Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 68

He Will, He Will Rock You

The “he” being Brian May of Queen. The “rock” being space rocks, or asteroids.

Brian May is the lead guitarist of Queen, a position he has held for more than 40 years. But right before the band came together to produce classic songs like “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” and “Bohemian Rhapsody,” May was working toward his PhD in astrophysics at the Imperial College of London. May dropped out of school when Queen got too successful to ignore. But in 2007, he carved out some time to write and present his doctoral thesis, “A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.” In other words, May is not only one of the best guitarists on the planet, but he also knows more about space that most other people.

In 2008, May’s achievements in both fields were honored with an asteroid named after him. In 2016, May helped get an asteroid named after his late bandmate, Queen singer Freddie Mercury. Discovered in 1991, the year Mercury died, May announced the naming on what would have been the singer’s 70th birthday. “It’s just a dot of light, but it’s a very special dot of light,” May said. He added on Twitter, “They already named a planet after you, but this little ROCK is a bonus!”

Naming asteroids after famous people certainly raises public awareness of asteroids, a cause to which May is quite devoted. He’s a co-founder of Asteroid Day, an international effort to get scientists and governments thinking about how to best prepare the planet should it ever be struck by a particularly large asteroid. In December 2016, the United Nations accepted Asteroid Day’s petition, and from here on International Asteroid Day will be an officially recognized observance each June 30.

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Your Weird Robot News Roundup

Familiarize yourself with some of the latest and greatest developments in robot technology…before the robots take over.

Christmas-Bot

Hang Chu is working toward his Ph.D. in robotics at the University of Toronto. He’s especially keen on the relationship between robots and music, as he thinks it speaks volumes on how robots absorb and interpret the data they’re given. So Chu fed a neural network, a robotic computer system that mimics the human, a bunch of Christmas songs. The network then synthesized all that “data,” and then processed it into new music. One layer of the network developed the melody, another did the chords, and another the lyrics. Behold: The first Christmas carol ever written by a robot.

Butter-Bot

Your days of having to pass the butter, or getting someone to pass the butter to you, are over: There’s a robot for that now, thanks to TV. Rick & Morty is an animated science-fiction comedy that airs on Cartoon Network. It’s about a mad scientist (Rick) who’s always doing something bizarre, such as in a 2014 episode when he builds a robot that can do only two things: “pass the butter” (or slide a butter dish across a table) and verbally lament that the point of his existence is only to pass the butter. A fan on the show identified only as Andredotcom on the online community Reddit made that TV robot a real robot. He made the body of the robot out of 3-D printed materials, while the actual robot machinery is made from a radio-controlled car that can be directed with a smartphone app.

Wipe-Bot

Simone Giertz of Sweden is one part artist, one part roboticist, devoted to bringing the world silly, single-purpose robots. Some of her past work: a beer-helmet inspired robot that shovels popcorn into the user’s mouth, a robotic arm that pours cereal and milk into a bowl, and a “peanut butter sandwich” robot. But what really got Uncle John’s attention is her latest creation: It’s supposed to help a person, uh, clean up, after using the bathroom. The robot consists mainly of a robotically-controlled hand drill, upon which a roll of toilet paper is placed…and then it spins wildly out of control.

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The Most Haunted Landmarks in the USA

America has a number of iconic places where some amazing history has happened. What does all that add up to? Ghosts. Here are some spooky stories you may have never heard about American landmarks.

The Ghost Ship of the Golden Gate Bridge

It gets pretty foggy in San Francisco, particularly around Golden Gate Strait. In 1853, the Tennessee, a clipper ship, ran aground there because the fog made it too hard for the crew to see. Every now and then, the Tennessee supposedly shows up in the strait, sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge. In 1942, the destroyer ship U.S.S. Kennison was sailing under the bridge and passed the ghostly Tennessee. Radar didn’t register anything, but it was right in front of the Kennison‘s crew. Witnesses say it disappeared in minutes.

