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Designer Dale said:
Eric Clapton bought all his guitars from pawn shops.
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No he didn't. A short history of his purchases reveal the following:

Early on he bought a Telecaster and the infamous Cherry Red ES335 from a London WEM's music store.

One of the Les Pauls he had during his early days was 'Lucy'. Lucy was George Harrison's name for the guitar after Clapton gave it to him. Clapton bought it
at Manny's in NY...where Rick Derringer has traded it in for another Les Paul.
Rick Derringer got it from John Sebastian of all people...and it was a Goldtop at the time. Derringer had it refinished in Red by Gibson. He didn't like it afterwards and that's when it was sold to Manny's.

In his early Cream days he bought a SG from a London music store and had that Beatles leeching 'artist' The Fool paint it in the psychedelic style so prevalent during that time.

The famous 'Blackie' was bought with a lot of 6 late 50's Stratocasters from a Tennessee guitar shop. He gave away 3 of them to friends - and had Blackie built front he best parts of the remaining 3 guitars.

He also bought more than a few guitars in California (during the 461 Ocean Blvd days) from many of the cool locals...Like Norman's among others.
Among the more well known from Norman's is the Explorer he is pictured with in the MusicMan adverts (when he was briefly endorsing MM amps in a smacked out haze).

On top of that Guitar Companies were always giving him guitars like it was going out of style in typical but weak method of notoriety by association.
Just like his buddy George Harrison - he more often than not gave those 'freebies' away to friends.

The urban legends that Clapton never paid much for his guitars spawned the whole pawn shoppe nonsense. Clapton was infamously cheap - and that behavior resulted in the rumors.
 
In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator.

On the new hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10.

The difference between Diet Coke and Coke Zero is the the amount of Aspartame (Found more in Diet Coke) and Ace-K (Found more in Coke Zero). They use the same formula. Coke Zero was created to appeal towards males, since Coca-Cola thought that men would be reluctant to buy Diet Coke due to the "Diet" in the name.

Generally, You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

"Goodbye" came from "God bye" which came from "God be with you."

Rhode Island, the smallest state, has a larger population than Alaska, the largest state.

A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the wright brother's first flight.
 
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If I listed any, most of them would probably be from this (which is well worth a read).

Wikipedia - List of Misconceptions

Some are interesting:

The word "crap" did not originate as a back-formation of British plumber Thomas Crapper's surname, nor does his name originate from the word "crap", although the surname may have helped popularize the word. The surname "Crapper" is a variant of "Cropper", which originally referred to someone who harvested crops. The word "crap" ultimately comes from Medieval Latin crappa, meaning "chaff".

.
 
Kilamite said:
If I listed any, most of them would probably be from this (which is well worth a read).

Wikipedia - List of Misconceptions

Some are interesting:

The word "crap" did not originate as a back-formation of British plumber Thomas Crapper's surname, nor does his name originate from the word "crap", although the surname may have helped popularize the word. The surname "Crapper" is a variant of "Cropper", which originally referred to someone who harvested crops. The word "crap" ultimately comes from Medieval Latin crappa, meaning "chaff".

.
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This one puts things in perspective:
Humans have more than five senses. Although definitions vary, the actual number ranges from 9 to more than 20. In addition to sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing, which were the senses identified by Aristotle, humans can sense balance and acceleration (equilibrioception), pain (nociception), body and limb position (proprioception or kinesthetic sense), and relative temperature (thermoception). Other senses sometimes identified are the sense of time, itching, pressure, hunger, thirst, fullness of the stomach, need to urinate, need to defecate, and blood carbon dioxide levels.
 
Papanate said:
No he didn't. A short history of his purchases reveal the following:

Early on he bought a Telecaster and the infamous Cherry Red ES335 from a London WEM's music store.

One of the Les Pauls he had during his early days was 'Lucy'. Lucy was George Harrison's name for the guitar after Clapton gave it to him. Clapton bought it
at Manny's in NY...where Rick Derringer has traded it in for another Les Paul.
Rick Derringer got it from John Sebastian of all people...and it was a Goldtop at the time. Derringer had it refinished in Red by Gibson. He didn't like it afterwards and that's when it was sold to Manny's.

In his early Cream days he bought a SG from a London music store and had that Beatles leeching 'artist' The Fool paint it in the psychedelic style so prevalent during that time.

The famous 'Blackie' was bought with a lot of 6 late 50's Stratocasters from a Tennessee guitar shop. He gave away 3 of them to friends - and had Blackie built front he best parts of the remaining 3 guitars.

He also bought more than a few guitars in California (during the 461 Ocean Blvd days) from many of the cool locals...Like Norman's among others.
Among the more well known from Norman's is the Explorer he is pictured with in the MusicMan adverts (when he was briefly endorsing MM amps in a smacked out haze).

