Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 93

Shakespeare Gone Wild

One way to inject new life into the Bard’s timeless plays: put some big stars in them!

Patrick Stewart in Macbeth (Gielgud Theatre, 2007)

In 2007, the former Captain Picard took the London theater scene by storm with a daring production of Macbeth, one of Shakespeare’s best known (and bloodiest) tragedies. Instead of being set in medieval Scotland, the play was transported to a far more nightmarish version smack dab in the middle of the Cold War. Much of the action took place in a military hospital, the three witches were portrayed as nurses, and characters wielded machine guns instead of swords. When Macbeth reached his unfortunate end, the actor playing Macduff paraded around the stage with his head on a bayonet. The production proved so popular that it was later filmed and broadcast on the BBC in 2010.

Ian McKellen in King Lear (Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 2007)

The guy who played Gandalf in all of those Lord of the Rings movies teamed up with the Royal Shakespeare Company to stage a production of King Lear that was so chaotic that many critics didn’t know what to make of it. The show featured thunderous organ music, the cast running around in elaborate opera costumes, and random sound effects like thunder and gunfire. Even weirder, in the scene when Lear goes mad, McKellen tore off all of his clothes and appeared completely nude.

Benedict Cumberbatch in Hamlet (Barbican Theatre, 2015)

When it was announced that Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch would play the troubled Danish prince at this London theatre, the play quickly became the fastest selling in the city’s history. The production itself took one of Shakespeare’s lines literally. In an early scene, Hamlet’s says “the time is out of joint” so Cumberbatch and his fellow actors wore costumes and used props from various historical periods. In one scene, he listened to a chilling Nat King Cole song on a record player. In another, he stormed around the stage in a David Bowie T-shirt. Before each performance’s intermission, the actor playing Claudius threw open a window and the set was flooded with an avalanche of volcanic ash that remained in place until the blood-soaked conclusion.

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War of the Wolves

In the winter of 2011, a remote Russian town was besieged by a pack of more than 400 wolves.

Verkhoyansk is located in one of the coldest and most remote regions in the world. (It also sits within “Stalin’s Death Ring,” where the Russian dictator once exiled his enemies.) These days, the weather during the winter months is no less harsh. It’s so cold that houses literally snap in two under the weight of ice on their roofs. Nevertheless, about 1,300 people call Verkhoyansk home.

In February 2011, it got worse, when 400 wolves began attacking homesteads. Within four days, the hoard had killed 40 horses and paralyzed the residents of Verkhoyansk with fear. A state of emergency was quickly declared and a bounty of $300 was put on each wolf’s head. More than two dozen teams of hunters came to the town, patrolling the streets on snowmobiles while throwing down as many traps as they could find. Helicopters were supplied by government officials shortly thereafter and the hunters began picking off the wolves from the air.

Fortunately, no human casualties were reported. After it was all over, wildlife experts admitted that they weren’t entirely surprised by the super pack. They theorized that it must have formed from the desperate survivors of over 100 smaller wolf packs. The winter of 2011 was harsh in the region, even by Siberian standards, meaning that their usual prey was likely killed off by the extreme weather conditions. With nowhere else to turn for food, the wolves banded together and began tearing into Verkhoyansk’s livestock. Further contributing to the problem: a population boom. In 2011, an estimated 3,500 of the animals were believed to be living in the region. According to experts, the area could sustain only about 500.

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The Three Seashells

It’s one of Hollywood’s greatest mysteries…or at least one of the grossest.

In the 1993 action movie, Demolition Man, Sylvester Stallone plays John Spartan, a grizzled cop living in a nightmarish Los Angeles plagued by gang violence. After being framed for a crime he didn’t commit, he’s placed in a cryogenic prison, is thawed out 36 years later, and discovers L.A. has been turned into a peaceful utopia called San Angeles.

Spartan gets frustrated with bizarre, futuristic technology, even in a precinct bathroom. Instead of toilet paper, the bathroom has a shelf with three seashells. He has no idea how they work, and the other officers just laugh at him. (Making matters worse, the only restaurant still open in San Angeles is Taco Bell.) Understandably irked, Spartan stomps to a nearby ticket machine and begins muttering obscenities. After gathering a handful of paper tickets—swearing is illegal in the future—he triumphantly returns to the bathroom with this makeshift TP.

