BBB Site of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a cool "site-ing" each Friday. This week ... Letterboxing an intriguing pastime combining navigational skills and rubber stamp artistry in a charming "treasure hunt" style outdoor quest. A wide variety of adventures can be found to suit all ages and experience levels and there are many web sites dedicated to this happy diversion.

If this doesn't get you out and about, nothing will! (Thanks for the lead, Kelley!)

News from all over - Osaka

Japanese scientists have unveiled the most human-looking robot yet devised - a "female" android called Repliee Q1. She has flexible silicone for skin rather than hard plastic, and a number of sensors and motors to allow her to turn and react in a human-like manner. She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe. [Didn't Disney ... oh, never mind.]

Today in history - 1909

Cadillac Motor Company was acquired by the Buick Motor Company on behalf of General Motors for $4.5 million. Cadillac was born from the ashes of the Henry Ford Company, a business organized by William Murphy to produce a car by Henry Ford. Murphy had been one of the original backers of the Detroit Automobile Company, which had dissolved in 1901 after Ford had failed to build a car he was willing to put to market. Such faith did Murphy have in Ford that he gave him another chance in the Henry Ford Company, opting to use Ford's name due to the recognition he had received from his recent racing ventures. Ford was so wrapped up in racing that he again failed to produce, and Murphy fired him. The rest, as they say, is history.

Science meets Marketing

Consider the biodegradable, disposable Moscardino spork designed by Giulio Iacchetti and Matteo Ragni. Produced by Pandora Design in Italy, this sexy little spork was awarded the prestigious Italian Compasso d'Oro in 2001. They're small enough for easy use by children and grand for picnics and brown bag lunches. The sporks are made of Mater-Bi, a completely biodegradable starch-based plastic, which stands up to repeated use and prolonged contact with liquids, achieving 90 percent degradation in about 50 days under normal aerobic composting conditions. Thus, the spork helps conserve petroleum resources, reduces greenhouse emissions* and creates no waste and no long-term disposal problem.

*The plants grown to produce starch use carbon dioxide from the air to produce oxygen by photosynthesis. When the plastic from the starch decays, carbon dioxide is released, but this is equivalent to the amount the plant used up originally, so the net gain of carbon dioxide is zero.

Annals of the Law

Andre Guthrie, 22, faced with a special five-year-minimum sentence under the law because he robbed a Sovereign Bank in Lowell, Mass., "while masked," argued to his sentencing judge in June that he wasn't actually in disguise but merely in his transvestite mode ("Andrea Guthrie"), including wig, false breasts, and a fake nose and facial moles. "This is what he does," said Guthrie's lawyer. "This is who he is."

So Now You Know

Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit.

BBB Comix of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a comic (cover, daily, panels) each Wednesday. You know 'em, you love 'em you can't live without 'em... It's the office pain-in-the-neck. While not a recent development, in 1952 Suspense ("Stories Calculated to Keep You in Suspense!") included a story where "the suspense is killing me" takes on a whole new meaning. [Click on image for larger view.]

This comic is not to be confused with the later comic Tales of Suspense which tended to take a quite different view of the World of Suspense.

And it certainly should not be confused with CRIME SuspenStories or Law Breakers Suspense Stories.

So Now You Know

The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint.

Today in history - 1940

Bugs Bunny first appears on the silver screen in "A Wild Hare." The wisecracking rabbit had evolved through several earlier short films. As in many future installments of Bugs Bunny cartoons, "A Wild Hare" featured Bugs as the would-be dinner for frustrated hunter Elmer Fudd.

BBB Etymology - Flea Market

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a word or phrase etymology each Tuesday. This week, consider the overwhelming popularity of shopping for "stuff and such" no doubt fueled by the popularity of Antiques Roadshow on PBS. The term "flea market" most probably had its origin in Paris, where Le Marche aux Puces (literally, "market of the fleas") was a popular shopping venue. Le Marche aux Puces took its name from the semi-humorous (and probably at least partly accurate) popular perception that the market's ragtag goods were more than likely to be infested with fleas.

And in science news ...

Scientists have figured out why we rarely notice our own blinking. Our brains simply miss it, they say. The quest for the new discovery began in the 1980s, when researchers found that visual sensitivity starts decreasing just before we blink. But what goes on in the brain remained a mystery.

In the new study, scientists put fiber-optic lights in the mouths of people. The lights were powerful enough to penetrate the roofs of their mouths and strike their retinas, where light is recorded. They wore goggles to block outside light.

News from all over - Palmero

An Italian couple stole 50,000 euros from a woman in this Sicilian city after convincing her they were vampires who would impregnate her with the son of the Anti-Christ if she did not pay them.

