The Turkey: Holiday Delicacy and One-time Proposed Symbol of the United States

A Broad Breasted Bronze tom (male turkey)

Fun Facts About the Turkey

 

• 

  Wild turkeys in their natural habitat

  Turkeys originated in North and Central America.

• Usually the turkeys are found in hardwood forests with grassy areas but they are capable of adapting themselves to different habitats.
• Turkeys spend the night in trees.
• You can easily see a turkey on a warm clear day or during light rain.
• Turkeys fly to the ground at first light and feed until mid-morning. Feeding resumes in mid-afternoon.
• Turkeys start gobbling before sunrise and generally continue through most of the morning.
• The field of vision of wild turkey is so good that it is about 270 degrees.
• The wild turkey has excellent hearing.
• 

  A turkey can run up to 20 mph

  A spooked turkey can run at speed up to 20 miles per hour.

• A wild turkey can run at speed of up to 25 miles per hour.
• A wild turkey can fly for short distances at up to 55 miles per hour.
• Domesticated turkeys or the farm-raised turkeys cannot fly.
• Turkeys were one of the first birds to be domesticated in the America.
• The male turkeys are called ‘tom’, the female turkeys are called ‘hen’ and the baby turkeys are called ‘poult’.
• The male turkeys gobble whereas female turkeys make a clicking noise.
• The male turkeys gobble to attract the female turkeys for mating. The gobble is a seasonal call made during the spring and fall.
• A mature turkey generally has around 3,500 feathers. The Apache Indians considered the turkey timid and wouldn’t eat it or use its feathers on their arrows.
• 

  Roast turkey is typically consumed in America during Thanksgiving and/or Christmas

  According to an estimate, during the Thanksgiving holiday more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and around 525 million pounds of turkey is eaten.

• About ninety-five percent of American families eat turkey on the Thanksgiving Day whereas fifty percent eat turkey on Christmas holiday.
• Almost fifty percent of Americans eat turkey at least once every 2 weeks.
• According to the National Turkey Federation about twenty-four percent of Americans purchase fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving and seventy percent purchase frozen turkeys.
• North Carolina is the number one producer of turkeys. It produces around 61 million turkeys per year. Minnesota and Arkansas are second and third number producers of turkey.
• The part of the turkey that is used in a good luck ritual is known as the ‘wishbone’.
• The red fleshy growth from the base of the beak that hangs down over the beak is called ‘snood’. It is very long on male turkeys.

 

Special thanks to www.thanksgivingnovember.com

New Year’s: One Country’s Times Square is Another’s Burnt Straw Dummy Outside Your Home

New Year's Eve in Times Square, New York City

Fun Facts About New Year’s Traditions Around the World

Many New Year’s traditions are similar, but some are different. Here are some interesting customs, past and present, around the world.

New Year's in Sydney, Australia

Australia: New Year’s is celebrated on January 1. This is a public holiday and many people spend it having picnics and camping on the beach. Their parties start on December 31. At midnight they start to make noise with whistles, rattles, car horns, and church bells to ring in the New Year.

Austria: New Year’s Eve is called Sylverterabend, which is the Eve of Saint Sylvester. they make a spiced punch in honor of the saint. Decorations and champagne are part of the celebration. Evil spirits of the old year are chased away by the firing of moroars, called boller. Midnight mass is attended and trumpets are blown from church towers at midnight, when people kiss each other.

Belgium: New Year’s Eve is called Sint Sylvester Vooranvond, or Saint Sylvester Eve. People throw parties and at midnight everyone kisses and exchanges good luck greetings. New Year’s Day is call Nieuwjaarrsdag – children write letters on decorated paper to their parents and god parents, and read the letter to them.

Traditional First Footing offerings

Great Britain: the custom of first footing is practiced. the first male visitor to the house, after midnight, is supposed to bring good luck. The man brings a gift like money, bread, or coal, to ensure the family will have plenty of these in the year to come. The first person must not be blond, red-haired, or a woman, as these are supposed to be bad luck. In London, crowds gather in Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly circus to hear the chimes of London’s Big Ben as it announces the arrival of the New Year.

France: The French New Year is Jour des Etrennes, or Day of New Year’s Presents. Dinner parties are thrown for the entire family, where presents are exchanged.

Germany: People drop molten lead into cold water to tell the future from the shape it makes. A bit of food eaten on New Year’s Eve is left on their plate until after Midnight, as a way on ensuring a well stocked larder in the coming year.

Greece: January 1 is an important date in Greece because it is St. Basil’s Day, as well as the first day of the year. St. Basil was known for his kindness to children. Stories tell how he would come in the night and leave gifts for children in their shoes. People gather, have special meals and exchange gifts.

A Jack Straw scarecrow in Hungary

Hungary: In Hungary the people burn effigies, or a scapegoat known as “Jack Straw”. The scapegoat represents the evils and misfortunes of the past year. Burning the effigy is supposed to get rid of the bad luck.

India: The Indian New Year’s is started with a festival of lights called Diwali. Cards and gifts are exchanged and people finish off any uncompleted work.

