The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week, World Series Edition: Jumping on the Bandwagon

Well, my Texas Rangers didn't quite get it done this year, but it was sure one heck of a ride. I had a lot of fun watching them play baseball this year, and they did not disappoint this fan. I didn't know if I'd ever see them in the World Series, but there they were, representing as the American League Champions, playing the San Francisco Giants.

All you can do is tip your hat to the Giants. They had some outstanding pitching performances. I do think with a couple of different decisions the Rangers could have stretched the series out another game or two and possibly even won it. But there's no doubt that the Giants were the better club in the World Series once the dust settled. So, congrats to them.

Through all of this I've experienced a phenomenon that was completely new to me. Bandwagon fans. I've never been a fan of team that was good enough to warrant any of these fans. I'm a die-hard fan and so are several of my good friends from Texas, but I know that there were a lot of people that jumped on the Rangers bandwagon. The normal reaction to bandwagon fans from die-hard fans is that of arrogant disdain.

I wouldn't be completely honest if I told you I felt none of that. I felt some, but, as I generally do, I stopped to analyze what was going on. First, why the heck are they called bandwagon fans? I assumed that the origination of the term had to do with literally getting on a wagon of some sort, and I was right. You see, the bandwagon was a wagon that would carry the band and go about the town and the countryside announcing to the people of a region that the circus was in town. Basic advertising, of course. But I don't believe anybody actually climbed onto one at this point.

In 1848, though, Dan Rice, a popular circus clown at that time (how, I don't know; clowns are creepy) used his bandwagon and popularity to announce where he would make political campaign appearances. That's right - he may have been the first clown to run for office! Probably not the last, though. Dan Rice ran for several offices including President of the United States in 1868. As his campaigns gained steam, other politicians vied for a seat on his bandwagon in an attempt to get noticed through his success. By the time, William Jennings Bryan ran for President in 1900, bandwagons were commonplace in campaigns. Unfortunately, "jumping on the bandwagon" had also become a derogatory term and referred to those who just associated themselves with success regardless of what the association meant.

When it comes to fans of a sports team the derogatory nature implies that the fan wasn't around for the tough times, but now they're showing up to latch on to the good times. Essentially, they are being called "fair-weather fans" which I think is a more fitting term. Why do die-hard fans dislike these fans so much? I asked one of our pastors that and he gave a great answer. He said it's the same reason his 3-year old son says, "Mine!" all the time. At our basic core we want to possess the success. I cheered for this team when they were awful. I took the ridicule for being a fan of a bad team. I got frustrated at the losses at the hands of the Yankees. Not you - now you want some of this success? No way, son. Step aside. It's mine.

How ridiculous is that? But it's true. Our selfish nature wants to possess that which is essentially not even possess-able.

Can you spot the bandwagon fans? Of course not, they look just like us - now if they start to talk about the team, you might get a clue.

To make it even more ridiculous, these bandwagon fans are in reality great for the team. As ratings rise, TV contracts go up so the team makes more money. As sales of team merchandise goes up, the team makes more money. As the stadium has more sellouts, the team makes more money - and the atmosphere is more electric.

All of these things will contribute to the future success of the team. The team that you will care about long after the fair-weather bandwagon-ers fade away. So, no matter what team you root for, extend an olive branch to the late-comers. Welcome them with open arms and an open mind for they will be paying for your team's success long after they get bored with sports and go back to what occupied their time before.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: huddle. Huddle! HUDDLE!! Can't anybody hear me...?

When I first began playing full-pad tackle football, I was placed at the position of center. Why on earth they placed a 5'2" 100lb kid at center, I'll never know. Maybe they anticipated that I'd be bigger. Maybe I seemed athletic enough to play center but maybe not athletic enough to be any other offensive position.

Whatever the reason, I was there. Being the center, one of my jobs was to call the huddle. There are many different ways to huddle in football. All of the players can get in a circle. All of the players can circle around the quarterback who is kneeling down in the midst of them all. Then there was our method. We lined up in two rows of five facing the line of scrimmage. As the center I was in the middle of the front line and the huddle set on me. I would hold my hands in the air and yell, "HUDDLE!!!!" at the top of my 12-year old lungs.

