Did you know … Who holds the MLB record for game ejections?

Something really amazing happens in this space next week.  Another birthday.

Not for me, of course.  That’s already been and gone.  No, it’ll be the column’s birthday – but I’ll talk more about that next week.

For the moment, let’s focus on the trivia that you came to this particular page of your favorite newspaper to enjoy.  I’ve got it ready right here, so you settle back, grab a nice snack or beverage (or both), and enjoy the collection presented for you to do just that.

Did you know …

… the number 22,000 should be important to you?  If you wonder why, read on.  Assuming you’re like the average human adult, that’s the number of breaths you take in one 24-hour period.  This “average person” takes between 12 and 16 breaths per minute when resting, but more when exercising.  (The older I get, the more that number holds meaning for me.)

… ancient Greek and Roman statues were painted?  Over the thousands of years since they were created, the paint – which made them very colorful – has worn away, leaving only the bare marble.  But there are tiny flecks of original paint found on many of them, leading archaeologists to conclude that the artists didn’t just sculpt a statue, they colorized it as well.  (Which is a good thing, I would presume.)

… the most successful independent film of all time was one of the Star Wars films?  In 1980, George Lucas (born 1944) released The Empire Strikes Back, now the fifth in the nine-film Star Wars series.  Following the success of the first (fourth) film, A New Hope, Lucas bankrolled the entire cost of the production – some $33 million – himself.  The movie went on to gross more than half a billion dollars, making it the most successful independent movie.  (The Force was with him.)

… childhood dreams are shorter than adult dreams?  In addition, about 40% of children’s dreams are actually nightmares.  Doctors say this is probably a coping mechanism. (Considering what kids have to cope with, I tend to agree.)

… you should never eat a floating egg?  If you put an egg into a bowl of water and it floats, that means the egg has gone bad.  A fresh egg will sink, but a “ripe” one will float.  This is because the egg contains an air cell, which expands as the egg ages.  A floating egg may be safe to use, but I wouldn’t.  (Nor should you.)

… a popular board game was invented by an architect?  Almost all of us, at one time or another, have played Scrabble, the word game where you use letter tiles drawn at random to spell out words for points.  Scrabble was invented in 1933 by Alfred Mosher Butts (1899-1993), a professional architect.  Butts created the game during the Great Depression as a way to help uplift the spirits of people.  He originally called the game “Lexiko,” then “Criss Cross Words,” before settling on the popular name we all know.  (And love.)

… who holds the Major League Baseball record for most ejections from games?  Normally, when an umpire ejects a player or manager, it’s because they either argued too energetically or said a “magic word” that gets them tossed.  But throughout MLB’s 150-plus-year history, one player and one manager found themselves getting the heave-ho more than any other.  The player is Johnny Evers (1881-1947).  Evers was an active player from 1902 to 1917, playing for the Chicago Cubs, Boston Braves and Philadelphia Phillies.  A man who was known for his hair-trigger temper, Evers managed to rack up a total of 63 ejections from games during his career.  As far as managers go, the ejection record is held by Bobby Cox (born 1941), who managed the Atlanta Braves and the Toronto Blue Jays.  Cox was thumbed out of games 162 times during his managerial career.  Additional trivia note:  The active player with the most ejections is Bryce Harper (born 1992) of the Phillies, with 21 at the time of this writing.  The active manager with the most ejections is Bruce Bochy (born 1955) of the Texas Rangers, who’s been tossed 86 times as of the day this is written.  (Yer outta here!)

… the word “escalate” did not exist before 1922?  As a verb, escalate – which means “to raise” or “to use an escalator” – came into existence with the invention of the escalator, or moving staircase, in the early 20th Century.  The escalator itself was invented by the Otis Elevator Company in 1900, but the first recorded uses of “escalate” as a verb are found no earlier than 1922.  (Well, that escalated quickly.)

… camels do not store water in their humps?  Rather, it’s a special form of fat which holds nutrients that the camel lives on if there is a wide gap between meals or drinks of water.  An additional value of the fat in the hump (or humps) is keeping them cool, as the fat stored in one place helps keep the animal cooler that if the fat was distributed evenly around the camel’s body.  (You know what you call a camel with no hump?  Humphrey.)

… four empires collapsed after World War I?  Three of them were on the losing side of the war:  the German empire, the Austro-Hungarian empire, and the Ottoman empire.  The fourth, the Russian empire, was on the winning side.  (Which, as things turned out, didn’t help them very much.)

… Cupid was not always shown as a cute, pudgy baby?  Cupid was originally the Roman god of love, son of the gods Mars and Venus.  In his initial depictions, Cupid was shown as a young man who sharpened his arrows on a grindstone.  The change of Cupid from a man to a child took place in the Victorian era, when business owners trying to promote Valentine’s Day sales redesigned Cupid to make him more suitable to women and children.  (Make of that what you will.)

Now … you know!