Uncle John’s Impossible Questions & Astounding Answers by Bathroom Readers’ Institute Page A
Authors: Bathroom Readers’ Institute
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was no truth to the rumor—Gettysburg had no warehouse full of shoes.
Moo-ving Right Along
What was the typical pace of an Old West cattle drive?
States’ Plights
Virginia leads the nation—it has seven. New York comes in second, with six. Ohio is third, with five. What are we talking about?
Moo-ving Right Along
Let’s put it this way—you could probably walk across the country faster than cowboys could move their cattle across it (unless there was a stampede, in which case the cows moved very fast, though rarely in the right direction). A good day’s travel would get the cowboys and their herd about 15 miles from where they started out that morning. Why so slow? Because cows require an enormous amount of food every day—about 100 pounds of grass, even more if they’re expending energy (like stampeding). The cowboy’s job was (and still is) to know when to get them dogies moving and when to let them stop and refuel, which was often.
States’ Plights
Dead presidents. Buried in Virginia are Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Tyler, Taft, and Kennedy (the latter two in Arlington National Cemetery). New York City’s most famous presidential resting place is Grant’s Tomb. Others buried in the Empire State: Fillmore, Van Buren, Arthur, and both Roosevelts. Ohio’s five dead presidents are Harrison, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, and Harding.
In all, 18 states host the remains of former commanders-in-chief. Only one western state has more than one: California, the final resting place of Presidents Nixon and Reagan.
Good-Buy
Did you get a good deal the last time you went shopping? Was it as much of a bargain as Peter Minuit’s purchase? No way. What did he buy?
Good-Buy
Peter Minuit bought Manhattan, and according to legend, he bought it “for a steal.” But the Indians made out all right, too (at first, anyway).
A former diamond cutter turned merchant explorer, Minuit was sent to the New World by the Dutch West India Company in 1626 to serve as the Colonial Governor of what was then called New Netherland. His mission: to establish a civil government among the colonists, secure land rights from the Indians, and look for goods other than animal pelts to ship back to Europe. History books tell that Minuit offered a few “beads and trinkets” worth 60 Dutch guilders—about $24—to the Lenape tribe in exchange for ownership of the island. But these were more than mere trinkets: Minuit traded advanced European farming technology including duffel cloth, kettles, axes, hoes, drilling awls, wampum (sacred shell beads), and “diverse other wares.” And the value was closer to $72.
In a way, it was Minuit who got hosed: The Lenapes didn’t even “own” the island; they shared it with the Mohicans and Mohawks. And all three tribes were fighting over who would control the fur trade with the Dutch. Minuit built a fort and a home on what is now the southern tip of Manhattan, and ordered the Dutch colonists living inland to move there, mostly to stay out of the Indians’ war.
Although Minuit could make it there, he couldn’t make it anywhere: Twelve years later, he was killed during a hurricane in the Caribbean while searching for a good source of tobacco.
Incoming!
Who bombed Florida on June 8, 1959…and why?
Incoming!
Arthur Summerfield—President Eisenhower’s over-enthusiastic Postmaster General. “Gentlemen, we stand on the threshold of rocket mail,” he announced in 1959 to the crowd gathered at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. “Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia. How? By guided missiles!”
Then Summerfield informed the crowd that the first missile delivery was already on its way—launched only a few moments earlier from the submarine U.S.S. Barbero . The missile’s nuclear warhead had been replaced with two mail containers filled with 3,000 letters,
Moo-ving Right Along
What was the typical pace of an Old West cattle drive?
States’ Plights
Virginia leads the nation—it has seven. New York comes in second, with six. Ohio is third, with five. What are we talking about?
Moo-ving Right Along
Let’s put it this way—you could probably walk across the country faster than cowboys could move their cattle across it (unless there was a stampede, in which case the cows moved very fast, though rarely in the right direction). A good day’s travel would get the cowboys and their herd about 15 miles from where they started out that morning. Why so slow? Because cows require an enormous amount of food every day—about 100 pounds of grass, even more if they’re expending energy (like stampeding). The cowboy’s job was (and still is) to know when to get them dogies moving and when to let them stop and refuel, which was often.
States’ Plights
Dead presidents. Buried in Virginia are Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Tyler, Taft, and Kennedy (the latter two in Arlington National Cemetery). New York City’s most famous presidential resting place is Grant’s Tomb. Others buried in the Empire State: Fillmore, Van Buren, Arthur, and both Roosevelts. Ohio’s five dead presidents are Harrison, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, and Harding.
In all, 18 states host the remains of former commanders-in-chief. Only one western state has more than one: California, the final resting place of Presidents Nixon and Reagan.
Good-Buy
Did you get a good deal the last time you went shopping? Was it as much of a bargain as Peter Minuit’s purchase? No way. What did he buy?
Good-Buy
Peter Minuit bought Manhattan, and according to legend, he bought it “for a steal.” But the Indians made out all right, too (at first, anyway).
A former diamond cutter turned merchant explorer, Minuit was sent to the New World by the Dutch West India Company in 1626 to serve as the Colonial Governor of what was then called New Netherland. His mission: to establish a civil government among the colonists, secure land rights from the Indians, and look for goods other than animal pelts to ship back to Europe. History books tell that Minuit offered a few “beads and trinkets” worth 60 Dutch guilders—about $24—to the Lenape tribe in exchange for ownership of the island. But these were more than mere trinkets: Minuit traded advanced European farming technology including duffel cloth, kettles, axes, hoes, drilling awls, wampum (sacred shell beads), and “diverse other wares.” And the value was closer to $72.
In a way, it was Minuit who got hosed: The Lenapes didn’t even “own” the island; they shared it with the Mohicans and Mohawks. And all three tribes were fighting over who would control the fur trade with the Dutch. Minuit built a fort and a home on what is now the southern tip of Manhattan, and ordered the Dutch colonists living inland to move there, mostly to stay out of the Indians’ war.
Although Minuit could make it there, he couldn’t make it anywhere: Twelve years later, he was killed during a hurricane in the Caribbean while searching for a good source of tobacco.
Incoming!
Who bombed Florida on June 8, 1959…and why?
Incoming!
Arthur Summerfield—President Eisenhower’s over-enthusiastic Postmaster General. “Gentlemen, we stand on the threshold of rocket mail,” he announced in 1959 to the crowd gathered at the Naval Auxiliary Air Station in Mayport, Florida. “Before man reaches the moon, mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to Britain, to India or Australia. How? By guided missiles!”
Then Summerfield informed the crowd that the first missile delivery was already on its way—launched only a few moments earlier from the submarine U.S.S. Barbero . The missile’s nuclear warhead had been replaced with two mail containers filled with 3,000 letters,
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