Is the Empire State Building in New York City taller that it was intended to be?

And so it ends, the summer of 2025.  Yes, I know that there are technically three more weeks (more or less) until we actually begin the fall season, but you and I both know that Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer.

Settle back, then, and get ready for the rush of the end of the year.  It’s coming, whether we’re ready for it or not.

Another thing that comes your way, ready or not, is this weekly collection of nonsense that I do very much enjoy sharing with you.  So read on, dear friend, and enjoy it as much as I do!

Did you know …

… the popular star of a radio western series was almost too popular for the role?  Years before Gunsmoke became the longest-running TV western, it was a well-loved radio series starring actor William Conrad (1920-1994) as Marshal Matt Dillon.  But Conrad had a very difficult time winning the role, because he worked on so many other radio series.  Producers felt Conrad’s voice was too familiar to listeners for it to be associated with just one character, and they resisted giving him the role.  Finally, though, Conrad’s perseverance paid off and he spent nine years as radio’s Dodge City marshal.  (Too much of anything is not a good thing, it seems.)

… a Pope of the Roman Catholic Church was put on trial for heresy after he died?  Pope Formosus (816 AD-896 AD) served as Supreme Pontiff of the Church from 891 until his death.  His was a troubled reign, with a lot of power struggles taking place.  But after he died, his enemies disinterred his body, propped it up on a throne, and staged a trial against him.  Formosus was found guilty of charges including heresy and perjury, and all of his measures and acts as Pope were annulled.  In addition, orders conferred by him were declared invalid, his papal vestments were stripped from his body, the three fingers he used to give the papal blessing were cut off, and his body was tossed into the Tiber River.  It was later retrieved by a monk and reinterred in St. Peter’s Basilica, and further “trials” of dead pontiffs were banned.  (Cross-examination was probably a thing to behold, I would think.)

… a famous writer provided himself with escape routes in case he angered authorities?  Late in his life the French writer Voltaire (born François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) made his home near national borders so he could easily escape if his work made authorities angry with him.  (Good idea!)

… you may suffer from xanthopsia?  If you do, you have a visual issue, because people with xanthopsia see things as yellow.  Everything has a yellowish tinge to it to sufferers of the problem.

… an automatic teller machine was created to dispense hot cash?  Hitachi once produced an ATM that heated bills to 200 degrees in order to kill any bacteria, then ironed the bills before dispensing them.  (It took a bit longer to get your cash, but the delay was worth it.)

… the Empire State Building in New York City is taller than it was intended to be?  The original plans for the classic skyscraper called for it to be 1,050 feet tall.  But every reference of the building says it’s 1,250 feet tall.  The extra 200 feet is made up of a mooring mast for dirigibles, or rigid airships.  The building was seldom used to moor airships, however, and after the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 the passenger airship industry just faded away.  There are those, however, who say that the mooring mast was never really intended to be used – it was just an excuse to make the Empire State Building taller than the Chrysler Building, which is not far away.  (Now there’s an idea whose time should be coming back – airships.  I like it.)

… a married couple was photographed together 15 years before they met?  The couple, Alex (born 1977) and Donna (born 1975) Voutsinas, married each other in 1995.  One week before the wedding, while going through a stack of old photos, Donna discovered one of her posing with her siblings at Disney World in Florida in 1980.  Alex looked at the picture and discovered that the man pushing a stroller in the background was his father … and he was the child in the stroller.  What makes the story even more remarkable is, the two families didn’t even live in the same country – Alex and his family were visiting from Canada when the photo was taken.  Fifteen years later, the two met, fell in love, and were wed.  (Awwww.)

… the government of North Korea destroyed citizens’ savings accounts on purpose?  The currency of North Korea is the won, named from a combination of the Chinese yuan and the Japanese yen.  In 2009, the government of North Korea revalued the won in an effort to stop private markets, which were undermining the official national economy.  They replaced 1,000-won notes with 10-won notes, effectively wiping out the savings of most people.  They also said that people could exchange the old money for the new money at the conversion rate, but they could only convert 100,000 won, no matter how much of the old money they had.  Protests led the government to raise the limit to 300,000 won.  The worst part came when the government said the old money was no longer valid as of November 30, 2009 – but the new money would not be issued until December 7, 2009.  For a period of one week, the country had no effective currency in circulation at all.

… the city of Portland, Oregon, owes its name to a coin flip?  When the city was founded in 1851, a coin toss was used to decide its name from two preferred choices.  Had the flip gone the other way, the city would today be known as Boston, Oregon.  (Two out of three?)

… men are able to read smaller print than women?  Conversely, women hear better than men do.  (So don’t talk about what you read, guys.)

Now … you know!