Amazing Things I Learned Today!

[Nate the Great]

The episode "The Lights of Zetar" was co-written by Shari Lewis and her husband Jeremy Tarcher. Yes, Shari Lewis as in Lamp Chop's Play-Along. You can't make stuff like this up. Definitely an amazing thing I learned today.

[NAHTMMM]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_chip_cookie

• Nobody thought to invent the chocolate chip cookie until the 1930s
• Even then, it was probably either an accident or just making do with damaged ingredients
• They were originally known as "Toll House cookies" after the restaurant of origin

[Nate the Great]

Well, not a "fact", but an interesting hypothesis.

One of Wesley's "acting ensign" uniforms looked like this.

Note the three colored stripes: red, yellow, and turquoise. In watching SF Debris' review of "The Battle" again today I noticed these stripes and suddenly wondered if they represent the three divisions of Starfleet: command, science/medicine, and operations/security. Others on the net have also noticed this, and have wondered if this is because Wesley hasn't chosen his division yet.

[Nate the Great]

Today I learned what Charlie Chaplin's voice sounded like.

I'd only seen him in clips from silent movies.
If you want the non-Melodysheep version, here it is.

[Nate the Great]

Today I learned that one of my oldest friends is also a fan of How It Should Have Ended. It's a small web after all.

[Nate the Great]

Malcolm McDowell is Alexander Siddig's uncle!

At least Cracked says so. And when have they ever made a factual error?

[Nate the Great]

I've long been a fan of the joke "If a tree falls on a mime in the forest, does anybody care?" Well, today I discovered that this comes from the comic strip The Far Side. I was and still am a fan of the comic, but the mime strip isn't quite as immediately "That's from the Far Side!"-memetic as other classics like the Thagomizer, or the idiot pushing on a pull door, or Cow Tools, or so forth.

[Nate the Great]

Why one side of aluminum foil is shiny and the other side is matte.

[Nate the Great]

Not really amazing, but I wanted to drop by and say that the Arrowverse is now part of the Westphall Multiverse. I'm glad that people are still adding shows. Yes, according to strict logic the whole thing is unwieldy, self-contradictory, and all-around-impossible, but I still have fun with the idea.

[Nate the Great]

Happy National Science Fiction Day!

I only learned today that Isaac Asimov's birthday of January 2nd is National Science Fiction Day.

I confess to minimal knowledge of "hard" scifi fiction. I own a book of time travel stories, and have read a bit here and there elsewhere, but can hardly call myself a serious fan of the genre. My fandom of Asimov comes from his nonfiction, especially his science essays.

(P.S. My boxes upon boxes of Star Trek novels really don't qualify has "hard" scifi, do they?)

[Nate the Great]

My old h2g2 page still exists!

I thought it was lost years ago when ownership moved to the BBC. I didn't even know that the BBC aren't the owners of the site anymore.

Definitely an Amazing Thing I Learned Today.

Ah, dialup, how I don't miss it.

PS. How many of you remember when I called myself Infinite Improbability on this forum? Well, h2g2 is where I used that name for the first time.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm watching the TNG episode "Transfigurations" and I was surprised that not only was O'Brien's kayaking hobby already present in Season 3, but he wears a wetsuit of similar design. Apparently random diagonal pastel stripes is the kayaking fashion in the 24th century.

Just compare the TNG wetsuit (1990) to the DS9 wetsuit (1997)! Amazing!

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

I confess to minimal knowledge of "hard" scifi fiction. [...] My fandom of Asimov comes from his nonfiction, especially his science essays.

Likewise.

(P.S. My boxes upon boxes of Star Trek novels really don't qualify has "hard" scifi, do they?)

Also likewise.

[Nate the Great]

You have boxes upon boxes of Star Trek books too, NAHTMMM?

[NAHTMMM]

Well, three. They do take up disproportionate space for how often I read them nowadays. I was also agreeing that they aren't hard sci-fi.

[Nate the Great]

Ah yes, I have that problem. I got lots of old TOS books at about 15 cents each at a fundraiser sale a few years ago. I doubt I'll read them more than once each, but I can say I'm getting 15 cents worth of enjoyment from each one.

[Nate the Great]

The Lion is still in his cage at Helen Newman Hall!

Okay, a little background is needed. In 2002 the pranksters at All Too Flat noticed an empty and unlocked speaker cage at their college basketball court. They went to Kmart and bought a stuffed lion to stick into the cage. They also printed up a few posters to put under the cage, the joke being along the lines of a single animal zoo.

It took eight months for the school to find the card with their website on it, because it took that long for them to need to open the cage (to put in a new speaker). With permission from the All Too Flat crew they moved it to the empty cage at the other end of the court. They updated their site every few months for awhile to confirm that the lion was still there, but eventually they graduated, got married, and abandoned the site.

Fast Forward to 2014. Someone read about it and asked on Reddit whether it was still there. Someone confirmed that it was and posted a new picture.

It was a nice thing to discover. I was a major follower of All Too Flat ten years ago when they were still active and still make regular pilgrimages to their corner of the Net. I have mentioned them before, but I'll just repost the Pi Song. YouTube video and lyrics with guitar tabs.

[Nate the Great]

The same guy played Decius and Stonn!

Decius was like the number three Romulan in "Balance of Terror", after Mark Lenard's character (who some call Keras) and the centurion (who some call T'Auethn).

We all know who Stonn was. The actor's name was Lawrence Montaigne. He died on last Friday.

[Nate the Great]

Part of the inspiration of TaleSpin was the manga that later inspired Porco Rosso!

Of course it was also inspired by Cheers, Jungle Book, etc.

[Nate the Great]

One of my favorite children's book illustrators is Robert McCloskey. Not only did he write and illustrate the two Homer Price books, but he illustrated the first four Henry Reed books. (I recommend all of these, by the way)

Well, I've always pronounced his last name "Mac-Closs-Key." Well, today I learned on Antiques Roadshow that it's really "Mc-Cluss-Key." I also learned that his book "Make Way For Ducklings" is the official children's book of Massachusetts.

Hey, "amazing" isn't synonymous with "important"! I was amazed, so I came here to dust off the thread.