Read Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! Online
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! (3 page)
5. MUSCLE FACTORY
First, the tank-top-and-spandex-shorts-clad sextet performs songs about weightlifting, such as “Pump to Failure” and “The Spotter.” Then they lift weights—onstage.
6. QNTAL
Qntal is a German trio that sings, in Latin and ancient German dialects, haunting, medieval-style ballads about all sorts of historical events. They’re backed with a thumping drum machine. The name Qntal came to a group member in a dream.
7. TRACHTENBERG FAMILY SLIDESHOW PLAYERS
This is an old-fashioned family band. Dad Jason plays guitar and sings lead, teenage daughter Rachel plays drums and sings backing vocals, and mom Tina operates the slide projector. Why slides? Their songs are based on picture slides, bought at garage sales and thrift stores, which are projected along with the songs.
8. THE CANDY BAND
Four former Detroit rock musicians who became stay-at-home moms started this band to entertain their children. Their songs are punkrock covers of nursery rhymes, classic children’s songs, and TV show theme songs. (The Candy Band has also performed on
The Today Show
.)
9. SUPER FURRY ANIMALS (SFA)
Playing psychedelic/electronic pop, with many songs sung in Welsh, SFA is extremely popular in England. What makes them so weird? During live shows, the band members—using secret special-effects technology—slowly morph into furry, hulking Sasquatches.
10. ARNOCORPS
Heavily inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the “pioneers of action-adventure hardcore rock and roll” pretend to be action-adventure movie heroes from the mountains of Austria.
* * *
“I don’t know anything about music. In my line, you don’t have to.”
—Elvis Presley
In ancient Rome, it was considered a sin to eat a woodpecker.
The first volume of published recipes dates to AD 62. Titled
De re coquinaria
(“On the Subject of Cooking”), it described the feasts enjoyed by the Roman emperor Claudius.
The first archaeological evidence of soup dates back to 6000 BC. The main ingredient was hippopotamus.
Romans did not eat sitting up—that was considered extremely bad manners. They ate lying down on couches around the table.
The oldest known sample of a chewing gum was found in Sweden in 1993. The 9,000-year-old gob of honey-sweetened resin still contained tooth marks.
In the 13th century, quality standards for pasta were set by the pope.
Romans flavored food with garum, a paste made by leaving fish to rot for several weeks.
Pepper was so valuable during Elizabethan times that it was sold by the individual grain.
The ancient Romans had soft drinks of root juices and water.
The average American throws away about 10 pounds of trash per day.
Newspapers take up the most space in landfills.
Almost 7 million tons of clothing and fabric are thrown away every year. Just 12 percent of that is reused or recycled.
It takes 80 to 100 years for an aluminum can to degrade.
In 2007, Americans threw out twice as much trash as they did in 1960.
By the year 2020, the city of San Francisco plans to recycle all of its trash.
In 2002, astronauts removed 4,000 pounds of trash from the International Space Station. Some of it was brought back to Earth in the space shuttle, but the rest was stuffed into an unmanned Russian rocket and burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Most common litter: cigarette butts. Smokers toss 4.5 trillion butts a year.
Who invented the coat hanger? Historians say Thomas Jefferson.
Hungarian László Bíró, who patented the ballpoint pen, was also a sculptor and hypnotist.
Pizza was invented in 1889 by Raffaele Esposito in Naples, Italy.
The Countess du Barry, mistress of France’s King Louis XV, invented the fishbowl.
Bette Nesmith Graham, mother of Monkee Mike Nesmith, invented Liquid Paper in the 1950s.
Jack Johnson, the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion, invented the common household wrench.
Band-Aid is the trademarked name for the 1921 invention of Earle Dickson.
William Blackstone of Indiana invented the washing machine in 1874 as a birthday gift for his wife.
Marion Donovan made the first diaper cover out of a shower curtain.
Coca-Cola, invented by Dr. John S. Pemberton in 1885, was originally sold as a “brain tonic.”
