Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 61

Pig Out!

According to statistics, Super Bowl Sunday is more than just a sporting event—it trails only Thanksgiving as America’s biggest food feast. So what’s wrong with a little overindulgence? Read on…

Putting on the Feed Bag

Every year on a Sunday in February, almost half the population of the United States gathers in groups around their TV sets to watch the Super Bowl—130 million people did it in 2005. As they watch, they eat. And eat. According to the Snack Food Association of America, during the Super Bowl Americans will scarf down roughly 30 million pounds of snack food—double the nation’s average daily consumption—including 11.2 million pounds of potato chips, 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips, 4.3 million pounds of pretzels, 3.8 million pounds of popcorn, 2.5 million pounds of nuts, and 13.2 million pounds of avocados (for guacamole).

Here are some more fascinating Super Bowl food facts:

Americans spend $50 million on Super Bowl snacks, but that pales next to the $237 million spent on soft drinks.
What’s the most popular item sold in food stores on Super Bowl Sunday—beer? Wrong. It’s pizza. In fact, Pizza Hut  claims that it sells more pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year.
During the Super Bowl an average fan might easily pig out on more than 3,000 calories of snack food and beer. (And that’s not taking into account calories consumed with pregame snacks and a postgame dinner and dessert.) A plate of nachos contains around 1,400 calories. A dozen chicken wings with blue-cheese dip adds another 1,000. A 180-pound man would have to jog 18 miles in three hours to burn off all those calories.
Want to hedge your bet on who will win next year’s Super Bowl? Each year before the game, the California Avocado Commission whips up guacamole recipes reflecting the competing teams (for instance, the entry for the Seattle Seahawks had shrimp as an ingredient) and holds a “taste-off” to see which is best. The winner of the “C.A.C. AvoBowl” has always won the Super Bowl.

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It Came from the Comics!

Not-so-funny stories about words and phrases that originated on the funny pages.

Goon

The word probably derives from gony, a slang term used by English sailors as a blanket term for large, goofy-looking seabirds like the pelican and albatross. It found its way into regular English in the late 19th century to describe individuals who didn’t quite look like other people. Cartoonist E.C. Segar adopted the word for Thimble Theater, his early 20th century comic strip that gave the world Popeye, Olive Oyl, and other characters, such as Alice the Goon. She was strong, and eight-feet-tall, and it’s the usage in the very popular comic strip that led to the use of “goon” to describe an intimidating thug.

Jeep

Another linguistically influential Thimble Theater character was Eugene the Jeep, a yellow creature that only made the sound “Jeep! Jeep!” (hence the second part of his name). Eugene was also very excitable and enthusiastic, and in the military in World War II, “jeep” became slang for a raring-to-go serviceman. Over time, “jeep” also became slang for a four-wheeled military vehicle, and afterward, the official name of the civilian car inspired by those military cars.

Keeping up with the Joneses

The phrase is more familiar today than the comic strip, but the term that means “to try and impress others in your social circle by buying stuff” comes from the name of a once-popular strip. Arthur “Pop” Momand wrote and drew Keep Up with the Joneses from 1916 to 1945. Momand took inspiration for the strip from his experiences being one of the less-wealthy residents in a fancy New York City neighborhood.

Brainiac

It’s a derisive term for a smart person…or a sarcastic insult for a person who did something dumb. Either way, the word originated in the print versions of Superman in 1958. Brainiac was an incredibly intelligent alien villain who squared off against the Man of Steel.

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Who Throws a Fish?…And Other Objects Thrown on the Field

Going to see a professional sporting event is interactive on some level—the players do their thing, and the fans cheer. That’s supposed to be the extent of it…except for these times, when fans got a little carried away and threw objects onto the field, diamond, or ice.

Sharks

A gruesome tradition began at a 2007 San Jose Sharks playoff game. During a game against the Detroit Red Wings, a man who had snuck a four-foot-long leopard shark into the arena tossed it onto the ice. The Sharks won the game, and the series, so now, any time the Sharks meet the Red Wings in the postseason, at least one person will bring a small shark to the game and throw it down.

