So Now You Know

Corn pollen more than 80,000 years old was found in Mexico. Proper popcorn was known in China, Sumatra, and India for at least 5000 years. Popped popcorn and kernels 5600 years old were discovered in the "Bat Cave" in New Mexico in 1948-1950. Popcorn kernels - ready to pop - were unearthed in ancient Peruvian tombs. In a cave is southern Utah, fluffy, fresh looking, white popcorn was dated to 1000 years ago.

Popcorn was used by the Aztecs and Indians as a decorative motif in headdresses, necklaces, and ornaments on statues of divinities. In the 16th century, both Hernando Cortes (in Mexico) and Christopher Columbus (in the West Indies) described these unusual uses of the snack. Father Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590), a Franciscan priest with deep interest in Mexican culture, described a ritual in honor of the Aztec gods of fisheries:

"They scattered before him parched corn, called momochitl, a kind of corn which bursts when parched and discloses its contents and makes itself look like a very white flower; they said these were hailstones given to the god of water."

Today in history - 1520

After looting Tenochtitlan, Spaniards are attacked by an angry Aztec mob. Tied down by armor and treasure, they are no match for the natives and nearly half of Cortes' men lose their lives.

Cobbled item II

A recently completed study by scientists at the Oregon Research Institute (ORI) in Eugene confirmed earlier findings from a pilot study that walking on a cobblestone mat surface resulted in significant reductions in blood pressure and improvements in balance and physical performance among adults 60 and over.

[BBB related story].

News from all over - Leicester

A train driver asked passengers for sellotape so he could carry out repairs to the train they were travelling in. The Midland Mainline train from London St Pancras to Nottingham broke down south of Leicester reports BBC online. The driver asked passengers for sellotape when an exterior air pipe came loose and he tried to fix it.

[Sellotape? Have these people never heard of the handyman's secret weapon or the American Duck Tape Council?]

Today in history - 1905

Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", where he introduces special relativity.

BBB Comix of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a comic (cover, daily, panels) each Wednesday. This week, let your imagine roam and think about the, no doubt, wholesome story contained in this 1953 classic.

And on a related note ...

Back in the 50s, Burt the Turtle taught us all how to Duck and Cover... dum dum deedle dum dum ...

News from all over - Jackson

Two Madison County Tennessee sheriff's deputies have been suspended with pay after an alleged incident of inappropriate sexual contact between a male inmate and a female inmate occurred under the deputies' supervision.

The incident reportedly occurred Friday, while the male and female inmates, both 34 years old, were being transported between Dyer County and Lake County.

A preliminary investigation found the inmates had consensual sexual contact, according to a press release from the Sheriff's Department. Both were wearing restraint devices that included waist chains and handcuffs, the release said.

Today in history - 1934

The Thin Man movie debuts, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as detective couple Nick and Nora Charles. The low-budget film became an unexpected box office success and won Powell a nomination for the Best Actor Oscar. This film also launched the career of Asta, the most famous screwball comedy dog every to grace the screen (as every good crossword puzzler knows).

BBB Etymology - Bee's Wax

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a word or phrase etymology each Tuesday. This week, consider "Mind your own bee's wax". The phrase comes from the days when smallpox was a common disease that caused disfigurement. Those who survived the disease were left with pock marks on their body and face. Ladies would fill in the pock marks with beeswax. However when the weather was very warm the wax might melt. But it was not the thing to do for one lady to tell another that her makeup was melting.

Germans have nothing on Britains

A British cruise company is launching what it says is the world's first holiday devoted to laughter therapy.

Ocean Village's Laugh Alive cruise, which sets sail in September, hopes to have passengers laughing around the Med. Workshops range from laughter yoga, meditation and breath work to comedy, improvisation and creative story telling. These sessions have been proven to have numerous health benefits including the release of endorphins, which work as a natural mood lifter.

[BBB related story].

So Now You Know

M&M's stands for the last names of Forrest Mars, Sr., then candymaker, and his associate Bruce Murrie.

When guys are being guys

So, what design would you expect to be the winner of a contest to place a Hemi engine in something other than a car or truck?

(Thanks to Chris)

BBB Geek-toid

Each Monday, the Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a "geek-related" item (person, place, item). This week, BBB features a very geeky web site that equally could qualify for Friday's "BBB Site of the Week".

Don't let the site name, old-computers.com dissuade you. We're talking great information about computers (from at least 10 years ago) you may have only heard about or may have used on that first prophetic day you placed fingertips to electronic keyboard. Plus, don't miss these features: determine how far behind introduction of the IBM PC was to the first Apple Computer by browsing by year (in the left margin) and peruse the library of pictures, adverts, and personal stories for each unit by clicking on one of the string of icons on the right.

Oh, there's more, much more but no geek wants to be told when a web page will do! So, go for it. It's bound to bring back memories even if your first PC was the Archimedes A7000

So Now You Know

The first computers that can be called 'personal' were the first non-mainframe computers, the LINC and the PDP-8. By today's standards they were big (about the size of a refrigerator), expensive (around $50,000 US), and had small magnetic core memories (about 4096 12-bit words for the LINC).

