Sloan: Just in case you were wondering...

My book-of-the-month summary for January is “How Did They Do That” (Quill, 1984, 332 pages) by Caroline Sutton.

The book’s topics range from movies to parachutes to lollipops to hot dogs to hangovers.

Samples:

• “Heaven’s Gate,” the 1980 box office disaster by Michael Cimino, was budgeted at $11.6 million but would have had to gross $140 million to break even. The director shot 1.5 million feet of film.

• “The Dead Sea Scrolls” were discovered in 1947 by a boy who discovered a cave while chasing a wayward goat.

• Stonehenge was constructed over 500 years, beginning in 2200 B.C. Stones weighing tons were moved 215 miles by water. It took 1.5 million man-days to erect Stonehenge

Wendel Sloan

• Blue as a color for boys represented heaven to ward off evil spirits. Feeling guilty about leaving girls unprotected, parents later assigned pink for girls.

• Four centuries ahead of his time, Leonardo de Vinci conceived armored tanks, submarines, air conditioners, machine guns and a horseless carriage.

• Aristotle surmised Earth was round when he noted during a lunar eclipse the shadow cast on the moon was circular.

• Humphrey Bogart cured hangovers by getting drunk again.

• Lollipop was named after Lolly Pop, a racehorse.

• The first parachute jump from a plane was by an Army captain in 1912.

• The population of the world one million years ago is estimated to be 500,000. About 70,000 years ago, only two out of 10 humans reached age 30.

• The U.S. bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million.

• Hot dogs may legally contain beef, pork, chicken, mutton, veal, up to 30 percent fat, and up to 3.5 percent cereal.

• The Earth’s age has been pegged at 4.5 billion years based on the half-life of meteorites landing on its surface. The solar system from which the rocks come and Earth are presumed to be the same age.

• The alcohol-less Shirley Temple drink was named after a stipulation in the actress’ life insurance contract at the age of 7 that no benefits would be paid if she met injury or death while drunk.

Contact Wendel Sloan at [email protected]