In line with Single Random Facts, use this space to share bits of info that SOUND like interesting trivia, but are in fact complete and utter fabrications.
For example, didn’t you know that HTML was originally to be a form of Lisp? Unfortunately, the paren keys over at Netscape were broken, so we got the angle bracket heavy syntax we know and tolerate today.
Ted Geisel first used his pen name Dr. Seuss when he was banned from his college newspaper after getting caught sneaking whiskey into his dorm during Prohibition, to sneak articles in.
Geisel/Seuss himself actually spread that story around to make his life story more interesting. It’s true that he got caught with whiskey, but he’d already been using the name for a while at that point.
Pancakes used to be used during halloween instead of pumpkins. That’s why we call them flapjacks.
If you hold your nose when you sneeze your head will explode.
Falsehoods!
Well yes.
Speaking of which, the original Mega Man game was supposed to have 8 Robot Masters, like the rest of them. Unfortunately, the legal battle with Eon Productions over Bond Man took them so much time that number 8 didn’t even get a character design. Thus, we are left with six: Cut, Guts, Ice, Bomb, Fire, and Elec.
Brain cells don’t regenerate.
Dogs cannot hear other dogs barking in the vicinity. They’re independently flipping out about the same thing at the same time (most likely a ghost wandering past).
Cats really DO live on the Moon. They just can’t resist all that readily available Fresh Step™.
Marooned was such a box office hit, NASA decided to stage Apollo 13 to try to get Gene Hackman into the space program.
Moon Zero Two was actually shot on the moon at great expense, but the sapphire meteor paid for it.
Sapphires don’t make good snackin’. Opals, on the other hand, are filled with creamy nougat.
And kaiju.
We TOLD the candy makers to stop with the GMOs, but they never listen!!
Billy Joel wrote “We Didn’t Start the Fire” to protest his charge of aggravated arson after he burned down a speaker in the middle of Shea Stadium during a reprise of The Beatles “Back in the USSR” in August 1988.
Speaking of The Beatles, Ringo Starr was the Zodiac Killer.
The Monkees were actually genetically engineered FROM monkeys by greedy television execs who were tired of their properties being able to go off and do other things that didn’t make them money. They were so drunk with power by the end of the process, they began to make up elaborate and ridiculous backstories for their creations like “Mike Nesmith’s mother invented liquid paper” or “Davy Jones is a former jockey” or “Peter Tork is attractive to teen girls”.
Ironically, their creations ended up rebelling anyway and went on to make one of the biggest film hits of the '60s, Head, which they donated all the profits to African lemurs.
A film which, as I’m sure most folks know, was originally conceived as a musical tribute to legendary Hollywood costume designer Edith Head.
Oh. Random falsehoods.
You almost had me going on that one, although as a sometimes-LISP admirer and even more occasional user, I probably should have known better.