Why does Venus rotate in a direction opposite that of the other planets?

Thanksgiving is one week from today!  (If you’re reading this on a Thursday, that is.)

May your celebration be a great one, and may you be surrounded by the people you love, and those who love you.

I am still interested in what your favorite Thanksgiving treats are, and if you want to tell me, drop a note to me at didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com.  And I wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Meanwhile, enjoy the trivia!  Use it for dessert.

Did you know …

… parrots do not have vocal cords?  They make their sounds with an organ called the syrinx.  Located in the bird’s trachea, the syrinx can reproduce any sound it can imagine.  (Polly want a cracker?)

… a champion boxer once wanted to fight a gorilla?  During the late 1980s, boxing champ Mike Tyson (born 1966) was visiting a New York-area zoo with his then-wife, Robin Givens (born 1964), when Tyson spotted a large silverback gorilla in its enclosure, reportedly bullying other gorillas.  Tyson offered the zookeeper $10,000 to let him go inside the enclosure and “smash that silverback’s snot box.”  The zookeeper declined.  (I’m not a boxing fan but I’d have paid good money to see that fight.)

… you can actually hear a plant growing?  The rhubarb plant, famous for the pies one can make from it, grows up to an inch per day, and as it does, it pops, squeaks, and makes other noises.  (I’d rather eat one than hear one, but it’s interesting nonetheless.)

… scientists are of two minds about why Venus rotates clockwise?  The other seven planets in the Solar System rotate counterclockwise, but not Venus.  Nobody is really sure of why, but there are two prevailing theories.  One holds that, during the early days of the Solar System, Venus rotated just like all the other planets do, but a collision with another body of planetary size actually knocked its rotation in the opposite direction and slowed it down considerably.  The other theory says Venus’ north pole actually flipped to point in the opposite direction due to the very dense, thick atmosphere of the planet.  The heavy air combined with the Sun’s gravity and the friction between the mantle and core of the planet caused it to flip upside down.  If that’s the case, then Venus does indeed rotate counterclockwise, but inverted.  Additional trivia note:  A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.  In Earth terms, one Venusian year is 225 days.  But one day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days.  (Not that it matters, unless you’re on Venus.)

… raising a toast with your drinks has a historical source?  In ancient Rome, people would drop a piece of toasted bread into their wine for good health.  That’s where the “toast” came from.  (I’ll drink to that.)

… which came first, plants or seeds?  A botanical version of the old “chicken or egg” gag, the actual answer is that plants came before seeds.  Early plants were more like moss and reproduced with single-cell spores, while multicellular seeds didn’t evolve for another 150 million years.  (Now if they could only figure that out for chickens and eggs.)

… a portion of the Moon landing in 1969 was actually faked?  No, not the flight, nor the landing itself.  Those actually happened, despite what some silly people say.  The faked part was the quarantine that Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930-2012), Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin (born 1930), and Michael Collins (1930-2021) were required to stay in for 21 days once they arrived back on Earth.  Though NASA was indeed concerned about the possibility of the astronauts bringing back some form of microbial life from outer space, they knew ahead of time that the quarantine they would be using wouldn’t have been much good if indeed some alien bugs managed to hitch a ride.  And, as it turned out, no microbes came back, so the whole thing was for show.

… the Michelin “star” restaurant ratings were created to sell tires?  In 1926, the Michelin Tire Company of France began awarding star ratings to restaurants.  But the ratings had little to do with actual food, service and ambiance.  Rather, they were awarded to encourage people to drive farther distances to eat, and thus wear down their car tires faster – and force them to buy more.  (Ulterior motives exist everywhere!)

… the modern coffee filter was invented by a housewife?  In 1908, German housewife Melitta Bentz (1873-1950), a woman who very much enjoyed her coffee, became frustrated with the percolation process which allowed coffee grounds to fall into the pot, then into her coffee cup.  Bentz created a filter by punching holes in the base of a brass pot, then placing a blotting sheet on top of it.  The sheet allowed the water to pass through but trapped the grounds, and the modern coffee filter was born.  Bentz patented her invention and started the Melitta company to make the filters, and the company is still in business today, under the control of Bentz’ descendants.  (I, for one, am very glad Frau Bentz invented this.  I love my morning coffee.)

… news of a dictator’s death was met in varied ways around the world?  The death of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) was met with extreme sadness in the Soviet Union, with many people actually committing suicide rather than live in a world without him.  But in the United States, Stalin’s passing was either simply noted or, in some cases, celebrated.  One such celebration took place at a Washington, D.C. restaurant called the 1203.  That eatery noted Stalin’s death by offering customers free bowls of borscht.  (I have a line here, but it would close the show.)

Now … you know!