Why does the NFL only play on Sundays until the playoffs‭?‬

“Where do you get your trivia?” That was the question I was asked recently by someone who has been reading this silly column for some time.

I get my trivia from many, many sources. If I listed just a fraction of them, I’d have no room for the actual trivia. The facts themselves are out there, for all to find; I just take the ones that grab my attention, and do some research on them before adding them to my “master file.”  That little file (not so little, actually) is the source from which I draw the items listed here each week.

If I gave you the list of sources, you’d be able to do this too. I don’t need the competition.  (Just kidding, of course … if you want to join the party, feel free!)

Now, on to what I pulled from the master file for this week!  Hope you enjoy it.

Did you know …

… it is illegal to change clothes inside a car in Delaware?  (It’s also pretty darned uncomfortable – and if you’ve never tried to change clothes in a vehicle, do it, and then get back to me.)

… more couples get engaged in December than in any other month? (I’d be willing to guess that Christmas and Hanukkah have something to do with that – giving gifts, and all.)

… novelist Stephen King (born 1947) has written books under three other names as well?  King, famous for his horror novels, also writes under the pseudonyms of Richard Bachman, John Swithen, and Beryl Evans. The reason he used pseudonyms is interesting – he was trying to get around his publisher insisting that the market could only handle one King novel a year.  After a bookstore clerk figured out that Bachman, Swithen and Evans were all Stephen King, he stopped using the pseudonyms (except for Bachman occasionally), as he had proven his point to the publisher.  (Way to go, Steve!)

… the concrete in Hoover Dam is not yet fully cured?  The dam, located in Nevada, was constructed between 1931 and 1936 and was built to last 2,000 years.  But the concrete used in its construction won’t be fully cured until the year 2430 or so.  (Cured?  I didn’t even know it was sick.)

… the name of one of the most popular characters in one of the most popular movie series came about thanks to another movie? When George Lucas (born 1944) was mixing the soundtrack for his 1973 film, American Graffiti, he numbered film reels starting with an R, and dialog reels with a D.  The sound director asked Lucas for Film Reel 2, Dialog Reel 2, by saying he wanted, “R2D2.” Lucas liked the sound of that so much that he integrated it into the little science fiction project he was working on – Star Wars.  (Yeah, but I’d love to hear the explanation for C3PO, myself.)

… NFL games are held on Sundays because of broadcast laws?  In 1961, President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) signed into law the Sports Broadcasting Act. This law was enacted to provide the professional sports leagues – the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB – with an anti-trust exemption to allow the leagues to merge team broadcasting rights without being sued. In the case of the NFL, however, the law did something else – it prohibited broadcasting any professional football game on any Friday after 6 p.m. or any Saturday, between the second Friday in September and the second Saturday in December, for any television station within 75 miles of the site of any high school or college football game.  Since almost all television broadcasting sites are closer than that to high schools and colleges, it effectively killed airing Saturday games, and thus the NFL was forced to schedule its games on Sundays. Playoff games happen after the December end of the rule, so they can be held any day.

… you may know a petrologist?  You may, in fact, be one.  A petrologist is someone who studies rocks, including composition, classification and formation.  It’s a branch of geology.  (And if you look up the Pet Rock™, you could be a pet petrologist.)

… loneliness really does hurt?  Scientists have determined that loneliness is processed in the same part of the brain as is physical pain.  (Boy, does it ever.)

… you should always check your tickets at a race track? An estimated $1 million is lost each year at race tracks when people either lose or carelessly throw away their winning tickets.  (Or just don’t bet on races.)

… you most definitely do not want your cholesterol count to reach 0?  First, it’s impossible to do that. But even if it were, you don’t want it, because cholesterol protects the integrity of cell membranes in your body.  If you totally eliminated all cholesterol, your cells would have dry, cracked membranes and all the contents would leak out.  (Now get that picture out of your mind.)

… almost 3 million people in the world die each year due to obesity?  (Uh oh.)

… a man charged with stealing from vending machines tried to pay his bail with quarters? Gregory Rosa (born 1965) of Dracut, Massachusetts, was charged in 1990 with stealing money from numerous vending machines in Smithfield, Mass.  After being arrested, Rosa asked for his backpack so he could pay his $400 bail.  Police searched the backpack and found that much and more in quarters, along with the tools used to get into the machines.  (You have to admire the chutzpah, though.)

Now … you know!