Interesting Stuff!

• Have you ever wondered why the first six letters on a keyboard are QWERTY? Keyboards were designed that way to prevent their mechanical arms (typebars) from jamming.  Early typewriters tended to jam if adjacent keys were struck quickly in succession.  To address this problem, commonly paired letters (like “th” or “st”) were spaced farther apart which, slowed typists, but reduced jamming.  Today, even though typewriters have been replaced by computers, QWERTY remains because of convention and worldwide standardization.
• Last week I wrote the most liberal US. abortion laws. are found in Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. These jurisdictions allow abortion at any stage of pregnancy without mandatory waiting periods, counseling, or multiple-doctor approvals.  Colorado and D.C. are often noted as the most permissive places on earth for abortion although Canada has no federal abortion law and decisions are left entirely to a woman and her doctor, with no gestational limits in law.  However, provincial health systems and hospital ethics boards sometimes limit availability even though the law doesn’t.
• Meanwhile at the other end of the spectrum, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Dominican Republic maintain total abortion bans including El Salvador’s penal code that criminalizes abortion under all circumstances, with no exceptions for rape, incest, fetal non-viability, or threats to the mother’s life. In some cases, miscarriages or stillbirths have led to women being prosecuted for aggravated homicide.  So, when looking at the world at large the harshest abortion laws are found in San Salvador and the most liberal in the Centennial state, Colorado.
• Before the dawn of streaming services and on-demand T.V., getting psyched about a new movie release was very much part of the movie-going experience. And to pique the public’s interest in new releases movie studios used catchy ads and flashy campaigns, and in many cases a big part of that advertising strategy was an exciting tagline.  So, here are a few taglines from years gone by –challenge yourself and see how many movies you can identify from these memorable taglines. – answers at the end of this post.
  • “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
  • “Who ya gonna call?”
  • “If you only see one movie this year… you need to get out more often.”
  • “We are not alone.”
  • “An adventure 65 million years in the making.”
  • “On every street in every city in this country, there’s a nobody who dreams of being a somebody.” (This one may challenge you.)
• Cary Grant helped inspire the character of James Bond. The author, Ian Fleming, took inspiration from Cary Grant’s roles in thrillers like Notorious when he came up with the super-spy.  When it came time to cast Bond, producers even offered the role to Grant. Grant respectfully declined, saying he felt that at 60 he was too old to play a womanizing secret agent.  His rejection freed up the part for Sean Connery.
• If we you go by the most widely accepted count there are 195 countries in the world today, 193 of which are members of the United Nations, with 2 observer states: the Holy See (Vatican City) and Palestine. However, the world being what it is, that, the number can shift depending on what what’s counted as a “country” because some “entities” are recognized by some but not all nations and are not members of the UN, e.g., Kosovo, Taiwan, Western Sahara.
• Real quicksand is a mixture of sand, water, and clay that becomes unstable under pressure. While people can sink up to their waists, the human body is too buoyant to be fully submerged.
• A strong start and an adoring fan base don’t guarantee lasting eminence on television. Some of Hollywood’s brightest characters became tired tropes or walking contradictions. Fans noticed, and slowly, the applause gave way to sighs.  And two of the most notable were  Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) of The Game Of Thrones and  Walter White, (Bryan Cranstan) in Breaking Bad.  Daenerys shocked fans with an unexpected attack that killed thousands and left King’s Landing in ruins.  Up until Season 6, Daenerys had earned global praise for freeing slaves and exiling corrupt rulers.  Meanwhile critics warned early on that viewers were idolizing a villain (Walter White) while overlooking the more profound cautionary message woven into his arc.  Creator Vince Gilligan echoed the concern.  Though his descent spanned from 2008 to 2013, admiration for the protagonist faded as each episode began to expose the darker side of the mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher.

Tagline Answers: Alien, Ghostbusters, The Naked Gun, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jurassic Park, Taxi Driver