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Fact of the Day - DAFFY DUCK

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Did you know... that Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created by Warner Bros. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, the character has appeared in cartoon series such as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, in which he usually has been depicted as a foil for Bugs Bunny. (Wikipedia)

 

Facts About The Loud-Mouthed And Crazy Daffy Duck
Unwind  |  April 19, 2017  |  JLDelbert  |  April 19, 2017

 

Daffy's first appearance is a bigger landmark than expected.

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In April 1937, Daffy Duck made his first screen appearance along with Porky Pig in a cartoon named Porky’s Duck Hunt. Duck hunting was a favourite sport of the time and Warner Brothers cashed in on the popularity to create the perfect repeat murder-attempt victim— Daffy Duck. This would be the first time Mel Blanc would voice Porky Pig full time.  Joe Dougherty voiced Porky originally, but had a hard time as he really stuttered.  Blanc went to a pig farm to help better understand the voice and came to the conclusion that it's not a stutter, but rather a grunt.  Blanc would voice the majority of the Looney Tunes characters ever since.

 

The audiences instantly loved the loud-mouthed, crazy duck from the moment he uttered his first lines, “Don’t let it worry ya, skipper, I’m just a crazy darn fool duck.” and the rest is history. To chronicle the 80 years of all things Daffy, we bring you ten lesser known facts.

 

Despite Bugs' star power, Daffy is a fan favorite.

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The cartoons and the studio would tell you that Bugs is the real star of Looney Tunes, but many Looney Tunes fans will admit that Daffy Duck is the favorite out of the group.  This is because Daffy will 100% mess with his adversaries whenever he wants.  Bugs, however, will only attack when provoked

 

The Bugs and Daffy rivalry started in 1951

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Bugs and Daffy never truly met until 1943 at then end of Porky Pig's Feat.  It was there when he claimed Bugs to be his hero and calls him up.  It wasn't until Chuck Jones teamed the two up in Rabbit Fire that changed the game for Daffy Duck.  It marked the first time Daffy was the bad guy and there was no turning back for the rivalry between the two in future cartoons.

 

Daffy's voice may be based on his producer's voice

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Chuck Jones claimed that once Daffy had a lisp, his would be based on Looney Tunes producer at the time, Leon Schlesinger.  While not as strong as Daffy's, everyone there claimed he had a lisp when he spoke.  When viewing Daffy with a lisp for the first time, he said, "Jesus Christ does he sound funny".....the crew laughed at that as Schlesinger said that with an unintended lisp.

 

Daffy and Sylvester DO have different voices.

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No, more than just Blanc sped up for Daffy despite having lisps and phrases like Sufferin' Succotash.  When voicing Sylvester, Blanc used a sloppier voice, so his phrases and dialogues were actually longer and deeper whereas Daffy was faster.  Even if you don't speed up Daffy's voice, you can tell the difference as to whether he was Daffy or Sylvester.

 

Mel Blanc holds the record for the longest lasting original voice

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Mel Blanc voiced Daffy from 1937 until his death in 1989.  This brings a total of 52 years of voicing an original character.  The only reason it wasn't for Porky Pig was because he filled in two years after Porky was created.  Clarence Nash would come a close second for Donald Duck with voicing him for 51 years.

 

Daffy Duck did crossover with the Groovie Goulies.

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And it wasn't pretty either.  Daffy Duck and Porky Pig meets the Groovie Goulies aired on Saturday Morning as a TV special.  It was produced by Filmation, meaning the Looney Tunes characters suffered from limited animation among other issues such as Daffy's voice sped up way too fast.  This is still considered one of the worst Looney Tunes of all time by many fans and historians.  

 

Daffy never even received a nomination for an Academy Award

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Despite popularity and having some of the greatest cartoons ever made, the Academy never recognized that.  Even Porky Pig at least received one nomination.  Perhaps this sparked the Bugs and Daffy rivalry even further (Bugs won 1 Academy Award and at least 2 other nominations). 

 

Daffy Duck and Sailor Mars (from Sailor Moon) share the same birthday

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Porky's Duck Hunt was originally released April 17th, 1937.  According to official Sailor Moon merchandise, Rei Hino/Sailor Mars celebrates her birthday on April 17 (though not the same year you understand).  One episode of Sailor Moon Crystal even acknowledges her birthday when an episode aired close to her birthday.  Could this be why both have the same argumentative personalities?????  Eh....could be....

 

Daffy's Rhapsody, the CGI cartoon, would be based on the hit song of the same name

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Not only that, but WB tracked down the original soundtrack to the song which was sung by Mel Blanc as Daffy Duck.  Using the original Mel Blanc tracks, WB was able to make a whole new CGI cartoon mixing the song with the storyline.  Both this and I Taught I Taw a Putty Tat would use Mel Blanc's tracks based on those hit Capitol Records from the late 1940's.

 

Source; Wikipedia - Daffy Duck  |  Daffy Duck facts  |  The Delbert Cartoon Report

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Fact of the Day - CULTS

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Did you know.... that in modern English, a cult is a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This sense of the term is controversial, having divergent definitions both in popular culture and academia, and has also been an ongoing source of contention among scholars across several fields of study. The word "cult" is usually considered pejorative. An older sense of the word cult involves a set of religious devotional practices that are conventional within their culture, are related to a particular figure, and are often associated with a particular place. References to the "cult" of a particular Catholic saint, or the imperial cult of ancient Rome, for example, use this sense of the word. While the literal and original sense of the word remains in use in the English language, a derived sense of "excessive devotion" arose in the 19th century. Beginning in the 1930s, cults became the object of sociological study in the context of the study of religious behavior. Since the 1940s the Christian countercult movement has opposed some sects and new religious movements, labeling them "cults" because of their unorthodox beliefs. Since the 1970s, the secular anti-cult movement has opposed certain groups, and in reaction to acts of violence which have been committed by some of their members, it has frequently charged them with practicing mind control. Scholars and the media have disputed some of the claims and actions of anti-cult movements, leading to further public controversy. (Wikipedia)

 

Infamous Cults in History
Thea Glassman  |  Dec 7, 2018

 

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Members of the Manson Family

 

In March 1997, 39 members of Heaven’s Gate, a cult started in the early '70s, put on matching dark clothes, swallowed barbiturates, and placed plastic bags around their heads. It was one of the largest mass suicides in the history of the United States.  Although you may have heard of that incident, when it comes to the world's most infamous cults, that's just the tip of the iceberg. INSIDER looked back on some of the most dangerous and infamous cults throughout history and the charismatic leaders who founded them.

 

The Manson Family famously murdered seven people over the course of two nights to start a race war.

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Charles Manson was convicted of first-degree murder

in 1971. 

In the late '60s, Charles Manson brought together a group of displaced young people and called them his "family." They settled in Spahn Ranch, a sprawling former movie studio near Los Angeles, where drugs were free-flowing, mandatory orgies were enforced, and Manson pushed his ideas about an imminent race war. The cult leader told his followers he wanted them to go on a killing spree. On August 8, 1969, a few members of the cult headed to a Beverly Hills home and murdered five people, including actress Sharon Tate. They wrote the word "PIG" in Tate's blood on the door. The violence continued the next night when Rosemary and Leno LaBianca were murdered in their Los Feliz home by Manson's followers on his orders. Rosemary was stabbed 14 times. Manson was convicted of first-degree murder in 1971. He served out his prison sentence until he died on November 19, 2017, at age 83.

 

Members of Heaven’s Gate were told that God was an alien. 39 members died by suicide.

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Bonnie Nettles, one of the founders of the cult. 

 

In the early '70s, Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles went on a road trip across America and found a group of people they dubbed "the crew." Applewhite told his followers many things, including that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ, the end of the world was upon them, and that God was an alien. He encouraged them to give away all their money and cut off contact with their families. Cult members were also put on a Master Cleanse diet of lemonade, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup, in order to get rid of sexual thoughts. Eight men volunteered to be surgically castrated. In March 1997, 39 members of Heaven's Gate donned dark outfits and matching Nike shoes. They drank vodka and ate applesauce and pudding that contained barbiturates and put plastic bags over their heads to suffocate themselves. When police officers entered the home, they found a line of bodies, each covered with purple fabric. It was one of the largest mass suicides in the history of the United States.

 

Members of Aum Shinrikyo left five bags filled with a toxic nerve agent on three Tokyo train lines during rush hour.

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The cult was led by Shoko Asahara. 

 

The cult Aum Shinrikyo was founded in the '80s by Shoko Asahara. He claimed to be Christ and — at one point — garnered tens of thousands of followers across the world. His teachings started out spiritual and then became increasingly violent. Cult members even paid money to drink Asahara's blood.  On March 20, 1995, members of Aum Shinrikyo left five bags filled with a toxic nerve agent on three Tokyo train lines during rush hour. Passengers began choking and throwing up. 13 people died because of the attack and 5,800 were injured. As months went by, the cult tried — and failed — to attack other subway stations with a deathly cyanide. Asahara was sentenced to death, along with 12 other members of Aum Shinrikyo. Seven members were executed in July of 2018, including Asahara himself. The other six members are still on death row in Japan.

 

The Branch Davidians had a 51-day standoff with the FBI.

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Branch Davidian cult members Brad Branch,

Kathryn Schroeder, and Kevin Whitecliff on

their way to the Waco federal courthouse. 

 

David Koresh believed that he could talk to God. He also thought that the world was ending. The cult leader managed to convince more than 100 people to move to a compound outside of Waco, Texas, and follow his teachings (which included his belief that men could have multiple wives, including girls as young as 10). On February 28, 1993, the FBI arrived on the scene to arrest Koresh and ended up in a 51-day standoff. "Never before have so many heavily armed and totally committed individuals barricaded themselves in a fortified compound in a direct challenge to lawful federal warrants," a report from the Justice Department said. In the end, the standoff came to a close when the compound combusted into flames. 75 people died, and Koresh was found with a gunshot wound to the head.

 

Children of God was accused by numerous members of child abuse. It later rebranded to The Family International.

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A Children of God family walking along t

he Texas countryside in 1971. 

 

The Children of God was established in the late '60s by David Berg, a traveling preacher. They believed in "free love" that reportedly involved female members recruiting with sex (sometimes known as "flirty fishing") and survivors say children were regularly abused. Both Rose McGowan and Joaquin Phoenix grew up in the Children of God. "There was sexual abuse for myself from the age of 4, not just from my dad who got convicted, but from various other members of the cult, some related, some not," Verity Carter, who grew up in the cult, told BBC News. "I wasn't comfortable with the things being done to me but if I asked a question I got beaten or put on silence restriction. I was punished a lot because I was never able to stop asking questions." Berg died in 1994. The Children of God later rebranded and changed its name to the Family of Love, and later The Family International after it had been labeled a cult and was investigated by the FBI and Interpol.

 

Jim Jones founded The People's Temple and instructed all of his followers to drink cyanide-laced Flavor Aid. More than 900 people died.

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Hundreds of people died in the Jonestown settlement.


In 1955, Jim Jones founded The People's Temple in Indianapolis. He grew concerned that a nuclear attack would fall on the area, so he moved his congregation to Eureka, California, which he thought would be safer. Paranoia struck again in 1977 (this time born out of media attention), and Jones moved The People's Temple to a settlement in Guyana dubbed Jonestown. US Congressman Leo Ryan decided to visit The People's Temple's new location in Guyana in 1978 in order to investigate reports of abuse of members. He was shot and killed by four members of The People's Temple. Jones then instructed all of his followers to drink Flavor Aid laced with cyanide. Over 900 dead bodies were discovered at the settlement, including Jones, who had a bullet wound to the head. In an unsigned suicide note, one member of the cult wrote: "If nobody understands, it matters not. I am ready to die now. Darkness settles over Jonestown on its last day on earth."

 

Category of Cults

 

Cults come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Not every person’s experience will fit neatly into these following categories, but this list should provide some idea of the range of cults and their reach into every walk of life.

 

Eastern cults

Eastern cults are characterized by belief in spiritual enlightenment and reincarnation, attaining the Godhead, and nirvana. Usually the leader draws from and distorts an Eastern-based philosophy or religion, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, or Sufism. Sometimes members learn to disregard worldly possessions and may take on an ascetic and/or celibate lifestyle. Practices and influence techniques include extensive meditation, repeated mantras, altered states of consciousness, celibacy or sexual restrictions, fasting and dietary restrictions, special dress or accoutrements, altars, and induced trance through chanting, spinning, or other techniques.

 

Religious cults

Religious cults are marked by belief in a god or some higher being, salvation, and the afterlife, sometimes combined with an apocalyptic view. The leader reinterprets Scripture (from the Bible, Koran, Talmud, or Cabala) and often claims to be a prophet, if not the messiah. Typically the group is strict, sometimes using such physical punishments as paddling and birching, particularly of children. Often members are encouraged to spend a great deal of time proselytizing. Included here are Bible-based, neo-Christian, Islamic, Jewish or Hebrew, and other religious cults, many of which combine beliefs and practices from different faiths. Practices and influence techniques include speaking in tongues, chanting, praying, isolation, lengthy study sessions, faith healing, self-flagellation, or many hours spent evangelizing, witnessing, or making public confessions.

 

Political, racist, or terrorist cults

Political, racist, or terrorist cults are fueled by belief in changing society, revolution, overthrowing the perceived enemy or getting rid of evil forces. The leader professes to be all knowing and all powerful. In some cases, adherents may be more drawn to an extreme ideology rather than a leader per se. Groups tend to operate as secret cells. Often the group and/or individuals are armed and engage in violent activities, including arson, kidnapping, bombing, and suicide bombs. Such groups typically meet in secret with coded language, handshakes, and other ritualized practices. Members consider themselves an elite cadre ready to go to battle. Practices and influence techniques include paramilitary training, reporting on one another, fear, struggle or criticism sessions, instilled paranoia, violent acts to prove loyalty, long hours of indoctrination, or enforced guilt based on race, class, or religion.

 

Psychotherapy, human potential, mass transformational cults

Psychotherapy, human potential, mass transformational cults are motivated by belief in striving for the goal of personal transformation and personal improvement. The leader is self-proclaimed and omniscient, with unique insights, sometimes a “super-therapist” or “super-life coach.” Practices and techniques include group encounter sessions, intense probing into personal life and thoughts, altered states brought about by hypnosis and other trance-induction mechanisms, use of drugs, dream work, past-life or future-life therapy, rebirthing or regression, submersion tanks, shame and intimidation, verbal abuse, or humiliation in private or group settings.

 

Commercial, multi-marketing cults

Commercial, multi-marketing cults are sustained by belief in attaining wealth and power, status, and quick earnings. The leader, who is often overtly lavish, asserts that he has found the “way.” Some commercial cults are crossovers to political and religious cults because they are based on ultra-conservative family values, strict morals, good health, or patriotism. Members are encouraged to participate in costly and sometimes lengthy seminars and to sell the group’s “product” to others. Practices and influence techniques include deceptive sales techniques, guilt and shame, peer pressure, financial control, magical thinking, or guided imagery.

 

New Age cults

New Age cults are founded on belief in the “You are God” philosophy, in power through internal knowledge, wanting to know the future, or find the quick fix. Often the leader presents herself or himself as mystical, an ultra-spiritual being, a channeler, a medium, or a superhero. New Age groups, more so than some of the other types, tend to have female leaders. Members rely on New Age paraphernalia, such as crystals, astrology, runes, shamanic devices, holistic medicine, herbs, spirit beings, or Tarot or other magic cards. Practices and influence techniques: magic tricks, altered states, peer pressure, channeling, UFO sightings, “chakra” adjustments, faith healing, or claiming to speak with or through ascended masters, spiritual entities, and the like.

 

Occult, satanic, or black-magic cults

Occult, satanic, or black-magic cults are generated through belief in supernatural powers, and sometimes worship of Satan. The leader professes to be evil incarnate. Animal sacrifice and physical and sexual abuse are common; some groups claim they perform human sacrifice. Practices and influence techniques include exotic and bizarre rituals, secrecy, fear and intimidation, acts of violence, tattooing or scarring, cutting and blood rituals, sacrificial rituals, or altars.

