Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 144

AUJA – Tony’s Tony and Oscar’s Oscar

Uncle John knows pretty much everything—and for what he doesn’t know, he has a massive research library. 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!)

Has anyone named Oscar ever won an Oscar?

Only one person named Oscar has ever won an Academy Award, nicknamed “Oscar” by an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences librarian who remarked that the bald statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. And that recipient is songwriter Oscar Hammerstein II. He won two Best Original Song awards, one for “The Last Time I Saw Paris” from Lady Be Good in 1941, and one for “It Might as Well Be Spring” from State Fair in 1945.

Oscar winning an Oscar made us realize that many major awards have familiar, affectionate names: Tony, Grammy, and Emmy for example. This made us wonder how often these other awards have been handed out to someone with whom they shared a name? As it turns out, not very often.

The Tony Awards are technically called the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, named for Perry, a Broadway director and American Theatre Wing co-founder. Nobody named Antoinette has ever won a Tony, but three men named Tony are Tony Winners. Tony Duquette won for designing the costumes for Camelot in 1961; Tony Walton won three times for scenic design, for Pippin (1973), The House of Blues Leaves (1986), and Guys and Dolls (1992). Playwright Tony Kushner won the Best Play Tony two years straight, for Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (1993) and Angels in America: Perestroika (1994).The only person named Juno (or Juneau) to win a Juno Award – the Canadian music industry’s top award, and that country’s version of a Grammy – is Pierre Juneau. And it kind of doesn’t count. Junueau was head of the Canadian Broadcasting System, and in 1971 he won the Canadian Music Industry Man of the Year prize at the Juno Awards…a ceremony named after Juneau.No one named Emmy has ever taken home an Emmy. However, in 2010, the Chrysler commercial that predicts the rebirth of the Detroit auto industry won the Emmy Award for Best Commercial. The ad starred Detroit-born rapper…Eminem.

The post AUJA – Tony’s Tony and Oscar’s Oscar appeared first on .

Fake-or-Fact Friday: The “Yellow King” Edition

Two of these news stories are real. One isn’t. Can you tell which? “Urine” luck, because the answer is at the end.

A.

An angry customer is suing McDonald’s after allegedly being served a cup of urine, instead of coffee. 45-year-old Randolph Bradshaw said he was a regular visitor at a Daytona, Florida, McDonald’s, but one day after getting in an argument with a manager over an error in his order, the regular black coffee he ordered with his daily Egg McMuffin was “off.” According to court filings, “Mr. Bradshaw immediately noticed a foul aroma from his cup, and when he confronted the manager, he was met only with a scowl and the response, ‘We thought that was just how you liked it.’” Bradshaw is seeking $10 million in damages.

B.

Police in Gainesville, Florida, are stepping up patrols on the campus of the University of Florida in response to a man who has allegedly been sneaking up behind people…and peeing on them. The suspect, a six-foot tall man estimated to be age 25 to 30, has struck during various times of day, including one recent urination around noon, and several around 3 a.m. The victims reported they had been standing with their backs to the man when they felt something “warm and wet” coming down upon them.

C.

A Texas woman was charged with harassment of a public servant and resisting arrest after she allegedly urinated on a police officer. The incident took place as police were doing a property check when they saw a man holding a shotgun and arguing with another man near a parked car. 21-year old Kendra Harrison was in the car, and when police told her to exit the vehicle, she refused. It was as a police officer was attempting to arrest her that she began urinating on him. The officer asked if she meant to do it, and the police claim she said, “It sure was.”

Want more fakes? Check out Uncle John’s Fake Facts. (Really!)

 

The post Fake-or-Fact Friday: The “Yellow King” Edition appeared first on .

Remembering the Alamo

On this day in 1836, the Battle of the Alamo ended. Here are some little-known facts about one of the most famous and important battles in history.

The Alamo, the building, was built in the early 1700s by the Spanish military to serve as a mission, to convert Native Americans to Christianity. Among the first in Texas, the Mision San Antonio de Valero helped spur European settlement of the region. It was named after the second Marquis de Valero, Don Baltasar de Zuniga, Sotomayor, Mendoza y Guzman, a Spanish viceroy in charge of New Spain (of which Texas was part) from 1716 to 1722.


