Weekend Open Thread

damn! second
by 5 seconds

Did you know …

… soy milk does not have to be refrigerated until after it has been opened? Learning that, one would rightly question why, then, do grocery stores and supermarkets sell it out of the refrigerated section only? Well, it’s because the producers of the drink want it to seem more like cow’s milk, which has to be kept cold all the time. (It’s all about the marketing, folks.)

… the Christmas song “Do You Hear What I Hear?” is really about the Cuban Missile Crisis? The song was written in October of 1962 by Noël Regney (1922-2002) and his wife Gloria Shayne Baker (1923-2008). The pair wrote the song as a plea for peace when the world was teetering on the edge of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. (It must’ve worked, then.)

… the people who founded the American republic didn’t have much of a sense of humor? For instance, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) – while one of the most highly educated of the Founding Fathers – was not allowed to write the Declaration of Independence. The other Founding Fathers were afraid he would put jokes into it. (Oh, I don’t know, Ben’s jokes might have added some oomph to it.)

… in early drafts of the movie Back to the Future, the character of Doc Brown had a chimpanzee, not a dog? The animal was changed after the head of Universal Pictures at the time, Sidney Sheinberg (1935-2019), said no movie with a chimpanzee had ever made money. (He must’ve never seen Bedtime for Bonzo, then. That movie helped make a president.)

… rhinoceroses are related to horses? The rhino is descended from an Indian animal known as a Cambaytherium, which lived 54.5 million years ago. The horse is also descended from the Cambaytherium, making the horse and the rhino distant cousins. (And thus does hope for a unicorn spring eternal!)

… it’s sometimes best to seek permission first? On November 1, 1959, an episode of The Jack Benny Program featured guest star Jack Webb (1920-1982), and he along with star Benny (1894-1974) performed a very funny spoof of Charlie Chan movies, with Benny as Chan and Webb as “Number One Son.” The skit was centered around a Chinese laundry rather than a crime story, and Webb performed his role as his classic Dragnet character Joe Friday during the sketch. After the show aired, however, Benny, the CBS network, and the show’s sponsor, Lever Brothers, were sued by Eleanor Biggers (1887-1976), the widow of Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933), the writer who created the Chinese detective. She sued for “unauthorized use of the character of Charlie Chan.” The case was settled out of court. (I’ve always heard it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission, but apparently it can also be more expensive.)

… total solar eclipses happen because of an astronomical coincidence? The Moon happens to be 400 times smaller than the Sun, but it is also 400 times closer to the Earth than the Sun is. That means that, from the surface of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon appear to be the same size. When a solar eclipse takes place, the Moon moves directly in front of the Sun as viewed from Earth, and the Moon completely – but just – covers the Sun’s visible surface.

“How much are those ribs?”

“One Rib…” 😆

https://youtu.be/tgHcYxKjwVE

Jim Brown and Raquel Welch.

Rest In Peace To Both.

Saw the same on Commie News Notwork:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/19/us/military-veteran-migrants-hotel-new-york-false-claims/index.html

Could be a reverse, skip, draw four, uno DISINFO OP because none of this makes sense imo.

Off topic palate cleanser? Nebraska poly-tick-ian losing her sh*t.