 

One-on-one or family cults

One-on-one or family cults are based in belief in one’s partner, parent, or teacher above all else. Generally an intimate relationship is used to manipulate and control the partner, children, or students, who believe the dominant one to have special knowledge or special powers. Often there is severe and prolonged psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. Practices and influence techniques include pleasure/pain syndrome, promoting self-blame, induced dependency, induced fear and insecurity, enforced isolation, battering and other violent acts, incest, or deprivation.

 

Cults of personality

Cults of personality are rooted in a belief that reflects the charismatic personality and interests and proclivities of the revered leader. Such groups tend to revolve around a particular theme or interest, such as martial arts, opera, dance, theater, a certain form of art, or a type of medicine or healing. Practices and influence techniques include intense training sessions, rituals, blatant egocentrism, or elitist attitudes and behaviors.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Cult  |  Facts on Infamous Cults  |  Cults in America

Edited by DarkRavie
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Fact of the Day - FAIRY

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Did you know.... that a fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural, or preternatural. (Wikipedia)

 

Fairy Facts

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A fairy or færie (Old English spelling) is a supposed magical being that flies in the air. They are usually depicted as small girls or women. Some færies have certain jobs, such as the Tooth fairy, who gives money or treats under the pillow of small children who have had a tooth fall out. A fairy tale is a story with a plot involving fairies. These stories are usually for children. Fairies can also be found in folklore, for instance, in Ireland and Scotland, fairies are still held as creatures that were defeated by the human race thousands of years ago and now live in caverns in the world of faerie. These mystical creatures are believed to be made after a kind of angel. Fairies come up in many fictional books such as "Peter Pan" and "The Spiderwick Chronicles".

 

Etymology
According to Thomas Keightley, the word "fairy" derives from the Latin fata, and is from the Old French form faerie, describing "enchantment". Other forms are the Italian fata, and the Provençal "fada". In old French romance, "fee" was a woman skilled in magic, and who knew the power and virtue of words, of stones, and of herbs.


 
Faie became Modern English fay. Faierie became fairy, but with that spelling now almost exclusively referring to one of the legendary people, with the same meaning as fay. The word "fairy" was used to represent an illusion, or enchantment; the land of the Faes; collectively the inhabitants thereof; or an individual such as a fairy knight.

 

Description
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1896 illustration of a fairy from

Ernest Vincent Wright's

The Wonderful Fairies of the Sun
 

Fairies are generally described as human in appearance and having magical powers. Diminutive fairies of one kind or another have been recorded for centuries, but occur alongside the human-sized beings; these have been depicted as ranging in size from very tiny up to the size of a human child. Even with these small fairies, however, their small size may be magically assumed rather than constant. Some fairies though normally quite small were able to dilate their figures to imitate humans. On Orkney they were described as short in stature, dressed in dark grey, and sometimes seen in armour.

 

Wings, while common in Victorian and later artwork of fairies, are very rare in the folklore; even very small fairies flew with magic, sometimes flying on ragwort stems or the backs of birds. Nowadays, fairies are often depicted with ordinary insect wings or butterfly wings. In some folklore, fairies have green eyes. Some depictions of fairies either have them wearing some sort of footwear and other depictions of fairies are always barefoot.

 

Characteristics
Much of the folklore about fairies revolves around protection from their malice, by such means as cold iron or charms of rowan and herbs, or avoiding offense by shunning locations known to be theirs. Some pranks ascribed to them, such as tangling the hair of sleepers into "Elf-locks", stealing small items or leading a traveler astray, are generally harmless. But far more dangerous behaviors were also attributed to fairies. Any form of sudden death might stem from a fairy kidnapping, with the apparent corpse being a wooden stand-in with the appearance of the kidnapped person. Consumption (tuberculosis) was sometimes blamed on the fairies forcing young men and women to dance at revels every night, causing them to waste away from lack of rest. Rowan trees are considered sacred to the fairies.

 

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Classic representation of a

small fairy with butterfly wings

commonly used in modern times.

Luis Ricardo Falero, 1888.
 

Classifications
In Scottish folklore, fairies are divided into the Seelie Court, the more beneficently inclined (but still dangerous) fairies, and the Unseelie Court, the malicious fairies. While the fairies from the Seelie court enjoyed playing pranks on humans they were usually harmless affairs, compared to the Unseelie court that enjoyed bringing harm to humans as entertainment.

 

Trooping fairies refer to fairies who appear in groups and might form settlements. In this definition, fairy is usually understood in a wider sense, as the term can also include various kinds of mythical creatures mainly of Celtic origin; however, the term might also be used for similar beings such as dwarves or elves from Germanic folklore. These are opposed to solitary fairies, who do not live or associate with others of their kind.

 

Changelings
Main page: Changeling
A considerable amount of lore about fairies revolves around changelings, fairy children left in the place of stolen human babies. In particular, folklore describes how to prevent the fairies from stealing babies and substituting changelings, and abducting older people as well. The theme of the swapped child is common in medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders, or developmental disabilities. In pre-industrial Europe, a peasant family's subsistence frequently depended upon the productive labor of each member, and a person who was a permanent drain on the family's scarce resources could pose a threat to the survival of the entire family.

 

Protective charms
In terms of protective charms, wearing clothing inside out, church bells, St. John's wort, and four-leaf clovers are regarded as effective. In Newfoundland folklore, the most popular type of fairy protection is bread, varying from stale bread to hard tack or a slice of fresh home-made bread. Bread is associated with the home and the hearth, as well as with industry and the taming of nature, and as such, seems to be disliked by some types of fairies. On the other hand, in much of the Celtic folklore, baked goods are a traditional offering to the folk, as are cream and butter. “The prototype of food, and therefore a symbol of life, bread was one of the commonest protections against fairies. Before going out into a fairy-haunted place, it was customary to put a piece of dry bread in one’s pocket.” In County Wexford, Ireland, in 1882, it was reported that “if an infant is carried out after dark a piece of bread is wrapped in its bib or dress, and this protects it from any witchcraft or evil.”

 

Bells also have an ambiguous role; while they protect against fairies, the fairies riding on horseback — such as the fairy queen — often have bells on their harness. This may be a distinguishing trait between the Seelie Court from the Unseelie Court, such that fairies use them to protect themselves from more wicked members of their race. Another ambiguous piece of folklore revolves about poultry: a cock's crow drove away fairies, but other tales recount fairies keeping poultry.

 

While many fairies will confuse travelers on the path, the will o' the wisp can be avoided by not following it. Certain locations, known to be haunts of fairies, are to be avoided; C. S. Lewis reported hearing of a cottage more feared for its reported fairies than its reported ghost. In particular, digging in fairy hills was unwise. Paths that the fairies travel are also wise to avoid. Home-owners have knocked corners from houses because the corner blocked the fairy path, and cottages have been built with the front and back doors in line, so that the owners could, in need, leave them both open and let the fairies troop through all night. Locations such as fairy forts were left undisturbed; even cutting brush on fairy forts was reputed to be the death of those who performed the act. Fairy trees, such as thorn trees, were dangerous to chop down; one such tree was left alone in Scotland, though it prevented a road being widened for seventy years.

 

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A resin statue of a fairy


Other actions were believed to offend fairies. Brownies were known to be driven off by being given clothing, though some folktales recounted that they were offended by inferior quality of the garments given, and others merely stated it, some even recounting that the brownie was delighted with the gift and left with it. Other brownies left households or farms because they heard a complaint, or a compliment. People who saw the fairies were advised not to look closely, because they resented infringements on their privacy. The need to not offend them could lead to problems: one farmer found that fairies threshed his corn, but the threshing continued after all his corn was gone, and he concluded that they were stealing from his neighbors, leaving him the choice between offending them, dangerous in itself, and profiting by the theft.

 

Millers were thought by the Scots to be "no canny", owing to their ability to control the forces of nature, such as fire in the kiln, water in the burn, and for being able to set machinery a-whirring. Superstitious communities sometimes believed that the miller must be in league with the fairies. In Scotland, fairies were often mischievous and to be feared. No one dared to set foot in the mill or kiln at night, as it was known that the fairies brought their corn to be milled after dark. So long as the locals believed this, the miller could sleep secure in the knowledge that his stores were not being robbed. John Fraser, the miller of Whitehill, claimed to have hidden and watched the fairies trying unsuccessfully to work the mill. He said he decided to come out of hiding and help them, upon which one of the fairy women gave him a gowpen (double handful of meal) and told him to put it in his empty girnal (store), saying that the store would remain full for a long time, no matter how much he took out.

 

It is also believed that to know the name of a particular fairy could summon it to you and force it to do your bidding. The name could be used as an insult towards the fairy in question, but it could also rather contradictorily be used to grant powers and gifts to the user.

 

In art
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At that moment she was changed by

magic to a wonderful little elf by John Bauer.


Images of fairies have appeared as illustrations, often in books of fairy tales, as well as in photographic-based media and sculpture. Some artists known for their depictions of fairies include Cicely Mary Barker, Arthur Rackham, Brian Froud, Alan Lee, Amy Brown, David Delamare, Meredith Dillman, Jasmine Becket-Griffith, Warwick Goble, Kylie InGold, Ida Rentoul Outhwaite, Myrea Pettit, Florence Harrison, Suza Scalora, Nene Thomas, Gustave Doré, Rebecca Guay and Greta James.

 

The Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor, MI are small doors installed into local buildings. Local children believe these are the front doors of fairy houses, and in some cases, small furniture, dishes, and various other things can be seen beyond the doors. The Victorian era was particularly noted for fairy paintings. The Victorian painter Richard Dadd created paintings of fairy-folk with a sinister and malign tone. Other Victorian artists who depicted fairies include John Atkinson Grimshaw, Joseph Noel Paton, John Anster Fitzgerald and Daniel Maclise. Interest in fairy-themed art enjoyed a brief renaissance following the publication of the Cottingley Fairies photographs in 1917 and a number of artists turned to painting fairy themes.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Fairy  |  Fairy Facts
 

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Fact of the Day - CONSPIRACY THEORIES

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Eye of Providence

 

Did you know.... that a conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable. The term has a negative connotation, implying that the appeal to a conspiracy is based on prejudice or insufficient evidence. A conspiracy theory is not simply a conspiracy; instead, it refers to a hypothesized conspiracy with specific characteristics, such as an opposition to the mainstream consensus among those people (such as scientists or historians) who are qualified to evaluate its accuracy. (Wikipedia)

 

Facts About Conspiracy Theories
BY ELLEN GUTOSKEY  |  JULY 16, 2020

 

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Did the government fake this photo? NASA

 

From President Kennedy’s assassination to the Roswell UFO incident, history is teeming with events so calamitous or uncanny that the “true” explanation—whether it’s presented by scientists, historians, or the government—just doesn’t seem good enough. That’s where conspiracy theories come in. But what exactly is a conspiracy theory, and why are people so inclined to believe them? In this episode of The List Show, Mental Floss editor-in-chief Erin McCarthy is delving into the psychology behind one of the most mysterious topics ever and shedding a little light on some popular conspiracy theories that did (or didn’t) turn out to be true. Did Lewis Carroll actually moonlight as Jack the Ripper? Also, what’s the deal with tinfoil hats?

 

Watch the episode below to find out the answers to those questions and more—and do it quickly, before the Illuminati deletes this video.

 

 

 

Historical Conspiracy Theories
BY JAKE ROSSEN  |  SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

 

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President Lincoln Assassination

 

For some, the historical record just won’t do. For centuries, conspiracy theories have attempted to draw back the curtain on important world events, casting into doubt official accounts and accepted wisdom. While the internet has made the discussion and dissemination of conspiracy theories easier, suspicion over everything from Roman rulers to the moon landing has persevered for centuries (and some conspiracy theories have even turned out to be true!). Take a look at eight of history’s lesser-known—but no less fascinating—alternative explanations.

 

1. SHAKESPEARE DIDN’T WRITE HIS OWN PLAYS.

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Many consider William Shakespeare the greatest playwright who ever lived. But to some, he’s simply one of the great pretenders. So little is known about Shakespeare as a person—he was born in Stratford in 1564 as the son of a glove-maker, married a woman named Anne Hathaway, and died in 1616—that examining his life in any detail is all but impossible. Theorists have claimed that Shakespeare didn’t exist at all, and was instead merely a pseudonym for an accomplished (and well-educated) writer. That could have been Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, a courtier who visited many of the places depicted in the plays, or possibly Christopher Marlowe. The latter is one of the more elaborate ideas, as it maintains that Marlowe was not murdered in a tavern in 1593 but instead hustled away to France thanks to some well-placed connections. He allegedly then spent the next 20 years writing under the Shakespeare name.

 

The belief that Shakespeare was not the author of works attributed to him has been voiced by several notable names throughout history, including Orson Welles, Sigmund Freud, and even Mark Twain. Twain once posited that Sir Francis Bacon could easily have been the Bard, and he believed the words "Francisco Bacono" appeared in code in the First Folio. The belief gained more credence in 2016, when the respected Oxford University Press actually credited Marlowe as co-author of the three Henry VI plays. Among other research, the publishing house cited an analysis of vocabulary between the work and Marlowe's plays.

 

2. JOHN WILKES BOOTH WASN’T KILLED.
After drawing a weapon and fatally shooting President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth went on the lam. Authorities caught up to him 12 days later, when he was confronted by an Army sergeant and shot while hiding in a barn. He died on the porch of a nearby farmhouse shortly thereafter. Unless, that is, the person in the barn wasn’t Booth at all.

 

One theory speculates that Booth succeeded in escaping and headed to Texas, changing his name to John St. Helen and living until 1903. The idea was put forth by author Finis L. Bates, who published The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes Booth in 1907 after claiming St. Helen confessed to him he was Booth and that the assassination was planned by Andrew Jackson to secure the presidency. (The man shot in the barn, Bates said, was a patsy, his death allowing soldiers to collect the bounty on Booth’s head.) Not coincidentally, Bates was able to profit from this speculation by displaying what he claimed was the preserved body of the recently departed Booth, charging admission for the morbid curiosity. The notion that Booth escaped death has intrigued at least one salient party: Booth’s descendants, who have petitioned to have his grave in Baltimore dug up in order to make a positive identification. No court has yet granted their request.

 

3. OLIVER CROMWELL WAS NEVER EXHUMED.

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Oliver Cromwell's Head?


There was no peace for Oliver Cromwell (the Lord Protector of England, Ireland, and Scotland in the 1650s) after his death. In 1661, King Charles II of England's parliament ordered Cromwell’s body and two others exhumed so they could be posthumously hanged, a vindictive bit of showboating resulting from the trio having ordered the execution of King Charles I. (Cromwell died of illness in 1658, denying King Charles II the pleasure of striking him down.) Cromwell, Henry Ireton, and John Bradshaw were left to hang and then decapitated, with Cromwell’s head left on a spike for several decades. But what if they got the wrong corpse? Some believe that Cromwell secretly moved his own planned tomb site in Westminster Abbey to avoid just such a fate, and that whoever was dug up was not Cromwell. In one spectacular flight of fancy that reads more like a D.C. Comics twist, there has been speculation that King Charles II’s men accidentally dug up his executed father instead, and were in the process of having him hanged before realizing their mistake.

 

4. MERIWETHER LEWIS DIDN’T COMMIT SUICIDE—HE WAS MURDERED.
Famed explorer Meriwether Lewis met an unfortunate end on October 10, 1809. After stopping to rest at a lodge along the Natchez Trace—a formidable trail between Mississippi and Tennessee—Lewis apparently shot himself. The wounds were fatal, and he was soon buried nearby. There seemed to be motivation for Lewis’s decision to take his own life: While he was celebrated for the journey from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean with partner William Clark that ended in 1806, the two had not found the Northwest Passage to the Pacific, making Lewis feel as though they had come up short on one of the mission's primary goals. Lewis was also desk-bound, a disappointing outcome for someone who craved adventure. He was known to suffer from depression and even wrote a will before striking out on the Natchez.

 

But others have argued that the trail was full of bandits, any one of whom could have confronted Lewis and engaged him in a lethal struggle. It was also curious that a trained marksman would need to shoot himself multiple times, as Lewis had, to achieve the desired result. The theory picked up steam in the 1840s, when Lewis’s body was exhumed and examiners made a comment about his injuries looking like the work of an assassin. His descendants have lobbied for another exhumation, which could look for gunpowder traces to see if a weapon was fired at close range or from across a room. Because Lewis's body is on National Park Service land, and the service rarely grants permission for exhumations, the theory remains untested.

