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That old factoholic, The Amazing Fact Generator, is looking for another fix. And so we turn to you again, dear readers, to enable it. This week, we’re giving awarding a copy of Charles M. Madigan’s -30-: The Collapse of The Great American Newspaper. All you need to do to get your
hands on it is leave a comment on this post with an amazing fact about newspapers, your name and your location. If your fact is both amazing and true, we’ll serve it to the Fact Generator in a martini glass. The most amazing fact will win the supplier a copy of the book.
And remember, if you go to a competing trivia site, copy/paste a fact and claim it as your own, we’ll know (we have the Google). Cheaters never prosper, nor do they get entered into the Fact Generator. Also, everybody gets five submissions each.
To get a feel for the kinds of facts the Generator likes, take a look at what’s in there already, and then get to commenting.
Comments (24)
Comment
In the interest of sanitation and food quality, restaurants are no longer permitted to wrap fish and chips in real newspaper. Instead, they often substitute waxed paper designed to resemble newsprint.
posted by Ira on 3-11-2008 at 1:12 pm
In the interest of sanitation and food quality, restaurants are no longer permitted to wrap fish and chips in real newspaper. Instead, they often substitute waxed paper designed to resemble newsprint.
Ira - Dayton, OH
(sorry about the previous one)
posted by Ira on 3-11-2008 at 1:14 pm
Newspapers in the New World (the Colonies in America, circa 1750) were not made of paper as we know it today. They were made from cotton and old rags that were boiled/recycled. Wood pulp was not used in newspaper until the mid-19th century.
posted by Scott - St. Clair Shores MI on 3-11-2008 at 1:21 pm
The Spanish-American war was created by William Randolf Hearsts’ paper, The New York Journal. When Hearst sent a man to take pictures in Cuba, the man stated that he didn’t believe war was going to happen. Hearst replied, “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
posted by Lisa on 3-11-2008 at 1:23 pm
To save costs, the NY Times recently reduced the size of it’s paper making it narrower by 1-1/2 inches.
posted by beth on 3-11-2008 at 1:24 pm
the smallest newspaper published was the Daily Banner in Roseburg, Oregon in the 1870’s. It measured 3 x 3.75 inches
posted by Clotho on 3-11-2008 at 1:28 pm
40% of all newspapers came from wood from Canadian forests
posted by Brian, Canton MI on 3-11-2008 at 2:30 pm
Benjamin Franklin was such a successful publisher and businessman that he retired and sold his business at the age of 42. That left him with another 42 years to do little things, like discovering the underlying principle of electricity and being a Founding Father for a new nation.
posted by Steve F on 3-11-2008 at 2:32 pm
This one is somewhat debatable…
Some scholars believe that during the period of the American Civil War, the linen wrappings from mummies were salvaged for use in papermaking, due to a shortage of available linen rag. The history of this claim has been mangled a bit; there were some accusations that a newspaper in New York state was printed on “mummy paper.”
There’s some reference to this on wikipedia - (it wouldn’t let me put a link here, google “mummies used for paper.”)
As you can see, two scholars disagree on whether mummies were ever used in papermaking.
Does this count for the “fact generator?” I’m not sure if there has ever been real, solid evidence that mummies were used. However, it is a fact that paper was originally made from rag and that there was indeed a serious rag shortage.
posted by Amber Morgan on 3-11-2008 at 2:35 pm
I don’t know if this counts, but I figure that many coupons come in newspapers, I’d try it…
Only about 6% of all printed coupons are ever redeemed.
posted by Brian, Canton MI on 3-11-2008 at 3:19 pm
Newspapers used to mourn the death of a public figure by separating the columns of the paper with thick black bars. It echoed the tradition of wrapping the white columns of federal buildings with black bunting when someone important died.
posted by Stephanie Wiechmann -- Muncie, IN on 3-11-2008 at 4:17 pm
La Gaceta in Tampa, Fla., advertises itself as the nation’s only trilingual newspaper. The languages: English, Spanish, and Italian.
posted by Paul on 3-11-2008 at 4:55 pm
The Kingston Whig-Standard is Canada’s oldest daily newspaper, having been published continuously since the British Whig was founded on February 7, 1834 by Dr. Edward John Barker.
posted by John on 3-11-2008 at 6:54 pm
When Union soldiers cut off supply deliveries to the Confederacy during the Civil War, the south was not able to get paper from northern paper mills. So, Confederate papers were printed on the back of wallpaper peeled off of parlor walls.
