Some folks are happy that I have directed my breadth of somewhat useful knowledge and have chosen to pass it on to others. So…
We have another Daily 3 of “fun facts” (plus bonuses) for you today.
The first toilet to be shown on television was on Leave it to Beaver (1957). In the second episode of the first season of the iconic sitcom, Wally and the Beav mail order a baby alligator and the brothers need to hide the beast in the toilet tank, at first. Hilarity ensues, of course.
The network (CBS for season 1, ABC thereafter) agreed that they could show the toilet, but under no circumstance could the characters take care of any “business” while in the restroom.
The lunula is the half-moon-shaped white part on your fingernail or toenail. Oddly, it is kind of an optical illusion. The lunula is only white when viewed through the nail itself.
For those playing the home game, the plural is lunulae. (The word comes from the Latin “little moon.”)
Bonus fact: most people’s fingernails grow about four times faster than their toenails.
“If you can do anything else, there’s always acting,” said Steve McQueen to his karate teacher.
While probably not as good of an actor or as huge of a star as McQueen was at his peak—in 1974, McQueen was the highest-paid movie star in the world—Carlos the karate teacher is likely more well known in the current generation.
And Carlos could do anything. Literally.
Years prior to this conversation with McQueen, legend has it that Carlos once roundhouse-kicked a zebra in the throat, thus creating the species that we now call a “giraffe.”
Carlos did take McQueen’s advice to go full-bore with the acting. He’d already starred in a movie with Bruce Lee and was one of the pallbearers at Lee’s funeral.
Not long after McQueen died in 1980, Carlos became one of the biggest action stars on the planet.
Chuck Norris.
How does one find out things like this?
“Do you train for Jeopardy! in your spare time?”
No. But the solution is rather simple.
(And watch vintage television.)
The other day, a friend of the program Andy Flattery had me on his podcast to talk about what we’re reading. We set up a resource page with most if not all the books that I mentioned on the show.
The podcast is embedded on the page there too.
As always,
Brian
