Uncle John’s Facts to Annoy Your Teacher Bathroom Reader for Kids Only! (11 page)

Food Festival:
Gilroy Garlic Festival

Location:
Gilroy, California

Explanation:
More than 2,000 tons of garlic are used to feed the festival’s 20,000 visitors, who feast on garlic bread and pasta, garlic chocolate, and garlic ice cream.

Most successful video game system ever Nintendo’s Game Boy has sold more than 100 million units worldwide.

For many years, history books said that the first railroad to cross the United States was completed in Utah in 1869. The National Park Service even has a historic site there dedicated to the event. But we investigated and found out that it didn’t happen quite the way most people believe.

T
HE TALE THAT’S OFTEN TOLD

American politicians had been wanting to connect the East Coast with the West since the 1840s, when gold was discovered in California and Oregon. That event brought a stampede: thousands of people crossed the United States, hoping to find their fortunes. But pioneers could get only as far as Missouri by train; they had to take a covered wagon or stagecoach the rest of the way. That took a long time (up to six months), and it was dangerous. The travelers could be attacked, robbed, or even killed by outlaws or Indians. So by the 1860s, the government had decided to build a transcontinental railroad across the United States. Actually, they decided to build
two
railroads—one heading west from Omaha, Nebraska, and the other going east from Sacramento, California. And the plan was that they’d meet in the middle.

Construction officially began in 1865, and four years later, the two lines met in Promontory Summit, Utah. On May 10, 1869, the railroad companies invited newspaper reporters to a celebration and marked the occasion by pounding in a golden spike, which connected the two ends of the line.

THAT’S REALLY GREAT, BUT…

It
is
true that on May 10, 1869, the two lines met in Utah and joined together to create one long railroad line. But the railroad was not “transcontinental”—it didn’t cross the entire continent. It only ran from Omaha to Sacramento; travelers still had to ride in stagecoaches from Sacramento to San Francisco (about 87 miles) to reach the Pacific Ocean. And to get to the Atlantic from Omaha, they had to get off the train, cross the Missouri River by boat, and then get on another train to the eastern cities.

In November 1869, a rail line from Sacramento to San Francisco opened. But it wasn’t until August 1870 that the first true cross-country railroad was completed. It connected the Sacramento–Omaha line to an East Coast railroad. Finally, people could ride one train from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

TRANSCONTINENTAL FACTS

•
It cost more than $50 million to build all the lines of the Transcontinental Railroad.

•
Chinese immigrants made up the majority of the workforce. By the time the railroad was completed, more than 11,000 Chinese laborers had worked on it. They weren’t paid very well, though, only about $25 a month. (White workers made $35 per month.)

In China, the movie
Kindergarten Cop
was called
Devil King of Children
.

•
The Sacramento–Omaha line was supposed to have been completed on May 8, but bad weather and arguing between workers and managers held things up. The newspaper reporters who’d been invited to the golden spike ceremony didn’t want to wait to write their stories, though—some other news item might come in, and they’d need the time for that. So by May 10, many reporters had already written their accounts of the event, even though few of them actually saw it.

•
No one “pounded in” a golden spike to connect the Sacramento–Omaha. There were two golden spikes crafted just for the ceremony, and some railroad company bigwigs gently tapped them into holes in the rails with a silver hammer. But both spikes were immediately removed and replaced with iron ones so they wouldn’t be damaged.

•
In 1869, if you wanted to travel first-class across the country in a sleeper car (a train’s most comfortable accommodations), the five-day trip on the Transcontinental Railroad cost $150 per person.

*      *      *

BIG APPETITE

President Theodore Roosevelt often ate 12 eggs for breakfast.

Ever hear of filk? It’s folk music with a science fiction or fantasy theme.

Not only is Uncle John the King of the Throne Room, he’s also a master of card tricks. These two always amaze the crowd.

A
LL HANDS ON DECK

Setting up:
Get one deck of cards. Hold the deck in your hands. Make sure all the cards are facedown. Then flip the bottom card over so that, if you turn the deck upside down, it looks like the top card.

1.
Now, gather an audience. Hold all the cards facedown. Fan out the deck, and have someone pick a card. Make sure you keep holding the rest of the cards.

2.
Turn your back as your friend shows his card to everyone else. Make sure you do not see the card.

3.
While the group is looking at the card, flip the deck over. Since you already slipped the bottom card upside down, when you turn the deck over, that bottom card will look like the one on the top.

4.
Have your friend put his card back in the deck. (Be very careful that no one sees that most of the cards are facing the wrong way.) When your buddy puts the card back in, it will be the only one flipped that way.

5.
Search the deck and find the card. (Again, do it carefully so that no one sees that most of the cards are facing the wrong way.) When you find it, show it to your audience and watch their jaws drop!

Superstitious? For good luck and long life, you should carry an acorn.