 

5. NERO MAY HAVE SET FIRE TO ROME.

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Nero took control of Rome in 54 C.E. at the age of 17. Ten years later, a fire broke out around the Circus Maximus, the chariot stadium. The blaze ravaged the city over nine days, destroying three of its 14 districts and severely damaging seven others. Was it an accident, or did the formidable ruler set fire to his own kingdom? Those who argue the latter point out it was convenient that Nero was safely tucked away in Antium and miles from the fire. With the city partially destroyed, he could erect new buildings more to his liking, including one—the fanciful Domus Aurea—that would have been met with opposition among the social elite under normal circumstances. One of Rome’s historians, Tacitus, even claimed Nero merrily played his fiddle while Rome went up in flames. The fiddle had not yet been invented, but such details have not stopped suspicions that the young ruler was a bit of a firebug.

 

6. THE U.S. DEVELOPED AN INVISIBLE WARSHIP.
Private citizens may never know the full extent of the weaponry and tools of war that the U.S. government has developed over the decades. One significant leap in technology was thought by some to have occurred in July 1943, when officials at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard took the USS Eldridge and successfully rendered it invisible using electrical field manipulation—or so some believed, anyway. Later, the Eldridge was allegedly teleported to Norfolk, Virginia, with the ship arriving a few seconds before it left. Thus, time travel had also been invented.

 

These claims originated with a man named Carl Meredith Allen, who said he was a seaman stationed in Virginia who saw the Eldridge appear and disappear in front of his eyes. He sent his eyewitness account to author Morris K. Jessup, author of several books about UFOs. While Jessup never published the claims, they did become the focus of a 1979 book, The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility. The author, Charles Berlitz, was primed to buy the tale, as he had already explored the mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle. Naval records, however, contradict the claim. The Eldridge was not in commission on the day it was supposedly rendered invisible, and stationed in New York Harbor instead of Philadelphia or Virginia. The theory may stem from attempts by the Navy around that time to make ships undetectable to surface and underwater mines by running electrical currents through them, canceling out their magnetic field. That could technically make ships "invisible" to the mines, although not to the human eye.

 

7. QUEEN ELIZABETH I WAS ACTUALLY A MAN.

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Was the Queen a man?


Queen Elizabeth I—who ruled England for 44 years between 1558 and 1603—defeated the Spanish Armada, rejoined what had been a divided country, and encouraged the arts to flourish. What she didn’t do was marry. The Queen refused any and all advances to enter matrimony, a policy that led to her nickname of the Virgin Queen. Her stance led some observers—including Dracula author Bram Stoker—to suspect she may have been a man. Stoker once visited the town of Bisley in the Cotswolds, where a May Day celebration involved a boy dressing as the May Queen in Elizabethan clothes. Intrigued by the ceremony, Stoker discovered a fantastic tale—that the queen-to-be had visited Bisley in her youth to escape the plague, got sick, and died. Knowing her father, King Henry VIII, had a famous temper, the governess found a boy who resembled her charge and disguised him as Elizabeth when the king, who apparently could not readily identify his own daughter, came to visit. The deception was never discovered, and the unknown boy grew to rule England, disguising his masculine features with wigs, heavy make-up, and neck coverings. While Stoker popularized the story in the early 1900s, it had appeared during Elizabeth’s reign, possibly as a way for male subjects to cope with the idea of having a female ruler.

 

8. LEWIS CARROLL WAS JACK THE RIPPER.
To some, the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was no demure children’s book author. He could have been notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper. That was the theory offered up by author Richard Wallace, who assembled a laundry list of suspicious and potentially incriminating facts about Carroll in his book, Jack the Ripper: Light-Hearted Friend. Wallace believes Carroll—born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1832—experienced traumatic events in boarding school that would plague him for the rest of his life. He also believes Carroll hid secret messages in his books in the form of anagrams that confessed to his involvement. Carroll was also geographically close to the sites of the Ripper murders. Doubters pointed out that “confessions” could be extracted from Wallace’s own words in the same fashion—including incriminating statements about murder and even that Wallace was the secret author of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Conspiracy Theory  |  Facts About Conspiracy Theories  |  Historical Conspiracy Theories

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Fact of the Day - BUS

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A New Routemaster double-decker bus.

 

Did you know... that a bus is a road vehicle designed to carry many passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type is the ssingle-deck rigid bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses while coaches are used for longer-distance services. Many types of buses, such as city transit buses and inter-city coaches, charge a fare. Other types, such as elementary or secondary school buses or shuttle buses within a post-secondary education campus do not charge a fare. In many jurisdictions, bus drivers require a special license above and beyond a regular driving license. (Wikipedia)

 

Bus Facts

A bus is a large wheeled vehicle meant to carry many different persons along with the driver. It is larger than a car. The name is a shortened version of omnibus, which means "for everyone" in Latin. Buses used to be called omnibuses, but people now simply call them "buses". Buses are an important part of public transport in places all over the world. Many people who do not have cars, especially the third world countries, use buses to get around. Buses make it easy for them to get to where they want to go. A place on a sidewalk/pavement where people wait for a local bus is called a bus stop. A building where people wait for a long-distance bus or where lots of buses meet is called a bus station.

 

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History
Shillibeer saw the success of the Paris omnibus in service and concluded that operating similar vehicles in London, for the fare-paying public with multiple stops, would be a paying enterprise, so he returned to his native city. His first London "Omnibus", using the same design and name as the Paris vehicle, took up service on 4 July 1829 on the route between Paddington (The Yorkshire Stingo) and "Bank" (Bank of England) via the "New Road" (now Marylebone Rd), Somers Town and City Road. Four services were provided in each direction daily. Shillibeer's success prompted many competitors to enter the market, and for a time buses were referred to as 'Shillibeers'.

 

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Benz-Omnibus, 1896

 

Although passenger-carrying carriages had operated for many years, the new 'omnibus' pioneered a new service of picking up and setting down customers all along a particular route without the need to book in advance. Buses soon expanded their capacity, with additional seats for a few extra passengers provided alongside the driver. By 1845, passengers were being accommodated on the curved roofs, seated back to back in a configuration known as 'knife-board'. In 1852, Greenwood's in Manchester introduced the double-decker vehicle that could seat up to 42.

 

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Parisian omnibus, late 19th century

 
In Germany, the first bus service was established in Berlin in 1825, running from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg. In 1850, Thomas Tilling started horse bus services in London, and in 1855, the London General Omnibus Company was founded to amalgamate and regulate the horse-drawn omnibus services then operating in London. By the 1880s, bus services were a commonplace in England, continental Europe, and North America; one company in London was operating over 220 horse-buses. Horse-bus use declined with the advent of steam-buses and motor-buses; the last horse bus in London stopped operation in 1914.

 

Steam buses
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Amédée Bollée's L'Obéissante (1875)


Regular intercity bus services by steam-powered buses were pioneered in England in the 1830s by Walter Hancock and by associates of Sir Goldsworthy Gurney, among others, running reliable services over road conditions which were too hazardous for horse-drawn transportation.

 

The first mechanically propelled omnibus appeared on the streets of London on 22 April 1833. Steam carriages were much less likely to overturn, they travelled faster than horse-drawn carriages, they were much cheaper to run, and caused much less damage to the road surface due to their wide tyres.

 

However, the heavy road tolls imposed by the turnpike trusts discouraged steam road vehicles and left the way clear for the horse bus companies, and from 1861 onwards, harsh legislation virtually eliminated mechanically propelled vehicles from the roads of Great Britain for 30 years, the Locomotive Act of that year imposing restrictive speed limits on "road locomotives" of 5 mph in towns and cities, and 10 mph in the country.

 

Trolleybuses
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World's first trolleybus, Berlin 1882


In parallel to the development of the bus was the invention of the electric trolleybus, typically fed through trolley poles by overhead wires. The Siemens brothers, William in England and Ernst Werner in Germany, collaborated on the development of the trolleybus concept. Sir William first proposed the idea in an article to the Journal of the Society of Arts in 1881 as an "...arrangement by which an ordinary omnibus...would have a suspender thrown at intervals from one side of the street to the other, and two wires hanging from these suspenders; allowing contact rollers to run on these two wires, the current could be conveyed to the tram-car, and back again to the dynamo machine at the station, without the necessity of running upon rails at all."

 

The first such vehicle, the Electromote, was made by his brother Dr. Ernst Werner von Siemens and presented to the public in 1882 in Halensee, Germany. Although this experimental vehicle fulfilled all the technical criteria of a typical trolleybus, it was dismantled in the same year after the demonstration.

 

Max Schiemann opened a passenger-carrying trolleybus in 1901 near Dresden, in Germany. Although this system operated only until 1904, Schiemann had developed what is now the standard trolleybus current collection system. In the early days, a few other methods of current collection were used. Leeds and Bradford became the first cities to put trolleybuses into service in Great Britain on 20 June 1911.

 

Motor buses
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The first internal combustion omnibus

of 1895 (Siegen to Netphen)
 

In Siegerland, Germany, two passenger bus lines ran briefly, but unprofitably, in 1895 using a six-passenger motor carriage developed from the 1893 Benz Viktoria. Another commercial bus line using the same model Benz omnibuses ran for a short time in 1898 in the rural area around Llandudno, Wales.

 

Daimler also produced one of the earliest motor-bus models in 1898, selling a double-decker bus to the Motor Traction Company which was first used on the streets of London on 23 April 1898. The vehicle had a maximum speed of 18 kph and accommodated up to 20 passengers, in an enclosed area below and on an open-air platform above. With the success and popularity of this bus, Daimler expanded production, selling more buses to companies in London and, in 1899, to Stockholm and Speyer. Daimler also entered into a partnership with the British company Milnes and developed a new double-decker in 1902 that became the market standard.

 

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Early LGOC B-type

 

The first mass-produced bus model was the B-type double-decker bus, designed by Frank Searle and operated by the London General Omnibus Company – it entered service in 1910, and almost 3,000 had been built by the end of the decade. Hundreds saw military service on the Western Front during the First World War.

 

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Daimler CC Bus 1912. One of five Daimler buses exported to Australia


The Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company, which rapidly became a major manufacturer of buses in the US, was founded in Chicago in 1923 by John D. Hertz. General Motors purchased a majority stake in 1925 and changed its name to the Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company. They then purchased the balance of the shares in 1943 to form the GM Truck and Coach Division. Models expanded in the 20th century, leading to the widespread introduction of the contemporary recognizable form of full-sized buses from the 1950s. The AEC Routemaster, developed in the 1950s, was a pioneering design and remains an icon of London to this day. The innovative design used lightweight aluminum and techniques developed in aircraft production during World War II. As well as a novel weight-saving integral design, it also introduced for the first time on a bus independent front suspension, power steering, a fully automatic gearbox, and power-hydraulic braking.

 

Types

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Athens bus interior in 2013

Formats include single-decker bus, double-decker bus (both usually with a rigid chassis) and articulated bus (or 'bendy-bus') the prevalence of which varies from country to country. Bi-articulated buses are also manufactured, and passenger-carrying trailers—either towed behind a rigid bus (a bus trailer) or hauled as a trailer by a truck (a trailer bus). Smaller midibuses have a lower capacity and open-top buses are typically used for leisure purposes. In many new fleets, particularly in local transit systems, a shift to low-floor buses is occurring, primarily for easier accessibility. Coaches are designed for longer-distance travel and are typically fitted with individual high-backed reclining seats, seat belts, toilets, and audio-visual entertainment systems, and can operate at higher speeds with more capacity for luggage. Coaches may be single- or double-deckers, articulated, and often include a separate luggage compartment under the passenger floor. Guided buses are fitted with technology to allow them to run in designated guideways, allowing the controlled alignment at bus stops and less space taken up by guided lanes than conventional roads or bus lanes. Bus manufacturing may be by a single company (an integral manufacturer), or by one manufacturer's building a bus body over a chassis produced by another manufacturer.

 

Types of buses

  • Coach / Motorcoach - A bus that is used for driving long distances with as much comfort as possible and more room. It has fewer doors than a city bus.
  • School bus - a bus that takes people to their school or university. In America school buses are yellow while in other countries they may be different.
  • Shuttle buses - a bus that drives between places without many stops. It is often used for sport events and other places where lots of people meet, and at airports.
  • Minibus - A bus that is smaller than normal buses. It can carry about 8 to 25 people.
  • Double decker bus - A bus that has two floors (decks). It can carry about 70 people.
  • Low-floor bus - A bus that is nearer the ground than other buses so you can get in and out more easily. This type is often used in cities. The floor may get lower when the bus stops and higher when it moves.
  • Trolleybus - A bus that gets its energy from electric cables above the street, not from petroleum fuel.
  • Articulated bus - A bus that can bend in the middle so that it can be long and still move in small streets.
  • Guided bus - A bus that is guided on rails like a train but is used on normal streets. Often it can also be used like a normal bus.
  • Neighbourhood bus - It is like a school bus.
  • Training bus - A bus that is used for new drivers to practice with. It might not be safe for passengers and might have been changed so a teacher can easily help the new driver.
  • Gyrobus - A bus which does not use a normal engine. It has a big flywheel of steel or other materials (weighing about one ton) rotating at very high speed (RPM)..
  • Hybrid bus - A bus that has two engines, for example a fuel engine and an electric engine.
  • Police bus - A bus that is used by the police to transport a large number of policemen.
  • Offroad bus - A bus that is made to be used beyond normal roads, often used by the Army.
  • Open-top bus - A bus that has no roof, often used for tourism.

Source: Wikipedia - Bus  |  Facts About Buses

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Fact of the Day - FORGOTTEN SHOWS OF THE 50s, 60s, & 70s

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My Favorite Martian (1963)

 

Did you know.... that the wonderful world of television is a vibrant hub of creativity, but with so many programs released every year, it can be easy to forget about the ghosts of productions past. These days, we have access to thousands of shows at the click of a button, but rewind a few decades and there were fewer choices. Back in the day, NBC, CBS and ABC were some of the biggest networks of the era (and they still are today). For sitcoms, the premise of these forgotten shows was pretty much the same as we see today; the same goes for police dramas and thrillers. Though humor and values may have changed, networks have kept pace as the years go on. Networks competed ruthlessly against each other to try and come up with the next hit program, but it didn’t always work out. This led to a stream of short-lived series that didn’t last long, and some that simply faded into the ether after they ceased production. Let’s take a look through the archives to see some titles long since forgotten. 

 

History

By Emma Verner  |  Updated: Apr 5, 2021

 

Bourbon Street Beat

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Starring: Richard Long, Andrew Duggan, Arlene Howell, Van Williams
First Aired: October 5, 1959
Number of Seasons: 1

People loved private-eye dramas, such as Columbo and Murder, She Wrote, so producers were sure that the Bourbon Street Beat would be a smashing hit. However, the show lasted only for one season. It simply didn’t have the right mix to keep viewers entertained enough. Still, in the ’50s this was one of the first major shows to feature a private detective agency. The show followed Rex Randolph (Long) and Cal Calhoun (Duggan) as they solved cases for 39 episodes before the show was canceled. However, Rex got another change as Long’s character moved to 77 Sunset Strip.

 

Tales of Tomorrow

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Starring: Lon Chaney, Jr., Thomas Mitchell
First Aired: August 3, 1951
Number of Seasons: 2

You have heard of Twilight Zone, and probably watched it, right? But did you know that Tales of Tomorrow paved the path to this planetary popular show? Episodes were packed with action and paranormal, and each episode lasted for 25 minutes. Stories like Frankenstein and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea were just some of the tales that kept people mesmerized in front of their screens. The show aired on ABC and every episode focused on a different story which made things interested. Famous actors were often seen as guests including Boris Karloff and Leslie Nielsen. Sadly, the show lasted only for two seasons.

 

Shotgun Slade

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Starring: Scott Brady
First Aired: October 24, 1959
Number of Seasons: 2

Oh, how much people loved western TV shows and movies in the the 1950s. In fact, this genre was so much loved that by the ’60s knocked in the audience was done with a western vibe. This is the main reason why Shotgun Slade proved popular because viewers wanted something different. This was one of a kind Western mystery, with guest appearances from big-name stars at the time, including, Ernie Kovacs, Brett King, Brad Johnson, and more. The main character, Slade was a private investigator who would take on special cases, which was unusual in a Western. This original show lasted for two seasons and in total had 78 episodes. After the show was canceled, Scott Brady continues with his acting career and appeared as Sheriff Frank in 1984’s Gremlins.

