Useless Information! AKA Trivia that you cannot live without!

[Kätzchen]

I've been so tired lately from seeing T***P dominated news page coverage of their cry-baby temper-tantrums and chest thumping strategic lies behavior, that I went in search of Journalists who have contributed greatly to society.

So I spent the day yesterday, studying the life of Calvin Trillin.

Here's what I learned, after watching Johnny Carson interview Calvin Trillin, on JC's late night show, The Tonight Show:

Calvin Trillin married his wife by the same last name (Alice Stewart Trillin) back in 1965.... and Calvin's wife died on the day of the Nine-Eleven NYC Trade Tower attacks (source: Wiki).

Alice led an equally fulfilling life, like Calvin: She is best known for her work with cancer patients and for creating educational programming for underserved children and women.


At Alice's funeral service, Nora Ephron (of "When Harry Met Sally" fame) described the people under Trillin's protection as "anyone she loved, or liked, or knew, or didn’t quite know but knew someone who did, or didn’t know from a hole in a wall but had just gotten a telephone call from because they’d found the number in the telephone book" (source: Wiki)


For an partial list of Calvin Trillin's best known covered subject of literary interest, here's an interesting list of some of his better known works, as archived by The New York Times (LINK).

Here's the video of the Johnny Carson episode, back in November of 1988, that inspired me to research the life of Calvin Trillin:

[girl_dee]

The first known candy cane was made in 1670 by a German choirmaster to help children endure lengthy nativity services. They were white and modeled after shepherds’ canes. The candy cane made its way to America in 1847, when a German immigrant decorated the tree in his Ohio home with the iconic candy.

[girl_dee]

Christmas trees first made an appearance with the ancient Egyptians and Romans. They used them to mark the winter solstice. The evergreens served as a reminder of the green plants that would come in the spring. However, it wasn’t until Prince Albert and his wife Queen Victoria of England appeared in a drawing in the Illustrated London News in 1848 that the tradition took off.

[ksrainbow]

Largest ball of twine

In Cawker City, officials have on display the largest ball of Sisal twine and it continues to grow ever year. Recently listed as being around 7,974,454 feet of Sisal twine rolled into a gigantic ball. A local farmer Frank Stoeber began winding his Sisal twine in 1953 and both locals and visitors continue the winding to this day.

I wrapped a few twines myself!

Ks-

[C0LLETTE]

Originally Posted by A. Spectre

Did YOU know radio call letters west of the Mississippi begin with the letter "K"? East of the Mississippi begin with the letter "W."



In 1928, the Federal Radio Commission decided on a few rules that remain in effect to this day:

* all radio/TV call names were required to be four letters in length

* stations east of the Mississippi River were required to start their call names with ‘W’

* stations west of the Mississippi River were required to start their call names with ‘K’

No I didn't know this and it's really interesting.

DYK that Trump's grandfather had to flee Germany to dodge the military draft; ran brothels in Seattle and New York; and was never "Swedish".

[Bèsame*]

I found this out this morning...

How thin is a lightning bolt???

The width of a thumb and hotter than the sun
While the intensity of a lightning strike can make them appear as thick bolts across the sky, the actual width of a lightning bolt is only about 2-3 cm.,

[cathexis]

Originally Posted by C0LLETTE

No I didn't know this and it's really interesting.

DYK that Trump's grandfather had to flee Germany to dodge the military draft, ran brothels in Seattle and New York, and was never "Swedish."

Were radio and TV stations that only had three letters in their call sign "grand-fathered" in that 1928 ruling?
We have WLS and 6+ others. They're primarily radio stations, but some are television.