A SENSELESS WAY TO END A WAR

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The Armistice which terminated World War I was officially signed on November 11, 1918 at 5 AM Paris time; however, it did not take effect until 11 AM--perhaps in order to be "cute" to end the war on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Most combatants saw no point in persisting in the slaying during this arbitrary six hour period and just hunkered down until 11:00. One who did not was an artillery captain named Harry S. Truman (pictured above), who continued to fire his guns until 10:45 AM. Another was the German sniper at Mons who decided that it would be cool to kill Canadian soldier George Price at 10:58 AM. 

Approximately 11,000 men were killed, wounded, or became missing between 5:00 AM and 11:00 AM on November 11, 1918. For a further analysis of the background and stated rationale for this needless tragedy, please see the  historynet website.

If you are ever in Kansas City, you should visit the National WWI Museum for further insight into the depravity which was that conflict--a conflict that is still shaping events 100 years later.

THE SORDID ORIGIN OF "PAC-MAN"

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The pronunciation for the Japanese word for "munch" is "puck." The U.S. version of the "Pac-Man" video game was going to be named "Puck-Man" based on the fact that the main character proceeds around the screen munching everything. This designation was changed to the current version of "Pac-Man" out of the bizarre belief on the part of the makers of the game that some American teenagers would intentionally mispronounce the original version of the name.

WHEN LINDBERGH GOT DISSED

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In 1927, TIME magazine instituted its annual tradition of "Man of the Year," where it devotes a cover story to the individual (or sometimes, a group, such as "U.S. Scientists" in 1960 or "American Women" in 1985) who had the most influence on events in the world in the prior year. In 1982, it took the controversial step of naming "The Computer" as the Man of the Year and, in 2006, the even more controversial yet arguably wimpy step of designating "You" for that honor, on the theory that almost everyone advanced the Information Age by using the internet.

Actually, the use of the term "honor" in the preceding paragraph may be a little problematic, as a person could have a profound influence on events and win the title while still being a rapscallion (such as Hitler in 1938 and Stalin in 1939).

Since 1999, the official designation of the recipient has been "Person of the Year."

The tradition was instituted originally as a way to mitigate the embarrassment suffered by TIME for its 1927 failure to run a cover story initially on Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic. Establishing "Man of the Year" and then appointing Lindbergh as the first recipient helped compensate for this otherwise sizable PR gaffe.

WHAT WOULD YOU PAY FOR A WIDOW'S MITE?

Numismatists who have collected American coins for a while are aware that there are many examples which can bring prices in the five, six, and seven figures. These collectors are sometimes gobsmacked to learn that numerous Roman and other ancient coins can easily be obtained for something like five dollars or even less. Logic would dictate that the passage of thousands of years would mean that the coins would be scarce, hard to find, and very expensive. Logic would be wrong in this situation.

There are certainly ancient coins of extreme value, especially those made of gold or silver. However, brass and copper coins of the same time period were so common that they were sometimes used as ship ballast. Furthermore, due to the scarcity of banks, paper money, and electronic financial transactions, most citizens hid their coins in a concealed clay pot or the like for safekeeping. Disease, civil unrest, and invading armies often meant that the owners would never recover their treasures, and the hoarded coinage pops up centuries later in excavations and the like.

As an example, the coins pictured above were given to an American Army officer in 1944 by Italian street urchins in exchange for chocolate and other luxury items. The boys had apparently found them in the rubble of a building which had been shelled. They are today probably worth a total of about $300.

On the other hand, there is the tale of David Crisp, the British chef who uncovered in 2010 a hoard of over 52,000 Roman coins in Somerset worth several hundred thousand pounds.

The bottom line is, regardless of the value or lack of value of the coin, it is still cool to be able to own something minted thousands of years ago which may have been handled by someone like Cicero, Pompey, or even Jesus himself.

THE BABY GAS MASK

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One of the more macabre collectible items from World War II is the infant gas mask. In 1939, the British government attempted to issue gas masks to every one of its 47 million citizens--including babies. The child would be encased within the mask and the parent would hold the tyke and operate a hand pump to pass air through the filter.

