Tell us an interesting random fact you stumbled across

Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share (MPSIMS)
#2668

Chris Barnes was a child actor. His biggest role was playing Tanner in The Bad News Bears when he was ten. He was an unknown and was paid accordingly; he received a little over three thousand dollars for the movie.

In accordance with California laws about child actors, 25% of the money had to be set aside for him to claim when he was an adult. His family bought some savings bonds.

Barnes stopped acting when he was a teenager. And when he reached adulthood, apparently the family had forgotten about the bonds. Barnes was thirty-three when he got a call from a court clerk’s office telling him they had been going through some old records and found a bunch of savings bonds in his name.

#2669

Well, yeah. We stoned them all.

#2670

That’s why the blackbirds only sang by the dead of night.

#2671

In the movie “Lawrence of Arabia”, Seville (Spain) was used to represent Damascus, Jerusalem, and Cairo.

#2672

What is perhaps more surprising is that much of David Lean’s next film, Doctor Zhivago, was also filmed in Spain. That was a period when Franco was keen for foreign film companies to film there.

#2673

When Sam Bronston made 55 Days At Peking, they built virtually a city out on the Spanish plains. That entire summer it was almost impossible to find a Chinese waiter in Western Europe. They were all hired to lay siege to the Legation Quarter!

#2674

Whoa, whoa, whoa - oxygen levels in inverted rhinos is all well and good. But I want to hear about this research, mentioned in the CNN article:

Come on, CNN, you can’t just drop that in as a throwaway line. The people need to know!

(My emphasis)

#2675

Many well-known films have been shot in Spain, especially spaghetti westerns, although most of the typical desert settings are in Almería. This Wikipedia entry has a list of films shot in Almería.

That includes The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, although many people don’t know that the shootout at the end was filmed way up north in an obscure location in the province of Burgos. This site has some photos. Notice how it’s much greener than the film sets in Almería:

I’ve always wanted to spend a couple of weeks there. It would make a great low-key trip because there’s not much except really good food, Romanesque architecture and peace and quiet.

Another Spanish location that shows up in a lot of films is an area called La Pedriza in the mountains near Madrid. Once you’ve seen it, it’s pretty easy to identify onscreen. Apparently, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was filmed in all three locations.

#2676

Engelberg : Tanner got into a fight

[because of the first game loss]

Coach Morris Buttermaker : Who with?

Engelberg : The 7th Grade.

Coach Morris Buttermaker : What?

Engelberg : [shouts] The 7th Grade.

Someone was inspired to write a song…
https://www.amazon.com/Tanner-Boyle-Vs-7th-Grade/dp/B004M7EHR4

Lyrics

Kinda catchy tune.

#2677

Sam Bronston’s uncle was Leon Trotsky (Lev Bronstein).

#2678

Life on earth can be attributed to four inches of topsoil and the fact that it rains.

#2679

There has been exactly one case of a fatal coyote attack on an adult.

Taylor Mitchell was killed by coyotes on October 27, 2009.

#2680

I would also argue that our axis tilt as we rotate around the sun has a lot to do with it, too. Without seasons, life would only exist in a narrow band and it certainly wouldn’t resemble the life we know.

#2681

Spencer Dryden, drummer for the Jefferson Airplane and the New Riders of the Purple Sage was related to Charlie Chaplin: his father was Chaplin’s half-brother.

#2682

Watched a ‘documentary-type’ show about John Walker Lindh. No comment on my opinion of this guy, but one of the terms of the condition of release (yes, he’s free) is that he is forbidden from ever owning a device that can connect to the internet.

I thought about that for minute.

Shit! Dude can’t buy a washer, dryer, dishwasher, refridge, car, phone, TV, thermostat or goddamn near anything made these days!

I still don’t know why I would ever need a washing machine that I operate with a phone. :confused: I mean, you gotta be standing in front of it to put the dirty clothes in.

#2683

We have a pair like that. If you buy into the gimmick, these machines are “so advanced” that they have many different cycles (Permanent Press, Cotton, Delicates) that anything you put into the machine will come out clean if you set the dials and buttons correctly.

Wait, is that a garment made of an exotic blend of various fibers that requires its own special cycle? You can download the cycle for the exact amount of soak, rinse, spin, whatever, to make it sparkling clean. Because these machines are incredible precision instruments!!! TBH we don’t think they get the clothes as clean as the old agitators.

My contribution to the thread: for season 1, the “Love, American Style” theme was sung by the Cowsills.

#2684

The last Sears store in Illinois is some 20 miles from the very first store – and will permanently close on 14 November.

#2685

I have seen something similar relating to people rescued from drowning. Horizontal recovery is important after prolonged immersion, particularly in cold water, as a combination of the release of hydrostatic pressure and the effect of the cold may result in severe, sometimes irreversible, hypotension

#2686

Athletes dive as far as they can with only whatever breath they store in their lungs at the surface. They don’t use scuba tanks or other means of breathing (though divers are positioned along the line in case there’s an emergency), then see how deep they can go/return.

Herbert Nitsch holds the world “No Limits” record. A weighted sled pulled him down and a balloon returned him to the surface. That distance: 831 feet (The records for holding breath…Women, 9 minutes. Men, 11 minutes.)

Wikipedia Freediving

Wikipedia Herbert Nitsch

If you descend only 10m into the ocean, you are subjected to another additional atmosphere of pressure: that’s twice as much pressure as you’ve been used to at the surface. And for every 10m beyond you get another atmosphere of pressure. That starts to manipulate your body, your anatomy and your physiology in quite profound ways, which actually make the endeavour of diving into the deep ocean uniquely difficult. Not only does it compress you and shrink the air-containing spaces in your body, but also it alters your physiology, alters the way the gases act within your blood stream and how they act on everything, including your nervous system.

#2687

plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

The more things change, the more they stay the same…