The Empire State Building Ghost

The observation deck sits on the 86th floor of this New York City skyscraper, and it’s ringed with a “suicide prevention” or security fence. There were reportedly a number of jumpers in the late 1940s, including a young woman named Evelyn McHale. She leapt to her death from the observation deck because, according to her suicide note, she didn’t think she was good enough for fiancé. McHale’s ghost is said to still haunted the Empire State Building’s observation deck. Tourists and workers say they’ve seen a woman in 1940s clothes wandering around, crying. And then she sails through the suicide prevention fence and disappears, only to return to the deck time and time again.

The Ghost of the Hollywood Sign

In 1932, Peg Entwhisle couldn’t find any acting work in the emerging movie industry and decided to end her life by jumping off of the “H” in the famous “Hollywood” sign. In 1990, a couple was hiking in nearby Griffith Park and saw a woman in 1930s-style clothing…who vanished into thin air. They also noticed the overwhelming odor of gardenias. There aren’t any gardenias growing there, but Entwhisle always wore gardenia perfume.

The Monster of Liberty island

The Statue of Liberty sits on a landmass in New York Harbor called Liberty Island. It used to be called Bedloe’s Island, and in the 1600s, notorious pirate William Kidd supposedly buried his treasure there. In the 1890s, there was a military base on Bedloe’s Island called Fort Wood. In 1892, two soldiers named in reports as only “Gibbs” and “Carpenter” planned to break out of their barracks late one night and go find that treasure. Acting on a tip from a psychic they consulted, they went to the spot where they were told the treasure was, started digging…and found a chest, as well as a skull. That’s about when the rest of the soldiers at Fort Wood awoke to Carpenter’s blood-curdling screams. They found Carpenter hysterical and Gibbs passed out. When they came to, both men gave different accounts of what happened when they found the treasure chest. Carpenter said he saw a red and wingless demon; Gibbs said he saw a monster with horns, wings, and a barbed tail. At any rate, the treasure chest (and the skull) had both disappeared.

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5 Little Shops Owned By Big Celebrities

There are millions of small business owners in this country, forming the backbone of our economy. And some of them are movie stars and rock stars!

Samuel’s Sweet Shop

In 1994, a textile worker from New York state’s Hudson Valley named Ira Gutner quit his job in the family business to fulfill a lifelong dream: to open a small, old-fashioned candy store. Gutner ran Samuel’s of Rhinebeck in Rhinebeck, New York for 20 years, up until his untimely death in 2014. Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Grey’s Anatomy, The Walking Dead) had once shot a movie in Rhinebeck, and says the first person who befriended him was Gutner. Not wanting to see the shop turn into a chain business (like “a smoothie stand”), Morgan pooled his money with his friend, actor Paul Rudd, and together they bought the shop and renamed it Samuel’s Sweet Shop.

Bess Bistro & Walton’s Fancy and Staple

Sandra Bullock lives in Austin, Texas, when she isn’t shooting a movie. She owns two little businesses there. One’s a restaurant called Bess Bistro, and the other is called Walton’s Fancy and Staple. It’s a deli, but it’s also a bakery, and it’s also a florist.

Marshfield General Store

When the Marshfield Hills General Store in his home state of Massachusetts was going to close in 2009, Steve Carell stepped in. The shop first opened as a genuine general store back in 1853. The shop now stocks both modern grocery items and general store classics, such as penny candy. Carell’s sister-in-law runs the shop now, although he occasionally stops in to make popcorn.

Cabo Wabo

Sammy Hagar is most famous for being the second lead singer in Van Halen and also for owning his own tequila company, Cabo Wabo. But that’s just one of his side businesses. In the ’80s, he traveled so much that he found it was cheaper to open his own private travel agency, saving on fees. He’s also an avid bicyclist, and started Sausalito Cyclery, a bike shop in northern California.

BIRD Bakery

Armie Hammer was the lone ranger in The Lone Ranger, but he owns a bakery with his wife, journalist Elizabeth Chambers. BIRD Bakery is located in San Antonio, and they will make you a wedding cake.

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Cancelled Before They Hit the Air

A lot of this year’s new shows won’t make it to a second season. They should count themselves lucky—these shows were scrapped after they were announced, produced, and promoted by their respective networks.

