How much of your body’s heat do you lose by not covering your head in the cold?
Your mother was right. You lose about half to three-fourths of heat from your head.
Your mother was right. You lose about half to three-fourths of heat from your head.
New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacobs patented the first brassiere in 1914. She had devised it for her own use as an alternative to the corset, which showed under her sheer gown. The first bra was made from ribbon and handkerchiefs.
Henry Pu-yi, from 1908 to 1912, was the last emperor of China. From 1934 to 1945, he was emperor of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria. He died in 1967 in the People’s Republic of China.
Jimmy Carter (served 1977-81) was the first president to have more than one woman in his cabinet. His female cabinet members were: Patricia Roberts Harris – Housing and Urban Development; later moved to Health and Human Services Shirley Mount Hufstedler – Education Juanita Kreps – Commerce
“The Camel News Caravan” (NBC, 1949-56), with John Cameron Swayze, was the first TV news show to feature newsreel footage. Before then TV news relied mainly on announcers.
Before it became the Nazi symbol of Aryan superiority, the swastika had several meanings, all positive. In Sanskrit, the word swastika means “conducive to well-being.” The Aryans of India believed swastikas represented the sun’s motion across the sky, a symbol of its goodness and regenerative power. The Greeks and Persians believed it represented prosperity and … Read more
The Heiress is based on the book Washington Square, by Henry James.
The exterior set of Fort Knox in the climax of Goldfinger (1964), built at Pinewood Studios in England, was accurate down to the driveway. The interior, however, was completely invented, since the filmmakers were not allowed to explore inside. Production designer Ken Adam dreamed up a set full of tubular chrome and gold piled forty … Read more
William Wordsworth said “The Child is father of the Man”, in the poem “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold” (1807).
George Bush said, “Fluency in English is something that I’m not often accused of”, in a toast to Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at a White House dinner on June 6, 1989.
In its nine years of existence (1933-42), the employment program for men between 18 and 24 called the Civilian Conservation Corps put over 2 million men to work conserving and developing the country’s natural resources.
Martin Agronsky and John McLaughlin the people behind “Agronsky and Company” (synd., 1969-87) and “The McLaughlin Group” (synd., 1982).
The Tet Offensive was a general attack in January 1968 by North Vietnamese forces against South Vietnamese cities. Militarily, North Vietnam lost since they suffered heavy losses and failed to hold any city. But strategically North Vietnam delivered a severe blow to the U.S. by showing that the war was far from over and undermining … Read more
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz met on the set of Too Many Girls (1940), produced by RKO and directed by George Abbott.
George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess is based on Porgy (1925), by Du Bose Heyward. Heyward and his wife, Dorothy, won a Pulitzer prize for their dramatic version of the novel. Porgy is a crippled beggar and gambler who lives on Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina. Bess is his drug-addicted mistress.
According to 1980 figures, August registered 9.2 percent of the year’s births. The second most popular month was October, with 9 percent of the year’s births.
The name Pygmy is used by anthropologists to describe any human group whose males are less than 4 feet, 11 inches in average height. The best-known Pygmy groups are those of tropical Africa, but they also include some of the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and the Asian Pygmies known as the Negritos.
Tim McIntire gave his voice to the telepathic dog Blood in the post-apocalyptic science fiction movie A Boy and His Dog. Blood himself was played by Tiger of TV’s “The Brady Bunch” (ABC, 1969-74).
The most famous auto-destructive work of art was probably Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely’s Homage to New York, which blew itself up at the Museum of Modern Art in 1960. The work was meant to satirize modern technological civilization. Constructed of an old piano and other junk, the piece failed to operate as planned and caused … Read more
“Marcus Welby, M.D.” (ABC, 1969-76) was the top-rated TV program in 1970.
Peter Kurten played the model for the child murderer in Fritz Lang’s M (1931). He was a middle-aged German factory worker who committed nine serial murders in Dusseldorf from 1929 to 1930. He was guillotined in 1931.
It is not Hans Brinker who wins the silver skates in Hans Brinker, but his sister Gretel, according to the 1865 novel by Mary Mapes Dodge.
Macauley Connor worked for Spy magazine in The Philadelphia Story.
Mary Quant, co-owner (with her husband Alexander Plunket Greene) of the boutique Bazaar in Chelsea, London, is credited with inventing the miniskirt. Quant, “the mother of the miniskirt,” premiered the new fashion item at Bazaar in 1965.
