63 Things You Need to Know

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63 Things You Need to Know

Post by LoyalTubist » Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:21 am

1. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.

2. The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.

3. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.

4. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself.

5. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

6. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.

7. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.

8. Angelina Jolie is the daughter of Jon Voight.

9. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

10. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

11. A 2"x4" is 1-1/2" x 3-1/2"

12. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

13. Every person has a unique tongue print.

14. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was albino.

15. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

16. During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.

17. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

18. John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son.

19. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.

20. Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dogs heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.

21. Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps.

22. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.

23. Most lipsticks contain fish scales.

24. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.

25. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.

26. Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice.

27. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.

28. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

29. During the California Gold Rush of 1849 miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years it was deemed more feasible to send the shirts to Hawaii for servicing.

30. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.

31. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

32. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.

33. Upper and lower case letters are named "upper'" and "lower", because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the "upper case" letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, "lower case" letters.

34. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. Or windows.

35. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!

36. The numbers "172" can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.

37. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before!

38. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

39. There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a $10 dollar bill.

40. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors; also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

41. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

42. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

43. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

44. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'

45. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

46. The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!

47. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

48. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

49. Roses MAY Be red, but violets ARE, indeed, violet.

50. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.

51. Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on Scooby-Doo.

52. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

53. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.

54. In Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than 100 years before either moon was discovered.

55. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!

56. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."

57. An old law in Bellingham, Wash., made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.

58. Sharon Stone was the first Star Search spokes model.

59. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

60. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

61. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.

62. Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator.

63. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!

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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by ZJH » Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:38 pm

Oh man, thank you for posting this. Some of them were actually quite funny!
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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by Hostrauser » Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:44 pm

And some of them are B.S. I don't have time to dissect them all. Go here:

http://www.snopes.com/

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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by The Aceman » Wed Sep 24, 2008 4:42 pm

LoyalTubist wrote:1. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.
True

Actually, it's made on Crane Paper, paper that is specially made for printing money, it is composed mostly of cotton and linen.
LoyalTubist wrote:2. The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had.
False

Actually it was based of the number of products total, not just pickle varieties. Although the company had more than 60 products in 1892, the number 57 was chosen because the numbers "5" and "7" held special significance to Heinz. The number "5" was Henry John Heinz's lucky number and the number "7" was his wife's lucky number. The company now has more than 6,000 products. Horse radish was their first product.
LoyalTubist wrote:3. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
False

One way to evaluate these "facts" is specificity. What kind of rat? The longest that any camel can go without water that is claimed by any credible source is two weeks. Kangaroo rats can go without water indefinitely, converting what little water they need from the seeds and grasses that they eat. Water rats, however, certainly cannot go long without water. Under what circumstances? Either a rat or a camel, if eating food that contains more water, will need to drink less. If the food is too dry and the animal gets wounded, for instance, it will need to drink more water. What age of rat? An infant rat, even an infant kangaroo rat, cannot survive long without hydration, at least from mama's milk.

Another way to evaluate claims is whether they cite a source you can check out yourself. I got my information on kangaroo rats at Desert USA. My information on the needs of infant rats is from Rat & Mouse Gazette: it may not apply to infant kangaroo rats. My information on camels comes from a guide to Egypt:

The camel stores water in its blood stream, an interesting physiological process. The camel has developed, over the centuries, a unique water saving biology. Capable of losing forty percent of its body's weight before becoming distressed, it is able to go five to seven days before having to drink. The amount it drinks when water is available would cause severe problems in most animals, up to 21 gallons in about 10 minutes. If moisture-laden forage is available, a camel will not need as much water. The water it drinks can be too salty or brackish for other animals.

LoyalTubist wrote:4. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself.
False

Typical of pseudoscience, this has an element of fact that allows the nonfactual portion to slip by. Mucus does protect the stomach lining from the stomach's own acids. The mucus is, however, perpetually secreted -- not produced once every two weeks.
LoyalTubist wrote:5. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
Likely False

A number of sites on the Internet claim that the Declaration of Independence was written on paper made from hemp. As far as we know, this is not true.

