Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 113

7 Fun Facts About Ringo Starr

Some fun facts about the least appreciated Beatle.

Up until this month, Ringo Starr was the only member of the Beatles not inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. In fact, he was only inducted via a special committee who included Starr under its “Award for Musical Excellence Banner,” which honors sideman, producers, and other tertiary participants in the music industry. The honor was arranged after Starr’s old bandmate Paul McCartney, and Robbie Robertson of the Band, personally lobbied Hall organizer Jann Wenner.


When The Simpsons premiered in 1990, three Beatles were still living, and all appeared on the show, at separate times. Starr was the first to do so. In an April 1991 episode, he’s shown getting around to answering all of his Beatles-era fan mail, and sends Marge a letter thanking her for the “fab painting” she made of him. “I hung it on me wall!” he adds.


The Beatles were minimally involved with the making of the film Yellow Submarine. Except for Starr. He asked animators to make the animated version of himself have a bigger nose.


While the other Beatles had various disagreements with each other over the years, Starr reportedly never had any bad blood with any of his former band mates. (After George Harrison died in 2001, his wife, Olivia Harrison, said Starr was “probably his best friend.”) Starr took the friendship musical—he’s the only Beatle to perform on solo albums by all the other Beatles. He was the drummer on Lennon’s 1970 Plastic Ono Band album, four Paul McCartney albums, and seven George Harrison albums.


Born in 1940, Starr is the oldest Beatle, 3 months older than John Lennon.


Starr was the only Beatle who had a job before Beatlemania hit. In his early 20s, in the early ‘60s, Starr worked as a ferryboat steward.


Starr’s main musical output these days is his touring All Starr Band. Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh is a frequent collaborator on those tours, and he’s also family—Walsh is married to Marjorie Bach, sister of Barbara Bach, Starr’s wife of 30-plus years.

For more fun facts about music, check out Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Music.

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Ask Uncle John Anything: What is White Chocolate?

Uncle John knows pretty much everything—and if he doesn’t, he heads his massive research library, or puts one of his many associates on the case. So go ahead: In the comments below, ask Uncle John anything. (And if we answer your question sometime, we’ll send you a free book!)

What is white chocolate, anyway?

Is white chocolate a form of chocolate? Or, is it this other thing that is sort of like chocolate in texture and creaminess (but not flavor, appearance, or myriad other things)? Or, is it just trying to jump on the bandwagon of chocolate, because everybody likes chocolate?

White chocolate is chocolate…and it isn’t. White chocolate is, well, white chocolate.

To learn about white chocolate, let’s look at how regular chocolate is made. Cocoa pods are harvested, and the cocoa beans inside are removed. Then they’re fermented, dried, and roasted. The beans are then de-shelled, revealing cocoa nibs. Then those nibs are ground into a paste, also known as chocolate liquor. Industrial equipment further separates the chocolate liquor into cocoa solids—used to make chocolate bars, or ground to make cocoa powder—as well as a creamy, white vegetable fat called cocoa butter.

Cocoa butter is kind of gross tasting, although it smells pretty good, which is why it’s a common ingredient in cosmetics and skin care products. But it’s the main ingredient in white chocolate…so long as milk solids, milk fat, and lots of sugar and vanilla are added. In 2004, the FDA cracked down on subpar white chocolate by drawing up new rules for what chocolate producers can legally call “white chocolate.” Under federal white chocolate law, white chocolate must contain at least 20 percent cocoa butter, 14 percent milk solids, and a maximum of 55 percent sugar (or other sweeteners, such as high fructose corn syrup). Other legally allowed ingredients in white chocolate: vanilla, of course, and lecitin, a fatty acid that acts as an emulsifier, preventing all the ingredients from separating.

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Fake-or-Fact Friday: Cheaters!

There are lots of ways to cheat on a test. Two of the following are real ways kids got caught cheating, and the third we made up. Think you know which one is the dishonest one? The answer is at the end of the post.

A.

A 17-year-old high school senior in Beaverton, Oregon, was expelled after midterm examinations this year when his teacher caught him with an answer key to his AP History exam. The student (unnamed in press reports because he’s a minor) was nowhere the school, and not actually taking the test when the cheating occurred. How was he found out? His AP History teacher was his mother, and she caught him stealing the answer key out of her briefcase. She turned him into the school, who expelled him. (He’s appealing the ruling…with the help of his father.)