Often times, since I was 12, this came out sounding like one long, embarrasing screech. "HU-uh-Uh-uh-UH-d-ul-UHL!!" It would vary between the deep voice of a young man and the squeaky voice of a pre-teen.

My teammates would laugh. I would turn red. It was a pretty regular occurence. If you know me, you're aware that I still haven't completely ridded this squeak from my voice box.

I tell you this story because the most interesting thing I learned this week is the origin of the huddle.

The earliest known use of a huddle in football was initiated by a young quarterback named Paul Hubbard around 1892. Paul Hubbard was the leader of Galludet University's first ever football team. Why did he need a huddle, though? Well, Galludet University is a school for the deaf, and Hubbard was nervous that their opponents may be able to understand sign language and would be able to steal their plays. So, his solution was to get everyone to circle around him while he signed the play.

As I was researching this for verification I learned something else about this unique school. In the 1970s they were having a lot of trouble scoring on offense. Part of the issue was that the defense knew to just watch the football and wait for it to be snapped because that is what the Galludet players were doing. Without the advantage of getting off the ball quicker than the defense, it was difficult to put up points. Coaches thought of several methods to develop a new way to send a snap count to their players including a buzzer in the hip of the football pants that would be activated by the quarterback just before the snap. Instead, one of the coaches remembered the vibration he felt at a University of Texas football game when a huge bass drum was played.

So, they started using a big drum. And to this day, the Galludet coaches wheel a drum up the sideline and bang it for the snap. When players feel the vibration, they know to go. Most of the time they go on one bang, but sometimes to fool the defense they'll go on two.

Galludet sounds like a nice place to play. At least their no one could have heard my awful squeaking.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week - Roulette

At the beginning of this week, I certainly did not intend to have back-to-back posts in which I referred to France. My friend Zach would be ashamed, but thankfully, he's immersed in football season, so most likely this will go unnoticed by him.

This weekend Stacie and I loaded the dogs into the car and made a trip down to Tulsa to see my bro Trait, our sis-in-law Sara and our nephew. Though most of the weekend was filled with the sound of our nephew's glee about having puppies, him wanting Uncle Ty to go outside or other silly moments that need not be discussed here, we took a little time out on Saturday night to visit a casino. We were in Indian Territory after all.

Stacie and I had never been to a casino together and only separately for work. Neither one of us have done much gambling and wanted to wait to gamble at a casino together - you know, good family time - so we were pretty giddy heading out the door.

After Stacie had some trouble with the Wheel of Fortune slots and a black jack dealer made mincemeat of me, Stacie found a game that we both could enjoy: roulette.

I didn't win anything at roulette, but I definitely was able to sit there longer than I was during my short stay at the black jack table. Stacie on the other hand, was doing pretty well. In fact, after a few rounds she pointed to the 0/00 space on the board and asked what that was. Our pit boss, Shane, explained that along with all the red and black numbers there is also a green 0 and a green 00 that can hit.

Immediately Stacie put $5 on the line between the two, betting both and declared that they should hit now.

Sure enough, double zero hit. $85 was shoveled to my baby. She ended up walking away with a brand new $100 bill. She's still grinning about it.

I decided to do some research about this newfound game we played, and it led to interesting things.

Roulette Facts:

• Roulette is French and means "little wheel"


• Roulette has been played in its present form since 1796 in Paris


• In our hemisphere there is a zero and a double zero on the wheel, but most of the rest of the world has just a single zero space.


• To "break the bank" actually refers to winning all of the money available at a roulette table. All the money at the table is taken and a black cloth covers the table until the bank is replenished. Many people, including myself until recently, think that this saying refers to taking all of the money in a bank or casino (figuratively or literally), but that's not so.


• The most well known bank breaker was Charles Wells, who broke the bank 12 times in 11 hours in Monte Carlo in 1891. At one point he hit the correct number 23 out of 30 spins. He was not cheating, he admitted later he was just a lucky scoundrel - literally. He was playing with 4,000 Pounds that he swindled from people who had invested in his bogus invention - the musical jump rope.