The Alamo, now a museum, sits in downtown San Antonio, and this is where the battle was fought. This was the third and final location of the mission/fort, however. It was built at the headwaters of the San Pedro Creek, moved a few miles south a year later, then to its present location in 1724 after a storm damaged much of the previous version.


When Mexico became independent from Spain (and Texas was a part of Mexico), the name was changed to the Alamo, which means “cottonwood.”


In 1835, the drive for an independent Texas culminated when about 200 Texas soldiers, led by Jim Bowie and Dave Crockett, attacked the Alamo, a stronghold of Mexico. Mexican general Santa Anna responded to the push with an army of 6,000—a 30 to 1 ratio.


Texan commander William Barrett Travis asked for assistance from the Texas and American governments. He didn’t get a response from either. However, 32 Rangers from Gonzales, Texas, did arrive to help. All died in the battle.


The Texas army held back the Mexican military for 13 days before ultimately being defeated. In all, 187 men died, including Bowie and Crockett.


The battle was lost but not the war. Six weeks later, Sam Houston’s Texas army defeated Mexican soldiers at the Battle of San Jacinto, where Texas its independence from Mexico. Santa Anna avoided execution and signed a treaty in Washington, then retreated to his residence in Jalapa, Mexico.


The famous “Remember the Alamo!” battle cry is usually attributed to Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. He didn’t say it—Texas general Sidney Sherman did.


A couple more lighthearted Alamo facts: No vending machine in the U.S. brings in more money than the ice cream vending machine located at the Alamo. Oh, and Pee-Wee Herman in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure wasn’t searching in vain: The Alamo does have a basement.

The post Remembering the Alamo appeared first on .

A Weird App: Toilets-for-Rent with Airpnp

There’s an app you can use locate and rent other people’s homes for a few nights when they’re not occupied…but what if you only need a very particular part of that house, and for, oh, 10, maybe 15 minutes, at the most?

Airbnb is a popular app travels use to rent out, or rent, private homes and apartments to stay in on vacation, in lieu of a hotel. Introducing Airpnp, a web-based app that allows users to find a clean bathroom in a private residence where they can confidently do their business.

Airpnp was created by two New Orleans residents who couldn’t find a clean bathroom during a Mardi Gras celebration (and home was too far away). While anyone anywhere can post, it’s caught on in two locations: Antwerp, Belgium, and New Orleans, where the app did exceptionally well during Mardi Gras 2014. Like Yelp!, Airpnp users can also use the app to rate and recommend bathrooms they’ve used.

The downside: Once you find a proper potty, the service isn’t always free. It can get expensive. Of the two Airpnp locations currently listed in New York City, one is at a Manhattan apartment for a $5 fee, and the bathroom at a mansion in Brooklyn is $10. New Orleans’ luxurious Pontchartrain Hotel charged $10 to use its facilities with “marble floors, spotless toilets, and high quality hand towels” in late February…and $20 during Mardi Gras.

Or if you look at it another way, it’s a fairly cheap way to sight-see.

The post A Weird App: Toilets-for-Rent with Airpnp appeared first on .

Impossible Questions: ‘70s Flashback Edition – The Answer

Did you figure out the answer to this week’s “Impossible Question”? Read on to see if you were right.

When did the 8-track tape really die? (It’s harder than you think)

From the mid-to-late 1970s, eight-tracks were the preferred and most popular format for recorded music. They’re an iconic relic associated with the 1970s the way a Rubik’s Cube is associated with the 1980s.

But eight-tracks weren’t perfect. The format required an album to be split into four ten-minute sections or “programs” of the cartridge, which means eight-tracks seldom presented an album the way a band or producer sequenced it—songs were arranged by eight-track manufacturers into whatever fit into those ten-minute slots. (The eight-track of Led Zeppelin’s IV has the eight-minute “Stairway to Heaven” split over two programs.)

But eight-tracks were convenient, and a popular feature on car stereos…until they were replaced by cassettes as the ‘80s wore on. Each of the major labels stopped releasing music on eight-track between 1981 and 1983, although eight-tracks didn’t totally end until 1985, about the time compact discs started to catch on.

So what was the last major album by a major album to get an eight-track release? An album called The Latest, by the distinctly ‘70s rock band Cheap Trick. It was released…in 2009.