The man, a cabaret singer, and his girlfriend took the money from their victim over four years by selling her pills at 3,000 euros each that they said would abort the Anti-Christ's son. Police uncovered the fraud after the 47-year-old woman's family became concerned when they discovered she had spent all her savings.

BBB Geek-toid

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a "geek-related" item (person, place, item) each Monday. This week, since we are at the height of baseball season, what better time to think about trading cards? But to be truly geeky, how about "Scientist Cards"?

So Now You Know

The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Hupmobile.

Today in history - 1917

Mata Hari, the archetype of the seductive female spy, is sentenced to death in France for spying on Germany's behalf.

She first came to Paris in 1905 and found fame as a performer of exotic Indian-inspired dances. She soon began touring all over Europe, telling the story of how she was born in a sacred Indian temple and taught ancient Indian dances by a priestess who gave her the name Mata Hari, meaning "eye of the dawn." In reality, Mata Hari was born in a small town in northern Holland, and her real name was Margaretha Geertruida Zelle. Regardless of her authenticity, she packed dance halls from Russia to America, largely because of her willingness to dance almost entirely naked in public.

She was also a famous courtesan, and with the outbreak of World War I her catalog of lovers began to include high-ranking French officers. In February 1917, French authorities arrested her for espionage, and in July she was found guilty and sentenced to death. On October 15, she was executed by a French firing squad at the Vincennes barracks outside of Paris. Evidence against Mata Hari remains inconclusive--her only crimes may have been an elaborate stage fallacy and a weakness for men in uniform.

Today in history - 1955

The last episode of the popular radio program The Roy Rogers Show airs. The show had been one of radio's most popular programs since its debut in 1944.

Rogers was born Leonard Slye in Cincinnati in 1911. He first came to Hollywood in the 1920s as a migrant fruit picker. In the early 1930s, he joined a singing group called Uncle Tom Murray's Hollywood Hillbillies, which first played on the radio in 1931. Rogers went on to sing with other similar groups, including the Sons of the Pioneers, which recorded hits like "Tumbling Tumbleweeds." The Sons of the Pioneers group was recruited for low-budget western films, and Rogers was soon playing bit parts for Republic Pictures, the same studio where cowboy star Gene Autry worked. When Autry quit over a dispute with the studio in 1937, Rogers gained more exposure. Starring with his trick horse Trigger and his frequent co-star Dale Evans, Rogers soon became one of the top 10 moneymakers in Hollywood.

Rogers also followed Autry into the radio medium, launching The Roy Rogers Show in 1944. The show, a mix of music and drama, always closed with the song "Happy Trails," which soon became known as Rogers' theme song.

Today in history - 1969

At 10:56 p.m. EDT, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles from Earth, speaks these words to more than a billion people listening at home: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." A moment later, he stepped off the lunar landing module Eagle and became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon. More on Apollo 11

So Now You Know

Parachutes were imagined and sketched by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) Other inventors designed parachutes, including Croatian Faust Vrancic who constructed a device based on Da Vinci's drawing and jumped from a Venice tower in 1617. Faust Vrancic published Machinae Novae, in which he describes in text and picture fifty-six advanced technical constructions, including Vrancic's parachute called the Homo Volans.

Jean Pierre Blanchard (1753-1809) a Frenchman was probably the first person actually to use a parachute for an emergency. In 1785, he dropped a dog in a basket, to which a parachute was attached, from a balloon high in the air. In 1793, Blanchard claims to have escaped from an exploded hot air balloon with a parachute. In 1797, Andrew Garnerin was the first person recorded to jump with a parachute without a rigid frame. Garnerin jumped from hot air balloons as high as 8,000 feet. Garnerin also designed the first air vent in a parachute intended to reduce oscillations.

In 1890, Paul Letteman and Kathchen Paulus invented the method of folding or packing the parachute in a knapsack to be worn on the back before its release. Kathchen Paulus was also behind the invention of the intentional breakaway, which is when one small parachute opens first and pulls open the main parachute.

Two parachuters claim to be the first man to jump from an airplane, both Grant Morton and Captain Albert Berry parachuted from an airplane in 1911. In 1914, Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick made the first free fall jump.

Today in history - 1799

During Napoleon Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign, a French soldier discovers a black basalt slab inscribed with ancient writing near the town of Rosetta, about 35 miles north of Alexandria. The irregularly shaped stone contained fragments of passages written in three different scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Egyptian demotic. The ancient Greek on the Rosetta Stone told archaeologists that it was inscribed by priests of Ptolemy V in the second century B.C. More startlingly, the Greek passage announced that the three scripts were all of identical meaning. The artifact thus held the key to solving the riddle of hieroglyphics, a written language that had been "dead" for nearly two millennia.