Hieroglyph

This big-budget adventure series was supposed to air on Fox sometime during the 2014-15 season, and was seen by the TV press as a network TV attempt to make something akin to the sweeping fantasy drama of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Created by movie producer Travis Beacham, it was set in ancient Egypt and was about a master thief forced to work as the Pharaoh’s right-hand man. Fox programming chief Kevin Reilly ordered the program, but as soon as he stepped down in the summer of 2015, other Fox executives canceled Hieroglyph after only one episode had been filmed—which never aired.

Us & Them

American remakes of British shows are a constant: The Office, Three’s Company, and Sanford and Son are just three examples. In 2013, Fox announced a stateside take on Gavin & Stacey. Created by and co-starring a pre-talk show-hosting James Corden, it was about a couple in a long-distance Internet relationship who decide to meet in real life, and their disapproving circle of friends. Called Us & Them, it starred Jason Ritter and Alexis Bledel as the couple. For some reason, Fox cut its initial 13-episode order to six episodes…then to none at all.

Coach

This show starring Craig T. Nelson as a college football coach ended a long run on ABC in 1997, and was revived by NBC in 2015. But it never came to, pardon the pun, pass. The network was so confident that it would be a hit that it didn’t require the producers to make a pilot episode before agreeing to order a 13-episode series. They probably should have, because internal production problems led the show to fall apart before a single episode could be produced.

Bill and Martha

Part of CBS’s fall schedule in 1964 was a new comedy starring movie stars William Bendix and Martha Raye moving to TV for the first time. (They played a married couple.) Just weeks after it was announced in early 1964, CBS pulled the show. Reason: Bendix was in poor health, and the network would rather not air the show than air it only to have him die mid-production. Bendix was livid and sued the network for more than $2 million. The case was settled for an undisclosed sum…right before Bendix died in December 1964.

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They Didn’t Last the Season

The phrase “their season ended early” refers to when a sports team gets knocked out of the playoffs. Lasting to the playoffs is way better than these teams did.

American Professional Football Association

Before it was called the NFL, the major pro football league was the American Professional Football Association, which began play in 1920. As the league (and sport) struggled to gain traction, the league faced major financial problems. One team folded after the first season, and four teams that joined in 1921 lasted only a year…or less. The original New York Giants played two games before folding. The Buffalo-based Tonanwanda Kardex was out of the APFL after a single game.

Canadian Football League

In the early ’90s, the Canadian Football League made a play at international expansion with the placement of seven teams in the United States, specifically in cities that didn’t have an NFL team but where football was very popular. While the two-year experiment was successful in some places (the Baltimore Stallions won the CFL championship, the Grey Cup), it wasn’t in all the rest. In fact, the San Antonio Texans (which moved from Sacramento) folded before any games were played in Texas.

American Basketball Association

The American Basketball Association competed with the NBA for fans from 1967 to 1976 before the entire operation went out of business. (A few teams, such as the Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs, joined the NBA.) Financial instability led to countless team moves and foldings, but the San Diego Sail and Utah Stars are unique cases, even for the ABA. They bowed out of the league midway through the season. Another team, the Baltimore Claws, ran out of money before the season started.

World Hockey Association

The World Hockey Association was like the ABA of hockey, and of a similar vintage. And like the ABA, it lasted less than a decade and what was left of the league at the end of its 1972 to 1979 run was absorbed by the competition (the Edmonton Oilers were once a WHA team, for example). One of the initial 12 WHA teams was supposed to be the Calgary Broncos, but they moved to Cleveland and were renamed the Crusaders before they played any games. After just two years in Cleveland, the team moved again, this time to St. Paul, Minnesota. The newly renamed Fighting Saints lasted less than a season.

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5 Weird January Holidays You Ought to Celebrate

Just when you thought “The Holidays” were over…here are a bunch of silly ones.

January 8: Argyle Day

Argyle is one of the most famous and recognizable patterns in clothing. A kind of plaid, it originates as the signature tartan of the Clan Campbell of Scotland. It’s seen today in all sorts of colors and on scarves, socks, kilts, and skirts…and wearing one (or more) of those things is really the only way to celebrate Argyle Day.

