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.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
WHEN LINDBERGH GOT DISSED
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.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
THE BABY GAS MASK
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.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
THE WICKED BIBLE
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.
Friday, April 17, 2015
THE M&M CLAUSE
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.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
WHAT DIFFERENCE A © MAKES
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| "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.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
WHEN TEXAS USED TO BE BIG
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| 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.
Monday, April 13, 2015
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.
Friday, April 10, 2015
WHERE DOES A KOMODO DRAGON SLEEP? ANYWHERE IT WANTS
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.
Saturday, April 4, 2015
THE CASE OF THE PROFOUNDLY PROFANE PARROT
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