Japan: Oshogatsu in an important time for foamy celebrations when all business are closed. To keep out evil spirits they hang a rope of straw across the front of their houses. The rope stands for happiness and good luck. When the New Year begins, the Japanese people begin to laugh, which is supposed to bring them good luck in the New Year.

Netherlands: People burn Christmas Trees in street bonfires and let fireworks ring in the New Year.

Pope Sylvester I

Poland: Known as St. Sylvester’s Eve., in honor of Pope Sylvester I. Legend is that Pope Sylvester foiled the plans of a dragon to devour the world in the year 1000.

Portugal: The Portuguese pick and eat twelve grapes from a bunch as the clock strikes twelve on New Year;s Eve. The twelve grapes ensure twelve happy months in the coming year.

Colorblind Santa? Nyet...it's Russia's Grandfather Frost

Russia: Grandfather Frost, who wears a blue suit instead of Santa’s red, arrives on New year’s Eve with his bag of toys for the children.

Scotland: Night of the Candle. People prepare for New Year by cleaning their home and purifying it with a ritual or burning juniper branches carried through the home. The First Footer says that whoever the first person to set foot into your home on New Year’s Day decides the luck of the family for the coming year.

South Africa: The New Year is rung in with church bells ringing and gunshots being fired. On New year’s Day there is a carnival atmosphere.

South America: A dummy or straw person is ofter placed outside the home and burned at midnight…

Eating twelve grapes in Spain, Portugal and Greece is said to ensure good luck for the coming year

Spain: Everything, including theater productions and movies, is stopped at Midnight on New Year’s. The clock strikes midnight and everyone eats twelve grapes. They eat one grape for each toll to bring good luck for the next twelve months of the New Year. Sometimes the grapes are washed down with wine.

United States: The New Year is often rung in with festive dancing parties and meals. People kiss each other at midnight and wish each other a “Happy New Year”.

Wales: At around 3:00 to 4:00 am on New Year’s morning, the boys of the village go from house to house with an evergreen twig to sprinkle on the people and then each room of their house, to bring good luck. On New Year’s Day the children travel the neighborhood singing songs are are rewarded with coins and sweets.

Special thanks to AssociatedContent.com

Bruce Springsteen’s Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ: The Launchpad of a Lyrical Legacy and a Band Unlike Any Other

Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, released January 5, 1973

Fun Facts About Bruce Springsteen’s Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ

General Info

Bruce and the E Street Band (L to R): Danny Frederici, Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez, Gary W. Tallent, Bruce Springsteen, David Sancious, Clarence Clemons

Springsteen and his first manager Mike Appel decided to record the album at the low-priced, out-of-the-way 914 Sound Studios to save as much as possible of the Columbia Records advance and cut the record in a single week. Both “Blinded by the Light” and “Spirit in the Night” were released as singles by Columbia, but neither made a dent in the US charts. Ken Emerson wrote in Rolling Stone magazine, “Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ . . . was like “Subterranean Homesick Blues” played at 78 RPM, a typical five-minute track busting with more words than this review. . .” In 2003, the album was ranked number 379 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. On November 22nd, 2009, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ was played in its entirety for the first time by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York, to celebrate the last show of the Working on a Dream tour. This marked the E Street Band’s first-ever performance of “The Angel”. Professional wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow used a finisher called Greetings from Asbury Park during his spell in Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Track by Track

E Street Band pictured on the back cover of the album

Blinded by the Light

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band released a version of “Blinded by the Light” on their album The Roaring Silence. The song reached #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 on 19 February 1977 and #1 on the Canadian RPM chart the same day. The song is notable for lead vocalist Chris Thompson’s garbled enunciation, especially of the phrase “revved up like a deuce” which has led many fans to interpret it as “wrapped up like a douche”. The original Springsteen lyric is neither of the above, instead being “cut loose like a deuce”. Springsteen once attributed the popularity of the Manfred Mann version partially to Thompson’s enunciation. The Manfred Mann’s Earth Band recording of “Blinded by the Light” is Springsteen’s only Number 1 single as a songwriter on the Hot 100. In 2002, Danish act Funkstar Deluxe released its disco version of this song. In 2007, several remixes were released by the German DJ Michael Mind as Michael Mind featuring Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, adding electronic beats to the major hit of 1977and rising to number 12 of the German charts. A ska version can be found on Springsteen’s Live in Dublin album, recorded with the Sessions Band. Lil’ Wayne sampled this song on his song “Blinded” from a mixtape released by The Empire Entitled The Drought Is Over (The Reincarnation).

