THE ANGUISH OF LEONARD SHERMAN

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(STAMP PHOTOS FROM SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION NATIONAL POSTAL MUSEUM ARAGO WEBSITE, WHICH IS COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT OF AND NOT ASSOCIATED WITH  "HENRY'S DAILY FACTOIDS.")

In 1962, the United States Post Office Department issued a yellow, black, and brown commemorative stamp honoring Dag Hammarskjold, who had been the Secretary-General of the United Nations and who had died in a plane crash in the previous year. New Jersey jeweler Leonard Sherman was extremely jubilant when he obtained a sheet of the stamps from the post office and discovered that the yellow color on his sheet had been printed upside down. Sherman realized that previous examples of this type of inverted printing error in other issues of stamps had made those items worth incredible sums of money.

Unfortunately, Sherman should have kept his mouth shut and let the smoke clear before he announced his discovery. Postmaster J. Edward Day, upon hearing about Sherman's find, remarked snarkily that, "The Post Office Department is not running a jackpot operation." Day promptly ordered the printing of an additional 40 million stamps, all with the yellow color upside down, in order to destroy the rarity of Sherman's stamps and to screw him out of his good fortune.

FEELING LOUSY

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One of the most popular forms of recreation for the troops during the Civil War was louse racing. Each soldier would put his favorite louse in the middle of a mess plate with the others, and the louse which reached the edge first would bring his owner fame and fortune. One infantryman insisted on using a single louse on a plate and timing the results, but he was disqualified when it was discovered that he was heating his plate to motivate his steed to move faster. 

Although the combatants were often infested with the three main types of lice--head, body, and crab--the body lice were far more ubiquitous. Considering the fact that the troops wore wool uniforms which they often did not change for months, this phenomenon is not surprising.

Depending on the allegiance of the infected combatant, lice were known by a variety of names, such as bluebellies, rebels, tigers, Bragg's body-guard, Zouaves, graybacks, and just plain vermin. A soldier who killed lice was "fighting under the black flag." If he threw away his licey garments, he was "giving them a parole." If he wore his clothes inside out, he was "executing a flank movement." 

One method of partial louse removal was to briefly suspend the infested garment in the flames of the campfire until the little fellows started popping like an Orville Redenbacher product. Another favorite technique was to boil the verminous garments in a stew pot when the cook was not using it.

Despite the companionship they provided, many soldiers did not welcome the lice due to the fact that their bites transmitted typhus.

THE HEIGHTS ACHIEVED BY NAPOLEAN

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Despite the common belief to the contrary, Napoleon Bonaparte was not unusually short in stature. There is no reason to believe that his lust for power arose from "little man syndrome." He actually was five feet six inches tall, which was typical for a Frenchman 200 years ago. Until around 1840, units of measurement in France were chaotic, inconsistent, changed every few years, and varied from region to region. It is believed that rumors of Napoleon's shortness stemmed from a mistranslation into English measurements of his height in French units.

#206--THE ORANGE BRAWL

The town of Ivrea in northern Italy has a battle each year which consists of huge crowds of people throwing millions of oranges at each other for three days. It can get somewhat sticky.

The tradition originated in 1194 when nobleman Conte Rainieri di Biandrate tried to employ Le droit du Seigneur* against Violetta, the bride of one of his subjects. Violetta construed this as a form of sexual harassment. In response, she decapitated the noble and displayed his head from his balcony. The townfolk then revolted and burned down his castle.

Depending on whom you believe, 1) the throwing of the oranges represents the throwing of stones by the peasants against the castle or 2) the oranges represent the head of the nobleman and the pulp his blood.

Oddly enough, oranges are not native to Ivrea, and tons of them have to be shipped in from the south for the festival.

*Le droit du Seigneur refers to the purported ritual in medieval Europe where a lord had the right, if not the duty, to deflower a peasant bride on her wedding night prior to turning her over to her husband. Many historians claim that the practice actually never formally existed in Europe but merely represents a nobleman taking unfair advantage of his position. The distinction, if any, probably mattered little to the unfortunate newlyweds.

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CHOLESTEROL AND TAILS

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Scientists have discovered that dogs who chase their tails often have much higher levels of cholesterol (both the "good" and "bad" varieties) than canines who do not. 

For further information on tail-chasing in general as well as the particular relationship to cholesterol, please visit the The Dog Daily webpage. For a video of what appears to be cholesterol-cursed canines compulsively chasing their tails, click here.

THE ROAD ROAD

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LaRue Road (which translates as "The Road Road") is located in southwestern Illinois in the Shawnee National Forest and separates rocky cliffs from a swamp adjoining the Mississippi River. Since 1972, a 2.5 mile stretch of the road has been closed to vehicular traffic for two months in the spring and two months in the fall to allow numerous species of amphibians and reptiles (including rattlers, copperheads, and cottonmouths) an opportunity to migrate safely between their summer homes in the swamp and their winter hibernation dens in the cliffs.

