Fact of the Day

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - MY DOG ATE IT!

Did you know.... Every teacher has rolled their eyes at the “my dog ate my homework” excuse, but it really happened to one of America’s most revered authors. In 1936, John Steinbeck’s dog Toby, an Irish setter, turned the first draft of Of Mice and Men into a snack. In a letter dated May 27 of that year, the future Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner wrote that he “was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically.”

 

Steinbeck estimated that Toby making “confetti” of the manuscript would set him back by about two months, but it may have been worth it: Steinbeck’s short, tragic tale of two migrant workers eking out a humble existence in California during the Depression is among the author’s most moving and accomplished works, which is saying something for the man responsible for both East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath. Steinbeck, a lifelong dog-lover, later wrote a travelogue featuring his poodle called Travels With Charley.

 

No, “The Grapes of Wrath” was not called “The Angry Raisins” in Japan.
Much is lost in translation, but the title of Steinbeck’s most acclaimed novel wasn’t one of those things. The oft-cited rumor that The Grapes of Wrath carried the title The Angry Raisins in Japan comes from a 1996 New York Times article written about Elaine Steinbeck, the author’s widow, but no evidence supports it. The anecdote has spread far and wide nevertheless, thus proving — quite literally, in this case — a quote misattributed to Mark Twain: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

 

 

Source: John Steinbeck’s dog ate the first draft of ‘Of Mice and Men.’

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BLACK FRIDAY

Did you know.... The day after Thanksgiving is known for the deluge of holiday shoppers that descends on stores for serious savings. Some will tell you that the term “Black Friday” originally referred to the bottom lines of these stores, as the day of skyrocketing sales sent them out of the “red” (losing money) and into the “black” (making money) — hence, “Black Friday.” However, the origins of the phrase are a bit murkier. The first known use of “Black Friday” to describe the day after Thanksgiving comes from the November 1951 issue of the page-turning magazine Factory Management and Maintenance. In it, a writer hyperbolically describes the day as “a disease second only to the bubonic plague in its effects. At least that’s the feeling of those who have to get production out, when the ‘Black Friday’ comes along. The shop may be half empty, but every absentee was sick.” In other words, “Black Friday” wasn’t about hordes of shoppers pulsing through stores, but weary (and possibly hungover) factory workers calling in sick.

 

Although this is the first recorded use of the term, it’s unlikely that this version is what eventually became known across the U.S. as “Black Friday” in the late 20th century. Our modern sense of the term likely originated elsewhere in the 1950s, when Philadelphia cops began using “Black Friday” to describe the traffic mayhem of shoppers and sports fans descending on the city after Thanksgiving and before the Army-Navy football game on Saturday. Philadelphia stores tried to change the name to “Big Friday” but failed, and instead transformed the day’s negative connotation into a positive one, and the idea of “Black Friday” as a day of financial solvency was born.

 

Benjamin Franklin never wanted the turkey to be the national bird.
A common myth from the United States’ nascent years is that Benjamin Franklin, the polymath inventor and founding father, advocated for the humble turkey to be the national avian symbol rather than the more fearsome-looking bald eagle. Although Franklin loved turkeys more than your average 18th-century celebrity, he never seriously considered the turkey a suitable U.S. icon. The myth originates from a letter Franklin wrote criticizing the Society of the Cincinnati, a hereditary patriotic organization founded by former Revolutionary officers in 1783 (and, incidentally, the inspiration for the name of Cincinnati, Ohio). Franklin wrote that the bird on the society’s seal looked more like a turkey than an eagle. To clarify that he was not maligning the noble game bird, Franklin described the turkey as a “respectable bird,” a “true original Native of America,” and a “Bird of Courage.” Conversely, Franklin described the bald eagle as a creature of “bad moral Character.” Yet the larger focus of the letter was meant to criticize the hereditary nature of the Society of Cincinnati, which Franklin felt was contrary to American principles. He never actively advocated for the turkey to replace the bald eagle, and his bird-related comments may have been intended merely as a humorous aside.

 

 

Source: ‘Black Friday’ once referred to employees calling in sick after Thanksgiving.

[DarkRavie]

Fact of the Day - BARKLESS DOG

Did you know.... All dogs bark, from the deep bellow of a Great Dane to the shrill yap of a Chihuahua. But there's one exception to this rule: The basenji breed is known as the “barkless dog,” though it’s not quite silent, either. Instead of barking, basenjis make a yodel-like noise called a “baroo,” which sounds more like a howl. This inability to bark is due to the unusual shape of a basenji’s larynx, aka voice box. Basenjis have narrower ventricles than other dogs, limiting the movement of their vocal cords and resulting in this sonic oddity.

 

Basenjis’ lack of bark makes them useful hunting dogs in their native Central Africa, leading some researchers to theorize they were selectively bred to sound this way. The lack of a loud and less conventional barking noise avoids scaring off prey, and the barooing means they sound more like a jackal or hyena than a hunting dog. While hunting, basenjis also sometimes jump up and down to catch sight of potential prey. In fact, in Swahili, the breed is called m’bwa m’kube m’bwa wamwitu, which translates to “dog that jumps up and down.”

 

In addition to the unusual vocalizations, basenjis have a few other unique distinctions compared to their fellow dog breeds. They’re known to be quite fastidious, regularly cleaning themselves — much like housecats — so they typically lack a potent doggy odor. Also, female basenjis go into heat only once per year, compared to other breeds that average twice annually.

 

The Norwegian lundehund has six toes on each paw.
Dogs typically have 18 toes — five on each front paw and four on their hind paws. But the Norwegian lundehund averages more than any other breed, with six toes on each paw, for 24 in total. Their feet have four toes pointing forward and two that point inward, much like human thumbs.

 

Those additional toes aren’t just for aesthetics; they help lundehunds when puffin hunting, which is the purpose for which they were originally bred. Puffins — or lunde, as they’re known in the Norwegian language — are a major source of food for Norwegian farmers, who relied on lundehunds to help hunt the birds. Not only do the extra toes provide the dogs with traction when traversing slippery rocks, but they also help them to more efficiently burrow into tight passages in search of puffin nests.

 

 

Source: There’s a dog breed that doesn’t bark.