• Others have cheated though. While Stacie and I were at the table a man was texting on his phone and the pit boss told him that phones were not allowed at the table. I wondered how a phone could give him an advantage. As it turns out, in 2004 three men put a laser scanner and a computer program in a phone. The laser would scan the wheel as it was spinning and predict what quadrant the ball would settle into. The men would then place bets in that quadrant and did quite nicely for themselves. Now, betting is closed at most tables before the wheel begins to slow down.

There are a lot of interesting little tidbits out there about this game - betting strategies, mathematical formulas, famous cheaters, etc. It's amazing what you can learn with a little digging, and it's always nice to have a winning experience. Especially consdering that for every $1 you bet your expected winnings are negative 5.3 cents. That is, unless, of course, you are my wife.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Bikinis are the Bomb - Literally

Let me start by saying two things:

1) I did not post on Monday per my usual weekly TMITILTW programming because it was a holiday and it kind of didn't feel like Monday and I had a fantasy football draft and Stacie & I completely demolished our closet and put it back together again. But, fear not! I have not forgotten to come bring you completely random, mostly useless information. How else will you wow your friends this week?

AND

2) I learned several things interesting this week - wholesome things such as the lyric in America the Beautiful that says "thine alabaster cities gleam" was written because Katherine Lee Bates had just visited the great White City that was the 1893 World's Exposition here in Chicago. But in researching for confirmation of this I stumbled upon something that I felt was took the cake for this coveted weekly installment.

The Bikini. Capitalized. That's correct - when it was first called the bikini it was capitalized because it was named for the Bikini Atoll. The Bikini Atoll consists of 23 islands as part of the Micronesian Islands of the Pacific Ocean.

Believe it or not, the islands were not named as such because the natives pranced around in the latest two-piece swimwear. No, rather the controversial two-piece swimwear was introduced and named for these islands. I'm sure you've heard that before, but why were these islands deemed worthy of having a fancy new swimsuit named for them?

The reason? These Bikini Islands were the site of several nuclear device tests by the United States, the first of which was on July 1st, 1946. Bob Hope said of the Bikini Island nuclear tests:

"As soon as the war ended, we located the one spot on earth that hadn't been touched by the war and blew it to hell."

Operation Crossroads Explosion at Bikini

Just shortly after the first nuclear test, Louis Reard's self-proclaimed "world's smallest swimsuit" debuted in Paris. He called it the Bikini because he anticipated that the reaction upon seeing one would be the same as if one saw a nuclear explosion. His design was not worn quite as frequently as other competing models due to the lack of modesty in design (he insisted that to truly be a Bikini, it must be able to be pulled through a wedding ring.) Nevertheless, the name stuck - even for slightly more modest attire.

PS - I have no idea how I got from America the Beautiful to the bikini, but my weird journey is your crazy gain.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Expounding on Nikola Tesla

The two or three of you that have been visiting Come and Blog It for some time now may know that I have always had a fascination with Nikola Tesla and his amazing inventions. Not only was he creating things that we still use today, but he was way ahead of his time doing most of his work in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Nikola Tesla at about age 40

Most of the time the most interesting thing I learn in a week I just come across by chance, but part of writing about something interesting on a weekly basis may mean you have to go digging for just the right piece of info. I don't want to pull from things I've learned in the past - to me that would be cheating. I want to learn at least one new interesting thing every week. This week was a pretty busy work week that seemed to gobble up all of my attention and not produce anything to interesting, so I decided to think about what I found interesting. That led me to do a little digging on Tesla. There is way too much information on this man to list it all so if you want a quick overview of his life, check the video at the bottom of this post.

So, what fancy new info did I learn about Tesla this week? Glad you asked.

