Whose portrait was on the first $1 bill printed by the U.S. Government?

Ah, the glories of a beautiful spring!

The flowers are in bloom, the birds are singing in the trees, leaves are bursting out all over … spring is heavenly, isn’t it?

(You’re waiting for me to say something about baseball, aren’t you?  Well, not this time, bucko!  Even I can go overboard, you know.)

Another wonderful thing about spring is the trivia we can find.  Of course, I could say that about summer, fall and winter, too.  So let’s turn up some nifty trivia for us all to enjoy!

Did you know …

… an auto designer once tried to design a new kind of pasta?  In 1983, the Italian pasta manufacturer Voiello commissioned Giorgetto Giugiaro (born 1938) to create a new kind of pasta.  Giugiaro designed what he called Marille, a pasta that had two tubes instead of one, with grooves on the inside to get more sauce in each bite.  The pasta failed, however, because it cooked unevenly due to its design.  The company stopped producing the pasta shortly after it debuted.  (Guess it didn’t make it to the finish line.)

… splintered baseball bats have a future in Japan?  True.  Many of the baseball bats that end up in splinters in professional games are turned into chopsticks.  The Japanese even have a word for such things – kattobashi, which is (according to The New York Times) a combination of the word for chopsticks and a baseball chant meaning “get a big hit.”  (Ever try using baseball bats as chopsticks?  Neither have I.)

… whose portrait was on the first paper one-dollar bill printed by the United States government?  In 1862, the first legal tender note with a value of one dollar was printed by the government.  But you might not recognize who’s picture is on it, because it isn’t George Washington (1732-1799), first President of the United States.  The bill actually bears the picture of Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873) who was Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865).  And yes, Chase’s picture was printed on the bill while he was still alive to see it.  Washington was pictured on the one-dollar bill beginning in 1869.  Chase, by the way, eventually was “promoted” to being pictured on the $10,000 bill beginning in 1918.  Additional trivia note:  It was legal to put living people on U.S. money until 1866.  That year, Spencer Clark (1811-1890), then head of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, placed his own face on the short-lived 5¢ note.  The public outcry led Congress to enact a law requiring a person to be dead ten years before they could be depicted on currency.  (I don’t really care whose face is on it, I just want more of it.)

… speaking of money, a dollar is called a “buck” for a reason?  During the early days of Michigan’s existence as a U.S. territory, deer were so common and plentiful that hunting was a part of daily life.  For a time, deer skins – and sometimes whole deer – were used as a medium of exchange.  A deer carcass was worth a dollar, and thus did the dollar become known as the “buck.”  (Oh, deer.)

… elephants are evolving in response to ivory poaching?  African elephants are now being born and growing up without their huge ivory tusks, as it appears that – thanks to poachers – the ones with tusks aren’t living very long.  The problem is that the tusks aren’t just for show.  The elephants use them to build habitats and dig for water, among other needs.   In some parts of Africa, tuskless elephants have grown from 3% of the population to more than 50%.  (The tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth.)

… the name of a popular dessert has a special, practical meaning?  I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love tiramisu, the creamy dessert made of espresso-soaked ladyfingers surrounded with whipped cream (and offered with or without alcohol enhancement).  But the word tiramisu itself means “pick me up” or “cheer me up” in Italian.   (Aptly named, I think.)

… film is called “footage” for a reason?  The reason is because it is measured in feet.  Yeah, you already knew that.  But do you know the backstory to it?  Movies were primarily released on 35 mm film, and one foot of 35 mm film contained 16 frames.  That one foot took exactly one second of screen time.  So the amount of seconds in a film is also the same as the amount of footage.  The term was originated by film editors.  (Film at 11.)

… which high school and college sport produces the most head and spinal injuries?  If you said football, you’re wrong.  It’s cheerleading.  In fact, cheerleading produces more head and spinal injuries than all other high school and college sports combined.  (Give a cheer!)

… divorce is a breeze today compared to the Middle Ages?  While a divorce can be expensive and sometimes messy, it is nothing next to the way marital disputes were settled in the Middle Ages.  Then, it could come down to sanctioned, violent combat.  Records from the time indicate that a husband and wife who wanted to divorce each other could be ordered to fight.  The husband would be placed in a waist-deep hole and given a club, while the wife was provided with a sling and a lot of rocks.  The combat involved beating each other until one or the other went unconscious, or more likely dead.  (Alimony is eliminated that way, though.)

… scarecrows frighten birds because of odor?  If a farmer puts a “naked” scarecrow out in the field, birds will typically ignore it and munch away on the crop to their hearts’ content.  But if the scarecrow is wearing clothing, birds are frightened off.  The clothing emanates a human odor, but over time – and with the help of weather – that odor dissipates.  (There’s gotta be a joke in there somewhere.)

Now … you know!