h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Andre the Giant was 4 inches taller than Paul Bunyan.

((7'4")>(7'))

How do you know how tall Paul Bunyan was? Isn't it a bit hard to measure mythological figures?

Apparently, the statue of Bunyan in Cheshire, Connecticut is 26 feet tall. According to Wikipedia,

'When the 26-foot "Muffler Man" Paul Bunyan was erected in front of a local lumber business in the 1980s, the town objected to the statue, citing that it was a violated [sic] of town codes given its substantial height. Finding no limitation on flagpole height on the books, the owners of the statue replaced Bunyan's axe with an American flag.'

citation:

“Bunyan was a powerful giant, seven feet tall and with a stride of seven feet. He was famous throughout the lumbering districts for his great physical strength.”

K. Bernice Stewart & Homer A. Watt, "Legends of Paul Bunyan, Lumberjack"

And what makes this K Bernice Stewart person an expert on Paul Bunyan's height? Did she measure him? *I* could write a legend of Paul Bunyan story, claim I got it from a lumberjack, and say he was seven and a half feet tall.

Of course, if the Aarne-Thompson Folklore Index has a category for 'legendary people who are exactly seven feet tall', and he's on it, I guess it *might* be considered a 'fact'...

The Paul Bunyan question that most piques my curiosity is whether Babe the Blue Ox was perhaps an aurochs, the last known aurochs in Europe having died in Poland in 1627.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/09/world/auroch-rewilding/

Stipulated Paul Bunyan is legendary, legends somtimes do have a foundation in fact.

Very cool! Stith Thompson's dissertation concerned European borrowings in North American Indian folktales, so it's possible. (He found a Norwegian folktale that was retold by Midwestern Indians who learned it from lumberjacks.)

And that might be useless information...

During the first gulf war in 1990, NBC delayed the start time to the Tonight Show (w/ Jay Leno) by 5 minutes, to give their local affiliates more time to cover the conflict. Once local stations had those 5 precious minutes, they never gave them back. This is why all late night shows in the US start at 11:35 pm.

I remember one broadcast during the First Gulf War. This reporter was broadcasting regularly from the 'front' wearing a flack jacket and steel helmet to show how much danger he was surrounded by.

On one segment he was back to only a suit jacket carefully combed hair. He cheerfully told us that Kuwait City had been liberated and the war was over. He added that the citizens were so happy they were firing blank rounds into the air in celebration.

In the next segment, a quarter hour or so later, the steel pot was back on his head over the bulletproof coat. He admitted, a bit embarrassed that someone had pointed out to him that nobody carries blank rounds in a war zone.

Whatever goes up has to come down (with an exemption for NASA)

F S

At the end of the '60s, band from Texas posing as the recently disbanded British pop group, The Zombies, toured the US to sold out shows. Two of those imposters, Dusty Hill & Frank Beard, went on to form ZZ Top.


(Dusty Hill lived in my community for decades, but I've never personally met him. I just discovered the Zombies story.)

I'm going to see the Zombies in a few weeks. I won't be fooled. I'll spot the beards.

PP.

A few useless facts from a Cracked listicle.

There are more people living in Tokyo than all of Canada.

A has about 7000 more genes than a human does.

A flea can accelerate about 25 times quicker than the Space Shuttle did. (100Gs vs 3-4Gs respectively)

Black coffee cools down faster than coffee that has had cool cream added to it.

Grand Central Station is more radioactive than a nuclear power plant. (It's from the granite.)

An average cumulus cloud weighs more than twice the Stature of Liberty.

ONE of those factoids is not useless. Elektra says she was involved in a discussion of coffee cooling rates yesterday. And you've helped her resolve the issue.

Small additions of cornstarch or arrowroot powder to sauces and gravies in restaurant fare in order to improve heat capacity and increase cooling times, keeping food hotter, longer, is a commonplace of the restaurant trade.

Jerusalem artichoke, or girasole, can also be so employed.

Arrow Root, or Florida Coonite was a very important food for the Seminoles, although it could be very toxic if not properly prepared.

F S

Rhinoceroses have a sense of smell five times as sensitive as that of a hound.

"Rhino" means nose, so that's appropriate.

Rhinos probably smell 5 times as much as a hound too.

PP

Hippopotamus "sweat" an orange-red substance that acts as both sunscreen and antibacterial.

Those advertising devices, often seen outside of furniture stores and used car lots, made of fabric tubes powered by fans to resemble strange dancing people (technical name, Airdancers) were banned in the City of Houston in 2010 because their use "contributes to urban visual clutter and blight and adversely affects the aesthetic environment and the safety and quality of life for the community and the citizens of the city."