Two decades later, French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion was able to decipher the hieroglyphics using his knowledge of Greek as a guide, and the language and culture of ancient Egypt was suddenly open to scientists as never before.

So Now You Know

The recently reopened, redesigned "Space Mountain" had its southern California debut at Disneyland (two years after the opening in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World) on May 27, 1977. The U.S. Mercury Astronauts, America's first men in space, were on hand for the grand opening ceremonies and to christen the 118 foot tall "mountain."

Since then, the rockets of "Space Mountain" have carried over 171,600,000 would-be astronauts, covering 8.8 million miles or equal to more than 18 round trips to the moon.

BBB Sites of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features cool "site-ings" each Friday. ... Surely, you have had an experience where you recall details about a "story-within-a-story", like "Wasn't there a story about a giant rat referenced in some Sherlockian tale? What was it called? For that matter, in which Sherlock Holmes adventure was it mentioned?"

For those moments, you need a reference that lists fictitious books (or monographs) included in actual works of literature. Could there be such helpful information available at your fingertips? You bet! Just surf over to invisiblelibrary.com, look up author Doyle, and scroll down the listings. There it is, The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire with the story-within-a-story called "The Giant Rat of Summatra" (which, by the way, was the title of a great comedy album recorded by The Firesign Theatre).

So Now You Know

Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants

News from all over - Hamburg

Fireman raced to the German home of a young woman who called up in tears because her pet mouse had got its head stuck between the bars of its cage.

Elfrida Schuster, 21, called the emergency fire brigade number in a panic to explain that her mouse was suffocating after getting its head wedged in the bars. The fire brigade responded by sending out a special emergency team.

A spokesperson for the Hamburg fire fighters defended the action saying: "Saving both human and animal life is our duty.

Today in history - 1789

Parisian revolutionaries and mutinous troops storm and dismantle the Bastille, a royal fortress that had come to symbolize the tyranny of the Bourbon monarchs. This dramatic action signaled the beginning of the French Revolution, a decade of political turmoil and terror in which King Louis XVI was overthrown and tens of thousands of people, including the king and his wife Marie Antoinette, were executed.

The mob of 20,000 people who stormed Bastille Prison killed its personnel and freed all seven prisoners incarcerated therein: four forgers, an accomplice to murder, a nobleman jailed for incest, and an insane Irishman. The warden was decapitated and his head was carried around on a pike. Aux armes, citoyens!

So Now You Know

Before Prohibition, Schlitz Brewery owned more property in Chicago than anyone else, except the Catholic church.

News from all over - Gilbert

The first-ever "Whorehouse Days" festival, to start this weekend in this small northern Minnesota town, included a four-poster bed race, a beer mug-sliding contest, a showdown for best-dressed madam, and a performance of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Gilbert". Almost $50,000 in sponsorships was raised and area hotels were starting to fill up with reservations. Organizers had promised all the events would be rated G or PG.

All that was before the City Council's refusal to rent out public buildings - effectively killing the festival. Almost one-third of the city's businesses signed a petition against the event and dozens of residents protested at council meetings.

Gilbert's history actually includes a period when it was known as a place of saloons and prostitution, in the early years of the 20th century when mining and timber-cutting were in full swing.

BBB Comix of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a comic (cover, daily, panels) each Wednesday. This week, two worlds collide in this unlikely crossover where The Punisher Meets Archie. Riverdale has never been the same.

Check out this alternative cover.

News from all over - Nashville

Jim Cripps is turning his back on bowling and doing better than ever. He decided to try backwards bowling as a joke and got a strike. Now, that's the only the way he bowls. Cripps faces away from the pins and steps back before he lets the ball go.

The Nashville area cell phone and real estate salesman says he averages 184. He recently rolled a career-high 279 in a game that included eleven consecutive strikes. He tells the Tennessean that finding a place to bowl can be tough. He says some alley operators think he's mocking the game.

What about talking with passengers?

A study of cellphone use by motorists suggests that they aren't any better off using a headset in the car than holding the phone to their ear: They're still four times more likely to end up in a crash and injured than if they weren't using the phone.

The survey, released Monday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said that using mobile phones while driving was just as dangerous whether they're chatting through a headset or holding on to the handset.

The statistical analysis, which compared phone records with the times of accidents, indicated that the risk was just as great across all age groups and in both sexes. It's not just keying in phone numbers or calling up messages but the conversation itself that can be the most distracting, said Anne T. McCartt, the insurance institute's research executive overseeing the study.

