Useless fun fact-ish type stuff

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Movie previews are called “trailers” because they were originally shown after the movie.

In the early days of moviegoing, you didn’t just buy a ticket for one feature-length film and leave once the credits started rolling. You were instead treated to a mix of shorts, newsreels, cartoons, and, eventually, trailers — which, per their name, played after the movie rather than before — with people coming and going throughout the day. The idea for trailers came from Nils Granlund, who in addition to being a business manager for movie theaters worked as a producer on Broadway, which explains why the first trailer was actually for a play: 1913’s The Pleasure Seekers.   Chicago producer William Selig took the idea further that same year by ending each installment of his serialized action-adventure short films with a tantalizing preview of the next chapter — a precursor to ending movies and TV shows on a cliffhanger. Today there are production houses that exclusively make trailers and are handsomely rewarded for their efforts, sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

While almost all other objects are required to be boxed up before being mailed, the U.S. Postal Service makes a specific exception for potatoes and coconuts. Both foods can be mailed unwrapped, so long as you write the destination and return address either directly on the product or on a label affixed to the skin or husk. Simply take the item to the post office, where it’ll be weighed to determine appropriate postage, stamped, and sent off to be delivered just like any other package.

 

The U.S. Postal Service doesn’t explicitly say why this is permitted, but there is some precedent for sending strange items through the mail, so long as they’re paid for and don’t endanger the carrier. In an experiment conducted for a 2000 edition of Annals of Improbable Research, researchers successfully mailed a ski, a deer tibia, a rose with a card tied to the stem, and other unusual objects.

 

Mailing coconuts is especially popular on the Hawaiian island of Molokaʻi, where the Hoʻolehua post office established the Post-a-Nutservice in 1991, allowing people to mail coconuts to the mainland U.S. and around the world — no box required. Post-a-Nut ships roughly 3,000 coconuts annually (around 700 of which are sent to international locations), generating 40% of that post office’s total revenue. Dedicated businesses for mailing potatoes also exist, including Mail a Spud — a service that ships out russet potatoes adorned with personalized messages.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

E gyptian pharaohs were seen by their subjects as gods — but sometimes, those “gods” had to prove their worth. This occurred at a jubilee-style celebration meant to reaffirm an aging ruler’s kingship, known as the Heb-Sed or Sed festival. The tradition dates back to the first dynasty of ancient Egypt, around 3000 BCE, and usually took place in the 30th year of a pharaoh’s reign (and every three years after that). The event was filled with sacrifices, crownings, and other lavish displays; the Heb-Sed of Amenhotep III, for instance, featured the construction of temples and colossal sculptures all along the Nile valley. But the main event was a footrace run by the pharaoh — dressed in a kilt with an attached animal tail — to demonstrate their physical fitness.

According to Egyptologists, ancient Egyptians likely related the health of their ruler to the overall health and virility of the kingdom. If a pharaoh couldn’t complete the race, it signaled that it was time to make way for a younger, healthier leader. Of course, thousands of years before modern medicine, 30 years was a long life span, and only a small percentage of pharaohs lived long enough to celebrate a Heb-Sed. Not all of them passed the test: Although a simple footrace may seem like a relatively easy method for reaffirming your reign, pharaohs were not nearly as svelte or athletic as hieroglyphics and ancient carvings would have us believe. Many kings and queens were plagued with various maladies caused by inbreeding, as well as obesity: A pharaoh’s diet, often filled with beer, wine, bread, and honey, contained an awful lot of sugar.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

The Eiffel Tower stands 1,083 feet tall, but it gets a bit of a boost in the summer — as many as 6 inches, to be precise. The seasonal phenomenon is the result of warmer temperatures heating up the metal and causing it to expand, making the landmark just a little more imposing. Originally built as the entrance to the 1889 world’s fair, la Dame de Fer (“The Iron Lady”) wasn't initially as beloved as she is today. Some 40 artists went so far as to sign an open letterpublished on the front page of Le Temps protesting the “useless and monstrous” structure that “will without a doubt dishonor Paris.”

Suffice to say that the critics were ultimately in the minority, and both the tower and the world’s fair were massive hits. Even so, the structure wasn’t meant to be permanent: Gustave Eiffel, who designed the tower and lent it his name, was granted a 20-year permit before Paris took over the lease, at which point the monument was supposed to be dismantled. Due to its popularity and usefulness as a radio tower, however, it was allowed to remain a vital part of the City of Light.

[Alpo]

Which just goes to show that the French never change.

 

When they built the Eiffel Tower people complained about that hideous eyesore.

 

Now they love the Eiffel Tower, and they complain about the glass pyramid. A hideous eyesore.

 

Give it another 20 or 30 years and everybody will love the pyramid, but there will be some other hideous eyesore that needs to be demolished.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

When Bella Lugosi died at age 73, he was buried in a Dracula cape.

[John Kloehr]

Looking at my fingers, I see finger tips. But it seems my toes do not have toe tips. Yet on pondering this, I realize I can tiptoe, but to tipfinger seems like nonsense.

 

So my question is, am I suddenly channeling @Alpo?

 

Apologies for putting this here, but it does qualify as useless and factish and maybe fun-ish and certainly not worth a new thread.

[Eyesa Horg]

That's sounding way Alpoesque!

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

16 hours ago, John Kloehr said:

So my question is, am I suddenly channeling @Alpo?

 

Apologies for putting this here, but it does qualify as useless and factish and maybe fun-ish and certainly not worth a new thread.

Sometimes I think that we need a thread of Alpoesque questions. Certainly if he just asked his questions there it would cause the Saloon to have a few less pages. We could all ask things there.

I think that next time I have a question for the Saloon, I might start such a thread. 

[MizPete]

On 6/5/2025 at 9:38 AM, Alpo said:

they complain about the glass pyramid. A hideous eyesore.

Placed where it is, this is an accurate description.

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

Sometimes I think that we need a thread of Alpoesque questions. Certainly if he just asked his questions there it would cause the Saloon to have a few less pages. We could all ask things there.

I think that next time I have a question for the Saloon, I might start such a thread. 

So you think that instead of there being 217 threads, each one about a separate weird question, there should be one 20-page thread with all 217 questions in it.

 

Go ahead, if that makes you happy. Start one.

 

Don't expect me to play in it though.

[John Kloehr]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

So you think that instead of there being 217 threads, each one about a separate weird question, there should be one 20-page thread with all 217 questions in it.

 

Go ahead, if that makes you happy. Start one.

 

Don't expect me to play in it though.

Unless the mods start merging the threads... Anyway, still pondering that I can tiptoe but not tipfinger even though I have finger tips but not toe tips.

 

Drove my manual transmission car today and also remembered I can heel-and-toe and toe-and-heel the gas and clutch yet nothing approaching any combination of fingers and wrists while shifting the transmission.

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]