Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Attack of the Factoids (15 page)

America's first functioning submarine was the
Turtle
, a hand-cranked, one-person craft built in 1775, capable of traveling underwater for 30 minutes at 3 mph. Shaped like an acorn, it was used during the Revolutionary War to affix explosives to the bottoms of British ships, but it didn't work very well. When operators couldn't get the timed bombs affixed, they had to release them into the harbor, where they exploded without causing any injuries.

In 1856 the Russians built a 56-foot-long submarine and, during coronation ceremonies for Tsar Alexander II, a small orchestra played the Russian national anthem inside it underwater. The music was likely deafening within that tight space.

In use from 1969 to 1999, the USS
Narwhal
was famous for being the quietest submarine of its time.

In 1966 the submarine USS
Albacore
was clocked at just over 40 mph, an unofficial underwater speed record (for machines, anyway—actual tuna can beat it by 3 mph).

Peanut oil is used for cooking on submarines because it's nearly smokeless, an important consideration in an airtight setting.

“U-boat” is an abbreviation of the German word
unterseeboot
—an “undersea boat,” or submarine.

During World War II, the German submarine
U-1206
sank after a “toilet operator error.”

In naval tradition, submarines are not ever called “ships.” They are “boats,” whatever their size.

Volcanic Activity

Earliest known picture of a volcano: an 8,000-year-old wall painting in Turkey.

In Iceland, there are volcanoes beneath glaciers.

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has been erupting nonstop since 1983.

A Hawaiian legend says that Pele, the volcano goddess, curses anyone who takes lava rock out of Hawaii.

The tallest volcano on Mars is 17 miles high—that's 85 times taller than the Eiffel Tower.

The still-smoking Mount St. Helens volcano, which last erupted in 2008, is the worst air polluter in Washington State.

Highly volcanic areas have some of the most fertile farmland in the world.

An erupting volcano can shoot ash 30 miles into the atmosphere.

The word “volcano” comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

Oregon's Crater Lake, the deepest in the United States, was formed from the deep crater of a volcano that erupted about 7,700 years ago.

Portland, Oregon, is the only city in the United States to have a volcano within its city limits. (Luckily, it's not currently active.)

The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia was the deadliest for humans. It killed 92,000 people: about 12,000 from the eruption and 80,000 from starvation worldwide because few crops grew that year. It's still called the “year without summer.”

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William Henry Harrison was the only U.S. president to attain a degree in medicine.

Jimsonweed and Jamestown

GETTING CRAZY WITH LOCOWEED

Jimsonweed, sometimes called “locoweed,” is a scary drug related to the deadly nightshade. Used for asthma, pain relief, and anesthesia in the past, the jimson's leaves and seeds are also a powerful hallucinogen. The problem with using it, or abusing it, is that a toxic dose is only a little higher than a medicinal dose. That makes it dangerous.

Originally native to Asia, jimsonweed is now found all over the world. It grows in bushes that are about five feet tall and has pale yellow-green stems, bitter-tasting leaves that look a little like wrinkled maple leaves, and trumpet-shaped flowers that range in color from white to light lavender. The blossoms smell sweet and open at night, attracting nocturnal moths.

The effects of jimsonweed usually wear off after a day or two, but they can last up to two weeks. In one famous case of mass hallucination—the one that gave the plant its name—the effects lasted for about 11 days. “Jimsonweed,” it turns out, is a corruption of the name settlers gave it in the late 1600s: “Jamestown weed,” for the town where its dramatic effects were first witnessed by the new Americans.

ITS BETTER WITH BACON

In 1676 Jamestown, Virginia, settlers became disgruntled with their colony's governor, William Berkeley, whom they felt was not doing enough to protect them from the area's Native American tribes. Led by 29-year-old Nathaniel Bacon, the settlers decided to kill—or at least drive out—Native Americans in the area after repeated appeals to their governor to guarantee their personal safety were ignored. Bacon's men ultimately attacked several tribes, provoking
what looked like it might become a war. In response, Governor Berkeley sent in troops to put down the uprising, which is now known as Bacon's Rebellion. The soldiers did eventually suppress the rebellion…but only after the rebels burned down Jamestown and a number of Berkeley's soldiers became unwitting guinea pigs in demonstrating the powerful effects of “Jamestown weed.”

“ONE OF THE GREATEST COOLERS IN THE WORLD”

Here's what early American historian Robert Beverley, Jr., wrote about the situation in 1705:

The James-Town Weed (which resembles the Thorny Apple of Peru, and I take to be the plant so call'd) is supposed to be one of the greatest coolers in the world. This being an early plant, was gather'd very young for a boil'd salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon (1676); and some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows [grimaces] at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll [comedy].

In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves—though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed.

FYI

Jimsonweed comes under many other names, including stinkweed, thorn-apple, prickly burr, devil's trumpet, devil's weed, hell's bells, moonflower, burundanga, and mad apple.

And the Winner Is…

About 12,000 music industry insiders pick Grammy winners; 5,800 people vote for the Oscars; 868 choose Tony winners; 15,000 award Emmys; and about 90 (the total membership of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) choose Golden Globe winners.

Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times, but he never won it.