Today in history - 1793

French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat is stabbed to death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, as she gives him a list of names to be guillotined. The assassination inspired the famous painting by Jacques Louis David; Corday was executed four days after slaying Marat.

Not to mention this somewhat less famous painting by Paul Jacques Aimé Baudry.

BBB Etymology - Shoo in

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a word or phrase etymology each Tuesday. This week: "shoo in," as it is properly spelled, was originally a racetrack term, and was (and still is) applied to a horse expected to easily win a race, and, by extension, to any contestant expected to win an easy victory. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of the term in print dates back to 1928, and the original sense of the term was not as innocent as you'd think. A "shoo in" was originally a horse that was expected to win a race, not by virtue of its speed or endurance, but because the race was fixed. The sardonic "subtext" of the original usage, now lost, was that the designated horse would win even if it were so lackadaisical in its performance that it simply wandered somehow up to the finish line and had to be "shooed in" to victory.

So Now You Know

Caligula doted on his horse Incitatus more than most - including a retinue of eighteen servants and a diet consisting of oats mixed with gold flake, as well as a variety of meats, including mice, squid, mussels, and chicken. Not to mention wine. According to Suetonius, the emperor saw to it that Incitatus lived in perfect luxury: "Besides a stall of marble, a manger of ivory, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones, he even gave this horse a house."

News from all over - East Chicago

The streetlight casting a shadow that many people say resembles Jesus will no longer shine in the 1400 block of Drummond Street. East Chicago Police Chief Angelo Machuca called an emergency meeting Sunday morning to recommend the light be turned off in the interest of public safety. Mayor George pappy agreed.

People have flocked to the site since Wednesday, when a woman first claimed to see the image on the side of a tree. The image is only visible at night when the streetlight near the tree is illuminated. The situation got out of hand Saturday night, Machuca said, and he had the streetlight turned off at 1 a.m. Sunday to diffuse a crowd of more than 250 people.

Today in history - 1804

Former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton dies after being shot in the liver the day before by Vice President Aaron Burr. The duel in Weehawken, New Jersey followed a political dinner in New York where Hamilton allegedly slandered Burr or worse. Burr lives on to finish his term in office and is eventually tried for treason after attempting to raise an army and seize land for himself, either in Mexico or the Louisiana Territory.

BBB Geek-toid

Each Monday, the Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a "geek-related" item (person, place, thing). This week, BBB directs your attention to the Batmobile. With the new retro-of-sorts film Batman Begins yet another Batmobile joins the ranks of the proud. Of course, since the early '40s in comics and on film or TV, Batmobiles have been getting the Batman around Gotham. "So, how has the Batmobile changed over time?", you ask. Answered.

Coming "Soon"

Teleportation. Here's another spiffy review.

News from all over - Los Angeles

What do 275 laptop computers, 662 sets of keys and 206 cellphones have in common with a set of dentures, a peach-colored bra and a boxed "Walking and Dancing Hula Doll"?

They are among the more than 12,000 items left behind by harried passengers passing through security at Los Angeles International Airport in the first five months of 2005.

The forgotten loot ranges from the seemingly vital - 233 driver's licenses, 37 passports, 461 pairs of eyeglasses, 56 Medicare cards and 56 prescription drug vials - to seemingly trifling items, like purple lip gloss, a toe ring, a stuffed purple-and-white toy dog and a book titled "Left Behind."

So Now You Know

Apples are more effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine.

Topic of the Day - Toothpicks

History

The toothpick has been around longer than our species. The skulls of Neanderthals, as well as Homo sapiens, have shown clear signs of having teeth that were picked with a tool, according to anthropologist Christy G. Turner of Arizona State University. Since ancient times, men of note have used toothpicks. Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, died in 289 B.C. when he used a toothpick soaked in poison by an enemy. The prophet Muhammad assigned the care of this important tool to a servant called the "master of the toothpick."

More than 3,500 years before Christ, the Babylonians picked their teeth with toothpicks, as man's oldest tool to enhance oral hygiene. Buddha encouraged toothpick use by his followers to fight bad breath.

The ancient Chinese hung carved bronze pendants around their necks for adornment, which were assigned double-duty as toothpicks.

Before greeting his evening guests, the Roman Emperor Nero used a silver toothpick. The prophet Mo-hammed, in honoring Allah, directed one of this wives to bring a toothpick to his deathbed.

Long ago, toothpicks were called "chewing sticks." The Talmud includes descriptions of sticks frayed on one end by chewing and used for cleaning teeth. Islamic influence spread by the use of these chewing sticks. Mohammed directed his followers: "You shall clean your mouth, for this is a means of praising Allah."