First, Tesla theorized in the late 1800s that he could send sound AND images from one place to another without wires. Think about that - he was theorizing that he could essentially send a Youtube video from one place to another without wires. Before 1900. It was in 1900 in Paris when the first public exhibition of a movie with sound took place. Now I'm sort of kidding when I say he was thinking about movies - but essentially he was saying he could transmit more than just sound, such as with radio, over the airwaves. This blew people's minds (since transmitting sound was still extremely new) and is about when people started calling him insane. Yet here I am sending images and sound to you without wires.

And secondly, I knew that he was building a tower on Long Island that would test his theories of transmitting over long distances, but I always thought he just ran out of money. What actually happened is that he had a silent partner financing the project - J.P. Morgan. He also had a secret plan. He believed that his tower at some point would be able to send wireless electricity to the world for free. Upon discovery of the secret plan, Morgan pulled the plug and kept Tesla from getting any other investors. Morgan was not about to give out electricity unless he could charge for it. The tower was never built and was dismantled for scrap in World War I.Tesla did some truly amazing things - and his mind was strange and worked in ways we don't understand. Yet, for all he did, most of us think of Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison when we think of electricity. The truth is that Tesla is the reason we have a world that is lit up as it is today.

For more info on an interesting man check out this video:

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: My Grandmother Wore Combat Boots

This week started out pretty slowly as far as interesting things go, but towards the end of the week things really picked up. I learned some interesting facts about Chicago while watching a video at Navy Pier - yes I was at Navy Pier this week. Why was I at Navy Pier you ask? Good question. My mom and her sister, my Aunt Molly, came to visit Stacie and I towards the end of the week. Navy Pier was one of the destinations they wanted to check out, so we made it happen.

I also learned - from my aunt - that kids are using ring tones in classrooms that teachers can't hear. They're called mosquito ring tones. Click on the link and try it out. I could hear it to a certain point, but not all of them. I know they were producing a sound, though, because my cute black lab, Bradie, was trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. As it says in the article, the sound was originally developed to repel teens. Shopkeepers would pump the tones in front of their stores to prevent loitering while leaving adult patrons none the worse for wear.

But the most interesting thing that I learned this week has to be that my grandmother, Loais Williams (Loais Ball at the time), worked at a Consolidated Aircraft Company plant outside of Fort Worth, TX, wiring B-24 Liberators for our involvement in World War II. I always knew she studied to become a nurse with the Navy, but as it turns out prior to that she was wiring B-24's to make money to go to nursing school. She was able to get into a nursing program that was paid for due to a nurses shortage as it turns out, but the fact that she was doing that to make money is pretty awesome.

I can't even wire a toaster, and there she was wiring up a bomber.

I found the picture below on a Navy archive site. This is the facility in Ft. Worth that my grandmother worked at, so it's very possible she worked in this very building getting these babies ready to go.

The WWII generation was just in a class all by themselves. They got their hands dirty, and they got stuff done to keep their country safe and hopefully make a better life for their children and grandchildren. And for that I say thank you - particularly to my grandmother. Who probably didn't wear combat boots, but it would have been super cool if she had.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Meet Chip Taylor

I'm willing to bet only a few of you have ever heard of Chip Taylor. But I'm also willing to bet that every one of you has heard at least one song written by Chip Taylor. Chip Taylor has written and performed many songs, and I've had the pleasure of watching him play live at The Granada Theater in Dallas, Texas. But the one song of his that I'm certain you know is "Wild Thing."

That's right. Wild Thing. Da da. Da da da. You make my heart sing. You make everything...groovy.

He also wrote "Angel of the Morning" made famous by several artists, most recently a version of it by Shaggy.

Chip Taylor - The Wild Thing himself

Something I came across this week that I wasn't aware of before is that Chip Taylor is just a stage name. His real name is James Wesley Voight, and he is the brother of Jon Voight - the actor not the previous owner of George Costanza's car.


By being Jon Voight's brother that also makes him Angelina Jolie's uncle.

Jon Voight with his daughter and Chip Taylor's neice

I'm sure my brother has been aware of all of this for years. He always seems to know these crazy little connections, but I just learned of it this week and thought I'd share it with you fine people.


