Born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1910 to Gustav and Otillia Haast, Bill Haast was interested in snakes since he was 7 years old. This interest turned into something of an obsession during summer trips to Boy Scout camp, beginning when he was 11. The next year Bill suffered his first snake bite from a timber rattlesnake he tried to […]
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Despite spending the first 30 years of his career almost exclusively a prolific dramatic actor, today Leslie Nielsen is generally remembered as one of the greatest comedic actors of all time for his roles in films like Airplane! and The Naked Gun series. As it turns out, these two factors are more closely linked than you might think and Nielsen’s […]
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Serving with the NYPD between 1923 and 1947, for over two decades John “Johnny” Broderick struck fear into the hearts of New York’s deadliest criminals working as a no-nonsense detective who wasn’t afraid to throw hands and kick bad guys through windows (literally). Over his long and controversial career, Broderick earned over half a dozen medals for valor, a nod […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader North of New Zealand, east of Australia, and west of Fiji there’s an island that’s home to one of the more unusual religious sects we’ve ever come across. DOUBLE TROUBLE The nation of Vanuatu is independent today, but from 1906 to 1980, this island group in the South Pacific was […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader George and Martha Washington owned hundreds of slaves over the course of their lives. The names of many are known, but most of the details of their lives have been lost to history. Here’s the story of one woman who hasn’t been forgotten. BORN INTO SLAVERY In the early 1770s […]
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On Monday, December 14, 1903, the Wright brothers took the Wright Flyer out in their first attempt to fly it. The plane “flew” only for a few seconds, stalling when Wilbur pulled up too sharply as soon as the plane was in the air. Three days later, after repairing the damage done to the craft, Orville took his turn at […]
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If you’ve never seen A Knight’s Tale, the cliff notes version of the story is that Heath Ledger’s character, William Thatcher, pretends to be a knight to compete in various jousting competitions across Europe for fame, fortune, and the love of a woman. Since Thatcher is a peasant, in order to be able to compete, he claims to be a […]
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While Danny Trejo might not be a name as many people would recognise as say, Tom Cruise, with over 300 film credits to date since his acting debut in the mid-1980s, not to mention his distinctive hard-as-nails look, he’s certainly one of the more recongisable faces in Hollywood. Unlike most, however, Danny’s trail to becoming one of the hardest working […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Modern shopping malls are so common that we forget they’ve only been around for about a half century. Here’s the story of how they came to be…and the story of the man who invented them, Victor Gruen—the most famous architect you’ve never heard of. FATEFUL LAYOVER In the winter of […]
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A lot of things happened on D-Day- the largest seaborne invasion in history took place; James “Scotty” Doohan from Star Trek fame was shot six times by his fellow countrymen; and Mad Jack Churchill stormed the beach with a sword and a bow. Another unusual thing that occurred was the capture of what initially was assumed to be a Japanese […]
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Nazi troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, despite the best efforts of Captain Witold Pilecki and his fellow Polish soldiers. On November 9th of that same year, Witold and Major Wlodarkiewicz founded the Tajna Armia Polska (TAP or Polish Secret Army), an underground organization that eventually became consolidated with other resistance forces into The Home Army. Not long after […]
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Most of us who have been chewing sticks of Spearmint or Juicy Fruit gum over the last several decades probably assume that the manufacture and sale of gum was what Wrigley was always about. After all, the company, which was founded by William Wrigley Jr., is famous for being the leading gum manufacturer globally, with an array of brands like […]
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Women’s clothes come in a baffling range of (often inconsistent) sizes which can make finding clothes that fit just right an unreasonably difficult task for many women. To help combat this, the clothing industry has a number of tricks up its immaculately tailored sleeves; in regards to jeans, one of those tricks is Natasha Wagner’s butt. Born in 1981, Natasha Wagner took […]
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Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, France in 1822, and by the age of 25, he had earned bachelor of arts and science degrees, as well as a doctorate in science from Paris’ École Normale. Within a year, he joined the faculty at the University of Strasbourg as a chemistry professor. In 1854, he joined the University of Lille as […]
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Amongst the pantheon of notable public television personalities, Bob Ross easily ranks alongside the likes of Mr Rogers and Elmo as a star who is almost universally loved and respected by the public. Despite being famous the world over for his balmy, soothing demeanour, his show The Joy of Painting and his amazing ‘fro, we know surprisingly little about arguably one of the best […]
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History is littered with individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, but it could be argued that few have made a last stand as explosive and witty as the Dutch Naval hero, Jan van Speijk. Born in 1802 on January 31st in the city of Amsterdam, Jan van Speijk (or Speyk, if you prefer), was orphaned just weeks after being […]
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At the close of the 19th century, a young immigrant arrived in New York’s Chinatown. Within a year, Sai Wing Mock, better known as Mock Duck, had taken control of one of the neighborhood’s principal criminal syndicates, the Hip Sing Tong. Immediately challenging the power of rival On Leong Tong, in 1900, Mock Duck started a war between the gangs […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Sherlock Holmes, Jean Valjean, and the FBI can all trace their roots back to one Frenchman who turned a life of crime into a life of fighting crime. SPLIT PERSONALITY In 1809 a 34-year-old petty criminal named Eugène François Vidocq (pronounced vee-DOCK) was doing yet another stint in a French […]
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