The Streisand Effect

Did you know about the "Streisand Effect"? 

The term refers to the 2003 attempt by Barbara Streisand to keep photos of her home from being posted online. It is now used to describe the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely.

Clipart courtesy of Caricature Zone.

What a Leg-acy!

American gymnast George Eyser won six medals during the 1924 Summer Olympics, despite having lost his left leg as a young boy after being run over by a train.   Wearing a wooden prosthesis,  he won gold in the vault, an event which then included a jump over a long horse without aid of a springboard.

This is definitely one case of NOT having a leg up on the competition!

EGOT

A "bump" from Oct. 16, 2012

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Did you know? EGOT: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony - winning all four is called the "Grand Slam of show business". (EGOT is sometimes known as "GATE", the "A" for Academy)

Eleven people have won all four major annual American entertainment awards - List - but there are only two who have won those four awards as well as the Pulitzer: Richard Rodgers and Marvin Hamlisch.

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The reason I "bumped" this post was because I was reminded of it just now after hearing some idjit sports talk hosts talking about famous birthdays and mentioning that today was Katharine Hepburn's birthday and adding a not-funny crack about her being dead. Sheesh. Topping off that not-funny remark was one of the hosts saying her daughter was Audrey Hepburn. What? It made me go look to see if it was true - it wasn't. Dumb bastards.(and I'm a dumb one for having to go look)

Anyway, I remembered this post when I saw that Audrey Hepburn was a member of the elite EGOT club. (although how elite it is comes into question when Whoopie Goldburg is also in the club)  Glancing through the list I had read when I first posted this, I saw that Philip Michael Thomas was credited with coining the acronym. To be honest, the name was familiar when I read it, but off the top of my head I couldn't have told anyone what he had done. I remembered when I saw he had starred in Miami Vice. I've never been much of a fan of cop shows (hasn't the buddy cop thing been done to death?) and I can't remember ever watching a single full episode of that show, so that was the reason I couldn't remember Thomas.

Color Change

Did you know the ruby slippers worn by Dorothy in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz were originally silver in the book?

Greenland, USA

Did you know the United States once tried to buy Greenland? From Wiki

Following World War II, the United States developed a geopolitical interest in Greenland, and in 1946 the United States offered to buy Greenland from Denmark for $100,000,000, but Denmark refused to sell. However, in 1950, Denmark did agree to allow the United States to reestablish Thule Air Base, which was greatly expanded between 1951 and 1953 as part of a unified NATO Cold War defense strategy.

Ivy League

Did you know seven of the eight "Ivy League" schools were founded before the American Revolution?  They are: Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale.  The only one founded after the Revolution was Cornell University, in 1865.

Happy Grandparents Day!

Did you know the average age of a first-time grandparent in the U.S. is 47?

Creepy Carnivorous Caterpillars

Did you know Hawaii has 18 species of carnivorous caterpillars?

Funny GIFs

Photobucket has been sending me "You should see these!" types of emails lately; I've used the service for a long time, since MSN Groups, but Blogger lets me add photos using Picassa, so I don't use it much anymore except when I want to put an animated graphic (GIF) into a post. (I guess I "use" it every day because that's where the graphics for the month images at the top of the page are hosted)

I followed a link in the email to see this: Animated_GIFs I would link to the slide show, but there are over 400 graphics and even with my fairly fast connection, the animations wouldn't load fast enough until it was cycling through to the next one. There are some funny ones, worth a look!

(Did you know GIF isn't pronounced "gif" but rather as "jif", with a "J"?  So says the creator of them, but there are people arguing that he's wrong.)

Did You Know?

You may have noticed some of the trivia posts are labeled "did you know".   It might be redundant to have both that and a trivia label, but they ARE a little different, namely that when I ask "Did you know...?" it means I did not know it and found it interesting/cool.

Fishy Fingernails

Did you know the pearly essence in many lipsticks and nail polishes is made up of fish scales? (usually from herring)

There are vegan-approved nail polishes which use mineral silica, synthetic pearl or particles of metal such as bronze or aluminum.

Joy for Breakfast

Did you know Mrs. Butterworth's first name is "Joy"?

Gerald Ford Trivia

Did you know Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, was originally named Leslie Lynch King, Jr. when he was born? He was also the only President not to be elected by the Electoral College, having been appointed to the Vice Presidency when Spiro Agnew resigned, then becoming President upon the resignation of Richard Nixon.

Ford was also a star football player for Michigan and in 1934, against the University of Chicago, "became the only future U.S. president to tackle a future Heisman Trophy winner when he brought down running back Jay Berwanger, who would win the first Heisman the following year."

Four-Eyed Fish

Did you know there's a Four-eyed fish? The Anableps anableps is the most common type. (there are two other recognized species in the genus, the Anableps dowei and the Anableps microlepis ) Actually, the fish doesn't have four eyes, but the pupils of both eyes are divided giving the surface swimmer the ability to search above for food while watching for predators below it.

Cheesy Trivia

Did you know Blue Stilton cheese is a trademark protected name and can only be produced in three English adjacent counties? They are: Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Oddly enough, it cannot be produced in the village that gave the cheese its name because it's not in the three permitted counties.

Great on Beef!

Did you know the horseradish capital of the world is Collinsville, Illinois? The small town in southern Illinois produces 60% of the world's supply.

This is my favorite store-bought brand (made-from-scratch is the best!) and I not only love it on a nice slab of prime rib, but also on cheap sardines.  That, and some pickled okra with cheese crackers washed down with a good Chinese beer used to be one of my favorite late night snacks.


I don't eat that very often these days, but oddly enough, the strange dreams I had on those nights have also stopped.

Collinsville is also known for the tallest catsup bottle in the world.

Borderline Trivia

Did you know there is supposed to be ten feet of both sides of the Canada–United States border free of trees, brush and other obstructions?

If you ever look at the border on Google Earth (or Bing Maps) it might not be obvious on flat prairie land, but it's more apparent through wooded areas, such as this Google Earth screen shot of northern Washington state.

See more US-Canada border information:

More Than You Probably Ever Cared to Know About the US-Canada Border

Banned Borat

Did you know Lebanon was the only Arab country that didn't ban Borat, the 2006 mockumentary starring Sacha Baron Cohen?

Official trailer

Farewell Faithful Fido

Did you know President Lincoln's dog Fido was "assassinated" by a drunk in Springfield, IL. just a year after Lincoln was shot and killed?  Fido, a yellow retriever-shepherd mix had been the President's faithful companion for over five years.

Read more

A Cool Job

Did you know President Barack Obama's first job was scooping ice cream ? The future President worked for Baskin-Robbins in Honolulu during a high-school summer vacation in the mid-70's.