For centuries, the upper classes used elegant toothpicks often made of gold, silver or ivory and inlaid with precious stones. The tool became so popular that a body of etiquette grew up around its use, resulting in books such as The Tanhausers Court Manners, which advised that poking around the teeth during the course of a meal was a grave offense. The permanent crafted toothpick also became a notable dowry item. When the infant Louise Marie Therese of Parma married a prince of Asturias, for example, her dowry listed a dozen valuable toothpicks.

Shakespeare included toothpicks in his prose. George Washington's dentist urged our first president to use a "quill toothpicker." Picks of silver, ivory, and gold as well as porcupine and hedgehog were once popular.

Charles Forster first saw natives using wooden toothpicks on a trip to South America, and he sent a sample box home to his wife in Strong, Maine, who showed them around. Before that time, people used goose quills for toothpicks. Soon Mr. Foster had orders for more, especially from hotels. He set up a factory in Strong, and machinery was developed to peel blocks of wood into long, thin ribbons-an eight-inch block of wood could produce a ribbon ninety feet in length. These ribbons were cut into toothpicks, which were moved by pitchfork into the sun to dry like hay, and then sorted and packed by hand.

Fascinating Facts

One year, Mr. Forster sold 30,000 cases of 250,000 toothpicks each. He was said to make three-fifths of all the wooden toothpicks made in the United States. On average, Forster Manufacturing used about a thousand cords of birch and poplar a year for toothpicks.

A complete toothpick machine system would include a veneer lathe, six cutting machines, one drying oven, and one straightening and box filling machine. This system would require about 15 horsepower and the hourly output would be about 1,440,000 toothpicks. A standard cord of good wood yields about 6 - 9 million flat toothpicks.

The toothpick was first used in the United States at the Union Oyster House, Boston. To promote his new business Forster hired Harvard boys to dine at the Union Oyster House and ask for toothpicks.

According to recent estimates, Americans consume about 75 million toothpicks a day. Some dental experts now even herald a toothpick as a major preventive dentistry tool against gum disease.

Additional Uses of Toothpicks

As an art form, folks have used toothpicks to build ships, a dolphin, a famous tower, and even a religious figure.

Some believe toothpick use can deliver a higher form of consciousness.

And let us not forget one of the best ever use for toothpicks.

Today in history - 1898

A disgruntled city engineer in Skagway, Alaska, murders "Soapy" Smith, one of the most notorious con men in the history of the West.

Born in Georgia in 1860, Jefferson Randolph Smith went west while still a young man, finding work as a cowboy in Texas. Smith eventually tired of the hard work and low wages offered by the cowboy life, though, and discovered that he could make more money with less effort by convincing gullible westerners to part with their cash in clever confidence games.

One of Smith's earliest swindles was the "prehistoric man" of Creede, Colorado. Smith somehow obtained a 10-foot statue of a primitive looking human that he secretly buried near the town of Creede. A short time later, he uncovered the statue with much fanfare and publicity and began charging exorbitant fees to see it. Wisely, he left town before the curious turned suspicious.

Smith earned his nickname "Soapy" with a more conventional confidence game. Traveling around the Southwest, Smith would briefly set up shop in the street selling bars of soap wrapped in blue tissue paper. He promised the credulous crowds that a few lucky purchasers would find a $100 bill wrapped inside a few of the $5 bars of soap. Inevitably, one of the first to buy a bar would shout with pleasure and happily display a genuine $100 bill. Sales were generally brisk afterwards. The lucky purchaser, of course, was a plant.

When you really have little else to do

and you happen to have about 3,000 Post-It notes, try this ...

News from all over - Waltham

A Brandeis University researcher has shown that an African grey parrot with a walnut-sized brain understands a numerical concept akin to zero, an abstract notion that humans don't typically understand until age three or four, and that can significantly challenge learning-disabled children. Strikingly, Alex, the 28-year-old parrot who lives in a Brandeis lab run by comparative psychologist and cognitive scientist Dr. Irene Pepperberg, spontaneously and correctly used the label "none" during a testing session of his counting skills to describe an absence of a numerical quantity on a tray.

Not likely to be signed

Rob Marchese, a 41-year-old businessman from Queens was sitting in a folding chair in the first row in the right-field stands at Yankee Stadium during New York's 7-2 over Cleveland on Thursday night when he stood up and muffed Alex Rodriguez's first-inning two-run homer.

He then fumbled away Jason Giambi's solo shot in the second, which bounced out of right fielder Casey Blake's glove, off Marchese, and back onto the field. Blake then flipped the ball back into the stands, but over Marchese's head.