The finished document signed by the delegates to the Continental Congress was engrossed on parchment, which is actually made from animal skin. Thomas Jefferson's original Rough Draft of the Declaration is now in the Jefferson Papers collection at the Library of Congress. According to the Library of Congress, analysis by paper conservators has determined that the paper is mostly likely Dutch in origin. While hemp was commonly used to make paper in Southern Europe during this time, the Dutch were much more likely to use flax or linen rags.
LoyalTubist wrote:6. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
True

Yes. So is any small diacritic mark, such as an accent or a vowel mark. "Tittle" also means "the smallest bit; an iota."
LoyalTubist wrote:7. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
True

Bubbles require a point on which to nucleate - usually a rough point on the surface of the glass. That is why bubbles always seem to be coming from one point on the glass - the point where there is an imperfection in the glass. So, introduction of a raisin will cause bubbles to rise from the raisin." A raisin will probably bob up and down in any carbonated beverage, though, as the raisin gains and loses air bubbles.
LoyalTubist wrote:8. Angelina Jolie is the daughter of Jon Voight.
True
LoyalTubist wrote:9. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
Sort of. The reality of this, according to the National Ferret Welfare Society, is that "Female ferrets come into season each spring and stay in season until mated. If allowed to stay in season, they develop a form of anaemia (aplastic anaemia) and can become very ill or even die."
LoyalTubist wrote:10. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.
False

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/duckecho.asp
LoyalTubist wrote:11. A 2"x4" is 1-1/2" x 3-1/2"
True

What everyone calls a "two by four" is actually 1-1/2 inches thick by 3-1/2 inches wide. Decades ago a two by four was cut so that when dried and sold it actually did measure 2 inches by 4 inches, but such lumber was not finished, it was what is called "rough-cut." When builders demanded sticks with smooth faces, lumber mills started with actual 2 by 4s and sanded off a quarter-inch from each of the two faces and each of the two edges, and the result, of course, is a stick that measures 1-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches. These pieces of lumber are graded S4S, which means "surfaced four sides."

You literally cannot find an actual 2 by 4 at any lumber yard, so if you want to see one you'll need to examine older buildings. Here's what to look for: (1) It'll have a rough rather than smooth finish, and you'll probably be able to see the arcs made by the cuts of the circular saw; (2) the four corners formed at the intersection of an edge and a face are not slightly rounded off; and (3) it will actually measure out to -- guess what? -- 2 inches by 4 inches.
LoyalTubist wrote:12. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
Unknown

Well a lot of websites have this claim, though I couldn't find anything to actually PROVE the truthfulness of it.
LoyalTubist wrote:13. Every person has a unique tongue print.
Unknown

Again, a million websites have this listed in their "useless facts" section, but none of them actually offer any proof or reference.
LoyalTubist wrote:14. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was albino.
False

In fact there are no official references to Grigg having been an albino, and in (black-and-white) photographs his eyes appear normally pigmented. Also, the 7-up logo with the red dot came into use in the 1970s, after Grigg had died.
LoyalTubist wrote:15. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
Unknown

Since the 1961 publication of the Third Edition, Merriam-Webster has reprinted the main text of the dictionary with only minor corrections. To add new words, they created an Addenda Section in 1966, included in the front matter, which was expanded in 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1993, and 2002. However, the rate of additions has been much slower than it had been throughout the previous hundred years. Although there are likely misspellings, I doubt anyone went through and counted them all, again show me some proof.
LoyalTubist wrote:16. During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance.
False

According to someone who has apparently watched the movie frame by frame, the red car is "mythical." ( http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2003/0 ... 360100.htm ) If you have the time and money and patience to check the chariot scene in Ben Hur frame by frame, you can find out for yourself.
LoyalTubist wrote:17. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
False

That is one that is non-trivial — and the more important the item, the more documentation you expect. This has zipola. Relax, it's hot air.
LoyalTubist wrote:18. John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son.
True

Suprisingly, this one appears to be true, and unlike most everything else actually has some references to back it up.

http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton1/Lincoln59.html

SOURCE: p. 70-71 of Robert Todd Lincoln: A Man In His Own Right by John S. Goff.
LoyalTubist wrote:19. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister.
True
LoyalTubist wrote:20. Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dogs heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.
True

If you own a dog and didn't already know this, maybe you should consider a fish. Chocolate will kill dogs, although the dosage depends on the dog. My dog once got into a huge Hershey's bar and ate the whole thing. It didn't kill him, but made him sick.
LoyalTubist wrote:21. Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps.
False

Boone did not actually wear a coonskin cap, but there is no evidence suggesting he detested them.
LoyalTubist wrote:22. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
Probably False

Again, the only reference to this, is in other internet "fact lists" full of other incorrect factoids. Logically does this really make sense though? I'm sure the pilots had plenty of maps on them, and it would be just as easy to have a map as a deck of playing cards. Why disguise the map? If captured the captors will let you keep playing cards but not a map. Besides last time I soaked paper in water, all I got was wet paper.
LoyalTubist wrote:23. Most lipsticks contain fish scales.
False