Marketing 101

Seems the boyfriend and girlfrind arm pillows are taking Japan by storm.

Today in history - 1939

On this day in 1939, one of the most famous scenes in movie history is filmed--Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara parting in Gone with the Wind. Director Victor Fleming also shot the scene using the alternate line, "Frankly, my dear, I just don't care," in case the film censors objected to the word "damn." The censors approved the movie but fined producer David O. Selznick $5,000 for including the curse.

Today in history - 1906

The first French Grand Prix--the first race of that type to be held anywhere--was staged in Le Mans by the Automobile Club of France and won by Hungarian driver Ferenc Szisz in a 90hp Renault. The race covered 1,200 kilometers over two days, and was run under a new set of rules that would become a standard element of Grand Prix racing. The Automobile Club of France stipulated that all cars were to weigh no more than 1,000 kg. Three cars could be entered by each manufacturer, with each car operated by a two-man crew. The rules encouraged the entry of lightweight cars with absurdly large engines. The Panhard entry, for example, had a four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 18,279cc and pistons the diameter of pie plates. Szisz's 13-liter Renault covered the 768 miles of rural dirt roads at an average speed of 63mph. The leading cars were all hitting close to 100mph. Their nose-heavy weight distribution, lightweight chassis, and primitive tires made the cars nearly impossible to handle. While the Renault car's drive shaft was less advanced than others in the race, the car boasted the important innovation of removable tire-carrying rims. Tire changes with removable rims took around four minutes, as opposed to the 15 minutes required to change the fixed-rim tires. Szisz stopped his car nine times to replace tire punctures, but he was still able to finish 32 minutes ahead of the second place Nazzaro's Fiat.

Relativity before Einstein

In September 1752 the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian calendar in Great Britain and its American colonies. The Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian calendar, so 14 September got to follow 2 September on the day of the change.

The calendar switch also influenced the way George Washington's birthday is celebrated. He was born on 11 February 1731, but the anniversary of his birth is on 22 February because of the 11 days eliminated from the calendar switch. At the same time, New Year's Day was changed from 25 March to 1 January, thus according to the new calendar, Washington was born in 1732.

The first Roman Calendar (introduced in 535BC) had 10 months, with 304 days in a year that began in March. January and February were added only later. In 46BC, Julius Caesar created "The Year of Confusion" by adding 80 days to the year making it 445 days long to bring the calendar back in step with the seasons. The solar year - with the value of 365 days and 6 hours - was made the basis of the calendar. To take care of the 6 hours, every 4th year was made a 366-day year. It was then that Caesar decreed that the year begins with the 1st of January.

In 325AD Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Sunday as a holy day in a new 7-day week. He also introduced movable (Easter) and immovable feasts (Christmas).

In 1545 the Council of Trent authorised Pope Paul III to reform the calendar once more. Advised by astronomer Father Christopher Clavius and physician Aloysius Lilius, Pope Gregory XIII ordered that Thursday, 4 October 1582 was to be the last day of the Julian calendar. The next day was Friday, 15 October. For long-term accuracy, every 4th year was made a leap year unless it is a century year like 1700 or 1800. Century years can be leap years only when they are divisible by 400 (e.g. 1600). This rule eliminates three leap years in four centuries, making the calendar sufficiently correct for all ordinary purposes.

Protestant rulers ignored the new calendar that the Pope ordered. It was not until 1698 that Germany and the Netherlands changed to the Gregorian calendar. As mentioned, Britain made the change only in 1752. Russia adopted the new calendar in 1918, China in 1949.

In spite of the leap year, the Gregorian year is about 26 seconds longer than the earth's orbital period. Thus the beginning of the third millennium should have been celebrated at 9:01pm on 31 December 1999. But considering that the Gregorian calendar starts with Year 1, and not Year 0, adding 2000 years means that the third millennium started at 21h00:34s on 31 December 2000. However, because Dionysis Exeguus - the 6th Century monk whose task it was to pivot the calendar around the birth of Jesus Christ - miscalculated the founding of Rome by about 4 years (and left out the year 0), the TRUE THIRD MILLENNIUM actually started on 31 December 1995.

So Now You Know

The word "puppy" comes from the French poupee, meaning "doll."
__________

If a frog eats enough fireflies, it will glow.

News from all over - Berlin

The world's first laughter school has opened its doors in Berlin to teach serious minded Germans to lighten up.

Laughter teacher Susanne Maier said people who sign up for the courses practice exercises to teach them all the different types of laughs.

Standing around in small groups, Germans are seen slapping themselves on the forehead with their mouths wide open and practising different types of laughter.

Meyer said: "The most important laugh is the believable laugh, especially here in a land that has forgotten how to laugh.