Fortunately, these items are almost always even now found in mint unused condition, as one of the few blessings of the conflict was that none of the nations involved deployed poison gas--except for, of course, the Nazis in their concentration camps.

DIRTY HARRY

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One of the iconic movies of the 1970s is Dirty Harry, which was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2012 by the Library of Congress by meeting the criteria of being "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant." "Dirty Harry" refers to the character Harry Callahan, played by Clint Eastwood. Callahan is the stereotypical politically incorrect San Francisco police detective who gets the job done by playing by his own rules, defying authority, shooting bad people, etc. etc.

Callahan, however, does not have the leading role in the film. That honor goes to the sidearm he carries--a Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 magnum revolver with a six-and-half inch barrel. At the time, the .44 magnum was the one of the most powerful commercially available handguns and packed substantially more energy than its more popular rival, the .357 magnum. Yet, until the movie was made, the Model 29 was relatively obscure and rarely encountered. In fact, the factory suspended production due to lack of demand. The weapon's high price, bulky dimensions, heavy weight, expensive ammunition, over-penetration, and abusive recoil did not appeal to most shooters. Once the film was released, however the Model 29 achieved fame and popularity and sales skyrocketed--and surged again each time one of the four sequels to the picture was released and even each time one of the movies was shown on prime-time television.

Countless males who have suffered when ensnared into enduring estrogen-engorged epics such as The Notebook, Sleepless in Seattle, or the deceptively disguised chick flic, Pearl Harbor, have been able to obtain partial relief during their ordeal by replaying in their minds the witty and urbane dialogue from Dirty Harry, including the following cerebral observations made by Detective Callahan to a suspect after Callahan had emptied several rounds from his revolver during a gunfight. It is pertinent to the discussion to understand that Callahan was covering the wrongdoer with his .44 while the bad guy was obviously contemplating lunging for a nearby weapon on the ground:

“I know what you’re thinking. ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?*"

At this point, you may be asking yourself why there is a picture of Frank Sinatra illustrating this factoid. Warner Brothers purchased the screenplay to the movie specifically with Sinatra in mind for the character of Harry Callahan. Sinatra was enthusiastic about the role until he became more acquainted with his co-star--the Model 29. Ol' Blue Eyes had injured his wrist in filming The Manchurian Candidate, and the .44 magnum was simply too heavy for him to handle. Steve McQueen, John Wayne, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, and Burt Lancaster also turned down the part, and studio executives were forced to turn to Clint Eastwood instead. The rest is history.

Finally, the .44 magnum is no longer king of the Smith & Wesson line. S&W now makes a Model 500 .50 caliber magnum revolver suitable primarily for hunting Tyrannosaurs or winning magnum-measuring contests. Several jurisdictions have attempted to ban it, notwithstanding the fact that most street thugs do not favor a hard-to-conceal 15-inch-long $1300+ handgun for use in robbing liquor stores or otherwise plying their trade.

*To find out if the punk felt lucky, please click here.

EDISON'S CREATIVE MARKETING GAMBIT

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The electric chair was first deployed in New York in 1890. It was developed by employees of Thomas Edison. Edison advocated the use of alternating current (AC) for the chair in order to demonstrate how dangerous AC was (remember his competition with George Westinghouse, where Edison wanted household current to be direct current (DC) while Westinghouse was a proponent of AC). Since one of the officers of Edison's company was the head of the committee appointed by the State of New York to approve the design and specifications of the chair, Edison was able to get his way, and the chair was in fact powered by alternating current.

Westinghouse refused to provide one of his AC generators for use on the project, so Edison purchased one using subterfuge.  Westinghouse thought that his generator was being shipped to a South American university for research, but it ended up being sent back to the USA to Edison's labs. 

Edison attempted, and succeeded for awhile, to introduce a new verb in the English language--"westinghouse," which was defined as "to be killed by electrocution."

After reviewing reports of the first execution by electricity, Westinghouse remarked that it would have been far more humane to kill the prisoner (a wife-murdering dentist) by chopping him up with an axe.

