Did you know … a famous actor once competed against himself for ratings?

I received an interesting e-mail the other day, congratulating me on making it to 400 columns and asking just how much longer I can keep this silly thing going.

Well, thank you so much for the congrats, and to answer your question – I can keep this silly thing going as long as you’re willing to read it. I have a master file of literally thousands of trivial items I haven’t gotten to yet, so never fear – as long as I sit behind this keyboard, you’ll get a new trivia column each week.

So let’s get to the newest trivia column right now, shall we?

Did you know …

… the Pentagon has five sides due to an accident of design? When it was originally designed, the new headquarters for the War Department (now the Department of Defense) was supposed to fit into a tract of land with borders on five sides, and was thus designed in the shape of a pentagon. But between design and construction, which began in 1941, the site for the building was changed. It didn’t need five sides by then, but the designs had been approved and it was too late to change them. (You know how the government works.)

… a beloved children’s book author was buried with some of his favorite possessions? Roald Dahl (1916-1990) wrote the classic children’s books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many others. When Dahl died, he asked to be buried with a power saw, some chocolate, HB pencils, and snooker cues. (I’ll let you figure out what he planned to do with all that in the afterlife.)

… feeling itchy after lying on grass has a cause? If, like me, you find yourself scratching after laying on grass, it’s because the grass has actually injured you. Grass blades have trichomes. Trichomes are tiny hairs that cause little abrasions on your skin. And if sweat seeps into those abrasions, it’s much worse – not unlike pouring salt onto a wound. (Ouch! Or itch … or maybe both.)

… the planet Saturn has a feature astronomers can’t figure out? Known for its glorious ring system, Saturn also has a feature at its north pole which confuses scientists. The feature is an almost perfect hexagon around the pole, and the best guess astronomers have is that it’s a storm larger than the planet Earth. No one can explain, however, why the feature is a hexagon. (I’d kind of like to know the answer to that myself.)

… a man died of laughter while watching a movie? In 1989, Danish audiologist Ole Bentzen (1933-1989) was watching the film A Fish Called Wanda when he began to laugh. Bentzen laughed so hard his heart rate shot up to between 250 and 500 beats per minute, which caused him to die. Bentzen literally laughed himself to death. (There are far, far worse ways to go, you know.)

… an actor in the 1960s was so popular he competed with himself on different networks? During the 1964-65 television season, actor Jim Backus (1913-1989) became popular as the millionaire Thurston Howell III on the situation comedy Gilligan’s Island, which aired on CBS. That same season, Backus was also the star voice in the animated series The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo on NBC.

Originally, the programs were scheduled on the same day each week, Saturday, but at different times. In an effort to compete with Gilligan, however, NBC moved Magoo to 8 p.m., the same time as the CBS series. Backus was, in effect, airing against himself. As everyone knows, Gilligan’s Island won the battle, and The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo was cancelled after one season.

… 2.5 cans of Spam™ are consumed every second in the United States? (By whom?)

… gambling is as much an addiction as some drugs? Studies have shown that when prevented from gambling, compulsive gamblers experience actual physical withdrawal symptoms such as restlessness, shakiness, and severe headaches. (Want to bet on that?)

… giant pandas have an excellent sense of smell? They are able to find bamboo stalks by scent, even at night. (Of course, where they live, there isn’t much else to smell.)

… a comet’s vapor trail is very, very small? Sure, it looks big from here on Earth, but scientists say that if you could capture and bottle the entire 10,000-mile vapor trail of an average comet, you’d have vapor that would take up less than one cubic inch of space. (Hazy, very very hazy.)

… most dogs don’t prefer treats? Yeah, I know, it sound silly. But according to a 2016 study, most dogs would rather have praise than treats. (Good boy!)

… the first network Western television series was not made for television? On June 24, 1949, NBC aired a cut-down version of a Hopalong Cassidy feature film as the first weekly Western series. The show, which starred William Boyd (1895-1972) as Cassidy and Andy Clyde (1892-1967) as his sidekick California Carlson, became a series after the network aired some of the 66 full-length Cassidy movies which were so successful the network could not wait for an actual series to be produced.

Cassidy was such a popular character that he was also the first to be featured on a television-inspired lunchbox image, in 1950. The series lasted until 1954, though Clyde was replaced as sidekick by Edgar Buchanan (1903-1979) as Red Connors. (Sounds about right, Hoppy.)

… domestic cats do not like the scent of citrus fruit? Felines have a very sensitive sense of smell, and the pungent oils in citrus fruits are real irritants to them. (That explains a lot, now that I think of it.)

Now … you know!

You can reach Jack Bagley at didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com.