Rocky’s Nut Brunch

Welcome my friends to another week of Rocky’s Nut Brunch.  Today I want to share something with you that I found and was in awe about.  In fact, I immediately had to call Bacon’s dad and tell him.  This was huge news.  Do you know who Lee Jun-fan is?  Maybe you know him better from his stage name – Bruce Lee.  Bells go off now?  He was a Hong Kong and American actor famous for his martial art skills.  He was even the founder of his own studio in the martial art Jeet Kune Do.  The man had skills upon skills with his moves.  He is also known for his quotes.  One of them being:

Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is specifically your own

That makes you think doesn’t it?  But I’m done yet blowing your mind on Bruce Lee.  Let’s talk about Bruce Lee way back when he was a teenager.  In 1958, what championship do you think he won?  Go ahead and guess.  I bet you never would guess the answer.  We were all shocked here at the Hotel Thompson.  What was it?  In 1958, Bruce Lee was the Hong Kong Cha Cha championship winner.  Stunner huh?  So there you go, that blows our minds.  Did you know this?

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

I admit that sometimes as a squirrel, I have a lot of time on my hands.  I know I live in a good neighborhood and don’t really have a need for much.  Bacon’s parents keeps me and my family in nuts and water.  There are no big dogs chasing us in our yard – just Houdini and Bacon and well we pretty much all get along.  So sometimes just for giggles, I will read the dictionary.  The family especially loves it – we learn so much.  For instance, like something I’m fixing to share with you.  Be prepared to be educated my friends.

The longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is 45 letters long:  pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.  What does this mean?  It is an artificial long word said to mean a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust.  WOW – really?  A long word that is actually a joke.

The longest well-known nonsense word is 34 letters: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Anyone versed in their Mary Poppins can define this for themselves, but according to Oxford the fanciful adjective means “extraordinarily good.”

The longest non-coined, non-technical word published in multiple dictionaries is 28 letters long: Antidisestablishmentarianism. What does it actually mean? It is used to refer to a 19th century political party opposed to the disestablishment of the Church of England—but today it mainly means “I know a really long word.”

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*Information from Reader’s Digest

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

Information provided by SlipTalk

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

Do you remember the cartoon The Flintstones?  It is often played here at the Hotel Thompson.  Bacon’s mom says it goes all the way back to her childhood way back in the 60’s.  Gulps.  That does tell Bacon’s moms age doesn’t it..ssshh we won’t tell her we said that.  Well the roll of Fred Flintstone was based off the character Ralph Kramden from the Honeymooners.  You know Ralph Kramden was played by Jackie Gleason.  Fred Flintstone’s character makes sense now, right?

Do you remember Fred’s catchphrase?  Yabba-Dabba-Doo!  In the original script, it called for Fred to just say, “Yahoo”.  Doesn’t have the same feel to it, does it?  Alan Reed was doing the voice over for Fred Flintstone at the time.  He said that his mother used to say, “A little dab’ll do ya”.  It doesn’t say if Reed ad-libbed the phrase or asked to change it to the ever knowing, “Yabba-Dabba-Doo!”, but it stuck and as they say… the rest is history.

Do you remember the other close characters in the show?  There was Wilma, Fred’s wife.  Then there was the close neighbors – Barney and Betty Rubble.  And let’s not forget the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos Lodge that Fred and Barney were members.  What a fun show it was.  I think I’m off now.  I gotta go catch up on Pebbles and Bam-Bam.

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

The first American film to show a toilet being flushed on screen was Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.  Do you remember the movie?  Surely you’ve seen it.  I think just the name of the movie puts shivers up and down people’s backs today.  And raise your hand my friends – how many of you shower with the bathroom door shut and locked still?  You know.. just in case someone gets into your house while showering.  Admit it.  We don’t judge here.

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

We’ve all heard about the Windy City referring to Chicago weather.  I bet even you thought it referred to the weather.  But you know what?

It doesn’t have anything to do with the weather at all.

Chicago’s nickname was coined by 19th century journalists who were referring to the fact that its residents were ‘windbags’ and ‘full of hot air’.

Shocker huh?

For more history on this, check it out here.

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

Today let’s talk about something we have heard of – The RMS Titanic.  Such a remarkable ship for its time that had such a tragic ending.  We know the basics the the Titanic:  a British passenger ship that collided with an iceberg on April 15, 1912 on its maiden voyage.  This huge ship could accommodate over 2,453 passengers at one time and had 885 crew members which for the time period was amazing to say the least.  However, due to a coal strike causing many crossings to be cancelled, the maiden voyage had only 1,317 passengers with the crew members.  Out of 2,202 people on board the Titanic, only 710 people survived the aftermath of the sinking.  That’s almost 1,500 people passing at one time – can you believe that?!

But here is something for you to think about.  The Titanic sunk in 1912.

In 1898 – way before the time of the Titanic – author Morgan Robertson wrote a book called Titan or in some places you will call it Futility.  There are so many similarities between the two:

→ Both described as unsinkable.  Both had a shortage of lifeboats.  Both struck an iceberg.  Both when down in the month of April.  The majority of both of the passengers/crew members died.

So there you go – what are the odds?  Did Robertson glance into the future?  Or was a dream of something to take place?  You decide.

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

Courtesy of Pinterest

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

Hello dear friends.  I have a great one for you today.  If you are like Bacon’s mom, she is always forgetting what side of her car has the gas tank.  I’m going to show you today how you can tell without getting out of your car.  It’s really easy.  Look at your gas gauge.  Do you see the little gas pump image?  Whatever side the arrow is pointing at, that is the side of your gas tank.  For example, in this picture the gas tank has the arrow to the left.  The gas tank is on the left side.  If the arrow was pointing to the right, the gas tank would be on the right side.  Did you know that?  Now you do!

 

Rocky’s Nut Brunch

Let’s talk cartoons this week.  Did you have a favorite cartoon growing up… maybe it’s something you still watch today when you are feeling sick or sleeping in on a Saturday morning.  Bacon’ mom did – that woman loves Scooby Doo and the gang.  I’ll even tell you a secret about Bacon’s mom.  Come closer – she collects Scooby Doo videos.  Funny quirk huh?  She says its something about watching something from her childhood that calms her down and sometimes even helps her to sleep at night when insomnia kicks in for the night.

But now let’s talk some weird facts.  Do you know all of the character names?  I’m not talking just first names that everyone might remember.  I’m talking last names too.  Are you ready for those names?  Here they are:  Scoobert “Scooby” Doo, Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, Fred Jones, Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley.

There you go.  Now you know ❤