Did Wile E. Coyote ever catch the Road Runner in a cartoon?

And it’s summer!

The most pleasant – and sometimes unpleasant – season of the year began Wednesday at 10:57 a.m. The longest day of the year took place, and the daylight hours get shorter and nighttime hours get longer from here on out.

At least until next year.

I love summer. It’s warm, it’s pleasant, and baseball is the game.

How can you not love summer? I will admit the heat and humidity tend to do me in sometimes, but still… it’s summer.

Summer means trivia – well, in this space, every season means trivia. So let’s have some trivia right now!

Did you know…

…you may suffer from lilapsophobia? If so, you’re in good company – lilapsophobia is the fear of hurricanes and tornadoes. (Add in a healthy fear of thunderstorms in general, and you get… me.)

…the National Football League was a non-profit organization from 1942 until 2015? That was the year the league filed to get rid of its tax-exempt status. (Suddenly, somebody woke up… and the rest is history.)

…a museum in Idaho has the world’s largest collection of vacuum cleaners? The Don Aslett Museum of Clean in Pocatello, Idaho, has what is believed to be the world’s largest collection of vacuum cleaners, with several hundred in hand. The oldest is a Daniel Hess Carpet Sweeper from 1860. (A pretty clean place to visit, I would say.)

…you may have committed cryptomnesia? If you’re concerned, don’t be, because I’ve done it myself. Cryptomnesia is the condition of thinking you have come up with something original, such as a joke or an idea, when in reality it was something you’d seen or heard before and forgotten. (You might say I was suffering from it when I started this trivia column. You might say it but I hope you don’t.)

…the oldest parking sign comes from about 700 BC? In Ninevah, the capital of ancient Assyria, signs were posted near the main road into the city reading, “Royal Road – Let No Man Decrease It.” The signs were put up by Sennacherib (704 BC-681 BC), king of the Assyrians. Violation of the sign was serious business, too – those who were guilty would be killed, then impaled in front of their own homes. (When they said, “No parking,” they meant no parking!)

…red pandas and giant pandas are not biologically related to each other? Both share the same habitat and diet, but the red panda is actually part of the raccoon family, while the giant panda has no living relatives. Some scientists say the giant panda should belong to its own family group.

…a naval confrontation between American and German sailors claimed more than a hundred lives, despite no shots being fired? In 1889, American naval forces in the Samoan Islands of the Pacific Ocean were lined up against German naval forces in a tense game of brinksmanship called the Samoan Crisis. While neither side fired a shot at the other, both sides were clobbered by a typhoon that hit the area on March 16, 1889. More than 100 German sailors died and about 60 American sailors joined them, because neither side would move its fleet to safety and allow the other to occupy the area. (That stubborn military pride, don’tcha know.)

…Wile E. Coyote actually caught the Road Runner in one cartoon? In 1980, Warner Brothers animators released a cartoon called Soup or Sonic, in which the Coyote actually catches his long-pursued prey without the Road Runner being able to get away. In the course of a chase, the Coyote pursues the bird through a series of progressively smaller pipes, causing both to shrink in size. (Look, it’s a cartoon, okay?) They run back through in the opposite direction, but while the Road Runner returns to full size, the Coyote stays tiny. At that point, the “giant” Road Runner stops and lets the tiny Coyote catch him… and, in true Merrie Melodies fashion, the Coyote turns toward the viewer and breaks the fourth wall, holding up two signs: “Okay, wise guys, you always wanted me to catch him” and “Now what do I do?” (Classic stuff.)

…the world’s oldest operating library is in Morocco? Founded in 859 AD, the Al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco, was off limits to anyone but researchers who had to request access. In 2016, however, the library opened its doors to anyone wishing to see its ancient texts. Among those texts are a 9th Century edition of the Qu’ran. (Can you imagine the overdraft fees from when it opened to now?)

… Americans love tater tots? The bite-sized bits of potato grouped together in a rough barrel shape were created originally to avoid wasting potato shreds left over from the production of French fries. They became even more popular after being featured in the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite. In 2005, the state of Idaho passed a resolution thanking the makers of the film for promoting the lowly tater tot.

… golfers in Japan buy insurance against a hole in one? The policies, which cost about $65 a year for up to $3,000 in coverage, are in the event of a golfer sinking the elusive hole-in-one shot. Should a golfer do so, tradition dictates that the golfer must purchase gifts and drinks for all of his or her friends.

… inspiration can come from the strangest things? For instance, take the creation of coordinate geometry. Divined by René Descartes (1596-1650), a French mathematician, he came up with the theory by watching a fly walk across a tiled ceiling. (Which is wild, since all I would think about is getting a fly swatter.)

Now… you know!

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