Bertrand Russell was an incredibly smart man, a mathematician, and a bit of a philosopher. At some point during his 97-year life, he said this:
”There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.”
I think that might be the new motto for the Polly Goggles Bloggles. I might even have to tattoo that somewhere on my body.
So in light of that revelation, I will proceed with some useless knowledge for your dining pleasure.
And what better way than to start off with a superhero? The world needs a superhero right now. Or fifty. But where did they all begin?
According to Guinness World Records, the very first superhero was The Phantom, who debuted in his own newspaper comic strip on today’s date, February 17, 1936. The character was created by Lee Falk (USA). For those who don’t know, the story recounts the adventures of Kit Walker. The guy wears a mask, of course, and has a nifty purple outfit, which then transforms him into The Phantom – aka “the ghost who walks.” I should mention this. Wiki begs to differ about the first hero. They give credit to Hugo Hercules in 1902. I’ve never heard of Hugo. But I know The Phantom.
From Superheros to Not-So-Super-Dudes.
Let’s talk about Ozzy Osbourne. According to interviews — if you can understand a word he is muttering — Ozzy Osbourne stopped using acid while Black Sabbath was recording their album called Volume 4. Ozzie said this: “I took 10 tabs of acid and then went for a walk in a field. I ended up standing there talking to this horse for about an hour. In the end, the horse turned around and told me to fuck off. That was it for me.”
I bet the horse really did tell him to go f**k off.
Okay, from Dullard to Wizards again.
I love a Steven Spielberg movie. He’s made so many great ones. The whole Indiana Jones thing was a lot of fun, I think. But here is a thing. When he made “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” he instructed the actors who were playing Nazis to cross their fingers behind their backs when they were giving the “Heil Hitler” salute. What a thing. What a guy.
Speaking of raiding tombs.
How about King Tut? His is probably the most “well-known” Egyptian tomb. But most people don’t know that it was unusually small. The cause for this probably occurred because Tut’s intended tomb was used by Tut’s successor for his own burial. I guess the next king just put dibs on it after Tut died. Anyway. Because it was so tiny, thieves overlooked it. And that left it intact for archeologists to discover.
Speaking of raiding tombs, again. Or maybe cribs.
The stealing of baby Jesus from public nativity scenes happens quite frequently. Those darn pranksters. These days, a lot of churches chain and lock their baby Jesus to prevent theft. And some other churches are equipping their baby Jesus with GPS. It gives new meaning to finding Jesus.
Back to Bertrand Russell. He said a lot of things, evidently. The Nobel Prize winner wrote over 60 books and 2,000 articles throughout the course of his 97-year life.
But probably not about Ozzy Osbourne, King Tut, and the Baby Jesus all in one swoop. Okay. So I’ll never win the Nobel Prize, but I do love useless information.
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Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
— Mark Twain
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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
— Daniel Patrick Moynihan
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Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
— Soren Kierkegaard
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Bertrand summed it up, alright.
