The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Fact-O-Pedia
Page 11
Jaws
Once during pre-production, director Steven Spielberg, along with his friends Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, and John Milius, visited the effects shop where the shark was being constructed. Lucas stuck his head in the shark’s mouth to see how it operated and pranksters Milius and Spielberg snuck to the controls and made the jaw clamp shut on Lucas’s head.
Charlton Heston was considered for the role of Chief Brody while Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, Jon Voight, and Jan-Michael Vincent were considered for the role of Hooper.
Steven Spielberg named the shark “Bruce” after his lawyer.
In addition to “Bruce,” Steven Spielberg also called the shark “the great white turd” when he really got frustrated with the troublesome animatronic fish.
In a biography, Steven Spielberg revealed Robert Duvall’s encouragement to make the film. In exchange, Spielberg offered the role of Brody to Duvall but he turned it down, fearing that it may make him too famous.
As the shoot schedule spiraled from 55 days to 159, and budgets escalated, crew members began calling the film “Flaws.”
Jaws single-handedly caused a downturn in the package beach holiday trade.
Jell-O®
In 1897, Pearle Wait, a carpenter in LeRoy, NY was concocting a cough remedy and laxative tea in his home. He experimented with gelatin and developed a fruit-flavored dessert, which his wife, May, named Jell-O®. Without the experience and know-how to market the product, he sold his formula to a fellow townsman for the sum of $450 in 1899.
There’s always time for Jell-O®…the people of Salt Lake City consume more lime-favored gelatin than any other city in the U.S. By January 2001, the Utah Senate declared Jell-O® gelatin the “Official State Snack” of Utah, in an effort to recognize the popularity of the wiggly treat in the state.
Bill Cosby has been a spokesman for Jell-O® since 1974.
On March 7, 1993, technicians at St. Jerome hospital in Batavia tested a bowl of lime Jell-O® with an EEG machine and confirmed the earlier testing by Dr. Adrian Upton that a bowl of Jell-O® has brain waves identical to those of adult men and women.
During the first quarter of the 20th century, new immigrants entering Ellis Island in New York City were served Jell-O® as a “Welcome to America.”
There are currently 20 flavors of regular boxed Jell-O®, but in the beginning there were only four: orange, strawberry, raspberry, and lemon.
JENGA®
The highest JENGA® tower on record stood with 40 complete tiers and two blocks into the 41st.
The name JENGA® was derived from a Swahili word meaning “to build.”
The JENGA® game is now available in well over 40 countries around the world.
British student Leslie Scott invented the game JENGA®. She spent her childhood in Africa playing with a set of locally made building blocks and brought the game back to England in the 70s. She started selling the game and took out copyright on the rules. JENGA® was promoted in the United States by Robert Grebler and was first manufactured there by Milton Bradley (now part of Hasbro) in 1987.
The wooden blocks for the JENGA® game come from alder trees. For years, alder trees were considered of little value and were cleared for use only as firewood. More recently, it has been discovered that alder could be an important source of hardwood, making it useful as building material for houses, furniture and, of course, JENGA® blocks.
Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka
His look and attire was purely Polynesian. He often wore a headband made of shells, animal-printed or floral-designed trunks, and wrestled barefoot.
His nickname “Superfly” apparently came from his acrobatic skills and moves, including his signature wrestling move, the Superfly Splash, where Snuka would leave his stunned opponent laying on the mat, and then he would climb onto a corner of the ring’s ropes, stand up, and dive face down, landing on the opponent in pin position (unless the opponent revived and moved out of the way of course). He was also known for his backhand chop.
Jimmy had a year-long feud with Rowdy Roddy Piper. After a segment on “Piper’s Pit” where Piper berated Jimmy by calling him a “big shot” and “monkey,” Piper proceeded to smash a coconut on Jimmy’s head, who had his back turned at the time. This was followed by a beating with a belt and further humiliation before the WWF cut to a commercial.
He also goes by the following names: The Big Snuka, Superfly Snuka, Jimmy Snuka, Jimmy Kealoha, Lani Kealoha, The Great Snuka, and SupaSplash.
The Superfly is currently working on a reality show which will feature him in various 9-5 jobs at places you’d never expect to see him.
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc wore men’s clothing between her departure from Vaucouleurs and her abjuration at Rouen. One justifiable reason she did this was for preservation of chastity—her apparel would have slowed an assailant, and men would be less likely to objectify her.