Prior to his death in 1930, Edison admitted that AC was better than DC after all for most applications.  He further confessed that he had known that fact all along

THE UNSANITIZED SLEEPING BEAUTY

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The original version of Sleeping Beauty, which was initially published in 1636, differs from the Disney production on a few minor points. 

In the original version, the Sleeping Beauty, also known as Talia, is poisoned by a flax splinter in her finger. Her family members abandon their castle, leaving her body behind. When the obligatory prince enters the castle and encounters her inanimate body, he rapes her instead of kisses her. This meeting produces two twins, who are raised by fairies, since mama is still in a coma. Eventually, the male child sucks on Talia's finger and removes the poisonous splinter. As a result, Talia awakens. The prince eventually returns for a second helping but finds her up and about. He confesses his prior escapade to Talia, and they both then have a weekend of passionate sex, with Talia conscious this time around. 

The prince's wife disapproves of this dalliance, and she captures the twins. She orders her cook to kill them and turn them into a casserole, which the wife then feeds to the prince. She informs him of the source of the meat in the meal after he is done.

The wife is really irritated when she discovers that the cook did not actually kill the kids but instead substituted goat meat for the casserole. She orders that Talia be captured and burned at the stake. However, the prince intervenes, kills his wife, and marries Talia where he, Talia, the twins, and the cook live happily ever after.

A rapist and wife murderer--you would have hoped that Talia could have done better.

WHEN LINCOLN WAS NOT SHOT

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On July 11 and 12 of 1864, the Confederates attached Fort Stevens, which was one of 68 fortifications protecting Washington, D.C. during the War Between the States. Because it was relatively late during the War and the South was on the verge of defeat, the fort was thinly defended by a very small number of unseasoned troops. Fortunately for the Yankees, the defenders of the fort were able to hold on until reinforcements arrived, thus preventing the capture of Washington, which would have been somewhat of a setback for the North.

On both days of the battle, Abraham Lincoln stood on the parapet of the fort to watch the festivities. His top-hatted six-foot four-inch figure quickly drew the attention of Confederate sharpshooters, much to the chagrin of those standing next to him--especially one Army surgeon who was critically wounded by a bullet intended for the President. A Massachusetts infantryman finally told his Commander-In-Chief to "Get down, you damn fool!"  Lincoln complied. Many accounts say that the soldier was future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, but that part of the story is apocryphal at best.

Lincoln was probably the only sitting (well, technically, he was standing at the time) President targeted by enemy* fire in combat.

The Fort Stevens battlefield is now the site of the Walter Reed Army Hospital.

*FDR was subjected to "friendly" fire in combat, but that will be the subject of a future Factoid.

ANOTHER CRITTER WHO SLEEPS WHEREVER IT WANTS

By John Megahan [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

The biggest and one of the most baddest birds of all time was the wingless moa from New Zealand. Several species existed; the largest was 13 feet tall, resembled an ostrich on steroids, and weighed over 700 pounds. An unarmed human was no match for it.

However, one bird that was even baddester than the moa was the Haast's eagle--the largest eagle in the world.  It was also from New Zealand. The Haast's eagle had moas for breakfast--literally. The Haast's eagle would plummet from a high altitude with the same force as a cinder block falling from an eight-story building, crash into the side of a moa with his talons extended, and then leisurely eat his victim on the ground. Since there was no other creature around foolish enought to tackle a Haast's eagle, this foul fowl did not have to fly away with his prey in order to have a quiet, peaceful meal.

When the Maori tribe settled New Zealand around the 1400s, the supply of moas was drastically reduced both as a result of the skilled hunting* by the humans and the destruction of moa eggs by the livestock which accompanied the Maori. The Haast's eagle population dwindled due to the lack of moas, notwithstanding the fact that the eagles did attack and kill people when moas were not readily available.

Both the moa and Haast's eagle probably became extinct between 1400 and 1800. I use the term "probably" due to the fact that rumors of recent sightings of both species in remote areas of New Zealand still tantalize cryptozoologists.

For a colorful and profane in-depth analysis revealing why Haast's eagles, even if not extinct, nonetheless probably would not replace parakeets in pet stores, please see one of my favorite websites--Badass of the Week.