B.

In Maryland, some schools are experimenting with administering standardized tests online. For the English assessment earlier this year, two 10th-graders were caught using social media to canvass for results. They simply logged on to their accounts on Twitter via the computer’s Internet access, and asked their followers for answers to tests. They were caught by experimental software programmed to scan social media for phrases used on the test.

C.

In the Indian school system, students have to pass their 10th grade examinations…or they’re out of school, and out of an opportunity that could help many students bring their families out of poverty. It’s such a high-pressure situation that cheating to ensure success is rampant. Earlier this month, more than 600 students were expelled when teachers learned their parents’ were helping them cheat. The parents had slipped answers on paper scraps to students…by scaling school buildings and passing in answers through the window. More than 600 students were expelled because of the scandal.

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Want more things that seem true but aren’t true? Then check out Uncle John’s Fake Facts. (Really!)

 

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The Weirdest Album In Music History

Is it still one album if it’s four albums played simultaneously? Here’s the bizarre story behind the Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka.

The Flaming Lips have always been a bit kooky. The Oklahoma band’s breakthrough was the 1995 hit “She Don’t Use Jelly,” a song about eating Vaseline on toast. Their bestselling album is 2002’s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which is about a Japanese teenager fighting pink robots and space monsters. But none of that is as odd as Zaireeka. A contraction of “Zaire” and “eureka!”, it was a four-CD set released in 1997 in which each disc contained one-fourth of the tracks of each of the piece’s eight songs. To get the full experience, listeners were supposed to play each CD simultaneously on a different stereo, creating a surround-sound experience. Coyne says he got the idea from when he was a kid when he heard a bunch of guys in a parking lot play the same song on their car stereos at the same time.

There were a few reasons why Zaireeka was a hard sell. CD players were still cost prohibitive in 1997, upwards of $100. Few people had more than two CD players, let alone four, and all in the same room, as Zairekka required. It’s also very difficult to sync up four CD players. Every machine has a different mechanical delay both at the beginning of the album and between tracks; even if somebody owned four identical players, they’d have to hit “play” on all four at the same time, which would be hard to do if they followed the Coyne’s instructions to place the stereos and their speakers in four opposite corners of a room. Anything short of complete synchronicity messed up the transitions of sounds as they wound their way from one speaker to the next.

The Flaming Lips label, Warner Brothers, thought the whole project was nonsense, but more importantly, too expensive. After the band proved that they’d only have to sell 12,000 copies to break even, the label agreed to release it…provided the Flaming Lips added another, more “conventional” album to its contract. In other words, Warner paid for Zaireeka but would get another album for free.

How did the critics like Zaireeka? They didn’t. It received a 0.0 out of 10 rating from Pitchfork.com. And yet it sold far better than Warner thought it would: about 30,000 copies over time.

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Impossible Questions: The Clooney Affair – The Answer

Think you’ve got the right answer? Keep reading to see if you nailed it.

What weird career quirk is shared by movie star George Clooney and TV star Madeleine Stowe?

Both Clooney and Stowe starred in two different productions with the same title…the first of which was their “big break” into Hollywood and show business, and the second of which propelled them into huge success.

After getting work as an extra and some very minor parts in TV shows and movies in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, George Clooney won his first big role in 1984 on a CBS sitcom set in a hospital’s emergency room. The show was called E/R, and Clooney played the nephew of one of the doctors. It was cancelled after one low-rated season, and Clooney moved on, with roles on Roseanne and The Facts of Life. In 1994, he took a leading role as emergency room doctor Doug Ross on a show for NBC created by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. It was called…ER (not to be confused with E/R). Clooney became a TV star, sex symbol, Emmy nominee, and after leaving the show in 1999, an A-list movie star.

Madeleine Stowe made her living in the late ‘70s and 1980s playing primarily bit parts on TV and in TV movies, such as Barnaby Jones, Baretta, and Little House on the Prairie. Her first big film role came in 1987 as a mysterious woman in the crime comedy Stakeout. Her breakout role, however, was in the 1989 Kevin Costner thriller Revenge. Stowe starred in a string of big Hollywood films in the ‘90s, such as The Last of the Mohicans, 12 Monkeys, and The General’s Daughter, but around 2006 dropped out of acting to focus on raising her daughter and to spend more time on charitable work in Haiti. In 2011, she returned to TV to play Victoria Grayson, a villainous matriarch on the hit ABC soap opera…Revenge.

