1. The show was created by producer Jay Ward and cartoonist Alex Anderson, who had worked together on the Crusader Rabbit series. Their initial vision was a show called The Frostbite Falls Revue about a group of animals running a TV station, but the project never got beyond the proposal stage. The next attempt at a new series began with the pilot Rocky the Flying Squirrel. General Mills came on as a sponsor and Rocky and His Friends was born.

2. Instead of hiring animators when production of Rocky and His Friends got rolling, Ward convinced some friends at Dancer, Fitzgerald, & Sample, an advertising agency that had General Mills as a client, to buy the Mexican animation studio Gamma Productions so he could outsource the animation. The plan saved money and the Mexican studio churned work out quickly, but quality was an issue. In early episodes of the show, it’s not uncommon to see characters’ facial hair, costumes and skin tone change color.

3. Bullwinkle is named after Jay Ward’s friend Clarence Bullwinkel, a Berkeley landlord and owner of an Oakland Chevrolet dealership.

4. The name of the time machine featured in “Peabody’s Improbable History” is sometimes incorrectly written out as the “Way Back Machine,” but the correct name is the WABAC machine, a play on early computers like UNIVAC,

5. Rocky and Bullwinkle live in the town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota. The population of Frostbite Falls is variously given as 23, 48, 29, 31.5 and 4001 over the course of the series.

6. Bullwinkle is originally from the state is Moosylvania, a small island in the Lake of the Woods, and is actually its governor. The ownership of the state is the subject of dispute between the United States and Canada, with each country claiming it belongs to the other. As a publicity stunt, Ward and Bill Scott, the show’s head writer and voice of Bullwinkle, bought a small island on a Minnesota lake, named it Moosylvania and started a national tour and petition drive to campaign for Moosylvania’s statehood. After visiting 50 cities and collecting signatures, they went to Washington to present President Kennedy with their petition. At the White House gate they declared, “We’re here to see President Kennedy. We want statehood for Moosylvania.” They were escorted from the property at gunpoint and didn’t learn until days later that they had shown up during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. On the show, Rocky and Bullwinkle had much better luck getting their petition delivered.

7. Rocky and Bullwinkle share the middle initial “J,” but their middle names are never revealed. Matt Groening gave the three male members of the Simpson family –- Bartholomew J., Homer J. and Abraham J. –- the same initial as a tribute to Rocky and Bullwinkle.

8. There’s really no difference between Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show. When the show moved to NBC in 1961, the network simply wanted it retitled and the new series continued where Rocky and His Friends, left off. Many of the syndicated packages, as well as the official DVD release, contained cartoons from both original network series.

9. The features of Fearless Leader, the dictator of Pottsylvania (who was known to carry the entire Pottsylvanian treasury on his person at all times), were inspired by World War II anti-Nazi propaganda posters.

10. Pottsylvanian spy Boris Badenov—whose surname is a play on 16th-century Russian Tsar Boris Godunov—was revealed in an advertisement as an active member of Local 12 of the Villains, Thieves, and Scoundrels Union.

11. Aside from their gift for puns, Rocky and Bullwinkle each had talents that served them well in their adventures. Rocky, a flying squirrel, could glide, hover and carry objects through the air. He honed these skills at the Cedar Yorpantz Flying School. Bullwinkle possessed superhuman strength, referred to as his “mighty moose muscle,” and the ability to remember every single thing he ever ate.

December 5: Bathtub Party Day
The online herbalists at wellcat.com copyrighted this holiday in order, I have to assume, to inspire people to buy essential oils and fancy salts to add to their bathwater. I’m not sure what their definition of “party” is, but the way I see it, there’s a 50% chance that Bathtub Party Day is the only holiday on our calendar which advocates having multiple, simultaneous sex partners. (Speaking of bathtubs, December 5 is also repeal day, which celebrates the end of Prohibition and the need to create bathtub gin.)