In addition to a CD pressing and digital release, The Latest was manufactured on a limited run of eight-track tapes. Only a few hundred were produced. The band never intended for it to be a viable commercial product, especially since they could only find one tiny factory in Dallas who could even make eight-tracks in 2009. A few were available online for $30 (about twice the price of a CD), but the eight-track release was mainly designed as a publicity stunt, and to send to classic rock radio stations as a gift.

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

 

The post Impossible Questions: ‘70s Flashback Edition – The Answer appeared first on .

Joby Ogwyn to Jump off Mount Everest

How hard could it be?

Joby Ogwyn is a just a normal guy…who enjoys extreme skydiving and speed-mountain climbing. At age 24, he became the youngest American to ever climb Mt. Everest in 1998, and he scaled the 26,246-ft Cho Oyu in Tibet in record time in 2004. Now he’s training for his most dangerous feat yet: a combination of his two favorite pastimes. This May, he plans to jump off the top of Mt. Everest and fly to the ground in a specially-designed nylon wingsuit.

His training regime involves buzzing around the Matterhorn in his wingsuit. Ogwyn has also been practicing near the Eiger and recently managed to jump off the Swiss mountain three times in a single day. He plans to make a few modifications to his suit at an airfield in California before heading to Everest. Here are some of his career highlights so far:

First World Achievements:

First wing-suit flight around all four faces of the Matterhorn.
First man to fly a wing-suit next to Mt. Everest.

Career Highlights:

Three BASE jumps from the Eiger north face in one day (world record).
Summits of four out the six highest mountains in the world.
Speed ascents of Everest, Cho Oyo, and Ama Dablam (world records).
Seven summits completed.

Ogwyn’s death-defying leap will air, live, on the Discovery Channel in over 200 countries. The international broadcaster also screened Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s amazing freefall from the stratosphere in 2012. He’ll be joined by a 40-person team who will follow him to Everest’s base camp at 17,800 feet. From there, four cameraman will journey with Ogwyn to the peak. Then, after changing into his wingsuit, the daredevil will bounce off the top and, if everything goes as planned, he’ll land somewhere in China.  He thinks the trip will take him about 10 minutes and he’ll reach speeds of up to 150 mph.

Ogwyn expects to encounter Chinese authorities when he reaches the surface, wherever that may be. “I will definitely have some cash and my passport in my wingsuit.”

The post Joby Ogwyn to Jump off Mount Everest appeared first on .

Impossible Questions: ‘70s Flashback Edition

Think you know the answer to this question? It’s harder than you think. Come back tomorrow to see if you’re right.

When did the 8-track tape really die? (It’s harder than you think)

 

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

 

The post Impossible Questions: ‘70s Flashback Edition appeared first on .

A Brief History of First Ladies on Sitcoms

In 2009, Barack Obama became the first sitting president to sit down for a TV talk show interview, on The Tonight Show. Big deal. First Ladies of the United States have been showing up on TV for years—and on sitcoms to boot.

Betty Ford

In a 1976 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou (Ed Asner) and Mary (Moore) travel to Washington, D.C., and Lou tells Mary about all the big political bigshots he met. Mary doesn’t believe him, until he hands her a phone…and First Lady Betty Ford is on the other end. Ford shot her scenes separately—it was easily set up because her press secretary was friends with a Moore Show producer. (Ford allegedly wasn’t the first choice—the show wanted President Ford, but CBS thought that since it was an election year, it might violate the candidate “equal time” law.)

Nancy Reagan

Most First Ladies devote a lot of their time to a public service, cause, or charity. For Nancy Reagan, it was stemming the rising tide of youth drug abuse. Serving as the public face for the “Just Say No” campaign, Reagan even showed up on an episode of NBC’s Diff’rent Strokes.

Hilary Clinton

This one didn’t actually happen…but it almost did. Earlier this year, the Bill Clinton Presidential Library released once-confidential documents. One of them was an internal 1995 White House memo from Hillary Clinton’s press secretary Lisa Caputo to her chief of staff Maggie Williams trying to set up a cameo for the First Lady on the popular ’90s sitcom Home Improvement. Rick Kaplan, an executive at ABC and friend of the Clintons, proposed the idea. “Home Improvement would very much like to have Hillary on its show. They are willing to do a show on women, children, and family issues or whatever issues Hillary would like.” The First Lady ultimately decided it wasn’t a very dignified idea.

