Was the 1931 Frankenstein movie monster really as scary as he appeared to be?

Wow, it’s February already!

It’s moving too fast. Time, that is. Moving way too fast.

Don’t you find, though, that the older we get (and this applies to everybody) the faster time seems to go?

I can remember being in school—both elementary and high school—and it seemed that each class hour would drag on endlessly, feeling like never ending torment.

And now? It’s almost as if bedtime comes about an hour after I wake up in the morning.

It’s going too fast.

Maybe, one day, we can find out why, and that would make a great trivia entry!

Speaking of trivia, how about your first February dose? Here ’tis …

Did you know…

…elephants only sleep two hours per day? (Well, what else do they have to do?)

…every civilization in recorded human history has levied taxes on its people? Even the very first known civilization, the ancient Sumerians, recorded their history of levying and collecting taxes on clay tablets which survive to this day. (Which explains why every civilization has consisted of people who don’t like their governments!)

…a popular movie is used in law schools as a teaching aid? “My Cousin Vinny,” the 1992 comedy starring Joe Pesci (born 1943), is very highly regarded in the U.S. legal community. Clips from the film are frequently used in law schools to demonstrate courtroom procedures such as cross-examination and voire dire, or the variety of procedures common to jury trials. (“Did you say ‘youts’?”)

…advertisers try to manipulate you? Yeah, you already knew that. But one way they do so is called “affective condition,” in which they place their product next to other things consumers feel positively about. The makers of a new detergent, for instance, would place their product alongside flowers, or babies, or in a sunny field, because those are positive things to most people. The idea, of course, is to have the consumer—you—associate the item in your mind with those positive images. (And for those of us who make our living off of advertisements, we say a collective thank you!)

…the Frankenstein monster wasn’t as scary as he seemed? During the filming of the 1931 movie, “Frankenstein,” the producers were worried about the reaction of Marilyn Harris (1924-1999), the then seven-year-old girl cast as Maria—the child who meets the monster played by Boris Karloff (1887-1969)—to Karloff’s makeup work. The concern was that the monster would so frighten the child that they would not be able to shoot the pivotal scene by the lake, where the monster inadvertently drowns the girl. But on the day the scene was to be shot, as the cast and crew were assembling at the studio to travel to the lake location, Harris impulsively ran up to Karloff—who was already in makeup and costume as the fearsome monster—and hugged him, asking if she could ride to the lake with him. Delighted, Karloff agreed, and the two rode to the location scene together. Additional trivia notes: The actual scene where the monster throws Maria into the lake, misunderstanding the game he was playing with the child, so disturbed test audiences that it was excised from the final print of the film. The child’s death was simply referenced when the townsfolk began to pursue the monster. Marilyn Harris was the last living member of the cast of Frankenstein when she passed away in 1999. (For a monster, Boris Karloff was a pretty good guy!)

…the shortest verse in the Bible has only two words? John 11:35 reads simply, “Jesus wept.” There is one other two-word verse: 1 Thessalonians 5:16, “Rejoice evermore.” But by word length and letter count, the one in John is the shortest.

…a popular television series cost a network executive his job? “Lost,” which ran on ABC from 2004 to 2010, was a series that followed the adventures of the survivors of a jet crash in the South Pacific. Created by J.J. Abrams (born 1966) and Damon Lindelof (born 1973), the show’s pilot episode cost about $14 million to film. Most of that cost involved getting a jet fuselage and parts to Hawaii, where the island of Oahu was the filming location. The cost was so high that the then-president of ABC, Lloyd Braun (born 1958), was fired by Disney, the owners of the network. (Not even an apology when the show became a hit, either!)

…the United States spent millions of dollars designing a pen that would write in space? On Earth, gravity pulls ink through the barrel of the pen to the point, but there is no gravity in space. The design that was finally adopted uses a small-pressurized gas cylinder mounted on the barrel to force the ink to the point. For their part, the Soviet Union avoided the problem altogether—they used pencils in space. (No comment.)

…you might have something in your house that is smaragdine in color? What–you’ve never heard of smaragdine? Sure you have, but you know it by its other name, emerald green. (Maybe, but calling it smaragdine is so much more entertaining.)

…the United States government became fully debt-free for the first time in 1835? That’s the good news. The bad news is, 1835 is also the last time the government was debt-free. (We’re still paying off that post-1835 debt, too.)

Now … you know!

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