December 6: St. Nicholas Day
This is weird on two counts: not only does St. Nick have his own day, but it’s also not December 25, the day we normally associate with this most roly-poly of saints. Also known as Nicholas the Wonderworker, he was a Greek bishop whose reputation for selfless gift-giving made him the inspiration for Santa Claus. For his work helping the poor, he’s also the patron saint of pawnbrokers (for those of you who didn’t realize that pawnbrokers needed divine intercession).

December 7: National Cotton Candy Day
Invented in 1897 and originally marketed as “fairy floss,” cotton candy first became popular at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. It was officially renamed in the 1920s.

December 8: Take it in the Ear Day
I have no idea what this day means, who invented it, or what I’m supposed to do to celebrate. (Or what, exactly, I am meant to be taking into my ear.) There is, however, a nifty tee-shirt you can buy commemorating the event, which makes me suspect that perhaps tee-shirt designers are the ones behind TIITE day.

December 12: Poinsettia Day
Poinsettias have long been associated with the holiday season, but that’s not the reason behind this day. It was created by an act of Congress in 1851 in honor of Joel Roberts Poinsett, a United States ambassador to Mexico, who first brought the plants back from our neighbor to the south. He died on December 12, 1851.

December 21: Forefathers’ Day
If you know your historical dates, you’ll know that December 21, 1620 was the day the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. First celebrated in 1769 in honor of the pilgrims, this was an ill-fated holiday that eventually fell into obscurity in favor of Thanksgiving. (Do we really need to get excited about the pilgrims more than once a year?)

December 21: National Flashlight Day
This sounds like just another random holiday until you realize that December 21 is also the Winter Solstice — the darkest and shortest day of the year. As long as you’re celebrating, here’s some fun flashlight trivia: it was invented in 1898 by Joshua Lionel Cowan, who also invented the Lionel train.

December 23: Festivus (for the rest of us)
Seinfeld fans, of which there are many, will get it right away. Created by staff writer Daniel O’Keefe, it refers to a fake holiday made up by his father Dan in 1966 to celebrate his first date with his future wife.

The holiday includes novel practices such as the “Airing of Grievances”, in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year. Also, after the Festivus meal, the “Feats of Strength” are performed, involving wrestling the head of the household to the floor, with the holiday ending only if the head of the household is actually pinned. These conventions originated with the TV episode. The original holiday featured far more peculiar practices, as detailed in the younger Daniel O’Keefe’s book The Real Festivus, which provides a first-person account of an early version of the Festivus holiday as celebrated by the O’Keefe family, and how O’Keefe amended or replaced details of his father’s invention to create the Seinfeld episode.

December 29: Pepper Pot Day
This real, actual holiday commemorates a thick, spicy soup that was created to feed the Continental Army during the fantastically harsh winter of 1777-78. George Washington’s chef combined scraps of tripe, small bits of meat and some peppercorn with spices to create “the soup that won the war.”

1. She’s the Sheriff

She’s the Sheriff (1987-89) was a major slice of humble pie for Suzanne Somers. After spending several years on magazine covers and posters as a result of her success on Three’s Company, she found herself almost blacklisted after a salary dispute. Not only was she shown the door, the Three’s Company legal team also invoked a “cease and desist” order that essentially prevented Somers from accepting any roles that even remotely resembled Chrissy Snow. The major networks were reluctant to get involved in a potentially sticky situation, and the series offers that had been flooding her manager’s office were quietly rescinded. Desperate for work, Somers signed on for She’s the Sheriff, in which her character inherits Lakes County, Nevada’s most important law enforcement position after the death of her husband.

2. Small Wonder

Small Wonder always seems to rate tops on “bottom” lists, but the show had a four-year run (1985-89), so someone must have been watching it. Tiffany Brissette was suitably mechanical in her portrayal of Vicki, the Voice Input Child Identicant built by her robotics engineer father. Much of the humor was based on the fact that Vicki was incapable of emotion and interpreted most commands literally (a schtick Get Smart’s Hymie the Robot had already done to death). Tiffany Brissette eventually left the business and took up distance running. She has successfully placed in many marathons over the years, and is now in nursing school.