Oh, by the way, when looking at the picture at the top of this factoid, please remember that the moas running on the ground are substantially taller than any human.

*The skilled hunting included tossing a red-hot rock at the moa, who would ingest it and roast itself internally.  Remember, I said that moas were big. I did not say that they were intelligent.

OPERATION FIR TREE

A Swiss bayonet with a 19-inch (48.25 cm) saw-toothed blade. Would you really want to mess with a country which used stuff like this?

Prior to the beginning of World War II, Adolf Hitler on multiple occasions guaranteed the neutrality of Switzerland and publicly stated that he was eschewing any and all opportunities to invade same. Amazingly, the Swiss were not entirely reassured by these assertions and mobilized a huge army within three days after the Germans started WWII in Europe by launching an offensive against Poland.

The instincts of the Swiss were sound. Hitler was appalled by a Germanic nation that provided its people with a decentralized democracy and a wide range of civil rights. Privately, Hitler confided to his advisers that he considered the Swiss "disgusting" and that Switzerland was a "pimple on the face of Europe." In order to pop this pimple, the Germans developed a scheme called Operation Tannenbaum ("Fir Tree") where they would invade Switzerland with up to 500,000 troops and make it part of the German Reich.

Plans to launch this offensive were finally shelved after D-Day in Normandy. By all expert accounts, implementation of Operation Tannenbaum would have been a total disaster for Germany. There are good reasons why no one invades Switzerland. The country is so mountainous that the only access is through a few passes. The Swiss knew where these passes were and were well-prepared to defend them. The passes, bridges, and tunnels were (and still are) mined with high explosives which can be detonated at a moment's notice. Aircraft and artillery pieces were hidden in the sides of mountains or within bucolic barns or quaint Alpine houses. The heavy forests would have concealed most military targets from the Luftwaffe, and the German navy would, for obvious reasons, have been highly ineffective. 

In addition, of course, the Germans had plenty of distractions already on the Russian front. They really, truly, did not also need a horde of angry Swiss crossing their border. Since the late 1400s, Swiss soldiers have been considered the cream of the crop in Europe and had served as line troops in a wide variety of armies. During World War II, every Swiss adult male up to age 60 was trained in the army, belonged to the militia, and kept a rifle at home. And, even today, virtually all Swiss males between ages 20 and 30 are currently in the militia and are required to store fully automatic rifles at their residences.

The Swiss Guard still serves as the bodyguards for the Pope. You can see them in Vatican City in brightly colored medieval* uniforms and holding old-fashioned pointy things--however, these extremely competent military men are far more than a quaint tourist attraction. Hitler would have faced Swiss opponents bearing highly accurate and highly regarded K31 carbines; the modern Swiss soldiers, including the Swiss Guards at the Vatican, are well-trained and proficient in the latest in small arms and machine guns. 

For a thorough description of how "Switzerland does not have an army; Switzerland is an army," read John McPhee's 1983 book, La Place de la Concorde Suisse. For an analysis of the same topic by the characters Sgt. Snorkel and Lt. Flap from the comic strip Beetle Bailey, click here.

*Speaking of going medieval, that is what a Swiss Guardsman is likely to do to you if you were to deprecate his garb, such as by calling it a clown costume, in his presence.

By Dnalor 01 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 at (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/at/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

THE $5.01 FELONY

Jail bait.

It is a federal felony to take more than a $5 combination of nickels and pennies out of the United States without a special permit. Doing so could result in imprisonment of up to five years plus a fine up to $10,000.00 plus forfeiture of the coins themselves.

This penalty is not because of some archaic statute from the 1700s; the provision was actually enacted in 2006.

In short, if you keep a coin jar in your Winnebago, you had better leave it behind if you are crossing the border from the USA into Canada or Mexico.

THE WICKED BIBLE

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In 1631, Robert Barker and Martin Lucas, the royal printers in London, produced a version of the King James Bible which erroneously contained the commandment, "Thou shalt commit adultery." The King ordered all of the books called back and destroyed, and the printers were fined 300 pounds (about 34,000 pounds in today's money). The few surviving copies of what became known as "The Wicked Bible" that still exist are quite valuable today.