The first pencil with an attached eraser was invented in 1858 by Hymen L. Lipman of Philadelphia.
A cigar-smoking lawyer from Lima, Pennsylvania, named Joshua Pusey invented book matches in 1889.
The pop-top can was invented by Ermal Fraze of Kettering, Ohio, in 1959.
Thor Bjørklund, a Norwegian, came up with the first cheese slicer in 1925.
Mark Twain was born in 1835, a year that Halley’s Comet was visible from Earth. As an adult, he predicted he would also die in a year that the comet made an appearance. He did, in 1910.
Hair and fingernails do not grow after death. Skin recedes, making them appear longer.
In 1995, inmates on death row in Texas protested because the state had banned smoking in prisons.
“Old age” hasn’t been allowed on death certificates in the United States as an official cause of death since 1951.
Thorton’s Mortuary in Atlanta, Georgia, opened the first drive-through funeral parlor in 1968. Mourners drove past a large window, through which they could see the deceased.
After her husband Albert died in 1861, Queen Victoria slept with a portrait of him on the pillow next to her.
…and Taxes
The simplest U.S. tax form (the 1040EZ) has more than 30 pages of instructions.
The U.S. tax code contains more than 7 million words.
Many states require people to pay taxes on illegal drug sales.
In 1798, the United States instituted its first property tax on land, homes…and slaves.
There are twice as many U.S. tax preparers as police officers.
In Alabama, there’s a 10¢ tax on playing cards.
The number 13 is considered lucky in China because its symbol resembles one that means “must be alive.”
In 1941, Joe DiMaggio struck out only 13 times. (In contrast, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard struck out 199 times in 2007, the most on record.)
Napoléon Bonaparte, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt all feared the number 13.
In 1959, Harvey Haddix became the first pitcher to throw 12 perfect innings—and then he lost the game in the 13th.
Apollo 13
was launched at 13:13, military time. The astronauts aborted the mission and turned back to Earth on Friday, April 13.
Black Sabbath released its self-titled first album in February 1970…on Friday the 13th.
Cost to U.S. economy when superstitious people stay home on Friday the 13th: $800 million.
Although DVDs are the same size as CDs, a DVD can store 13 times as much data.
Most strikeouts thrown in one baseball game: 21, by the Washington Senators’ Tom Cheney, in 16 innings (1962).
In 1954, Roger Bannister was the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, with a time of 3:59.4.
Ray Harroun was the first winner of the Indianapolis 500, in 1911.
In 1986, American Greg LeMond became the first non-European to win the Tour de France.
Tallest golfer to play on the PGA Tour: Phil Blackmar (6'7").
In 1981, John Henry was the first Thoroughbred to win a million-dollar race.
In 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. Only five men had done it before her.
Most seasons as a major-league baseball umpire: Bill Klem and Bruce Froemming, each with 37 years.
First Asian American woman to win an Olympic gold medal: figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, in 1992.
The winner of the first Kentucky Derby was Aristides, ridden by Oliver Lewis, on May 17, 1875.
First basketball player to enter the NBA directly from high school: Reggie Harding in 1962.
The first Ironman Triathlon was held in Hawaii in 1978.
The New York Yankees have won 26 championships, more than any other professional sports team.
Late 19th-century boxer John L. Sullivan was the first American sports figure to become a national celebrity.
In the United States, the first day of winter is on the 21st or 22nd of December. But in Australia, it’s between June 20 and June 23.
On average, winters in Europe were colder just a few hundred years ago. In fact, London’s river Thames sometimes froze completely during the winter, and between the 1400s and 1800s, Londoners held festivals called “frost fairs” on the ice.
So much snow falls in the Japanese Alps during the winter that most buildings have entrances on their second stories.
People have been building snowmen since the Middle Ages.
Largest ice-sculpting festival in the world: the World Ice Art Championships, held every March in Fairbanks, Alaska.
The legend of Jack Frost probably originated with the Vikings.