Growin’ Up

Bruce Springsteen

It is a moderately-paced tune, concerning an adolescence as a rebellious New Jersey teen, with lyrics written in the first-person. The lyrics feature a chorus that is progressively modified as the song continues, with the first chorus being “I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd but when they said ‘Sit down,’ I stood up,” while the second chorus switches to “clouded warmth…’come down,’ I threw up” and the third finishes the song with “mother breast…’pull down,’ I pulled up.” The track soon became a live favorite for the Springsteen audiences and Springsteen often told a long history of his problems with his father as an intro to the song. A version of this history can be heard on the live album Live/1975-85. The song has been performed live about 270 times. An acoustic version of the song, part of Springsteen’s 1972 audition for CBS Records, appears on Tracks and 18 Tracks. The song was featured in the 1999 film Big Daddy and the 2007 film Gracie. David Bowie recorded a version of this song in the early stages of the Diamond Dogs sessions with Ronnie Wood on lead guitar. In 1990 this was released as a bonus track on the Rykodisc reissue of his Pin Ups album, and in 2004 it appeared on the bonus disc of the 30th anniversary edition of Diamond Dogs. The song has also been covered by Any Trouble, John Hammond, Jr., Portastic and Alvin Stardust

Mary Queen of Arkansas

Springsteen played “Mary Queen of Arkansas” at his audition for John Hammond at CBS Records, who signed him to his first record contract on May 2, 1972, although Hammond was less impressed with this song than with “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” or with “Growin’ Up”. The day after signing the contract, Springsteen recorded “Mary Queen of Arkansas” as part of a 12 song demo for Hammond. The demo version of the song was released onTracks in 1998. The song is one of the slower tracks on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., played on acoustic guitar, and the lyrics of the song may be about a drag queen. The lyrics are dense and pretensious, and appear to be an attempt to imitate Bob Dylan. “Mary Queen Of Arkansas” is a slow, quiet acoustic song with a faint country feel to it. The lyrics contain repeated references to the circus (a theme explored in deeper depth on his The Wild, the Innocent & the E-Street Shuffle) as in “Well I’m just a lonely acrobat, this live wire, she’s my trade” and “The big top is for dreamers, we can take the circus all the way to the border.” It is a love song, devoted to “Mary.” Like most of Springsteen’s songs, particularly the first album, the lyrics are evocative though not detailed. The song appears to be sung in the first person, by a slave in the antebellum American south, to his white mistress, with whom he is having a clandestine affair.

Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?

The earliest known photo of Bruce with the entire Line-up of The E Street Band, snapped in December, 1972, early in the Greetings Tour

The song was part of the demo that Springsteen recorded for John Hammond of CBS Records in advance of getting his first recording contract. This demo version was released on Tracks in 1998. The song is loosely based on a bus ride Springsteen once took to visit a girlfriend in uptown Manhattan. As a result, the song is basically set in Spanish Harlem, although it contains some anomalous references, such as to actress Joan Fontaine. The characters are more thinly sketched than in other songs on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., but the song does contain the incongruous rhyming of other Springsteen songs of the period and is full of good humor. Springsteen only rarely plays “Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?” in concert, but when he does it is usually enjoyed by the fans. “Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?” is a beat-style pastiche of a journey through city streets. It is fast-paced and has no chorus. One recognizable theme is a movement towards the sky, as in the lines “drink this and you’ll grow wings on your feet”, “interstellar mongrel nymphs” and “(Mary Lou) rides to heaven on a gyroscope.”

Lost in the Flood

A sparse, piano-driven song, seemingly about a Vietnam War veteran. This is the first of many epic Springsteen songs that elicit strong emotions, usually of despair, grief, and small glimpse of hope. The treatment of veterans in the United States has always been a sore spot for Springsteen. The lyrics tell a loose story, invoking a series of images that appear to somewhat tell a story or perhaps three different stories for each of the three verses The first verse is about “ragamuffin gunner” and has a recurring theme of religion, including references to the “hit-and-run” pleading for “sanctuary” and hiding beneath a “holy stone,” while “breakin’ beams and crosses with a spastic’s reeling perfection” and “nuns run bald through Vatican halls, pregnant, pleading Immaculate Conception.” Finally, “everybody’s wrecked on Main Street from drinking unholy blood.” The second verse is about a “pure American brother”, “Jimmy the Saint”, perhaps the same person as the “ragamuffin gunner” from the first verse. This is the beginning of Springsteen’s use of automobile themes (along with “The Angel”), as the pure American brother “races Sundays in Jersey in a Chevy stock Super Eight” and “leans on the hood telling racing stories.” Eventually, Jimmy the Saint gets into some sort of accident (described as running “headfirst into a hurricane”) and presumably dies since “there was nothing left but some blood where the body fell.” The third verse concerns a series of people on the streets of a city, presumably New York. They include “Eighth Avenue sailors in satin shirts,” “some storefront incarnation of Maria,” “Bronx’s best apostle,” “the cops,” “the whiz-bang gang” and “some kid” who gets shot in the ensuing gun fight and holds “his leg, screaming something in Spanish.”