MOST lipsticks do not. Some do. Lipsticks with shimmering effects were initially made using a substance found in fish scales called pearlescence. Most today use synthetic products however.
LoyalTubist wrote:24. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
Probably False

Well I know your getting sick of this answer, but once again I couldn't find anything to back this up. But I highly doubt an Orca can torpedo up with the force required to actually penetrate a shark. Even if they could, why would that cause an explosion, it's not as though the whale is loaded with TNT as well.
LoyalTubist wrote:25. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
False

It's a legend we giddily love to believe -- Donald Duck was once banned in a foreign country because he didn't wear any pants and cavorted with an unmarried female duck! Somewhere out there are people who can get even more uptight and I'll show them pants . . . humorless about something as innocuous as children's comic books than Americans! Unfortunately, we Americans may have to retain the uptightness crown, because there's nothing to this tale.

Due to time constraints, I'm going to skip most of these from here on out, but you get the idea.
LoyalTubist wrote:31. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
False

Oscar has changed his look on occasion. In the 1930s through the 50's, juvenile players received miniature replicas of the statuette; ventriloquist Edgar Bergen was presented with a wooden statuette with a movable mouth; and Walt Disney was honored with one full-size and seven miniature statuettes on behalf of his animated feature SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. In support of the World War II effort between 1942 and 1944, Oscars were made of plaster, to be traded in for golden statuettes after the war. Additionally, the base was raised and changed from marble to metal in 1945. And in 1949, Academy Award statuettes began to be numbered, starting with No. 501.
LoyalTubist wrote:32. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
Unverifiable

Somebody might actually care about this. I can't find a definitive answer for you.

* George Steiner is quoted as saying, "There are more possible variants in a game at chess than it is calculated there are atoms in this sprawling universe. The number of possible legitimate ways of playing the first four moves on each side comes to 318,979,584,000. Playing one game a minute and never repeating it, the entire population of the globe would need two hundred and sixteen billion years to exhaust all conceivable ways of playing the first ten moves." George Steiner is supposed to be a genius.
* According to another source (Harvard Magazine) "the first four moves can be played in 85 billion different ways" — that's 85,000,000,000.
* According to chessposter.com, "Chess is infinite: There are 400 different positions after each player makes one move apiece. There are 72,084 positions after two moves apiece. There are 9+ million positions after three moves apiece. There are 288+ billion different possible positions after four moves apiece. There are more 40-move games on Level-1 than the number of electrons in our universe. There are more game-trees of Chess than the number of galaxies (100+ billion), and more openings, defences, gambits, etc. than the number of quarks in our universe! --Chesmayne"
LoyalTubist wrote:35. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!
False

"Orange", yes. "Quicksilver" rhymes with "silver." Lots of words end with "ple" or the syllable sounding like "pull" -- including "pull."
LoyalTubist wrote:37. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before!
False

Authors do make up names. But, although Barrie certainly popularized the name "Wendy," he did not originate it.
The History of Wendy, from World Wide Wendy
LoyalTubist wrote:41. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
False

Evidently, if a scorpion is dying, it thrashes about with its stinger, and this gave some observers the idea that scorpions can sting themselves to death. It is unlikely, however, that one drop of liquor is enough to kill the beast. What is a "tiny amount"? What proof (percentage of alcohol) does the liquor have to be? Any offers to do the experiment?
LoyalTubist wrote:44. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'
True

It sounds wrong at first. "Born in the USA" was released in 1984. The first CDs were already out in 1982. From BBC News : "After years in the planning stages the first CD players were put on the market in Japan in 1982 with Billy Joel's 52nd Street being the first available album." But "Bruce Springsteen's hugely successful Born in the USA was the first CD to be manufactured in the US." So this one is True.
LoyalTubist wrote:46. The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!
False

[Middle English butterflye, from Old English butorfloge : butor, butere, butter; see butter + floge, fly; see fly2.]
LoyalTubist wrote:47. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
False

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/rea ... fe-beating
LoyalTubist wrote:49. Roses MAY Be red, but violets ARE, indeed, violet.
False

Just as there are all sorts of colors of rose, not just rosy ones, there are also all sorts of colors of violets.
LoyalTubist wrote:52. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
True
LoyalTubist wrote:53. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.
False

Chaplin did indeed fare poorly in a Chaplin look-alike contest, but the competition took place in a San Francisco theater. His final standing is not recorded, although it was noted that he "failed even to make the finals."
LoyalTubist wrote:55. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
False

The only way to stop your eyes from being irritated by the onion acid is to decrease the amount of onion acid that gets to them. Chewing gum will not affect this. Some things that will help:

* Cut both ends off the onion and run it under cold water for a few moments — or even leave it soaking in cold water for a bit. This drains some of the acidic juice out of the onion.
* Have a powerful fan going to blow most of the onion-spray away from your eyes.
* Wear goggles.
* Have somebody else cut the onions, and leave the room.
LoyalTubist wrote:56. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."
True
LoyalTubist wrote:60. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
Guinness themselves listed that in their 1978 edition, although I think perhaps it might have changed since then.
LoyalTubist wrote:61. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.
False

Passing wind in a spacesuit would be very unpleasant for the astronaut; the spacesuit better be able to take it, it's designed to take a whole lot worse. If NASA did have to do fart control, it would have to control a lot more than bean intake.
LoyalTubist wrote:63. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!
False

Ever actually watched bats exit a cave, some of them actually go in opposite directions.
Go read "Ishmael" a novel by Daniel Quinn. It will literally change your life.
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by LoyalTubist » Wed Sep 24, 2008 7:09 pm

And you thought I had a lot of free time!

:read:

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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by bassoonuba » Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:43 pm

The Aceman wrote:
LoyalTubist wrote:41. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
False
That sounds like a challenge to me ...
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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by LoyalTubist » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:34 pm

The main thing you learn from this is not to believe everything you pick up on the Internet.

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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by Bandmaster » Sun Sep 28, 2008 12:06 am

LoyalTubist wrote:The main thing you learn from this is not to believe everything you pick up on the Internet.
But how many kids today know who that person is in your avatar?

I do, I used to watch his show every day after school.
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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by Bandmaster » Wed Oct 01, 2008 2:24 pm

Bandmaster wrote: But how many kids today know who that person is in your avatar?
No takers on this one eh? OK... the answer is Engineer Bill.

How many folks here can remember shows like:
Bozo the Clown
Sheriff John
Captain Kangeroo
Sherri Lewis and Lambchop
Soupy Sales
Chuck Jones with Felix the Cat
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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by Hostrauser » Wed Oct 01, 2008 3:20 pm

Bandmaster wrote:
Bandmaster wrote: But how many kids today know who that person is in your avatar?
No takers on this one eh? OK... the answer is Engineer Bill.

How many folks here can remember shows like:
Bozo the Clown
Sheriff John
Captain Kangeroo
Sherri Lewis and Lambchop
Soupy Sales
Chuck Jones with Felix the Cat
How many folks on here were ALIVE when those shows were still on the air? :roll:

Bozo peaked in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sheriff John went off the air in 1970 (and was an LA-area local show).
Captain Kangaroo went off the air in 1984.
Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop peaked in the 60s and 70s (but were on the air in assorted markets until 1997).
Soupy Sales went off the air in 1962, came back in 1978 and lasted one year.

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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by old double reeder » Wed Oct 01, 2008 6:46 pm

If you're listing those "old" shows...how about "Mr. Wishbone" or "Paul Winchell and the Winchell Mahoney Show" or "Hobo Kelly"?

Or are we just enticing the young ones to poke fun at those of us who were around before cell phones and vcrs?

:)

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Re: 63 Things You Need to Know

Post by LoyalTubist » Wed Oct 01, 2008 9:01 pm

Bandmaster wrote:
LoyalTubist wrote:The main thing you learn from this is not to believe everything you pick up on the Internet.
But how many kids today know who that person is in your avatar?

I do, I used to watch his show every day after school.
Sorry, Dave,
I'm still in the middle of my move (and still in Vietnam). I should be up north Saturday morning.

I put him there for my avatar as a memorial to him. He just died in August at the age of 97. I've tried teaching the Red Light/Green Light game to my university classes in Tan An, but the hardest part is getting them to appreciate the taste of milk (all we get here is low-lactose stuff).

As far as the other kids' shows emcees that were mentioned, the only ones still alive are Sheriff John (John Rovick), Hobo Kelly (Sally Baker), Soupy Sales, and the last Bozo we saw on channel 13 (Frankie Avruch--he was actually in Boston for that series). I saw Soupy Sales on an Internet broadcast lately. He looks healthy but he does look his age... a lot like the old people he used to make fun of!


ImageImageImage

Here we see Sheriff John, Boston's Bozo, and a recent picture of Soupy Sales (I showed that to a friend of mine now living in the Virgin Islands and he said he didn't want to see it!)

Image

I gave this to my high school students in Saigon last October as a fill in activity for a test. When I got back the peacocks, 95% of them looked just like the one you see here... even the color order. So much for originality!

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