Who was the last king to fight alongside his troops during a war?

Yes, I know I left something out of last week’s letter to Santa. I left out the gifts I’d like to see others get.

With that in mind, I’ll just confine my comment on that to the following extra note:

Dear Santa,

I forgot to mention the other people in my life in my letter to you last week. So, for all the wonderful (and sometimes not-so-wonderful) people who’ve made their impact on me, I ask this:

May they all get exactly what they deserve.

Love,

Jack

There. Took care of it. I’ll leave the interpretation of that little request up to you, though 99.9% of them would get something wonderful if they get what I think they deserve.

Now, on to the trivia, which we all deserve!

Did you know …

… the Muppet character Miss Piggy was originally called something else? When first created by Jim Henson (1936-1990), the character was named Piggy Lee. (I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m kind of glad he changed the name.)

… an iconic movie scene was inspired by illness? In the 1979 movie “Alien,” the scene where an alien monster bursts out of the chest of the character played by actor John Hurt (1940-2017) was inspired by a real illness suffered by the script writer, Dan O’Bannon (1946-2009). O’Bannon suffered from Crohn’s Disease, and he said the chest-bursting scene was inspired by the terrific pain the intestinal disease caused him. (This I understand!)

… an ice hotel has fire alarms? The Swedish Ice Hotel, located in the town of Boverket, Sweden, is built each year from blocks of ice carved out of the frozen Torne River. Because of rules imposed by Sweden’s National Housing Board, however, the ice hotel must include fire alarms – despite being made entirely of frozen water. (If the place ever did catch fire, it would put itself out.)

… hats help keep you warm? Studies show that about 80% of your body heat escapes through the head. So in cold weather, wearing a hat is a good idea. (And if you look like me, wearing a mask is a good idea too.)

… you may have a fipple in your house? Don’t panic if you do, though. A fipple is the mouthpiece that is used on an end-blown wind instrument such as a recorder or a tin whistle. The musician blows air through a narrow slit in the fipple to produce the sound of the instrument. (I can hear the dinner conversations: “Honey, we need a new fipple.” “It’s your turn to buy the fipple, dear.”)

… the last king to fight alongside his troops did so during World War I? When German armies wanted to go through Belgium to attack France in 1914, the Belgian king, Albert I (1875-1934), refused. The Germans then invaded Belgium, and Albert declared war on Germany. During the war, the king took personal command of the Belgian army, and spent a large portion of the war on the front lines. It was said that German troops did not fire upon His Majesty as a sign of respect for his being the highest ranking commander in the field. Once the war ended, Albert resumed a peaceful reign until his death. Additional trivia note: The king wasn’t the only member of his family to get involved in the war. During the conflict, his wife, Queen Elisabeth (1876-1965), served as a front-line nurse, and the Crown Prince, who would become Leopold III (1901-1983), enlisted as a 12-year-old private in the army and served for one year before being sent to England to school. (Modern royalty doesn’t hold a candle to guys like Albert!)

… more than 200 languages have been invented for television and movies? Probably the most widely-spoken in the “real” world is Klingon, created for the television series “Star Trek.” Developed by linguist Marc Okrand (born 1948), he based it on nonsense syllables uttered by actor Mark Lenard (1924-1996) as a Klingon captain in “Star Trek – The Motion Picture” in 1979. The initial sounds were scripted with specific meanings, and Okrand went from there to create an artificial language spoken by millions of non-Klingons here on Earth today. (I’d comment but my Klingon is pretty patahk.)

… the average anteater consumes about 35,000 ants a day? (Those crispy crunchies are the best, aren’t they?)

… oxygen has a color? As a gas, of course, it’s colorless. But when cooled to a liquid or solid state, oxygen has a pale blue hue. (And if you don’t get any oxygen, you turn blue.)

… dolphins have names for each other? They are the only species other than humans that are known to do this. (I can imagine what some of those names might be, too.)

… sloths swim three to four times faster than they move on land? (Of course they do. Everything is slower on land for sloths.)

… hummingbirds have five collective words? A grouping of hummingbirds can be correctly referred to as a hover, a glittering, a bouquet, a tune, or a shimmer.

… an evil dictator had a serious intestinal problem? Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), leader of Nazi Germany from 1933 until his death, had a real problem with flatulence. The Führer was, at one time, taking 28 different medications in an effort to control his uncontrollable passing of gas. (Another case of the jokes just writing themselves, right?)

… dueling is legal in Paraguay? The only stipulation in the South American nation regarding dueling is that both participants must be registered blood donors. (Oh, well, in that case, go right ahead!)

Now … you know!

HHJ News