-known psychologist beat a 1950s quiz show which really wanted her to lose?

My e-mail recently has been full of spam from people trying to match me up with other people. Like they assume I’m all kinds of lonely or something. (I am, but that’s another story.)

I get at least one a day offering me the “love match of a lifetime” if I just click on their website and scroll through the pictures of lonely singles needing companionship.

Funny… that’s how I found my cat, Boris. Well, it was the Humane Society website, and Boris was looking for a new home, but hey – it’s the same thing, right?

If I need companionship, I think I’m perfectly capable of going out and finding it all by myself. I don’t have to spend money to have a friend. (Isn’t that sort of against the law, anyway?)

Besides, I might find my own picture in there somewhere. Embarrassing.

Just so you know, you don’t have to spend money to enjoy some trivia – well, not more than what it cost to buy this newspaper, anyway. Here it is… so have a good time!

Did you know …

…a difference exists between a nook and a cranny? If you didn’t know, a nook is a corner, while a cranny is a crack in the wall. (I didn’t know. I’m not really all that sure that I cared, but I certainly didn’t know.)

… bees in France produced different colors of honey in 2012? In the area around Mulhouse, France, beekeepers discovered their hives turning out honey in odd shades of blue and green. Concerned about some unheard-of disease running amok in the colonies, the beekeepers eventually discovered the reason – the bees were bringing back to the hives small particles of coloring from a nearby candy plant, which produced M&Ms™. The colored honey could not be sold, and that meant a financial hit for the beekeepers. (I think they missed a great marketing opportunity here, you know.)

…a world-championship duck calling contest is held each year in Arkansas? Tracing its history back to 1936, the contest takes place every Thanksgiving weekend in Stuttgart, Arkansas. Anyone wishing to enter has to first win a sanctioned preliminary duck-calling contest, and the winner takes home a nice $15,000. (And all the ducks they can call, I suppose.)

…a well-known psychologist beat a quiz show which wanted her to lose? In 1955, Dr. Joyce Brothers (1927-2013) auditioned to become a contestant on the quiz program, The $64,000 Question. She won a spot on the show but under the rules could not use her expert knowledge in psychology. In fact, the producers of the show thought they could get big ratings by giving her a topic she shouldn’t know anything about, like, say, boxing. As it turned out, Brothers’ husband Milton (1926-1989) was a big boxing fan, and between the two of them the doctor – who used her photographic memory – was able to prepare for the show. She not only won the top prize of $64,000, she appeared on the show’s spin-off, The $64,000 Challenge, and walked off once again with the top prize. The producers – caught up in the resulting quiz show scandals – admitted later that they selected boxing for Brothers in an effort to keep her from winning, and also admitted that the doctor had beaten them fair and square. (The fix was in either way, I guess.)

…sharks are the only fish that can blink with both eyes at the same time? (I’m not sure why that matters, but there you are.)

…you could experience a thundersnow? What’s a thundersnow, you ask? Well, it’s one of the rarest events in weather – a snowstorm accompanied by thunder and lightning. (What else would you call it?)

…greeting cards on store shelves are touched an average of 25 times before someone buys them? (Who figures out this stuff, anyway?)

…in Oklahoma, state law makes it illegal to wrestle a bear? (What if you win? The idea is bear-ly believable.)

…two popular brands of the same candy are made by competing companies? The popular candy brands of Rolo™ and KitKat™ are made and marketed globally by the Nestlé company – except in the United States, where competitor Hershey’s makes the candy.

…fireworks have a patron saint? Saint Barbara (273 AD-306 AD) was murdered, apparently, by her own father. And immediately after she was killed, her father was struck by lightning and died. St. Barbara thus became associated with lightning, and logically with the later developments of explosives and fireworks. (So if you want to call the Fourth of July “St. Barbara’s Day,” it’s okay with me.)

…one woman served as First Lady of two different nations? Grace Simbine (born 1945) is the widow of two African leaders. Her first husband, Samora Machel (1933-1986), served as president of Mozambique from 1975 until his death. She later married Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), who at the time was serving as president of South Africa. (Thus making her a Double First Lady, it seems.)

…scorpions glow under ultraviolet light? (I’m not sure why this matters, but it is a fascinating thing to know.)

…a meteor, a meteorite, and a meteoroid are all the same thing? Picture, if you will, a rock out in space. While that rock is out there away from Earth, it’s called a meteoroid. Once captured by Earth’s gravity and pulled into the atmosphere, it begins to burn up, and is called a meteor. If, by chance, some portion of the rock survives the trip through the atmosphere and strikes the ground, then it’s called a meteorite. (Call it Irving if that makes you feel better about it.)

…one plain bar of milk chocolate has more protein than a banana? (Bananas, however, don’t melt in your mouth. Life is full of little trade-offs.)

Now… you know!

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