Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Attack of the Factoids (4 page)

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To get a license to broadcast on the amateur radio bands, participants had to pass a rigorous test covering electronics, radio theory, and, ironically, Morse code speed and accuracy. Until 1991, when things loosened up, a HAM radio operator needed to be able to transmit five words per minute to get the lowest, Morse-only HAM radio license. To work up to a general amateur license, which allowed someone to talk into a microphone, he needed to transmit 13 words per minute.

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The dots and dashes of Morse code were a slow way of communicating, though, so HAM also used shorthand like we do today in texts and e-mails. There were no smiley faces or ROFL back then, but close: The equivalent to the modern “LOL” in Morse code was “HI HI,” because the sound (di-di-di-dit / di-dit / di-di-di-dit / di-dit) sounded like someone chuckling.

MORE HAM SLANG:

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CQ:
“Attention!” or “Looking for…” A pun on “seek you.”

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YL:
“Young lady,” used to address or refer to any female HAM broadcaster of any age.

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73:
“Best wishes” or some comparable expression of goodwill, used as a signoff.

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88:
“Love and Kisses.”

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Elmer:
A HAM teacher or guru, named after Elmer “Bud” Frohardt, who was a mentor to many beginning HAM users in the Chicago area in the 1960s.

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Handle:
Name or alias. This is one that leaked into the CB radio culture of the 1970s. It was originally cowboy slang.

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Mayday:
“Help me!” A corruption of the French word
m'aidez
. A similar saying is “Pan Pan,” from the French word
panne
(meaning “equipment breakdown”).

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33:
In 1939 the relatively few women HAMs organized into a club called the Young Ladies Radio League. They decided that 73 as a sign-off was too formal, and 88 was too romantic. So they coined their own sign-off: Technically, 33 means “love sealed with friendship between one YL and another YL.”

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FAMOUS DROPOUTS

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Grade school dropouts:
Mark Twain, Henry Ford, William Faulkner, President Zachary Taylor, Charlie Chaplin, Isadora Duncan, Charles Dickens, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jack London, Al Pacino, Richard Branson, and Cher.

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College dropouts:
Edgar Allan Poe, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Marc Rich, Sheldon Adelson, David Geffen, Ted Turner, and Ralph Lauren.

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And much to his family's displeasure, Harry Lillis Crosby dropped out of law school to play drums and sing in a jazz band. In the end, though, Harry, who also went by “Bing,” did OK.

Hodgepodge

More than 60 percent of the world's lawyers live in the United States.

68 percent of Americans over 65 consider TV a “necessity.”

A “pregnant” crash-test dummy is called a Maternal Anthropometry Measurement Apparatus Version 2B—or a “MAMA2B.”

In the 1890s, the University of Nebraska football team changed its name from the Bugeaters to the Cornhuskers.

In May 1996, a tornado hit an Ontario, Canada, drive-in theater. The movie scheduled to be shown that night:
Twister
.

Bear cubs are born toothless, blind, and bald.

A car traveling at 100 mph would take 29 million years to reach theclosest star outside the solar system. Traveling to our own star, the sun, would require 106 years.

One of the most frequently recycled items before the 20th century was bones.

Hitler owed the equivalent of about $8 million (in today's money) in back income taxes when he seized power in 1933. He never paid up.

The U.S. spends about $203 million dollars per year on barbed wire.

Earth's human population inhales more than 6 billion tons of oxygen annually.

Alooooha!

Hawaii consists of eight main islands: Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Molokai, Niihau, Lanai, Kahoolawe, and the Big Island (aka, Hawaii).

Niihau, one of the smallest, is inhabited by only 130 people and a few low-profile military personnel. It was the only Hawaiian island that voted against U.S. statehood in 1959.

Hawaii produces about a third of the world's pineapples.

Hawaii has its own time zone.

The summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island rises 13,796 feet above sea level and stretches another 18,000 feet below sea level to the ocean floor. Combined, that makes it the tallest mountain in the world.

The first people to settle Hawaii were Polynesians who traveled by canoe.

The only royal residence in the United States is Iolani Palace in Honolulu, the former home of the Hawaiian royals.

There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet: A, E, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, U, and W.

There is no single ethnic majority in Hawaii. There are also no billboards, seagulls, squirrels, rabies, or poison ivy.

The Wit and Wisdom of Ben Franklin

“Wise men don't need advice. Fools don't take it.”

“Waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough.”

“Wish not to live long as to live well.”

“If you would keep your secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.”

“Read much, but not too many books.”

“He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.”

“Nothing brings more pain than too much pleasure; nothing more bondage than too much liberty.”

“If you want to lose a troublesome visitor, lend him money.”

“Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.”

“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”

“Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.”

“It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright.”

“Make haste slowly.”

“The used key is always bright.”

“Industry pays debts, while despair increases them.”

“He that lives upon hopes will die fasting. There are no gains without pains.”

“If your head is wax, don't walk in the sun.”

“When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appearance may be all of a piece. It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.”

