What was the smallest and lightest automobile ever made?

Happy Halloween!

In the column’s home newspapers, it hits the streets on Thursday, so it’s the actual day of trick-or-treating.  If it comes out ahead or behind where you read this, then just consider me the marksman who missed the bull’s-eye this time.

What did I decide to do for Halloween?  To be honest, I chose to do exactly as I always do … stay home, keep the porch light off, and hope the little ghouls and hobgoblins trying to extort candy pass me by.  I’m a cheap old so-and-so.

I’m turning into a curmudgeon in my old age.  But I do share the weekly trivia … so here you go!  Happy trick-or-treating!

Did you know …

… the sudden relocation of a Major League Baseball team caused the All-Star Game to be relocated as well?  On March 14, 1953, the owner of the Boston Braves, Lou Perini (1903-1972), announced that his team was moving to Milwaukee that season, with Opening Day less than three weeks away.  Perini cited years of declining attendance as the reason for the move, and other National League owners approved the rapid move provided Perini did not try to sell the team.  But the Braves’ move put MLB in a pickle – the 1953 All-Star Game had been scheduled for Braves Field in Boston.  Following a few emergency meetings, the game was relocated to Cincinnati’s Crosley Field.  The Braves would later move to Atlanta in 1966.  Additional trivia note:  Only one player was on the Braves’ roster in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta – Eddie Mathews (1931-2001), star third baseman.  (Tomahawk chop that one!)

… three-quarters of all people who eat chocolate Easter bunnies eat the ears first?  (Huh?)

… you may have eaten a réchauffé?  In fact, chances are almost 100% that at one time or another in your life, you have done so.  A réchauffé is a dish of warmed-up food from a previous meal.  In other words, leftovers.  (They sound so much better when you call them réchauffé, though, don’t they?)

… a movie studio filed a lawsuit against a video game producer?  In 1981, Universal Studios filed a lawsuit against Nintendo over the Donkey Kong video game.  The studio felt that the ape in the video game was “too similar” to the ape in King Kong, and Nintendo was infringing on their trademark.  Nintendo won the suit.  (They weren’t monkeying around.)

… only one planet in the Solar System cannot be seen by the naked eye?  Neptune, the farthest planet from the Sun, is too dim to be seen without the aid of a telescope.  Ah, you ask, but what of planet seven, Uranus?  It can be seen with the naked eye but only under certain circumstances – a dark sky with minimal light pollution, and only if one knows exactly where to look.  It would appear as a greenish-blue speck of light, giving you a great place to aim your binoculars or telescope.  (Finding the dark sky with minimal light pollution is your job.)

… the smallest and lightest automobile ever made was produced from 1962 to 1965?  The Peel P50 was created on the Isle of Man by the Peel Engineering Company.  This tiny “city” microcar, able to only hold a driver, was 54 inches long, 39 inches wide, and weighed 130 pounds.  The car was so small it could enter standard doorways.  The P50 had no reverse gear, but was so light an exterior handle allowed operators to basically push it wherever they needed to.  The tiny vehicle, street-legal in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom, had a top speed of 37 miles per hour and a three-speed manual transmission.  It had a top fuel economy of about 100 miles per gallon of gasoline, and sold at its height for £299 ($2,275 in 1965) each.  Additional trivia note:  The car is back in limited production in both gas and electric varieties.  They cost a bit more today, though – £14,879 ($18,858) for the gasoline version, and £13,679 ($17,337) for the electric.  (I need me one of those!)

… medieval castles in Europe did not employ alligators or crocodiles in their moats?  Despite cartoon portrayals over the decades, there is no archaeological evidence that any European castle ever used such reptiles to defend them.  (Not that it wasn’t a bad idea, they just didn’t have any.)

… pine cones can predict the weather?  They sure can.  Look at a pine cone and observe the scales.  If they’re close together, dry weather is expected, but if they spread apart, rain is on the way.  (And if they’re wet, it’s already raining.)

… a move was underway during the War of 1812 for at least part of the United States to return to British rule?  Some federalists in New England held a meeting called the Hartford Convention to discuss the idea of seceding from the United States and rejoining Britain, while the state of Massachusetts sent an emissary to discuss a separate peace with Britain.  (Glad it didn’t work!)

… two actors from the movie Titanic helped the last survivor of the actual shipwreck?  After the success of the 1997 movie, stars Leonardo DiCaprio (born 1974) and Kate Winslet (born 1975) learned that the then-only living survivor of the actual Titanic, Millvina Dean (1912-2009), was having to sell mementos of the ship which she had acquired in order to raise money to live.  DiCaprio and Winslet each contributed more than $20,000 to a fund established to pay her nursing home fees.  (A titanic thing to do!)

… it’s estimated that some ten decillion snowflakes have fallen on Earth since the planet was formed?  The number, written out, is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.  (Who gets paid to figure this stuff out, anyway?)

… you may be a sufferer of oenophobia?  If you are, then you are deathly afraid of wine.  (So don’t whine about it.)

Now … you know!