Reuel Colt Gridley was born and raised in Hannibal, Missouri in 1829, and lived there contemporaneously with Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain), with Clemens claiming Gridley was a schoolmate of his. Leaving Missouri for greater adventure out west as a teenager, Gridley served in the Mexican War (1846-1848) and later joined the great California Gold Rush in 1852. (See: What […]
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To most people, re-gifting an unwanted Christmas present is rude, ungrateful and a little miserly. However, to Roy Collette and Larry Kunkel, it was not only a treasured Christmas-time tradition that they upheld for well over two decades, but an ever escalating game to see which one would fail to be able to re-gift the pair of pants in question […]
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Snakes on a Plane was a ridiculous work of fantasy with no basis in reality…. But as it turns out, a scenario almost exactly like that once happened over a hundred years ago on a boat. While some of the details of the event have been lost to history, what we know for sure is that sometime in the closing […]
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Munawar asks: What do they put in windshield wiper fluid to keep it from freezing? Although there are other additives that are also sometimes used for the de-icing component in windshield washer fluid, the most commonly used ingredient is methanol, which combines with water, a dash of colored ink, and occasionally some form of detergent to make up windshield washer […]
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Sarah U. asks: Why are Harley motorcycles legal when they are so loud it hurts your ears? Anyone who’s ever witnessed a poker run knows that Harley-Davidson motorcycles are really, really loud. And since not everyone thinks that’s a good thing, in recent years, there have been efforts to stifle them. Straight off the line today, Harley exhaust systems can […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader If you were around in the 1980s, you undoubtedly remember them: black-and-white photos of missing children printed on the sides of cardboard milk cartons. Here’s the story of how it all started. ABDUCTED On Sunday morning, September 5, 1982, 12-year-old Johnny Gosch set out from his West Des Moines, Iowa, […]
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In 1993, concerned about the steady decline of milk consumption over recent years, the newly created nonprofit California Milk Processor Board approached the advertising agency of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, seeking fresh ideas to get America excited about drinking their product. The agency found the request quite a challenge, since, in the words of Jeff Goodby: “We have all tried […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Audiences cheered when the hero of the 1999 movie Office Space unscrewed the walls of his cubicle and watched them come crashing down. Yet 30 years earlier, when the very first cubicle walls went up, employers and workers alike cheered them as the “workplace of the future.” SEA OF DESKS […]
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Lance H. asks: Who currently receives the royalties for Mein Kampf? Mein Kampf, the autobiographical, anti-Semitic hate-manifesto written by Adolf Hitler in the 1920s is one of the most controversial and infamous books of all time. As you might imagine, this has resulted in millions of copies of the book being sold since Hitler did the world a major favour and heroically […]
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Sara M asks: Why are Boeing planes so randomly numbered for their names? Although it may seem as if Boeing planes are randomly numbered, there actually is a method to their madness. Founded in July 1916 as the Pacific Aero Products Co, but changing into Boeing Airplane Company in 1917, Boeing was re-tooling and adapting to the end of World […]
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Back in 1981, in an effort to raise some quick funds, American Airlines introduced a $250,000 pass (about $641,000 today) that would allow customers to fly on its airlines for free for the rest of their lives. In 1990, they bumped the price to $600,000 (about $1.07 million today), and then in 1993 to $1.01 million (about 1.7 million today). Despite […]
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Due to the fact that they can’t move and as such can’t sneak up on you, many people never really think of trees as being dangerous. As it turns out though, beyond the occasional tree that kills a person by falling on them, there’s also a tree out there so deadly it has been dubbed “The Suicide Tree”. But as you’ll […]
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John T. asks Why do keyboard keypads number 7,8,9 on down and phone keypads number 1,2,3 on down? It’s not clear why numbering pads designed for calculation have 7-8-9 at the top, although the practice of placing the larger numbers above the smaller can be seen as far back as the late 19th century on early mechanical cash registers, often […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The Abraham Lincoln bloodline shed its last drop in 1985. Or did it? ROOTS A year after Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith’s death in 1985, a 17-year-old boy appeared in court to accept a million-dollar settlement from the Lincoln estate. Beckwith was the last of the 16th president’s three great-grandchildren to […]
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If you happen to think killing two birds with one stone is a bit inefficient, or you have found your way into a zombie apocalypse, you might be interested in a special type of gun known as a “punt gun,” that used to be somewhat common among commercial waterfowl hunters. What’s so special about this gun? It is capable of […]
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Darren S. asks: Why does standing in one place for a long time make my legs and feet sorer than walking the same amount of time? Working retail, waiting tables, standing in line at the amusement park or just shopping with mom, anyone who’s ever been stuck on their feet for a long time more or less standing still knows […]
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For all Charles Dickens knew, his second American tour starting in 1867 might be a trip into hostile territory. His first tour in the country during 1842 left him disillusioned, and his subsequent books American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit offered stinging criticism of the America he experienced. But he was desperate. Between his banished wife’s monthly stipend and supporting his […]
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Generally speaking, most men these days tend to sport closely cropped haircuts. If you happen to be one of the men that enjoys having a neatly trimmed, easy to maintain ‘do you can thank an unpopular English tax and a bet made by a duke for saving you countless minutes every morning. While the likes of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary […]
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