Plastic Rats

During the 1995-96 hockey season, a weird story got out about Florida Panthers player Scott Mellanby. He found a rat in the locker room, and smashed it with a hockey puck. That day, he scored three goals in the game—usually a “hat trick,” but which fans nicknamed “a rat trick.” A few times throughout the rest of the season, fans dumped hundreds of plastic rats onto the ice when the Panthers scored a goal.

Snowballs

The Philadelphia Eagles were playing the Minnesota Vikings one snowy day in late 1968. There was so much snow on the ground in the Philadelphia area that the halftime entertainment, a man hired to dress as Santa Claus, couldn’t make it to the stadium. So a guy in the stands named Frank Olivo was hired to do it. When he hit the field…fans booed him. Yes, they booed Santa Claus. And then they started pelting Father Christmas with a barrage of snowballs. The reason? Well, fans were angry at the team, which blew the worst record in the league by winning two late games, losing them the #1 pick in the 1969 NFL Draft.

Lemons

It was a common symbol of hatred in the 1920s and 1930s for baseball fans to throw lemons at the visiting team’s star player. The practice was especially popular in Chicago, and for the biggest star of the era: New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth. When he’d play in Chicago, he’d be showered with citrus when he was walking to the plate, taking batting practice, walking off the field…

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Donald Duck Trivia

Some amusing facts about the world’s angriest cartoon duck.

First Appearance

Donald’s first appearance was in the 1934 Disney short “The Wise Little Hens.” A take on the old children’s story “The Little Red Hen,” Donald and his friend, the now-forgotten Peter Pig, get too lazy while working on a farm and wind up with no delicious corn to eat as a result.

Donna Duck

He hasn’t always been paired up with Daisy Duck. In fact, in the first cartoon in which he was the headliner, the 1937 short “Don Donald,” Donald tries to woo another female waterfowl named Donna Duck. The two ducks were romantically involved until Daisy came along in the 1940s.

Full Name

His full name: Donald Fauntleroy Duck. He’s also colorblind.

Birthday

Donald Duck’s actual birthday is March 13, 1914. That’s a Friday, and a Friday the 13th—which explains his bad luck and why he’s always so grumpy.

Inspired By…

Walt Disney himself helped create the character, inspired by actor Clarence Nash doing a raspy duck voice while reciting “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Disney had wanted to develop a character that was a counterpoint to the bright and cheerful Mickey Mouse, and a raspy-voiced, ill-tempered duck would do. Nash voiced Donald until 1983, when he trained voice artist Tony Anselmo to take over.

Mascot

For decades, Donald Duck was the official mascot of the University of Oregon Ducks. It’s the only time a major, trademarked film or TV character was the mascot for an American college.

Twin Sister

He comes from a big family: He has a little-seen twin sister named Dumbella Duck, and another named Della Duck. Della is the mother of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, but she’s since been phased out, explaining why the three little ducks were often seen in the care of their Uncle Donald.

Active Duty

There was a reason why Huey, Dewey, and Louie went and stayed for long spells of time with their Uncle Scrooge McDuck (hence the setting for the popular 1980s TV series DuckTales): Their de facto guardian was Donald Duck, and he as active duty military personnel. He didn’t just wear the sailor suit for looks—he was in the Navy.

Honorable Discharge

In 1984, the U.S. government gave Donald Duck an (honorary) honorable discharge in honor of his service in World War II. Donald starred in a few anti-Nazi, pro-Allied Forces cartoons in the 1940s.

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Let’s Go to the Frietmuseum!

On your next vacation, you could go to a stuffy museum filled with art and cultural relics…or you could go learn a thing or two about potatoes and noodles.

Canadian Potato Museum

Historically, one of the biggest cash crops from Canada’s maritime province Prince Edward Island is the potato. As such, the Canadian Potato Museum in O’Leary is a tribute to “all things potato.” After being greeted by a giant potato sculpture (not made of potatoes) outside the museum, visitors can check out other potato sculptures inside (including the largest one in the world) and an array of historical equipment used to farm potatoes (the world’s largest collection of potato harvesting machinery, in fact). There’s also a Tater Kitchen which serves, uh, potatoes.

The Frietmuseum

After visiting the Potato Museum, it only makes sense to visit the one devoted to French fries. Housed in a 600-year-old building in Bruges, Belgium (French fries originated in Belgium, not France), it’s the world’s only museum that celebrates the “potato fry” (again, French fries originated in Belgium, not France) and was founded by the Puratos Group, a giant Belgian food conglomerate. Exhibits at the Frietmuseum (or “fry museum”) include vintage deep fryers, ancient potato cooking implements…and plenty of hot fries for sale.