THE M&M CLAUSE

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The contract the Van Halen band used for many years with various performance halls required that the band be provided with a bowl of M&Ms® with all of the brown ones removed. The clause included language stating that the group could cancel the performance yet still be paid in full should there be a single brown M&M® found backstage. This provision was not inserted to cater to a temperamental artist but instead was placed into the contract by Van Halen singer David Lee Roth for a specific legitimate purpose.

The band uses literally tons of special equipment and needs specific safety features to be provided by the performance hall in order to put on the show, especially in older buildings whose stages simply may not be designed to handle the weight. If Roth saw that there was brown candy or no candy at all, he knew that the venue did not read the whole contract and that the band could have been working under dangerous conditions. 

Please click on the NPR website to hear Roth explain in his own words the reason for the candy clause and his policy of trashing the dressing room of the performance hall whenever he discovered an M&M® infraction.

WHAT DIFFERENCE A © MAKES

"They're coming to get you, Barbra."

One of the greatest movies ever made and the flagship horror film of the last 100 years was George Romero's 1968 production of Night of the Living Dead. While its significance can be measured in so many different ways (and probably will be in future Henry's Daily Factoids), for now it is merely adequate to state that it started the whole genre of cannibalistic zombies in cinema and TV. With the abundance of gore in today's cinema, it is hard to imagine the shocking impact that a movie graphically displaying flesh-eating ghouls had on the unsuspecting audiences in 1968.

Due to the well-deserved popularity and ubiquitous viewing of the movie, you would think that Romero and his co-writer John Russo would be gazillionaires from the royalties from the project.  However, on the initial print of the film, Romero had it titled in the opening credits as "Night of the Flesh-Eaters©." The distributor of the film changed the title to "Night of the Living Dead" before releasing it. Under intellectual property law as it existed in 1968, the failure to include the copyright symbol (©) in the new title meant that the movie immediately translocated into the public domain. As a result, numerous distributors copied and displayed it legally without having to pay any royalties to Romero or Russo. Romero did sue the distributing company for its error, but it went bankrupt before he could collect anything.

Romero's and Russo's loss is society's gain. Because flesh-eating zombies were immediately thrust into the public domain, hundreds of deliciously dark and diabolical minds have been able to incorporate them freely, along with their attributes created in the original screenplay (such as lethargic walking, disquieting dietary habits, and vulnerability to brain injury), into other movies, TV shows, books, and comics without having to parse the legal technicalities of copyright law.

It also means that I can link you to the entire movie here. Enjoy.

MUFFLER MEN

Between 1962 and 1974, International Fiberglass Company made huge (20 to 30 feet tall) mannequins in a wide variety of designs, such a lumberjacks, gas station attendants, cowboys, etc.  These would be permanently placed in front of commercial establishments, and each one would usually be carrying an appropriate object such as an ax, a muffler, or a branding iron.  They were often found at Texaco stations until a motorist sued Texaco claiming that he had had an accident because he was distracted by one of the figures.  

Uniroyal employed a female version for its stores which looked a lot like Jackie Kennedy in a bikini.  However, a removable dress was also provided by International Fiberglass for use in the more conservative communities.

These figures, regardless of their sex or occupation, are known as "muffler men."

The first muffler man I ever met was "Big John," who proudly toted four giant grocery bags in front of a rural Midwestern supermarket.  This may be the very same Big John* who currently resides in the care of a muffler man collector (who must have a very tolerant wife) in Unger, West Virgina.

The muffler men pictured in this factoid hale from the Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingston, Illinois. They are surrounded at the facility by other treasures such as a twenty-foot tall tricycle, a huge pink elephant, and a flying saucer. The Harley Davidson guy, who started out as a Paul Bunyan version holding an ax, is out standing in his field.

To find the muffler man nearest to you, click here.

*Big John was not manufactured by the International Fiberglass Company, but he clearly is a muffler man in spirit and should be included within their hallowed ranks.

