Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 53

QUIZ: The Emmy Awards

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The Emmy Awards Quiz
The Oscars of TV are coming soon. Take our quiz on notable moments from past
Emmys ceremonies.


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Happy Birthday, Spam!

Love it or leave it, the most famous canned meat in the world turns 80 years old this year. Here are some facts about Spam:, that pink loaf of salty, porky goodness.

The Beginning

While Spam has routinely and endlessly joked about as a mystery meat, it’s really just pork and ham. In the ‘20s, Hormel Foods purchased a surplus of thousands of pounds of pork shoulder. The company needed to do something with all that meat, and struck on the idea of chopping up the pork, blending it with ham, and canning it so it didn’t need refrigeration.

What’s in it?

What’s in Spam is no mystery—what the name means remains a secret. “Spam” is most likely a contraction of “spiced ham.” Sp + am = Spam! The son of Hormel’s founder, Jay C. Hormel, spearheaded the production and marketing of Spam. He offered a prize of $100 to his friends and family for a name he liked. At a 1936 New Year’s Eve party, actor Kenneth Daugneau (brother of a Hormel executive) suggested “Spam.”

World War II

The development of a shelf-stable, protein-rich, compact source of meat happened at the perfect time: World War II enveloped much of the globe in the late ‘30s and ‘40s, and 100 million cans of Spam were issued in ration packs to Allied soldiers.

Saving the Troops

Spam was particularly useful to Russian soldiers. After World War II, Russian premier Nikita Kruschev credited Spam for saving his troops. “Without Spam, we wouldn’t have been able to feed our army,” he said.

South Pacific

Spam also fed civilians throughout the South Pacific, before and after the war. It’s still considered a delicacy in Korea, and a popular fast food in Hawaii is Spam wusubi. It’s sort of like “Sushi”—it’s rice and a slab of Spam, wrapped up with a strip of seaweed.

Cook-Offs and Contests

Across, the country, about 70 state and county fairs host Hormel-sponsored Spam cook-offs and recipe contests.

Production and Consumption

Few people admit to liking it, but somebody is buying it: Americans consume around 115 million pounds of Spam every year. Spam processing facilities churn out 33,000 pounds of Spam every hour.

Spa’am

Hormel will sue over Spam. The company sued the Muppets, because a character in the 1996 film Muppet Treasure Island, a scary warthog, was named Spa’am.” Hormel alleged that the character could hurt sales because it was “evil in porcine form” and appeared “grotesque and noxious.” Judges dismissed the suit, on the grounds that Spam was a running joke in American culture. In the ruling, a judge pointed out that Hormel should “welcome the association with a genuine source of pork.”

Spam Museum

There’s a Spam Museum at Hormel’s headquarters in Austin, Minnesota. The company calls it “14,000 square feet about square meat.”

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Save the Oyster, Drop a Toilet

Toilets: Is there anything they can’t do?

New York Harbor doesn’t exactly have the reputation of being the cleanest body of water in the world. It borders the overpopulated, smoggy, Big Apple, and for decades has been besieged by pollutants and poor sewage management. You wouldn’t find much fish in there today, but even if you did…you definitely wouldn’t want to eat it.

But that’s only a relatively recent development. Decades ago, New York Harbor was once the origin point of what were considered the best oysters in the world—and there were a lot of them, too. In the early 20th century, half of the world’s oysters were caught in the waters of New York Harbor and served in fine restaurants and oyster houses in the U.S. and in Europe. All the pollution, both from the city and ship traffic, not to mention over-harvesting, ultimately made New York Harbor a lost cause when it came to oysters.

And yet, life can find a way—it just needs some help once in a while. Billion Oyster Project aims to be that source of assistance. They’re working to return oysters to New York Harbor by dumping more stuff into the water—specifically, shards of broken toilets. In the last few years, Billion Oyster Project has been working on small projects in waters around Manhattan to see if oysters could feasibly survive in today’s waters, with the right tools. As it turns out, they can, so B.O.P. is moving on to the Harbor. Along with the New York state Department of Environmental Protection, they’re creating some of the largest artificial oyster breeding grounds ever created. Yes, with toilets. (That’s why we’re writing about!)