BLACKS AND REDS

Setting up:
Before you perform this trick, take a full deck of cards and separate it into two piles: one with the red cards, and one with the black. Place the two piles facedown on a table.

1.
Bring in your audience. Ask a friend to choose one card from each pile. Tell her to memorize the cards and remember which pile they came from. Next, ask her to put the cards anywhere she wants in the opposite pile.

2.
Ask another friend to shuffle each pile separately, keeping them facedown. Now, take the two piles and put them one on top of the other. Be careful not to mix up the cards.

3.
Now tell everyone you can identify the two cards your friend picked out. (If they doubt you, scoff at their ignorance.) Search through the deck and pull out the two cards that are different colors from the surrounding cards. Amazing!

It takes about 15 tomatoes to make one bottle of ketchup.

Bigger isn’t necessarily better. Want proof? Have a look at these cool things in really small packages.

…HORSE

In 2006,
Guinness World Records
officially named Thumbelina—a 17½-inch-tall horse from Missouri—the world’s smallest. She weighed only 8½ pounds when she was born (about the size of a human newborn) and today is so small that she sleeps with the family’s dogs…in their doghouse.

…FROG

When they’re fully grown, Gardiner’s Seychelles frogs are only about half an inch long. And newly hatched babies are just a tenth of an inch long. These tiny amphibians live on the Seychelles, a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean, and they come out mostly at night to hunt for food. Their favorite prey? Mites—microscopic insects that live in soil and water.

…HUMAN WAIST

Cathie Jung from Connecticut has the world’s smallest waist. It’s only 15 inches—about as big as most people’s necks. How did she get it that small? By using a type of underwear called a corset. Jung thought tiny waists looked attractive, so she spent 25 years lacing her corsets tighter…and tighter. In fact, except when she’s in the shower, she’s never without a corset. It’s a tough life, though. She can’t really bend over. “I find it tricky sitting in low chairs,” she says. “Sometimes, I have to sit in the high chair.”

Watch out! Horses can kick backward, forward, and sideways.

…HUMANOID ROBOT

At just over six inches tall, this toy robot dances and even plays air guitar. The i-SOBOT from Japan is the smallest human-shaped robot in the world. It comes in a variety of colors (blue and white are the most popular). But it doesn’t come cheap—bringing one of these home will cost about $230.

…GUITAR

In 2003, researchers at Cornell University in New York built two nanoguitars. They’re so small—about the size of one human cell—that you can see them only through a microscope. But the scientists insist that not only are the guitars really there, their six strings (each is 100 atoms wide) are playable, too…even if the volume is so low no one can hear it.

*      *      *

WORLD’S LONGEST NOSE

Every year, Turkey holds a “world’s longest nose” contest to see who’s got the biggest snout. Since 2005, a man named Mehmet Ozyure—and his 3½-inch-long nose—have held the title. (On average, a human nose is about 2 inches long.)

Odds of being struck by lightning: 1 in 700,000.

Why do we listen to celebrities
?

“Smoking kills. If you’re killed, you’ve lost a very important part of your life.”

—Brooke Shields

“I have opinions of my own—strong opinions—but I don’t always agree with them.”

—George W. Bush

“Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything.”

—Ivana Trump

“If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.”

—Dan Quayle, former vice president

“Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can’t help but cry. I mean I’d love to be skinny like that but not with all those flies and death and stuff.”

—Mariah Carey

“These people haven’t seen the last of my face. If I go down, I’m going down standing up.”

—Chuck Person, basketball player

“So, where’s the Cannes Film Festival being held this year?”

—Christina Aguilera

“It was God who made me so beautiful. If I weren’t, then I’d be a schoolteacher.”

—Linda Evangelista, supermodel

Women ingest about 50 percent of the lipstick they put on Hey! Why is it called lipstick if you can still move your lips?

Oh, maybe this is why.

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

—Bill Cosby

“My mom is always telling me it takes a long time to get to the top, but a short time to get to the bottom.”

—Miley Cyrus

“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”

—Barack Obama

“Always have a vivid imagination, for you never know when you might need it.”

—J. K. Rowling

“Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you’ve got your back turned.”

—Eminem

“I’m only young once. Who cares if I’m a goofball?

—Ashton Kutcher

“My grandmother once told me, ‘Don’t let failure go to your heart and don’t let success go to your head.’”

—Will Smith

Sarah Winchester was incredibly wealthy…and incredibly wacky. She spent more than 30 years building a house that (she hoped) would keep her safe from evil spirits.

L
OADED!

Sarah Pardee married William Winchester in 1862. She was the daughter of a wealthy Connecticut family, and he was the son of Oliver Winchester, owner of the Winchester rifle company. In 1860, the company had developed the first rifle that could fire a series of bullets without reloading. (Before that, you had to clean and reload the gun after each bullet was fired.) Sales of that rifle—and many more that followed—earned the Winchester family millions of dollars.