On top of that Guitar Companies were always giving him guitars like it was going out of style in typical but weak method of notoriety by association.
Just like his buddy George Harrison - he more often than not gave those 'freebies' away to friends.

The urban legends that Clapton never paid much for his guitars spawned the whole pawn shoppe nonsense. Clapton was infamously cheap - and that behavior resulted in the rumors.
Click to expand...

I guess I stand corrected and you win the MR Trivial Research Prize for Awesomeness in Search. My info came from my recollections of a book. Clapton by EC

Dale
--------------------------
Back to owls. Owls have feathers that help their hearing.

Regarding that neck thing.

An owl's eyes are supported by bony eye sockets and they cannot turn their eyes. Instead, owls rotate their heads up to 270 degrees, but they cannot turn their heads all the way around.

Dale
 
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Some Disney Stuff...

The Magic Kingdom theme park, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, is actually built on the second level. The first level is cleverly concealed so that it can be used for maintenance, costuming, office space, employee break rooms, and waste removal, among many other things. This is known as the Utilidors. Most park guests are unaware of this secrete underworld. However, upon request, anyone over the age of 16 can take a backstage tour that provides you with a first-hand view of this intricate 'not so magical' operation (it's well worth the cost, IMO).

The iconic balloon vendors on Main Street USA, at the Magic Kingdom park, are not employed by Walt Disney World Co. They actually work for a company called Rubio Arts. (they also employ all the caricature and silhouette artists throughout the Walt Disney World Resort)

Masked character performers are not allowed to speak to resort guests unless they are portraying a "face character", such as Aladdin, Snow White, Peter Pan, etc (their conversations must stay in character at all times).

Unlike the Disney resorts in California, Florida, Paris, Shanghai and Hong Kong, the resort in Tokyo is not owned by the Walt Disney Company. It is owned by a separate company which licenses the themes from the Walt Disney Company.
 
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I used to work (be a cast member) at Disneyland (in California), and the most amusing thing I recall offhand was watching the girl playing Tinkerbell flying across the sky from the wire that runs from the top of the Matterhorn down to the tower backstage. She would crash into a mattress being held by a couple dudes, and she would scream as she approached the tower. Perhaps it was part fun, part warning / notice of her impending arrival, and part just the sheer terror of hurling at such a great speed into a mattress after flying hundreds of feet up in the air with fireworks exploding nearby.

I really loved that job.
 
I knew about the licensing of Disney in Tokyo (Chiba), having been there twice and reading up on it. It's quite amazing there though.

I didn't know we could go underground at Disney World, and I want to do that.

I will probably be going in December when my Mother-in-law visits from Japan. I hope they want to see it, because I know I want to. Anyone over the age of 16? What if I have my 21 month of daughter with me?

Caliber26 said:
The Magic Kingdom theme park, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, is actually built on the second level. The first level is cleverly concealed so that it can be used for maintenance, costuming, office space, employee break rooms, and waste removal, among many other things. This is known as the Utilidors. Most park guests are unaware of this secrete underworld. However, upon request, anyone over the age of 16 can take a backstage tour that provides you with a first-hand view of this intricate 'not so magical' operation (it's well worth the cost, IMO).

The iconic balloon vendors on Main Street USA, at the Magic Kingdom park, are not employed by Walt Disney World Co. They actually work for a company called Rubio Arts. (they also employ all the caricature and silhouette artists throughout the Walt Disney World Resort)

Masked character performers are not allowed to speak to resort guests unless they are portraying a "face character", such as Aladdin, Snow White, Peter Pan, etc (their conversations must stay in character at all times).

Unlike the Disney resorts in California, Florida, Paris, Shanghai and Hong Kong, the resort in Tokyo is not owned by the Walt Disney Company. It is owned by a separate company which licenses the themes from the Walt Disney Company.
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Caliber26 said:
The Magic Kingdom theme park, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, is actually built on the second level. The first level is cleverly concealed so that it can be used for maintenance, costuming, office space, employee break rooms, and waste removal, among many other things. This is known as the Utilidors.
Click to expand...
Not altogether an original idea: the Roman Emperor Hadrian used a similar system at his enormous villa compound at Tivoli outside Rome. All goods and services (including slaves and servants) used a network of underground rooms and passages to reach the different spaces and buildings within the complex, so that the Emperor and his guests would be undisturbed by the business side of the household. "Hypogeum" is so much more elegant than "utilidor"...
 
wonderspark said:
I used to work (be a cast member) at Disneyland (in California), and the most amusing thing I recall offhand was watching the girl playing Tinkerbell flying across the sky from the wire that runs from the top of the Matterhorn down to the tower backstage. She would crash into a mattress being held by a couple dudes, and she would scream as she approached the tower. Perhaps it was part fun, part warning / notice of her impending arrival, and part just the sheer terror of hurling at such a great speed into a mattress after flying hundreds of feet up in the air with fireworks exploding nearby.

