Uncle John's Facts to Go Where'd THAT Come From?

By Bathroom Readers' Institute

Hundreds of incredible origin stories, ranging from everyday items to social customs to history-altering inventions.

Uncle John’s Where’d That Come From? delivers the true stories behind all sorts of things, even things you never thought of as having origins. Covering a wide range of topics--pop culture, science, sports, politics, customs, superstitions, language, and more--you’ll discover the most engrossing origin stories from the BRI’s deep archives, as well as some all-new “origin”al material! Find out about…

 

- Why the number seven is considered lucky
- An airplane in ancient Egypt, and other “OOPAs” (Out Of Place Artifacts)
- Who put the hole in a doughnut, the K in K-mart, and the e in e-book
- Automotive firsts--including the gas pump, the solar-powered car, and the drag race
- The ancient games that led to golf, and the story of the boomerang
- Louis Perrier, Earl Grey, Mrs. Paul, and other tasty namesakes
- The origins of toothpaste, the color purple, the Ming Dynasty, Valentine’s Day, the recycle symbol, Captain Kirk, “gobbledygook,” and much, much more!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Press
• Release date: Jan 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781626861602

Bathroom Readers' Institute

The Bathroom Readers' Institute is a tight-knit group of loyal and skilled writers, researchers, and editors who have been working as a team for years. The BRI understands the habits of a very special market—Throne Sitters—and devotes itself to providing amazing facts and conversation pieces.

Book preview

RANDOM ORIGINS

In the beginning… of our random origins e-book is an article full of random origins. Let there be reading!

NANOO-NANOO!

In 1978, Happy Days creator Garry Marshall asked his young son Scott what would make him watch the ABC sitcom. Scott didn’t like Happy Days; he did, however, love Star Wars, so he answered, If it had a space alien in it. Marshall ordered his staff to write a Happy Days episode about an alien named Mork (from Ork). After more than 20 people auditioned, stand-up comedian Robin Williams walked into the room. Marshall told him to sit down, so Williams sat on the chair…head first. He was hired on the spot. Marshall later joked the Williams was the only alien who auditioned. The character was such a hit that ABC greenlighted the sitcom Mork & Mindy, which launched Williams into superstardom.

THE ORIGIN OF PURPLE

Purple cloth, that is. In around 1800 B.C., people in the Phoenician city of Tyre (on the Mediterranean coast of what is now Lebanon) extracted and mashed up the mucus-producing hypobranchial glands of the Murex mollusk, a small, spiral sea snail. The mixture proved to be a powerful and long-lasting dye—and the color was something that had never been seen before in a cloth: a bright, vibrant purple. It became so popular that it spawned the first chemical dye industry in the world, and the Phoenicians became a regional powerhouse selling it all throughout the Middle East. (The name Phoenicia comes from the Greek for Land of the Purple.)

Making the dye was an incredibly tedious process: It took more than 12,000 of the tiny shellfish (they grow to just 2 or 3 inches in length) to make 1.4 grams—less than a teaspoon—of dye. That made it extremely expensive: At its peak, it cost the equivalent of about $20,000 for a pound of dyed cloth, much more than the price of gold at the time. The color became known as Tyrian Purple, and the industry flourished for nearly 3,000 years, changing hands several times as various empires—Persian, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman—took control of the Mediterranean region. During that time, purple was the official color of several royal houses and became known by the name we still call it today, royal purple.

In the 1400s, a newer, less expensive dye (made from Kermes insects) of a similar color put the Murex dye makers out of business for good. That one became known as Cardinal’s Purple, as it was officially adopted by the Catholic Church and is still the color Catholic cardinals wear today.

MY BIG FAT GREEK LANDFILL

The first known official landfill opened in Athens, Greece, around 500 B.C. A law was passed requiring garbage to be disposed of two miles outside of the city limits. Reason: defense. The garbage had previously been thrown right outside the city walls, which allowed invaders to climb up the pile and over the walls.

DAS BOOTS

Not long after World War I, two cobbler brothers, Adolf and Rudolf Dassler, started Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory) in the town of Herzogenaurach, Bavaria. In 1933, the brothers joined Hitler’s Nazi party. Of the two, Rudolf, who went by Rudi, was the more ardent Nazi, and a rift began to form between them. When World War II broke out, Rudi joined the military, while Adolf, who went by Adi, stayed behind to manufacture boots and weapons for the German army. After the war, tensions between the brothers grew worse. Rudi was arrested by American occupation forces, and he believed that Adi had reported him as a member of the SS. Adi denied it, but after Rudi was released, he quit the company and opened his own shoe factory across town.

Adi Dassler combined his first and last names to name his shoe company adidas (all lowercase); Rudi did the same and named his company Ruda (later changed to Puma). The brothers never spoke again, and their bitter rivalry split the town into competing factions separated by the Aurach River. Said one local resident: You’d always tend to look at the shoes a person is wearing before you strike up a conversation.

Footnote: Although the Dassler brothers were Nazis, they provided running shoes for African-American track star Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics. Owens won four gold medals that year…and put the Dasslers on the map as expert athletic shoemakers.

Canned herring are called sardines because the canning process was developed in Sardinia.

THE RECYCLE SYMBOL

How cool would it be to have this tidbit on your resume? 1970: designed a symbol that millions of people around the world see every day.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

The first Earth Day, celebrated by 20 million people in April 1970, not only led to the formation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it also launched an unusual contest. A Chicago-based cardboard-box company called Container Corporation of America (CCA), a pioneer in manufacturing recycled products, was looking for a simple design to print on all of their recycled boxes. Inspired by the success of Earth Day, Bill Lloyd, the graphic designer at CCA, decided to advertise the contest nationally at America’s high schools and colleges. As inheritors of the Earth, they should have their say, he said.

In Lloyd’s grand vision, the winning design would be more than a symbol printed on CCA’s boxes; it would serve as a symbol to promote the nationwide recycling movement. First prize: a $2,500 college scholarship. More than 500 entries came