Young oysters, called spats, are choosy about where they settle and grow, usually choosing to just cling on to stationary oyster shells that have already developed. But where do those spats start if there aren’t any oyster shells around? With something that mimics the shape and hardness of an oyster shell. More than 5,000 old toilets have been removed from New York City public schools. Rather than throw them in a landfill to rot, the Billion Oyster Project smashes them into chunks, dumps them in the water, and there they become faux oyster spat host shells. So far, B.O.P. has deposited 36,000 young oysters into 85 cages above the “reef” made of toilet pieces. Not only do these toilets help oysters develop, but they de-pollute the harbor. The oyster beds act as natural water filters and also protect from erosion.

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Happy (Awesome) Grandparents Day

The holiday honoring your parents’ parents falls on September 10. Here’s a look at some older folks who’ve made the news in some very quirky ways.

Model Grandpa

The fashion designer known professionally as Ms. Lv is a top up-and-comer in Chinese haute couture. But sales and attention really started growing after Ms. Lv’s fashion house hired a model with a unique sensibility: 72-year-old Liu Xianping. He’s Ms. Lv’s grandfather, and he models all of the clothes, not minding too much that the clothes are designed for girls and young women. “It’s helping my granddaughter,” he told Newsweek.

Shredded Grandpa

Just because you get older doesn’t necessarily mean you get weaker. Take Jim Arrington of Sacramento, California, for example, who could probably take on anybody in a fight. At 84 years old, he’s been bodybuilding for seven decades, having won 16 out the 62 competitions he’s entered. Arrington is also in the 2018 edition of Guinness World Records as the oldest active male bodybuilder ever. How does he do it? He works out constantly, eats a high protein diet. What also helps: “You need to set goals, but most of all, you need to love the training,” Arrington says.

Hero Grandpa

In the summer of the 2017, a three-year-old boy (name not released in media reports) fell into a well in the small, northeastern Texas town of Van. It was full of water but out of use, covered with a concrete cover. It had evidently degraded over the years…because the toddler fell right through it, 30 feet into the water below. Luckily, his grandfather was with him. The man (name not released) took it upon himself to crawl down into the well, retrieve his boy, and climb back down. By the time firefighters had arrived on the scene, both guys were out of the well and doing fine and didn’t need any help.

Zombie Grandpa

In 2016, 74-year-old Miguel De Luna snuck out of his nursing home in western Mexico to go out drinking. After a few months of searching, police found a body they believed to be De Luna. His family identified it as such, held a funeral, cremated his remains, and grieved their beloved father grandfather. But then, two months after the funeral, the family discovered that the ashes they had were not those of De Luna…when he showed up at the family home. He was a little worse for the wear, with bandages wrapped around his head to cover a wound sustained during his time spent wandering around. “They thought I was dead,” De Luna said, “but I just walk and walk.”

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Animal Houses

College: home of higher education, world-class research…and fraternities. This article was first published in Uncle John’s Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader. 

The Sleeping Fraternity

Students at Northwestern University in Illinois started a new fraternity named Zeta Zeta Zeta, better known by its Greek letters, ZZZ. Members say they are dedicated to “encouraging excellence through sleep,” and are open to both men and women “regardless of race, gender, or sleeping orientation.”

Not So Funny Fraternity

Chi Omega, a sorority at Kent State University in Ohio, was placed on probation after the group held a formal dinner-dance where they gave a student an award for being the “blackest member” of the sorority. She was white. The sorority issued an apology, saying it was just a joke.

The X-Rated Fraternity

California State University, Chico, began an investigation when someone reported (anonymously) that while watching a pornographic movie they recognized the room in which the “actors” were being filmed: it was the living room of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house on campus. Not only that, some of the “actors” were members of the fraternity. Officials at the school announced that all activities at the fraternity—whose motto is “Where Character Counts”—would be suspended.

The Cat Burglers

Student body president Mark Morice at Southeastern Louisiana University was arrested after he convinced his fraternity brothers to steal all the copies of the university newspaper before anyone could read it. The paper had an article critical of Morice’s handling of school funds and questioning his ethics.