January 19: Tin Can Day

The creation of the tin can—a way to preserve food safely and for long periods of time—revolutionized the way food was produced, sold, transported, and stored. The design (relatively unchanged to this day) was patented by British inventor Peter Durand in 1810. The can earned its U.S. patent on January 19, 1825.

January 20: Penguin Awareness Day

As if today, which is also Inauguration Day, didn’t already feature enough people wearing suits. Today is the day to learn something new about penguins, those adorable creatures of Antarctica who look like they’re wearing suits or tuxedos. On this day, you’ve finally got an excuse to pop on March of the Penguins and waddle around the house.

January 26: Dental Drill Appreciation Day

Does anybody really appreciate the dental drill? Maybe begrudgingly—for while going to the dentist (especially for a drilling) is something very few people look forward to, it’s nice that we live in an age where the tools exist to fix our oral health issues with relative ease. January 26th is the day that the dentist’s handheld electric whirring monster is celebrated because it was patented on this day in 1875. (Ironically, January 26 is also National Peanut Brittle Day.)

January 30: Inane Answering Message Day

Not as many people have telephone answering machines as they once did—they’ve been replaced with voice mail…or just sending a text instead of a voice recording. But still, back in the ’80s and ’90s, it was all the rage to leave a funny outgoing message on one’s answering machine—it was even the subject of a Seinfeld episode. But if you’ve still got a machine, or actually know how to get into your voice mail to change your outgoing message, get on there, and come up with something dumb, funny, or both.

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More Race-Day Superstitions

Many NASCAR, Formula One, and IndyCar drivers put themselves through some very peculiar rituals, in the belief that if they don’t, bad luck will curse them to lose their race…or worse. For the first segment in the story, read Race-Day Superstitions. 

Austrian Formula One driver Alex Wurz always raced in mismatched shoes.


Dale Earnhardt left every building in and around the racetrack from the same door he came in.


Davey Allison watched a movie the night before every NASCAR race. If he won the race, he’d watch the same movie the night before his next race, until he lost, at which point he started in with a new movie.


Just before climbing into his car at the start of each NASCAR race, Sterling Marlin ate a bologna sandwich.


Veteran IndyCar team owner Carl Haas smokes and chews on cigars during races, but when he headed up Mario Andretti’s team in the 1980s and 1990s, he had a particular tradition: While Andretti climbed into the car, Haas would dance around the car while shaking his cigar at it.


Alberto Ascari was a champion Formula One driver in the 1950s. He insisted on carrying a briefcase to each race. It contained his “lucky” racing helmet, gloves, goggles, and T-shirt, all blue. He wouldn’t let anybody else handle that briefcase.


When he was just starting out as a Formula One driver in the mid-1990s, David Coulthard wore the same pair of boxer shorts for every race. (We presume he washed them between races.)


Early NASCAR star Edward “Fireball” Roberts would not allow his picture to be taken before a race.


Mark Martin’s superstition: no superstitions. He claimed to have once taped a four-leaf clover inside his car during a race at the North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina…and he somehow crashed the car before the race even started. Now he avoids any sort of lucky charm.

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Drop the Molten Lead, it’s the New Year!

You could watch the big ball drop in Times Square, or you could watch the big ball drop in Times Square on TV, or you could celebrate the New Year the way these people from around the world do.

Spain

At the stroke of midnight, eat 12 grapes in quick succession. It’s supposed to be good luck to eat one grape per each chiming of the clock (but it’s not so lucky if you choke on grapes because you ate them too fast).

Denmark

Some people kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve. In Denmark, it’s a tradition to stand on chairs and then jump off them at the moment the New Year begins. (Another Danish tradition: throw old dishes at the door. Every broken plate is said to represent a new friend to be made in the new year.

Japan

Soba noodles are eaten at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Called toshi-koshi for the occasion (which translates to “from one year to another”), the buckwheat-based noodles are very long, and both symbolize and promise longevity.