BBB Site of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a cool "site-ing" each Friday. This week, the often bizarre world of "circus" (though "the show that falls from the sky" doesn't begin to be explained by the term "circus") is revealed through this remarkably beautiful and tantalizing site.

When in .... Paris

Diners rub their eyes as they emerge from behind a curtain after eating at France's only pitch black restaurant. For nearly two hours they have relied on blind guides who helped them reach their table, pour wine and find their way to the lavatory.

Dans Le Noir (In the dark) is one of three such "blind" restaurants in Europe. The others are in Berlin and Zurich, and its owners are opening a fourth in London with the help of charity association Action for Blind People.

"Finishing your meal when not much is left on the plate is the most difficult part," said 30-year-old student Alessia Milani. She came from Milan with her husband Giorgio Beltrami, 37, after she had heard about the restaurant on the radio. They had chosen the surprise menu, a full meal including starters and dessert from a wide range of French and Italian dishes clients can ask for, spending an average of 40 to 50 euros ($48 to $60) per person.

"I think the second dish was chicken with vegetables. Dessert was difficult to guess, but I tasted ice cream, jam and fruit," Milani said. "It felt as if time was standing still," Beltrami added.

More info?

Seriously disturbing (and self-serving)

Surfing for all things Boggess uncovered a reference to this elementary school in Murphy, Texas. Not finding any Boggess families in Murphy proper, the dragnet was widened and uncovered this.

So Now You Know

The Eisenhower interstate highway system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. Or not.

Shakespeare Among Us

Shakespeare invented over 1,700 words in the English language. He was the first person to use words like - aerial, critic, submerge, majestic, hurry, lonely, road, assassination, laughable, reliance, exposure, employer, manager; investment, retirement, circumstantial evidence, foregone conclusion, negotiate, petition, designs, exposure, reword, misquote ....

Works by the bard also contain many every day phrases such as "break the ice", "all that glitters is not gold", "hot-blooded", "in the mind's eye", "housekeeping", "it's all Greek to me", "the naked truth", "one fell swoop", "method in his madness", "not budge an inch", "green-eyed jealousy", "to play fast and loose", "to be tongue-tied", "to be a tower of strength", "to knit your brows", "make a virtue of necessity", "insist on fair play", "stand on ceremony", "too much of a good thing", "seen better days", "living in a fool's paradise" ......

In addition to creating whole new words, Shakespeare's word inventions came through changing the usage of words, for example, changing verbs to adjectives or the English teacher's dread - changing nouns to verbs. So the next time you are accused of nouning a verb, reply, "hey, it worked for Shakespeare"!

Want to know more? Pick up this gem. Coined by Shakespeare. If you find yourself in Ontario, Canada, one place to see great Shakespearian (and other) plays is at the Stratford Festival.

So Now You Know

A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

Adding insult injury to injury

Despite improvements in the catchers' mitts used by professional baseball players, the gloves still do not adequately protect players' hands from injury, according to a study by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. The research, which found early damage to the hands of otherwise healthy players, is reported in the current issue of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery.

News from all over - Green Tree

Where Fido finds a breath of fresh air, Marc McCann, 11, sees a road hazard. The Pennsylvania boy helped a state lawmaker craft a proposal that would make it illegal for dogs and other pets to stick their heads out the car window, which McCann says is a danger to animals and a distraction to drivers.

McCann's idea now has a shot at becoming law, thanks to a contest called "There Ought to Be a Law," sponsored annually by Rep. Tom Stevenson, R-Mt. Lebanon.

"I never did like dogs sticking their heads out the window," said McCann, who will be a sixth-grader this fall at Keystone Oaks Middle School. "Maybe a sign might have been too close to the road and they'd get hit. Maybe they'd jump out the window on a highway."

BBB Comix of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a comic (cover, daily, panels) each Wednesday. Back when Superman comics were 10 cents an issue, each had at least one page dedicated to "interesting" items the reader could order. There were X-Ray glasses, magic tricks and, as in this one, lots of offers to teach one to "throw your voice" (Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney were big back then).

But the stunning ad here is the Superman costume complete with mask - "put on the concealing mask and in seconds you are Superman".

Mask?

Today in history - 1957

On this day in 1957, 15-year-old Paul McCartney attends a church picnic in the village of Woolton, near Liverpool, where he meets 16-year-old John Lennon. Lennon had formed a band called the Quarrymen, which was playing at the picnic. Between sets, McCartney played a few songs on guitar for the band, and a few days later Lennon invited him to join. At first, McCartney didn't take the group seriously-in fact, he missed his first performance with the band because he had a scouting trip.

News from all over - Bitburg

Near the German town of Bitburg, a 55-year-old Porsche driver was using a runway (with permission) to practice high speed driving. While the Porsche was traveling at more than 100 mph, a plane landed on its roof.