The Angel

Bruce and "The Big Man" Clarence Clemons

Released as the B-side to Springsteen’s “Blinded by the Light” single. The song was part of the demo that Springsteen recorded for John Hammond of CBS Records in advance of getting his first recording contract. At the time Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. was released, Springsteen considered it his most sophisticated song. It has had virtually no live performances. The lyrics describe a man referred to as “the angel” and a woman who is “Madison Avenue’s claim to fame in a trainer bra with eyes like rain.” This song has a fully-developed automobile theme, including some lines such as “The interstate’s choked with nomadic hordes/in Volkswagen vans with full running boards dragging great anchors/Followin’ dead-end signs into the sores/The angel rides by humpin’ his hunk metal whore”. Another notable line is the historic “hubcap heaven.” Bruce took one of his early rare photos in front of this site in Monmouth New Jersey. The referenced “Hubcap Heaven” is now known as “The Hubcap Farm” and is still in business. Bruce once said he would never play this song live, and he went 23 years keeping that promise. In London in 1996, on his acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, Bruce played the song. Until later 2009, that had been its only live performance. However, on November 22, 2009, in Buffalo, New York, which was the final 2009 show of his scheduled Working On A Dream Tour, he and the E Street Band performed the song, along with the rest of the Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. album. It was the first performance of the song with the E Street Band Richard Davis, upright bass player on “The Angel” also played the bass on Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks.

For You

This song was later included on the compilation album The Essential Bruce Springsteen.

Advertisement for Greetings

It has also been covered by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and Greg Kihn. Like most of the songs on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., “For You” was recorded at 914 Sound Studios in Blauvelt, New York between July and September, 1972. Musicians participating in these sessions included future E Street Band members David Sancious, Garry Tallent and Vini Lopez. It is a climactic, percussion-driven song. Unlike many other songs on Springsteen’s debut album, it takes the time to pace and build. The lyrics are about a woman who has attempted suicide. She does not need the singer’s “urgency” even though her life is “one long emergency” as Springsteen sings in the chorus (along with “and your cloud line urges me, and my electric surges free”). The singer is committed to doing anything to save her, and admires her ability to hang on. Once again, the lyrics are evocative of images and not details, and little can be said in description. Like “Blinded By The Light” and “Spirit in the Night” (on The Roaring Silence), this song was covered by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band for their album Chance. As with Manfred Mann Earth Band’s previous Springsteen covers, they used a more forceful, rockier sound for “For You” than Springsteen did. The Earth Band version built from a more temperate beginning to an explosion of sound in the bridge, and incorporates five guitars and an impressive keyboard solo by Manfred Mann 3/4 of the way into the song. The song was also included on the compilation albums The Best of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and Blinded by the Light & Other Hits. However, the single release did not achieve the success of their other Springsteen covers. The song was also covered by Greg Kihn on his 1977 album Greg Kihn Again. Kihn’s cover received favorable comments from Springsteen. It was also included on the compilation album Best of Kihn. This song was also covered by The Format on their “B-Sides and Rarities” album.

Spirit in the Night

The second single released from the album. A cover version performed by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band was released on the album Nightingales and Bombers and as a Top 40 single.It was one of the last songs to be written and recorded for Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. Springsteen had recorded 10 other tracks for the album, but Clive Davis, president of the record label that was releasing the album, was concerned that the recorded tracks did not have enough commercial appeal. As a result, Springsteen quickly wrote and recorded two additional songs: “Spirit in the Night” and “Blinded by the Light”. Because these songs were added so late in the recording process, several of Springsteen’s band members were unavailable to record these two songs. As a result, the recording lineup for “Spirit in the Night” was limited to Vini Lopez on drums, Clarence Clemons on saxophone, and Springsteen himself playing all other instruments. Although “Spirit in the Night” was one of the last songs written for the album, it did grow out of an earlier version of the song that Springsteen had played live prior to receiving his recording contract. Although most of the songs on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. were packed with lyrics to the extent that sometimes they overwhelm the musical arrangements, “Spirit in the Night” has been described as the one song on the album on which the music and narrative fit together. Clemons’ sax playing and Lopez’ drumming match the freedom and ebullience described in the lyrics. The lyrics themselves describe a group of teenagers — Wild Billy, Hazy Davy, Crazy Janey, Killer Joe, and G-Man — going to a spot called “Greasy Lake” near “Route 88” for a night of freedom, sex, and drinking. But although their escape to the freedom of Greasy Lake is short lived, the emphasis is on the friends’ togetherness. Although the release of the song as a single was unsuccessful in the U.S., “Spirit in the Night” has remained a live favorite in Springsteen concerts. Live versions of the song have appeared on the live CD Live/1975–85 and on both the CD and video versions of Hammersmith Odeon London ’75. The studio version of the song was released on the compilation album The Essential Bruce Springsteen.

Although Greasy Lake, where the action takes place, is a mythical place, drummer Vini Lopez has stated that it is actually a composite of two locations that band members used to visit. One was Lake Carasaljo, near the intersection of U.S. Route 9 and New Jersey Route 88 in Lakewood, New Jersey. The other was a swampy lake near Garden State Parkway exit 88.

The Greasy Lake in the song inspired a short story named “Greasy Lake” by T.C. Boyle. Like Springsteen’s characters, Boyle’s characters are restless and looking to party, although they have a more dangerous edge than Springsteen’s.

It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City

A live version is included on the DVD of the Hammersmith Odeon concert that is included in the Born to Run (30th Anniversary Edition) and the Hammersmith Odeon London ’75 CD.