Demolition Man has since become a cult hit, in part because of the seashells bit. Fans have speculated wildly online about they might be used, prompting Stallone to weigh in on the matter in 2006 in an interview with the film website Ain’t It Cool News. Stallone says that while the film was shooting, he was just as confused as his character about the seashells, and asked the screenwriter, Daniel Waters, for an explanation. Here’s what Stallone was told:

In San Angeles, people no longer use toilet paper. They consider it barbaric. Instead, they rely on sets of three seashells. After using two of them to yank poop out of their bottoms ala chopsticks, they use the third to scrape away any remaining doodie. Once they’re all cleaned up, they flush the seashells down the toilet.

In more recent interviews, Waters has also revealed that he came up with the idea after calling a friend on the phone for help with the gag while he was working on Demolition Man’s screenplay. The friend was sitting on a toilet at the time and spotted three decorative seashells sitting nearby. The rest is history

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Winnie the Pooh is a Girl?

Many fictional characters have genders that aren’t as straightforward as you might have thought.

Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh is definitely a boy in the children’s novels written by author A. A. Milne (and in the Disney animated films based on them). However, there’s no escaping the fact that Winnie is a name that’s traditionally intended for girls. So why doesn’t the “silly ol’ bear” have a more masculine name? It’s because he’s based on a female bear named Winnipeg that once lived in the London Zoo. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, was a big fan of Winnipeg, visited her often as a child and even named his beloved toy bear after her. The author was inspired by both bears to create the iconic character.

Jabba the Hutt

Based on the slug-like alien’s treatment of Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi, one might assume that Jabba is a guy. Nope. Like all Hutts, Jabba is a hermaphrodite (or at least he was). According to Star Wars lore, each Hutt gets to decide their gender. In the films and “Expanded Universe” books, Jabba sticks with “he.” However, Jabba may soon receive a more distinct gender. After Disney’s decision to purchase Lucasfilm in 2012, the company decided that the Expanded Universe was no longer considered official canon. Pablo Hidalgo, a writer involved with various Star Wars projects, announced at a conference in 2015 that various Hutts would get designated genders in upcoming books and film. 

Kang and Kodos

Kang and Kodos are two evil aliens that pop up in The Simpsons’ annual “Treehouse of Horror” episodes. Given their deep, masculine voices, lots of fans always assumed that they were guys. However, in the seventh edition, it was revealed that Kodos is actually female. This was further confirmed by a Simpsons video game that involved a mission that only female characters could be involved in. A gag included in an episode of Futurama, The Simpsons’ spin-off series, revealed that her colleague, Kang, is also female.

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3 Bands That Formed After the Lead Singer Went Solo

When the frontman leaves for a solo career, what’s a band to do? Form a new band.

Talk Show

Stone Temple Pilots were one of the most successful rock bands of the ‘90s, racking up hits like “Plush,” “Big Empty,” and “Interstate Love Song.” Along the way, lead singer Scott Weiland struggled with a heroin addiction, leading the band to abruptly announce a hiatus in 1997. Weiland recorded a solo album and spent some time in rehab, but the rest of the band wasn’t so sure he was coming back to the group…so the other three Stone Temple Pilots formed a new band called Talk Show. One self-titled album sold poorly, and by 1998, Weiland was back in the band.

The Heads

Talking Heads was never a collaborative, democratic band: David Byrne was the undisputed leader. He broke up the band in 1992, but the other three members (Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz) weren’t ready to throw in the towel yet, not with the band or each other. In 1996, they formed the Heads and released one album, No Talking, Just Head, alluding to the fact that the band was like Talking Heads…but not quite. Guest vocalists like Debbie Harry of Blondie and Michael Hutchence of INXS filled in, but the band ultimately fell apart when Byrne sued the Heads because he thought the project was too similar to Talking Heads, a band and brand he owned outright.

Phantom, Rocker & Slick

Stray Cats were a bit of an anomaly on the radio in the early ‘80s: while hard rock bands like Journey and New Wave bands like Blondie dominated pop music, the Stray Cats played rockabilly music and dressed like 1950s hooligans. They scored a bunch of hits, including “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut.” Brian Setzer left the group in 1984 for a solo career (he now leads the swing revivalist Brian Setzer Orchestra), leaving the other two main members of the Stray Cats, drummer Slim Jim Phantom and bassist Lee Rocker, in the lurch. So, they recruited David Bowie’s guitarist Earl Slick and recorded two albums in the mid-1980s. It led to a couple of minor hits and the group was short-lived, although it sported one of the best names in rock history: Phantom, Rocker & Slick.