WHEN TEXAS USED TO BE BIG

Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

When Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845, it was larger than it is today, and its northern border extended into present-day Wyoming. However, under the Compromise of 1850 (which dealt with a lot of slavery issues), Texas ceded much of its land to the United States, and that real estate was eventually swallowed up by New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wyoming. Texas was willing to go along with this, as the deal included a provision that the federal government would assume $10 million in debt incurred by Texas when it was a separate nation from 1836 to 1845.

Texas's present northern border was fixed at 36°30′ latitude, which was the legal limit under the Missouri Compromise of 1820 for the northern border of a western slave state. When Colorado and Kansas were formed, this left a 34 mile-wide gap between these two states and Texas, and this gap ultimately became the Oklahoma panhandle. For several decades, no territory or state claimed or governed the panhandle, and it become a legendary bastion of lawlessness and a notorious refuge for scalawags, owlhoots, and ne'er-do-wells. 

THE COFFIN TORPEDO

For about 20 years after the American Civil War, body-snatching from graves was common in the USA, as medical schools had no legal source of cadavers under the laws at that time. To help discourage the practice, Philip K. Clover of Ohio invented in 1878 a "coffin torpedo," which essentially was a small cannon buried over or inside the casket which would fire several lead balls straight up into anyone attempting to remove the coffin or its contents.  Probate Judge Thomas N. Howell, also of the Buckeye State, invented a device in 1881 which performed the same task of killing or maiming the grave robber, except through the use of high explosive. 

Legitimate cemetery workers were not enthusiastic about these booby traps, as they sometimes went off when a gravedigger was working on an adjoining plot.

Sales of the coffin torpedoes were initially good, but they fell precipitously after a few years as new laws were enacted which gave medical schools legal access to cadavers and destroyed the incentive for corpse stealing.

THE ECSTASY OF CASU MARZU

By Shardan (Own work)
 [CC BY-SA 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)],
 via Wikimedia Commons

One of the most delightful Mediterranean dishes is "Casu  Marzu" from Sardinia. It is also called "maggot cheese."

To produce this scrumptious product, take ordinary sheep's milk cheese and expose it outside to cheese flies (Piophila casei). The flies will lay their eggs resulting in, of course, maggots. The maggots will ingest the cheese and excrete Casu Marzu from a specialized orifice called a "maggot anus." Eventually, you will have available for serving to your honored guests a malodorous ball of feces infested with larvae with a taste that will burn the tongue. Tradition requires that the diners eat the larvae along with the cheese.

Although now illegal in Sardinia (which should tell you something), the cheese is still highly regarded and can be found often at formal occasions where simple caviar will not do. The maggots are very active and can flick themselves six inches into the air. If you are at a Sardinian wedding and hear a clicking sound followed by an "ow," it probably means that a guest tried the cheese and a maggot landed in his eye.

Even if the larvae fail to inflict an eye injury, they are very hardy and will often survive the trip through the stomach and will end up in the intestines, where they will provoke vomiting and bloody diarrhea by attempting to bore through the intestinal wall.

To see how maggot cheese is made and Chef Gordon Ramsey's response to its flavor, click here.

THE TOTO DISPLACEMENT

The original stage play of The Wizard of Oz did not feature Toto. That role was instead filled by Imogene, a cow. It was much easier for live actors to fit into a cow costume than a dog costume.

Imogene did appear in some of the Oz books which were sequels to the original adventure. Her milk production depended on her mood--when she was contemplative and ruminating--chocolate. When she was contented--normal whole milk. When she was excited--butter.  When she was mad--sour cream. When she was gloomy--skim. She could also produce a magic golden healing elixir in the event of a medical emergency.

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WHERE DOES A KOMODO DRAGON SLEEP? ANYWHERE IT WANTS

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Komodo dragons hunt large animals by leaping from ambush and biting and clawing their prey. If the dragon fails to disembowel its victim on the first strike, it will then patiently wait for the target animal to weaken and die. Zoologists had always presumed that the cause of death in this situation was sepsis provoked by the numerous strains of bacteria which live in the mouth of a dragon.

However, researchers have now discovered that the giant lizards are in fact venomous and that the hemotoxic poison that they deliver when chomping on their victims causes a dramatic drop in blood pressure and internal bleeding which kills their dinner. The venom contains chemical components similar to that of the Australian Taipan, which is one of the deadliest snakes in the world.

