Know It All

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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 over 24 million visitors to the Smithsonian museums each year.

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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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Superman is "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.” Can you specifically name his superpowers? See answer at end.

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One of Superman’s enemies is Poison Ivy. She is able to manipulate plants and she can make toxins from plants.

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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 Mansfield (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: Superman’s powers have changed over the years, but he is usually depicted as having flight, speed, X-ray vision and heat vision, super hearing, super breath (he can extinguish fires) and freeze breath. He in impenetrable and he is immortal. The only thing that can hurt Superman is Kryptonite, radioactive remains of Superman’s native planet Krypton

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.