Category: Trivia

The Life and Times of Deputy U.S. Marshall Bass Reeves

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I’m a bit of a history buff, but I’d never heard of Bass Reeves until I read The Life and Times of Deputy U.S. Marshall Bass Reeves by Miss Cellania over at Mental Floss.  Here’s the opening paragraph…

Over his 32-year career as a Deputy U.S. Marshal, Bass Reeves arrested 3,000 felons, killed 14 men, and was never shot himself. His reputation for persistence, his total fearlessness, his skills with a gun, and his ability to outsmart outlaws struck terror into lawbreakers in what we now call Oklahoma. Although other colorful characters made their way into our pop culture, Bass was the real badass of the Old West.

My guess is you’ll want to click over and read the rest of the short, but informative article.

I’m somewhat surprised Bass Reeves’ life story hasn’t been turned into a movie or tv series.

Her Dad Fought in the American Civil War

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If you met a woman and she told you that her dad fought in the war, what war would come to mind?  

Depending on her age, you might think Viet Nam, Korea, or World War II.  If she was really old, you might even think that perhaps her dad fought in World War I.  Of course that would be pushing it a bit since World War I started nearly 99 years ago.

But what if she told you that her dad fought in the Civil War?  The American Civil War.  You know, North vs South, Grant vs Lee, Abraham Lincoln ending slavery.  THAT Civil War.

No way, you’d think.  You wouldn’t even need to do the math to figure out that the Civil War started over 150 years ago.  There’s no way that her dad could have fought in the Civil War, right?

Wrong.

If the woman is Juanita Tudor Lowery, her dad did fight in the American Civil War.  Once you get over that mind-blowing fact, consider this: there are a few others like her.  I found that pretty hard to believe until I read this.

Those Fake Crocs are Real!

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Remember the stunt in Live and Let Die when James Bond [Roger Moore] ran across the backs of crocodiles?  

I had always thought that they were mechanical crocs.  

They weren’t.  Those crocs were the real thing.  

The stuntman, Ross Kananga, had to attempt the stunt several times to get it right.  As you can see here, he had a few close calls.  

The video makes the stunt, which I had always thought a bit corny, more impressive.

A tip o’ Oddjob’s steel rimmed derby to BoingBoing for the original post. 

 

4 Men & 4 Hats = 1 Life or Death Puzzle

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Here’s a pretty cool little brain teaser from MyCoted.com.  

I wish I could say that I figured it out before checking the answer.  Well, I could say it, but it wouldn’t be true.

  • Shown above are four men buried up to their necks in the ground. They cannot move, so they can only look forward. 
  • Between A and B is a brick wall which cannot be seen through. They all know that between them they are wearing four hats–two black and two white–but they do not know what color they are wearing.
  • Each of them know where the other three men are buried.In order to avoid being shot, one of them must call out to the executioner the color of their hat. If they get it wrong, everyone will be shot. They are not allowed to talk to each other and have 10 minutes to fathom it out.  
  • After one minute, one of them calls out. 
  • Question: Which one of them calls out? Why is he 100% certain of the color of his hat? This is not a trick question. There are no outside influences nor other ways of communicating. They cannot move and are buried in a straight line; A & B can only see their respective sides of the wall, C can see B, and D can see B & C.

Click here for the answer.