DID YOU KNOW…? Did the assassin of a president try to say that the doctors who attended him actually killed him? By Jack Bagley
It’s fun to realize that in just over a month, summer begins.
I do enjoy summer, and I imagine you do as well. Spring has always been my favorite season, as I find that the farther I get into my dotage, the less I enjoy very hot, humid weather. But summer has much to recommend it as well.
Speaking of recommending, may I suggest some trivial information for you to enjoy? I’ve unearthed some fresh tidbits for this week, and I do hope you enjoy them.
And if you’re of a mind to do so, you can write me at [email protected] and I always reply, usually quickly.
Did you know …
… a musical instrument called a “fluba” exists? It’s a cross between a flugelhorn and a tuba, and it was invented by a musician named Jim Self (born 1943). (Find one in your friendly neighborhood orchestra.)
… kangaroos are not able to “pass gas”? The Australian marsupials convert the small quantities of intestinal methane they produce into an energy source which their body re-uses. A kind of bacteria in the kangaroo allows this to happen. Some scientists are studying how to transfer the bacteria to cows, to help reduce the cow methane emission problem. (I have a couple of lines I could use here, but I won’t. Yours are probably funnier.)
… one of the biggest philanthropists in Chicago during the Great Depression was also one of its most notorious residents? Gangster Al Capone (1899-1947) opened several soup kitchens in Chicago at the height of the Great Depression. It was one of his sporadic attempts to make himself look better to the public. During the Depression (1929-1933), such soup kitchens provided millions of people the only nutritious food they would have each day. (Even a broken clock is right twice a day, you know.)
… more than 3,000 people auditioned for the program Afghan Model in 2009 in Afghanistan? What is surprising about that fact is, only ten of them were women. (No comment.)
… you probably have a couple of tools in your home that were invented by the ancient Romans? The level and the claw hammer were created by the Romans and have passed along, almost unchanged in form or function, since then. (It’s hard to improve on perfection, folks.)
… a presidential assassin tried to say the doctors who attended his victim killed him? On July 2, 1881, President James A. Garfield (1831-1881) was shot in the back at a railroad station in Washington, D.C., by a crazed office-seeker named Charles J. Guiteau (1841-1882). Garfield was not mortally wounded by the shooting; in fact, modern medicine would have saved him quite easily. Rather, he died 80 agonizing days later of blood poisoning after doctors tried to remove the bullet from his back with their dirty fingers and dirty instruments, sterilization not being the norm in medicine at the time. At Guiteau’s trial for the crime, though, the defendant tried to say that the doctors – not he – had killed the President. That defense failed spectacularly, and Guiteau was hanged on June 30, 1882. Additional trivia note: Among the people trying to save Garfield’s life was inventor Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), who used a kind of metal detector over Garfield to try and find the bullet. But the detector was thrown off by the metal springs in the bed on which the President was laying. (If we knew then what we know now …)
… the longest freshwater shoreline in the world is found in the state of Michigan? It has shorelines on four of the five Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie. Michigan’s freshwater shoreline is 3,288 miles long. (Lake Ontario tried to shoehorn a bit of shoreline in but Ohio was having none of it.)
… you may, at one time in your life, have demonstrated pot-valor? For those who don’t know, pot-valor is another term for the boldness one acquires after imbibing alcohol. It’s another name for “liquid courage.” (In other words, “Hold my beer.”)
… a famous writer met both John and Robert Kennedy and the men who killed them? Truman Capote (1924-1984), author of In Cold Blood and numerous other stories, said he was probably the only person who met both John (1917-1963) and Robert Kennedy (1925-1968), as well as the men who murdered them – Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963) and Sirhan B. Sirhan (born 1944).
… a Major League Baseball player was on the lineups for two different teams in the same game? This is a little convoluted, so bear with me. On June 26, 2024, Danny Jansen (born 1995) was in the lineup for the Toronto Blue Jays when they played against the Boston Red Sox. The game was suspended by rain, and was to resume on August 26, 2024, as part of a doubleheader. During the interim, however, Jansen was traded from the Blue Jays … to the Red Sox. When the game resumed, Jansen was inserted into the Red Sox lineup, putting him on the record as the only player ever having played for both teams in the same game. Jansen was actually at bat for the Blue Jays when the game was suspended. (Bet his baseball card is a winner.)
… Abraham Lincoln fed his pet cat with a gold fork? The sixteenth President (1809-1865) was a lover of animals, but cats were his favorite. While in the White House, the Lincoln family often had their cat Tabby at the table with them. Once, during a formal dinner, Lincoln fed Tabby with a gold fork. His wife Mary (1818-1882) commented on how “shameful” it was to see Lincoln feed the cat at the table, to which the President replied, “If the gold fork was good enough for (former President James) Buchanan, I think it’s good enough for Tabby.” Buchanan (1791-1868) was known to have used a golden fork at White House dinners. (Lincoln didn’t much like Buchanan, so there’s that.)
Now … you know!
Copyright © 2025 Jack Bagley
