We interrupt your regularly scheduled trivia column to bring you the following public service announcement:
The first-ever “Did You Know…?” book is now available!
That’s right. I wrote a book. One I’ve apparently been writing for 290 weeks now, it seems.
I took it upon myself to go back through five and a half years of columns of trivial silly stuff and compiled a rather nice collection of… well… trivial silly stuff.
The book, entitled “Did You Know…? Yet Another Collection of Useless Trivia,” is available on amazon.com. For those who are truly Internet savvy, the link to my page is:
www.amazon.com/author/jackbagley
Right now, only this first book based on the column is available, but keep an eye on that spot. My two previous science-fiction novels may appear there in the near future, and who knows what else I might throw in. Help an author out! Now, on to the stuff I’ll be basing the next book upon!
Did you know …
… the density of the planet Saturn is so low that, if the planet could be placed in a large enough container of water, it would float? (How you come up with the big enough container of water is up to you.)
…the first recorded serial killer in history was a woman? Locusta (~15 AD-68 AD) served the Roman emperor Nero (37 AD-68 AD) as his “official” poisoner. She is accused of being responsible for the deaths of several of his political opponents – including the previous emperor, Claudius (10 BC-54 AD). (I must resist the impulse to do a modern political joke right here.)
…fifty percent of all Oreo™ cookie eaters say they pull the cookie apart before they eat it? (Makes you wonder what the other fifty percent does, doesn’t it?)
…punctuation was not regularly used until the 15th Century? (I notice with dismay that it isn’t being used quite as much any more, too.)
…the weather may have something to do with success in flirting? A study in the journal Social Influence found that ladies are more likely to give out their telephone numbers to men who flirt with them on sunny days as opposed to cloudy days. The research indicated people are in a better mood on sunny days… or that men may just be better at flirting when the sun is out. (So that makes me wonder where I keep going wrong …)
… two very different World War II cinema programs had something odd in common? In the 1965 dramatic movie Von Ryan’s Express, actor Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) wore a leather bomber jacket in the role of Colonel Joseph L. Ryan. Not long after the movie wrapped, the jacket was used in the costuming for a new World War II comedy, Hogan’s Heroes. The actor playing Colonel Robert E. Hogan, Bob Crane (1928-1978), wore the jacket with the only change being a name patch with the new character’s name. Crane wore the jacket for the entire six seasons of the series. The jacket made one further on-screen appearance, worn by actor Greg Kinnear (born 1963) when he played Crane in the 2002 movie Auto Focus, about Crane’s life and murder. Additional trivia note: The jacket is now being kept in the Liberty Aviation Museum in Port Clinton, Ohio. It is in a Hogan’s Heroes display along with the uniform of Colonel Klink, worn by actor Werner Klemperer (1920-2000), and the overcoat of Sergeant Schultz, played by John Banner (1910-1973).
…dragonflies cannot walk? Yes, they have six legs, like all other insects. But their legs are only used for landing from flight; the insect is unable to walk. (Well, if you can fly, why would you want to walk?)
…two twelve-inch pizzas are smaller than one 18-inch pizza? It’s a question of geometry, and figuring out the area of a circle. (I think the old formula πr2 figures into it somewhere, but what do I know? Pie are not square, pie are round. Corn bread are square. So there.)
…the people of North Korea have their own “religion”? Known as juche, it was created by the founder of the North Korean state, Kim Il-sung (1912-1994). Kim combined the theories of Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) with his own peculiar way of thinking to form the basis for North Korean Communist politics. Juche, which means “self-reliance,” is now considered the world’s 10th-largest religion, and Kim is revered as a kind of god. (Well, he is in North Korea, anyway.)
…hamburgers and frankfurters have not always been called that? During both World Wars, when Germany was the enemy of the United States, hamburgers were referred to as “Liberty steaks” or “Salisbury steaks” to avoid using the German-sounding name. Frankfurters, known better as hot dogs, were called “Liberty sausages” during World War I. (Whatever you call them, they’re delicious!)
…engineers in the Netherlands have developed a machine that lets a cow milk itself? Each cow in a particular dairy herd has a computer chip in its collar. If the computer running the dairy senses that the cow has not been milked in a certain amount of time, the cow is allowed to enter the stall. Robot sensors apply the vacuum devices to the udder, and the machine does the rest. Milk production was boosted more than 15 percent under the system. The “do-it-yourself” system of milking has spread to dozens of dairies in Europe. (They missed a classic opportunity here… they could have called it the “Moo-it-Yourself.”)
…goats can climb trees? Well, they can in Morocco, anyway. There is a species of tree that grows in Morocco called the Argania tree, and it produces a very tasty nut that goats simply adore. They will even climb onto the branches of the tree to get at the little treats. Goats are natural climbers and are extremely sure-footed animals. (Not a baaa-a-a-ad thing to know.)
Now… you know!
HHJ News