Want more impossible questions? Check out Uncle John’s Impossible Questions.

 

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Impossible Questions: The Clooney Affair

Think you know the answer to this question? Think you can get it? Good luck…and come back tomorrow to see if you’re right.

What weird career quirk is shared by movie star George Clooney and TV star Madeleine Stowe?

 

Want more impossible questions? Check out Uncle John’s Impossible Questions.

 

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4 of the Worst Ever NBA Playoff Teams

A whopping 16 teams make the NBA playoffs—more than half of the league. Result: Sometimes the field is a little weak.

The 1986 Chicago Bulls

The 1985-86 was Michael Jordan’s second in the NBA, and the second time he took the Bulls to the playoffs…despite a broken bone in his foot that allowed him to play in just 18 games all season. Result: The Bulls put up a record of 30-52, in part because of the super-dominant Boston Celtics (67-15) and L.A. Lakers (62-20)—with two teams winning all those games, all the other teams lose. Jordan was back to full health by the time the playoffs started, where the Bulls eked in with the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference. Jordan scored a record 63 points in the second game of the first round series, but the Bulls were still swept by the Celtics, 3 games to 0.

The 1988 San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs won the eighth seed in the Western Conference at 31-51, only because the teams below them were so bad, including the 17-65 L.A. Clippers and 20-62 Golden State Warriors. Despite defensive superstar Alvin Robertson, the L.A. Lakers defeated the Spurs 3 games to 0. If only the Spurs had had their 1987 #1 draft pick, David Robinson…but he was still finishing up a stint in the Navy.

The 1953 Baltimore Bullets

In the early NBA, eight of the league’s 10 teams made the playoffs, and the eighth team in the 1952-53 season happened to be the 16-54 Baltimore Bullets. They’re still the worst team in American professional team sports to reach the postseason. (They were dispatched 2 games to 0 by the New York Knicks.)

The 1999 New York Knicks

Since the playoffs moved to a 16-team format in 1984 (eight per conference), only five times has the #1 seed been knocked out in the first round by a #8 seed. And only once has that #8 seed gone all the way to the finals. In the strike-shortened 1999 season, the #8 Knicks took the #1 Miami Heat to five games, and Allan Houston sank a long shot with 0.8 seconds left. The Knicks then inexplicably swept the #4 Atlanta Hawks, and then beat Indiana in the conference finals, even without injured superstar Patrick Ewing. The Cinderella story ended in the Finals, where they lost to the Western Conference’s #1 seeded San Antonio Spurs.

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The Weird World of Uncle Floyd

There’s a good chance that you’ve never heard of this unusual piece of pop culture trivia , but for an entire generation of Jerseyites and New Yorkers, he was a beloved television icon.

In 1974, Floyd Vivino was an out-of-work circus entertainer when he landed a job on United Artists Columbia Cable of New Jersey, a network with a somewhat small audience and an even smaller budget. Vivino jumped into his new job with relish and created a character for a new program called The Uncle Floyd Show.

Much like Soupy Sales had done with his own somewhat subversive children’s show in the ‘50s, The Uncle Floyd Show could be interpreted as either a kid’s program or a parody of one. He did what he could with his miniscule budget and filled air with puppet shows, musical acts, and chatter with crew members. A talented musician himself, Vivino often played a piano when he wasn’t trading gags about New Jersey’s air pollution with Oogie, a snarky ventriloquist’s dummy.

If this all sounds a bit familiar, it’s because The Uncle Floyd Show would go on to influence everyone from Pee-Wee Herman and Craig Ferguson to David Letterman and Howard Stern, all of whom would later use similar gags in their own programs. The show jumped over to network WBTB-TV later that same year as it steadily attracted more and more viewers.

In the early ‘80s, the show was popular enough to go into syndication. It was snatched up by stations broadcasting in Boston, Philadelphia and as far away as Chicago, many of whom aired it late at night to attract college-age viewers. With a bigger audience and a slightly bigger budget, Vivino was able to attract musical acts like the Ramones, Cyndi Lauper, Peter Tork, and Bon Jovi. The Ramones were such big fans of the show that they mentioned it in their song “It’s Not My Place (In the Nine to Five World)” and their lead singer, Joey Ramone, often wore an Uncle Floyd button during concerts. David Bowie’s 2002 song “Slipping Away” is about Floyd.—he became a fan after being introduced to it by John Lennon.