“Many men die at 25 and aren't buried until they are 75.”

“One today is worth two tomorrows.”

“Lost time is never found again.”

This Little Piggy…

The technical name for your big toe is the “hallux,” and the little toe is called the “minimus.” The other toes, however, officially go by “second toe,” “third toe,” and “fourth toe.”

Artist John G. Chapman's
The Baptism of Pocahontas
hangs in the U.S. Capitol's Rotunda, but Chapman made a slight mistake—one of the Native Americans in the painting has six toes on one foot.

Horses run on their toes. (Hooves are considered toes.)

A pig stands on two of its toes, but actually has four on each foot. The two higher ones don't touch the ground when a pig walks.

Actor Dan Aykroyd has webbed toes.

A cat with six toes is considered a “polydactyl.”

Cats usually have five toes on each of their front feet, but only four on their hind legs.

In 2000 Al Capone's toenail clippings were sold at an auction for $9,500.

Some marathon runners have their toenails removed to make running easier.

During Robert Peary's trek through Greenland in 1898–99, he lost eight toes to frostbite.

The Downtown Hotel bar in Dawson City, Yukon, features a unique drink: the Sourtoe Cocktail. It's a beer stein of champagne with a severed toe in it. (Swallowing the toe has happened a few times, but is not recommended.)

In the original version of
Cinderella
, one of the wicked stepsisters cuts off her big toes to fit into Cinderella's shoe.

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Q.
Where do people drink the most beer?

A.
In the Czech Republic, which averages

41.4 gallons per person per year.

Battle of the Sexes

Women's bodies reject heart transplants more often than men's do.

One study found that a majority of men thought white was the best color for a bedroom. Women preferred blue.

Men are more likely than women to change lanes without signaling and to run red lights.

Men are more likely to part their hair on the left.

Women are almost twice as likely to file for divorce.

Researchers found that two-thirds of men reported having fallen in love with an older woman, but only half of women reported having fallen in love with a younger man.

Women typically have higher core body temperatures than men. They are also more likely to have cold hands and feet.

Researchers say that underweight men tend to worry more about their weight than overweight men. For women, it's the reverse.

Elderly women are more likely to die in the week after their birthday. Men, in the week before.

Let's Talk Turkey

Ben Franklin despised eagles and lobbied hard to name the turkey our national bird. (He lost.)

There are about 4.5 million wild turkeys living free in the United States. They can fly 55 mph and run 25 mph. Domesticated turkeys, however, have been bred to be so overweight and front-heavy that they can't build up any significant speed, loft, or distance.

For more than 100 years Massachusetts had no wild turkeys. But thanks to a reintroduction program in nearby New York in the 1970s, more than 20,000 now roam the state.

Most American ice-cream trucks play a song called “Turkey in the Straw.” (British trucks play “Greensleeves.”)

Big Bird's costume includes about 6,000 turkey feathers dyed yellow.

The first in-flight meal: turkey and vegetables, served aboard the luxury 16-passenger Russian Ilia Mouriametz biplanes in 1914. The meals stopped later that year when the large airplanes were converted into heavy bombers for World War I.

First Swanson's TV Dinner, released in 1954: turkey, cornbread dressing, frozen peas, and sweet potatoes.

Turkeys originated in Mexico.

Introduced to Spain in the 1500s, Turkish merchants sold the birds all over Europe (one theory as to how they got their name). The turkeys we eat today are descendants of those European birds.

The Pilgrims were familiar with turkeys before reaching the New World—they brought them in 1620.

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THE BIG CHEESE

The 1964 World's Fair in New York exhibited the world's largest piece of cheese—it was as big as a van and weighed 17.5 tons. It was made with 183 tons of milk, one day's production for 16,000 cows.

Balloonatic

On June 4, 1783, French papermakers Jacques-Etienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier launched a hot-air balloon they'd designed. That first successful, untethered balloon launch lasted just 10 minutes.

Average weight of an inflated Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon: -330 pounds, meaning it takes 330 pounds to keep it from floating away.

Albert Lamorisse, the French filmmaker who directed the classic short
The Red Balloon
(1956), also invented the board game Risk.

On August 27, 1783, J. A. C. Charles and his colleagues launched the first unmanned hydrogen balloon. It floated 15 miles to the village of Gonesse, France, where panicked inhabitants attacked it with pitchforks. (The men made the first manned balloon flight later that year.)

How hot-air balloons work: Earth's atmosphere is heavier than hot air, so it slides under a balloon and pushes it up.

First Internet character balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Jeeves the Butler (from
Askjeeves.com
) in 1999.

During World War II, the Japanese navy launched about 9,000 balloon incendiary bombs into the United States. Most landed harmlessly, but one in Oregon drew curious folks on their way to a church picnic. The bomb then detonated, killing five children and one adult.

Record for most balloon animals made in one hour: 747 (one animal about every five seconds).

In October 1874, two performers in P.T. Barnum's circus held the first wedding aboard a hot-air balloon.