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5 Movie Soundtrack Facts

Some trivia about the songs made famous in movies and on TV.

The first movie soundtrack album commercially available was the one from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was such a new concept in music that the album had to carry the very explanatory title, Songs from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (with the Same Characters and Sound Effects as in the Film of That Title).

Elvis Presley made three dozen movies in the 1950s and 1960s. Few were commercial (or critical hits), but they were designed to sell soundtrack albums, which they did. Four Elvis movie soundtracks topped the charts: You, G.I. Blues, Blue Hawaii, and Roustabout. The one that sold the most: Blue Hawaii, with three million copies. Surprisingly, Blue Hawaii is the bestselling studio album of Elvis’s career.

The two bestselling soundtracks of all time: the Bee Gees heavy Saturday Night Fever (1977) and the Whitney Houston dominated The Bodyguard (1992). They’ve sold 15 million and 14 million copies in the U.S., respectively.

Soundtracks dominated pop music in 1985. While albums of music from Purple Rain, Beverly Hills Cop, and Miami Vice went to #1, seven soundtrack songs topped the pop chart. The songs: “Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds (The Breakfast Club), “A View to a Kill” from the movie of the same name by Duran Duran, “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis (Back to the Future), the theme from Miami Vice by Jan Hammer, “Separate Lives” by Phil Collins (White Nights), and “Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie (White Nights).

In 1994, rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg made an extended music video (18 minutes) about his own death, deal with the devil, and resurrection. Snoop then released a soundtrack of the movie, which is somehow 68 minutes long. The album went to #1 on the album chart, the only soundtrack to a short film to ever do so.

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6 Random Facts About Burt Reynolds

Some trivia about the Bandit himself.

Reynolds was a great football player. He played halfback at Florida State University (on scholarship), but a professional career was sidelined due to injuries. After considering a career in law enforcement (his father was a police chief), Reynolds transferred to Palm Beach Junior College where he tried out for a stage production of Outward Bound. He won the 1956 Florida State Drama Award for his performance and decided to become an actor.


Reynolds is one-fourth Cherokee, which is one of the reasons why he was cast as a half-Native American blacksmith named Quint Asper on Gunsmoke. He played the role for three seasons, in addition to the title role in Navajo Joe, a 1966 spaghetti western.


He was offered the role of Han Solo in the first Star Wars film but turned it down. He also opted out of playing James Bond when the role was offered to him at one point, claiming that he told producers that an English actor should be cast instead.


Reynolds was considered Hollywood’s top box office star for five straight years according to the annual Top Ten Money Making Stars Poll. This impressive feat has not yet been repeated. Films like Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run helped him stay at the front of the pack from 1978 through 1982. (Only Bing Crosby did the same thing, from 1944 to 1948.)


Burt is balding. At one point, he had a toupee collection worth a reported $100,000.


Dogged by paparazzi and tabloids throughout the ‘80s, Burt used his private helicopter to drop horse manure on a Christmas display located outside the headquarters of National Enquirer in the late ‘80s. At the time, it contained America’s largest Christmas tree. As Burt later explained, “I didn’t think it was right that they had the largest Christmas tree in the United States.”

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What 11 American TV Shows Are Called in Non-English-Speaking Countries

When TV shows from the United States are exported to other countries, they usually necessitate a title change—idioms, phrases, or wordplay used in English titles may not make sense if translated directly. The new titles are often very blunt or simplified, or even ruin the show’s big reveals.

Game of Thrones. In Hungary, the fantasy series is known as Tronok Harca: “Throne Fight.”


Breaking Bad. In Brazil, audiences were enthralled by the story of a high school chemistry teacher who became a drug kingpin on A Quimica do Mal, or “The Chemistry of Evil.”


Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David must be very careful not to accidentally offend anyone on Sweden’s Swimma Lugnt, or “Swim Quietly, Larry.”


Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The German version of the cult favorite gives a pretty clear reason for why a teenager girl has to fight all those monsters. It’s called Buffy im Rann der Damonen, or “Buffy is Under the Spell of Demons.”


Lost. The mysterious show was about an infernal paradise of sorts. In Hungary, Lost was called Pokoli Eden, or “Infernal Paradise.”


