Doll Trivia

 

Artist Xavier Roberts first designed his soon-to-be-famous Cabbage Patch dolls in 1977 to help pay his way through school. They had soft faces and were made by hand, as opposed to the hard-faced mass-market dolls, and were originally called Little People.

Batastic!

Plants that are dependent on bats for pollination include bananas, dates, figs, cashews, avocados, saguaros, organ pipes, century plants, cloves, mangoes, breadfruit, carob, kapok, and almost every tropical night-blooming species, including the mescal plant. That’s right without bats, there would be no tequila!

This Might Be A Trivia Question, MMA

Vaudevillian Jack Norworth wrote "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in 1908, after seeing a sign on a bus advertising BASEBALL TODAY/POLO GROUNDS. Norworth and his friend Albert von Tilzer (who wrote the music) had never been to a baseball game before their song became a hit sing-along.

We Are Woman

The largest cell in the human body is the female ovum, or egg cell. It is about 1/180 inch in diameter. The smallest cell in the human body is the male sperm. It takes about 175,000 sperm cells to weigh as much as a single egg cell. Hence, even in the beginning, women have more substance than men.

Jobs Before Fame Trivia

Before starring on Bonanza or Little House on the Prairie, Michael Landon worked as an operator for a machine that sealed hot cans of Campbell’s Tomato Soup.

Aboriginal Trivia

In silent Aboriginal hunting language, a closed hand slowly opening is meant to show that a kangaroo is near.

Survivor Trivia

During its debut 2000 season, the island location used for TV’s Survivor was a staging post for modern-day pirates. These pirates, with high-tech speedboats, used the remote island for international black marketeering. In retaliation for the invasion of their privacy by the Hollywood crew, several bad guys one day chased the show’s creator, Mark Burnett, in their speedboat. Burnett later said he feared he would be killed. No such luck.

Soap Opera Trivia

The first TV soap opera, Faraway Hill, debuted on the DuMont network in 1946.

Spike Trivia

Discuss and hammer throwers are allowed only 2 spikes on each shoe. I'll try to notice this when I'm glued to the Olympics - which I LOVE!

From Bernice

Does Anyone Still Use AOL?

Elwood Edwards’s voice is heard more than 27 million times a day (which comes to more than 18,000 times per minute). Edwards is the man behind those special three words - no, not "I love you," but "You’ve got mail."

Oh Great

Scientists discover approximately 7,000 to 10,000 new insect species every year and it is believed that there are between 1 million and 10 million species yet unfound.

If the Shoe Fits

And you know who you are ... cough ... Maddie!

My Kind of Sports Trivia

Badminton is the world’s fastest racket sport: a shuttle, commonly known as a birdie, can leave the racket at a speed of almost 200 mph. Badminton was first recognized as an official Olympic sport during the 1992 Summer Games. More than 1.1 billion people watched badminton’s Olympic debut on TV.

Whatevers

Watching gymnastics on TV and thinking about the girls' outfits.  Long sleeves but barely covered below the waist.  The guys on the other hand wear tank tops and long pants.  Just seems odd.  Put together, they wear all or almost nothing. 

Laughed at myself again when I threw away the toilet paper holder and held onto cardboard tube.  For those of you who never change the toilet paper, this happens sometimes. 

Live Long and Prosper

Leonard Nimoy directed the films Three Men and a Baby and The Good Mother with Diane Keaton as well as Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.

Prophetic Abe

Yikes!

I've had this on before, but scary!

The historic notebooks in which Marie and Pierre Curie recorded their experiments on radium, nearly a century ago, are still radioactive.

It's a Show About Nothing

I'm reading a book on my phone Tug told me about that I'm really enjoying.  It's Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV by Warren Littlefield who was head of entertainment at NBC when they had good shows.  That was when "Must See TV" was Thursday nights.  His book gives the scoop on "Cheers," "Seinfeld," "Friends," "Cosby," "ER," "Will and Grace," "Law & Order," "Mad About You," "3rd Rock from the Sun," and all the people involved through a series of interviews.  I'm a nosy TV fan, so this is great for me!

Littlefield  highlights many decisions that would have radically changed the shows America came to love.  For example, look at casting:

• Imagine Fred Dryer and Julia Duffy, or William Devane and Lisa Eichhorn, instead of Ted Danson and Shelly, playing Sam and Diane on Cheers
• Imagine Steve Vinovich as Kramer, Larry Miller as George, and Megan Mullally as Elaine, instead of Michael Richards, Jason Alexander, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Seinfeld
• Imagine Teri Hatcher instead of Helen Hunt on Mad About You
• Imagine Lisa Kudrow as Roz instead of Peri Gilpin on Frasier
• Imagine Eric McCormack as Ross instead of David Schwimmer on Friends
• Imagine Nicollette Sheridan as Grace instead of Debra Messing on Will & Grace

Similarly, would you have watched a show called Six of One, instead of Friends? How about The Paul Reiser Show instead of Mad About You?

Littlefield often called Thursday night, "the Night of Bests."  The phrase "Must See TV" was coined at random from a guy who worked at NBC named Dan Holm.  No research.  No focus groups.

Reading it, William Goldman's famous rule about Hollywood came to mind - NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING.  They definitely don't now.  It's run by MBAs and not the creative people.  I know they have to make a profit since networks are businesses, but couldn't they have better programs and keep some that don't appeal to the lowest common denominator?

Never Knew This

On the hit The Drew Carey Show, the tongue-in-cheek name of one of Drew’s best friends is Oswald Lee Harvey. (Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated Pres. John F Kennedy. So is this funny?)