Mr. Potato Head was the first toy advertised on television. The toy, introduced in 1952, was originally a collection of plastic parts to be stuck into a real potato. A plastic potato body was added to the kit in 1964.
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Baseball manager Frank Selee (1859-1909) hired young, inexperienced players for his team and named them the Chicago Cubs in 1902. At the tine, the Chicago Tribune tried to initiate a nickname for the team - the Spuds - but it never caught on.
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A bear cub was in attendance at the first National League game played at Chicago's Wrigley Field on April 20, 1916. The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 7 to 6 in 11 innings.
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The Chicago Cubs battled their rival team the Chicago White Sox in the 1906 World Series. Although the White Sox were known as "the Hitless Wonders" because of their .230 team batting average, they won the series 4 games to 2.
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The invention of a knitting machine in 1589 was a boon for the sock industry. Socks could be made six times faster by the machine than by hand, which made them cost less and become more popular.
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House-elfs are under servitude to wizards unless they receive an article of clothing from them. It is a rule of Harry Potter's magical world, created by author J. K. Rowling (born 1965). Harry gains the affection of Dobby the house-elf when he arranges for Dobby to receive a sock from his owner, thereby setting him free.
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Advance book sales for the sixth book in the Harry Potter series were so high that they made the book a best seller before it was released last week. Can you name all six of the Harry Potter books? See answer at end.
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Joanne Rowling uses the pen name J.K. Rowling because the publishing company of the Harry Potter books thought that using her female name might make young boys reluctant to buy the books.
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Samuel L. Clemens (1835-1910) was better known by his pen name Mark Twain. The pseudonym was a phrase from riverboat jargon pertaining to water depth. Riverboat pilots called out "mark one" for one fathom of water and "mark twain" for two fathoms.
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One fathom equals 6 feet. The origin of the word fathom comes from the Old English word fæthm meaning outstretched arms. Rope, used to determine water depth, is approximately measured by repeatedly stretching the rope between two outstretched arms.
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The shortest river, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the Roe River in Montana. The 201-foot river flows between the Missouri River and Giant Springs.
Answer: All of the book titles begin with "Harry Potter and . . ." The books are "the Sorcerer's Stone" (1997), "the Chamber of Secrets" (1998), "the Prisoner of Azkaban" (1999), "and the Goblet of Fire" (2000), "the Order of the Phoenix" (2003), and "the Half-Blood Prince" (2005). Author J.K. Rowling has announced that seven books are planned. The fourth movie, "Goblet of Fire," will be in theaters this November.
Know It All is by Kerry McArdle. It runs in the weekend and Wednesday editions of the Daily Journal. Questions? Comments? E-mail knowitall@smdailyjournal.com or fax 344-5290
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