ASSOCIATES (vol. 4, no. 3, March 1998) - associates.ucr.edu
*LIBRARY LIFE: A COLUMN OF ECLECTIC RANTINGS* by Katie Buller Senior Library Assistant University of Wisconsin - Madison ktbuller@macc.wisc.edu Things learned while in the bathroom: As of 1989, the longest limousine in the world was a 60-foot long, 20,000 lb. car called the "American Dream". It had 16 wheels, 2 engines, a swimming pool, a hot tub, a water bed, a helicopter landing pad, a crystal chandelier, 3 color TV's (one a giant screen), a microwave oven, VCR, 10 speaker stereo, 10 telephones, a mirrored ceiling, cocktail table and hardwood flooring. It has 8 axles and requires two drivers. My mom's car qualifies on the two drivers requirement: one to actually drive the car while the other second guesses every move. Also in 1989, the record for playing music non-stop was set by a heavy-metal group called "Vengeance KSA". They played for 107 hours straight. After setting this record, these fellows apparently moved in next door to me. As of 1990, there were some very interesting tourist attractions over this broad land. You can visit the shopping mall where Madonna's "True Blue" dress was exhibited and stolen. The woman who stole it was chased and tossed it into a bush where it was later found by some teenagers. You could visit the theft site at the 12 Oaks Mall in Novi, Michigan if I bothered to put the address down here. You can also visit the various locales where Elvis has reportedly been spotted since his "death" (wink wink!), most of which are in Kalamazoo, Michigan. As a former citizen of Kalamazoo, I can attest to the fact that these places once existed: the Burger King on S. Westnedge, Felpausch's Grocery (actually in Vicksburg, Michigan), J.C. Penney's at the Crossroads Mall, the Columbia Plaza Hotel on E. Michigan Ave. (ask if John Burrows is registered) or Upjohn Pharmaceuticals (surprise surprise...not). In 1957, the following were among the facts and fiction set forth about sexuality and teenagers: spermatozoa were called male germ cells (maybe they still are for all I know), wearing high-heeled shoes before age 16 will cause your leg muscles to shorten, unmarried pregnant teens are a "rare exception" and being "gay, cheerful and radiantly alive" will make you a more attractive companion. Also, the "ambition of every girl is to find a life-long mate and prepare herself for the ultimate purpose of every woman: to be a wife and mother". Hey, I don't write 'em, I just report 'em. I also found out that: The Boy Scouts' motto of "Be Prepared" shares its initials with the Scouts' founder, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell. Covering a yawn with your hand is derived from an attempt to keep the breath of life from escaping. The French guillotine was NOT invented by Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin. The good doctor was only instrumental in persuading the French National Assembly to pass a law requiring all capital to be carried out "by means of a machine". Oscar Wilde's last words were "This wallpaper is killing me--one of us has got to go." Fred Waring, 1930s bandleader, financed and developed the Waring Blender in order to mix his favorite drink, the daiquiri. The "evil eye" was dreaded in nearly all cultures. Silly Putty was a by-product resulting from research to find a low-cost rubber substitute for use in military equipment. However, entertaining as it was, no practical use could be found for it until it was packaged and sold as a child's toy. The Slinky spring toy also came from research to develop flexible springs to counterbalance ships at sea. However, unlike Silly Putty, it has found other uses than a plaything--it has gone into space to observe the effects of weightlessness on springs, used as an antenna by soldiers in Vietnam and has been incorporated into a device to pick pecans. Canned foods pre-date the can opener by around 40 years. Dodos became extinct in 1681. By all accounts, this bird had no natural predators on its native island of Mauritius until humans arrived. Then it was bye-bye dodo. Today's "garden cemeteries" are the result of a movement to clean up the disease-infected quagmires that composed church graveyards, especially after a yellow-fever epidemic in New York. Hank Williams died in a pink 1953 Cadillac. Cowboy star Tom Mix died in a 1944 Cord when his suitcase became unlashed and flew forward, breaking his neck and killing him instantly. Richard Berry wrote the words to "Louie Louie" on a piece of toilet paper backstage at the Harmony Club Ballroom in Anaheim, California. The oldest shopping center in America is the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. It was built in 1922. Johnny Cash has sung so much about prisons, he must have spent quite a bit of time in them, right? Wrong, unless you count his concerts in prisons. Johnny Cash's prison experience is limited to 20 hours total jailtime for various minor infractions, including picking flowers on the courthouse lawn at 2AM. Zsa Zsa Gabor slapped "that gorgeous officer" (and having seen the officer involved, I agree!) at the corner of Olympic Blvd. and Le Doux Rd. in Beverly Hills. And last but not least....Mrs. Fields never sold her cookie recipe for $250.00. Neither did Nieman-Marcus. . Now, can you sleep tonight? Sources: _1989 Guiness Book of World Records_. New York. Sterling. Brunvand, Jan Harold. _The Vanishing Hitchhiker._ New York. W.W. Norton, 1981. Mozes, Eugene B. _Sex Facts and Fiction for Teenagers._ New York. Medical Research Press. 1957. Panati, Charles. _Panati's Extraordinary Endings of Practically Everything and Everybody._ New York. Harper & Row. 1989. Panati, Charles. _Panati's Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things._ New York, Harper & Row. 1987. Staten, Vince. _Unauthorized America._ New York. Harper & Row. 1990.