10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything Quotes

“Public service announcements were first created by the Ad Council during World War II to get Rosie to work and to tighten loose lips. In 1971, on the second Earth Day, the world met “the crying Indian,” played by Iron Eyes Cody. The famous anti-pollution ad, which showed Cody paddling a canoe and watching motorists litter, effectively gave the new ecology movement a huge boost. As it turns out, Cody was of Italian descent (real name Espera DeCorti), but he appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows as a Native American and denied his European ancestry until his death in 1999.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“7 million American children suddenly disappear in 1987? On paper, it seemed so. That’s the year the IRS began requiring Social Security numbers for dependent children, and the number dropped dramatically.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“A 1655 book by English physician Thomas Muffett advocated torturing animals before slaughter to make them more tender as food. The book said animals should be killed slowly and painfully, with “fear dissolving the hardest parts.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“The Baby Ruth candy bar debuted in 1921, and even today the origin of the name remains in dispute. The Chicago-based Curtiss Candy Co. insisted that it named the bar after President Grover Cleveland’s daughter Ruth. But some historians find it odd that a company would name a new candy after a girl who had died 17 years earlier. They also find it mighty suspicious that the candy’s name was similar to that of baseball star Babe Ruth, who never collected royalties and was prevented from selling his own Babe Ruth Home Run Bar because of a Curtiss lawsuit.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“Marie Antoinette is said to have dismissed the plight of the poor by declaring, “Let them eat cake.” But there’s no evidence the queen ever said it, and plenty of evidence that Jean-Jacques Rousseau did. His autobiographical book, “Confessions,” included the phrase about 1767, before Marie Antoinette even got to France. The quote in the original French refers to brioche, which is not really a cake and is better described as an enriched bread roll.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“In 1968, the Bears defeated the Green Bay Packers on a “fair-catch kick”—a rare play that’s still in the NFL rulebook. When a team makes a fair catch of a kick, it has the option of attempting a field goal from that very spot, with defenders kept 10 yards away. The Bears defeated the Packers 13-10 on Nov. 3, 1968, when Mac Percival booted a 43-yard field goal in the last minute. The next morning’s Tribune described the fair-catch kick as a “very rare stratagem.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“That esteem for educators appears to be even higher among Generation Next, those born from 1981 to 1988, who are twice as likely as older generations to name a teacher or mentor when asked to list people they admire.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“Educators in 19 states, including Indiana and Missouri, can still discipline a student by paddling. While most of the states that allow corporal punishment are in the South, it is also legal in Idaho and Wyoming. New Mexico became in 2011 the most recent state to ban the practice. At the time, Vernon Asbill, a Republican state senator and retired educator, argued, “The threat of it keeps many of our kids in line so they can learn.” A 2010 bill in the U.S. House to ban corporal punishment in schools died in committee.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“When the Picasso sculpture was installed in Chicago’s Daley Plaza in 1967, then-Ald. John Hoellen (47th) called on the city to “deport” the artwork to France and replace it with a statue of Cubs slugger Ernie Banks.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything

“Father Knows Best” started as a radio sitcom in 1949 as “Father Knows Best?” When it moved to TV in 1954, the producers were apparently more confident in dad’s wisdom and the question mark was left behind.”
― Mark Jacob, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Nearly Everything