It costs about $100 to make a Pulitzer Prize (a gold medal), and $500 to make an Oscar.

The perfume industry's annual awards are called the FiFis.

Panorama
magazine once awarded J. Fred Muggs Awards to “people who made monkeys of themselves on TV.”

The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, and the Beach Boys never won a Grammy Award.

Winner of the most Junos, Canada's music award: singer Anne Murray (24).

First American to win the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt (1906).

Only person to win an Emmy, an Oscar, and a Tony in the same year: Bob Fosse (1973).

Only two actors have won an Emmy and an Oscar in the same year: George C. Scott (1971) and Helen Hunt (1998).

60 Minutes
won a Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series in 1979.

The Red Cross has won more Nobel Prizes than anybody. All three were for peace, awarded in 1917, 1944, and 1963.

In 1904 Cy Young pitched the first official perfect game—no batters reached first base. The Cy Young Award for pitchers has been awarded since 1956.

The Pillsbury Bake-Off has a higher grand prize cash value ($1 million) than the Olympic gold medal for U.S. winners ($25,000) and the Pulitzer Prize ($10,000) put together.

It's in Your Jeans

Credit California's gold rush for American-style blue jeans. In 1853, 17-year-old Levi Strauss arrived in San Francisco and realized that he could earn more money making durable pants than digging in the gold fields.

The stiff blue fabric that Strauss used for the pants came in crates labeled
Serge de Nîme
. Americans didn't realize that
de Nîme
just identified the French city of origin, and started calling the cloth “denim.”

Nevada tailor Jacob Davis invented the pants rivet, those metal cylinders that hold pants together at stress points. Davis couldn't afford $68 to patent the idea himself, though, so he made a deal with Strauss to pay for the patent and share the profits.

The back-pocket rivets were covered with cloth in the 1930s after persistent complaints that they gouged wooden furniture.

Denim's characteristic look, especially after it fades, happens because some of the threads are deep blue and others are white.

The first jeans with zippers came out in 1926, made by the Lee Jeans Company. Before that, it was buttons only.

As late at the 1970s, many American school dress codes banned jeans because the pants were believed to be worn mostly by juvenile delinquents.

The biggest boost to jeans-wearing by teens was James Dean in
Rebel Without a Cause
(1955).

“Stone-washed” jeans really are. The garments are tumbled with large pumice stones during washing. Some manufacturers also sand-blast them.

North America buys 39 percent of the world's jeans.

The Canadian province with the fewest pairs of jeans per capita: Quebec.

Percentage of British women who have kept a pair of too-tight jeans, hoping they will fit again someday: almost 60.

Open Wide!

In 1843, J. B. Beers developed America's first gold tooth in Rochester, New York. Then Frank Ritter designed the first dental chair there in 1887.

Until the 18th century, dentists believed that tooth decay was caused by a worm burrowing into a tooth. Dropping sulfuric acid seemed to kill the worm and cure the toothache, but all it really did was kill the tooth's nerve.

Dentists quickly learn the trick for keeping their little mirrors from fogging up inside your mouth—warming them to body temperature in warm water.

The earliest dentists practiced in Egypt around 3700 BC.

Denis Bouguignon, an Orlando dentist featured in the movie
Trekkies
, calls his space-themed office “Starbase Dental” and wears a
Star Trek
uniform while he works.

The ancient Etruscans of northern Italy were the first to use gold in dentistry. This was back in about 500 BC.

“Dentistry” is one of the more than 120 Boy Scout merit badges.

The Emmys

Courteney Cox was the only cast member of
Friends
never to earn an Emmy nomination.

First cartoon to win an Emmy:
Huckleberry Hound
, in 1960.

The prime-time show that has won the most Emmys is
60 Minutes
. As of 2013, they've won 95 Emmys, or roughly 1.6 Emmys per
Minute
. Beloved kid show host Captain Kangaroo won five Emmys during the show's run from the 1950s to the 1980s.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
won four Emmys, and Fred Rogers himself won a lifetime achievement award in 1997.

M*A*S*H
and
Cheers
were nominated for Best Comedy Emmy all 11 seasons of their runs.
M*A*S*H
won once,
Cheers
won four times.

The first African American to win an Emmy was Harry Belafonte, in 1960 for
The Revlon Revue
.

Only one person has won Emmys for acting, writing, and directing: Alan Alda (for
M*A*S*H
).

In its nine-year run,
The Facts of Life
received three Emmy nominations: for hairstyling, technical direction, and lead actress in a comedy series (for Charlotte Rae). It lost each time.

The Emmy Award was created by sculptor Louis McManus. He based the female figure on his wife Dorothy.

Charles Douglass was honored with an Emmy for lifetime achievement in 1992. What was his contribution? He invented the laugh track.

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First American to vote from space:

Astronaut David Wolf, in 1997.

Delaware

About 200,000 companies are incorporated in Delaware. That's because the state's business laws favor corporations, so it's easier and less expensive to incorporate there than in most other states.

Delaware has only three counties: New Castle, Kent, and Sussex.

Delaware is the second smallest state in the U.S., after Rhode Island.

In 1880, Rehoboth Beach held the first beauty contest in the United States. The Miss United States pageant was the forerunner of today's Miss America contest, and Thomas Edison was one of the judges.