When SPAM first came on the market in 1937 it was called Hormel Spiced Ham. The Hormel company held a contest asking people to submit a new name for the canned meat. The winning name was SPAM, a combination of the ‘sp’ from spiced with the ‘am’ from ham. The prize was $100.
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In 1998, the Smithsonian Institute added a can of SPAM to its pop-culture exhibit.
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The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum complex. The 16 museums in Washington, D.C. and two museums in New York that comprise the Smithsonian have over 142 million objects in their collection.
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There were more than 24 million visitors to the Smithsonian museums in 2004.
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James Smithson (1765-1829), an English chemist, stated in his will that if his nephew Henry James Hungerford died without heirs, the Smithson estate would go to the United States of America to establish an institution of knowledge. The nephew died in 1835 without heirs.
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Congress passed an act that established the Smithsonian Institute in 1846. The act was signed into law by President James Polk (1795-1849).
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A collection of lunch boxes from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History was a traveling exhibit at museums across the country two years ago. The "Lunch Box Memories” exhibit displayed some of the most rare and expensive collectible lunch boxes since they were first made in 1860.
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The estimated value of an original Superman metal lunchbox from 1967, with thermos, is $820.
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Superman weighs 225 pounds, and is 6 feet 4 inches tall. His hair is always parted on the left.
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Can you name the people who have portrayed Superman? See answer at end.
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One of Superman’s powers is X-ray vision. The only thing his X-ray vision cannot penetrate is lead.
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Due to risk of lead poisoning, lead-based paint was banned in the United States in 1978.
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Since the early 1920s, lead was blended with gasoline to boost octane levels. In 1973, the Environmental Protection Agency began working to reduce the lead content in gas. Unleaded gas was introduced.
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A lead pipe is one of the weapons in the mystery solving board game Clue. The other weapons in the game are the knife, candlestick, revolver, rope and wrench.
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The 1985 movie "Clue,” based on the board game, was set in New England in 1954.
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Actor Tim Curry, born in 1946 in Britain, starred as Wadsworth the butler in the movie "Clue.” He began his career as the transvestite Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the cult classic movie "Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975).
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Movie actress Jayne Manfield (1933-1967) was the National Hot Dog Queen in 1950.
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Prior to 1901, hot-dogs were called dachshund sausages. Sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan [1877-1929] coined the term hot dog in a cartoon because he did not know how to spell dachshund.
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Dachshund translates to "badger dog” in German. The breed of dogs was originally bred in Germany in the 1600s to hunt for badgers.
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Answer: Bud Collyer (1908-1969) was the voice of Superman and Clark Kent for 11 years on the radio show "The Adventures of Superman” from 1940 to 1951. George Reeves (1914-1959) was Superman on the "The Adventures of Superman” television series from 1953 to 1957. Christopher Reeve (1952-2004) starred in the 1978 movie "Superman” and its sequels in 1980, 1983 and 1987. Dean Cain (born 1966) starred in the television show "Lois & Clark” from 1993 to 1997). Tom Welling (born 1977) stars as Superman in his younger years in the current television series "Smallville.”
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 call 344-5200 x114.
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