posted by Stephanie Wiechmann -- Muncie, IN on 3-11-2008 at 9:10 pm
With ever shrinking ad revenues, many newspapers resort to cheesy income generating activities. For example, the San Francisco Chronicle now sells Nasa copyrighted images on their site (pictopia at com/perl/gal?provider_id=6&name=Space). An 8×10 will cost you $39. Keeo in mind that these very same images can be downloaded (high res)for free on Nasa;s site and printed at Costco for $1.49.
posted by David on 3-11-2008 at 9:16 pm
Despite the wide use of his invention, the printing press today, Johannes Gutenberg died a poor man.
posted by Angeline on 3-11-2008 at 9:36 pm
A limit of five? Okay, here are four more facts:
Seemingly in support of the old stereotype of journalists being drunkards, many newspapers allowed drinking of alcohol during office hours. The Sacramento (CA) Union at one time had a bar right next to the newsroom for its employees.
Larger newspapers and agencies routinely write obituaries of famous people long before they die. In a “celebrity death game” like activity, they prepare for the inevitable day a celebrity dies.
The Hearst family mausoleum (where William Randolph Hearst is buried) is still unmarked and the cemetery office (Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, CA) will not identify its location when asked. I spent a lot of time in the cemeteries around San Francisco, but could never get the skinny on why William’s burial spot is unmarked.
Moving? Visit a newspaper with a printing press (if you can still find one) and ask for a trunk load of “end rolls.” They usually give them out for free. Newspapers print on massive rolls of paper, but replace the rolls on the press well before the paper runs out. As a result, “end rolls” have a good 100 feet of paper left on them and are great for wrapping dished, glasses, etc.
posted by David on 3-11-2008 at 9:54 pm
It’s not so much a “celebrity death game” as it is “being prepared”. If someone important dies in the evening and there’s more than a page worth of material in your morning paper, it’s a good bet they had some done in advance.
My facts:
Many people are familiar with “agate” — the tiny sports statistics printed in newspapers. Agate actually refers to the size of the type, not the content. Before the adoption of the point system for type, different sizes had such creative names as “brilliant”, “pearl”, “emerald”, and “diamond”.
The Hartford (Conn.) Courant is the longest continuously published paper in the country, having been printed since 1764.
Journalists frequently misspell words in notes within stories. Examples are “hedline” for “headline”, “folo” for “follow” or “foto” for “photo”. The purpose is so the note can be included and passed along with the story, but serve as a flag to remove the note before the story is printed.
ETAOIN SHRDLU is a combination of the 12 most-commonly used letters in English, in descending order. Linotype machine keyboards used them in columns, ETAOIN as the first column on the left, SHRDLU as the next to the right. When a typesetter made an error, he would quickly run his hand down the columns to type “ETAOIN SHRDLU”, to serve as a flag to discard that line of type. The phrase did, of course, occasionally make it into print.
An easy way to figure out which two pages of a newspaper will be printed side-by-side on the same sheet of paper is to take the number of pages in the section and add one. Each set of two numbers that adds to this total will be printed side-by-side. Example: In a 24-page section, pages 7 and 18 will be located next to each other.
posted by Brent on 3-12-2008 at 12:21 am
Whoops. Forgot my location — St. Louis, Mo.
posted by Brent on 3-12-2008 at 12:22 am
While Lisa mentions that Hurst helped start the Spanish American War, it was continued by Joseph Pulitzer & “The New York World” in a circulation battle with Hurst and his paper, “The New York Journal”
Pulitzer also made famous the term “Yellow Journalism” with the political cartoon in the New York World newspaper called “Yellow Boy”.
posted by Will W. on 3-13-2008 at 4:00 pm
The Union Jack is billed as “America’s Only British Newspaper,” and its headquarters are located in La Mesa, California.
posted by Cat, Chesapeake VA on 3-13-2008 at 7:58 pm
The concept of the “deadline” came from prison camps, where it referred to a boundary past which prisoners would be killed on sight.
Noblesville, Ind.
My editor in college printed up this factoid and put in on the wall in the newsroom. I think he thought it would boost morale or something.
posted by Joanna on 3-14-2008 at 11:41 am
The longest running comic strip is The Katzenjammer Kids. Originally created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897 for The American Humorist, the comic is still in syndication, and has even had commemorative USPS stamps.
posted by Augusta on 3-14-2008 at 1:27 pm
The first newspaper to have an online version was the Columbus Dispatch (OH), in the summer of 1980. And just for the fun of knowing the relative timeline, that was before the American release of Pac-Man.
posted by Augusta on 3-15-2008 at 11:08 pm