Author Archives: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader

Trepanning with John and Yoko

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader THIS IS NOT A DRILL In March 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono spent their honeymoon at a posh hotel in Amsterdam, where they staged their infamous “Bed-in for Peace.” Among the reporters and well-wishers that Lennon invited was a 34-year-old Dutchman named Bart Huges. He was summoned there because […]

Read more

Forgotten Heroes: The Accidental Farmer

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Bob Fletcher was an agricultural inspector working in California’s Central Valley in the early 1940s. He might have stayed one, too, had the outbreak of World War II not changed everything. INFAMY Shortly before 8:00 a.m. on the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese military forces attacked the U.S. naval […]

Read more

Saddam Speaks

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was big news from the 1980s through the 2000s. But it wasn’t until years after his death that the world got to hear his story in his own words. DEBRIEFING THE DICTATOR Saddam Hussein (1937–2006) became the president and dictator of Iraq in 1979—a position he […]

Read more

A Great Place to Go…

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Let’s face it: New York City is famous for a lot of things, but the abundance and cleanliness of public restrooms aren’t among them. There is one notable exception, however, just outside the main branch of the New York Public Library. NO SALE One afternoon in 1979, the 77-year-old heiress […]

Read more

The Dome Dodgers

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Nobody likes to move—it’s a hassle to pack up all your stuff and head for someplace new and unfamiliar. But sports teams do it all the time, and perhaps no other team move was as shocking as when the Brooklyn Dodgers left for Los Angeles in 1957. Here’s why the […]

Read more

The Curious Case of Giant Concrete Arrows That Stretched from New York to California

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader DAY TRIPPERS When the U.S. Post Office introduced airmail service in 1920, the mail could only be flown during daylight hours, when pilots could see where they were going. In an age before sophisticated navigation systems, flying after dark was just too dangerous. The pilots who transported the mail navigated […]

Read more

Carter’s Farewell

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Historians usually rank Jimmy Carter as one of America’s more lackluster presidents. His term was marked by inflation, an oil embargo, high unemployment, and a hostage crisis in Iran. Result: he lost his 1980 reelection bid to Ronald Reagan by 8.4 million votes, the largest ouster of an incumbent president […]

Read more

The British Plan to Cover Germany with Anthrax- Operation Vegetarian

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader How deadly could a secret program code-named “Operation Vegetarian” be? So deadly that had it ever been implemented, millions would have died and thousands of square miles of European soil might still be unoccupied today. ALONE On September 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler set World War II in motion when he […]

Read more

The Christmas Bird Count

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Here’s a holiday tradition that you may not have heard of if you’re not a bird-watcher. It’s more than a century old and still going strong. BIRD MAN Frank Chapman was an ornithologist, publisher of Bird-Lore magazine, and curator of birds at New York City’s American Museum of Natural History […]

Read more

How Metals are Made

The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Do you have a ring on your finger? Is it made from gold, silver, platinum, or another natural metal? Then ponder this: The metal in that ring on your finger is older than the planet you’re standing on. WHAT IS “METAL”? Scientifically speaking, metals are naturally occurring chemical elements that […]

Read more
1 2 3 9