The motorist hit the brakes immediately, causing the aircraft to slide off and crash to the ground. According to police, the aircraft was wrecked but the 58-year-old pilot was not hurt.

An investigation is underway but police say that the pilot appeared to be at fault as he had neither asked for landing permission or been in contact with the tower over his plans to use the runway.

A spokesman said: "We had to prepare a written report for the driver for the damage to his car, as his insurance company didn't believe him when he called and told them the damage was caused when a plane landed on his roof."

So Now You Know

Prior to 1926, a person could fly passengers or goods without obtaining a pilot’s license.

BBB Etymology - Cracker Jack

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a word or phrase etymology each Tuesday. Baseball games and Cracker Jack have been a part of history since Take Me Out to the Ball Game was written in 1908. The phrase cracker jack is derived from "crack" meaning of superior excellence of ability as in "he's a crack shot". "Jack" being like "Joe", a common man. "Cracker Jack" thus means a superb man.

Frederick William Rueckheim, a German immigrant, invented Cracker Jack. Rueckheim came to Chicago in 1872 to help clean up after the famous Chicago fire. He also worked selling popcorn from a cart. Together with brother Louis, Rueckheim experimented and came up with a delightful popcorn candy, which the brothers decided to mass market. Cracker Jack was first mass-produced and sold at the first Chicago World's Fair in 1893. (The Ferris Wheel, Aunt Jemima pancakes, and the ice cream cone also were introduced at the event.)

The treat was a mixture of popcorn, molasses, and peanuts and the initial name was "Candied Popcorn and Peanuts." By 1896, the company devised a way to keep the popcorn kernels separate, the mixture had been difficult to handle because it tended to stick together in chunks. The wax-sealed, moisture-proof box was introduced in 1899. Cracker Jack added surprises in each package in 1912. The Sailor Jack character and his dog Bingo were introduced as registered trademarks in 1919 and were in use as early as 1918. They were modeled on F. W. Rueckheim's grandson, Robert, and his dog.

'nuf said

Planning a trip to Odense, Denmark before November? Be sure to take in Hans Christian Andersen homes and exhibits, the living history museum Funen Village, the cathedrals, the zoo, and maybe even a round of golf. Oh, and be sure not to miss 100,000 years of sex at the Citymuseum Moentergaarden.

Probably not on display in Odense

The Reverend Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister who became a social reformer and a ferocious advocate of healthful living, is the man who put the 'graham' into the treat we now know and love as graham crackers. Sylvester Graham (1794-1851), inspired by the temperance movement, believed physical lust was harmful to the body and caused such dire maladies in the sexually overheated as pulmonary consumption, spinal diseases, epilepsy, and insanity, as well as such lesser ailments as headaches and indigestion. He also thought too much lust could result in the early death of offspring, who would have been conceived from weakened stock.

Today's graham crackers are made with bleached white flour, a deviation that would have set Sylvester Graham to spinning in his grave; he regarded refined flour as one of the world's great dietary evils.

[Ed. note: As Twain said, "Temperate temperance is best. Intemperate temperance injures the cause of temperance, while temperate temperance helps it in its fight against intemperate intemperance."]

Today in history - 1946

On July 5, 1946, French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular swimming pool in Paris. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modeled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed "bikini", inspired by a news-making U.S. atomic test that took place off the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean earlier that week.

Not that they were a particularly original idea.

United We Stand

Consider this wonderful Smithsonian web site portraying the 1942 effort to feature the American flag on magazine covers. Adopting the slogan United We Stand, some five hundred publications waved the stars and stripes to promote national unity, rally support for the war, and celebrate Independence Day.

Included on the site is a search page to nearly 300 magazine covers.

Virtual fireworks!

If you missed the fireworks in your community or want to experience the "rockets' red glare" right where you sit, here's a site for you!

You may want to start up one of the songs in the next entry to keep in the spirit.

July 4 Music

Here are a couple of rousing marches to keep that 4th of July spirit moving. (These may take a while to download - but they're worth it - OK only if you like this sort of thing)

Medley
Riders of the Flag (Sousa)
Flags of Freedom (Sousa)
National Emblem (E.E. Bagley)
Star Spangled Banner

And from Friday's BBB on Sousa, these...

Star Spangled Facts

In March 2005 a government sponsored program was started in the USA to help the population learn the lyrics of the national anthem.

The song is known as one of the few national anthems that does not mention the name of the home country.

The lyrics can be sung to the tune of the Hymn of the Soviet Union with no modification.

Because it is the most explicitly anti-British verse (and also fairly gory), the third is virtually never sung.