Six Feet Under. Direct and to the point: The Russian version of the HBO mortuary-set drama was called Kliyent Vsegda Mertv, or “The Customer is Always Dead.”


Who’s the Boss? The 1980s Tony Danza sitcom was exported to Costa Rica as Un Gringo con Mucha Suerte, roughly “The Man is Very Lucky.”


The Walking Dead. The title with two meanings doesn’t have a counterpart in Polish, so in Poland the show is called Zywe Trupy, “Living Corpses.”


The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The title in Hungary is very direct, and a little boring. It’s Kaliforniaba Jottem, or “I Came to California.”


Scrubs. Now here’s some clever wordplay. The sitcom about young, confidence-lacking doctors was aired in Belgium as Toubib or No Toubib, alluding to Hamlet’s most famous line. In French it means “Doctor, or Not Doctor.”


Mad Men. In Serbia, it’s called Ljudi sa Menhetna. That means “People in Manhattan.”

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5 Weird January Holidays You Should Celebrate

This year, we resolve to observe more of those ridiculous, made-up “holidays,” such as…

Jan. 4: Trivia Day

Did you know that Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader is the best trivia book in the entire known and unknown universe? (Shameless plug!)

Jan. 7: Old Rock Day

No, this isn’t the day where they induct new acts into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s a day to start a rock collection, or go to a museum and admire some of its geological treasures.

Jan. 17: Ditch New Years Resolutions Day

There’s a decent chance a lot of us have abandoned our extra-ambitious, not-quite-realistic New Years resolutions by this point anyway, so we might as well all come clean, and then try to be a little bit easier on ourselves.

Jan. 25: Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

The pop-’till-you-drop packing material was invented as a hip alternative to wallpaper in the 1950s, but it didn’t sell, and found its true purpose. There’s only one way to celebrate this day—don’t stop until you’ve popped every bubble on that sheet.

Jan. 28: National Kazoo Day

It’s one of the first instruments a lot of people play, and it’s always one of the easiest. (You can even make your own makeshift kazoo out of a comb and some wax paper.) Who invented the kazoo? Alabama Vest and Thaddeus Von Clegg, in the 1840s, of course.

And it’s also “awareness” months for a variety of “causes.” January is National Soup Month, Hot Tea Month, and National Oatmeal Month.

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8 Facts About Hidden Tracks

Hidden tracks can appear at the end of a CD, usually after a long gap of silence, and don’t appear on the track listing. They’re a fun surprise for listeners.

The first ever “hidden track” was on a vinyl record. At the end of the Beatles’ Abbey Road, there’s 14 seconds of silence, followed by the 30-second song “Her Majesty.” The song was supposed to go elsewhere on the album but Paul McCartney hated it, so he asked tape operator John Kurlander to trash it. He didn’t—he secretly placed it at the end of the album without telling anybody.


The Clash’s “Train in Vain” is the last song on its 1979 album London Calling, but it’s unlisted. The band wanted to include it at the last minute, after the record sleeves had already been sent to the printer.


It didn’t really catch on until the compact disc format took hold, which made hidden tracks that much easier to hide—unlike a record, that extra track was visually invisible. Hundreds of acts did it in the ’90s, a fad started by Nirvana. Its 1991 album Nevermind contained a hidden track called, appropriately enough, “Endless, Nameless.”


In 1995, rock band Boris the Sprinkler included a hidden track on its album Saucer to Saturn: the entirety of the album again. They did it so fans could theoretically listen to the entire album on a jukebox for the cost of playing one song.


The alternative rock band Cracker had one of its biggest hits with “Eurotrash Girl” in 1994. They wanted to include it on their album Kerosene Hat, but their record label told them the record was already too long…so the band snuck it in as a hidden track.


First hidden track with a Grammy nomination: Lauryn Hill’s cover of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” was a hidden track on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1999.


The Ramones’ “Carbona Not Glue” is a hidden track on its Loco Live album. The makers of Carbona stain remover objected, so it was removed from the track listing on the album cover, but the actual music remained on the CD.


The whole point of a hidden track is that it’s hidden, but in 1995, the Rembrandts had to ironically advertise a hidden track on its album LP. The band had done the theme song for Friends, and it became a huge hit just when LP was being pressed, and after the album covers had been printed. So, early versions of the album contain a big sticker advertising the album’s hidden track, the band’s theme from Friends.

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