The song has also been covered by David Bowie. John Sayles included this song in a high school lunchroom scene of his movie Baby, It’s You This is the song that impressed producer Mike Appel so much that he quit his job to become Springsteen’s manager, even though Springsteen did not have a record contract yet. This was also the first song Springsteen played at his audition for John Hammond at CBS Records, who eventually signed him to a record contract, on May 2, 1972. The following day, Springsteen recorded “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” as part of a 12 song demo for Hammond. The demo version of the song was released on Tracks in 1998. The version included on Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. was recorded during the summer of 1972 backed by future E-Street Band members David Sancious on piano, Vini Lopez on drums and Garry Tallent on bass. “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” is a fast paced song. It is a solid rock ‘n’ roll song when played in concert. Its tone is cocky and arrogant. The first person lyrics contain religious imagery and brag about the singer’s street credentials, in the tradition of Bo Diddley lyrics. The young singer is growing up on the streets of a city, and who is trying to stay “good” and do what he believes is right. Unfortunately, “those gasoline boys sure talk gritty” and he is inexorably dragged into some very unsaintly activities. One of the more quoted lines is “The devil appeared like Jesus through the steam in the street/Showin’ me a hand I knew even the cops couldn’t beat/I felt his hot breath on my neck as I dove into the heat/It’s so hard to be a saint when you’re just a boy out on the street.” VIDEO:  Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – “Growin’ Up” VIDEO:  Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – “Spirits in the Night” Special thanks to Wikipedia.com, About.com and RollingStone.com

All in the Family: Classic 1970s Norman Lear Sitcom That Brilliantly Lampooned Bigotry

All in the Family ran on CBS from January 12, 1971 through April 8, 1979

Fun Facts About All in the Family

• 

  Cast: (from left) Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker, Sally Struthers as Gloria Stivic, Rob Reiner as Michael "Meathead" Stivic and Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker

  Most viewers perceived the show with satirical intent, and therefore its impact would reduce prejudice

• Thirteen percent of Americans watched every week

• Six percent of Americans never watched

• Thirteen percent of non-viewers did not watch because it was offensive

• On average sixty-two percent of viewers preferred Archie over Mike

• Thirteen percent of viewers believed Archie made better sense than Mike

• Archie wins forty-two percent of the time

• Lionel makes fun of Archie six percent of the time

• Gloria makes fun of Archie two percent of the time

• Edith makes fun of Archie thirty six percent of the time

• Mike makes fun of Archie forty six percent of the time

• Twenty percent of viewers believe the show has made them aware of prejudice

• Twelve percent of US adolescents believed Archie was extremely funny

• Twenty-two percent of US adolescents believed ethnic slurs were not wrong

• Eighty-four percent of viewers believe Archie is not reasonable

• Ninety percent of viewers believe Mike is usually right

• Mike begins bickering at 4.94 percent

• Viewers believe Archie is in control 15.7 percent of the time

• Sixty-nine percent of viewers believe AITF has a serious purpose

• Sixty-eight percent of viewers identify with Mike

Archie-isms

A

adult-er-ess (adult female)
air-a-plane (airplane)
alexander graham booth (john wilks booth)
a-rhab (arab)
a-ri-ba-du-che (arrivederci)
arterial influction (arterial Infarction)
assiatic nerve (ciatic nerve)

B

beaurocraps (beaurocrats)
bequerred (to give to)
berieve (grieve)
buttinsky (a person who is nosy)
birth patrol (birth control)
bisontonical woman (bionic woman)

C

chinooka (hanukah)
chinkiepuncture (acupuncture)
constitionalists (constituents)
consecration (concentration)
corpsuckels (corpuscles)
cuisini (zuchini)

D

Carroll O'Connor

detergent (deterrent)
detergerate (regurgitate)

E

entramanore (entrepreneur)
ecrology (ecology)

F

Jean Stapleton

female intermission (female intuition)
finixiate (asphixiate)
floorplay (foreplay)

G

garlic stones (gall stones)
groinocologist (gynecologist)
geronimous zones (erogenous zones)
groan (groin)
Guatemoola (Guatemala)

H

homosapien (killer fag)
house of ill refute (house of ill repute)
his-mones & her-mones (hormones)

I

iminent (intimate)

Rob Reiner

incremented (cremated)
ipso fatso (vice versa)
ivory shower (ivory tower)
incest (incense)

J

jetlock (jet lag)

K

kromo-stones (chromosomes)

L

lufrans (lutherans)
last will & tenticle (last will & testament)

M

menstrual show (minstrel show)
mental pause (menopause)
minororities (minorities)

N

nave (nieve)

O

P

pillow of salt (pillar Of salt)
poke-ya-nose mts. (poconos mts)
poisbyterians (presbytarians)

Sally Struthers

premartial sex (pre-marital sex)
prederranged (prearranged)
orevert (pervert)
prostate server (process server)
pernt (point)

Q

qualifidations (qualifications)

R

rectal nerve (retnal nerve)
rosemarie (for stephanie on ABP)

S

shemoglobins (hemoglobins)
sympathize (synchronize)
strategies of war (tragedies of war)

