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FACTS OF THE MONTH:
October comes from the latin for eight. (Until the implementation of the Gregorian Calendar, October was the eighth month of the year.)
In July 1997 a web engine search came up with over 400 million occurances of the word 'the'. By October 1998 that number had quadrupled.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
| from FOUL
BALL WEEK:
The first run ever scored against the New York Mets was off a balk. The team with the worst record in Major League Baseball history is the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. After 41 games played (winning only nine), the Cleveland fans wanted nothing more to do with the team, and the Spiders played their last 113 games on the road, finishing the season with a 20-134 record. After the season was over the National League downsized the Spiders out of existence. Weather delays caused the 1929 Boston Braves to play nine doubleheaders in a row. At one point in this series they lost five consecutive twin bills. Jackie Robinson was not the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. A few played in the early part of the century, but were light-skinned enough to pass as Hispanic, which is how they were promoted. Babe Ruth's biggest boner occured when he unsuccessfully tried to steal second with two out in the 9th inning of the seventh game of the 1926 World Series. As a result, the Cardinals beat the Yankees 3-2, winning the series four games to three. The Cleveland Indians had to forfeit a 1974 game to the Texas Rangers when the fans started coming onto the field and harassing the players during "Ten Cent Beer Night." The 1962 New York Mets, the worst team in modern baseball history, acquired Harry Cheaty from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for a "player to be named later." When the Mets learned just how bad he was, they sent him back, making Cheaty one of the few players in baseball history to be traded for himself. |
Difference between 'cement' and 'concrete': Cement is the powdery stuff used in the mix, Concrete is the hard stuff that results.
A cat's sense of smell is around 30 times stronger than a human's.
In the first two pilots for "All In the Family", both unsuccessful, Archie and Edith's last name was Justice.
Little Red Riding Hood's real name was Blanchette.
Director Mike Todd created the word 'cameo' for his 1956 feature Around the World in 80 Days. The movie had 42 of them.
Ernest Evans was given his stage name of Chubby Checker by Mrs. Dick Clark. It was a variation on another music legend, Fats Domino.
South Carolina was the first state to cecede from the Union during the Civil War, North Carolina the last. Tennessee was the first state to be readmitted, Georgia the last.
Despite appearances, the Olson twins are not identical, but fraternal.
Edith Bunker's maiden name was Baines.
Charles Bronson was the only person to portray members of both "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Dirty Dozen".
A regulation 15-round boxing match lasts 59 minutes from the first bell to the last.
Before he became an astronaut, John Glenn won $25,000 as a contestant on Name That Tune.
The mathematical name for a googol (1 followed by 100 zeros) is ten duotrigintillion.
In H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" the Martians landed in Surrey, England. In Orson Welles' radio broadcast they landed just outside Grovers Mill, New Jersey. In the movie they landed in Corona, California.
When Billy and Mary Batson say the magic word "SHAZAM" they are transformed into Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel respectively. Each letter in the magic word represents the first letter of a Greek/Roman god and the power that god gives to the Marvels. Captain Marvel's powers come from male gods and Mary Marvel's from goddesses:
| Captain Marvel's powers:
Solomon (widsom) |
Mary Marvel's powers:
Selena (grace) |
| from DEATH
COMES A'KNOCKIN' WEEK:
Abraham Lincoln's mother died drinking milk from the family cow after it had eaten poison mushrooms. Former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller died while having sex with his mistress. What many consider to be John Wayne's worst movie, "The Conqueror", wound up literally being the death of him. The movie was shot on a Utah desert that a few months earlier had been the site of some a-bomb testing. Wayne, director Dick Powell and co-stars Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorhead were among the several cast and crew members who later died of cancer. Frank Ogden won a 1990 election in Oklahoma by a landslide--three months after his death. Jim Fixx, the man who started the jogging craze, died of a heart attack while jogging. A decade after Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" panicked America, a translated version was broadcast in Ecuador, again frightening the populace. When they found out it was just a play, however, they stormed the radio station and burned it to the ground, resulting in six deaths. A young Japanese couple, marries in 1978, were so shy they didn't consummate their marriage for fourteen years. When the time finally arrived, the act of lovemaking was too exciting for them and they both died of heart attacks. |
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