3. Out of This World

Out of This World aired from 1987-1991 and was one of many “aliens on Earth” sitcoms of that era. In this case, 13-year-old Evie Garland was the offspring of an Earthling mother (Saturday Night Fever’s Donna Pescow) and an unseen father from the planet Antareus. Evie communicated with dad via an illuminated cube similar to those decorative lights available at Spencer Gifts. Dad’s voice was provided by Burt Reynolds, who was in the midst of a “between Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 and Evening Shade” career lull.

4. Madame’s Place

Madame’s Place only ran for one season, but it seemed much longer because, unlike most sitcoms, it was filmed to air five episodes per week. The star of the show was ventriloquist Wayland Flowers’ sarcastic diva puppet, Madame. The series used an arsenal of attention-getting devices: Madame’s bawdy humor, celebrity guest stars on the talk show-within-a-show, and a scantily clad Landers sister, but it was usually banished to a late-night time slot in most markets and was never able to develop a large audience base.

5. Mama’s Family

Mama’s Family started out on NBC but was canceled in 1984 after one season. Lorimar Telepictures saw some potential in the series, however, and the show returned in syndicated form from 1986 through 1990. Rue McClanahan and Betty White were regulars during the NBC season but were unavailable for the syndicated version thanks to some other show they got involved with called The Golden Girls. Mama’s Family was actually inspired by this classic skit on The Carol Burnett Show; it was supposed to be a one-off, but was so well-received that it turned into a recurring bit:

6. Charles in Charge

Who didn’t want Charles in Charge of them? The answer is CBS apparently, since the network canned the series after one season in 1985. But Scott Baio still had enough of the teen idol vibe left over from his Happy Days stint that he was able to carry this show for an additional four years in syndication. The Pembroke Family, which had employed Charles as a babysitter during the show’s first season, moved to Seattle and sublet their home to the Powells. The Powell patriarch was in the military and consequently spent most of his time away from home, which gave Charles an excuse to continue to live downstairs rent-free. Apart from giving Meg Ryan one of her earliest TV appearances, Charles in Charge also afforded Baio the opportunity to get his feet wet as a director (which he did under the name “Scott Vincent Baio” in order to assert his Seriousness Credentials.)
* * * * *
Let’s see who is brave enough to admit that they watched She’s the Sheriff just to see Suzanne in uniform, or that they know all the words to the Charles in Charge theme song.

4. But why didn’t the drink stay popular over the years? The Temperance movement killed the business. Fired up by speeches from ministers and politicians, many farmers destroyed their “demon orchards,” sparing only the trees used for sweet juice. During the years when Prohibition was enacted, American cider production in the fell by 76%.

5. The best cider apples seem to have the best names: Hangdown, Chibble’s Wilding, Kentish Fill-Basket, and Glory of the West.

6. If you want to make great cider, be sure to practice your wassailing. The English custom, used to appease the deities of the apple trees, was believed necessary to ensure healthy crops. Here’s how to honor the spirits: Place a jug of cider or piece of cider-soaked toast on the biggest apple tree. Then sing a chant or song. Finish by banging on kettles and blowing horns to scare away any evil spirits lingering in your orchard. It’s that easy.

7. Also, you’ll need lots of apples. It takes about 36 pieces of fruit to make one gallon of the good stuff.

8. When Caesar and his invading soldiers stormed through England in 55 BCE, they found Celts sipping a brew made from crab apples. The troops were quick to pick up the habit and take it back to Rome.

9. Other fruits can be used to make cider-like drinks, too. Perry comes from fermented pear juice, cyser is cider fermented with honey, and plum jerkum—made from plums—supposedly has some strange intoxicating effects. According to legend, it leaves “the head clear, while paralyzing the legs.”