All in the Family

santy’s ga’nomes (santa’s gnomes)
six thousand dollar man (six million dollar man)
suppository remarks (derogatory remarks)
saniquarium (sanitarium)

T

trampaloon (trampoline)
transversive (transvestite)
terlit (toilet)

U

urology (eulogy)

V

veal scallepeepee (scallipini)
venereal (funeral)
Vertizontal (horizontal)

W

wild hornets (wild horses)
weirdwolf (werewolf)
woman’s lubrication (woman’s liberation)

Norman Lear

X

Y

Z

zeberellas (female Zebra’s)

 

Special thanks to Allinthefamily.com

Edgar Allan Poe: Father of the Modern Mystery Story and Tales of Dark Suspense

Edgar Allan Poe, 1809 - 1849

Fun Facts About Edgar Allan Poe

• Poe was born in Boston, MA
• His father David Poe was bred as a lawyer, but deeply offended his family by marrying an actress of English birth, Mrs. Elizabeth Hopkins, neé Arnold, and by himself going on the stage. In 1811 he and his wife died, leaving three children — William, Edgar, and a daughter Rosalie — wholly destitute.
• Edgar was adopted by John Allan, a tobacco merchant of Scottish extraction, seemingly at the request of his wife, who was childless.
• Poe attended the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1826…until he had to drop out due to lack of money. It seems that Poe had a gambling problem, and his foster father got tired of bailing him out.
• Broke, Poe lied about his age and joined the army. He served two years…and then got himself dismissed by court martial.
• His life immediately after he left West Point is very obscure, but in 1833 he was living at Baltimore with his paternal aunt, Mrs. Clemm, who was throughout life his protector, and, in so far as extreme poverty permitted, his support.
• In 1827 Poe had published his first volume of poetry, Tamerlane and other Poems, at Boston. He did not publish under his name, but as “A Bostonian.” In 1831 he published a volume of Poems under his name at New York.
• In 1833 he won a prize of $100 offered for the best story by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. He would have won the prize for the best poem if the judges had not thought it wrong to give both rewards to one competitor.
• The story, MS. found in a Bottle, is one of the most mediocre of his tales, but his success gave him an introduction to editors and publishers, who were attracted by his striking personal appearance and his fine manners, and were also touched by his manifest poverty.
• His famous poem “The Raven” was published first in 1845, and soon became extraordinarily popular; but Poe only got $10 or $15 for it (the exact amount is often debated.)
• Poe’s short stories featuring C. Auguste Dupin shaped the modern mystery story so much that Arthur Conan Doyle compared Sherlock Holmes to Dupin, and the Mystery Writers of America give an award named the Edgar—after Poe, of course.
• Among his masterpieces are the short stories The Pit and the Pendulum, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Gold Bug.
• In 1835 he married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, a beautiful girl of fourteen years of age. A false statement as to her age was made at the time of the marriage. She died after a long decline in 1847.
• Poe made two attempts to marry women of fortune — Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Shelton. The first of these engagements was broken off. The second was terminated by his death.
• Poe died of tuberculosis on October 7th, 1849 in Baltimore, MD
• Poe’s bizarre life didn’t stop just because he died in 1849. He was buried in an unmarked grave, and when gossip finally led to a stone being ordered, it was destroyed in a train accident.
• Ever since 1949, someone has left a bottle of cognac and some roses on Poe’s grave. Who is leaving these things? And why?
• Edgar Allen Poe is one of the featured images on the cover of the 1967 Beatles’ album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

 

Special thanks to enotes.com and nndb.com

Copernicium: Man-made Element #112 and Ununbium by Another Name

The Copernicium/Ununbium atom was first synthesized in Germany on February 9, 1996

Fun Facts About Copernicium/Ununbium

Nicolaus Copernicus: Portrait, 1580, Toruń Old Town City Hall

German nuclear scientists at the GSI facility announce they have created element 112, ununbium. Ununbium would be later renamed to copernicium in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus.

Copernicium or Ununbium

Atomic Number: 112

Symbol: Cp or Uub

Atomic Weight: [277]

Discovery: Hofmann, Ninov et al. GSI-Germany, February 9, 1996

Electron Configuration: [Rn] 5f¹⁴ 6d¹⁰ 7s²

Name Origin: Named for Nicolaus Copernicus, who proposed the heliocentric solar system. The discoverers of copernicum wanted the element’s name to honor a famous scientist who did not get much recognition during his own liferime. Also, Hofmann and his team wished to honor the importance of nuclear chemistry to other scientific fields, such as astrophysics.

The 120 meter long linear ion accelerator at GSI-Germany

Properties: The chemistry of copernicum is expected to be similar to that of the elements zinc, cadmium, and mercury. In contrast to the lighter elements, element 112 decays after a fraction of a thousandth of a second by emitting alpha particles to first become an isotope of element 110 with atomic mass 273, and then an isotope of hassium with atomic mass 269. The decay chain has been followed for three more alpha-decays to fermium.

Sources: Element 112 was produced by fusing (melting together) a zinc atom with a lead atom. The zinc atom was accelerated to high energies by a heavy ion accelerator and directed onto a lead target.

