Daily Fun Fact for 11/30/2011

In 1912, William Taft became the first American president to participate in a boxing match with a live kangaroo. Australian Prime Minister Andrew Fisher challenged Taft to fight the animal in order to generate national pride for Australia, which gained dominion status from Britain just a few years earlier. From a political perspective, Fisher was much more of a champion of the working class than the more business-friendly American president. Fisher boasted that if that "husky boar (President Taft) can defeat our most elite fighting kangaroo, then I will humbly undo every piece of workers' legislation passed in Australia and will sell my mother to his administration for a year to work for free as the White House maid."

President William "husky boar" Taft accepted the challenge and fought "Excelby" the kangaroo in front of a small crowd of dignitaries on the White House lawn. The match was intended to be symbolic, and the President was ready to throw the fight. However, Taft slipped after failing to connect on his first punch and fractured his jaw. Taft's wife Helen wrestled the kangaroo to the ground after it had begun a "celebratory dance" atop his fallen opponent. After the fight, Fisher playfully telegraphed Taft the message "so, when will I get to meet your mother?" and mailed to Taft a basket of Australian bushfood and Excelby's boxing glove.

Taft's pride already wounded, he would get stuck in the bathtub soon afterwards.

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/29/2011

Parker Brothers originally planned for the Monopoly mascot to be "Pennywinkle," an anthropomorphic, moneybag-toting Dalmatian wearing a mink coat. They had to scrap the idea when the owner of a large pet store on Oriental Avenue sued the board game creators for stealing their logo: a greyhound wearing a top hat. With patent law being in its infancy in the early 1930s, George Parker believed that he would easily win the case if he could collect enough money to hire a lawyer.

Unfortunately, his ailing father had just been thrown in jail for swindling a casino out of tens and thousands of dollars by playing craps with loaded die. He circumvented the house advantage and tipped off the casino pit bosses by finding a way to roll doubles with a startling regularity. Parker had to decide on whether to use his savings to bail his father out of jail or to save the mascot of his dreams.

Parker gave up on fighting the lawsuit, used the money to bail out his father from jail, and replaced "Pennywinkle the Dalmatian" with "Mr. Monopoly". It was also because of this difficult decision and his frequent visits to his father in jail that Parker made three important gameplay changes to Monopoly:

1) Implementing the "Get Out of Jail Free" card
2) Creating the rule that rolling doubles 3 times consecutively lands the player in jail
3) Adding the "Just Visiting" pathway to the jail square.

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/28/2011

Zelda, the famous princess from The Legend of Zelda series, was named after American author F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda Fitzgerald. In speaking about the decision, Zelda series creator Shigeru Miyamoto said, "She was a famous and beautiful woman from all accounts, and I liked the sound of her name." No cute story about his most famous creation, Super Mario, who was originally named Mr. Video and was planned to be a generic stock character to be inserted into any video game.

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/27/2011

Contrary to popular belief, "The Burger King" is not an only child. For several years during the late 2000s, Burger King considered opening "Pho King," a Vietnamese Pho restaurant concept, to rival McDonald's/Chipotle's Shophouse Southeast Asian stir-fry restaurant. The idea gained traction among high level Burger King executives, many of whom believed that salty, high-margin Pho noodle soup would appeal to American tastes. Intent on developing their brand, Burger King named the mascot "The Pho King," an anime-inspired, yeoman-like version of The Burger King sporting a conical hat. Profit concerns after the 2008 US financial crisis officially ended the experiment, but a high-ranking former executive told Factopolis that the deal breaker was finding a reliable source for organic water buffalo meat in the United States.

Still, two of these concept restaurants remain. Both the Sacramento, CA and Oakland, CA stores feature unassuming storefronts and interiors, but don't let the restaurant's modesty fool you -- the Pho is really, really good.

The author is not affiliated with any of the listed restaurants in any way and cannot verify the information listed in this blog.
©Factopolis - Daily Fun Facts & Useless Knowledge

Daily Fun Fact for 11/26/2011

Never get stranded in a Canadian forest with a container of Moose Munch during the early fall. Bull moose will aggressively seek out Moose munch because it causes them to secrete pheromones that make them more desirable to the comparatively rare female moose, which for unknown reasons comprise only 15% of the moose population. More 10 Moose Munch related injuries occur every year in Manitoba, Canada, but most incidents occurred when local adolescents and tourists taunted bulls with the tasty snack. Still, some wilderness experts insist on not following this advice. Les Stroud, star of the hit Discovery Channel show Survivorman, accepts a care package from his grandmother every year and insists that "nothing -- not a bull moose, not a flying moose, not a Darth Vader moose -- will get in the way of me enjoying the 'moose' delicious chocolate-drizzled, caramel popcorn that the world has ever known."

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/25/2011

The Niagra Falls Shipwreck of 1888 was America's most preventable shipwreck. It happened when the ship's captain steered his ship under Niagra Falls in the middle of the night because, he "was feeling a bit parched." An observer reported seeing the captain holding a small mug in the air as if trying to collect water, before the force of the falling water and ice (the wreck occurred in December) broke the ship's bow and doomed the 17 sleeping crew members on board.The incident was the subject of ML Whitner's famous painting, "Winter Falls, Winter Dreams".

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/24/2011

Today's fact is a guest fact:

Thanksgiving originally developed around 600 B.C. in Athens, despite modern beliefs of origination among pilgrims to the, now, United States. In fact, Plato once said, 'Thanks in giving should be of utmost importance.' Socrates agreed. Jesus even said something along the same lines: 'Love your brother and give thanks. Thanksgiving should be your ultimate goal in life.'

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/23/2011

Oatmeal is not only delicious, but it also has a huge cult following in Korea. "Oat clubs," where members share new oat recipes such as oat oat-flavored soy milk, oat covered bean cake, and kimchi mixed with oats, are fairly common in Seoul. In fact, some recent landmark studies concluded that out of all lifestyle choices, daily oat consumption ranks only behind witchcraft in determining whether one lives to become a centenarian.

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/22/2011

The Norwegian Prime Minister gifts the Dutch government a boar-tusk shoehorn every year. This custom pays homage to a centuries-old military tradition in which Norwegian soldiers crafted shoehorns for their Dutch allies, who often had trouble putting on their boot-like war clogs. This is only one of many reasons that older Norwegians commonly refer to shoehorns as their "Nasjonale Oppfinnelse" (National Invention).

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/21/2011

"We Found Love" by Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris was originally penned by Michael Jackson in 1997 for Lisa Marie Presley as an attempt to save their marriage. The marriage fell apart for good when he sold the rights of the song to Mr. Harris in exchange for his exotic collection of peacock feathers.

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/20/2011

Openness is one of five major personality factors known to be constant throughout multiple cultures, heritable in families and largely unvarying throughout a person's lifetime. The other four factors: extroversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and conscientiousness.

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Daily Fun Fact for 11/19/2011

Dixie cups were the brainchild of William H. Dixie, the great grand-father of Natalie Maines, the lead singer of the Dixie Chicks. When asked about her famous relative, Maines responded, "I heard he was sweetest guy. I used to use his red cups every day, but now I can afford better."

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