Essentially, a Komodo dragon is pretty much like a Gila monster except that it is far more venomous, is highly aggressive, is ten feet long, and weighs over 300 pounds. Also, while a Gila monster may bite you in self-defense, a Komodo dragon will actually actively pursue you because it wants to eat you. For these reasons, some herpetologists recommend that dragons not be kept as house pets.

THE LORD HIGH EXECUTIONER

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Albert Anastasia a/k/a "The Mad Hatter" a/k/a "The Lord High Executioner" (1903-1957) accomplished the very ambitious achievement of becoming the most ruthless hoodlum who ever headed what became known as the Gambino Family crime syndicate in New York. Among his many homicides, he ordered the murder of a young clothing salesman who had spotted bank robber Willie Sutton on the subway and informed the police. Anastasia had nothing to do with the bank robbery or Willie Sutton; he just felt morally obligated on general principles to kill someone whom he thought was a squealer--even if the target was a civilian and not mobbed up.

Being notorious and engendering adverse publicity is not necessarily a good thing for a crime boss, and Anastasia was gunned down in the Park Avenue Hotel barbershop upon the orders of his understudy and successor Carlo Gambino. He tried to fight back, but in the heat of the moment, he attempted to attack his assailants' reflections in the mirror instead of the real thing.

For a more detailed chronicle of the Mad Hatter's illegal activities, including his role in Murder, Inc., please click here.

COOKING WITH YOUR DISHWASHER

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For years, gourmands have realized that you can poach salmon or trout very successfully in the dishwasher. Simply add seasoning and oil to the fillets, wrap them in foil, and place them in the top rack. The dishwasher running through its cycle will turn them into a delectable creamy dish. However, most dishwasher chefs advise that using detergent in the washer during the process will add a strange flavor to the fish, which means as a practical matter that you cannot cook the meal while simultaneously washing dishes.

Italian food writer Lisa Casali gainsays the above conservative approach. She advocates the preparation of all sorts of tasty meals in the dishwasher, and she has authored a cookbook, Cucinare in Lavastoviglie, which explains in detail how to do this (unfortunately, the book is available only in Italian). The secret is to put the food into sealed canning jars or airtight vacuum bags first. Once you have done so, you can actually cook items like veal, lobster, vegetables, couscous, tuna, and desserts while at the same time cleaning dishes in a detergent-filled washer. The key to this process is to eschew using edible items which require higher temperatures than the 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit normally found in the washing cycle.

Cynics may point out that it is easier to prepare foods in ovens or on stoves which are specifically designed for that purpose. But what is the fun in that? Aren't you tempted to host a fancy dinner party and shock your guests by throwing the uncooked food and some dirty dishes in the washer and then serving a delicious meal on the freshly-cleaned plates? Don't you want to entertain your children with the process so that they can have a salmon-chanting evening by screaming excitedly for "Dishwasher sockeye! Dishwasher sockeye! Dishwasher sockeye!" for dinner?

For further information, go the the NPR website here (unless, of course, you can read Italian, in which case you should get Ms. Casali's book). Or, you can watch Dan Pashman's and Liza de Guia's video, where they experiment with a variety of exotic dishwasher-cooked items and come up with both major successes and spectacular flops.

THE PROSAIC ORIGIN OF CANDY APPLES

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Candy apples were not developed as a novelty taste treat. Instead, the apples were coated with boiling sugar syrup originally as a way of keeping the apple fresh for months without refrigeration, as the heat kills all the bacteria on the exterior and the coating seals the apple from further contamination. The delightful sweet flavor is just an added bonus.

British candy apples usually are sealed in treacle, while American candy apples are most likely dipped in caramel or in red-tinted sucrose flavored with cinnamon. Often, sadistic candy apple preparers ruin the whole thing by adding nuts to the coating.

The best apples to use have a rough, not a smooth, skin, as the sugar sticks to them better. Small, crisp apples like Macouns or Pink Ladies also work better than the mealy varieties like Jonathans or Galas.