Element Classification: Transition Metal

Special thanks to About.com

Californium: Radioactive Man-made Element Number 98

Californium, discovered February 9th, 1950, University of California

Fun Facts About Californium

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley laboratories synthesized the first atoms of the element californium. It was created by bombarding a curium target with high energy alpha particles.

Atomic Number: 98

Symbol: Cf

Atomic Weight: 251.0796

Discovery: G.T. Seaborg, S.G. Tompson, A. Ghiorso, K. Street Jr. 1950 (United States)

Electron Configuration: [Rn] 7s² 5f¹⁰

Word Origin: State and University of California

Properties: Californium metal has not been produced. Californium (III) is the only ion stable in aqueous solutions. Attempts to reduce or oxidize californium (III) have been unsuccessful. Californium-252 is a very strong neutron emitter.

Uses: Californium is an efficient neutron source. It is used in neutron moisture gauges and as a portable neutron source for metal detection.

Isotopes: The isotope Cf-249 results from the beta decay of Bk-249. Heavier isotopes of californium are produced by intense neutron irradiation by the reactions. Cf-249, Cf-250, Cf-251, and Cf-252 have been isolated.

Sources: Californium was first produced in 1950 by bombarding Cm-242 with 35 MeV helium ions.

Element Classification: Radioactive Rare Earth (Actinide)

Density (g/cc): 15.1

Melting Point (K): 900

Atomic Radius (pm): 295

Pauling Negativity Number: 1.3

First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): (610)

Oxidation States: 4, 3

Special thanks to About.com

Australia: Penal Colony Turned Sovereign Nation

Fun Facts About the Founding of Australia

 

Captain Arthur Phillip

On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia. After overcoming a period of hardship, the fledgling colony began to celebrate the anniversary of this date with great fanfare.

Australia, once known as New South Wales, was originally planned as a penal colony. In October 1786, the British government appointed Arthur Phillip captain of the HMS Sirius, and commissioned him to establish an agricultural work camp there for British convicts. With little idea of what he could expect from the mysterious and distant land, Phillip had great difficulty assembling the fleet that was to make the journey. His requests for more experienced farmers to assist the penal colony were repeatedly denied, and he was both poorly funded and outfitted. Nonetheless, accompanied by a small contingent of Marines and other officers, Phillip led his 1,000-strong party, of whom more than 700 were convicts, around Africa to the eastern side of Australia. In all, the voyage lasted eight months, claiming the deaths of some 30 men.

HMS Sirius

The first years of settlement were nearly disastrous. Cursed with poor soil, an unfamiliar climate and workers who were ignorant of farming, Phillip had great difficulty keeping the men alive. The colony was on the verge of outright starvation for several years, and the marines sent to keep order were not up to the task. Phillip, who proved to be a tough but fair-minded leader, persevered by appointing convicts to positions of responsibility and oversight. Floggings and hangings were commonplace, but so was egalitarianism. As Phillip said before leaving England: “In a new country there will be no slavery and hence no slaves.”

Though Phillip returned to England in 1792, the colony became prosperous by the turn of the 19th century. Feeling a new sense of patriotism, the men began to rally around January 26 as their founding day. Historian Manning Clarke noted that in 1808 the men observed the “anniversary of the foundation of the colony” with “drinking and merriment.”

Finally, in 1818, January 26 became an official holiday, marking the 30th anniversary of British settlement in Australia. And, as Australia became a sovereign nation, it became the national holiday known as Australia Day. Today, Australia Day serves both as a day of celebration for the founding of the white British settlement, and as a day of mourning for the Aborigines who were slowly dispossessed of their land as white colonization spread across the continent.

Special thanks to History.com 

Ice Hockey and The Stanley Cup: Canada’s Official Sport and the Game’s Ultimate Prize

Modern-day Ice Hockey

Fun Facts About Ice Hockey and The Stanley Cup

The Origin of Hockey

Hockey has been played in some form or other for 100s of years. It is thought to be 1 of the earliest sports in the world, and was played by the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, and Arabs.

Hurling, a sport very similar to hockey, is known to have been played during the first millennium BC in Ireland, and other similar types of sports were adopted by other Europeans in the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century). In pre-Columbian times (before the 16th century) Native South Americans also played a game much the same as hockey. The name hockey, thought to have been adapted by the English from the French word hoquet (shepherd’s crook), was 1st given to the sport in the eighteenth century but was not in common usage until the nineteenth century.

Ice Hockey

The modern game of ice hockey was invented in the mid-1850´s by British soldiers based in Canada. Rules were set by students at McGill University in Montréal, Canada, in 1879, and many amateur clubs and leagues were organized in Canada by the late 1880´s. The game is believed to have been 1st played in the USA in 1893. By the beginning of the twentieth century the sport had spread to England and other parts of Europe. The modern game developed in Canada, and nowadays is very popular in North America and East Europe.

The NHL is the most important league in the world; this National Hockey League comprises teams from the United States and Canada, but for many years almost all NHL players Canadians. The winning team of this competition is awarded the Stanley Cup trophy. Ice Hockey became an Olympic sport in 1920 and is 1 of the most popular events at the Winter Olympics.