"But I am hoping to see laughter schools opening up everywhere. Germany will become a land of laughter - and Berlin the laughter capital of Europe."

Not to be sneezed at (reprise)

The same material used to manufacture Kleenex was also used by field doctors and nurses as a sterile dressing in the early 1940s.

The character 'Little LuLu' was adopted from the Saturday Evening Post, where she spent her time reminding Americans to conserve to support the war effort. By 1949 'Little LuLu' has become a brand icon and finds herself on one of the largest billboards ever to grace Times Square.

So Now You Know

Johannes Gutenberg is often credited as the inventor of the printing press in 1454. But neither printing nor movable type was actually invented by Johannes Gutenberg, nor did he print the first book. The Chinese actually printed from movable type in 1040, but later discarded the method.

Even before printing books from movable type, the Chinese used wooden blocks to print Budhist writings by hand on scrolls in the 9th Century. While there are no surviving examples of the Chinese printing presses of the 11th Century, the oldest surving printed book on record is the Budhist Diamond-Sutra of 868 AD.

Nevertheless, before 1454, there were only about 30,000 books throughout the whole of Europe, nearly all Bibles or biblical commentary. By 1500, there were more than 9 million books.

BBB Site of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) will feature a cool "site-ing" each Friday. This week, for your consideration, I point you to flowerful possibilities.

Disney treats

A Hollywood tradition returns with the opening of Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store on Hollywood Boulevard, adjacent to the historic El Capitan Theatre. The Soda Fountain, which offers an old fashioned ice cream parlor experience with some fun new twists, will proudly serve ice cream custom prepared by Dewar's, an award-winning fourth generation family business based in Bakersfield, California, dating back to 1909.

Cones, sundaes, shakes and malts, freezes, floats, and old-time phosphates will be available at the counter, at full service tables, for take-out, and at the sidewalk cone window on Hollywood Blvd. Dewar's will also be providing their homemade taffy chews (five delicious flavors including the popular peanut butter chew), and secret family recipe for hot fudge and marshmallow toppings. Coca-Cola products will be featured at the Soda Fountain, where specialty beverages will be freshly mixed for real fountain flavor and served by an authentic soda jerk.

Spanning the globe

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is so long – 4,260 feet – that the towers are a few inches out of parallel to accommodate the curvature of the earth.

Today in history - 1947

Businessman pilot Kenneth Arnold encounters a formation of nine flying saucers near Mt. Ranier, Washington, exhibiting unusual movements and velocities of 1,700 mph. No explanation is found for this first report of flying saucers in the recent era, but it does earn Mr. Arnold legions of skeptics and an eventual IRS tax audit.

Circus crackers

There are 19* different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo. Over the past 100 years, 54 different animals have lived in the Barnum's Animal Cracker box.

*Names of current Animal Shapes: bear (sitting), bear (walking), bison, camel, cougar, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, kangaroo, koala (new in 2002), lion, monkey, rhinoceros, seal, sheep, tiger, hyena, and zebra.

[And no, I don't know what all 54 were.]

So Now You Know

Koalas are the only non-primate with distinct and unique finger prints.

Not to be sneezed at

The elephant's trunk does so much more than smell. This "hose nose" is also used for drinking (actually blowing water into the mouth), communication, feeding, chemo-communication, offense/defense, touching, lifting, greeting, caressing, throwing dust, and just about any other activity an elephant is involved in.

The trunk of a full-grown elephant weighs about 400 pounds. The trunk can hold up to 2.5 gallons of water. An elephant can use its trunk as a snorkel when wading in water over its head. Elephants maintain social bonds in part by touching, caressing, and smelling each other with their trunks. The trunk is the largest nose of any living animal. There are at least 40,000 muscles in the trunk, which is strong enough to pick up a log, yet delicate enough to pick up a grain of rice.

The monkeys

The Nikko Toshogo Shrine, also known as the Sacred Stable, in Japan has a carving of three wise monkeys. Many scholars believe the monkeys were carved as a visual representation of the religious principle, "If we do not hear, see, or speak evil, we ourselves shall be spared all evil."

Others believe that the saying originated from a Japanese play on words. "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil," translated into Japanese is, "mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru." The Japanese word for monkey is "saru", and sounds very similar to the verb-ending "zaru". It is easy to see how the saying may have originated from a fun play on words. The only problem with this explanation is that the three wise monkeys aren't originally from Japan.

In the eighth century A.D. a Buddhist monk from China introduced the three wise monkeys to Japan. They were associated with a fearsome blue-faced deity called Vadjra. It is believed that the monkeys' gestures were a representation of a command of the deity to "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

Beginning in the late Muromchi period (1333-1568), it became customary to carve these figures on koshinto, stone pillars used during the observance of Koshin. According to the Kiyu Shoran, an early 19th century reference work, the Three Monkeys may also be related to the Sanno belief complex, wherein monkeys play the role of divine messangers. The Three Monkeys represent the Santai (Three Truths) advocated the Tendai Sect of Buddhims. The Tendai founder, Saicho is said to have carved a representation of this ideal in the form of monkeys.