10. Looking for the proper way to care for a dead genius’ brain? For more than 40 years, Einstein’s cranium was stored in a box labeled Costa Cider. Actually, it was stored in two mason jars in the Cider box, under pathologist Thomas Harvey’s sink.

11. Of course, if this moderately alcoholic beverage doesn’t do it for you, it’s possible to make hard ciders even harder. Apple brandy and applejack are distilled ciders, and applejack, in particular, is really potent. It’s nicknamed the “essence of lockjaw.”

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1. The Putting Mat Bra

Evidently, golfing has been growing in popularity among Japanese women—so much so that lingerie designer Triumph recently released the Nice Cup in Bra, a bra and corset garment that, when removed, serves as a 1.5 meter putting mat. No, really. Women, struck by the immediate desire to sink some putts, can take off the bra, unroll the mat, and aim at one of two cups at the end of it. When the wearer sinks a putt, the bra yells, “Nice one!” from built-in speakers. As the UK’s Telegraph so aptly pointed out, what the wearer does to cover herself while putting remains unclear.

This isn’t Triumph’s first foray in the realm of weird and wonderful ladies’ undergarments. Earlier this year, the company released the Husband Hunter Bra, featuring a countdown clock that stops once a ring is inserted and then goes on to play a tinkly version of “The Wedding March.”

2. The Quit Smoking Bra

This was another brainchild of the wacky folks at Triumph: A bra that helped the wearer quit smoking. According to Triumph, the bra released the scents of lavender, which has soothing properties, and jasmine, which somehow alters, for the worse, the flavor of cigarette smoke. The company, which created a prototype of the bra in 2003, also said the bra was treated with “liquid titanium” to “break down cigarette smoke.”

3. The Gas Mask Bra

The winners of this year’s Ig Nobel public health award got the nod for their invention of a bra that could also double as a gas mask. Two, actually—one for the wearer and one for her lucky companion. The bra was invented by Dr. Elena Bodnar, a Ukrainian native now living in Chicago who has been studying the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown for years, and her colleagues, Dr. Raphael Lee and Sandra Marijan. Said Bodnar, “You have to be prepared all the time, at any place, at any moment, and practically every woman wears a bra,” noting that the bra would be useful in the event of rioting, freak dust storms, nuclear disaster, you name it.

4. The Breast Cancer Detector

The breast cancer detecting bra is certainly the most useful of the “smart” bras—according to the bra’s developers at the UK’s University of Bolton, the bra was able to detect cancer before a tumor began growing and was able to evaluate the effectiveness of any breast cancer treatment. The bra’s technology relied on a microwave antenna woven into the fabric that could sense any abnormal temperature changes in the breast tissue, abnormalities often associated with the formation of cancer cells. Researchers went public with the bra in 2007 and hoped then to have the bra in stores within a few years.

5. The Big Booby Bra

Believe it or not, this isn’t just your bog standard Wonderbra—this bra uses a similar technology to the breast cancer detecting bra, but instead of monitoring the breast’s temperature to detect cancer-predicting thermal abnormalities, this detects sexual arousal. When the wearer’s body temperature rises, supposedly indicating arousal (and not, for example, being stuck on a crowded bus), the reactive expanding foam of the cups squeeze the breasts together. The bra, called the Smart Memory Bra, is made by a Slovenian company called Lisca and is available here.

This should not be confused with the Day to Night bra, which is a bit more of a DIY solution: During the day, the bra is worn sans the inserts, presumably so one is taken seriously in board meetings; at night, the wearer can add the “chicken cutlet” inserts for instant sex vixen cleavage.