Legend would suggest that during the migration season, there is a writhing carpet of snakes and that you could not toss a dead cat onto the road without hitting at least three herptiles with it. However, I, who have on more than one occasion taken the long pilgrimage to the road during the prime migration period and who have even been provided with a learned guide to the alleged hot spots, gainsay this image. I saw nothing. Nada. Not even a common American toad (Bufo americanus).

The guide did report that a team of photographers from a major and highly-regarded media organization (whose name shall be shielded to protect the guilty) did get some good footage of venomous snakes on the road. However, he also revealed that the photographers had brought their own serpents with them in cages, released them on the road for their cameo appearances, and then recaptured them.

THE COW KILLER

The velvet ant is not actually an ant but is instead a wasp. The female of the species is wingless and looks like a corpulent ant wearing a fuzzy red (or yellow) and black Hudson Bay blanket; the male has wings, can fly, and often bears little resemblance to the female.

When pregnant, the mama velvet ant will enter the lair of other species of wasps or bees which live in dens in the ground and lay her eggs near the host bug larvae, which will then become the food of the future baby velvet ants.  She will also kill the adult host bug.

The female velvet ant is not aggressive (see previous paragraph for a possibly contrary opinion from other wasps or bees) and relies on her bright color and, if molested, a loud chirping sound to deter potential predators. However, if these methods do not work, she will hulk out and go medieval on her attacker multiple times with a huge stinger.

The female velvet ant is also known as the "cow killer," as her sting is so painful (3.0 on the Schmidt Sting Pain Index) that it was once believed to have been powerful enough to dispatch even a 1,500 pound bovine.  The boy velvet ant, who has no stinger, will nonetheless act like he does have one and will usually be able to bluff his way out of dangerous situations.

THREE OUT OF FOUR AIN'T BAD

Photo stolen from Matthew Thompson

The state in the USA which lies furthest to the north is Alaska.

The state in the USA which lies furthest to the west is Alaska.

The state in the USA which lies furthest to the east is Alaska (the part of Alaska which lies west of the 180th meridian is eastier than Asia, Europe, and Maine).

THE TEENY TINY MESSERSCHMITT

By Lars-Göran Lindgren Sweden (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

After World War II, the occupying nations in Germany strongly discouraged the Messerschmitt company from producing aircraft. In 1953, as one alternative, Messerschmitt started manufacturing a super-miniature bubbletop automobile. It had bicycle handlebars instead of a steering wheel. The massive 10.6 cubic inch (0.17 liter) engine was located behind the rear seat and was started with a pull cord like on a lawnmower, unless the owner purchased the optional electric starter feature. The car had only three wheels but was still very stable due to its low center of gravity.

Messershmitt was allowed to build airplanes again in 1956 and promptly thereafter sold its car business to another company, who continued to make the vehicles until 1964. By then, the booming German economy had greatly reduced the consumer lust for ultra-cheap cars.

There purportedly was one Cadillac dealer in the late 1950s who offered a free Messerschmitt with each new Cadillac. The Messerschmitt allegedly would be placed in the Caddy's trunk and would be available as a spare car in the event of a breakdown.  While I can readily accept the premise that there probably was a Cadillac dealership who would throw in a Messerschmitt in a deal, I somehow doubt that it would actually put a 450-pound (205 kilogram) car into the trunk of the larger vehicle.

As would be expected, both Messerchmitt fighter planes and Messerschmitt automobiles are highly prized by collectors today.

THE CAPITAL OF PORTUGAL

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Although Lisbon is currently the capital of Portugal, that has not always been the case.

In 1808, the Portuguese royal family and most of the Portuguese aristocracy fled Portugal due to an infestation of French troops under the banner of Napoleon. Since much of Europe suffered from this same blight, the fugitives migrated to Brazil, Portugal's colony in the Americas, and transformed Rio de Janeiro into the capital of Portugal. It retained this elevated status until 1822, when Brazil achieved its independence as its own nation.

This is the only example of the capital of a European country being located outside of Europe.

You might think that the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro would have been proud of elevated status of their city, but most of them resented instead the fact that many of them were evicted out of their homes in order to make room for the flood of incoming nobles.

MALARIA--THE WONDERDRUG

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From 1917 through the mid-1940s, tertiary syphilis was treated by intentionally infecting the patient with malaria. The malaria would provoke a sustained high fever which essentially cooked the syphilis spirochete. The malaria would thereafter be treated with quinine. A 15% mortality rate and the introduction of new antibiotics against syphillis led to the abandonment of this regime.

The author of this procedure, Dr. Julius Wagner-Jauregg, received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1927 as a result. On a side note, he also believed that "excessive masturbation" was a symptom of schizophrenia, and he treated those who were so afflicted by sterilization. 

Notwithstanding the fact that his wife was Jewish, the doctor became a devout Nazi.  