Food, science, technology - now celebrities and music. You folks are going to be deep, well-rounded wells of completely random information before I'm done with you.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: You Have the Right to Remain Silent

Miranda Rights.

Have you ever been in a situation where some uniformed officer had his knee in the middle of your back while he was cuffing you and he began to say, "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will..." As he's speaking you drift off, getting lost in your own thoughts, wondering, "Why do the call them Miranda rights?"

No? Never happened?

Well, me neither - allegedly.

It does so happen that I read a story recently about the Supreme Court ruling stating that you have to say, "I'm invoking my right to remain silent," in order to have your Miranda Rights to be in effect. Better file that one away just in case.

So, why Miranda? Why not Carrie, Charlotte or Samantha rights? That's for my lady reader - showing her a little special attention this week. Though I did have to Google "Sex and the City" to get the final two names. The effort should count for something ladies! I mean - lady.

Ernesto Miranda was convicted of a kidnapping and rape in 1963. His own confession was used as evidence against him in the trial. In the appeal his lawyer argued that Ernesto was not aware that he did not have to speak to the police and could wait for his lawyer before doing anything, and the ruling was reversed. Later, Ernesto was convicted without using his own confession as evidence against him.

Ernesto!

Shortly thereafter, officers began issuing Miranda warnings to those they arrested. It is not mandatory by law that the warning be read, but not reading the warning may make anything said inadmissible as evidence in a trial.

But here's the real reason I'm writing this today. Whatever happened to ol' Ernesto Miranda? Well, it turns out he was in and out of jail until 1976 when he was involved in a violent fight in which he was murdered with a knife. The suspect was caught, but he refused to speak after being read, that's right, his Miranda rights. Oh that's just dripping with irony - I hope it doesn't get on the rest of my blog.

The suspect was released without being charged and is believed to have fled to Mexico.

I think it would be cooler if they would have called them Ernesto Rights, but nobody asked me.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Five Phases of Matter and BW3

For most of the week, I didn't learn anything that was that interesting at all. I thought after two weeks, my series was already in jeopardy of being canceled. That was until I had some man-time doing some welding with my buddy, Cory. As we were repairing some metal chairs in my back courtyard and drinking a couple of High Life tall boys, I began to wonder as to the history of welding.

As I began researching welding, I came across something I had never been informed of before in my life. There are not three states, or phases, of matter as we all have grown up believing. There are in fact five! We all know about solid, liquid and gas, but actually the most prevalent state of matter in the entire universe is plasma. That's right, plasma. It's pretty close to a gas, but has too many unique qualities to be considered a gas, so it is, in fact, it's own state of matter. It's what stars consist of, mostly.

The fifth phase is called Bose-Einstein Condensate. Feel free to click the link and try to understand that particular state of matter. I read it twice and still am baffled.

All you need to take away from this is that when I have a kid, and the teacher begins to teach my kid about the three states of matter, my child will raise his or her tiny little hand and say, "But my daddy told me there were five states of matter: sowid, wiquid, gas, pwasma and Bose-Einstein Condensate." And that will be the proudest moment of my life.

Bonus Most Interesting Thing:

While we're on numbers, I asked the right man a question last night that has bugged me for years. Why do people call Buffalo Wild Wings "BW3"? I only see two W's there. My friend Patrick happened to work there at one time and knew the answer that I'm willing to bet only one of the four of you at most knows. The third W comes from Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck - the original name of the restaurant chain. The nickname stuck despite the name change.

So, what the heck is weck then? (See what I did there.) Weck is German for "roll" and the short way to say Kummelweck, which is a type of roll that BW3 served sandwiches on at the time.

Food and science this week. How am I ever going to top that?

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week

The Origin of EBAY

This may be one of those weeks where the most interesting thing I came across is more interesting to some of you than to others, but what we should really focus on here is the fact that I said I was going to have a weekly post, and lo and behold, one week later a post appears. Keep that in mind.

I went to a CEO breakfast this week put on by the Chicago Young Professionals. I thought it would be fun since the person speaking was Rob Solomon, COO of Groupon. If you're not familiar with Groupon, you should check out the link.