BBB Comix of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) will feature a comic (cover, daily, panels) each Wednesday. This week, well, see if you can make sense of this 1940 classic.

Sargasso Sea facts

The Sargasso Sea is an international meeting place for eels. Drawn by unknown forces, the snakelike fish come from Europe, the Mediterranean and the United States to mate, spawn and die. From there, their larvae make the long journey back to continental waters. Also, the Sargasso Sea does not have a coastline - it is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between the West Indies and the Azores. Jules Verne wrote about it in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea".

Top fifty items lifted by pros

Here are the top 50 shoplifted items by "organized retail theft" - involing professional theft rings that move quickly from community to community and across state lines to steal large amounts of merchandise that is then repackaged and sold back into the marketplace. In rank order, they are:

Advil tablet 50 ct, Advil tablet 100 ct, Aleve caplet 100 ct, EPT Pregnancy Test single, Gillette Sensor 10 ct, Kodak 200 24 exp, Similac w/iron powder - case, Similac w/iron powder - single can, Preparation H 12 ct, Primatene tablet 24 ct, Sudafed caplet 24 ct, Tylenol caplet 100 ct, Advil caplet 100 ct, Aleve caplet 50 ct, Correctol tablet 60 ct, Excedrin tablet 100 ct, Gillette Sensor/Excel 10 ct, Gillette Sensor 15 ct, Monistat 3, Preparation H Ointment 1 oz, Similac w/iron concentrate 13 oz, Tavist-D decongestant tablet 16 ct, Trojan ENZ 12 ct, Tylenol gelcap 50 ct, Tylenol gelcap 100 ct, Tylenol tablet 100 ct, Vagistat 1, Advil caplet 50 ct, Advil gelcap 50 ct, Advil gelcap 24 ct, Advil tablet 50 ct, Aleve tablet 50 ct, Anacin tablet 100 ct, Centrum tablet 60 ct, DayQuil liquicaps 20 ct, Dimetap tablet 12 ct, Duracell AA 4 pk, Ecotrin tablet 100 ct, Ecotrin tablet 60 ct, Energizer AA 4 pk, Excedrin tablet 50 ct, Femstat 3 app, Gillette Atra 10 ct, Gyne-Lotrimin 3 app, Monistat 7, Motrin caplet 50 ct, Motrin tablet 24 ct, Oil of Olay 4 oz, Preparation H Ointment 2 oz, Schick Tracer FX 10 ct, Gillette Sensor/Women 10 ct, Sudafed tablet 24 ct, Visine drops 1 oz,

News from all over - Kansas City

The first two innings of the July 16th game between the Kansas City T-Bones and the Schaumburg Flyers will be played virtually.

Equipped with Microsoft Xbox game controllers instead of baseball gloves and bats, two video gamers will climb into recliner chairs around home plate at CommunityAmerica Ballpark and slug it out on the park’s 16- by 24-foot video screen.

Their scores from playing two innings of MVP Baseball 2005 on an Xbox will stand when the T-Bones and Flyers take the field to finish the last seven innings of the game.

BBB Etymology - Whole Nine Yards

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) will feature a word or phrase etymology each Tuesday. This week, consider the (non-football) term "the whole nine yards". The phrase originates from WWII fighter pilots in the Pacific. The .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet on the ground before being loaded into the fuselage of planes like the P-40 (shown above). If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole nine yards".

And in science news ...

Guinness World Records recognized NASA's X-43A scramjet with a new world speed record for a jet-powered aircraft - Mach 9.6, or nearly 7,000 mph. The X-43A set the new mark and broke its own world record on its third and final flight on Nov. 16, 2004.

In March 2004, the X-43A set the previous record of Mach 6.8 (nearly 5,000 mph). The fastest air-breathing, manned vehicle, the U.S. Air Force SR-71, achieved slightly more than Mach 3.2. The X-43A more than doubled, then tripled, the top speed of the jet-powered SR-71.

Cobbled item

All of the cobble stones that used to line the streets in New York were originally weighting stones put in the hulls of Belgian ships to keep an even keel.

News from all over - W Des Moines

A man who police say took restaurant managers to the cleaners for a fake dry cleaning bill has been arrested. Michael Bagwell, who was using the alias Mark Laskowski, carried his dry-cleaning bill to seven suburban Des Moines restaurants earlier this month, police said.

Bagwell went into the Lone Star Steakhouse the first week of June and told the manager that his wife had been in the week before and that a waitress had spilled iced tea on her. He presented a dry cleaning bill for $25.90 and the restaurant's manager, Nicole Graham, apologized and paid the bill.

She became suspicious when Bagwell couldn't remember the zip code for his Clive address, so she watched out the window as he left and saw him go across the road to Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que, where he asked the manager to pay the bill. Police said four restaurant managers paid the bill.