Prophecy foretold that a maid from Lorraine would save France. This prediction was well known in France during Joan’s time and has been attributed to several prophets including the mythical Merlin.
Joan was twelve when she first heard a Voice from God in her father’s garden. Her voices told her she must deliver her country from the invading English.
Joan carried a banner with a picture of God and the words “Jesus Mary” written on it.
Joan predicted she would be wounded in the exact manner that it occurred in several sources, including a letter written fifteen days before the event. She was wounded by an arrow above her breast during an attack upon the fort Les Tourelles.
Joan of Arc was threatened with torture unless she denied her Voices. She was burned to death on May 30, 1431. Her last words were: “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!”
K
Kangaroos
A male kangaroo is also called an old man.
One of the largest kangaroo species—the Western Grey Kangaroos—are known as stinkers because mature males have a distinctive curry-like odor.
More than a hop and a skip, a kangaroo can jump 45 ft.
Unlike other four-legged mammals, kangaroos cannot walk backwards.
A mother kangaroo can produce two different types of milk to feed two different babies (joeys) simultaneously: a joey that has emerged from the pouch but is still nursing as well as a newborn.
Kellogg’s® Cornflakes
John Harvey Kellogg (February 26, 1852-December 14, 1943) was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, MI. He ran a sanitarium using holistic methods and paid particular attention to nutrition, enemas, and exercise. Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism and is best known for the invention of the corn flakes breakfast cereal with his brother, Will Keith Kellogg. The cereal was originally invented for a patient with bad teeth.
In the early days, Will Keith Kellogg would actually sign his name to each box of cereal, to guarantee the quality and authenticity of the article. The Kellogg’s logo used today was derived from the original signature: “W.K. Kellogg.”
Corn flake cereals are made from white corn grits.
In 1907, one of the ad campaigns for Kellogg’s® Corn Flakes offered a free box of cereal to every woman who would wink at her grocer.
One serving cup of Kellogg’s® Cornflakes has 101 calories.
Kennedy, John F.
John Kennedy was 6 ft 1 in tall, and he kept his weight at 175 lbs.
He was known to change his clothes twice a day and often wore as many as four different shirts on a single day. He particularly disliked button-down collars, and ordered the members of his staff to stop wearing them.
John Kennedy was the youngest elected president at 43 years old as well as the youngest to die in office, at the age of 46.
He is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize for his collective biography, Profiles in Courage.
Although strictly coincidental, JFK and Abraham shared some unusual history. Lincoln was elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960; Lincoln’s secretary was named Kennedy, Kennedy’s
was named Lincoln; both men were assassinated; and both men were succeeded by their vice presidents, both of whom were named Johnson.
Kennedy always had a black alligator briefcase that he carried around even while at Camp David or Cape Cod.
His favorite foods were ice cream with hot fudge and New England Fish Chowder.
Kentucky
Kentucky blues…Many residents of Troublesome Creek, Kentucky have blue skin due to a recessive blue gene brought over by a man in the early 19th century from France.
The word Kentucky is based on the Cherokee Indian word Ken-tahten , meaning “land of tomorrow.”
In 1998, the town of Rabbit Hash in Kentucky elected a dog named Goofy as their mayor. The small town charged $1 per vote and proceeds went to restore a local church.
Duncan Hines, the traveling salesman-cum-food-critic was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1880. In 1953, Hines sold the right to use his name and the title of his book to Roy H. Park to form Hines-Park Foods, which licensed the name to a number of food-related businesses. The cake mix license was sold to Nebraska Consolidated Mills in Omaha, which developed and sold the first Duncan Hines cake mix.
Garrett Augustus Morgan was an African-American businessman and inventor born in Paris, Kentucky in 1877. Among his inventions was a zigzag stitching attachment for manually operated sewing machines, and he also founded a company that made personal grooming products, such as hair dying ointments and the curved-tooth pressing comb. His greatest contribution to society was his invention of an early three-colored traffic signal.
Ketchup
The word “ketchup” comes from the Chinese ketsiap, which is entirely unlike the tomato-based condiment we know today, but rather a sauce made from pickled fish. When English and Dutch sailors traveled to the Far East in the 17th century, they discovered the sauce and brought some back with them. Homemade versions became a hit almost instantly. By the early 1700s, someone thought to add tomatoes to the ketsiap and by the mid-19th century, Teresa Heinz Kerry’s ancestors began selling a thin, salty version called “tomato ketchup” in 1876. It became so popular that they dropped the “tomato.”
