Hitler’s Soft Side

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hitlerwithdeer.GIF

For a genocidal monster, Adolf Hitler was kind of a pansy:

  • He didn’t drink.
  • He largely avoided eating meat, beginning in the early 1930s. (“The world of the future will be vegetarian.”)
  • He slept with his dog, Blondi, a German Shepherd given to him by Martin Bormann.
  • He disapproved of cosmetics, since they contained animal byproducts, and he frequently teased Eva Braun about her makeup.

Hitler didn’t smoke, either, and he promoted aggressive anti-smoking campaigns throughout Germany. Witnesses reported that, upon learning of his suicide, many of his officers, aides and secretaries responded by lighting cigarettes.

| History · Trivia

Barbie

“Barbie is the ultimate ambassador for girls,” says Mattel. That’s a little dubious, given her bio. Does this sound like your daughter?

“Barbara Millicent Roberts” attended Willows High School in Willows, Wis., and Manhattan International High School in New York City. She has 38 pets, including cats, dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra. She also owns numerous cars, including several pink convertibles, and she operates commercial airliners when she’s not serving as a stewardess.

She dated Ken Carson for 43 years before dumping him to run for president in 2004. (Platform: create world peace, help the homeless, take care of animals.) As experience, her handlers cited “serving in the military, acting as a UNICEF ambassador and being a teacher.”

They also said she was “well-rounded.” That’s for sure. At life size, Barbie would be 5 foot 9 and measure 36-18-33. But it turns out you can be too rich and too thin: According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, Barbie would have too little body fat to menstruate.

| Entertainment · Trivia

Harry S? Truman

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harry_S._Truman_signature.png

You can start fights among copyeditors by asking them how to punctuate Harry Truman’s name.

The 34th president had no middle name — just the letter S. So the question is, do you add a period afterward? Purists say no, it’s not an abbreviation. Pragmatists say yes, if you omit the period then some readers will stop at the “error.”

Truman himself usually signed his name with a period, but he once remarked that it should be omitted. That’s why, to this day, some newspapers refer to him as Harry S Truman.

| History · Language · Trivia