Germany

Be careful if you do this one. It’s an old German past time on New Year’s to drop hot, molten lead into cold water. Whatever shape the lead takes as it hardens is said to be a harbinger of the New Year. Different shapes correspond to different things, such as new love or newfound wealth.

Wales

In this constituent nation of the U.K., families open their home’s back door as the clock strikes 12. Why? It’s said to “release” the outgoing year, along with all of its bad luck and baggage. As the clock tolls for the twelfth time, however, the door is then opened back up to welcome the New Year, along with all of its good luck.

Sweden

This custom is also popular in Norway. Families or groups of friends make up a huge batch of rice pudding. Hidden inside is an almond, and whoever gets the almost in their bowl of pudding is said to have good luck in the coming year. (Similarly, in Greece, a coin is baked into a loaf of vasilopita, a sweet bread. A coin in your slice means you’re going to have a lucky New Year.)

Scotland

People all over the world, including the United States, engage in this particular New Year’s custom, but it started in Scotland. As midnight hits in Scotland, people sing “Auld Lang Syne,” which was written in 1788 by Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland. Also in Scotland, partygoers toast with Scotch whisky, and then go “first footing” in their neighborhoods, which is a door-to-door exchange of food, drink, and other treats.

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The Class of 2016

So many  beloved celebrities left us this year that it really did seem like 2016 had a chip on its shoulder. Here are some words of wisdom from the dearly departed to remind us why they were so beloved.

“It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.”

–Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), professional boxer and activist

“As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three: How long? And what do I do with the time I’ve got left?”

–David Bowie (1947-2016), singer, songwriter, and actor

“I think there should be laughs in everything. Sometimes it’s a slammed door, a pie in the face, or just a recognition of our frailties.”

–Alan Rickman (1946-2016), actor and director

“Youth and beauty are not accomplishments.”

–Carrie Fisher (1956-2016), actress, author, and mental health advocate

“A long time ago, I realized that I loved to sing, dance, and make people laugh. The trick is finding something that you like and sticking with it.”

–Debbie Reynolds (1932-2016) actor, singer, and dancer

“It’s always helpful to learn from your mistakes because then your mistakes seem worthwhile.”

–Garry Marshall (1934-2016), actor, director, producer, writer, and comedian

“It’s not the hair on your head that matters; it’s the kind of hair you have inside.”

–Garry Shandling (1949-2016), comedian, actor, and author

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”

–Harper Lee (1926-2016), author

“Kids’ views are often just as valid as the teachers’. The best teachers are the ones that know that.”

–Morley Safer (1931-2016), TV journalist

“You learn something out of everything, and you come to realize more than ever that we’re all here for a certain space of time, and then it’s going to be over, and you better make this count.”

–Nancy Reagan (1921-2016), actress and First Lady

“I’ll tell you what the public likes more than anything, it’s the most rare commodity in the world: honesty.”

–Merle Haggard (1937-2016), singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”

–Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), singer, songwriter, writer, and painter

“Just remember, strength and courage. If you stand on principle, you’ll never lose.”

–Janet Reno (1938-2016), U.S. Attorney General

“You’ll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.”

–George Michael (1963-2016), singer, songwriter, and producer

“Concentration comes out of a combination of confidence and hunger.”

–Arnold Palmer (1929-2016), professional golfer

“Macho does not prove mucho.”

–Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917-2016), actress and socialite

“You have to acknowledge your truth and not let society dictate how you think.”

–Florence Henderson (1934-2016), actress and singer

“We are humans. There is a finite end to this life and we’re all going to face it, and a little silliness can help.”

—Alan Thicke (1947-2016), actor, songwriter, and talk show host

“Except for a few guitar chords, everything I’ve learned in my life that is of any value I’ve learned from women.”

–Glenn Frey (1948-2016), singer, songwriter, and actor

“Everybody’s a teacher if you listen.”

–Doris Roberts (1925-1916), actress, author, and philanthropist

“I’m going to tell you what my religion is: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Period. Terminato. Finito.”

–Gene Wilder (1933-2016), actor, screenwriter, director, and author

“Life is just a party, and parties weren’t meant to last.”

–Prince (1958-2016), singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer

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