—>Strawberries aren't berries, but watermelons are.
—>John Knox, an associate professor of geography at the University of Georgia, led a study in 2011 to see how far photographs can travel aloft in tornadoes. "They’re like little wings when they go up into the air," he said. The study found a photograph that was returned to its owner after being found 219 miles away from where it started out.
—>John Lennon (or "John Lennon"?) earned $14 million last year. Yet he's now been dead for longer than he was alive. In the arts, you don't need to be yourself anymore to do well.
—>Tyre Nichols, who was in the news following his murder—sorry, death—at the hands of Memphis police, was one of us: a photography enthusiast.
Photo by the late Tyre Nichols, R.I.P.
His website opens with a quotation by Joel Strasser: "A good photographer must love life more than photography itself." Tyre, we hardly knew ye.
—>Sign on all the televisions at my new gym:
"NO NEWS"
—>In 1830s America there was a brief fad among young people of initializing incorrectly spelled phrases. There were many of them, but the one that stuck around was short for "oll korrect," meaning all correct. OK, which today is believed to be the single most recognized English-language word the world over, is thus correctly spelled with two capital letters, because it's an acronym. But "okay" is OK too.
—>The world's largest camera collection is thought to be that of an Indian photojournalist from Mumbai named Dilish Parekh. He has at least 4,425 cameras.
—>Beethoven never saw the ocean.
—>"Signs of the apocalypse" were popularly considered to be omens and warnings that the world had turned topsy-turvy: birds flying backward, purple sky, and so forth. In case you haven't kept up with such things: the Most Valuable Player in the NBA for two years in a row has been a big awkward-looking white guy from Serbia. And arguably his biggest competition for the award this year is a white guy from Slovenia. Hmm.
—>For the first few decades after 1839, photographs remained relatively rare. Now, so many photographs are taken every day, week, month, and year that the numbers can't even be meaningfully estimated.
—>While you might think every photograph is on the web, this one isn't:
—>Windsor Castle isn't named after the House of Windsor; it's the other way around. The British Royal family descends from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. George V changed it to Windsor during WWI to distance his family from the understandably unpopular Germans, and to make the family sound more English. King Charles III's father, Prince Philip, is largely of German heritage, and spoke German fluently. (Whether King George I, who was German, spoke English in addition to his native German is still disputed.) By blood, Charles III might be more German than English**. Incidentally, Prince Albert of haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha, the German Prince who married Queen Victoria, introduced a German custom to England that the British took to heart: the Christmas tree.
—>Of the 25 most expensive photographs ever sold, seven are by Richard Prince, who makes straight (though usually enlarged) copies of photographs by other people.
—>The camera that is probably the most valuable in the world has never been sold. It's the first Ur-Leica, Oskar Barnack's camera of 1913 that was the earliest prototype of what was eventually, in 1925, dubbed the "Leica." It's on display at the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar, Germany. It made a negative 24x36mm in size and had a 40mm lens. It's been said that it might sell for 400 million euros, but no one knows.
—>Wasabi isn't, mostly. It's horseradish; real wasabi is too expensive for sushi restaurants outside of Japan to use. Real wasabi is so rare in America that the signature distinguishing characteristic of a sushi restaurant in Wisconsin, called Wasabi, is that they actually use wasabi.
Mike
*A lot of the photographs I publish have never been on the web, but this one pulled up nothing on TinEye and Google Image Search, which hardly ever happens to me.
**I'm sure our British friends will correct this entry if need be!
P.S. Got any more? I concocted this post after I ran into that fact about Beethoven, which really struck me for some reason.
Original contents copyright 2023 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below or on the title of this post.)
Featured Comments from:
Antonis R: "True, packaged wasabi is mostly horseradish. Wasabi is mentioned as the ninth ingredient in an S&B box—probably to justify the name of the product. Also true, an approximately 10"+ wasabi rhizome can cost $25–40 in a Japanese market in the US (if available at all). But another reason for substituting horseradish in the less expensive establishments is the work it takes to grind it to order. The spiciness and aroma of the root are only released in the moment the cells are broken when ground against shark skin or similarly shaped metal hand grinders. It only lasts moments. Even fancy restaurants can't prepare it ahead of dinner service. In Japan some restaurants serving soba (buckwheat noodles) include the root and the grinder with your order at the table and let you do the work. Unfortunately, there is no substitute for the real thing!"
Dan: "Unless someone has a better example, the world's largest camera collection was owned by a man (whom I should not name) in Ina city, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. When I visited his home in 2016 he had over 8,000 cameras. Most had been sent to him in inoperative condition over a period of 45+ years. He is a well known professor of entomology and many items were sent by his students and their families. In addition to his career in entomology, he was an avid photographer and gadget tinkerer. He was able to repair nearly all the cameras he was sent. When I toured his home it was cameras from ceiling to floor. You had to wind your way through halls made of hanging cameras and accessories. Additionally, his garage was stuffed with items that didn’t fit in the house. I visited him this summer only to find that nearly all the cameras had been sold off...to pay for an electron microscope! He’s in his late 80s, but he spent hours showing me images of some kind of mite he has studied for years. 'I’m the only person I know of with an electron microscope in my home.' I could only nod and agree."
Sergio: "Weird facts are always fun, the more arcane the better. But the one about Beethoven really impressed me. I revisited in one split second all of his music I've actually listened to trying to re-digest it in the light that he had never seen the sea. That in itself is a pretty weird fact."
Mike replies: That one came from the upcoming Why Beethoven: A Phenomenon in One Hundred Pieces by Norman Lebrecht.
Albert Smith: "'Strange but true, carpet is neither a car or a pet, but is actually some kind of floor covering.' —David Letterman"
John Wilson: "The 'pineapple,' one of my favourite fruits, is in no way related to a pine or an apple. It's actually a type of bromeliad that produces a cluster of 200+ berries fused together in a double helix that follows a Fibonacci Series."
John Krumm: "Boy did I tear up when I clicked on the link to Tyre Nichols' website, and then read his 'About' section."
Dave Richardson: "The Corvette being pulled from the water was pretty easy to find in posts earlier than yours."
Mike replies: Very curious. My own Google Image Search yielded zero results, ditto for TinEye. I still can't find the story anywhere.
Mani Sitaraman: "Dilish Parekh passed away ten days ago, on February 2nd, alas. R.I.P. He inherited a collection of about 600 cameras from his father, and then collected more on his own. He was a freelance photographer. I hope the following isn't an indecent speculation. Being somewhat acquainted with the photography business in India, I wonder how he could afford to build such a large collection. For instance, a luxury wedding photography assignment pays about $1,000. Most pay less than half that, for instance. and it's not an easy living over there, in U.S. dollar terms. On the other hand, I assume cameras in people's estates in various corners of India probably aren't that expensive either. He refused all offers for the collection. Here is one of several news stories about him."