TRIVIA BITS
1. On Nov. 10, 1871, Henry Morton Stanley said, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Less well-known is David Livingstone’s reply; “Yes, and I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you.” And less well-known still is who these people actually were. Livingstone was a Scottish medical missionary who had gone missing in Africa. Stanley was a Welsh American reporter who went looking for him, finally tracking him down in Ujiji near Lake Tanganyika in present-day Tanzania.
2. Mensa member Cindy Jackson endured more than $100,000 in plastic surgery so that she could look more like Barbie. Guinness credits her for having had the most plastic surgeries. The former punk rocker even wrote a book about it called Living Doll. Jocelyn Wildenstein, meanwhile, loaded up on the plastic surgery so that she could look more feline. Dennis Anver (a.k.a. Stalking Cat) went even further, adding fangs, pointed ears and stripe tattoos on his face.
3. Nowadays we think of Bing Crosby as, at best, a square dogged by rumours that he was an abusive dad. But in his day, the liberal Republican crooner was quite progressive. He, for example, insisted on casting his friend Louis Armstrong in Pennies from Heaven, a move that challenged prevailing Hollywood racism. He was in fact a strong advocate for civil rights, opposed the Vietnam War and wanted to legalize marijuana.
4. About a third of James Joyce’s Ulysses was written as marginal notes on the typescripts and proof sheets. Half the chapters of the final draft are lost. Even so, a controversial 1984 reissue claimed to correct about 5,000 printer’s errors, only to have scholars attack the update for a whole slew of new errors.
5. Mattel released a doll of a DC superhero named Black Canary. Unfortunately, her superhero outfit consists of fishnet stockings, high-heeled boots and leather, making her uncomfortably similar to a dominatrix, a resemblance that caught the attention of some conservatives. This being the comics, she often plays second fiddle to her boyfriend, Green Arrow, who looks like Robin Hood in green leather. He’s an archer; she’s a martial artist with a really loud scream.