 

Flying High

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Starring: Kathryn Witt, Connie Sellecca, Pat Klous, Howard Platt
First Aired: August 28, 1978
Number of Seasons: 1

The ‘50s and ‘60s had been largely dominated by male-led TV shows. Then the ’70s came and television started offering more female-led shows. One of them was Flying High, a comedy about three beautiful air hostesses and their work and personal life. Production directly went after models to star in the show. They were hoping to attract viewers faster. n fact, the sales head of CBS, Harvey Shephard, saw the three models on the elevator after the pitch, he called the head of the network and said, “We need this show.” Hopes for the show were big, but the show ultimately lacked substance and the show was canceled after 18 episodes, due to low ratings and high compression to Charlie’s Angels.

 

The Hathaways

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Starring: Peggy Cass, Jack Weston, Marcy Grace Canfield, Harvey Lembeck, Barbara Perry
First Aired: October 6, 1961
Number of Seasons: 1

Experienced people from the show biz world claim that working with children and animals is a show new level, but ABC didn’t care much when they ordered The Hathaways. Peggy Cass and Jack Weston portrayed loving parents to chimpanzees. Talking about plot twists, right? The show was sponsored by General Mills and was one of the earliest sitcoms to feature animals on TV. From the commercial side, the show wasn’t successful, but viewers loved it, in a way. All in, the show was a disaster from day one, while costing the network a real fortune. Critics called the show “possibly the worst series ever to air on network TV” and dubbed it “utterly degrading.”

 

Peck’s Bad Girl

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Starring: Wendell Corey, Marsha Hunt, Patty McCormick, Ray Ferrell
First Aired: 1959
Number of Seasons: 1

The biggest issue with Peck’s Bad Girl from the 1959’s was the audience. They simply didn’t get it no matter how much the reduction team put the effort into it. At the time parodies weren’t understood or welcome. Moreover, the whole idea of a family sitcom was too much to digest. The original film Peck’s Bad Girl was actually a silent film released in 1918. The show was canceled faster than it was released. In fact, this show is so unknown that there isn’t even a Wikipedia page about it.

 

Broadside

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Starring: Edward Andrews, Dick Sargent, Sheila James, Kathleen Nolan, Joan Staley
First Aired: September 20, 1964
Number of Seasons: 1

War dramas tend to focus on the male side of things. However, the Broadside decided to shake things a bit. This 1964 show, focuses on the women of the Navy in the World War II, with Kathleen Nolan in a starring role. The show was a success because it was something that no one expected. This show had great lines, an appropriate setting, and an enthusiastic cast that loved the show. Sadly, the show was canceled after only 32 episodes, because the production company simply didn’t have enough space to use the tropical exteriors on the lot.

 

Convoy

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Starring: John Gavin
First Aired: September 17, 1965
Number of Seasons: 1

Convoy followed Commander Dan Talbot (John Gavin) and his faithful crew on a cargo ship and their daily adventures. Their main task was to supply troops with food and other items in World War II. The biggest downside was the show’s black and white color. They choose to go with black and white color, so they could use old war photos. However, the audience was more into shows with vivid colors. Plus, some real-life NAVY people disagreed with various moments of the show, including the fact that women also traveled in convoys. Due to low ratings, the show was canceled.

 

Holmes & Yo-Yo

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Starring: Jack Sher, Lee Hewitt
First Aired: September 25, 1976
Number of Seasons: 1

Every great network knows people love seeing fun duos on TV. Remember Starsky & Hutch, or Cagney & Lacey? Sadly, Holmes & Yo-Yo lasted shortly, although ABC had high expectations from the show. Holmes & Yoyo was an ambitious show, but it was eventually marked as a complete disaster. It was eventually named on TV Guide’s List of the Worst 50 TV Shows of All Time.

 

Click the link below ⬇️ to find other Forgotten Show of the 50s, 60s, & 70s.

 

Source: Forgotten Shows


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Fact of the Day - INVENTION

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Did you know... that an invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition or process. The invention process is a process within an overall engineering and product development process. It may be an improvement upon a machine or product or a new process for creating an object or a result. An invention that achieves a completely unique function or result may be a radical breakthrough. Such works are novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field. An inventor may be taking a big step toward success or failure. (Wikipedia)

 

Inventions & Discoveries
Jack De Graaf   |  Published: May 29, 2014

 

It really is impressive to look back at the great inventions of our time. It is even more impressive to look at how quickly some of the greatest inventions were replaced by better technology.  Most days we cruise through life not sparing a thought to where the many inventions in our life come from. Many of these inventions are purposeful, but a select few are accidental.

 

Fireworks

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The discovery of fireworks, or namely the formulation of gunpowder is believed to have occurred by chance approximately 2,000 years ago in China. It is thought that a Chinese cook accidentally mixed three common kitchen ingredients: charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter. Three items commonly found in kitchens back then. When he found that the mixture he’d created burned. He played about a bit with his new-found fire-powder, as any self-respecting kitchen-alchemist would, and found that when compressed into a bamboo tube it exploded. After a few more combinations the cook found that he could cause different colored explosions and different effects to create what we now know as fireworks.

 

Velcro

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Out on a hunting trip in 1948 with his trusty canine companion, Swiss engineer George de Mestral noticed the annoying tendency burrs had to stick to his socks and his dog’s fur. Back at home, giving the burrs an examination underneath his microscope, George noticed the tiny ‘hooks’ that stuck burrs to both fabric and fur. Mestral experimented for years with a variety of textiles before having a play with the newly invented nylon, and Velcro was born. However, it wasn’t until roughly two decades later that Velcro’s popularity boomed after NASA took a particular liking to the stick-and-rip stuff.

 

Safety Glass

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The year is 1903 and French chemist Édouard Bénédictus is chilling out in his lab, mixing up some potions, when he accidentally knocks a flask off his desk, sending it to fall to the ground and shatter… or not. Bemused by the way the flask had not smashed into a hundred pieces on impact, Édouard stooped down to take a closer look. Upon inspection the chemist realized that it had recently contained plastic cellulose nitrate and that this had coated the inside of the flask, thus keeping it from shattering upon impact. Inspired by this mere mishap, Édouard Bénédictus went on to invent Safety Glass, something used on a mass-global level even today.

 

Super Glue

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In 1942, Dr. Harry Coover set out to create a new precision rifle sight but failed epically. The substance he created, cyanoacrylate, was an utter failure – it stuck to everything. Deflated and dejected, Coover gave up and moved on, his invention forgotten. Fast forward 6 years and Coover is overseeing an experimental new design for airplane canopies. Once again he found himself sticking to things because of that damned cyanoacrylate! This time, however, Coover had a light-bulb moment and observed how this substance formed incredibly strong bonds between objects with no heat applied. This set him and his team to thinking, and with a little tinkering, sticking objects in the lab together, they realized they’d found a use for this annoying gloop. Coover whacked a patent on the discovery and in 1958, 16 years after he’d first gotten stuck, Super Glue was being sold on shelves all around the world.

 

Tea Bags

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The teabag was the accidental invention of American tea merchant Thomas Sullivan. In 1908, Sullivan started sending samples of tea to his customers in small silken bags. Many of his customers assumed that these samples were to be used in the same manner as metal tea infusers, by putting the entire bag into the teapot. After sending out his samples, Sullivan received comments from his customers that the mesh on the silk was too fine. So he started to develop sachets made of gauze; the first purposely made tea bags. During the 1920s these were commercialized and they grew in popularity. Lo and behold, the tea bag was invented!

 

Penicillin

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Life before antibiotics was certainly grim. And short. Infections ran rampage, especially STDs, making simple diseases that we wouldn’t bat an eyelid at nowadays a death sentence. Luckily for us in 1929 a young Scottish bacteriologist called Alexander Fleming went on holiday, and before he left he must’ve had his holiday-head on because he forgot to cover a petri-dish of Staphylococcus he was cultivating in his lab. When tidying upon his return, Fleming noticed that a mold in the dish had killed off many of the other bacteria. He identified this mold as Penicillium notatum, and researched it further to find out that it could kill other bacteria and could be given to small animals without them becoming ill. A decade down the line, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain picked up where Fleming left off, isolating the bacteria-slaying substance and turning it into a fully administrable medicine. For their efforts in medicine and science, the trio was awarded the Nobel Prize – and rightly so!

 

The Microwave

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Percy Spencer, a man orphaned at 18 months old and taken out of school at 12 to work in a paper mill, was the accidental inventor of the Microwave Oven. An engineer at Raytheon after his WWI stint in the American Navy was known to all as an electronics genius. Fiddling about with a microwave-emitting magnetron, a piece commonly found in the innards of radar arrays, Percy suddenly felt a strange sizzling sensation in his trousers. Startled, he took a pause and found that the chocolate bar in his pocket had started to melt. Figuring to himself that the microwave radiation of the magnetron was to blame, he immediately set out to reap the potential. The end-game was the Microwave Oven, savior of students and single-men worldwide.

 

Dynamite

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Humanity didn’t just figure out how to blow things up with the invention of dynamitenitroglycerin itself had been around for years. But as Arzt from Lost will tell you: “Nitroglycerin is the most dangerous and unstable explosive known to man”. Alfred Nobel himself can testify to this. He worked with nitroglycerin in a series of experiments, which tragically ended in a fatality that claimed the lives of him, his younger brother, and a few others. Knowing how unstable it could be, Nobel continually tested methods for the safe transportation of nitroglycerin. Whilst transporting some of the deadly explosives, a can fell from a crate, spilling its contents all over the nitroglycerin. Nobel noticed that the can’s contents, a sedimentary type of clay called Kieselguhr, absorbed the nitroglycerin perfectly. Inspired by this simple coincidence, Nobel ingeniously developed a formula where the explosive could be mixed with the clay without hindering its explosive power. He patented his discovery, naming it dynamite, and revolutionized both the world of construction and the world of warfare.

 

Viagra

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In 1998, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer set out to cure Angina Pectoris, or spasms of the heart’s coronary arteries, in plain English. In order to do this, they developed a pill named UK92480. However, UK92480 failed at its desired effect rather terribly, but the secondary effect of their little blue pill was certainly arousing, pun intended. That pill went on to become one of the world’s biggest-selling drugs, Viagra. In fact, it is estimated that seven Viagra tablets are sold worldwide every second – that’s 604,800 a day!

 

Insulin

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Although the discovery of insulin was not directly an accident, the discovery that allowed researchers to, later on, find insulin was an accident. In 1889, two doctors at the University of Strasbourg were trying to understand how digestion was affected by the pancreas. In order to do this, they removed a healthy dog’s pancreas, a few days later they noticed that flies were swarming around the dog’s urine. They decided to test the urine and found sugar in it. This led them to the realization that by removing the pancreas they had given the dog diabetes. The two doctors never realized that what the pancreas produced regulated blood sugar. It wasn’t until a series of experiments at the University of Toronto between 1920 and 1922 that researchers were able to isolate a pancreatic secretion that they called insulin. Thus turning diabetes from certain death into a treatable condition.

 

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Invention  |  Accidental Inventions and Discoveries

Edited by DarkRavie
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Fact of the Day - ALTERNATIVE ROCK

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Did you know.... that alternative rock is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commercial rock or pop music. The term's original meaning was broader, referring to a generation of musicians unified by their collective debt to either the musical style or simply the independent, DIY ethos of punk rock, which in the late 1970s laid the groundwork for alternative music. (Wikipedia)

 

Alternative Music
What Does It Mean for Music to Be Alternative?

By Anthony Carew  |  Updated April 14, 2018

 

Being defined as something "other" has always left alternative music with an essential identity crisis. Alternative to what, exactly?


Well, to orthodoxy. To the status quo. To playing it safe. To being in the music business for the business, not the music. To the man. To repressive politics. To racism, sexism, classism, etc. Music has always attracted the free-thinkers and the radicals, and underground music has been the place where the most radical of the radicals has been championed.


Does that answer your question? Well, no, not really. Let's just say that, if Alternative Music must be an alternative to something, the safe answer is this: to whatever your parents like.

 

When Did Alternative Music Begin?

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Fittingly enough, right as rock'n'roll was becoming the dominant musical mode of the Western World. As soon as rock was king, there quickly grew an underground of acts providing, yes, an "alternative" voice.

 

If you're looking for a ground zero, well... let's say 1965. That was the year The Velvet Underground first got together in a New York loft, that MC5 first turned up their amps in a Detroit garage, and that a kooky Californian kid started calling himself Captain Beefheart. If you're looking to go further underground (Note: doing this is the passion of any self-respective alt-music enthusiast), 1965 was also when a Texan teenager named Roky Erikson began pioneering psychedelic-rock with a crew called the 13th Floor Elevators. It was the year that a pair of New York poets formed a primitive, satirical rock-group named The Fugs. And, it was the year The Monks, a band of American GIs living in Germany, released the a melodic, highly-rhythmic, audience-baiting album Black Monk Time, possibly the first-ever underground rock album.


What Does Alternative Music Sound Like?
Existing as an "other," alternative music should, in theory, simply sound unlike whatever the prevailing popular-musical models of the day are. Meaning, if you don't know exactly what it is, at least you know what it's not. Yet, from the mid-'80s through to the mid-'90s, the notion of what was safely "alternative" underwent a radical change. Nowhere more so than in America. After punk-rock marked a momentary blip on mainstream America's radar, the 1980s settled into a steady diet of big-name pop-stars and hair-metal peacocks, with hip-hop the nation's undeniable rising cultural force.

 

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The Sex Pistols in Amsterdam in 1977

(L–R: Paul Cook, Glen Matlock, John Lydon

and Steve Jones).

 

That left a massive chasm between the mainstream and the underground. Punk had mutated into hardcore, a form of music devoted wholly to grass-roots activity. And, hardcore or not, there were whole networks of bands doing things independently, completely off the commercial grid. For the best part of the '80s, there existed a happy divide —and a mutual disinterest— between these two worlds. Whilst the masses had their Madonna and Michael, the freaks had the Butthole Surfers and Black Flag. Things made sense.


But, inevitably, change came. First R.E.M., old "college-rockers," cracked the mainstream. Former avant-garde noise outfit Sonic Youth signed with a major-label. And, then, Nirvana came out of nowhere to be the biggest band in the world. Grunge was a license to print money, sending major-label A&Rs into a frenzy. They ransacked once insular musical scenes of any barely-competent band. Failing that, they engineered their own. The whole thing became an exercise in profiteering that was satirized, for the ages, by The Simpsons' Hullabalooza festival.

 

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This mainstream crossover (or, to use the language of the time, "sell out") lead to Alternative Music's crisis of identity: if what was once alternative was now the status quo, what did 'alternative' even mean? If Nirvana once could've defined alt music, where did that leave come-later corporate copycats? It left the alternative world in a confused state.

 

Which Genres Are Considered Alternative Music?
Genres attempt to tell us what music is, but often they don't.

 

Most genres that have strong, defined parameters are ones consigned to a specific point in time. When someone talks about shoegaze, krautrock, grunge, riot-grrrl, or post-rock, they're not just talking about a specific style and sound, but a place in time, in the past, we can view from the safety of hindsight.

 

To be honest, the notion of genre, as a straight-laced form of specific sound and accompanying identity, is dying. While we're not denying the rise of the emo cult, there's recently been a telling increase in outfits impossible to quantify. What does one make, for instance, of Animal Collective, or Gang Gang Dance, or Yeasayer; bands whose seamless fusing of many disparate genres leaves them sounding like none?

 

Are "Alternative" and "Indie" Essentially Interchangeable Terms?
Well, yes and no. Casually speaking, yes, indie and alternative can essentially mean the same thing. But if we want to get down to the semantics of it. That's a whole other story.

 

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Is Alternative Music Always an Alternative?
Of course not. Look at it this way: in 1990, the Grammy Awards started giving out trophies for the Best Alternative Album. In the years since, winners have included such noticeably not-indie figures as Sinéad O'Connor
, U2, Coldplay, and Gnarls Barkley. So, no matter how hard you try and define "alternative music," people—especially Grammy voters—will make it mean whatever they want it to.