The Stanley Cup

“I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup, which would be held from year to year by the leading hockey club in Canada. There does not appear to be any outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the interest that hockey matches now elicit, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held annually by the winning club.”

So mused Lord Stanley of Preston in 1892, at a sports banquet in Ottawa. The following year Canada’s governor-general was true to his word, purchasing a silver bowl for $50 and naming it the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup. Hockey folks went with a less formal designation, the Stanley Cup.

The first winner was a Montreal team that finished atop the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, considered the best league going at the time. But in its early years, the prize was not exclusive to one hockey league, nor was it meant to be. It was a challenge cup, changing hands in much the same way as a boxing title. Contenders issued challenges, and the champions held the Cup for as long as they could fend off all comers. Independent trustees ensured that legitimate challenges were met on a regular basis.

In later years, as professionalism swept the game, it was accepted that the Stanley Cup could not remain exclusive to amateur teams. The Stanley Cup officially turned pro in 1910, when the National Hockey Association took possession of it. But it was not until 1926 that the National Hockey League emerged indisputably as the top league in North America, effectively taking control of the Cup. That control was formalized in an agreement signed with the Cup trustees in 1947.

Special thanks to CollegeSportsScholarships.com and About.com

Carillons: The World’s Heaviest Musical Instrument

Loch Haven University Carillon

Fun Facts About Carillons

The Carillon at New York's Riverside Church

A carillon is a musical instrument that is usually housed in a free-standing bell tower, or the belfry of a church or other municipal building. The instrument consists of at least 23 cast bronze cup-shaped bells, which are played serially to play a melody, or sounded together to play a chord. A carillon is played by striking a keyboard called a “baton” with the fists and by pressing the keys of a pedal keyboard with the feet. The keys mechanically activate levers and wires that connect to metal clappers that strike the bells, allowing the performer, the carillonneur, to vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key.

The carillon is the heaviest of all musical instruments; the total weight of bells alone can be 100 tons in the largest instruments.

The greatest concentration of carillons is still found in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Northern France, where they were symbols of civic pride and status. Some of the most spectacular are now protected by UNESCO as part of the world heritage site the Belfries of Belgium and France.

The world’s largest is housed in New York City’s Riverside Church.

Since each separate note is produced by an individual bell, a carillon’s musical range is determined by the number of bells it has. Different names are assigned to instruments based on the number of bells they comprise:

• Carillons with 23 through 27 bells are referred to as two-octave carillons. Players of these instruments often use music arranged specifically for their limited range of notes.
• The “keyboard” of a carillon is called a baton console.
• A concert carillon has a range of at least four octaves (47 bells). This is sometimes referred to as the “standard-sized” carillon.

The Riverside Carillon in New York City has (or did have—there may be other instruments with larger bourdons) the largest tuned bell in the world, which sounds the C two octaves below middle C on the piano.

• Travelling or mobile carillons are not placed in a tower, but can be transported. Some of them can even be played indoor—in a concert hall or church—like the mobile carillon of Frank Steijns.
• Modern imitation instruments (such as those made by Schulmerich) use semantra
  (rectangular metal bars roughly the diameter of a pencil, but of varying lengths) struck by an electric solenoid. They may be played from a keyboard, organ console, or by means of music rolls. The resulting sound is electronically amplified and broadcast by loudspeakers. Although called “carillons” or “electronic carillons”, their sound does not conform to the definitions given by the World Carillon Federation or the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America. The GCNA as of 2000 has disqualified all instruments in which more than 12 bells are played electrically. Twelve bells are allowed so that automatic chiming of tunes may take place. Chiming means that one bell at a time is usually played.

A Carillonneur

The carillonneur or carillonist is the title of the musician who plays the carillon. The carillonneur/carillonist usually sits in a cabin beneath the bells and presses down, with a loosely closed fist, on a series of baton-like keys arranged in the same pattern as a piano keyboard. The batons are almost never played with the fingers as one does a piano, though this is sometimes used as a special carillon playing technique. The keys activate levers and wires that connect directly to the bells’ clappers; thus, as with a piano, the carillonneur can vary the intensity of the note according to the force applied to the key. In addition to the manual keys, the heavier bells are also played with a pedal keyboard. These notes can either be played with the hands or the feet.

To a musician’s ear, a carillon can sound “out of tune.” Poorly tuned bells often give this impression and also can be out of tune with themselves. This is due to the unusual harmonic characteristics of foundry bells, which have strong overtones above and below the fundamental frequency. Foundry bells are tuned to have the following set of partials (overtones):

• Octave above prime
• Fifth
• Minor third
• Prime and strike tone resultant
• Hum tone (an octave below prime)

Additionally, there is a major 10th, 12th, and 15th which are not typically individually tuned, but are usually present anyway. They all combine to create a “resultant” pitch, which is in unison with prime on a well-tuned bell. Properly tuned bells emphasize the fundamental frequency of the bell.

Special thanks to absoluteastronomy.com