The Burnt Food Museum

Professional harp player and self-admitted bad cook Deborah Henson-Conant got the idea for her Arlington, Massachusetts museum when she tried to heat up apple cider on the stove, forgot about it, and came back to find a blackened rock-like object. That became the first exhibit at the Burnt Food Museum, which features other far-too-overdone exhibits like “Kruncheroni ‘N Cheese” (sent in by a family whose young son tried to make mac and cheese, failed, and hid the results under his bed for days), as well as burnt toast, burnt shrimp, and burnt vegetables.

The SPAM Museum

Not many people will admit to liking Hormel’s canned pork marvel known as SPAM, but somebody must, as millions and millions of cans of the stuff are sold each year. Accordingly, for something that popular, there’s a museum dedicated to SPAM. Founded and operated by Hormel in Austin, Minnesota, it’s as wondrous and delightful as SPAM itself. Comprising more than 16,000 square feet, the museum features an exhibit on SPAM’s success in feeding millions during WWII food shortages and the SPAM Wall, a sculpture consisting of 4,000 SPAM cans. The museum’s staff of “SPAMbassadors” are also a source of SPAM history and knowledge.

The Ramen Museum

Part museum, part theme park, the Ramen Museum in Yokohama, Japan, celebrates the humble, tasty Japanese noodle. On one floor are a bunch of kiosks detailing the history of noodles, and ramen, including a big one devoted to Momofuku Ando and his invention, Cup o’ Noodles. The entire second floor is a miniature re-creation of Tokyo as it looked in 1958, the year ramen was introduced to the public. Among the nostalgia explosion are nine ramen shops.

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Today is National Astronaut Day!

In honor of the handful of humans who have left the planet, here are some stories about the other unique experiences that astronauts have had.

Space Gas

As part of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972, astronaut John Young became the ninth person to ever walk on the moon. But he’s the first to have a massive bout of flatulence while he was there. Young didn’t realize his microphone was on, which relayed everything he said back to Ground Control in Houston. It captured many, many farts, along with Young’s painful, profanity-riddled complaints about how bad his own gas was, which he blamed on all the fruit he’d eaten while training in Florida.

Maybe it’s just John Young

In 2009, pilot Tony Antonelli was part of a mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery. While many astronauts have described the profound visual experience of being an astronaut—viewing the Earth from above, or the infinity of space, for example—Antonelli is the first to describe what space smells like. While he didn’t take his helmet off in space, Antonelli stood in an outer hatch after coming back in from a spacewalk before entering the shuttle proper. That meant the air in that outer hatch was full of “space air,” and he got a good whiff. “Space definitely has a smell that’s different than anything else.” When Antonelli reported this, veteran NASA astronaut Thomas Jones corroborated the observation, describing the smell as “a distinct odor of ozone, a faint acid smell.”

Buzz Cuts

In July 1969, Buzz Aldrin was one of three astronauts onboard the Apollo 11 vessel as it touched down on the moon. Along with pilot Michael Collins, Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were the first humans to ever set foot on another celestial body. Aldrin spent about two hours bouncing around the moon’s surface and collecting rocks. Or, if you’re a moon landing conspiracy theorist, like Bart Sibrel, you think all of this was faked on a soundstage. As Aldrin was leaving a Los Angeles hotel in 2002 with his stepdaughter, Sibrel confronted the astronaut, calling him “a coward” and “a liar” for being part of the massive moon landing hoax. Aldrin’s response: He punched Sibrel right in the face.

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The Prince of Oops

Prince Philip of England has announced that he will retire from public life later this year. With more than 60 years in the public eye as the companion of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip had to find a way to personally distinguish himself. He did that in part by attending thousands of public events, meeting millions of his subjects…and sticking his foot firmly in his mouth. Here are some of Prince Philip’s most memorable gaffes and blunders.

