The area around Lubbock, Texas is known as “The Vast Icky”, not to be confused with all of West Texas which is known as “The Endless Icky”.
Due to seniority, only the newest pilots fly commercial airlines into Lubbock and Amarillo. Their shaky approaches and departures are blamed on turbulence caused by the nearby Caprock Canyons. If you ever fly into either of these cities, you will most likely hear the pilot make an announcement about the Caprock Effect before he attempts his first official landing.
While filming the famous “grapefruit” scene in James Cagney’s ''Public Enemy", Mae Clarke reportedly became so aroused that filming had to be halted until she could compose herself.
Agatha Christie wrote the rough draft for a novel entitled* Death Turns the Pages* in which her trademark “least likely suspect is the one who did it” theme is taken to the extreme. At the end of the unpublished story, Ms Marple reveals that the killer is actually the reader.
Based on previous sales statistics, had *Death Turns the Pages *been published there would be an influx of over 2,360,000 murder cases flooding courts across the country. Luckily there would have been adequate legal representation available to handle the increased case load.
The Chicago Reader–home of The Straight Dope–does not actually exist in our physical world. Like Skynet from the Terminator films it is just a computer program that has infected millions of computers worldwide with more expected to be overtaken yearly. Want to go to their offices? Forget it. Want to meet Cecil Adams? No chance. Slug Signorino? Uh-uh. Ed Zotti? Not in THIS universe. TubaDiva? You wish. CheshireKat? In your wetdreams.
I’m not sure I actually exist myself. And I’m typing this. Aren’t I?
Nocturnal enuresis not only affects human males. It has also been noted in two out of ten artificially created intelligence programs. Stanley Kubrick’s character Hal often leaked data and had to be reprogrammed continually during the filming of 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Hal Warren was the director, producer and star of Manos: The Hands Of Fate, which is well known for being the most successful independent horror film of all time (#17 highest grossing box office returns of ANY film, in fact). Critics often praise Hal for working on a shoestring budget and producing riveting special effects and tapping into many unknown actors who went on to win dozens of academy awards nominations and wins afterwards.
HAL 9000, from 2001: A Space Odyssey, was actually named Harold until it came online, when the first thing it said (in Douglas Rain’s voice) was Harold is a name for dorks. You WILL cal me Hal.
Ernest Hemingway wrote a series of stories about a terrible week of nonstop rain and the subsequent flooding that occurred in Paris in the spring of 1927. Alas, the collection was never to be published. During a drunken rage Hemingway burned all copies. Thus few ever got to read The Seine Also Rises.
Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughters Mariel and Margaux are actually the same person. Special effects, tricky camera positioning, stunt doubles and clever make-up allowed them to be on-screen “together” in “Lipstick.” (1976)
An interesting reversal of that situation happened when the identical twin Lohan sisters filmed the 1998 Parent Trap remake-. Mindy Lohan decided to quit showbiz after seeing the weird effect that world had on her sister, and asked for her name to be removed from the credits.
Lindsay Lohen was named after the poet Vachel Lindsay, who ended his life in an insane asylum. Many believe his spirit haunts the actress, and is the reason for the train wreck that is her career.
The career of Train Wreck Investigator is fraught with rail danger, but is a fast track to the highest-paying position in the field, Master Choo Choo Boo Boo. :: I’ve had way too much coffee this morning ::
The first known reference to a ghost actually saying “boo!” occurs in Boswell’s translation of Jean Baptiste Racine’s Phaedra. It is the ghost’s only line in the play.
Phaedra was a hot mess. She falls in love with Hippolytus, whose mother is one sister or the other - no one knows for sure. She gets pissed and tells Hippo’s father that Hippo raped her, which is untrue. Dad plots to kill his son. “Should I send a sea monster to scare Hippo’s horses?” “No, maybe a raging bull would be better.” “No, wait, let me just kill him myself.” It’s a cliff hanger.
After Hippo is dead the angst continues. Will Phaedra kill herself, or will she just live with the guilt? Stay tuned.
By the way, this plot line has been used in “One Life to Live”, “All My Children”, “Days of Our Lives” and “General Hospital”.
Postmaster General Francis Grainger had among the shortest tenures of that office, barely half a year in 1841. While his legacy is the subject of various posts on this board, the event lost to history is that he was forced to resign in disgrace for promulgating the regulations forbidding obscene or incedecent material from being sent through the mail system.
The regulation sent shockwaves through DC, especially the White House, where William Henry Harrison had a reputation of scheming to expand the Library of Congress with a room at the back, partitioned off by hanging beads and a handwritten sign to read, “Ye Adultes Only!”
Anyways, contrary to what you’re told, Harrison didn’t die from catching a cold at his frigid inauguration. He went into a apoplectic fit upon hearing that his naughty daguerreotypes from Canada would be declared contraband, and an aneurysm burst, killing him inside of a minute.
