Have movies about a popular comic strip character not been made since 1990 because of an actor’s anger?

Take a deep breath.

Smell that?

It’s summer in the air, coming in just a few short weeks.

Yes, I truly believe that we can smell summer approaching.  What does summer smell like, you ask?  To each of us, it’s different.

For me, it’s fresh-cut grass, hot dogs, and the smell of a baseball field.  That’s summer in a nutshell.

(Nutshell, how appropriate. I’m a nut.)

Another thing that you can tell is approaching is trivia.  How?  You’re here, aren’t you?

Let’s dive into this week’s hand-sorted selection of information!

Did you know …

… a California town actually has a thousand times more dead people in it than live people?  The town of Colma, California, has a population of about 1,500 people.  It also has seventeen cemeteries, and the total number of people interred there is estimated to be 1.5 million.  That’s one thousand times more dead people in Colma than live people.  (Living it up has a new meaning in Colma, doesn’t it?)

… you may suffer from rhinotillexomania?  I kind of hope that you don’t, however.  Rhinotillexomania is a phrase that means a person is obsessive about picking their nose.  (As for what level would be obsessive, I think I’ll let you figure that one out.)

… a well-known writer was the teacher of another well-known writer?  H.G. Wells (1866-1946), author of classics such as War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, was a science teacher at London’s Henley House School from 1889 to 1890, one of several teaching positions he held.  During that time, one of his students was A.A. Milne (1882-1956), who wrote the children’s classic Winnie the Pooh.  (The best teaching the best.)

… a 1972 television program muted the microphone of a live singer?  On February 16, 1972, The Mike Douglas Show had as its guests John Lennon (1940-1980), his wife Yoko Ono (born 1933), and singer Chuck Berry (1926-2017).  During the performance of the song “Memphis, Tennessee,” Ono began to perform her trademark scream into her microphone, while Lennon and Berry were performing.  Sound engineers immediately muted Ono’s microphone, and viewers at home saw her mouth moving but didn’t hear her.  For his own part, Berry’s eyes widened in shock with Ono began her screaming; Lennon had not told him in advance of her particular way of performing.  (If you’ve ever heard her, you’d understand.)

… a popular comic character hasn’t been featured in movies since 1990 because of an actor’s anger?  In 1990, Warren Beatty (born 1937) starred in Dick Tracy, a movie based on the popular comic strip detective created by Chester Gould (1900-1985), which won three Academy Awards™ – for Art Direction, Makeup, and Original Song.  For whatever reasons, however, the movie did not do the business expected, and the studios involved – Walt Disney Studios and Touchstone Pictures – would not let Beatty make a sequel, even though he owned the film and television rights to the character.  They even tried to use the character in a television show without Beatty, and that steamed the actor something big.  Since then, Beatty has used a loophole in his contract to enact a kind of petty revenge.  From time to time, Beatty releases a 20-minute television “special” in which he appears as Tracy, complaining about the way he was treated.  They’re pretty much unwatchable, but they do serve to keep the film rights to Dick Tracy with Beatty, and no one else can use the character for anything.  (I’ve heard of carrying a grudge, but this is ridiculous.)

… whitening your teeth can actually weaken them?  Most dentists I know will vehemently disagree with this, but the natural color of a human being’s teeth is a light yellow.  These are the stronger teeth; whitening them removes outside layers of enamel and actually weakens teeth.  (Remember the jingle?  “You’ll wonder where the yellow went …”)

… Pinocchio cannot say “my nose will grow now”?  It’s a classic paradox.  Pinocchio’s nose only grows when he tells a lie.  But if he says his nose will grow, that would be a true statement – thus, the nose does not grow.  (Short-circuits his brain, too, I’m told.)

… one of the first company-wide pay raises given was done for a base purpose?  When Henry Ford (1863-1947) doubled the pay of his workers in 1914, from $2.50 per day to $5 per day, he only did it to decrease employee turnover rates.  His total work force that year was 14,000, but to keep the jobs filled he’d had to hire 52,000 men.  New workers on the auto assembly line needed a long training period and many would quit, forcing the production line to slow down.  Doubling salaries kept the turnover rate low.

… a famous scene in a classic movie is tied to three other classic movies?  During the filming of Gone With the Wind in 1939, the script called for depicting the burning of the city of Atlanta.  To achieve the effect, the filmmakers burned the old sets from three classics – 1933’s King Kong, 1936’s The Last of the Mohicans, and 1936’s Little Lord Fauntleroy.  (Hot information indeed.)

… a Texas university has a statue that pokes fun at a rival?  On the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, stands a statue of humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935).  Rogers is astride his horse Soapsuds in a casting of the famous photo, “Into the Sunset.”  The rear end of the horse points directly toward College Station, Texas, home of rival school Texas A&M.  (Which tells you what Rogers thought of Texas A&M.)

… the average American eats an amount of fat equivalent to one whole stick of butter every day?  (I’m way above average once again.)

Now … you know!