In October 1849, the forty-year-old writer Edgar Allan Poe was found lying unconscious near a polling place in Baltimore. According to some reports, he had been fed liquor and dragged to various polling places to vote repeatedly. He was taken to a hospital where he remained semicomatose for three days. On October 7, 1849, at … Read more
Charlton Heston starred in only one horror film, The Awakening (1980). He played archaeologist Matthew Corbeck in this latter-day mummy film.
The O in David O. Selznick (1902-1965) stood for Oliver.
Fritz Lang directed three Westerns: The Return of Jesse James (1940), Western Union (1941), and Rancho Notorious (1952).
Robert Herrick said, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”, in the first line of the 1648 poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.”
Lee Harcourt Montgomery played Danny Garrison, a boy with a heart condition and a friend of Ben in the movie Ben (1972).
No, the Smithsonian Institution wasn’t named after an American. Founded in 1846, it was named for British chemist James Smithson (1765-1829), who bequeathed his fortune to build the U.S. institution. It is now the world’s largest museum complex, containing 14 museums and the National Zoo.
Yes, but the Biltmore clock is now part of the 78-story atrium of the Bank of America Plaza at 335 Madison Avenue. It once hung over the entrance to the lavish Palm Court salon in the famed Biltmore Hotel, between Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues and Forty-third and Forty-fourth Streets. The bronze clock is the only … Read more
Thoreau lived in his hut at Walden Pond for two years from 1845 to 1847. His account of the experience, Walden, or Life in the Woods, appeared in 1854.
The “N” in SNCC stood for “nonviolent” when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was founded in April 1960 by sit-in veterans who wanted to step up the pace of nonviolent direct action for equal rights. As the 1960s wore on, SNCC leaders became frustrated with white repression of the civil rights movement and began to … Read more
Actually called Newton’s law of gravitation, it describes the degree to which one body of matter attracts another. That attraction is in direct proportion to the product of the bodies’ masses, and in inverse proportion to the square of the distance between them. This law can be expressed in a formula first set forth in … Read more
Yes, Erle Stanley Gardner was a lawyer. Born in 1889, he was admitted to the California bar in 1911 and was known for defending poor Chinese and Mexicans. In the 1940s, he founded the Court of Last Resort, an organization dedicated to helping people unjustly imprisoned.
Fandango (1985), Costner’s first starring role, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) were films Kevin Costner made with director Kevin Reynolds. Reynolds also shot second-unit footage on Dances With Wolves (1990), directed by Costner.
44.4 percent of American newspaper, radio, and television journalists identify themselves as Democrats, according to a 1992 survey by the nonpartisan Freedom Forum. 16.3 percent are Republicans. 34.4 percent are independents.
St. Augustine, Florida, which was settled by Spain in 1565, is the oldest town founded in America by Europeans.
In the prologue that frames the story, Douglas Walton plays Shelley and Gavin Gordon plays Lord Byron in The Bride of Frankenstein. Elsa Lanchester plays Mary Shelley (author of the novel Frankenstein), as well as the monster’s bride.
General Omar Bradley (1893-1981) earned the nickname “soldiers’ general” for his unassuming manner and his concern for the welfare of soldiers.
A boy named William, born in 1623 or 1624 in Jamestown, Virginia, was the first child of African parents born in England’s American colonies. His parents, Antony and Isabel, were among the first Africans shipped in bondage to the English colonies in 1619.
Kim Philby was recruited by the Russians in the early 1930s. He entered the British Secret Service in 1939 and remained a double agent until 1962, when he escaped to the Soviet Union. His orders, he said, were to penetrate British Intelligence and “it did not matter how long I took to do the job.” … Read more
Written by Milton Ager and Jack Yellen, the Depression-era Democratic party theme song “Happy Days Are Here Again” first appeared in the 1930 MGM musical Chasing Rainbows, starring Bessie Love and Charles King. The movie opened after the 1929 stock market crash and was a flop.
In the evening, citizens of the Roman Empire constructed their beds by placing straw into a cloth sack. The straw had to be emptied every night to dry; therefore, the beds had to be remade every night. This practice continued until the fifteenth century, in some countries, even later.
Dr. Spielvogel is the psychiatrist to whom Alexander Portnoy tells his story in Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint.