Gargling With Pebbles

Prince Philip is decidedly not a fan of Welsh singer Tom Jones. After a Royal Variety Performance in 1969, in which the raspy-voiced superstar performed for members of the royal family, Philip asked Jones, “what do you gargle with, pebbles?” The next day, Philip clarified his remarks, or rather added to them. “It is very difficult at all to see how it is possible to become immensely valuable by singing what I think are the most hideous songs.”

Steel Drums

In 2000, Prince Philip met with a group of children from a school for the deaf and hearing impaired. At the same event, a Caribbean-style steel drum band performed. Philip was heard saying, “If you’re near there,” meaning the band, “no wonder you are deaf.”

Driving Test

On a visit to Scotland in 1995, the Prince chatted with some regular folks, including a driving instructor. He asked him about his work, or rather he asked him, “How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the test?”

Canada

The Queen and Prince tried to visit the member nations of the British Commonwealth whenever they could. In 1976, they took such a trip to Canada. When asked by a reporter why he came, Philip quipped, “We don’t come here for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves.”

Leisure Time?

A massive recession and wave of unemployment deeply hurt the U.K. in the late ‘70s and early 1980s. Prince Philip didn’t really see what all the fuss was about. In 1981, he said, “a few years ago, everybody was saying we must have more leisure, everyone’s working too much. Now that everybody’s got more leisure time they are complaining they are unemployed. People don’t seem to make up their minds what they want.”

Waste of Space

Philip was on hand to schmooze with guests at the 2000 opening of a brand-new, multimillion-dollar British Embassy in Berlin. His thoughts on the facility: “It’s a vast waste of space.”

French Breakfast

French chef Regis Crépy cooked a tremendous breakfast spread for Philip in 2002, consisting of bacon, eggs, salmon, croissants, and pain au chocolate. Philip’s take: “The French don’t know how to cook breakfast.”

Who Doesn’t Like Koalas?

Who doesn’t like koalas? Prince Philip. He turned down the chance to pet one of the adorable marsupials during a visit to Australia in 1992, because he “might catch some ghastly disease.”

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4 Weird Facts About James Lipton

Perhaps you know James Lipton as the pretentious, ultra-serious host of Inside the Actors Studio. (Or Will Ferrell’s impression of him on Saturday Night Live.) The bearded dean of the acting craft has lived a very colorful life, and here are some other ways he contributed to pop culture.

Radio Actor

Lipton is 90 years old, so he’s been around show business along time—long enough to have been a radio actor. In the mid-1940s, Lipton moved to New York and got into acting to pay for law school. His big break: On the radio version of The Lone Ranger, Lipton portrayed Dan Reid, nephew of the Lone Ranger.

An Exaltation of Larks

A recurring feature in our Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader books are the funny names of animal groups. For example: a cauldron of bats, a shrewdness of apes, or a murder of crows. The idea of naming animal collectives in such a way goes back to an English hunting game in the 15th century. But there were only so many beasts in 15th century England, so somebody had to come up with names for the rest of the animal kingdom. One of the major sources for these “terms of venery” is An Exaltation of Larks, a 1968 book written by…James Lipton. Some of the terms included in the book are real, and the rest were made up by Lipton.

The Best of Everything

One of the biggest flops in soap opera history is The Best of Everything. In a genre in which shows run for 20, 30, or even 40 years or more, The Best of Everything lasted just 126 episodes in 1970, or about six months. The brains behind the series was James Lipton, who served as executive producer, head writer, creator (adapting Rona Jaffe’s 1958 novel The Best of Everything)…and even theme song composer.

Arrested Development

In the early 2000s, Lipton had a recurring, self-referential role on the cult sitcom Arrested Development as a prison warden whom wannabe actor Tobias (David Cross) studies to prepare for a tiny role in a prison-set movie. That couldn’t have been comfortable for either man, as in 1999 Cross spent a sizable chunk of his comedy album The Pride is Back making fun of Lipton and Inside the Actors Studio. (He called him “pretentious” and did an over-the-top impression.) Lipton was aware of Cross’s bits when he came onto the Arrested Development set, but Cross says the two later became good friends. (Although he still says he hates Inside the Actors Studio.)

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Weird Twin News

You’ll probably want to read this article twice. (You’ll probably want to read this article twice.)