I really loved that job.
Click to expand...

LOL, ours never screams (at least not that I know of). Here at WDW Tinkerbell flies off of the Cinderella Castle and lands on top of the Plaza Pavillion Restaurant in Tomorrowland and also crashes on top of these huge air mattresses. Usually a crew of about ten people wait for her to ensure a safe landing. -- I can't imagine her flying off of the Matterhorn...that would be weird for me. :)


ericrwalker said:
I knew about the licensing of Disney in Tokyo (Chiba), having been there twice and reading up on it. It's quite amazing there though.

I didn't know we could go underground at Disney World, and I want to do that.

I will probably be going in December when my Mother-in-law visits from Japan. I hope they want to see it, because I know I want to. Anyone over the age of 16? What if I have my 21 month of daughter with me?
Click to expand...

Yep, you sure can. The tour you would need to request is called Keys to the Kingdom (this tour is priced in addition to regular park admission). The tour generally lasts about 4.5 hours and will take you not only into the tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom, but also to several other backstage areas where you'll get to see and learn about the other operations behind the scenes and you'll be flooded with a ton of trivia regarding the inspiration of many of the rides and buildings throughout the park.

As for your little one, I'm afraid that is not possible. In the 14.5 years that I've worked there I've yet to see any exceptions made to this. The reason for the age restriction is that it helps preserve the magical guest experience for the child, who would be exposed to seeing a "headless" Mickey or Cinderella smoking a cigarette on her lunch break -- or something of that nature. I guess you can always ask but it seems unlikely that they'll allow it.


skunk said:
Not altogether an original idea: the Roman Emperor Hadrian used a similar system at his enormous villa compound at Tivoli outside Rome. All goods and services (including slaves and servants) used a network of underground rooms and passages to reach the different spaces and buildings within the complex, so that the Emperor and his guests would be undisturbed by the business side of the household. "Hypogeum" is so much more elegant than "utilidor"...
Click to expand...

I'll have to look this up and read up on it. Being a native of New York City, I've always had a fascination with tunnels and subterreneal spaces and networks. Needless to say, when I got hired at Disney and got to see "the tunnels" at the Magic Kingdom for the first time, I was mesmerized by it and even after all these years of working there I continue to be intrigued by it. Just as with the system you described, the tunnels at the Magic Kingdom serve an identical purpose. They're there to keep all the operational stuff away from park guests.
 
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Caliber26 said:
Yep, you sure can. The tour you would need to request is called Keys to the Kingdom (this tour is priced in addition to regular park admission). The tour generally lasts about 4.5 hours and will take you not only into the tunnels beneath the Magic Kingdom, but also to several other backstage areas where you'll get to see and learn about the other operations behind the scenes and you'll be flooded with a ton of trivia regarding the inspiration of many of the rides and buildings throughout the park.

As for your little one, I'm afraid that is not possible. In the 14.5 years that I've worked there I've yet to see any exceptions made to this. The reason for the age restriction is that it helps preserve the magical guest experience for the child, who would be exposed to seeing a "headless" Mickey or Cinderella smoking a cigarette on her lunch break -- or something of that nature. I guess you can always ask but it seems unlikely that they'll allow it.
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Thanks for the info, just sent it to my wife. We'll see what she says.
 
iStudentUK said:
We've only had 'proper' Google for 8 years?! How did people find things out before Google?! :eek:
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Yahoo, Altavista, Ask Jeeves, Dogpile, and other search engines. I've only started using Google in the past year or so, myself.

Before the web became as pervasive as it is now, you would use gopher.
 
MorphingDragon said:
Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.
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arkitect said:
Not true. ;)

Babies are indeed born with kneecaps.
The patella consists of cartilage and only later ossifies (turns to bone).
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OK counsellor ;), define 'caps'. Cartilage is more like a cushion.

"Appear" was the wrong word, is all. "Formed" would have been better.

:p
 
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Around one in three men pick their nose while driving

A sloth's grip is so tight that even once it dies it will remain on a tree until it's forcibly removed.
 
arkitect said:
Not true. ;)

Babies are indeed born with kneecaps.
The patella consists of cartilage and only later ossifies (turns to bone).
Click to expand...

In certain parts of Belfast they last until the age of around 16 - 18, when they are removed by paramilitary gangs for 'anti-social' behaviour.

As for other trivia, there is no word in the English language that rhymes with 'orange'.

There's also an interesting visual phenomena in humans that if you cross your eyes as far as possible, the blood vessels that become visible appear to spell the word 'gullible'...
 
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