The Big Bang Fraternity

Three Kappa Alpha members at the University of Missouri–Columbia were arrested in 2006 after a fireworks prank resulted in a near-fatal explosion. The trio had loaded up a Civil War-era cannon with fireworks, expecting the blast to shoot out the end of the barrel, but instead, the entire cannon blew up. An eight-inch chunk flew across the street and crashed through the roof of an apartment building, finally coming to rest on a Ping-Pong table that was being used by visiting students from China.

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Hello, New TV Shows…Goodbye, New TV Shows

The new fall TV season is about to start, and while there will probably be some big hits in the bunch, there will also be some duds that will be quickly canceled. But will they be as swiftly canceled as these shows were?

Do No Harm

In 2013, NBC heavily promoted this modern retelling of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was about an important neurosurgeon named Dr. Jason Cole (Steen Pasquale) who had an evil split personality named Ian who took over his body and brain at night, wreaking havoc everywhere he went. A simple premise, but one viewers didn’t care for—the premiere scored the lowest ratings for a midseason drama in TV history. The second episode did even worse, and NBC replaced it with reruns of Law and Order: SVU. Do No Harm didn’t even get a chance to start a planned season-long plot arc featuring future Hamilton star Lin-Manuel Miranda as another doctor who gets murdered.

Doubt

In 2017, Katherine Heigl returned to series television since quitting the ABC hit Grey’s Anatomy in 2010 in pursuit of a movie career that ultimately fizzled out. This classy legal drama surrounded Heigl with an all-star cast, including Elliott Gould, Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black), Dule Hill (The West Wing)…and Steven Pasquale from Do No Harm. And yet, viewers had doubts about Doubt. It pulled in only about five million watchers, and CBS canceled the show after two airings.

Knock Knock Live

Ryan Seacrest has his own media empire. He parlayed a hosting gig on American Idol into producing shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians, co-hosting Live alongside Kelly Ripa each morning, a talk show called On Air based on his radio show, and creating and hosting a Fox game show/reality hybrid called Knock Knock Live. Seacrest and celebrities would head out to real people’s homes, knock on their doors, and give them prizes. After the second episode, in which Seacrest and pop star Justin Bieber arrived at a stranger’s house was watched by just two million people, Fox shut the door on Knock Knock Live.

Co-Ed Fever

National Lampoon’s Animal House was a pop culture phenomenon in 1978. The lewd and wacky frat house comedy made a movie star out of Saturday Night Live star John Belushi, and made the college humor magazine National Lampoon a force in film (it would later brand the Vacation movies, for example). It also made $141 million (adjusted for inflation, that’s $532 million in 2017 dollars), and the TV networks wanted to cash in. By early 1979, three different Animal House sitcom knock-offs had hit the airwaves: ABC’s officially Lampoon-sanctioned Delta House (which starred Michelle Pfeiffer), NBC’s Brothers and Sisters (which debuted right after the Super Bowl), and CBS’s Co-Ed Fever. Delta House and Brothers and Sisters did well at first, but ratings steadily dropped and the shows were pulled after 13 and 12 episodes, respectively. Co-Ed Fever starred David Keith and Heather Thomas as students at a women’s-only college that decided to start admitting male students. Despite America having Animal House fever, very few contracted Co-Ed Fever. The show debuted as a “special preview” to fill time after the TV premiere of Rocky. Ratings were so bad CBS never aired Co-Ed Fever in its regular timeslot.

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Mario Is Not a Plumber!

…and other myths, legends, and rumors you probably believe about video games.

Mario from Super Mario Bros. is a plumber.

Mario is probably the most famous video game character of all time. Even the casual video game fan—or non-gamer—could identify what Mario does for a living when he isn’t saving the princess or racing go-karts. He’s a plumber. Well, according to Nintendo, the company that created Mario and has released dozens of games starring the character—it’s not true. Or at least it’s not anymore. According to the character’s bio on Nintendo’s Japanese-language website, Mario is “all around sporty” and “he does everything cool. As a matter of fact, he also seems to have worked as a plumber a long time ago.” So he isn’t even a plumber anymore—it’s presented as an afterthought.

Pong was the first video game.