Saving Daylight, Creating Confusion

In November 2016, twins Samuel and Ronan Peterson were born at Cape Cod Hospital in Massachusetts. Samuel came into the world at precisely 1:39 a.m. on Sunday, November 6, while Ronan was born exactly 31 minutes later. However, their mother delivered the twins in the midst of the Daylight Saving Time switchover…which means Ronan’s official birth time is 1:10 a.m. That means Samuel was born first, but Ronan is the older one.

Same Time, Same Time

Last July, Sarah Mariuz and Leah Rodgers both gave birth to a son. That’s not so weird. It’s not even that weird that Mariuz and Rodgers are identical twin sisters. What is a little weird is that both gave birth on the exact same day…and at the exact same time: 1:18 a.m. (They weren’t in the same hospital, though—but they were in different time zones.) Both had a boy. Because they gave birth on the same day, they both found out they were pregnant in late 2015 around the same time and planned to tell each other the news at Thanksgiving, but when Mariuz and Rodgers saw each other, they say they both instantly “knew” that the other twin was pregnant.

Twins and Triplets

In 2006, twenty-three-year-old Hannah Kersey of Northam, England, gave birth to triplets. Kersey has an extremely rare medical condition called uterus didelphys, which means she has two uteruses. Two of her three babies were identical twins, incubated together in one womb, while the third came to term in Kersey’s second womb. The estimated estimated odds of this happening: about 25 million to 1.

The Old Evil Twin Defense

James Dixon was arrested on a 30-year-old outstanding warrant in Hernando County, Florida, in 2014. Dixon claimed that there had been a mistake—he wasn’t James Dixon, he was Gary Dixon—his twin brother. While he was detained, sheriff’s detective James Smith decided to test out the assertion, suddenly calling to the prisoner in his cell, “Hey, James.” James Smith, who claimed he was Gary, instinctively turned his head. James Dixon continued to be detained.

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Interesting Holidays to Observe This May

It’s almost summer, so prepare for the good life with some of these mini-holidays coming up this month.

May 1: School Principals’ Day

There are several observances to celebrate teachers, as everybody can think back to at least one teacher who inspired them, or helped shape them into the people they are today. But you know who goes under-appreciated? Those teachers’ bosses: school principals. While there’s a stereotype of them being strict authoritarians, they are part of what keeps schools running.

May 1: Loyalty Day

Around the world, May 1 is known as May Day, Labor Day, and International Workers’ Day. Festivities celebrate the contributions of the working classes, unionization, and labor movements, which to some, is not a far leap from socialism or Communism. In the late 1950s, right after McCarthyism and the Red Scare spooked Americans, Congress created Loyalty Day. It was placed on May 1 as a counterpoint to International Workers’ Day and was meant to be a celebration of America and American values, a patriotic holiday right up there with Independence Day. (It never really took off, however.)

May 3: National Two Different Colored Shoes Day

Cut loose and get wacky in a way that won’t leave any lasting damage or upset the world too much. Go ahead and still wear shoes, but wear two shoes that are, get this, different colors. They could be the same style of shoe, or totally different, say, one high heel and one hiking boot. But whatever you do, make sure they’re two different colors.

May 13: National Crouton Day

Look, we all know it’s important to eat vegetables, but let’s be honest: sometimes the best part of a salad are those crunchy little seasoned toast bites on top. This holiday celebrates the humble crouton, be it the little ones that adorn a salad, or the big ones that sit atop a bowl of French onion soup. (Not surprisingly, this holiday was registered in 2015 by Rothbury Farms, a Michigan-based crouton manufacturer.)

May 25: Towel Day

May 25 is the birthday of the late British science-fiction author Douglas Adams, who wrote the beloved cult classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The book, and its many sequels, consist of rollicking adventures through space, and the book-within-a-book, also called The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, advises space travelers to never be without a towel. Fans of Adams created this holiday as a tribute to him, which was celebrated for the first time in 2001, just a couple weeks after Adams died,

May 30: National Hole in My Bucket Day

A lot of holidays have songs about them—Halloween has its “Monster Mash,” Christmas has a few—but there aren’t many holidays wholly dedicated to a song. But there’s this one, which honors the classic children’s folk song, “There’s a Hole in My Bucket.” The story song about a boy (usually Henry) with a leaky bucket and the girl (usually Liza) who gives him tips on how to fix the bucket dates to 18th century Germany.

 

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