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Trivia Thread!

Festivus (/ˈfɛstɪvəs/) is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the perceived pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. Originally created by author Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike", which O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, co-wrote.

Festivus was conceived by author and editor Daniel O'Keefe, the father of television writer Dan O'Keefe, and was celebrated by his family as early as 1966. While the Latin word fēstīvus means "excellent, jovial, lively", and derives from fēstus, meaning "joyous; holiday, feast day", Festivus in this sense was coined by the elder O'Keefe. According to him, the name "just popped into my head". In the original O'Keefe tradition, the holiday would take place to celebrate the anniversary of Daniel O'Keefe's first date with his future wife, Deborah. The phrase "a Festivus for the rest of us" originally referred to those remaining after the death of the elder O'Keefe's mother, Jeanette, in 1976; i.e., the "rest of us" are the living, as opposed to the dead.

 
In the 12th century, two small children with green skin allegedly appeared on the outskirts of the English village of Woolpit. There, the young boy and girl were found crawling out of a pit meant for catching wolves. According to at least two historical accounts, they were clad in strange clothing, appeared to speak only gibberish, and seemed repulsed by most food. Eventually, they discovered some green beans growing outside and gobbled them up, and after they gradually started to eat the other food that the villagers offered them, they began to lose their greenish hue. Though the boy later died of a mysterious illness, the girl lived long enough to learn how to speak English — and told the villagers that she and the boy had come from a distant land called St. Martin where the sun didn't shine and the people lived in perpetual twilight.
 
Throughout history, April Fool’s Day has been marked by elaborate and memorable pranks. One famous example is the BBC’s 1957 broadcast of a documentary on the “spaghetti harvest” in Switzerland, featuring footage of people harvesting noodles from trees. Many viewers were fooled by the realistic portrayal and called in to inquire about how they could grow their own spaghetti trees.

 
This definitely rings a bell at least a half century old! But my dimming memory seems to include the use of scissors in harvesting ...
Maybe German TV of long ago (channel 2 only started broadcasting in 1963 on this day) decided to do a clone. Italy's Adriatic shore was the main target of German tourists with cars from perhaps the 1950's onward, earning the moniker "Teutonic Grill".
 
If ya like this sort of thing here's s'more:

 
OK, talking about states (the US). (Not sure if I've already posted this, altho' I did a search and nothing came up)
The northern-most, southern-most, western most, and eastern-most states (all 50) in the US? (Not counting US Territories)
Not what you'd think...not four states at all.
Only two:
Hawaii is southern-most 19.8987° N, 155.6659° W (Florida is 27.6648° N)
Only one fulfills all three other positions: Alaska.
Northernmost (obviously).
Westernmost: the Aleutian Islands bump right up against the 180th meridian.
However, one Island, Attu, lies at 52°54'09"N 172°54'34"E situating it in the eastern half of the Northern Hemisphere.
That is, it bumps up against the 180th meridian, but from the other side of the meridian compared to all the other Aleutian Islands.
 
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Deimos said:
However, one Island Attu
Click to expand...
The islands of Attu and Kiska were the only territory of the US invaded and occupied by the Japanese in WW II. Territories, mind you, not states, as Alaska only became a state (the 49th) in January 1959 - more precisely on 03 January 1959, JRRT's 67th birthday.
P.S. Hawaii, with Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, became the 50th state in August 1959.
P.P.S. three other states only achieved statehood in the 20th century:
Arizona, #48, in February 1912,
New Mexico, #47, in January 1912, and
Oklahoma, #46, in November 1907.
P.P.P.S. when JRRT was born, the US only had 44 states, as Utah only became #45 on 04 January 1896.
 
Despite being shot through the breast, losing an eye and having one leg hanging on by just one tendon, carrier pigeon Cher Ami managed to fly through a hail of bullets to deliver a message that saved over a hundred American troops during WWI. The pigeon was awarded the Croix de Guerre, one of France’s highest military honours.
 
The longerst word in the English langage, and longest word in the world, is a technical name comprised of 189,819 letters.
It is the name of the largest known protein, a 'giant' protein, also called "Titin."

Titin is made up of 247 other protiens, 27,916 Amino Acids. Proteins are named by stringing the names of the amino acids of which they are comprised together into one long name. Thus, "Titin"'s real name was formed by taking the 27916 Amino Acid names and strinigng them together into one long name.

Yes, this protein is found in the muscles, and is also called the 'spring protein' due to its general qualities and shape..
Its full name is said to take about 3 1/2 hours to pronounce.

(Unless you're an Ent...then it takes longer. Much longer.)
 
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Fitzcarraldo is a movie based on a true story of an attempt to transport a 30-ton ship over a hill in the jungle. In the movie, they actually move a 320-ton ship.

Filming was so difficult that by the end, a tribal chief working as an extra asked the director (Werner Herzog) if he wanted the star (Klaus Kinski) killed. He declined.

And one of the people working for the film, a Peruvian logger, was bitten by a snake, and saved his own life by cutting off his own foot with a chainsaw.
 
There must be tons of repetition in that word. From the Wikipedia article on amino acids:

"Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 appear in the genetic code of life."
 
Olorgando said:
There must be tons of repetition in that word. From the Wikipedia article on amino acids
Click to expand...
Might be.
You're free to check it out in the multi-page presentation of the name @Erestor Arcamen provided.
As for me, I'm more than whelmed just knowing what I already don't know about what I know next to nothing about. 😁
 
John Popper, of Blues Traveler, had a side project called Trucking Company. Both bands had shows on the same night, so he asked his high school friend Chris Barron to sit in with Trucking Company for the gig. Barron became the permanent singer, and Trucking Company changed their name to The Spin Doctors.
 
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