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?)

Buying Elections

Did y'all see this article about the 16 right-wing billionaires donating to Mittens and other Republicans?  (And who also won that election in Wisconsin.)  Thanks, Supreme Court.  Article in Rolling Stone HERE.

I Like This Trivia

A device invented as a primitive steam engine by the Greek engineer Hero more than 2,000 years ago is used today as a rotating lawn sprinkler.

OMG!

It's easy to understand why I never remarried after my divorce when you see these photos from dating sites.  I'd post some of them but don't want to have them on here!  Click to laugh in a horrified way. 

It's a cold world out there except for Maddie.  Then there are those of you in good relationships.  Hang on to them! 

Trivia Back by Popular Demand for Mrs. Miss A!

The first rubber heel for shoes was patented on January 24, 1899 by Humphrey O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan, an Irish-American, found that his rubber heel outlasted the leather heel then in use.

Olden Days

Well, we didn't know any difference with early blogs.  That's how they were.  I asked so many people where they got some of the add-ons (which they were then) and how to add them.  Most had pretty good instructions but still!!  Not easy!  I'm so glad it's all easier now.  Some of you made some hilarious comments about it, too!  Just appreciate it and wait for the next new technological advances!
 
When I first started teaching, we had mimeograph machines.  Tests and hand-outs were typed on manual typewriters on this blue waxy sheet.  The typewriter cut a stencil into the wax so the ink could be pushed through it during the printing.  Corrections were made by brushing the blue stuff from a bottle with a little brush (sort of like nail polish) over the mistake, letting it dry, and then typing over it.  (White-Out didn't come until later for all this.)  That blue sheet was attached to a drum that let black ink come through the letters.  Copies were black ink on white mimeograph paper.  You had to be careful taking that blue sheet off the machine because that ink was messy and hard to get out of clothes.  I hated it.

 
Later on we had ditto machines that were sort of like a slick page over what was sort of like carbon paper and purple.  This was a major improvement over the mimeograph.  They could be typed, handwritten, and drawn on.  Those top sheets were torn off and put on the ditto machine which was also a round drum that had ditto fluid in it somewhere that interacted with the purple carbon-type stuff.  I'm sure some of you remember those in school and how the pages felt cold and got sniffed by many students when fresh off the press!   Anyone remember that smell? 

Imagine how fabulous it was to have copy machines!  Early on, they made copies and that was it, but it was still wonderful.  Who knew what they could become!  Now they collate, staple, punch holes, copy on both sides, can be in color, and much more.  It's absolutely wonderful to use computers to produce the material to give students and to make out tests.  For one thing, they are SAVED!  Then to copy them on the copy machine makes life so much easier! 

Retrospective

Ten years ago this month I started writing a blog titled Joy's Updates: Straight from the Horse's Mouth.  It was more difficult to do it then.  Blogger has made changes which help so much now.  We had to go to sites with comments, guest books, counters, and other bells and whistles to add to our blogs.  Mostly that involved copying and pasting html code on the template.  I bought an html book that helped, but it wasn't easy to do all this and took quite a bit of trial and error.  Later when I read other blogs and "met" some people who could help, I asked where they got things and searched and found.  A couple of former female students who first encouraged me to have a blog helped the most!  I gave one of them my information and password, and she got on there to fix some things.  I'm glad it's easier now but glad I learned some things.

I wish I'd had comments on it during those first months.  People emailed me at best when they wanted to say something or would mention something I'd written when I saw them in person eventually.  Comments would have helped so much.  As most of you know, I began the blog to update people on my treatment for non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  I hope I never have to experience that again!  It's horrible.

I went back and read those posts from the lymphoma treatment and am glad I did.  More on all this later.