Michelle Obama

The NBC comedy Parks and Recreation is set in the world of small-town politics, but its featured some national political cameos, including Vice President Joe Biden and Senator John McCain. The show’s sixth-season finale, set to air in late April will include a cameo from First Lady Michelle Obama. The details of the appearance are being kept under wrap, but this isn’t actually Obama’s first sitcom appearance. In 2012, she appeared on Nickelodeon’s kid-sitcom iCarly to discuss her childhood fitness initiatives and recognize the sacrifice of military families (and also because it was her daughters’ favorite show at the time).

The post A Brief History of First Ladies on Sitcoms appeared first on .

Quokka: The Cutest—And Happiest—Animal on Earth

As far as cuteness is concerned, cats rule the internet. But a little Australian creature could give kitties a run for their money.

Have a look at a quokka. These cat-sized marsupials can primarily be found on the islands and national parks near Perth, Australia. Sure enough, they’re pretty friendly and cheerful. Reshareworthy, a website devoted to things that are adorable and uplifting, declared them “the Happiest Animal on Earth.”

Quokka don’t fear humans, and seem to even love having their photos taken. But this friendliness can get them in trouble. Their easygoing nature has made them easy prey for for the larger mammals that roam Australia. Dingoes and foxes, in particular, love to eat these babies. Worse than those predators: teenagers. In the ‘90s, some local hoodlums were caught using the poor animals as soccer balls and hockey pucks. In 1996, to help curb the emerging fad of “quokka soccer,” the Western Australian government imposed a hefty fine on anybody caught giving one the boot.

While kangaroos and koalas are typically what spring to mind when people think of Australian animals, the quokka was among the first mammals that European explorers discovered when they first reached the continent in the 17th century. Dutch seafarer Samuel Volckertzoon wrote about spotting a small “wild cat” on Rottnest Island in 1658. It was probably a quokka. The island’s name, in fact, comes from a similar mistake. The Dutch sea captain Willem de Vlamingh came across some and thought they were rats. He dubbed the island a “rat’s nest” in his native tongue, and the name stuck.

Quokkas aren’t included on any endangered species lists (yet) but they are classified as “vulnerable.” In addition to being a tasty treat for predators, deforestation has decreased their native habitat. Fortunately, conservation efforts have helped boost their numbers, as have their mating habits. The quokkas are, apparently, even more friendly with each other than they are with humans. After giving birth, they tend to start mating again within a day or so. (Maybe that’s why they’re so happy.)

The post Quokka: The Cutest—And Happiest—Animal on Earth appeared first on .

Meet the Wellesley Sleepwalker

He’s lewd. He’s nearly nude. And he’s creeping out the students. Meet the Wellesley sleepwalker.

Meet “Sleepwalker,” the latest thing to roll out of the studio of Tony Matelli. The New York artist created the eerily lifelike sculpture for an exhibition at Wellesley College’s Davis Art Museum. Sleepwalker is more than a little unsettling, clad only in a pair of underwear and with his arms outstretched, as if sleepwalking. The museum’s staff decided to stick him on one of the campus’ main thoroughfares in order to drum up publicity and inspire “unexpected new ideas,” as the school’s president put it. Sleepwalker is scheduled to be out there until the exhibit closes in July.

However, some students at Wellesley find Sleepwalker cringeworthy and creepy. Since the snoozing sculpture¹s debut on February 4, many have demanded that the college remove it. An online petition arguing that Sleepwalker should do his walking somewhere else currently has over 900 signatures.

Matelli was surprised when he first heard about the controversy. “I think that these people are misconstruing this work,” the artist told a Boston TV station. “This is a person who is an outsider, he¹s displaced. So I thought the reaction would be empathy.”

Meanwhile, according to museum director Lisa Fischman, most people are fine with Sleepwalker. “I watched from the 5th floor windows today…as students stopped to interact playfully with the sculpture,” she wrote on the petition’s website. “They took selfies with him, snapping pics with their phones, and gathering to look at this new figure on the Wellesley landscape—even as the snow fell.”

There are no plans to relocate Sleepwalker just yet. He may still be out there come spring.

What do you think? Feel free to share your own take in the comments section below.

The post Meet the Wellesley Sleepwalker appeared first on .