THE STIGMA OF CABBAGE

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It is against the rules of major league baseball in South Korea for a player to be in the possession of cabbage. This restriction arose in 2005 following a scandal where several pitchers were caught wearing frozen cabbage leaves underneath their caps as a means of keeping cool. It is unclear whether or not other green leafy vegetables are also barred from the playing field.

SEX AND THE SINGLE SAURIAN

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Herpetologists used to believe that like most vertebrates, Komodo dragons always reproduced through sex. However, in recent years, a couple of zoological institutions who had only female dragons on site were very surprised to learn that the girls were able to produce viable young through parthenogenesis (i.e. laying fertile, but non-fertilized, eggs). For genetic reasons too boring to describe, the offspring are always male (on the other hand, if you really want to know the details about the sex chromosomes and all that stuff, just read this article from Scientific American).

Once a female dragon is put back in an environment where males are available, she will revert to normal sexual behavior and breeding.

In a normal egg, half of the chromosomes are provided by the mother and half by the father. At some point in the formation of the parthenogenetic egg, the set of chromosomes provided by the mother double, ultimately yielding the baby with a full set.

Sexual reproduction is normally highly favored evolutionary-wise because it reduces the chance of producing individuals with full pairs of recessive genes and the resulting genetic illnesses. In addition, if a population is highly similar genetically, an infectious or environmental disease is more likely to wipe out all of the individuals and not just some.

In the case of the dragons, the above policy considerations are sometimes suspended due to the fact that female Komodos are at risk of washing ashore on one of the many thousands of small islands in Indonesia without having a male to keep them satisfied (what the male dragons do in a similar situation is probably something on which we should not speculate). By using parthenogenesis, the female is able to produce males who, when they mature, will be able to satisfy their Oedipal fantasies by having sex with their mother and establish a breeding colony.

Although the Komodo dragons' sexless reproduction was not known at the time Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park, he nonetheless had the prescience to have the dinosaurs in his story, which were all female, reproduce parthenogenetically. This possibility is one reason why Tyrannosaurs, if actually cloned one day, would probably not make good house pets. The litter box detail is another.

THE ASCENSION OF MS. BROWN

By Evan-Amos (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

M&M's candies were developed in 1941 for the military in order to replace the meltier and messier chocolate bars found in field rations. They were not made available to civilians until after the cessation of hostilities.

Anyone who has not lived on a desert island for the past two decades is well aware that Mars, Inc. has a series of marsvelous commercials featuring various color spokescandies for their M&M's product line--each color with a different personality.  For years, however, Mars thought that one hue to eschew was brown. The company was concerned that the color was too scatological and would become the butt of too much prurient humor. However, Mars eventually relented, and now Ms. Brown, a sexy and sophisticated intellectual (voiced by Vanessa Williams), is a regular in many delightful productions such as this one.

WHEN PIGS SWIM

By cdorobek (Flickr: 08.2012 Vorobek Bahamas - swimming pigs) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Big Major Cay a/k/a "Pig Island" is an uninhabited (at least by humans) island in the Bahamas.  It is, however, the home to a colony of swimming pigs.  The porkers enjoy cavorting in the water and will eagerly paddle out to boats for handouts. 

No one is sure how the colony started, but the first hogs there were probably either left on the island by sailors for a future source of food or were the survivors of a shipwreck.

A HAMBURGER SO DISGUSTING THAT IT COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE

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In the 2008 film Iron Man, there is a scene where gazillionaire Tony Stark a/k/a "Iron Man" has just escaped from three months of captivity in the Middle East. The first item he demands is "an American cheeseburger." The next scene shows one of his myrmidons presenting him, in response to the order, a burger in a sack clearly emblazoned with the Burger King logo.

Iron Man, like many modern films, is saturated with product placements for different companies. In the case of Burger King, however, Robert Downey, Jr., the star of the production, had a special reason why he wanted to pay tribute to this particular fast-food company in the movie.

According to Downey, in 2003, he had a nasty narcotics habit and was driving one day in a automobile piled with "tons of (expletive deleted) dope." He purchased a meal from Burger King and had an epiphany about how his life was going down the toilet when he realized that he was preparing to eat "such a disgusting burger." Downey decided then and there to straighten out his existence and threw all of the drugs into the ocean.

Although Burger King probably appreciated the public praise heaped on it by Downey for his Road to Damascus moment, it no doubt would have preferred that it be for something other than producing a meal so nauseating that it would induce a major character shift in someone contemplating eating it. Nonetheless, the subsequent Burger King commercials featuring Iron Man characters and the use of Iron Man action figures in Burger King kid's meals suggest that all participants were (and probably still are) happy in their relationship.

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A MAN WHO APPARENTLY COULD NOT HOLD ONTO A JOB

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At various points in his career, Sam Houston was:

1. The Governor of the State of Tennessee.

2. The Governor of the State of Texas.

3. A Senator from the State of Texas.

4. The chief military commander of the Republic of Texas.

5. The President of the Republic of Texas.

Houston was thrown out of office as the Governor of Texas when Texas joined the Confederacy in 1861 and Houston refused to renounce the United States. He died two years later.