Bagwell was arrested June 4 after police received calls from Lone Star Steakhouse and Famous Dave's. Police found 14 fake dry cleaning bills in his car, along with identification cards with Bagwell's photograph and four other names.

He was charged with theft, perjury and stealing the identity of a former Georgia jail inmate. It's unknown how many times the scam worked, police said. The investigation also has spread to Illinois, Georgia and Louisiana.

Police said Bagwell also told officers his name was Mark Matherne, the name of a man released from a Georgia jail in 2004. The car Bagwell was driving was registered to an Illinois woman, who officers couldn't find, police said.

BBB Geek-toid

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) will feature a "geek-related" item (person, place, item) each Monday. This week, BBB focuses on the toy every geeky kid wants ... The Cubes® - Cubicle Playsets.


Think of the possibilities ... put several together for a complete office setting or use one to create your own action scenes.

But, say you, "I want a full-size model for my home with all the features a cube-like existence brings without the annoying privacy issues". Your wish is Yamaha's command.

Bella would be proud

Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third.

What is it with guys and gas?

An 82-year old Glen Burnie man was transported to the Bayview Burn Center in Baltimore this morning after trying to siphon gas from his car with a vacuum cleaner while the engine was running.

Hospital officials refused to release a status report, but fire officials said he suffered first- and second-degree burns to 20 percent of his body, primarily to the left side of his abdomen, chest, hands and face.

"The vacuum not withstanding, it's not advisable to siphon gas while the car is running," said Lt. Russ Davies, spokesman for the county fire department. He added that the fire could have spread to the gas tank, blowing up the entire vehicle. "It certainly would have been possible," he said.

According to Lt. Davies, the man had locked his keys inside the vehicle last night while it was still running. Unable to get them out, the man left the car running in his driveway at 212 Benmere Road and went to bed only to find the vehicle still idling when he awoke this morning.

Determined to stop the car, the man pulled out an electric vacuum cleaner around 7:30 a.m. Lt. Davies explained the vacuum cleaner's electric motor caused a spark and ignited the gas.

"You have to wonder what type of judgment was being used there," said Lt. Davies.

[BBB related story]

Today in history - 1756

In Calcutta, 146 British prisoners are placed in a 18 foot by 14 foot cell known as The Black Hole by a Bengali, Siraj-ud-daula, and held there until the following morning. Of those imprisoned, only 23 survive.

Today in history - 1905

On this day in 1905, Pittsburgh showman Harry Davis opens the world's first nickelodeon, showing a silent film called The Great Train Robbery. The storefront theater boasted 96 seats and charged 5 cents. Nickelodeons soon spread across the country, typically featuring live vaudeville acts as well as short films. By 1907, some two million Americans had visited a nickelodeon, and the storefront theaters remained the main outlet for films until they were replaced around 1910 by large modern theaters.

Father's Day Wisdom

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned." ... Mark Twain

Today in history - 1846

The first team to play baseball under modern rules were the Knickerbockers of New York City. The club was founded on September 23, 1845, as a social club for the upper middle classes, and was strictly amateur until its disbandment. The club members, led by Alexander Cartwright, formulated the "Knickerbocker Rules", which in large part deal with organizational matters but which also lay out rules for playing the game. One of the significant rules was the prohibition of "soaking" or "plugging" the runner; under older rules, a fielder could put a runner out by hitting the runner with the thrown ball. The Knickerbocker Rules required fielders to tag or force the runner, as is done today, and avoided a lot of the arguments and fistfights that resulted from the earlier practice.

Writing the rules didn't help the Knickerbockers in the first competitive game between two clubs under the new rules, played at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey on June 19, 1846. The self-styled "New York Nine" humbled the Knickerbockers by a score of 23 to 1. Nevertheless, the Knickerbocker Rules were rapidly adopted by teams in the New York area and their version of baseball became known as the "New York Game" (as opposed to the "Massachusetts Game", played by clubs in the Boston area).

Super-Dad

Foreshadowing of "Bogus-Boggess Comix of the Week" starting Wednesday

Father's Day History

In the United States, the driving force behind the establishment of the celebration of Father's Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd whose father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, had as a single parent raised his six children in Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis's efforts to establish Mother's Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her father's death, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday in June. Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. Woodrow Wilson was personally so feted by his family in 1916, and Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. The all-male U.S. Congress, however, was mindful that passing a measure so favorable to males could be seen as a conflict of interest. Lyndon Johnson made Father's Day a holiday in 1966, but the holiday was not officially recognized until the presidency of Richard Nixon in 1972.

So Now You Know

In 1863 Friedrich Bayer and Friedrich Weskott formed Friedrich Bayer et Compagnie to manufacture coal tar dyes. The company employed chemists to come up with innovative dyes and products. In 1897, while experimenting with a waste product of one of the dye components to find relieve for his father's rheumatism, Felix Hoffmann chemically synthesised a stable form of salicylic acid powder. The compound became the active ingredient in Aspirin. The title was named "a" from acetyl, and "spir" from the spirea plant, meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria, also known as Spiraea ulmaria), the source of salicin.