6. The Anti-Wrinkle Anti-Bra

Cleavage, just like everything else, gets older. And when a woman sleeps on her side, she often wakes up with wrinkles between her breasts. As she ages, the wrinkles stick around for longer and longer after she wakes up, until they just don’t go away at all. Designed by a Dutch woman who noticed precisely this phenomenon, La Decollette is a harness that features a wide strap in the front and cutouts for the breasts and promises to help keep the area between your breasts wrinkle-free, at least for a while. Not a particularly sexy garment, the bra does look a lot like something Lady Gaga would wear.
* * * * *

Have you heard of any other innovations in the bust protection and uplift industry? I’ve been told of a bra that could warn the wearer of falling meteors and other debris, but unfortunately, could find no trace of it on the Internets—anyone out there know what I’m talking about?

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1. Posh

Supposed Meaning: Port out starboard home

As the old legend goes, back when travel between India and Britain was done by ship via the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, those in the first class cabins, or the “posh” passengers, usually sat “port out, starboard home” to be shaded from the sun. These tickets, which were stamped POSH, were prized among wealthy English travelers and the name became synonymous with fashion and luxury. However, the company has repeatedly denied this practice and the origin of posh is uncertain. But thanks to popular culture, like the 1968 musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with its “port out starboard home” lyrics in the song “Posh,” the false acronym will probably never completely die.

2. Golf

Supposed Meaning: Gentleman only, ladies forbidden

Many people think that golf means “Gentleman only, ladies forbidden.” And maybe because it was a sport dominated by certain types of men for so long, the myth stuck. But there’s no truth to this one. As for the real origin of the word golf, one theory says it’s derived from the Dutch word kolf, which means a stick or club, as in the kind Tiger Woods uses to hit a ball 300 yards onto the green. And the Scotts have a similar-sounding word, goul, which means, “to strike or cut off.”

While we don’t know the origin of the word, we do know that the first documented mention of the word was in Edinburgh in 1457, when King James II banned ‘ye golf’, in an attempt to encourage archery practice. Word.

3. Adidas

Supposed Meaning: All Day I Dream About Sports and/or Sex

There are two popular false acronyms behind Adidas, the German-based sports apparel company. The first, and most commonly used is “All Day I Dream About Sports.” Although it would seem to make sense, the popular phrase was coined years after the company was founded. The second was popularized in a 1997 Korn song titled “A.D.I.D.A.S.” and is said to mean “All Day I Dream About Sex.” As our readers point out in the comments below, this backronym has been around since the early 80s, at least. Of course, the word Adidas was never an acronym and is actually a portmanteau of the company’s founder’s name, Adolph “Adi” Dassler. When you blend Adi with the first three letters of his last name, you get Adidas.

4. KISS (the rock group)

Supposed Meaning: Knights in Satan’s Service

Although they may look like “Knights in Satan’s Service”, the make-up clad members of KISS are not the fire-breathing devil worshipers as this false acronym may suggest. According to Gene Simmons, the rumor began after he half-jokingly told an interviewer that he sometimes wondered what human flesh tasted like. Almost immediately after, the band became rock music’s foremost Satanists. In some ways, the band both embraced and perpetuated the rumor by refusing to answer whether or not they worshipped the devil. Years later when Simmons was asked why he chose the name for the band, he simply replied, “We just liked it.”

Fun Fact: Although he’s been known to spit blood on stage, Gene Simmons studied theology at Sullivan Community College in New York.

5. RSVP

Supposed Meaning: Respond to Sender Via Post

We’ve all received wedding invitations where the host has asked us to R.S.V.P. by a certain date, and in American culture it’s rude not to “respond to sender via post.” Who knows what the etiquette is in France, where the phrase originates. What’s certain is that the actual French translation of the phrase is merely “please respond,” or, in French, repondez s’il vous plait.

6. Cop

Supposed Meaning: Constable on Patrol

However, cop is neither an acronym for “constable on patrol” nor a slang term to describe the copper buttons on the uniforms of 18th century New York City police officers. The word cop was initially used in the 1840s as a verb meaning “to arrest.” Slowly, the word transformed from ‘to arrest into police custody’ to describe the person doing the arresting. Soon after, police officers started being called “coppers.”