 

 

Source:  Wikipedia - Alternative Rock  |  Brief Alternative Music Facts 

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Fact of the Day - THE PENNY

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Did you know... that the United States one-cent coin, often called the penny, is a unit of currency equaling one one-hundredth of a United States dollar. It has been the lowest face-value physical unit of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent in 1857. The first U.S. cent was produced in 1787, and the cent has been issued primarily as a copper or copper-plated coin throughout its history. Its obverse has featured the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, the centennial of his birth. From 1959 (the sesquicentennial of Lincoln's birth) to 2008, the reverse featured the Lincoln Memorial. Four different reverse designs in 2009 honored Lincoln's 200th birthday and a new, "permanent" reverse – the Union Shield – was introduced in 2010. The coin is 0.75 inches (19.05 mm) in diameter and 0.0598 inches (1.52 mm) in thickness. Its weight has varied, depending upon the composition of metals used in its production. (Wikipedia)

 

Things You Didn’t Know About the Penny
As Canada eliminates its pennies from circulation, explore surprising facts about the one-cent coin.
JENNIE COHEN  |  UPDATED: AUG 22, 2018  |  ORIGINAL: MAR 30, 2012

 

1. The word “penny” and its variations across Europe—including the German “pfennig” and the Swedish “penning”—originally denoted any sort of coin or money, not just a small denomination.

 

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German Empire: 10 pfennig iron coin 1917

 

2. Offa, an Anglo-Saxon king, introduced the first English coin known as the penny around 790 A.D.; it was made entirely of silver. Today’s British pennies (called “pence when referring to a quantity of money) are worth one hundredth of a pound and minted in copper-plated steel.

 

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Two silver pennies of Offa's reign. The right-hand penny

portrays Cynethryth.

 

3. The official term for the American penny is “one-cent piece.” However, when the U.S. Mint struck its first one-cent coins—then the size of today’s half-dollars and 100-percent copper—in 1793, Americans continued to use the British term out of habit.

 

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4. Benjamin Franklin reportedly designed the first American penny in 1787. Known as the Fugio cent, it bears the image of a sun and sundial above the message “Mind Your Business.” A chain with 13 links, each representing one of the original colonies, encircles the motto “We Are One” on the reverse.

 

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5. Along with the first U.S. penny’s design, the phrase “a penny saved is a penny earned” has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Visitors to the founding father’s grave in Philadelphia traditionally leave one-cent pieces there for good luck.

 

6. The copper content of U.S. pennies has declined over the years due to rising prices. The expensive metal makes up just 2.5 percent of one-cent pieces minted in 1982 or later; nickels, dimes and quarters, on the other hand, are mainly composed of copper. Still, today’s pennies cost more than their face value—an estimated 1.8 cents each—to produce.

 

 

 

7. In 1909, Teddy Roosevelt introduced the Lincoln cent to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the 16th U.S. president’s birth. At the time, it was the first American coin to feature the likeness of an actual person (as opposed to the personifications of “liberty” appearing on earlier designs). Fifty years later the Lincoln Memorial was added to the penny’s reverse, complete with a tiny representation of the statue within.

 

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8. The image of Abraham Lincoln on today’s American pennies was designed by Victor David Brenner, an acclaimed medalist who emigrated to the United States from Lithuania in 1890. Born Avigdor David Brenner, Brenner had fled his native land after being persecuted for his Jewish ancestry.

 

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Brenner holding a plaster model of the large

design for the Lincoln cent (1909)

 

9. As copper supplies became vital to weapons manufacturing during World War II, the U.S. Mint decided to cast the 1943 penny in zinc-coated steel. Nicknamed “steelies,” these coins caused confusion because they closely resembled dimes; they also rusted and deteriorated quickly.

 

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10. In the 1980s, U.S. military bases overseas abolished the penny and began rounding all transactions up or down to the nearest five cents. This is the system Canada plans to implement later this year.

 

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Canadian Penny

 

Source: Wikipedia - Penny  |  What You Didn't Know About the Penny

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Fact of the Day - FAMOUS FIRSTS (WOMEN)

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Famous Firsts in Women’s History

HISTORY.COM EDITORS
ORIGINAL:JAN 4, 2010  |  UPDATED:FEB 4, 2021

 

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American women’s history has been full of pioneers: Women who fought for their rights, worked hard to be treated equally and made great strides in fields like science, politics, sports, literature and art. These are just a few of the remarkable accomplishments by trail-blazing women in American history

 

1. First women’s-rights convention meets in Seneca Falls, New York, 1848

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In July 1848, some 240 men and women gathered in upstate New York for a meeting convened, said organizers, “to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women.” One hundred of the delegates–68 women and 32 men–signed a Declaration of Sentiments, modeled on the Declaration of Independence, declaring that women, like men, were citizens with an “inalienable right to the elective franchise.” The Seneca Falls Convention marked the beginning of the campaign for women’s suffrage.

 

2. Wyoming Territory is first to grant women the vote, 1869

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In 1869, Wyoming’s territorial legislature declared that “every woman of the age of twenty-one years, residing in this territory, may at every election…cast her vote.” Though Congress lobbied hard against it, Wyoming’s women kept their right to vote when the territory became a state in 1890. In 1924, the state’s voters elected the nation’s first female governor, Nellie Taylor Ross.

 

3. Californian Julia Morgan is first woman admitted to the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris, 1898

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The 26-year-old Morgan had already earned a degree in civil engineering from Berkeley, where she was one of just 100 female students in the entire university (and the only female engineer). After she received her certification in architecture from the Ecole de Beaux-Arts, the best architecture school in the world, Morgan returned to California. There, she became the first woman licensed to practice architecture in the state and an influential champion of the Arts and Crafts movement. Though she is most famous for building the “Hearst Castle,” a massive compound for the publisher William Randolph Hearst in San Simeon, California, Morgan designed more than 700 buildings in her long career. She died in 1957.


4. Margaret Sanger opens first birth control clinic in the United States, 1916

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In October 1916, the nurse and women’s rights activist Margaret Sanger opened the first American birth control clinic in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Since state “Comstock Laws” banned contraceptives and the dissemination of information about them, Sanger’s clinic was illegal; as a result, on October 26, the city vice squad raided the clinic, arresting its staff and seizing its stock of diaphragms and condoms. Sanger tried to reopen the clinic twice more, but police forced her landlord to evict her the next month, closing it for good. In 1921, Sanger formed the American Birth Control League, the organization that eventually became Planned Parenthood.

 

5. Edith Wharton is the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, 1921

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Wharton won the prize for her 1920 novel The Age of Innocence. Like many of Wharton’s books, The Age of Innocence was a critique of the insularity and hypocrisy of the upper class in turn-of-the-century New York. The book has inspired several stage and screen adaptations, and the writer Cecily von Ziegesar has said that it was the model for her popular Gossip Girl series of books.

 

6. Activist Alice Paul proposes the Equal Rights Amendment for the first time, 1923

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Alice Paul toasting (with grape juice) passage

of the Nineteenth Amendment. August 26, 1920.


For almost 50 years, women’s-rights advocates like Alice Paul tried to get Congress to approve the Equal Rights Amendment; finally, in 1972, they succeeded. In March of that year, Congress sent the proposed amendment–“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex”–to the states for ratification. Twenty-two of the required 38 states ratified it right away, but then conservative activists mobilized against it. (The ERA’s straightforward language hid all kinds of sinister threats, they claimed: It would force wives to support their husbands, send women into combat and validate gay marriages.) This anti-ratification campaign was a success: In 1977, Indiana became the 35th and last state to ratify the ERA. In June 1982, the ratification deadline expired. The amendment has never been passed.


7. Amelia Earhart is the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane, 1928

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After that first trip across the ocean, which took more than 20 hours, Amelia Earhart became a celebrity: She won countless awards, got a ticker-tape parade down Broadway, wrote a best-selling book about her famous flight and became an editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. In 1937, Earhart attempted to be the first female pilot to fly around the world, and the first pilot of any gender to circumnavigate the globe at its widest point, the Equator. Along with her navigator Fred Noonan, Earhart successfully hopscotched from Miami to Brazil, Africa, India and Australia. Six weeks after they began their journey, Earhart and Noonan left New Guinea for the U.S. territory of Howland Island, but they never arrived. No trace of Earhart, Noonan or their plane was ever found.

 

8. Frances Perkins becomes the first female member of a Presidential cabinet, 1933

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Frances Perkins, a sociologist and Progressive reformer in New York, served as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. She kept her job until 1945.

 

9. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League becomes the first professional baseball league for female players, 1943

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Rockford Peaches


Women had been playing professional baseball for decades: Starting in the 1890s, gender-integrated “Bloomer Girls” teams (named after the feminist Amelia Bloomer) traveled around the country, challenging men’s teams to games–and frequently winning. As the men’s minor leagues expanded, however, playing opportunities for Bloomer Girls decreased, and the last of the teams called it quits in 1934. But by 1943, so many major-league stars had joined the armed services and gone off to war that stadium owners and baseball executives worried that the game would never recover. The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was the solution to this problem: It would keep ballparks filled and fans entertained until the war was over. For 12 seasons, more than 600 women played for the league’s teams, including the Racine Belles (Wisconsin) , the Rockford Peaches (Illinois) , the Grand Rapids Chicks (Michigan) and the Fort Wayne Daisies (Indiana) . The AAGPBL disbanded in 1954.

 

10. The FDA announces its approval of “The Pill,” the first birth-control drug, 1960

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In October 1959, the pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle applied for a license from the federal Food and Drug Administration to sell its drug Enovid, a combination of the hormones estrogen and progesterone, for use as an oral contraceptive. FDA approval was not guaranteed: For one thing, the agency was uncomfortable with the idea of allowing doctors to prescribe drugs to healthy people; for another, the young bureaucrat assigned to the case was fixated on moral and religious, not scientific, objections to the pill. Despite all this, Enovid was approved for short-term use in October 1960.

 

 

Click the link below ⬇️ to read more Famous Firsts in Women's History.

 

Source: Firsts in Women's History

 

Edited by DarkRavie
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Fact of the Day - THE INCREDIBLE HULK 

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Did you know.... that The Incredible Hulk is an American television series based on the Marvel Comics character The Hulk. The series aired on the CBS television network and starred Bill Bixby as Dr. David Bruce Banner, Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk, and Jack Colvin as Jack McGee. In the TV series, Dr. David Banner, a widowed physician and scientist, who is presumed dead, travels across America under assumed names, and finds himself in positions where he helps others in need despite his terrible secret: In times of extreme anger or stress, he transforms into a huge, savage, incredibly strong green creature, who has been named "The Hulk". In his travels, Banner earns money by working temporary jobs while searching for a way to either control or cure his condition. All the while, he is obsessively pursued by a tabloid newspaper reporter, Jack McGee, who is convinced that the Hulk is a deadly menace whose exposure would enhance his career. The series' two-hour pilot movie, which established the Hulk's origins, aired on November 4, 1977. The series' 80 episodes were originally broadcast by CBS over five seasons from 1978 to 1982. It was developed and produced by Kenneth Johnson, who also wrote or directed some episodes. The series ends with David Banner continuing to search for a cure. In 1988, the filming rights were purchased from MCA/Universal by New World Television for a series of TV movies to conclude the series' storyline. The broadcast rights were, in turn, transferred to rival NBC. New World (which at one point owned Marvel) produced three television films: The Incredible Hulk Returns (directed by Nicholas J. Corea), The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, and The Death of the Incredible Hulk (both directed by Bill Bixby). Since its debut, The Incredible Hulk series has garnered a worldwide fan base. (Wikipedia)

 

Smashing Facts About The Incredible Hulk

by Steven Y.  |  Factinate

 

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Created in 1962 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Hulk has had along and tumultuous journey to becoming the iconic character he is today. In his comic book appearances, the Hulk is typically a massive, green-skinned humanoid with vast strength and healing capabilities, while his alter-ego, Bruce Banner, is a physically weak and socially withdrawn physicist. The storylines often play on the conflict between the two. In addition to comic books and graphic novels, the Hulk has appeared in television and film, both live-action and animated, as well as in his own videogames.

 

Here are a few other things you might not have known about the Green Goliath.

 

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

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Despite being one of the original Marvel characters, created around the same time as Spider-Man and Iron Man, the Hulk has always been on the verge of cancellation. In fact, his solo title was canned after just six issues in 1963.

 

Hulk Bored

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In the Ultimate Universe, Bruce Banner triggers a Hulk transformation because The Ultimate's had nobody else to fight.

 

Mad Jealous

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In that same storyline, Bruce happened to be insanely jealous that his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross was out on a date with Freddie Prinze Jr. The deranged Hulk tries to track down Freddie to eat him and the team has to stop his rampage. It’s just as well. Freddie Prinze Jr. does not look tasty.

 

Involuntary Astronaut

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Thinking that it was the best way to contain him, the Illuminati, pretending to be Hulk’s friends, sent him into outer space to take out a satellite. This was a huge betrayal that will likely not result in the warmest and fuzziest feelings between everyone.

 

A Dish Best Served Green

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After he was sent to space, he landed on the planet Sakaar which Hulk immediately conquered. Hulk then raised an army and returned to Earth to get revenge on The Illuminati for sending him away in the first place.

 

B-B-But

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When the Hulk got his own TV series in 1978, they changed Bruce Banner’s first name to David because, as the show producer claimed, it was unrealistic to have a character with an alliterative name, conveniently forgetting the fact that Bruce Banner was played by Bill Bixby.

 

Multiple Personalities

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Because “Hulk smash” got old fast, the Hulk has had a few iterations over the years including Joe Fixit, a Vegas mob enforcer, a smart version of the Hulk called “The Professor”, and a crazy Hulk who had to stay angry to stop reverting to a deranged Banner.

 

Once a Hulk…

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Lou Ferrigno, the bodybuilder who played the Hulk, has actually been involved with every live-action Hulk adaptation ever including a cameo appearance in Ang Lee’s Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, and as the voice of the Hulk in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”

 

Fear Itself

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Although he was one of the founding members of The Avengers, Hulk actually left the group shortly after their first battle (against Loki) because he realized that his teammates were afraid of him. He stayed away for fifty years before finally returning.

 

Hulk Sad

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In the storyline of “Hulk: The End,” everyone on Earth is killed by nuclear war leaving Bruce Banner to wander the wasteland by himself as an immortal kept alive against his will by the Hulk. Eventually, the Banner part of his psyche dies, leaving the Hulk alone forever which is depressing AF.

 

 

Click the link below ⬇️ to read more facts about The Incredible Hulk

 

Source: The Incredible Hulk Facts  |  Wikipedia - The Incredible Hulk

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Fact of the Day - COUNTRIES

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Did you know.... that a country is a distinct territorial body or political entity. It is often referred to as the land of an individual's birth, residence or citizenship. A country may be an independent sovereign state or part of a larger state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, a physical territory with a government, or a geographic region associated with sets of previously independent or differently associated people with distinct political characteristics. It is not inherently sovereign. (Wikipedia)

 

Fascinating Facts About Every Single Country on Earth
By Max DeNike  |  updated on June 5, 2020

 

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We know travel plans are impacted right now. But to fulfill your wanderlust, we'll continue to share stories that can inspire your next adventure.

 

Have you ever wondered how many countries exist in the world? Do you know how many have “Guinea” in their name? Which one is the youngest? The answers might surprise you.  The United Nations recognizes 193 countries plus two observer states, Palestine and the Vatican (Holy See). Besides big players like the United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, China, Mexico and Brazil, most of these countries have fewer than 50 million residents and might be difficult for people to find on a map.  So, to make the world a bit more accessible and fun, we set out to find one no-way-it's-true, fascinating fact about all 195 of these countries/observer states, ranked by population. Armed with this information, you’ll be a big hit at the next office party, if maybe not so much on a first date.

 

1. China

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Population: 1.43 billion

There are 63 million pairs of chopsticks — or 126 million single sticks — manufactured in China every year. These range from mass-produced disposable chopsticks to high-quality sticks that can take up to (yes) a month to painstakingly make.