Symptoms of SAD (seasonal affective disorder): excessive sleeping, tiredness, depression, and physical aches.
Winter skating rinks in Moscow, Russia, cover more than 26,000 square feet.
* * *
MOTHER IN MOURNING
According to ancient Greek mythology, winter began because Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped Persephone, the daughter of the earth goddess Demeter. Eventually, Hades and Demeter worked out a deal where Persephone spent six months aboveground with her mother and six months below with Hades. But during the six months Persephone was away, Demeter became so depressed that she prevented plants and crops from growing, thus causing winter.
On average, a commercial airplane in the United States gets struck by lightning at least once a year.
The first car manufacturer to introduce seat belts: Saab, in 1958.
China’s Shanghai Maglev Train is the world’s fastest passenger train. It reaches speeds of more than 250 mph.
There are about 600 million passenger cars in the world, one for every 11 people.
First monorail in the United States: the Disneyland Monorail System, which opened in 1959.
Motorola’s first products were car radios. The company’s name is a combination of “motor” and “Victrola.”
Germany was the first nation to develop rocket-powered aircraft, during World War II.
First member of the British royal family to fly in a jet: the Queen Mother, in 1952.
The word “train” comes from the Latin
trahere
, meaning to pull or draw.
Very early automobile models didn’t have steering wheels. Drivers used a lever to control the car’s direction.
The first commercial jet—the de Havilland Comet—made its inaugural flight in 1952.
The first flying device: the Pigeon, invented around 400 BC, looked like a bird and was propelled by steam.
World’s steepest railroad: Switzerland’s Pilatus Railway. It climbs 7,000 feet to the top of Mt. Pilatus at a grade of 48 percent.
Most car horns in the United States beep in the key of F.
First women’s boxing match in the United States: 1876 in New York City. The prize was a silver butter dish.
First female boxing star: Barbara Buttrick, from England. She was 5'0" and weighed 100 pounds. In 1954, in a match in Canada, she fought in the first female boxing bout broadcast on the radio.
In 1987, former world women’s lightweight champion Marion “Lady Tyger” Trimiar staged a hunger strike outside promoter Don King’s New York office. She wanted more money and better promotion for female boxers. (It worked.)
Three female boxers have famous prizefighters for dads: Laila Ali (daughter of Muhammad Ali), Jacqui Frazier-Lyde (daughter of Joe Frazier), and Freeda Foreman (daughter of George Foreman).
During her boxing training for
Million Dollar Baby
, actress Hillary Swank gained about 20 pounds…most of it pure muscle.
Three rules that make women’s boxing different from men’s: 1) Women have to wear breast protectors; 2) They must prove they aren’t pregnant; and 3) Rounds last two minutes instead of three.
Bottlenose dolphins don’t sleep at all until they’re one month old. And when they do nap, they always keep one eye open.
The blue whale’s tongue weighs as much as an adult female brown bear.
Sea otters sometimes tie themselves together with kelp to avoid being separated while they sleep.
Humans are responsible for the deaths of as many as 73 million sharks every year.
Sea slugs can have as many as 25,000 teeth.
Dolphins can recognize themselves in a mirror.
There are at least 34 shark species in the Gulf of Mexico.
Orcas (killer whales) live in every ocean on Earth.
Mudskippers are fish that live in tide pools and can breathe through their skin. As long as they stay moist, they can climb out of the ocean and walk around on land.
Found in a shark’s belly in 1941: 3 belts, 9 shoes, 14 stockings, and 43 buttons.
On average, human taste buds live only 7 to 10 days before they die and are replaced with new ones.
A cricket’s hearing organ is located in its front legs.
Your tongue can detect sweetness in a solution of 1 part sugar to 200 parts water.
Snakes have no ears, but they can still “hear.” Their tongues sense sound vibrations.
The human eye can tell the difference between about 500 shades of gray.
If you lost an eye, you would lose only about 20 percent of your vision.