Hoffmann did not discover "aspirin." He "rediscovered" it after studying experiments on acetylsalicylic acid made 40 years earlier by French chemist Charles Gergardt. In 1837, Gergardt produced good results, but the procedure was difficult and time consuming. He decided that it was not practical, and set it aside. But Gerhardt knew quite well about potential cures of acetylsalicylic acid because it had been proclaimed for more than 3500 years

Although it relieved pain, the willow bark extract, salicylic acid, caused severe stomach and mouth irritation. Hoffmann's breakthrough came on 10 August 1897 when he produced the first 100% chemically pure form of acetylsalicylic acid, thus without the free salicylic acid.


Aspirin was Hoffmann's most remarkable, but not his only success. A few days after he succeeded in synthesising acetylsalicylic acid, he manufactured another compound for which the Bayer company had high hopes, but today finds dubious popularity: diacetylmorphine, or heroin, a substance obtained a few decades earlier by English chemist C.R.A. Wright. Heroin was prescribed cautiously during WWI but by 1931 it disappeared from medicine lists in almost all countries.

News from all over - Waite Park

Central Minnesota mayors are squaring off in a toilet bowl race during this weekend's Spass Tag festival.

Waite Park Mayor Carla Schaeffer challenged the other mayors to the race, in which toilets are propelled by manual plunger power.

Schaeffer will compete against St. Cloud Mayor John Ellenbecker while Sauk Rapids Mayor Mark Campbell will race St. Joseph's Richard Carlbom. The winners will face off for the championship.

Other events in the annual festival include the Grand Day Parade and a free outdoor concert.

Father's Day Factoid

There are more collect calls on Father's day than any other day of the year.

News from all over - Shreveport

It turned pretty ugly for an armed robber who tried to rip off a group of beauty school students.

The man entered Blalock's Beauty College on Tuesday, brandishing a gun, and told the women there to lie down on the floor, according to manager Dianne Mitchell.

After collecting the money, the robber ran toward the front door and Mitchell tripped him. As he fell, the would-be robber dropped his gun and Abram Bishop, the lone male employee in the college, jumped on his back, pinning him down.

Seizing the opportunity, Mitchell rallied her students, who descended on the suspect after arming themselves with curling irons, chairs and a wooden table leg.

Jared Gipson, 24, of Shreveport, was charged with armed robbery, police said. He will be booked into the city jail once he is released from the hospital.

The gun, police learned later, was not loaded. But that didn't matter to the students.

"He got what he deserved," student Renae Collier, 26, said.

Today in history - 1939

In Versailles, Eugene Weidmann becomes the last person to be publicly guillotined. [Ed. note: Of course, private guillotine-ings continued until 1977.]

Today in history - 1955

Unless you've been on a trip to Mars without communication for the last several months, you know of Disneyland's 50th Birthday (officially July 17). But only a few weeks earlier (June 16) came the release of Lady and the Tramp. Set in the early 1900s, it influenced the design of Disneyland's Main Street (artists from L&T were put on the Disneyland project).

And now, as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story ..." Disney Historian Jim Korkis relates:

"Driving home one night, story artist Erdman Penner spotted what he felt would be a perfect live action reference model for the Tramp dashing past his headlights and into the bushes. It took some hunting but he finally located the dog in a nearby dog pound just hours before the poor pooch was to take the 'long walk' to the gas chamber. He rescued the dog and everyone at the Disney Studio agreed that the dog, less than a year old, had just the right look for the roguish Tramp.

"But here's a secret, the dog was female!

"And here's another: After she served as a live action model, that dog lived out the rest of her days at Disneyland's Pony Farm with Owen Pope and his wife, Dolly. The Popes actually lived at Disneyland in one of the houses that remained on the land that Walt purchased for Disneyland. To the best of my knowledge, the Popes were the only people who actually lived at Disneyland. Anyway, the 'real" Tramp lived at Disneyland and guests never knew. How cool is that?"

Other Main Streets

You won’t find a "Main Street" in Manhattan. There is, however, one in each of the other boroughs and on Roosevelt Island.

So Now You Know

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; '7' was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. 'UP' indicated the direction of the bubbles

News from all over - Dunbar

Larry Gaynor and his brother had to cut their latest fishing trip short after a black bear ate their food and guzzled their beer. Gaynor, 67, and his brother, Billy Bob Gaynor, 53, were camping at Summit Lake near Richwood, West Virginia on Friday when the bear wandered into their campsite at about 9 p.m.

Hearing a noise, they looked outside their tent and saw the bear with its mouth clamped on their cooler. Larry Gaynor said the bear dragged the cooler 30 yards into the woods and flung it against a tree, scattering a case of Coors Light.