 

2. India

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Population: 1.37 billion

India gave the world its sweet tooth. Although sugarcane originated in Southeast Asia, it was first chemically refined about 2,500 years ago in India. (Thanks, India!)

 

3. United States

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Population: 329.1 million

The stars and stripes make up one of the most recognizable flags of any country in the world. But did you know the modern iteration containing 50 stars was designed for a class project by an enterprising high school student in 1958, who anticipated the addition of Alaska and Hawaii a year later? Amazingly, the boy's unimpressed teacher gave him a B-.

 

4. Indonesia
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Population: 270.6 million

This Southeast Asian country is the world’s largest island nation, but no one knows exactly how many islands it contains (thousands and thousands, to be imprecise). Indonesia attempted to count them all in 2017, but several differing figures still exist.

 

5. Pakistan

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Population: 216.6 million 

There’s a small city called Sialkot in this South Asian country that produces 40 percent of the world’s soccer balls.

 

6. Brazil
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Population: 211 million

There are more uncontacted people in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon than anywhere else on the planet, with the number of isolated tribes believed to be more than 100. 

 

7. Nigeria

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Population: 201 million

The Yoruba people in the southwest part of this African nation are known for giving birth to more twins than anywhere else in the world, at a rate of 50 per 1,000 births. The best explanation so far is that Yoruba people eat a type of yam that contains an ovarian stimulate that might release more eggs.

 

8. Bangladesh

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Population: 163 million

This South Asian country is very warm — so warm, in fact, that the lowest temperature ever recorded was 2.6 degrees Celsius (37.7 degrees Fahrenheit), which is just above freezing. Still, the 2018 cold spell was blamed for 12 deaths. 

 

9. Russia

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Population: 145.9 million

In 2012, Russian scientists were able to regenerate a plant from a seed found in Siberian permafrost that was more than 30,000 years old. 

 

10. Mexico

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Population: 127.6 million 

This North American country is home to many pyramids built by the Mayans and other ancient civilizations, but perhaps its least famous triangular structure is actually the largest one in the world.  The Aztecs are believed to have built the Great Pyramid of Cholula some 2,000 years ago, and its base is four times larger than Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza. Today, however, Cholula is mostly covered by dirt and plants.

 

 

Click the link below ⬇️ to read more fascinating facts about every single country on earth.

 

Source: Facts About Countries  |  Wikipedia - Country

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Fact of the Day - ROBIN HOOD

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Did you know... that Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depicted as being of noble birth, and in modern retellings he is sometimes depicted as having fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff. In the oldest known versions he is instead a member of the yeoman class. Traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green, he is said to have robbed from the rich and given to the poor. (Wikipedia)

 

Oo-De-Lally Facts About Robin Hood
BY STACY CONRADT  |  NOVEMBER 2015

 

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Oo-De-Lally Facts About Robin Hood
BY STACY CONRADT   |   NOVEMBER 2015

Hollywood has come up with countless versions of Robin Hood and his Merry Men over the years, but only one of them stars a fox, a badger, and a wolf. If Disney's 1973 version of Robin Hood is one of your favorite adaptations (along with this one, of course), read on for a few fun facts.

 

 

1. Robin Hood was the result of another movie getting canned.
Disney had been considering making a movie about Reynard the Fox since at least the 1930s. Reynard was a lesser-known fable from the 1100s that told the tales of a scoundrel fox. The problem was, Reynard skewed more toward villain than antihero, which ended up being a challenge for the writers. Despite scripts and storyboards, the Reynard movie still hadn’t come to fruition more than two decades later. Animator Ken Anderson eventually blended the idea into the Robin Hood script, reasoning that Robin Hood’s outlaw status made him sort of Reynard-like.

 

2. Robin's voice, Brian Bedford, is a Shakespearean-Trained Actor.
The Tony Award-winning Brian Bedford is well known for his Shakespearean work, including acting and directing in the Stratford Festival.

 

3. “The Phony King of England” was likely based on a real song.
It has been said, but never confirmed, that author Rudyard Kipling penned the lyrics to the bawdy pub song “The Bastard King of England.” Whoever’s responsible, it’s likely that the much tamer “The Phony King of England” was inspired by the dirty version. Have a listen:

 

 


4. There's a notable fight song during a chase sequence.
The University of Wisconsin’s fight song, “On Wisconsin,” makes an appearance when Lady Kluck takes on the hippo guards.

 

 


5. Allan-a-Dale the Rooster may sound familiar to you.
Roger Miller was a respected singer-songwriter in Nashville long before Disney recruited him to voice and write songs for Allan-a-Dale. Miller worked with legends like Minnie Pearl, Chet Atkins, George Jones, and Ernest Tubb before writing his biggest hit, “King of the Road.”

 

 


6. A deleted scene shows another one of Prince John’s schemes.
In it, Prince John dictates a letter to Sir Hiss in which he pretends to be Maid Marian. It’s all part of luring Robin Hood into a trap, of course. You can see the storyboards with rough voiceover work here.

 

7. “Love” was nominated for an Oscar.
The ballad that plays while Robin and Marian make eyes at each other was written by Floyd Huddleston and George Bruns. Nancy Adams, Huddleston’s wife, provided Maid Marian’s singing voice for the song. Though "Love" was nominated at the 1974 Academy Awards, it lost to “The Way We Were” from the movie of the same name.

 

8. Robin Hood reuses pieces of other Disney movies.

The dance sequence that goes with “The Phony King of England” was made from a potpourri of dances from other Disney movies, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Aristocats. This was achieved by an animation technique called “rotoscoping,” where animators trace over the frames of old footage to use it in a different environment.

 

 

 

 

9. Friar Tuck was originally a pig.
Animator Ken Anderson first conceived Friar Tuck as a pig, but then decided that the church might take that particular depiction as a slight. He’s not the only character that switched animals: the Sheriff of Nottingham was supposed to be a goat, but changed to a wolf to seem more villainous.

 

10. Robin was wounded in an alternate ending.
Near the end of the movie, Robin is struck by an arrow and whisked off to the safety of a church. Prince John finds his hideout and is about to kill both Robin and Maid Marian when King Richard bursts in, back from the Crusades. From there on out, the ending is about the same: Prince John and his cohorts are banished to the rock pile, and Robin and Marian get married. Check out the storyboards:

 

 


11. It was Disney's biggest hit.
Despite mixed reviews from critics and fans alike, Robin Hood ended up doing very well at the box office, taking in $9.5 million. At the time, it was Disney’s biggest box office total to date.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Robin Hood  |  Robin Hood Facts
 

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Fact of the Day - INDIANA JONES

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Did you know... that Indiana Jones is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. In 1984, a prequel, The Temple of Doom, was released, and in 1989, a sequel, The Last Crusade. A fourth film followed in 2008, titled The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A fifth film is in development and is provisionally scheduled to be released in 2022. The series was created by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, who directed the first four films, and stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. (Wikipedia)

 

Fun Facts About the Indiana Jones Movies
BY SEAN HUTCHINSON  |   BY M. ARBEITER  |  MARCH 16, 2016

 

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Nearly 35 years ago, in the summer of 1981, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Harrison Ford banded together to introduce moviegoers to a new kind of action hero. In the intervening years, Indiana Jones has made three more big-screen appearances (plus one television series)—with one more film on the way for 2019. In the meantime, we're looking back at the first four films in the series.

 

1. ONE DOG INSPIRED BOTH INDIANA JONES AND CHEWBACCA.

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While developing the film with Spielberg and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, Lucas named the main character “Indiana Smith.” But Spielberg protested that it was too similar to the 1966 Steve McQueen western Nevada Smith and requested a change. The three agreed that the last name should be as universal and nondescript as “Smith,” so Lucas threw out “Jones” as a possibility. Indiana came from Lucas’ dog, an Alaskan malamute named Indiana. The big, hairy pup was also the inspiration for Chewbacca from Star Wars.

 

2. A RECEPTIONIST AT LUCASFILM HELPED OUT WITH RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK’S SPECIAL EFFECTS.

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Advanced CGI was still far off when Spielberg tasked the effects wizards at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create the otherworldly elements for his film after the fact. To create the deadly specters that emerge from the Ark, ILM model maker Steve Gawley suspended small puppets with silk robes into a clouded water tank in front of a bluescreen. Puppeteers would shake the model back and forth in the water to achieve the surreal flowing movements Spielberg wanted, which would then be composited onto the actual footage by optical supervisor Bruce Nicholson. To pull off the effect where an idyllic ghost floats toward the camera, only to reveal a hideous visage, the ILM guys found a receptionist from Lucasfilm and outfitted her in long white robes and painted her face a ghostly shade of blue and white. They then had her sit on a flat trapeze mechanism in front of a bluescreen and swing away from camera—which was run backwards in the final film to achieve a dreamlike quality. The receptionist’s performance was then composited with a grotesque, skeletal model to create the final transformation.

 

3. THE ACTOR WHO PLAYED SHORT ROUND WAS DISCOVERED BY ACCIDENT.

 

Spielberg and casting director Mike Fenton were having trouble finding the right young actor for Short Round, so they put out an open casting call at an elementary school in Los Angeles and eventually found actor Ke Huy Quan ... but not directly. Quan’s mother brought in his older brother to read for the part of Short Round, but during the screen test the younger Quan began telling his brother what to do, which caught the eye of producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. They asked him to do his own taped audition for Spielberg. It was so good that they invited the youngster to audition with Indy himself, Harrison Ford. Because the young would-be actor couldn’t read English very well, Spielberg decided to let him improvise during the audition—similar to the way he found young Henry Thomas for E.T.—telling him to play cards with Ford and gradually realize he had been cheated. Spielberg said, “I just loved [Quan's] personality. I thought he was like a 50-year-old man trapped in a 12-year-old’s body.” Quan later explained why he was undaunted, despite having no experience, saying, “I didn't know who Steven, George, or Harrison were. I hadn't seen Raiders Of The Lost Ark and I didn't even know this was a sequel. After the shoot, Steven screened all his movies for me.

 

4. KATE CAPSHAW’S PRICELESS DRESS WAS EATEN BY AN ELEPHANT ON-SET.

 

Kate Capshaw's costume had a wild time on set—in particular during one jungle scene that featured a hungry elephant. Willie, Indy, and Short Round are riding an elephant to Pankot Palace, and when they stop to make camp, Willie hangs her dress up to dry. In an unscripted moment, the elephant began eating the custom dress right off of a branch, tearing the entire back off the priceless costume. Costume designer Anthony Powell, who later scrambled to restore the dress by hand, filled out the insurance claim on the garment by stating “Eaten by elephant.”

 

5. TEMPLE OF DOOM FEATURES ONE OF SPIELBERG’S PERSONAL FAVORITE MOMENTS FROM HIS ENTIRE FILMOGRAPHY.

 

The scene when the three main characters are on their way to the Temple and get stuck in a booby-trapped room with spikes coming from the ceiling and floor was among the first sequences Spielberg and Lucas came up with for Temple of Doom. According to Spielberg, “For me to be able to turn that idea into something with bugs and a little coda where Willie's butt hits the trigger mechanism so the whole thing begins again, and to have the last shot of Indy reaching in and grabbing his hat just before the secret slab of concrete closes ... that was my favorite thing to shoot on that entire production.”

 

6. TEMPLE OF DOOM CREATED THE PG-13 RATING.

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Think about this: a movie that includes a man pulling the still-beating heart out of another very-much-alive man who is then lowered into a searing pool of lava to die is rated a family-friendly PG by the Motion Picture Association of America. Parents and audience members alike were taken aback by the violence in Spielberg’s second Indiana Jones film, but the violence and horrific aspects weren’t enough to warrant an R rating (one that would cripple a film that relied so heavily on being a family-friendly film). Once a controversy about the violence in Temple of Doom and Gremlins (a film Spielberg executive produced) arose, Spielberg wrote to Jack Valenti, then-President of the MPAA, suggesting an in-between rating for movies of similar ilk. The director suggested four new potential examples, including “PG-13,” “PG-14,” “PG-2” or “R-13,” which would limit or allow certain audience members admittance between PG and R-rated films. Valenti soon enacted the new system, labeling director John Milius’ film Red Dawn with the first ever PG-13 rating.

 

7. SPIELBERG MADE INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE TO APOLOGIZE FOR TEMPLE OF DOOM.

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After the masterpiece of spirited adventure that was Raiders of the Lost Ark, some critics and audience members felt betrayed by the grim and gruesome sequel. Spielberg was hardly a defender of the movie; in 1989 he admitted, “I wasn't happy with the second film at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist. There's not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom." Spielberg’s involvement in a third Indiana Jones film sprang from his desire to apologize to viewers for the series’ disappointing second outing, and to revive the earnest spirit of the original. He re-hired supporting stars Denholm Elliott and John Rhys-Davies to double down on the Raiders ambiance.

 

8. A RENOWNED PLAYWRIGHT SECRETLY PENNED THE INDY/HENRY MATERIAL. 

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Since the relationship between Indy and his estranged father, played by Sean Connery, provided the emotional meat of the story in The Last Crusade, Spielberg and Lucas hired a ghostwriter to bolster the gravity of the characters’ interactions. Celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard contributed the bulk of the Jones boys’ material, but didn’t receive a writing credit. 

 

9. FORD AND CONNERY TOOK OFF THEIR PANTS WHILE SHOOTING ONE SCENE. 

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A little more than halfway through the film, Indy and Henry converse over a private table while hiding out on a German zeppelin. Unbeknownst to viewers, beneath the table neither Harrison Ford nor Sean Connery is wearing pants. Excessive heat on the set prompted Connery to remove his slacks while shooting the scene, and Ford followed suit. 

 

10. THE MOVIE HELPED TO PIONEER THE RAT INSURANCE GAME.

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The rat-filled subterranean sequence early in the film proved to be a complex problem: the presence of the rodents cost the film its first choice of female lead, Amanda Redman, as she was too afraid to perform alongside the critters. Then, the production team had to breed its own grey rats for the scene—thousands of them—in order to have enough rodent firepower that was definitely disease-free. Finally, there was the unprecedented matter of taking out an insurance policy on the unpredictable creatures. After some negotiation, the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company did indeed grant Paramount Pictures the very first (and more than likely last) “thousand-rat insurance policy.” The policy would have paid off if the production had lost more than 1000 of its rodents. 

 

11. THE DEATH OF WALTER DONOVAN WAS A BENCHMARK IN DIGITAL EFFECTS. 

 

The rapid degradation of Julian Glover’s villainous character, Walter Donovan, following a sip from a particularly unholy grail (“He chose poorly”) is considered the first complete digital composite shot in Hollywood history. Glover was filmed in several separate stages of the sped-up aging process, which were digitally melded together (along with shots of puppet heads for some of the later stages) and translated back to film as one cohesive take. 

 

12. THE LAST CRUSADE DID WONDERS FOR PETRA’S TOURIST DRAW. 

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After the release of the movie, international interest in Petra—where some of the film's scenes were filmed—skyrocketed. Prior to the film, the city saw only a few thousand visitors every year. That number reached into the millions following Last Crusade’s release. 

 

13. SHIA LABEOUF WASN'T A FAN OF INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.

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Never one to refrain from sticking his foot in his mouth, Shia LaBeouf had some choice words for the fourth entry in the Indiana Jones franchise while at the Cannes Film Festival, telling reporters, “I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished … You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven [Spielberg, who directed]. But the actor's job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn't do it. So that's my fault. Simple.”

Responding to LaBeouf’s badmouthing of The Crystal Skull, Ford told DETAILS that his young co-star “was a f*cking idiot. As an actor, I think it's my obligation to support the film without making a complete ass of myself.”

 

14. SEAN CONNERY SAID NO TO A CAMEO IN THE CRYSTAL SKULL.

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As tempting as it may have been for Sean Connery to re-team with Ford on The Crystal Skull, the happily retired former James Bond turned down the part.

 

15. THE CRYSTAL SKULL INSPIRED AN ALTERNATIVE PHRASE TO “JUMP THE SHARK.”

 

Ever since Henry Winkler attempted to sail over a shark in a late-season episode of Happy Days, the phrase “jump the shark” has been used to describe the point where a television series goes off the rails in its ridiculousness. The Crystal Skull spawned an alternative phrase for that, known as “nuking the fridge.” And Spielberg seemed surprisingly pleased about it. "What people really jumped at was Indy climbing into a refrigerator and getting blown into the sky by an atom-bomb blast,” Spielberg told CNN. “Blame me. Don't blame George. That was my silly idea. People stopped saying 'jump the shark.' They now say, 'nuked the fridge.' I'm proud of that. I'm glad I was able to bring that into popular culture.

