Who was the now forgotten fourth member of the “Rice Krispies” character team

I was thinking about Al Jolson recently. (The younger among my readers are immediately going to ask, “Who is Al Jolson?” To which I reply, “Look him up. Don’t expect me to have all the answers for you.”)

Mostly, since we are now in May, I was thinking of Jolson’s famous version of the song, “April Showers.” You know, the one with the lyrics:

“Though April showers

May come your way,

They bring the flowers

That bloom in May …”

We had the April showers, so let’s go look at the May flowers!

While we’re at it, let’s look at some newly created trivia, just for you!

Did you know …

… every hour, about 180 million new red blood cells enter your bloodstream? Red blood cells are little more than shells, to tell you the truth. Before they are released from the bone marrow, where they are made, most of the red blood cell’s internal structure is ejected. That leaves the well-known disc shape, perfect for carrying oxygen – and a small amount of carbon dioxide – through your body. (What I want to know is, who counts them?)

… the lifespan of the average firefly is only seven days? During that time, they are most busy trying to find a mate. (Aren’t we all?)

… in most American states, a wedding ring is exempt by law from being included in the assets of a person during a bankruptcy? This means that, no matter how much money is owed, creditors cannot seize wedding rings in bankruptcy proceedings. The value of the ring is immaterial; whether worth millions or just out of a box of Cracker Jack, the ring is off limits. (Kind of makes you wonder which states allow the ring to be seized, doesn’t it?)

… a human eyebrow typically has about 550 hairs? (Again, who is spending their time counting these things?)

… seeing-eye dogs are color blind? Like all dogs, the vision of seeing-eye dogs is mostly monochromatic, meaning they see in shades of gray. But they are still able to assist blind people at traffic intersections, because they are taught the position of the “stop” and “go” lights. (Until some joker puts the lights in upside down, that is.)

… a 2016 gathering in Chicago was one of the largest in human history? The celebration parade for the Chicago Cubs’ winning of the 2016 World Series had an estimated attendance of five to seven million people. This places it seventh on the all-time list of gatherings of people throughout human history. (Oh, to have been there…)

… the Rice Krispies character team once had four members? We all know about Snap, Crackle and Pop, but have you ever heard of the fourth member, Pow? Probably not. While the cereal itself has been around since 1928 and was marketed on the radio for the sounds it made when milk was added, the elf-like characters of Snap, Crackle and Pop were not created until a couple of years later for print ads. In 1955, with the burgeoning of television, the Kellogg’s advertising department tried to add a fourth brother elf, Pow. Pow was a spaceman who would glide in on a helicopter in television commercials during the “Howdy Doody” show, exuding “the power of whole grain rice.” Pow made appearances in at least two commercials for Rice Krispies, and his character was totally different from the other three. ow never spoke, just pointed at things, and the voiceover for the commercial explained who he was supposed to be. So what happened to Pow? Nobody is sure. The character was added because it was “cool” to have space-related things in advertising in the 1950s, and deleted because there didn’t seem to be much of a reason for him to be there at all. I think it was because “Snap, Crackle, Pop, Pow” is hard to work into a jingle, myself.)

… a famous author invented a board game? Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens, 1835-1910) created a board game he called Mark Twain’s Memory Builder: A Game for Acquiring and Retaining All Sorts of Facts and Dates. (Nowadays, we call it Jeopardy! Or my trivia column. Or, sometimes, history class.)

… a toymaker once sued a musical group over a song? In 1997, the musical group Aqua recorded the song “Barbie Girl.” In 2000, Mattel, the toy company that makes the Barbie™ doll, sued the group for trademark infringement. The judge hearing the case tossed it out of court, telling Mattel’s attorneys, “Chill.”

… Hondas and Toyotas are the most frequently stolen passenger cars? The reason is that they have parts that can be readily interchanged between model years with no problem. (I drive a Toyota … hey …)

… your average caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head? (Not much else, I’m afraid to say.)

… you may be suffering from clinophobia? If you are, I wonder how you sleep at night – clinophobia is the fear of beds. (If you have it, I assume you’d sleep on the couch, or in a chair, or a sleeping bag.)

… you can send an e-mail to a tree? In 2013, the city of Melbourne, Australia, assigned several of its trees an e-mail address so the public could report problems with the tree. You know, things like dangerous branches and the like. But people have been sending the trees love letters instead. (It wood be terrible to get a lumbering response, don’t you think? I’ll show myself out.)

Now … you know!

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