“If anyone has been outside and fallout particles have collected on his shoes or clothing, they should be brushed off before he enters the shelter area again.”
— From In Time of Emergency: A Citizen’s Handbook on Nuclear Attack, 1968
History
Hitler’s Soft Side
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.
Peary on Arctic Orienteering
A young woman once asked Robert Peary, “But how does anyone know when he has reached the North Pole?”
“Nothing easier,” Peary said. “One step beyond the pole, you see, and the north wind becomes a south one.”
Harry S? Truman
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.
Shortest-Reigning Popes
Shortest-reigning popes:
- Urban VII (elected in 1590): 13 days
- Boniface VI (896): 16 days
- Celestine IV (1241): 17 days
- Sisinnius (708): 21 days
- Theodore II (897): 21 days
- Marcellus II (1555): 22 days
- Damasus II (1048): 24 days
- Pius III (1503): 27 days
- Leo XI (1605): 27 days
- Benedict V (964): 33 days
1978 is called the “year of three popes”: Pope Paul VI was succeeded by John Paul I, who lived only 33 days. John Paul II succeeded him.
Unquote
“Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
Longest Elevator Fall
In 1945, Betty Lou Oliver plunged 75 stories inside an elevator when a B-25 bomber struck the Empire State Building.
Fourteen people died in the plane crash, but Oliver survived.
Living Former Presidents
There have been only three periods when five former American presidents were alive at the same time:
- March 4, 1861-Jan. 18, 1862: Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan
- Jan. 20, 1993-April 22, 1994: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush
- Jan. 20, 2001-June 5, 2004: Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton
Herbert Hoover lived for 31 years after leaving office; James Polk lasted only three months.
Aileen Pringle
In the 1924 silent film Three Weeks, Conrad Nagel tenderly picks up Aileen Pringle to carry her into the bedroom.
Lip readers noted that she appears to be saying, “If you drop me, you bastard, I’ll break your neck.”
Riddle of the Sphinx
For most of its history, Egypt’s Great Sphinx lay buried up to its neck in sand. This photo was taken in 1867; the sphinx wasn’t fully dug out until 1925.
Strangely, we know very little about it. It’s one of the world’s largest statues, but no one knows who built it, or when, or whose likeness it bears. We’re not even sure what it is — we call it a sphinx, but we borrow that term from Greek mythology. A true sphinx would have the head of a woman.
No one knows what the ancient Egyptians called it, but its Arabic name, Abu al-Hôl, translates as “Father of Terror.” Maybe we should cover it up again.