 

Source: Wikipedia - Indiana Jones  |  Indiana Jones Facts

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Fact of the Day - SLANG

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Did you know... that slang is language of an informal register. It also sometimes refer to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-groups prefer over the common vocabulary of a standard language in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception. (Wikipedia)

 

Spiffy Slang Words and Phrases from the 1920s
by Amie Tennant  |  June 22, 2020  

 

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Wouldn’t it be swell to travel back in time to the 1920s America? Maybe you could grill an ancestor and get them to sing (that means “talk” in 1920s lingo!). But be sure you know your onions! We can help you with that. Read ahead to learn some popular 1920s slang and sayings so you don’t sound like a sap. When you’re finished learning 1920s slang, test your family friends on these slang words (and discover any fun family sayings!) and audio record their reactions!

 

Doll: 1920s Slang for Woman
The term “doll” was used to describe a pretty young woman in the 1920s, but it had been a term used as early as the 1550s when it began as a shortened form of “Dorothy.”

 

Cool Cat: 1920s Slang for a Hip Man
My Uncle John was one cool cat! The American 1920s slang phrase “cool cat” likely got its origin in the Jazz community. The Jazz Age of the 1920s greatly influenced American slang with other words and phrases such as an “Oliver Twist.” An Oliver Twist was an extremely good dancer that could really cut a rug (hey look, more 1920s lingo!).

 

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Cutting a rug derives its meaning from when couples would dance the jitterbug. When the dance was performed in one area for a long period of time, it would make the carpet appear as though it was cut, hence the 1920s slang cut a rug.

 

Bathtub Gin: 1920s Lingo for Homemade Liquor.

The American prohibition lasted throughout the 1920s, making people a little more creative in making and distributing liquor. That’s where terms like bathtub gin, speakeasies, and bootleggers became popular 1920s terms.

 

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Bathtub gin was slang for homemade liquor that could be made in the bathtub. Bootleggers, the transporters of the alcohol, would stock the illegal establishments, called speakeasies, with all sorts of homemade drinks, including this famous bathtub gin. A speakeasy, also sometimes called a blind pig or blind tiger, was a place to sell illegal alcoholic beverages. In the U.S., the term speakeasy emerged in the 1880s. These illegal places of business were called speakeasies because people would need to speak quietly about such a place so that authorities wouldn’t be tipped off. Other similar phrases were the cat’s meow, the cat’s whiskers, the tiger’s spots, and the elephant’s adenoids! These silly animal pairings seem to have been quite popular in 1920s slang.

 

Gold Digger: 1920s Lingo for a Woman Who Marries a Man for His Money

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Gold-digger is the perfect example of an idiom, which is a group of words that has a figurative meaning instead of a literal one. The 1920s slang phrase “gold digger” was made popular by the 1929 Broadway show titled Gold Diggers of Broadway in which three chorus girls seek rich husbands.

 

Gams and Dogs: 1920s Slang for Legs and Feet
Will you look at the gams on that doll,” said Howard to Dean. Howard was obviously referring to a woman’s nice-looking legs! But, where in the world did that 1920s saying come from? There are two lines of thought about the origin of the word “gams” referring to legs. One traces it to the Italian word “gamba,” meaning leg. Another theory believes the word comes from “gamb,” meaning the representation of a leg on a coat of arms.

 

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Speaking of legs, are your dogs barking? Maybe after a hard day at work on the factory floor? “Dogs” was a 1920s slang word for feet. When people said their dogs were barking, they were referring to the fact that their feet were hurting. This 1920s phrase actually appeared in print in 1913 when a journalist for the New York Evening, T. A. Dorgan, used the term “dog” to represent his foot. He was well known for his rhyming slang, and this little diddy stuck.

 

The Bee’s Knees: 1920s Saying for Outstanding
This funny phrase was actually first recorded in the 1700s. It was used to refer to something small and insignificant. But by the 1920s, the bee’s knees referred to something thought to be outstanding!

 

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1920s Slang Challenge
Now that you are the Big Cheese with 1920s slang and lingo, don’t lollygag around all day. Challenge your family—especially your parents and grandparents—to see if they recognize any of these phrases or have any fun family sayings of their own.

 

TWENTIES SLANG

  • Bee's Knees - An extraordinary person, thing, idea
  • Berries - is attractive or pleasing; similar to bee's knees, As in "It's the berries."
  • Big Cheese - The most important or influential person. Same as big shot
  • Bluenose - An excessively puritanical person, a prude
  • Bump Off - To murder
  • Carry a Torch - To have a crush on someone
  • Cat's Meow - Something splendid or stylish; similar to bee's knees; The best or greatest
  • Cat's Pajamas - Same as cat's meow
  • Cheaters - Eyeglasses
  • Crush - An infatuation
  • Dogs - feet
  • Drugstore Cowboy - a guy that hangs around on a street corner trying to pick up girls
  • Dumb Dora - a stupid female
  • Fall Guy - victim of a frame
  • Flat Tire - A dull insipid, disappointing date. Same as pill, pickle, drag, rag, oilcan
  • Frame - To give false evidence, to set up someone
  • Gams - A woman's legs
  • Giggle Water - An intoxicating beverage; alcohol
  • Gin Mill - An establishment where hard liquor is sold; bar
  • Hard Boiled - a tough, strong guy
  • Heebie-Jeebies - The jitters
  • Hooch - Bootleg liquor
  • Hoofer - Dancer
  • Hotsy-Totsy - Pleasing
  • Jalopy - Old car
  • Joint - A club, usually selling alcohol
  • Keen - Attractive or appealing
  • Kisser - Mouth
  • Lounge Lizard - a guy that is sexually active
  • Moll - A gangster's girl
  • Neck - Kissing with passion
  • Pinch - To arrest
  • Pushover - A person easily convinced or seduced
  • Ritzy - Elegant (from the hotel)
  • Scram - Ask someone to leave immediately
  • Sheba - A woman with sex appeal (from the movie Queen of Sheba)
  • Sheik - A man with sex appeal (from the Valentino movies)
  • Speakeasy - An illicit bar selling bootleg liquor
  • Spiffy - An elegant appearance
  • Struggle Buggy - the backseat of a car. A parent's worst nightmare
  • Stuck On - Having a crush on
  • Swanky - Ritzy
  • Swell - Wonderful. Also: a rich man
  • Take for a Ride -To drive off with someone in order to bump them off
  • Torpedo - A hired gun
  • Upchuck - To vomit when one has drunk too much
  • Whoopee - To have a good time

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Slang  |  Spiffy 1920s Slang Words  |  Twenties Slang

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Fact of the Day - GREASE (FILM)

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Did you know.... that Grease is a 1978 American musical romantic comedy film based on the 1971 musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Written by Bronte Woodard and directed by Randal Kleiser in his theatrical feature film debut, the film depicts the lives of greaser Danny Zuko and Australian transfer student Sandy Olsson who develop an attraction for each other. The film stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as Danny and Sandy. (Wikipedia)

 

Things you probably didn't know about 'Grease'
Martha Sorren  |  Feb 18, 2021

 

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"Grease" (1978) is an iconic movie-musical filled with talented leads and catchy tunes. This year, the film was also added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.  It's the type of movie that most people have seen once or twice, but even if you know the words to every song, you may not know these behind-the-scenes secrets.

 

The movie is based on the Broadway musical of the same name.

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"Grease" opened on Broadway

in 1972 and was revived in 1994

and 2007. 

 

Before "Grease" became a movie-musical sensation in the late 1970s, it was a Tony-nominated Broadway musical that opened in February 1972. The show was later revived in 1994 and 2007. Additionally, in 2016, Fox aired its "Grease Live!" television special, based on the musical, starring Aaron Tveit, Julianne Hough, Vanessa Hudgens, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Keke Palmer

 

Many of the leading cast members were much older than the high-school characters they were playing.

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Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in "Grease." 

 

It's not uncommon for actors in their early 20s to play teens, but some members of the cast of "Grease" were much older than that. Stockard Channing (Rizzo) was 33, Jamie Donnelly (Jan), was 30, and Olivia Newton-John (Sandy) turned 29 during filming. John Travolta (Danny Zuko), Jeff Conaway (Kenickie), and Didi Conn (Frenchy) were some of the younger castmates at 23, 27, and 25, respectively. 

 

"Grease" could've been an animated film.

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The film still has a lengthy animated opening sequence.

 

The film's cocreator, Jim Jacobs, told Yahoo News in 2018 that Hollywood director Ralph Bakshi pitched "Grease" as an X-rated cartoon. He was well known for his animated hits like "Fritz the Cat," but Jacobs wasn't sold on his vision. Instead, producer Allan Carr won the rights and made it a live-action film — but it still featured an animated opening-credits scene.

 

Henry Winkler was offered the role of Danny Zuko.

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Henry Winkler is known for his role on

ABC's "Happy Days." 

 

Henry Winkler's "Happy Days" character, Fonzie, basically was Danny Zuko, so he was a natural first thought for the film. But Winkler had been playing the ABC role for a decade, so he passed on "Grease." During an appearance on "The Rachael Ray Show" in 2019, the actor called it "one of the great decisions" of his life because Travolta "deserved" the role and ended up being so right for it.

 

And Carrie Fisher was almost in the running for Sandy.

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Carrie Fisher was considered for the role of Sandy in "Grease."

 

According to Vanity Fair, "Grease" director Randal Kleiser was friends with "Star Wars" creator George Lucas. When Kleiser was casting Sandy, he watched some footage of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia to see if she'd be right for the role. But he ultimately couldn't judge her singing or dancing talent and decided to pursue other options. 

 

Danny Zuko wasn't Travolta's first "Grease" role.

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John Travolta in "Grease."

 

Travolta was familiar with the movie's source material before he was ever considered for the role of Danny Zuko.  In the early 1970s, the actor played Doody in the Broadway production of the "Grease" musical.

 

Newton-John said wasn't sure she could handle the role at first.

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Olivia Newton-John in "Grease." 

 

Prior to being cast in "Grease," Newton-John was already a popular singer with multiple hits. But she wasn't sure of her abilities as an actress. During a 1981 appearance on the "The Merv Griffin Show," she said that she wanted to see herself in a screen test with Travolta before accepting the role. That way if she didn't think she was any good, she could drop out. Fortunately, Newton-John was comfortable enough to proceed as Sandy. 

 

Elvis Presley could've played Frenchy's guardian angel.

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Elvis Presley may have been considered for

an iconic cameo in "Grease."

 

According to the same 2016 Vanity Fair article, Elvis Presley was reportedly up for the role of the Teen Angel, which eventually went to "Beach Party" star Frankie Avalon

 

Elvis still got a shout-out in the film, but it ended up being a little eerie.

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Stockard Channing in "Grease."

 

Even though the rock-and-roll legend didn't appear in the film, he was referenced in a lyric from the song "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee." During the film's sleepover scene, Rizzo sings the song and does a little pelvis shake next to a picture of the musician during the line, "Elvis, Elvis, let me be. Keep that pelvis far from me." Presley died on August 16, 1977, the same day the sleepover scene was shot. "It was very eerie," Kleiser told the New York Post in 2010. "It was all over the news, so everyone knew. We did this number, and everybody kind of looked at each other like, 'Yeah, this is creepy.'"

 

There was almost another iconic musical cameo in the film.

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The Beach Boys almost sang "Greased Lightnin'."

 

Vanity Fair also reported in 2016 that original drafts of "Grease" included a cameo from The Beach Boys singing "Greased Lightnin'."

 

Travolta ended up singing the number instead, which differs slightly from the source material.

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John Travolta performing "Greased Lightnin'."

 

Even if The Beach Boys didn't sing "Greased Lightnin'," in the stage musical, it was originally meant to be Kenickie's song. However, Travolta wanted the song for himself and his character, Danny. "I have to be completely honest with you," Travolta told Vanity Fair in 2016. "I wanted the number. And because I had clout, I could get the number."

Click the link below ⬇️ to read more interesting and unique things you didn't know about Grease (film).


Source: Fun Facts You Didn't Know About Grease  |  Wikipedia - Grease (Film)

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Fact of the Day - TV AND MOVIE ANIMALS

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Did you know... that animals are one of the best parts of real life — so, it makes sense they are our favorite part about entertainment, too! A well-trained dog, adorable monkey, and purr-fectly cued cat makes a movie or tv show so much better. After all, how would Sabrina get out of all those sticky situations in Sabrina the Teenage Witch without her cunning black cat, Salem? And, we just can't imagine Legally Blonde without the precious Bruiser hanging out in a pink purse. Yes, animal actors and actresses are simply amazing (as are their patient and talented trainers!), which is why we did a little digging to learn more about our favorite famous dogs, cats, monkeys, and horses.

 

 

Fun Facts About Salem the Cat, Marcel the Monkey, and Other TV and Movie Animals

by SYDNI ELLIS  |  November 10, 2020

 

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Marcel the Monkey from Friends

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Remember Ross's mischievous (and illegal!) black and white capuchin monkey Marcel on Friends? Turns out, Marcel is still alive and makes an appearance in the upcoming TV show, Y: The Last Man. The monkey, whose real name is Katie, is in her mid-20s, and she has acted and appeared in modeling shows since her days delighting fans on the set of the iconic '90s sitcom.

 

Bruiser from Legally Blonde

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Reese Witherspoon's adorable sidekick, Bruiser Woods, in the Legally Blonde movies is one of the cutest dogs on TV. Before Bruiser (whose real name is Mooney) passed away in 2016, he was known for his love of chicken, sleeping up to 23 hours a day, and hanging out with his best friend, Gidget, who starred as the Taco Bell dog in commercials in the early '90s-'00s. In fact, Bruiser and Gidget even got to act together in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde!

 

Blue Jeans from Hannah Montana: The Movie

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The pretty, gray American Quarter Horse that Miley Cyrus rides and takes care of in Hannah Montana: The Movie, was actually just a regular roping horse and family pet before he was discovered. Blue Jeans (AKA, Blue Steel Man), was spotted at a U.S. Team Roping Championships event near Nashville and eventually landed the role of a lifetime. Now, he is happy giving rides to his owner's two young daughters.

 

Salem from Sabrina The Teenage Witch

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Although for much of the series Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch was played by an animatronic puppet, there were several real black cats who would appear on set. Because of all the cat food, Melissa Joan Hart once admitted she wasn't a huge fan of the felines, saying, "I'm a dog person." Another fun fact? Salem was on every single episode of Sabrina. He's one lucky cat!

 

Hedwig from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

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The friendly and talented Hedwig from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was played by 7 different white owls, according to Humane Hollywood. Gizmo had the biggest screen time, but some of Hedwig's scenes were also done by Kasper, Oops, Swoops, Oh Oh, Elmo, and Bandit. Each working owl had its own perch, a large space to safely fly around in, fully equipped bathing facilities, and an invisible safety line to help them make their way across the scene to a trainer waiting with a treat.

 

Buddy from Air Bud

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Buddy, the adorable golden retriever from Air Bud, was a stray dog in the Sierra Nevada before he was found by Kevin di Cicco. Di Cicco likes to say they rescued each other, and he trained Buddy in basketball and other sports before starring in the popular Disney Channel Original Movie. Buddy also appeared in one episode of Full House as Comet, where he shows off his basketball skills for Danny Tanner.

 

Cosmo from Fuller House

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At just four years old, Cosmo from Fuller House passed away from surgery complications. In addition to playing the family's dog (who was supposed to be the great-grandson of Comet from Full House), Cosmo also appeared on Suits, The Middle, and Grey's Anatomy. In September 2020, the Tanner family reunited to perform Jeff Franklin's original song, "Gotta Love a Golden," to honor Cosmo and Comet.

 

Max from The Grinch

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Max was the cutest character in the 2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas (and, TBH, every adaption of The Grinch), but did you know he was actually played by six different mixed-breed shelter rescue dogs? Humane Hollywood says he was played by Kelly, Chip, Topsy, Stella, Zelda, and Bo, who all wore a lightweight headpiece with long ears attached and an additional antler headpiece and fur-covered harness on the flying scenes.

