Dark Bilious Vapors

But how could I deny that I possess these hands and this body, and withal escape being classed with persons in a state of insanity, whose brains are so disordered and clouded by dark bilious vapors....
--Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: Meditation I

Home » Archives » January 2005 » Trivia...

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01/16/2005: Trivia...


No theme this time. Just random factoids.

1) The World's Smartest Human Being™, Chicago Reader columnist Cecil Adams, has a pet name for the collected readership of his column, "The Straight Dope". What does Unca Cece call his devoted fans?

2) Suddenly realizing that he'd accomplished nothing in his 39 years, Homer Simpson decided to become an inventor. After coming to this decision, Homer locked himself away in his basement for days, finally emerging to show his inventions to his family. What 5 things did Homer invent?

3) When printing documents with certain Macintosh printers, one can see a creature called a "dogcow" in the print setup functions. What is the dogcow's name, and what is its characteristic sound?

4) The name of Muhammad Adh-Dhib probably isn't one you recall hearing recently, but there is no doubt in my mind that you have heard of what he discovered. What did he discover, and for extra credit, what was he looking for when he discovered it?

5) Two bands, The Lovin' Spoonful and 10cc, share a common derivation for their names. What do these band names reference?


Len on 01.16.05 @ 09:26 PM CST



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Replies: 6 comments

on Monday, January 17th, 2005 at 2:10 AM CST, mike hollihan said

Finally! I know some of these.

2/ The alarm that sounds when nothing's wrong. The electric hammer. Another was my favorite: The Make-up Rifle.

4/ The Dead Sea Scrolls! He was looking for a goat.

5/ Semen! Or, the average amount of ejaculate.

Whee! I am so smart! S-M-R-T. I mean, S-M-A-R-T!

on Monday, January 17th, 2005 at 6:04 AM CST, blurred15@postmark.net">malarkey said

2) Another invention: that device that prevents you from falling over when you lean back in our chair (can't remember the name).

on Monday, January 17th, 2005 at 6:07 AM CST, malarkey said

2) Oh yeah, and a lazy-man reclining toilet chair to complete the list.

on Monday, January 17th, 2005 at 8:04 AM CST, Len Cleavelin said

Good job, guys. Between the two of you you got all of Homer's inventions (my source calls the alarm "the everything's OK alarm", and the "anti-lean-back" device is a 6 legged chair). Mike also scores on numbers 4 and 5.

on Monday, January 17th, 2005 at 8:46 AM CST, Brock Sides said

1. I really should know this, but I'm not absolutely certain. "The Teeming Millions"?

3. I'm not sure of the exact spelling, but the dogcow says "Moowoof".

on Monday, January 17th, 2005 at 5:57 PM CST, Len Cleavelin said

Well, we've got just about all of them this week. The "official" answers will go up shortly.

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