During his speech he began talking about how Groupon was formed kind of on accident. Then he related that to other major online sites we're all familiar with that began a bit by chance. One of those was eBay.

As it turns out, Pierre Omidyar, a French-born Iranian created eBay in 1995 in San Jose, CA, as a site for his fiancee to sell her extensive collection of Pez dispenser. Apparently, she thought they might have some value, but wasn't sure how to best capitalize on that value.

That's what the the COO of Groupon told us anyway.

Pretty interesting, huh? I thought so. I thought it was interesting enough that I decided to write about it this week. But as I did some verification on the story, it turns out that's not the truth at all. In fact, that story was completely made up by an eBay PR manager in 1997. Apparently Pez dispensers got all the press buzzing. However, the story is so well known, that most people, even COOs who've spent years living in Silicon Valley, believe it to be true.

The real story is that eBay started out as an auction company by a different name selling airline tickets and other travel related items. Then when it became eBay, the first item ever to be sold was a broken laser pointer that was originally purchased as a cat toy. The item sold for $14.83. Omidyar was stunned that it sold, so he contacted the buyer who responded by saying that he was a collector of broken laser pointers. I'm pretty sure that was the moment Omidyar realized he had struck gold.

To me, this is a great example of truth being stranger than fiction. And it's also a great lesson. When you hear something interesting, don't just assume it's true - especially if you read it on the Internet. There's weirdos out there buying broken laser pointer cat toys who have access to this thing for Pete's sake.

The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week: Going Balls Out

Occasionally, I come across random pieces of information that may or may not (but most likely may not) be useful in everyday life. Generally, this makes me feel like I have a lot of completely random, often useless information stored in my brain. Every so often, I get to bring this info out and drop some random knowledge on unsuspecting folks engaged in conversation with me. Then this conversation ensues:

"Why do you even know that...?"

"I have no idea."

"Where'd you learn it?"

"No clue."

While passing along something I learned this week to Stacie, she suggested that I should start a weekly segment called "The Most Interesting Thing I Learned This Week." Now, those of you who follow me know that in the title alone lay several potential problems. First off, the title requires me to post weekly. That may be a stretch. And secondly, the title requires that what I learn and communicate be interesting - obviously that can be very subjective, leading to much debate about the meaning of the word "interesting." Nonetheless, I am not one to back down from a good idea, so I'm going to give this a shot. And all of you that know me shouldn't be surprised that we are starting with something classy.

GOING BALLS OUT

Being a former high school and college athlete (and surrounded by former high school and college athletes in the sales industry), I hear the phrase "going balls out" on a fairly regular basis. Generally speaking it is in reference to going as hard as you can to accomplish your goal. You know, doing everything possible at the highest possible level.

Every time I heard the phrase, I assumed two things:

A) This had to have something to do with the male anatomy.

and

B) I was not cool enough to know how having those out would cause me to do anything but worry about their safety. But apparently when they're out, you perform tasks much better.

As it turns out, I was wrong on both of my assumptions. And I have a feeling my high school coaches and former sales managers all made the same incorrect assumptions. Some people just live in the meaning of the cliche without ever caring about the source.

Thank God for the History Channel.

As it turns out, old steam engines had governors on them that looked like this:



They had large brass or iron balls that would spin around as the engine was operating. Centrifugal force would cause the balls to move out from point they were spinning around. Once they reached their farthest point, the engine was performing at its top speed. Often when a steam engine operator wanted to run at full capacity he would simply shout for his crew to go "balls out."

Here's another look at a the real thing:



The same type of history lies behind the phrase "balls to the wall" as well. From my research, this indicates when a fighter pilot wanted to achieve maximum speed. The throttles had ball shaped grips on the handles, so if the order was given to go "balls to the wall" it meant to push the throttle all the way forward to the wall of the cockpit.

So, the history of these phrases, as it turns out, is very mild and benign. That being said, I'd still advise caution in the circumstances in which they are used. Most people assume otherwise.

Stay classy, fine readers.