Long before we had technologically advanced home consoles like the Xbox or PlayStation plugged into our TVs, gamers had to get their fix at video arcades. Those popped up in the late ‘70s, showcasing Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and the one that started it all, Pong. The incredibly simple game—a white line on each side of the screen hit a white dot back and forth, a two-dimensional simulation of table tennis, debuted in the mid-‘70s. It was the first popular video game—but it wasn’t the first ever video game. The first real electronic game was another video tennis program called Tennis for Two, created at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York in 1958 to demonstrate the potential of computers. There were many more pre-Pong video games, too, such as Spacewar, created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1962). The first coin-operated arcade game was Computer Space (1971), while the first home gaming console was the Magnavox Odyssey, which hit stores in 1972. It offered a game called Table Tennis—Pong before Pong.

Blowing into an NES cartridge made it work better.

In between the coin-operated arcade games of yesteryear and the disc-based games of today came the era in video game history dominated by the Nintendo Entertainment System. Once in a while, games would run slow or glitch out, but there was a popular, well-known solution: Remove the cartridge from the system and blow on the open slot on the game where the connector pins sat. A quick burst of air removed accumulated dust, the game was re-inserted, and play resumed. As it turns out, blowing in cartridges really did work…until it didn’t anymore. Experts say that the microscopic amounts of moisture in a breath would align the pins on the cartridge with those in the system, making the game function. But over time, built-up moisture could cause games to permanently malfunction.

 

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R.I.P. Walter Becker of Steely Dan

Steely Dan is one of the most innovative bands of all time, combining jazz themes with rock n’ roll and some of the darkest, funniest, and most literature lyrics ever attempted. Band member Donald Fagan credits that unique wordplay to bandmate Walter Becker, who died earlier this month at age 67. Here are some other interesting bits of trivia about Steely Dan.

The only two permanent members of Steely Dan were founders Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. Many other musicians came in and out of the group, including a pre-fame Chevy Chase, Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers, and Jeff Porcaro of Toto.

One of Steely Dan’s biggest hits was the 1977 song “Peg.” It features a memorable guitar solo…which was extremely hard to nail down. Becker and Fagan hired and then fired seven different guitarists, finally enlisting a musician named Jay Graydon. Then they made him play the solo for six hours until it was acceptable.

Steely Dan is responsible for one of the most legendary lost recordings in rock history. The band’s 1980 album Gaucho was supposed to include a song called “The Second Arrangement.” Becker and Fagan had completely finished recording the song. One day in the studio, a producer asked an engineer to cut up the master of “The Second Arrangement” so he could listen to it. The engineer hit the wrong button…and erased the song completely.

Another Gaucho song, “Hey 19” features one of the first-ever drum machines.

Becker and Fagan split up Steely Dan shortly after recording Gaucho. But they didn’t completely stay out of each other’s professional affairs. Becker produced Fagan’s 1993 album Kamakiriad. In 1994, Fagan returned the favor, producing Becker’s solo debut, 11 Tracks of Whack.

In 2000, the band released its first album its 20 years, Two Against Nature. Even more of a surprise than the album itself is that it won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, beating out critically acclaimed contemporary acts like Radiohead, Beck, and Eminem.

The first single off Two Against Nature was a song called “Cousin Dupree.” It’s about an unmotivated moocher who lives on his aunt’s couch. Six years later came the Hollywood film You, Me, and Dupree, about a couple who similarly can’t get their friend Dupree to leave their house. Steely Dan publicly joked that the movie Dupree was a theft of their song “Dupree,” but didn’t sue. Regarding the matter, Fagan and Becker posted an open letter on their website addressed to “Luke Wilson”—as You, Me, and Dupree starred Owen Wilson. Owen Wilson responded, saying that he had never heard of “this gentleman, Mr. Steely Dan” and that he was busy working on “my new movie, Hey 19.”

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5 Strange September Holidays to Celebrate

After Labor Day but before Columbus Day come all of these minor, made-up holidays and celebrations.

Sept. 3: Skyscraper Day

American architect Louis Sullivan led a revolution in construction: He was among the first to design skyscrapers. The development of cheap, readily available steel in the late 19th century allowed architects like Sullivan to create buildings that stretched high into the sky. Sullivan designed the Wainwright Building in St. Louis and the Carson Pirie Scott Building in Chicago, among other marvels. In his honor, Skyscraper Day falls on Sept. 3—Sullivan’s birthday.