"He only drank three cans," Larry he said. "He would've drank all of them if it would've been Budweiser."

Billy Bob Gaynor said the bear ate all of their food so they returned to Dunbar the next day. "Either relocate them or let me eat them," he said.

Alpha-numerics

If you were to spell out numbers in integer order starting with zero, the first number to contain the letter A would be one thousand.

So Now You Know

Since October 1, 1877, all U.S. currency has been printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which started out as a six person operation using steam powered presses in the basement of the Department of Treasury. Now, 2,300 Bureau employees occupy twenty-five acres of floor space in two Washington, D.C. buildings.

The Treasury also operates a satellite printing plant in Ft. Worth, Texas. Currency and stamps are designed, engraved, and printed twenty-four hours a day on thirty high speed presses. In 1990, at a cost of 2.6 cents each, over seven billion notes worth about $82 billion were produced for circulation by the Federal Reserve System. Ninety-five percent will replace unfit notes and five percent will support economic growth. At any one time, $200 million in notes may be in production. Notes produced in 2002 were the $1 note, 41% of production time; the $5 note, 19%; $10 notes, 16%; $20 note, 15%; and $100 note, 9%. No $2 or $50 notes were printed in 2002.

So that's where they are

The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61000.

TV as education

John Reznikoff is listed by the Guinness people as having the world's largest collection of hair from historical figures and celebs. He says one of his prized possessions is a lock of Lincoln's hair, cut the night of the president's assassination. The Connecticut collector admits some might think his hair clippings are kind of creepy. But he says someday his collection of locks could help unlock the secrets of DNA. [Ed. note: as any fan of CSI knows, you need a hair follicle ("tag") to get DNA.]

Flag Day

After Vermont and Kentucky were admitted to the Union in 1791 and 1792, respectively, two more stars and two more stripes were added to the official U.S. flag in 1795. This 15-star, 15-stripe flag was the “star-spangled banner” that inspired lawyer Francis Scott Key to write the poem that later became the US national anthem.

News from all over - Lake Placid

An elementary school was evacuated Thursday after a retired forest ranger accidentally started a fire while teaching students about 19th-century life.

Gary Hodgson was trying to show fifth-graders how pioneers built fires without matches when some gunpowder ignited, school officials and police said. The classroom filled with smoke, but no students were seriously injured. It wasn't exactly clear how the 9:30 a.m. accident happened.

Hodgson was hospitalized in stable condition with burns to his face, hands and chest. "He is an expert," volunteer firefighter Pat Gallagher said. "If you were going into the woods with somebody, he'd be the guy you'd pick."

Man-ure

Horse owners in Tuscon, Arizona, are faced with the problem of disposing of manure after the last fertilizer company that accepted the waste quit doing so. A single horse can produce 12 tons of waste and soiled bedding material in a year.

Fishy Laws

You gotta wonder what precipitated these laws ...

In the state of Washington, it's illegal to catch a fish by throwing a rock at it.

It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.

Chasing fish in a city park is prohibited in New Orleans.

It is against the law to fish from horseback in Utah, while in Idaho, residents cannot fish from a giraffe’s or camel’s back.

Tennessee law says it is illegal to catch fish by lasso.

In Liverpool, England it is illegal for a woman to be topless in public except as a clerk in a tropical fish store.

Today in history - 1920

The United States Postal Service rules that children may not be sent via Parcel Post.

Sup-er not?

Reportedly, there is a Superman reference in every episode of "Seinfeld". ... But ....

Everything but the Kudzu

It was 88 degrees and humid. Folks were eating fried catfish and hushpuppies and listening to bluesman Terry "Big T" Williams sing about the delta, while the Governor of Mississippi greeted old friends. Just another day in park - New York City's Central Park.

Like every Mississippi governor since 1979, Haley Barbour showed up Saturday for the annual New York Mississippi Picnic in Central Park. The event was established 26 years ago by Rachel McPherson after she moved to New York for graduate school from Monticello, Miss.

So Now You Know

Americans began making playing cards around 1800. Yankee ingenuity soon invented or adopted practical refinements: double-headed court cards (to avoid the nuisance of turning the figure upright), varnished surfaces (for durability and smoothness in shuffling), indexes (the identifying marks placed in the cards’ borders or corners), and rounded corners (which avoid the wear that card players inflict on square corners).

Americans also invented the Joker. It originated around 1870 and was inscribed as the "Best Bower," the highest card in the game of Euchre. Since the game was sometimes called "Juker," it is thought that the Best Bower card might have been referred to as the "Juker card" which eventually evolved into "Joker." By the 1880s, certainly, the card had come to depict a jocular imp, jester or clown. Many other images were also used, especially as Jokers became vehicles for social satire and commercial advertising. Similarly, the backs of cards were used to promote ideas, products and services, and to depict famous landmarks, events — and even fads.