The first stanza is full of questions. It is in the other stanzas that these questions are answered, although they are almost never sung.

More? Check this out.

BBB Geek-toid

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a "geek-related" item (person, place, item) each Monday. This week, BBB offers a couple of articles about 3-D TV.

From no less than Forbes.com, this article: 3-D TV Is Closer Than You Think

And this ... "Jim Slater reports on a fascinating visit to Sharp Laboratories of Europe, where he was privileged to get a behind the scenes look at some of the latest developments in 3-D computer displays."

This just skims the surface ... and to think I was waiting for large screen LCD TV's to be readily available!

Fourth facts

$164.2 million is the value of fireworks imported from China in 2004, representing the bulk of all U.S. fireworks imports ($172.5 million). U.S. exports of fireworks, by comparison, came to just $14.3 million in 2004, with Japan purchasing more than any other country ($4.7 million).

$5.2 million is the value of U.S. imports of American flags in 2004; the vast majority of this amount ($4.8 million) was for U.S. flags made in China. U.S. flag exports valued $851,000. Mexico was the leading customer, purchasing $312,000 worth.

NASA-induced fireworks

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft continues to sail through its final checkout, as it hurtles toward comet Tempel 1. Impact with the comet is scheduled for 1:52 a.m. EDT, July 4 (10:52 p.m. PDT, July 3).

"The time of comet encounter is near and the major mission milestones are getting closer and closer together," said Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "After all the years of design, training and simulations, we are where we want to be. The flight and science teams are working the mission plan, and we are good to go for encounter."

News from all over - Murfreesboro

Richard Zelek received a letter from his homeowners association in Murfreesboro, Tennessee asking him to remove some of the American flags displayed at his home for the Fourth of July.

The display includes 48 small flags posted in the ground outside the home. There had been 50, but two of them broke. Flag-themed banners hang from the gate, and two ceramic Dalmatian dogs on either side of the front door wear Uncle Sam hats and red, white and blue bows.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe

CHIBA - A 59-year-old man from Chiba Prefecture recited pi, or the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, to 83,431 digits from Friday to Saturday in a new world record that is almost double the current Guinness Book record.

Akira Haraguchi, a volunteer worker from Mobara who already holds a world record in pi recitation, started the new challenge shortly after noon Friday and stopped at the 83,431st digit early Saturday

Times that tried men's souls

Common Sense, Thomas Paine's pro-independence monograph published anonymously in January 1776, spread quickly throughout literate colonists. As many as half a million copies are alleged to have been distributed throughout colonies which themselves totaled only a few million free inhabitants. This work convinced many average colonists, including George Washington, to seek redress in political independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. The work was greatly influenced (including its name - Paine had originally proposed the title Plain Truth) by the equally controversial pro-independence writer Benjamin Rush, and was instrumental in bringing about the Declaration of Independence.

Early "Freedom"

Around 2800-2500 BC, Lagash and Umma were two Sumerian city-states located 25 kilometers apart in today's territory of Iraq. Clay cylinders and albast, copper and gold tablets found at the site recount the story of the first revolution in human history: the people rose and deposed officials who kept raising taxes but pocketed the proceeds. The earliest-known written appearance of the word "freedom" (amagi), or "liberty" is in a clay cuneiform document written about 2300 B.C. in Lagash.

Today in history - 1955

On this day in 1955, long-running musical-variety program The Lawrence Welk Show debuts on ABC. Welk, a bandleader from North Dakota known for light dance music, had launched his own show in 1951 on a local Los Angeles channel. The show remained a network hit for some 16 years, then became a syndicated series. Welk retired in 1982 and died in 1992.

BBB Site of the Week

The Bogus-Boggess Blog (BBB) features a cool "site-ing" each Friday...

So, you're ready to head out on that summer road adventure, cooler and map in hand. But what route will prove the most interesting? Well, here's a site of places you dare not miss.

So Now You Know

Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.

Getting ready for the 4th

American Independence Day - family get togethers with Bar-B-Que, corn-on-the-cob, home baked pie, watermelon, fireworks, and music! And no music exemplifies the 4th better than that composed by John Philip Sousa.

Born in Washington D.C., his father a trombonist in the United States Marine Band, Sousa's life story seems almost predestined. If Sousa's marches don't get you moving, little will. As he said, "A march should make a man with a wooden leg step out."

Here are three great Sousa marches (for your listening pleasure):

El Capitan,
Washington Post, and of course
The Stars and Stripes Forever

And speaking of celebrations

Staging the first-ever Fourth of July celebration west of the Mississippi River, Lewis and Clark fire the expedition cannon and order an extra ration of whiskey for the men.