Random and useless thoughts and facts

Anne Frank was born the same year as Barbara Walters.

 

And they were born the same year, 1929, as Martin Luther King Jr. Anne died at 15, MLK died at 39.

 

Teddy Roosevelt was the first U.S. President to leave the United States while serving his term. He traveled to Panama in 1906.

 

Tax season has officially started

 

A man who had poor oral hygiene had to have a wisdom tooth pulled. A week earlier, he had eaten a guava, a tropical fruit. A guava seed germinated in the decay of the tooth.

Spoiler: Guava plant growing out of tooth

 

That is totally gross and totally fascinating and I don't believe it for a minute if the claim is the seed germinated in his mouth. If the seed germinated post-pulling, I'll bite (ahem) since seeds will also germinate in things like damp paper towels and cracks in the concrete.

 

This belongs in the Not Happy thread.

 

I just did a quick Google search and found several articles about it. Apparently since the man was missing the bottom wisdom tooth the sprout had room to grow and indeed did germinate in his mouth.

 

Hmmm. I remain skeptical. How did he keep from squishing the dear little seedling when he ate?

 

There was room for it since there was no tooth on the opposing gum.

 

I'm still not buying it. Empty space or not, if the man ate on that side of his mouth at all, bit down even once, food would impact the decayed tooth and therefore the seedling. I suppose it could've germinated between breakfast and detist visit, but...

 

Where he dug the Panama Canal singlehandedly on a weekend*.



*Seriously though, the history of the Panama Canal and Panama itself is kind of a dark chapter in American "diplomacy."

 

Importing quotes from Things That Annoy Me But Shouldn't.

I read a book ages ago, the memoirs of a WWII infantryman in the European theater. No idea who wrote it or what the title was, sorry. But anyway, this dude was walking his way through France with the rest of Ike's army when he came across an abandoned farm. Like, abandoned very recently because the tide of the war was sweeping over it. In the barn he found a horse. No farmer to take care of it, so while he and his unit would be moving on soon, he did his best. The next part is kinda quoted from a twenty-plus year old memory, so if it rings a bell with anyone who can source it I'd appreciate it.

And that's all I remember. I'm guessing he had to keep going and I kinda hope the farmer was alive to get back and take care of the horse, but it was a world war and all. Just the image of some kid in a dirty uniform holding a handful of straw up to a glaring horse...

 

Hard to imagine a more appropriate place to retire than Thailand's Phuket Island.

 

The U.S. is one of only two countries that allows direct-to-consumer drug advertisements, such as TV commercials. The other is New Zealand.

 

Maybe prescription drugs? We have a lot of ads for OTC (over the counter) drugs like ibuprofen and various muscle-ache easers here in Japan. However, you can only buy medicine of any kind from a drug store that includes a pharmacy, even if the pharmacy keeps shorter hours than the drugstore it is housed in. Thus you can't buy a simple aspirin at a convenience store, and the drug stores close at 23:00 or earlier and don't open until 10 am, which can be rough.

Side note: the news said yesterday that there was a shortage of medicine in Japan and urged people not to go out hoarding. I've fallen for that trick before, I'm hitting every drugstore in town and buying as much ibuprofen as they'll let me. Tragedy of the commons, yo.

 

Yeah, it referred to prescription drugs. Here's the article I read:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/01/most-prescription-drugs-advertised-on-tv-are-of-low-benefit-study-finds/

 

OK, so allow me to tell you all how I got to finding out that William Albert Gubb, a fireman for the British Royal Navy, is buried in Magnolia Cemetery here in Mobile. It all started when I looked up how old the city of Jerusalem was in comparison to the Pyramids of Giza (note: Jerusalem is OLDER than that.) Then I go to looking into the oldest cities in each country, then to the United States (the oldest known city in the US is Oraibi). Then to Mobile. I find out about Magnolia Cemetery and scroll through until I see that this guy is interred there. The reference leads me to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and there he is.

https://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/crews/person/59548.html

Further research indicates that he served on the Eclipse, a British steam tanker during World War II until it was attack and sunk by a German U-boat on May 4th, 1942 near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in which he was one of the two casualties. The ship was repaired in Mobile then returned to service. Which would probably explain why he's buried here.

 

For nearly a year and a half, a Massachusetts high school has been lit up around the clock because the district can't turn off the roughly 7,000 lights in the sprawling building.

 

You never owned a parrot?

 

But does it generate enough electricity to make a DeLorean go at 88mph?