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FACTS OF THE MONTH:
from LOONEY TUNES WEEK: Originally, the "Looney Tunes" series featured a single character (Bosko first, then Buddy, and finally Porky before the format was discontinued) while the "Merrie Melodies" were musical anthologies, using songs from the WB archives. The second MM cartoon was "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile" (Sept. 1931). The title song was reused nearly sixty years later, just before the closing credits of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." When the Looney Tunes cartoons made their national prime-time television debut (The Bugs Bunny Show, 1960-62), new segments made strictly for the series were created by veteran directors Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng. These segments would later show up in the seventies' Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show on CBS Saturday mornings, but disappeared when the show became Bugs Bunny and Tweety on ABC. The only piece that remains is the theme song, "This Is It." In the early Warner Brothers cartoons, the voices of Daffy Duck and Sylvester were identical: the sound engineers slightly changed the playback speed on one of the voice to make them sound different. Eventually, Mel Blanc was able to create a distinctive voice for each without electronic help. For a voice comparison check out "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," the only cartoon that Daffy and Sylvester appeared in together. Between 1947 and 1956 Warner Brothers cartoons won a total of five Academy Awards: one for Bugs Bunny, one for Pepe Le Pew, one for Speedy Gonzales (his debut film) and two for Sylvester and Tweety (including their first cartoon together). The man who originally provided the voice for Porky Pig had an actual stutter. When Mel Blanc took over the voice he kept the stutter, but as part of his act. Bugs Bunny was named for notorious West Coast mobster Bugsy Siegel. |
Of all the coastal states, New Hampshire has the shortest coastline (~14 miles).
England's first non-silent movie was directed by Alfred Hitchcock (Blackmail, 1931).
Gold bricks are much heavier than regular bricks. When loading gold bricks into an armored car, they can only be loaded one row deep. Any more and the excess weight would break the axle.
What America and England calls a "French kiss" the French call an "English kiss".
The city of San Juan was originally called Puerto Rico, and the island of Puerto Rico was originally called San Juan. As time progressed the names were reversed.
During warm weather, you can determine the outdoor temperature by counting how many times a cricket chirps in a 15-second period, then adding 38 to that number. This will give the current temperature within a few degrees.
From FLAG WEEK:
The British Union Jack also appears as part of the flags of Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. A preferred method of disposing of an old American flag is by burning.
The Stars-and-Stripes design can also be found in the flags of Liberia and Malaysia. The only differences are in the number of stripes (11 and 14 respectively) and the size and content of the blue field (one large star for Liberia and a sun and crescent moon for Malaysia). |
The mother of The Partridge Family originally didn't want to join her kids' band. Her reason: she's tone-deaf.
Popeye's movie debut was in a Betty Boop cartoon. Made back before the decency code was established for movies, Betty wore only a Hawaiian lei to hide the fact that she was topless throughout the entire cartoon.
Before her acting debut in "Star Trek II", Kirstie Alley won $5,000 as a contestant on "Match Game" and another $10,000 on "Password Plus".
The Mars moon Phobos orbits so closely to the planet that it cannot be seen from Mars' North or South Poles. The moon completes three orbits of Mars each day.
Natural gas has no odor. The smell is added artifically so that leaks can be detected.
A ten-gallon hat holds less than a gallon.
The first three digits of a Social Security Number indicate the region of the country the application was made. The next two digits signify a code for the year of the application. The remaining four digits are the sequential numbers for the other five.
Prior to the Twelfth Amendment, the runner-up in the Presidential race became Vice-President.
Hot water is heavier than cold water.
At its base, Boulder Dam is as thick as a city block.
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Cyprus is the only nation whose flag includes an outline
of the country.
Libya's flag is the easiest to copy: it's one solid color.
The national flag of Denmark is the oldest unchanged national flag in the
world. It has been in continuous use since the thirteenth century.
The Philippine
national flag is flown upside-down (red on top) at wartime.