T. S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” (1925) says the world ends “Not with a bang but a whimper”.
The bad guys on the TV series “Batman” (1966-68) were: Penguin—Burgess Meredith Catwoman—Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, and Lee Merlwether Joker—Cesar Romero Riddler—Frank Gorshin and John Astin King Tut—Victor Buono Egghead—Vincent Price The Archer—Van Johnson Lola Lasagne—Ethel Merman Lord Marmaduke Ffogg—Rudy Vallee The Siren—Joan Collins Chandel—Liberace Louie the Lilac—Milton Berle
Piper Laurie’s last film before her role as Carrie’s insane mother in Carrie (1976) was The Hustler (1961). Before that she had mostly played ingenues in films such as Son of Ali Baba (1952). She retired from movies in 1962 to marry film critic Joseph Morgenstern.
Burma. January 4 (1948) Greece. March 25 (1821) Cuba. May 20 (1902) Nigeria. October 1 (1960) Lebanon. November 22 (1943)
The stars and daytime soap operas: Tom Berenger—”One Life to Live” (ABC, 1968–), playing Tim Siegel Ellen Burstyn—”The Doctors” (NBC, 1963-82), playing Dr. Kate Bartok Robert DeNiro—”Search for Tomorrow” (CBS, NBC, 1951-87) Dustin Hoffman—”Search for Tomorrow” Raul Julia—”Love of Life” (CBS, 1951-80), playing Miguel Garcia Bette Midler—”The Edge of Night” (CBS, ABC, 195684) Susan Sarandon—”A … Read more
Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) on the TV series “Bewitched” worked her magic by wiggling her nose. Jeannie on “I Dream of Jeannie” (NBC, 1965-70) folded her arms in front of her and blinked. Uncle Martin on “My Favorite Martian” (CBS, 1963-66) pointed at objects to levitate them and raised his antennae to become invisible.
The system of mail delivery by horse-and-rider relays lasted only 18 months, from April 1860 to October 1861. It connected Saint Joseph, Missouri, with Sacramento, California, a distance of 1,800 miles. The completion of the transcontinental telegraph system brought the Pony Express to an end.
During Prohibition, the taking of trucks full of illegal liquor became commonplace. When it happened, a gunman would say, “High, Jack,” to indicate how the driver should raise his hands.
The first American book written about baseball was the Book of Sports by Robin Carver, published in 1834.
The three subjects of Gertrude Stein’s Three Lives are as follows: “The Good Anna” is about a German servant, “Melanctha” is about a young black woman, and “The Gentle Lena” is about a German maid.
Gene Autry’s “Ten Commandments of a Cowboy” were: 1. A cowboy never takes unfair advantage, even of an enemy. 2. A cowboy never betrays a trust. 3. A cowboy always tells the truth. 4. A cowboy is kind to small children, to old folks, and to animals. 5. A cowboy is free from racial and … Read more
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. It dates from the thirteenth to the first century B.C. The New Testament was written in Greek in the first century A . D.
Columbus did not realize he had discovered a new continent that would be named America, but Amerigo Vespucci, who explored the New World between 1497 and 1504, did. German mapmaker Martin Waldseemuller first applied the name to the new continent on a map published in 1507.
George Reeves shot himself on June 16, 1959. The police ruled that the former star of “The Adventures of Superman” (1952-57) had committed suicide, though some have suspected murder. He was planning to be married at the time.
Named for trader Jesse Chisholm, this nineteenth-century cattle route started south of San Antonio, Texas, passed through Oklahoma, and ended at Abilene, Kansas. In 1871, the trail’s busiest year-700,000 cattle were driven along the route by 5,000 cowboys.
Ratlike in appearance and beaver-like in size, this animal is often referred to as the beaver rat. Nutrias are valuable for many purposes; their pelts are now chiefly used in the making of hats. Their ratlike tails are too thin to be used.
Brahman is, in Hinduism, the great power of the universe, or “world spirit.” In the Upanishads, it also refers to a person’s spirit. A Brahmin is a member of the priesthood, or varna, in the Hindu social system.
In the process of deduction, you derive conclusions from assumed statements by using the rules of logic, moving from the general to the specific. In induction, you make inferences from experiments or observations to build a general law, moving from the specific to the general.
The Greek ships are enumerated in Book II of Homer’s Iliad.
Superman is virtually invulnerable (with Kryptonite being his major weakness; its rays are fatal to him); he is superstrong, superfast, and supersmart; he can fly; he has heat vision, X-ray vision, telescopic vision, and microscopic vision; he has quick-freezing, gale-force breath; he has super sensitive hearing; and he can hold his breath for long periods.