 

The Puppies in 101 Dalmatians

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It may be called 101 Dalmatians, but there were actually 230 Dalmatian puppies and 20 adult Dalmatians on set of this 1996 Disney film. The trainers used various treats and voice commands to get the dogs to act a certain way, and they rubbed steak juice and raw hot dogs on the actors to get the dogs to lick their skins in all those loving scenes (*shudder*).

 

Hooch from Turner & Hooch

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The sweet pooch Tom Hanks takes care of in the 1989 film, Turner & Hooch, is a Douge De Bordeaux — a French breed built like a Rottweiler with a wrinkled face and lots of personality. Several different dogs portrayed Hooch, all of which had their own special talents including crawling without using front legs, jumping, butting his head through a door, and more. Tom Hanks spent time with all of the dogs prior to filming to ensure he had a good relationship with them on camera.

 

Marley from Marley and Me

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Marley, the adorable golden Labrador that made everyone cry in Marley and Me, ate a lot of baby food on set, according to Humane Hollywood. That's because trainers would smear it on actors or objects to encourage Marley (who was played by several different golden labs) to lick it. Baby food was also hidden in the diaper the sweet dog bites to make it more appealing.

 

Fat Louie from The Princess Diaries

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The adorably lazy Fat Louie from The Princess Diaries was played by four different cats: one who allowed people to carry it, one who could sit still, one who could jump, and one who sits on the envelope at the end of the movie. Even cooler, one of the Fat Louie cats was Anne Hathaway's real life pet!

 

Beethoven from Beethoven

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Beethoven from the original 1992 film was played by a St. Bernard named Chris. Although he was allowed to do many of his own stunts and tricks (like drinking out of a fish bowl with fish swimming in it, stealing snacks, and dressing up as a horse for Halloween), there was also a full mechanical dog on site and a mechanical dog head to create unique facial expressions and reactions, like those funny bulging eyes.
 

 

Source: Famous Animals in Movies and TV

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Fact of the Day - 1800s

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Did you know... that the 1800s was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1800, and ended on December 31, 1809. The term "eighteen-hundreds" can also mean the years between 1800 and 1899, and is almost synonymous with the 19th century. The decade was a period of drastic change. (Wikipedia)

 

Fascinating and Historical Facts About The 1800s

Fact Republic  |  March 25, 2018

 

Coronation of Napoleon I

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During Napoleon I's coronation in 1804, the new emperor crowned himself, instead of having the Pope Pius VII put the crown on his head, to symbolize that he was becoming emperor based on his own merit and not the will of God.

 

Harvard's First Black Faculty Member

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Harvard's first black faculty member was a dentist named Dr. George Franklin Grant. He joined the Department of mechanical dentistry in 1871. Also as an inventor, he patented the wooden golf tee. Previously, golfers carried around buckets of sand, placing their balls on little piles as they went.

 

Nikola Tesla

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In 1898, Nikola Tesla tricked an entire crowd into believing that they could control a toy boat by shouting commands at it. He had in fact invented radio control and was piloting the boat himself.

 

The First Person to Cycle Around the Globe

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The first person to cycle around the globe was Thomas Stevens. He did it on a penny-farthing (high wheeled bicycle) between 1884 and 1886, packing only socks, a spare shirt, a revolver and a raincoat that doubled as a tent and bedroll.

 

Treadmills a Form of Punishment

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Treadmills were used as a form of punishment to torture prisoners in the 1800's. The treadmills operated by the prisoners powered grain mills (hence the name treadmill) and pump water. Prisoners were often forced to spend up to six hours a day on the wheel, which was the equivalent of climbing about 5,000 to 14,000 feet.

 

Hunting of Bison

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The hunting of bison to near-extinction in the 1800s was not to gain food, but to restrict the American Indians' dominant food supply. Herds of bison were shot from trains and left to rot where they died.

 

Bob the Dog

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In the late 19th century there was a dog named Bob, who would hitch rides all over the South Australian railway system. He had no owner but was widely known to railway men of the day. When he died, he was eulogized around the world and was lauded as “the king of outcasts.”

 

SS Warrimoo

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At midnight on the December 30th, 1899, a passenger streamer ship named SS Warrimoo positioned itself at the intersection of the dateline and equator, such that the bow and stern occupied different seasons, hemispheres, days, years, and centuries. For the ship, December 31st never occurred.

 

Predict the World’s Imminent End

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In 1806, an Englishwoman named Mary Bateman convinced hundreds of people that her chicken would predict the world’s imminent end. “Christ is Coming” read the eggs that the hen laid. Bateman sold protective wards to people for a shilling apiece, but her con was exposed after a local doctor caught her shoving a handwritten egg back up into her poor hen. Bateman went on to practice medicine, and was executed for poisoning several of her patients.

 

The Year Without a Summer

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1816 was called "The Year Without a Summer" after the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. Crop failure forced Joseph Smith to leave Vermont, and his journeys resulted in “The Book of Mormon.” The dreary rain in Switzerland drove Mary Shelley to stay indoors, where she wrote “Frankenstein.”

 

 

Click the link below ⬇️ to read more Facts of the 1800s.

 

Source: Facts of the 1800s  |  Wikipedia - 1800s (decade)

Edited by DarkRavie
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Fact of the Day - F­­ÜR ELISE

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Did you know... that Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano, commonly known as Für Elise, is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions, and one of the most famous piano pieces of all time. It was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl) 40 years after his death, and may be termed either a Bagatelle or an Albumblatt. The identity of "Elise" is unknown; researchers have suggested Therese Malfatti, Elisabeth Röckel, or Elise Barensfeld. (Wikipedia)

 

The History of Für Elise: A “Trifle” That Has Become a Classic

by Tonara Team  |  October 2020 

 

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From its first repeating notes, Für Elise is instantly recognizable. It may even be the most famous melody ever written! But did you know that when Beethoven first drafted this short piano piece, he stuffed it in a drawer, never to be seen in his lifetime? Curious how it went from forgotten trifle to universally known? Wondering what exactly makes it such an unforgettable earworm? Need some tips on learning to play this piece? Then keep reading for everything you've ever wanted to know about one of Beethoven's best-known masterpieces.

 

One of the most recognized tunes from the annals of classical music, the Bagatelle No. 25 in A Minor WoO 59 (better known as Für Elise) is also one of the three most recognized melodies of Ludwig van Beethoven. The other two are the theme from the first movement of his Fifth Symphony (da-da-da-dum!) and the theme “Ode to Joy” from the Ninth Symphony (called by many titles, including “Bells Are Ringing” and the hymn “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee). Although Beethoven never intended this piece to be a large part of his musical legacy, the history of Für Elise has grown far beyond the size or relative importance of the music. It has become one of the most taught and played piano pieces in the early and intermediate years of study. For a student to mark this piece with his own interpretation, he should know a little more about Beethoven and the Für Elise history.

 

Ludwig van Beethoven and Für Elise
Beethoven wrote this small gem on April 27, 1810, and called it a “bagatelle.” The term’s meaning is a trifle or a thing of little importance. In music, a bagatelle is a short, light piece of music, usually for the piano. It is similar to an “Albumblatt”, literally an “album leaf”, a solo piano piece friends could share with one another by pasting it in a musical scrapbook. Musically, it is a five-part rondo with the form ABACA. It is in the key of A minor, which gives it a sad or wistful sound, full of regret and longing. The repeating A section is the most recognized part of Für Elise. It is the easiest section to learn and play. The other sections are more difficult to play, although shorter in length. They are more virtuosic for the intermediate student, creating a flash of brilliant light among the repetitive darker minor strains of the A section.

 

 

 

The History of Für Elise
The history behind Für Elise is a fascinating part of Beethoven’s story. This small piano piece has become the source of a much larger mystery. Who is the "Elise" Beethoven dedicated this "trifle" to? Was it a gift for one of his many adult female attachments, or was it a reward for one of his piano students who was making his progress? Of the possible candidates, three stand out. One is Therese Malfatti, a piano student of Beethoven’s and the woman to whom he proposed marriage in 1810, the year Für Elise was written. The original autograph copy of Für Elise was found among her papers many years after Beethoven’s death.  The second is Elizabeth Röckel, a German soprano who sang in the original production of Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. She was a good friend of Beethoven until she turned down Beethoven’s proposal of marriage and instead married his musical rival, Johann Nepomuk Hümmel. Perhaps he wrote the piece as a farewell to her.

 

The final possible “Elise” actually carried that name! She was Juliane Katherine Elisabet Barensfeld, known to her friends as Elise. She was a child prodigy who lived across the street from Therese Malfatti and was possibly Therese’s piano student at the age of 13. At least one scholar thinks Beethoven wrote the piece for Elise, the young student, as a favor to Therese--perhaps to win her favor. Of these three possibilities, Therese Malfatti emerges as the one with the most evidence in her favor. Für Elise history falls into place most easily when her relationship with Beethoven is closely considered. How did he meet her, and how did she inspire him to write such a lingering melody?

 

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Therese Malfatti

 

Beethoven’s deafness and personal traits
By 1810, his hearing had been worsening for more than ten years. The horror of deafness to a musician cannot be underestimated. To hear the music in your mind without being able to successfully create it yourself--what a miserable existence he was leading. He tried to hide his growing deafness for many years, but by the turn of the century it was unavoidable, making his already abrasive personality more and more unlikable. Beethoven was 40 years old in 1810 and well known for his compositions and piano playing in Vienna, the city of music and musicians in the early 19th century. Despite creating a successful career for himself, Beethoven had not been able to find a wife. He had been connected with several young women of the upper class, but none of them were able to look beyond his middle-class beginnings. 

 

Of course, his lack of decent hygiene was also a part of his failure to wed. He had paid little attention to his appearance through most of his life, ignoring personal grooming and the condition of his clothes. He often just poured water over his head instead of washing, and his friends often took his clothes and had them cleaned while he slept, as he would go days and days in the same garments. And then there was his personality. He would tell a person exactly what he felt, often to the point of rudeness. He was never willing to adjust his behavior to what society required; in fact, he always believed in his own musical genius and could not understand why the people around him didn’t always allow him to have his own way, rude and arrogant though he was. He seemed incapable of understanding the feelings of others, male or female. This led to many one-sided relationships, with Beethoven always seeing himself as the one who had been wronged.

 

All that seemed to change when he met the Malfatti family and their oldest daughter, Therese. In 1810, Therese was 18 years old and one of Beethoven’s piano students. Her father was a medical doctor who treated Beethoven for some of his many illnesses. Beethoven was quite taken with her from their first meeting and soon began heaping great praise on her piano skills, which weren’t all that notable. There was probably some flirting on Therese’s side, as it would have been very flattering to have a famous musician like Beethoven falling all over himself to impress her. He started cleaning up, ordered new clothing, and even combed his wild mane of hair. 

 

Last but not least, he wrote her a piece of music, composed deliberately for her skill level. All seemed well, at least to Beethoven. Then everything came crashing down. Although we don’t know exactly what happened, later letters to and from Beethoven speak of an unfortunate incident at the Malfatti home. Beethoven had a little too much punch and behaved rudely with Therese, and she rejected him outright. In a later letter to Therese, Beethoven wrote about the piece he had written for her and invited her to find its hidden meaning. “Work it out for yourself, but do not drink punch to help you,” he wrote, apparently referring to the unfortunate incident that ended their relationship.

 

The history of Für Elise after Beethoven and Therese
So, what was this piece of music? It was found in Therese’s personal papers in 1851, 41 years after it was probably written. A small piece, Beethoven gave it its formal name, “Bagatelle”. But it was what he wrote at the top of the page that not only gave this piece its informal name, but also created a mystery that has fascinated students of the history of Für Elise ever since. At the top of the page, Beethoven wrote (translated from German😞For Elise on 27 April to remind you of L.V. Bthvn”. Ludwig Nohl, a German music scholar, discovered the original manuscript in Beethoven’s own handwriting among her musical papers, transcribed it, and published it in 1867 in a book he edited of Beethoven’s letters. The original has since been lost, so we have had to rely on Nohl’s copy of it.  Beethoven had notoriously bad handwriting, and many history scholars think that Nohl misread Beethoven’s original title, which may have read, “Für Therese.” However, nicknames were a common practice in society during this time of history, and it’s quite possible that Therese was called “Elise” by her family, as well as Beethoven himself, who liked to give his friends nicknames. Whichever reason is correct, the piece became known as “Für Elise” from then on. 

 

The history of Für Elise is also a part of the history of our popular culture. The melody has been used in commercials for McDonalds, Adidas, Doritos, and the GMC Sierra truck. You can hear it in TV episodes of The Closer, Modern Family, Futurama, and The Simpsons. It was the most-used melody for a ringtone in the 1990’s. It is also commonly heard as “elevator music” in office buildings, and in Taiwan, garbage trucks use it to let people know that they are picking up the garbage.  Some would say that Für Elise is overheard, something that people are tired of. However, the history of Für Elise starts a new chapter every time a piano teacher asks a student what they would like to learn, and the student replies, “That Für Elise song!” 

 

Somewhere, Beethoven is smiling!

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Für Elise  |  Für Elise Facts


 

Edited by DarkRavie
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Fact of the Day - STELVIO PASS

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Part of Stelvio Pass

 

Did you know... that The Stelvio Pass is a mountain pass in northern Italy bordering Switzerland at an elevation of 2,757 m above sea level. It is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps, and the second highest in the Alps, 7 m below France's Col de l'Iseran. (Wikipedia)

 

Things you didn’t know about the Stelvio Pass
BRYN DAVIES  |  4TH MAY 2020

 

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If you ask an avid adventure bike rider if they’ve heard of the Stelvio Pass, they’ll probably respond with a roll of the eyes and an (if they’re polite) ‘of course’. However, though you’re probably aware of the iconic pass, some interesting facts have most likely slid under your radar. So, for this reason, we’ve joined forces with motorcycle clothing brand, Spada, which has a textile suit called ‘the Stelvio’, to bring you five things you didn’t know about the Stelvio Pass.

 

1. It’s designed by a man called Carlo Donegani

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The man responsible for this feat of engineering was Carlo Donegani, who designed and led the building of the pass. Construction began in 1820 and it took over 2,000 workers five years to complete. Emperor Ferdinand was on hand at its opening and was so pleased that he later granted Donegani the title of ‘Nobleman of the Stelvio’.

 

2. A battle was fought at the summit as part of The White War

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The White War, which took place during World War One, was a clash between Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops. 150,000 men died on the Alpine front and, while some died in battle, most men were killed by avalanches and illnesses caused by the extreme cold. The image above shows troops in the highest trench in history, located near the summit of Ortler which, at 3,905m, is the highest mountain in the Eastern Alps (outside of the Bernina range). From their vantage point, they would be looking down on the Stelvio Pass.

 

>>> Is the Stelvio Pass Europe’s most exciting road?

 

3. 48 of the 75 hairpin turns are located on the northern side

stelvio-pass-north-side-1-e1588600629383

 

And each corner has been labelled with a numbered rock so riders can keep track of what’s to come.

 

4. If you visit, you should brush up on your German

stelvio_sausage.jpg

 

You’re more likely to find a Bratwurst than a Bruschetta in this part of town as, although the Stelvio Pass is entirely in Italy, most of the locals in this area still speak German and consider themselves far more Germanic than Italian.

 

5. There is a lesser-known third road up to the Stelvio

umbrail_pass.jpg

 

If you’ve tackled the northern and southern sides of the pass and you’re still hungry for more, there is a lesser-known road up to the Stelvio almost entirely in Switzerland called the Umbrail Pass. The pass joins the route about 2 miles below the summit and is the highest paved mountain pass in Switzerland.

 

In 2019, ABR headed to the Central Italian Alps to ride the Stelvio Pass and we filmed it for your viewing pleasure.

 

Check out the video below.

 

 

 

Motorcycle clothing brand, Spada, has released a Stelvio jacket and trouser for your journey along this epic pass, or any road for that matter. With fast-drying materials and enhanced rider protection, their kit aims to keep you safe, dry and able to enjoy your travels. To find out more, check out the Spada Clothing website.

 

 

Source: Wikipedia - Stelvio Pass  |  Facts About Stelvio Pass

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