Did two of television’s early stars dislike each other so much that they torpedoed their own proposed series?

And now it’s February.

In addition to the events you will normally find this month – Black History Month, Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, and whatever else might be in there somewhere – there is one day that means the entire world to me.

It’s the day pitchers and catchers report to spring training to begin the 2025 baseball season.  Yes, we’re getting close to the start of the sport I love!

Of course, I also love trivia, so let me share some of that love with you right now.

Did you know …

… moderate drinking can boost your IQ?  Japanese research shows that drinking alcoholic beverages in moderation has a beneficial effect on the IQ, or Intelligence Quotient, in most individuals.  (And of course, if you take it to the extreme, you lower your IQ.)

… for a 20-year period, ten percent of U.S. electric power was generated – indirectly – by Russia?  From 1993 to 2013, following the Cold War, the United States purchased five hundred tons of weapons-grade uranium from Russia.  That uranium was converted into nuclear fuel, and was resold to commercial power plants.  (Shocking, I tell you.)

… the average North Korean child is much shorter than the average South Korean child?  A 7-year-old from the North is, on average, three inches shorter than his or her counterpart from the South.  The primary reason is nutrition; North Koreans do not get as much nutritious food as their South Korean relatives.

… oranges are not a naturally occurring food?  The sweet fruits best enjoyed cold are actually human-created hybrids of tangerines and pomelos, or “Chinese grapefruit.”  Oranges were created and originally grown in southeastern Asia – and in the climate there, they were green.  Their skin and fruit only turn orange in warmer climates.  Additional trivia note:  the color orange is named after the fruit, not the other way around.  (Orange you glad you read that one?)

… Fort Knox once held more than just gold reserves?  During the period of the Cold War, from 1945 to 1991, a vast cache of morphine was also kept at the facility.  The idea was, should a nuclear holocaust happen, the government wanted to make sure there was enough pain medication in a stockpile to take care of the people.  (Determining which people would be taken care of, I leave up to you.)

… the term “gmail” has not always meant Google’s e-mail service?  Prior to the launch of the e-mail service by Google, “gmail” was the name of a free e-mail service offered by the website of Garfield, the comic strip cat.  (One lasagna to go, please.)

… two stars of early television disliked each other so much they torpedoed their own proposed series?  From 1951 to 1957, I Love Lucy featured William Frawley (1887-1966) and Vivian Vance (1909-1979) as the couple Fred and Ethel Mertz.  Though the two gave wonderful performances, they had a serious dislike for each other, with Vance resenting having to play the frumpy wife of a man 22 years older than she was.  Frawley himself made numerous disparaging comments about Vance as well, and when the couple were offered a spinoff series from show creator Lucille Ball (1911-1989), they both declined.  Additional trivia note:  when Frawley died of a heart attack in 1966, Vance was having dinner with her husband at a restaurant.  As they got the word, Vance is alleged to have shouted, “Champagne for everybody!”  (Lucy was who everybody loved, anyway.)

… ladies of the evening in ancient Greece had a rather unique way of advertising their, um, services?  The ladies would wear sandals with the words “follow me” imprinted in them, and their footprints would be an advertisement of what it was that they did.  (Thanks to Mason for the tip!)

… a classic magic word had another reason for being coined?  “Abracadabra,” the supposedly magic word used by illusionists in performing a trick, was originally coined in the second century AD.  It was noted in a book called Liber Medicinalis by Serenus Sammonicus (?-212 AD), physician to the Roman Emperor Caracalla (188 AD-217 AD), as being prescribed for sufferers of malaria to have the word engraved on an amulet in the shape of a triangle.  Sammonicus thought the amulet would have the power to make lethal diseases go away – as if by magic.  (If it didn’t, the emperor had a way to make the physician go away, as if by magic.)

… an actress won a role on a hit television show by not being honest about her age?  When producers of That ‘70s Show were casting the role of Jackie, actress Mila Kunis (born 1983) auditioned.  The producers were looking for an 18-year-old, but Kunis at the time of her audition was only 14.  Kunis told the producers she “would be 18,” but did not say when – and she got the part.  The producers did eventually find out her correct age, but they let her keep the role, as she was (in their words) the “perfect fit” for it.  (Hey, whatever works, right?)

… the city of Duluth, Minnesota, has made it illegal for animals to sleep in a bakery?  (Where do they get fresh milk, then?)

… dinosaurs lived on all continents, including Antarctica?  There’s one little caveat, though – when the dinosaurs were active, most of the land mass of Earth was contained in a single continent called Pangaea.  The land mass divided into the now-familiar seven continents over the hundreds of millions of years since the dinosaurs died off.  (We call that single continent Pangaea.  There’s no record of what the dinosaurs called it.)

Now … you know!