7. Bing

Supposed Meaning: But It’s Not Google

When I first heard about Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, I thought maybe it had something to do with the Bada Bing! from the Sopranos. So I started poking around for the origin of the word. What I first discovered was a false acronym. Yes, some in the tech world are saying that Bing stands for “But It’s Not Google.” However, the folks over at the world’s largest software company say that Bing is meant to invoke “the sound of found”, as in “Bingo! I got it!” This is not the first time Bill Gates and company attempted to release a search engine to compete with Google. Previous efforts with MSN Search (bong) and Live Search (bang) both proved unsuccessful. I dunno, what do you all think of Bing?

1. Getting Michael Crabtree Signed

Michael Crabtree was a star at Texas Tech and many predicted him to be the top receiver taken in the 2009 NFL Draft. But, like so many times before, Raiders owner Al Davis threw things off by taking Darrius Heyward-Bey, leaving Crabtree to fall to the tenth spot with the San Francisco 49ers. Crabtree thought he deserved as much money as Heyward-Bey for being better in college and refused to sign with the Niners, sitting out several games before finally signing in early October (just after I dropped him from my fantasy team). What finally got the negotiations going? Hammer. While it wasn’t the only factor, or even a big factor at all, Hammer’s presence certainly makes it interesting. Hammer is a friend of Crabtree’s mentor, Deion Sanders, and agent, Eugene Parker, and inexplicably sat in on some of the contract talks. Soon after, Crabtree was signed. 49ers blogger Matt Maiocco even reports that hotel staff overheard Crabtree telling Hammer to “get it done,” so maybe he played a bigger role than we all thought.

2. Saving Dance

Hammer is most well-known for his dancing, so it’s only fitting that his latest effort would be in that realm. After seeing that there wasn’t a good online community for dancers, Hammer founded DanceJam.com, a social network where people can share videos and comment on different styles of dance. It also allows viewers to slow down videos to examine what the moves are. Hammer told Popular Mechanics that the site was intended to be a “repository of all things dance, and of course again all the way to instructional videos of hot dances of today.”

3. Kicking Off Justin Lin’s Movie Career

When Justin Lin was having financial trouble at his production company, he feared that his directorial debut, Better Luck Tomorrow, would never see the light of day. According on an interview on NPR, Lin desperately called Hammer, whom he had met once in Las Vegas. Hammer read the script, liked it and sent Lin the money he needed to keep his company and film going. Better Luck Tomorrow would go on to be a hit at Sundance and Lin would eventually helm hits like The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious.

4. Marrying Corey Feldman

How fitting that this wedding would be aired on the VH1 show The Surreal Life, because what could be more surreal than a wedding that includes Hammer, a rabbi, Gary Coleman and Mouth from The Goonies? ‘80s star Feldman was wed to his girlfriend Susie Sprague on the season finale of the reality show and had Hammer, along with a rabbi, officiate the ceremony, which was put together in one week (see a video here). Hammer is an ordained minister who also officiated the wedding of Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil. Hammer has starred in his own ministry show and has been open about his faith and role as a minister, though never with as much star power as at Feldman’s wedding.

5. Starting The Trend Of Rapper Endorsements

Hammer’s rise on the Billboard charts was accompanied by millions of dollars (which he would eventually lose in an all-too-public bankruptcy filing). But that bank account was padded by Hammer’s willingness to shill for companies like Pepsi, Toshiba and KFC. The distinctly non-hip-hop move led to charges of Hammer being a sell-out, from a good deal of his contemporaries. Of course, now it’s more commonplace for rappers to play commercials (right Kanye? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndDdNkonRc8)), but we’ve got fHammer to thank for that. Hammer has even continued doing his commercials with a Super Bowl spot for Cash4Gold last year that also poked fun at his bankruptcy problems.