Pencil Sharpening: Useless Information
Steve Silverman, science teacher who lives near Albany, New York has spent years collecting "Useless Information - Stuff you never needed to know but your life would be incomplete without," fascinating history, science and trivia.
* Read the true story of the Flubber Fiasco, in which some of the fictional properties of Hasbro's movie tie-in Flubber toy appeared to become reality. In 1963 the product was selling by the millions, but after a recall Hasbro found that getting rid of the stuff was no easy task!
* Learn about Mike the Headless Chicken, who lived for 18 months after his head was chopped off by Farmer Olsen.
* Or ponder the plight of Sir Alfred, who has been waiting for his flight to depart since 1988. Alfred has been stuck in a French airport, tied up in government red tape for over a decade.
* How about this for creative recycling? Jack Hall, a bored sailor in the 1930's made thirteen working musical instruments, a windmill and a lighthouse out of discarded matchsticks.
* What's the highest price ever paid for a PEZ candy dispenser? How would you like to try some Chlorophyll or Eucalyptus flavored PEZ? Learn more than you ought to know about this candy phenomenon.
* M.I.T. students that paid admission to a dance based on their girlfriend's weight; a guy that had more than one hundred shoe tacks removed from his stomach; a kid that collected some 334,000 dead flies in jars; naturally cooked apple pie; what it means to be "sucking brains;" and other oddball stories that almost got away. <http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/>
* Read the true story of the Flubber Fiasco, in which some of the fictional properties of Hasbro's movie tie-in Flubber toy appeared to become reality. In 1963 the product was selling by the millions, but after a recall Hasbro found that getting rid of the stuff was no easy task!
* Learn about Mike the Headless Chicken, who lived for 18 months after his head was chopped off by Farmer Olsen.
* Or ponder the plight of Sir Alfred, who has been waiting for his flight to depart since 1988. Alfred has been stuck in a French airport, tied up in government red tape for over a decade.
* How about this for creative recycling? Jack Hall, a bored sailor in the 1930's made thirteen working musical instruments, a windmill and a lighthouse out of discarded matchsticks.
* What's the highest price ever paid for a PEZ candy dispenser? How would you like to try some Chlorophyll or Eucalyptus flavored PEZ? Learn more than you ought to know about this candy phenomenon.
* M.I.T. students that paid admission to a dance based on their girlfriend's weight; a guy that had more than one hundred shoe tacks removed from his stomach; a kid that collected some 334,000 dead flies in jars; naturally cooked apple pie; what it means to be "sucking brains;" and other oddball stories that almost got away. <http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/>
posted by John Gabree at 8/12/2004
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