Walt Whitman High School was the high school in the TV series “Room 222” (ABC, 1969-74). In “Welcome Back, Kotter” (ABC, 1975-79)? James Buchanan High School. In “Head of the Class” (ABC, 1986-91)? Millard Fillmore High School.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that cleanliness is next to godliness. It came from John Wesley (1703-1791), the British theologian who founded Methodism.
The draft office where the Berrigan brothers burned draft files in 1968 was in Catonsville, Maryland. Philip and Daniel Berrigan, both priests, broke into the draft office with seven other Roman Catholic protestors and burned over 600 draft files with napalm. The Berrigans were arrested and convicted, but Daniel jumped bail and went underground for … Read more
The world record for a jump by a frog is 33 feet 5.5 inches over the course of three consecutive leaps. It was achieved in May 1977 by a South African sharp-nosed frog called Santjie.
Redd Foxx’s real name was John Sanford, the same last name as that given Fred Sanford, his character on “Sanford and Son” (NBC, 1972-77).
Jean-Paul Sartre refused the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964. He explained: “A writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed into an institution.”
It was a stand-in who stabbed Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960), a young woman wearing a wig, not Anthony Perkins.
In Grand Hotel (1932), to John Barrymore, Greta Garbo says, “I want to be alone”.
The phrase Swan Song refers to ancient legend. It was thought that the swan, silent throughout its life, sang aloud in its final minutes.
The miracle in Miracle of Morgan’s Creek was the birth of sextuplets to Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton). She was a woman who got married and pregnant without remembering it after drinking too much at a World War II servicemen’s dance.
It was “Son of Sam” killer David Richard Berkowitz (b. 1953) who was known as the 44-Caliber Killer. From July 1976 to August 1977 he killed six people and wounded seven others with a .44-caliber gun.
The United Arab Emirates are a federation of seven Arab states on the Persian Gulf: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Qaiwain. Independent since 1971, they should be distinguished from the United Arab Republic, which was formed when Egypt and Syria united in 1958. Syria seceded from the union in 1961, … Read more
John Berryman commit suicide on January 7, 1972. He jumped off a bridge into the Mississippi River. He was fifty-eight.
The man who ate Democrats was Alfred Packer (1842-1907). In 1873, he guided a party of 20 men into the San Juan Mountains, continued in heavy snows against advice, and returned alone, saying his companions had abandoned him. Months afterward, search parties discovered the bodies of the missing men, most stripped of flesh. Packer was … Read more
The Tootsie Roll was named after Clara Hirschfield, the daughter of the candy’s creator. Leo Hirschfield who invented the Tootsie Roll had given her this pet name. He gave the name to the candy as well, which entered the American market in 1896.
The first monopoly in the United States is considered to have been John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company. The company made him the wealthiest person in the United States. This allowed him to found the Astor Library, one of the cornerstones of the New York Public Library.
Usually made of vulcanized rubber, an ice hockey puck is 3 inches in diameter, 1 inch thick, and weighs 5.5 to 6 ounces.
At about $865 million each, the radar-evading “Stealth” strategic B-2 bomber built by Northrop for the U.S. Air Force is considered the most expensive weapons system in American history.
The first book published by Dr. Seuss was And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street. It was published in 1937 by Vanguard Press, after being rejected by twenty-three other publishers.
Rick (Humphrey Bogart) in Casablanca (1942) said, “The problems of the world are not my department. I’m a saloon keeper”.
Some of the “critters” Elly May (Donna Douglas) had on the TV series “The Beverly Hillbillies” (CBS, 1962-71) included a bear, a pigeon, a rooster, a cat, a dog, a skunk, and a hippopotamus.
In the nineteenth century, the district known as Harlem in northern Manhattan was a fashionable white residential district, a favorite site for summer homes. Apartment buildings rose in the boom of the 1880s. After the panic of 1893, however, many buildings became vacant, and property owners began renting to blacks. By World War I, much … Read more
Los Angeles Dodger Al Downing was the pitcher who watched as the ball flew over the left-field fence of Atlanta Stadium on April 8, 1974. Atlanta Brave Henry Louis Aaron had broken the long-standing record for career home runs set by Babe Ruth in the 1930s.
Thirty-nine episodes of the TV series “The Honeymooners” were broadcast, from 1955 to 1956, also on CBS.