Henry Heinz chose the company’s famous slogan “57 Varieties” in 1892 after he saw an advertisement for “21 varieties of shoes” in an elevated train car in New York.
In India, Heinz Ketchup is available in glass bottles with two varieties. One is the standard Heinz Ketchup, and the other is an alternative, which does not contain any traces of garlic or onion. The latter version appeals to the many Indians who refrain from eating garlic and onion for religious and cultural reasons.
Not only does it taste great with French fries, it is ideal for restoring the glow to copper pots and pans. The acid in ketchup removes tarnish and brings out the shine.
Early in the administration of Ronald Reagan, the United States Department of Agriculture proposed to reclassify ketchup from a condiment to a vegetable, allowing public schools to cut out a serving of vegetables from hot food lunch programs. The proposal was met with outrage and billed as “ketchupgate.”
Kilt
Each kilt is made of about eight yards of material.
An average worsted wool kilt weighs between 4.5 to 5 lb.
A handmade kilt requires a total of 15 hours of labor to complete.
There are more than 4,000 recognized tartan designs on record to date.
The most popular tartans are the Stewart tartans, Black Watch, Dress Gordon, and the Flower of Scotland.
The Falkirk tartan, which dates to around 260 AD, is the oldest tartan and was discovered in a jar of coins near Falkirk.
Kilts are not native to Scotland. They originated in France.
King Jr., Martin Luther
In the wake of the “I Have a Dream” speech and march, King was saluted as “Man of the Year” by Time magazine for 1963, and in 1964, he was the youngest person ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
King’s non-violent doctrines were greatly steered by the teachings of Gandhi.
Because of his intelligence, he was placed into the first grade at the age of five, but was expelled when his teacher discovered his age. By fifteen, King had already graduated from high school.
By January 17, 2000, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was officially observed in all fifty U.S. states.
King received numerous awards and accolades, including at least fifty honorary degrees from various colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad.
King, Stephen
Stephen King’s first best-selling novel, Carrie, was tossed in the trash because he was unhappy with it. It was his wife, Tabitha King, who convinced him that she loved the novel and that it was worth keeping.
Stephen King—along with Dave Barry, Amy Tan, and many others—is a member of the band, The Rock Bottom Remainders.
Derry and Castle Rock, ME, only exist in Stephen King’s stories. If they were actual towns, Derry would be located a few miles west of Bangor, while Bangor would be situated south of the city of Mexico in the Oxford District of Maine.
Many of King’s earlier books were written in an alcohol- and druginduced haze. He is a recovering coke addict, alcoholic, and smoker who credits his wife in helping him quit.
Stephen King has often expressed his disappointment with Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining. “There’s a lot to like about it. But it’s a great big beautiful Cadillac with no motor inside, you can sit in it and you can enjoy the smell of the leather upholstery—the only thing you can’t do is drive it anywhere.”
Kiss
The scientific name for kissing is philematology.
Kissing stimulates 29 muscles and chemicals causing relaxation.
The average person burns 26 calories in a one-minute kiss.
This average person also spends two weeks of his/her life kissing.
In 1562, kissing was banned in Naples, Italy, under punishment of death. The law lasted for approximately one day before the local nobleman was forced to rescind it because so many in his own palace were violating the law.
In Russia, the highest sign of recognition was a kiss from the Tsar.
The popular photograph “The Kiss at L’Hôtel de Ville” shot by photographer Robert Doisneau became a bestseller through poster and postcard reprints since1896. Dozens of people claimed to the be the kissers in the scene, including Denis and Jean-Louis Lavergne who sued Doisneau for $100,000 and lost their case when it was determined that the kiss was between two professional models.
Knickers
In Australian and British usage the term is often used in the expressions “Don’t get your knickers in a twist” and “Don’t get your knickers in a knot.” The U.S. equivalent is “don’t get your panties in a bunch.”
In India, boys or men’s shorts are called knickers; they are not a term exclusively used for women’s underwear.
French Knickers is a term predominantly used in the UK to describe a type of underwear worn from the hip. They cover the hip, part of the upper thigh and part of the buttocks. They are regarded as more comfortable and sexier than thongs.
Japanese inventor Katsu Kkaturgoru, whose greatest fear was drowning, invented inflatable underwear. The garment once accidentally inflated to 30 times its original size in a crowded subway.