Sept. 6: Fight Procrastination Day

Why put off ‘till tomorrow what you can do today? So you don’t have to do it today is why. That’s procrastination, and it can be a nasty habit to get into. The organizers of this holiday that Sept. 6 is a great time to start getting things done instead of putting them off. (Ironically, this observance is somethings celebrated on…Sept. 7.)

Sept. 16: National Play Doh Day

Play-Doh is one of the bestselling—and best-smelling American toys of all time. In 1955, a preschool teacher suggested to her husband, Noah McVicker, and his brother, Kutol Chemicals engineer Joseph McVicker, that she needed a modeling clay that was soft, safe, and easy for her young students to use. The McVickers came up with something they called Play-Doh. 

Sept. 22: Elephant Appreciation Day

Elephants are some of the most gigantic, fascinating, and majestic creatures on the planet. Their populations are rapidly declining, so donating to a wildlife preservation charity is a fine way to appreciate elephants. An animal foundation did not start the holiday, but by a Florida communications company director named Wayne Hepburn. His daughter gave him an elephant paperweight, and he started collecting elephant knick-knacks. In 1996, he registered Elephant Appreciation Day as an “official” holiday.

Sept. 23: Checkers Day

Unfold the board, pick red or black, and play a round of the game fit for a “king.” Or don’t—because the “Checkers” in “Checkers Day” refers to President Richard Nixon’s dog, Checkers. While running for Vice President down-ticket from Dwight Eisenhower, it was discovered that Nixon may have used part of a large campaign contribution for personal use. On Sept. 23, 1952, Nixon gave what came to be known as “the Checkers speech,” denying he used siphoned any funds, but that a donor had given his young daughters a dog named Checkers. In addition to Checkers Day, this minor observance is sometimes aptly known as Dogs in Politics Day.

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Goodbye, England’s Rose – Diana Princess of Wales

The U.K.’s Princess Diana died in a car accident in Paris 20 years ago this week at age 36. Here are some things you may not have known about “the People’s Princess.”

Marrying a Commoner

Royals don’t traditionally marry commoners, and Charles and Diana are no exception. When she was 14, her father inherited the title of Earl Spencer. That meant Diana Spencer was officially Lady Diana Spencer.

As Children

Prince Charles didn’t have to look too far to find Diana, however. Before they were romantically involved, Charles dated Diana’s older sister, Lady Sarah Spencer. Additionally, Diana knew the younger royal children already. Her family lived on an estate owned by Queen Elizabeth II, and her frequent playmates were Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. (Their brother, Prince Charles, was 12 years older than Diana.)

The “Spencer Special”

As a child, Diana’s dream career was to be a ballet dancer. But by the time she was a teenager, she stood 5’10″—too tall for dance. Instead, she became a diver at her posh boarding school, where she was so good a dive was named after her. The “Spencer Special” involved hitting the pool just so that the water barely rippled.

Diana the Teacher

When she was a young adult, Diana considered becoming a teacher. She even worked at Young England Kindergarten in London as an assistant teacher.

The Courtship

Charles and Diana didn’t exactly “date.” The process of betrothal was very formal. Diana had to call Charles “sir” and they only met around 10 times before he officially proposed to 19-year-old Diana.

The Wedding

An estimated 750 million people around the world watched the 1981 royal wedding on TV, including about 14 million in the U.S.

Favorite Dessert

According to her personal chef, her favorite dessert was the British favorite bread pudding. She’d stroll into the kitchen at Buckingham Palace while it was being made and steal raisins off the top.

The Royals Split

The marriage didn’t work out, of course. When the royal couple split in 1996, Diana received a £17.5 million settlement and could keep using the title “Princess of Wales,” but couldn’t call herself “Royal Highness” anymore. She also had to give up any future claims to the English throne.

Candle in the Wind

Elton John and Bernie Taupin re-wrote John’s 1973 song “Candle in the Wind,” a eulogy for Marilyn Monroe, for Princess Diana, a close friend of the singer. Titled “Candle in the Wind 1997,” John performed it live—once—at Diana’s worldwide-televised funeral. A recording of that was released and within a few months became the second-best selling single ever. All proceeds were donated to charities Diana worked with during her lifetime.

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