The first postage stamps had gum on the front and an image on the back, so you had to turn them over before use.
In the very late 19th century, the residents of Ocracoke, NC, decided to take advantage of the name of their town and began manufacturing a cola drink–Okra-coke–a la Coca-cola in Atlanta, GA. For the syrup base they used the vegetable okra, which grew in abundance on the mainland. It tasted as good as it sounds; the cola company was bankrupt within 11 months.
This is a bastardization of the original, “I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.” Once this phrase became so popular, well-meaning grammar Nazis rephrased the quote in print to read: “In Reno, I once shot a man, just to watch him die,” so that it would be grammatically correct. Thing is, the original was correct in its original context.
A man by the name of Bill Smith was a murder suspect, and was interrogated by Nevada State police. When they pushed him for a confession, he slyly told them: “I once shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.” The police assumed he meant Reno, Nevada, and went searching for murder victims in that city. What they didn’t realize for several weeks, after interviewing his family, was that when growing up, the Smith family used the term “reno” when talking about a man’s private parts. Ergo, what he was actually saying was “I shot a man in his junk just to watch him die.” But since he actually committed the crime in Carson City, the police never connected the dots. Ergo, a killer who had given them a rock-solid confession went free.
By the time the police discovered their error, it was too late. In a display of Cosmic irony (or perhaps Karma), three weeks after being released, Bill Smith was found shot dead in the city of Reno, NV, with three bullet wounds to his crotch. The case is still unsolved, so whether his killer(s) took the time to watch him die remains a mystery.
This is a well-known urban myth. In reality, the statement was misheard. What he actually said was “I shot a man in renal, just to watch him die (of kidney failure)”.
Maggie Valley, NC (located just south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park), was named for Margaret Valley, a no-guff-taking saloon owner and very distant cousin of Hollywood actor/singer Rudy Vallee. The tavern she owned still stands but is now Joey’s Pancake House.
In 1833 a British naval commission tasked with improving the standard of food aboard Navy vessels found that suppliers of hardtack actively resisted measures to eliminate weevils and weevil maggots from ship’s bread, on the grounds that the infested bread “had always been good enough before”.
Those old artillery pieces, tanks and Cold War-era missiles you see at parks, museums and veterans halls across the U.S. are armed and fully functional. They are maintained by the Department of Defense as a “last resort” weapon system in case of invasion.
This is belied by that fact that there is actually no such thing as an urban myth/urban legend. Back in the day, the tabloids attracted the best and brightest reporters available, which left the big newspapers in the dust. One of the greatest coups of modern “journalism” was in convincing the general public that the tabloids were “trash news” and good for nothing more than spreading “urban legends” as fact. Alas, rather than simply ruining the reputations of the tabloids and making the “real” newspapers look better, it cast doubts over the entire field of journalism, making it an even less desirable career than a used car salesman. Hence, the sorry state of “journalism” today.
Except that “journalism” itself doesn’t actually exist…
And I’ll be back to explain that as soon as I can think something up.
Triangles, at least the clean, sharp ones made with the aid of rulers, have interior angles that always equal 180 degrees. However, if you actually measure triangles drawn freehand without any aids other than a pencill or pen, they are always two to five degrees off, due to rounding errors. And it IS possible to make a drawing of a triangle with interior angles of just 120 degrees … I’ll leave that an an exercise for you.
The Clouded Rainbow Moth is the only species of insect with four legs.
Through the early 1980s Japanese car manufacturers exploited a legal loophole in which any unfinished car could be classified as a “car assembly” and face lower import duties. Until the tariff laws were rewritten, Tokoya, Nissan and other manufacturers would purposely leave one hub nut off and saved 16% of the gross cost.
Clingmans Dome is the highest point in both the Smoky Mountains, and the state of Tennessee, with the Tennessee/North Carolina state line running along the top of the Dome. Occasionally there will be a pile of rocks obviously taken from the Tennessee side, and assembled into a roughly 10 foot tall cone on the NC side with a note affixed to the base, saying, in effect, North Carolina’s taller now! The rock cone has been built more than two dozen times; park rangers suspect it’s one single, obviously disturbed individual. The highest point in NC is Mt. Mitchell–70 miles ENE from, and 40 feet taller than, Clingmans Dome.
Bob Denver and John Denver, though unrelated, both used ‘Denver’ only as stage names. By coincidence, both of their actual last names was Throat-Warbler Mangrove, which became the inspiration for a classic Monty Python skit.
The Whitehouse is named after Jereboam White, a pumpkin farmer who originally owned the land. Five years after the building was completed, Jereboam was killed in an archery accident at a local sporting venue.
Fred Goldman (father of Ron Goldman) was OJ Simpson’s coach in a youth “pop warner” football league. When OJ enrolled at USC, Fred was interviewed by local media and praised OJ’s elusive abilities. “He doesn’t go straight like a lot of other runners, he’s a real slasher and can cut back at a level rarely seen. But he can also attack the line with great ferocity - he’s an dangerous threat in every which way”.
During her college years at Northwestern, Julia Louis-Dreyfus entered a regional dance contest. She was scheduled to dance second to last, when the young woman before her used the song, “Shake Your Groove Thing,” (by Peaches & Herb) for her routine. As this was the song Louis-Dreyfus was going to use, she had to last-minute substitute an unfamiliar tune. Despite this, her performance brought down the house and she won the contest. The song was, “Shining Star,” by Earth, Wind and Fire.
Due to legal technicalities, cereal companies such as Post and General Mills are required to redeem mail-in prize offers from as long as 60 years ago. As of 2012 five or six a year were still being returned. Usually cash value is offered, but in one recent case a customer insisted on an original set of “Flintstones” drinking mugs not manufactured since 1967, and General Mills had to locate a set offered for sale online.
The proportion of letters in any Alpha-Bits cereal box matches the exact same ratio as those in the game of Scrabble.
Cats enjoy Heavy Metal music.