“There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.” — Sylvia Plath
Unquote
Truth in Advertising
In the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter, a hexagonal nut holds the main rotor to the mast. If it were to fail in flight, the helicopter’s body would separate from its rotor.
Engineers call it the “Jesus nut.”
San Francisco Earthquake Photo, 1906
San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Photographer George Lawrence mounted a camera on a kite and flew it 2,000 feet over the ruins.
Of the city’s 400,000 residents, the quake killed 3,000 and left 225,000 homeless. For a time, Bank of America founder Amadeo Giannini met customers at a plank set across two barrels.
“An Orthographic Lament”
If an S and an I and an O and a U
With an X at the end spell Su;
And an E and a Y and an E spell I,
Pray what is a speller to do?
Then, if also an S and an I and a G
And an HED spell side,
There’s nothing much left for a speller to do
But to go and commit siouxeyesighed.
— Charles Follen Adams
Ferdinand Lop
During the French Fourth Republic, Ferdinand Lop ran for president proposing to ban poverty after 10 p.m.
He lost.
Bridges in Central Park
No two bridges in Central Park are identical.
Harrison Ford(s)
Hollywood’s Walk of Fame actually contains two stars marked Harrison Ford.
The first is for a silent film actor who retired in 1932.
He’s little remembered today — so far his namesake has outgrossed him by $5.6 billion.
In a Word
sinapistic
adj. consisting of mustard
Golden Gate Suicides
Jump off the Golden Gate Bridge and you’ll fall for four seconds and hit the water at 75 mph.
More than 1,300 people have attempted suicide in this way, and as of 2003, at least 26 have survived the jump. Many say they changed their minds in midair.
Limerick
There was a young man of St. Bees
Who was stung in the arm by a wasp.
When they asked, “Does it hurt?”
He replied, “No, it doesn’t;
I’m so glad it wasn’t a hornet.”
— W.S. Gilbert