By the time The Uncle Floyd Show ended its 18-year run in 1992, it had entertained thousands, spawned a comedy album, and earned its host roles in films and TV shows like Good Morning, Vietnam and Law & Order. Reruns continued to air into the late ‘90s. In the years since the show went off the air, Vivino has continued to do crazy stuff like set world records. He currently holds the one for “Longest Nonstop Piano Playing.” He managed to tickle the ivories for 24 hours and 15 minutes back in 1999 in order to raise money for a sick child. These days, he hosts an online radio show.

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3 Easter Bunny Alternatives From Around the World

Not every country gets their Easter goodies delivered by an ultra-intelligent rabbit.

Cuckoo

Like the rest of the Northern Hemisphere, Easter arrives at the beginning of Spring in Switzerland. Easter and Spring are wrapped up together, but that country’s symbol of growth and rebirth isn’t the bunny—it’s the cuckoo bird. (It makes more sense for eggs to come from birds than bunnies, right?) Swiss children fill their baskets on Easter morning by hunting for colored eggs and chocolate eggs left by the Easter Cuckoo. Cuckoos are much more prevalent in Switzerland anyhow—it’s the origin place of the cuckoo clock, after all.

Bilby

The bilby, or rabbit-bandicoot, is a rodentlike marsupial native to Australia. They kind of look like rats with big bunny ears. And while that might sound terrifying or weird to an American child, it’s the Easter Bilby that brings Easter Sunday treats to Australian children. Simply put, rabbits are not popular in Australia. They were introduced to the continent in the 1800s and destroyed thousands of acres of crops…so they aren’t exactly a sign of growth and rebirth.

Fox

Up until a few decades ago, the iconic Easter animal of Germany was the Easter Fox (or Osterfuchs). The Easter Bunny took hold there, but the German tradition goes like this: on the day before Easter, German children could make a nest of moss and hay for the Fox, and would place their pets in a locked room so as not to disturb the magical creature. In the morning: treats!

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Fun History Trivia: Napoleon vs. the Bunnies

Napoleon Bonaparte served as the emperor of France twice and conquered a good chunk of Europe. When it came to rabbits, though, “Le Petit Caporal” was no match for ‘em. For some fun history trivia, here is the full story.

Riding high after signing the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, which ended an ongoing conflict between France and Russia, Napoleon decided to celebrate with a good, old-fashioned rabbit hunt. He called in his Chief of Staff, Alexandre Berthier, who immediately went about making the arrangements. Berthier arranged a festive luncheon and sent out invites to Napoleon’s top level military staff before ordering his underlings to collect lots of rabbits. Some sources put the number at a few hundred, but others claim that at least 3,000 rabbits were collected for the hunt.

Carriages took Napoleon and his colleagues to a field where they began checking their weapons. Meanwhile, Berthier and his men stood waiting behind a long row of cages holding the rabbits. As trumpets sounded, the bunnies were released and the hunt began. Or it would have if the rabbits hadn’t decided to fight back. Instead of running for their little furry lives, dozens hopped toward Napoleon and clawed at the emperor’s legs and climbed up his jacket.

At first, the members of Napoleon’s hunting party thought this was all quite hilarious. When it became apparent that the bunnies were determined to eat him alive, they quickly intervened. While the emperor tried and failed to shoot them, his colleagues beat them with sticks. Their coachmen rushed to the scene to scare the bunnies away with whips but it was all to no avail. The rabbits were relentless.

Realizing that they were outmatched, Napoleon and everyone else jumped into the carriages. As historian David Chandler put it: “With a finer understanding of Napoleonic strategy than most of his generals, the rabbit horde divided into two wings and poured around the flanks of the party and headed for the imperial coach.” Some of them even managed to jump on board and continue the attacks.

The strange incident was later blamed on Berthier and his staff. They foolishly gathered tame rabbits from local farms instead of fetching wild hares. When they were released from the cages, the bunnies assumed it was feeding time and they all ran toward the nearest humans thinking that they were about to be given water and yummy carrots.

For more fun history trivia, check out Uncle John’s Plunges into History, Again.

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