Some Trivia and Fun Facts

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When Twister was introduced in 1966 it was denounced as “sex in a box”.

The inventor of Twister, Charles “Chuck” Foley, died in 2013, aged 82. 

In a December 1966 photo Twister co-inventors Charles Foley, left, and Neil Rabens demonstrate the game. 

According to his son, Mark Foley:

"Dad wanted to make a game that could light up a party. They originally called it Pretzel. But they sold it to Milton Bradley, which came up with the Twister name."

The game became a sensation after Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played it on the Tonight Show in 1966 but detractors called it “sex in a box” because of the body contact.

Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor debut Twister on Carson’s Tonight Show, 1966

To dilute its sexual suggestions, the original box used cartoon characters rather than real people:

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At the wife carrying championships in Finland, first prize is the wife’s weight in beer.

Wife Carrying World Championships have been held annually in Sonkajärvi, Finland, since 1992.

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Philip Brownell, a professor of zoology at Oregon State University, has studied the metabolism of scorpions and has found that their metabolic ability allows them, in extreme conditions, to "hunker down" in burrows using little oxygen and requiring few food resources. The animals can quickly switch from this mode to one of active hunting when conditions become more favourable.

These metabolic abilities have led to interesting times in the lab. "We've had the experience of losing one in the lab, or forgetting one in a jar, and finding it six months later perfectly alive," Brownell recalled. He has frozen scorpions in his research, placed them in the sun the next day and watch them thaw out and walk away.

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The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up nearly entirely of Japanese-Americans, was the United States Army's most decorated infantry regiment ever.

The volunteers who made up the 442nd fought in Europe in the last two years of World War I. More than 14,000 served in the 442nd, the nickname of which was "Go for Broke." Between them, they were awarded 18,143 awards, including 9,485 Purple Hearts, 21 Medals of Honor, 52 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 4,000 Bronze Stars, 22 Legion of Merit Medals, 15 Soldier's Medals, one Distinguished Service Medal, and eight Presidential Unit Citations.

At the same time as the Japanese-American soldiers were fighting for the US, their families were held in internment camps.

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Elizabeth Blackwell (1821 – 1910) was a British-born physician who was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, as well as the first woman on the UK Medical Register. She was the first woman to graduate from medical school, a pioneer in promoting the education of women in medicine in the United States, and a social and moral reformer in both the United States and in the United Kingdom. Her sister Emily was the third woman in the US to get a medical degree.

In 1847 Blackwell applied to be accepted as a medical student at Hobart College, then called Geneva Medical College, located in upstate New York. The dean and faculty, usually responsible for evaluating an applicant for matriculation, were not able to make a decision due to the special nature of Blackwell's case. They put the issue up to a vote by the 150 male students of the class with the stipulation that if one student objected, Blackwell would be turned away. The young men voted unanimously to accept her.

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