Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Atlanta are collinear.
(Thanks, Ryan.)
Northeast Passage
Trivia
For What It’s Worth
SWEATERDRESSES is typed entirely with the left hand, JOHNNY-JUMP-UP with the right. ANTISKEPTICISM alternates.
Pilot Program
For 50 years, Snoopy has been NASA’s official safety mascot. Every astronaut wears a sterling silver Snoopy pin into space and presents it personally afterward to an employee or contractor as a special commendation for outstanding achievements related to safety.
Each year, fewer than 1 percent of the aerospace program workforce receive the award; it’s the highest honour recognizing the people who work to keep astronauts safe.
Connections
Discovered by State Farm research agents in 2001:
Antonio Parkway crosses Avenida de las Banderas in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.
Grinn Drive meets Barret Road in West Chester, Ohio.
East Ho Road meets North Hum Road in Carefree, Arizona.
Dock Street connects Hickory Avenue and Dickory Avenue in Harahan, Louisiana.
On the Quiet
To avoid alarming their visitors, hospitals typically alert their staff to emergency situations by announcing “codes” over the public address system. Alberta uses these:
Code Red: Fire
Code Blue: Cardiac arrest/medical emergency
Code Orange: Mass casualty incident
Code Green: Evacuation
Code Yellow: Missing patient
Code Black: Bomb threat/suspicious package
Code White: Violence/aggression
Code Brown: Chemical spill/hazardous material
Code Grey: Shelter in place/air exclusion
Code Purple: Hostage situation
These haven’t been standardized; a few other systems are listed here. One common variation is “Paging Dr. Red” or “Paging Dr. Firestone” to alert staff of a fire. Sometimes “Code Clear” is announced when the emergency has been dealt with.
For similar reasons, airlines refer to dead bodies as “Jim Wilson.” American Airlines’ help desk for funeral homes is called the American Airlines Jim Wilson Service.
Misc
- By age 14, Harry Truman had read every book in the Independence, Missouri, library.
- In honor of Ray Bradbury, a web page censored by a government returns HTTP error status code 451.
- Wyoming, Wisconsin, is in Iowa County.
- Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dalí were both named after dead brothers who had preceded them.
- “Virtue is insufficient temptation.” — George Bernard Shaw
Misc
Salman Rushdie suggested that if Robert Ludlum had written Hamlet it would be called The Elsinore Vacillation.
Larry Rosenbaum observed that a gigolo is a million million billion piccolos.
The Greek god of theatrical criticism was named Pan.
Most pygmy hippos in American zoos are descended from William Johnson Hippopotamus, a pet given to Calvin Coolidge.
BISOPROLOL FUMARATE is an anagram of SUPER MARIO FOOTBALL.
Illinois considers Pluto a planet.
“It is as if children know instinctively that anything wholly solemn, without a smile behind it, is only half alive.” — Iona and Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, 1959
Double Duty
In 1934 Ole Kirk Kristiansen named his toy company Lego, after the Danish phrase for “play well” (leg godt).
He found out later that it also means “I put together” in Latin.
Misc
- Queen Victoria and her future husband, Albert, were born with the help of the same midwife.
- Ulysses Grant and Harry Truman had the same meaningless middle initial.
- SLICES OF BREAD is an anagram of DESCRIBES LOAF. (Dean Mayer)
- France’s longest land border is with Brazil (via French Guiana).
- “A creed is an ossified metaphor.” — Elbert Hubbard
(Thanks, Tony.)
False Advertising
The big-eyed wolf spider of Hawaii has two cousins that live in lava caves.
One is called the small-eyed big-eyed wolf spider.
The other is the no-eyed big-eyed wolf spider.