During this same period, cycling — on unicycles, bicycles, and tricycles — was taking the country by storm. It was also in the latter part of the decade that Russell & Morgan, the forerunners of the United States Playing Card Company, decided to produce a line of cards of the highest quality. Employees were asked to suggest an attractive name for the new product, and a printer, "Gus" Berens, offered "Bicycle." His idea was enthusiastically accepted, and the Rider Back made its debut in 1887. Since then, while the Bicycle brand has featured dozens of different designs, the Rider Back has never gone out of production.

You get it home, and then what?

An enterprising celebrity spotter is offering fans the chance to buy a jar of fresh air allegedly breathed by stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for close to $15,000.

"Be the first to own this jar of celebrity air, which may contain air molecules that came in direct contact with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt," the seller's statement said on eBay.

By late on Friday, some 53 bidders had pushed the price of the jar to $15,099. It went on sale with a starting bid of just $9.99. As proof of its provenance, bidders are offered 13 pictures of the celebrity air being scooped up as Pitt and Jolie sashayed down the red carpet at this week's premiere of their new film Mr and Mrs Smith.

"We are not guaranteeing this air sample contains air molecules that came in contact with any celebrity epidermal layer or respiratory system, but the sample was captured in proximity of the celebrities and air molecules that did come in direct contact," the seller said.

So Now You Know

The glass armonica (named after the Italian word for harmonic) was devised by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. This once-popular instrument which employed glass bowls stacked horizontally inside one another and mounted on a small table inspired original scores from Mozart, Beethoven and other greats.

Franklin made beautiful, haunting music by dipping his fingers in water, spinning the bowls using a foot treadle and then playing them almost like a piano. One difference - he could sculpt each note by varying the speed of the bowls and the amount of pressure he applied -- similar to how a violinist uses a bow.

Well, "rockwork" doen't necessarily require "Rock"

There’s one million square feet of rockwork at Disney’s Animal Kingdom . . . that’s twice the volume of rockwork in the Mt. Rushmore sculptures or a volume that could create a monolith 10 feet by 10 feet by two miles high.

BFP (Blast From the Past)

J'ever wonder who the 15 richest fictional characters are? Wonder no more. (I do take issue with fictionalizing #1, though.)

What about the poker players?

In New York City, land of specialized art galleries, the upscale William Secord Gallery, which opened in 1990, is exclusively dedicated to dog paintings. Owner Secord has written scholarly books on the subject: "Dog Painting: 1840 to 1940: A Social History of the Dog in Art" and "European Dog Painting."

Cause "guy" comes from G.I. ;^)

The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.

So Now You Know

The silhouette on the Major League Baseball logo is Harmon Killebrew.

TV as education

The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver".

Cool Shoes

US Patent Issued In 1994

Cool Shoes have a mini-network of heat exchange coils built into their heels. With every step the compressor chamber is activated forcing cool air up into the shoe via a rubber cushion for the sole.

Prediction

It will be years - not in my time - before a woman will become Prime Minister.
- Margaret Thatcher, 1974

Oh, Wiiilbur

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

News from all over - Dehui

A Chinese man pulled a car with his ears while walking on eggs without breaking them. Zhang Xingquan, ,38, pulled the car for about 20 metres in Dehui, Jinli province. His performance drew a big crowd of astonished onlookers. Zhang said he began to learn the stunt when he was just eight-years-old. He can also pick up a 25kg bicycle with his mouth while standing on eggs.

So Now You Know

The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other's shoulders

Woo Hoo!

The first ticker-tape parade celebrated the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886.

Weighty knowledge

The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin, and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British Pound Sterling comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation.

BFP (Blast From the Past)

One doesn't often think of sentences containing both "library" and "humor" (or "humour" for non-Americans), but there's actually a web site dedicated that union. Here's a selection but I suggest scrolling up and down to see more.

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.

News from all over - Thurman

A tip for would-be gasoline thieves. When stealing gas in the dark, don't use a lighter to see how you're doing. Police in Warren County, New York say that's what Glen Germain Junior did when he was siphoning gas from a dump truck at a business in the Adirondacks last month.

The sheriff's department says Germain was transferring the fuel from the truck to a gas can when he used a lighter to see how full the container had become.

That sparked a fire that caused minor burns to his face and hands. The fire spread to a nearby forklift, which was destroyed in the blaze.

Germain has been charged with petit larceny and criminal mischief.

The arrest was Germain's second in a month for stealing gasoline from businesses in the town of Thurman, about 65 miles north of Albany.

BBB Etymology - Posh

The word posh, which denotes luxurious rooms or accomodations, originated when ticket agents in England marked the tickets of travelers going by ship to the Orient. Since there was no air conditioning in those days, it was always better to have a cabin on the shady side of the ship as it passed through the Mediterranean and Suez area. Since the sun is in the south, those with money paid extra to get cabin's on the left, or port, traveling to the Asia, and on the right, or starboard, when returning to Europe. Hence their tickets were marked with the initials for Port Outbound Starboard Homebound, or POSH.