Category: Did ya Know?

DYK? The "I have a dream" portion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 's famous speech was largely improvised and not written down beforehand.

Dr. King realized about 3/4 of the way through his remarks that he was not eliciting the reaction he wanted from the 200,000 citizens gathered on the Washington Mall that day. Perhaps sensing the same (it is unclear) gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, who was standing right behind Dr. King yelled "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" Ms. Jackson had heard Dr. King practicing the "I Have a Dream" oratory some months before as he had done in a speech in Detroit earlier that summer.

My favorite section: 

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."

(via On the Media). 

DYK? The word "dumbbell" is a compound of the words "dumb" and "bell" which originally just meant a bell that didn't make any noise. Dumb bells were first used to train novices church bell ringers on how to sound the intrument properly without annoying parishers and passerbys.

The connection between dumb bells and exercise showed up as early as 1711. Back then, you rung church bells by yanking on a long rope and in the process, drew your body from the extended to crouched position, an ecclesiastic version of "the squat." Nowadays, church bells are played via a keyboard, as part of an intrument called a carillon. The players are no longer referred to as ringers, dumbbells, first generation gym bunnies or Quasimodo but rather "carillonneurs."

Back to exercise: Contemporary dumb bells are thought to have received their shape from the handbell instrument like so…

Which here look like a fine way to strengthen the wrists. Turned on its side, though, and you're ready for bicep curls.

(via the wonderful endlessly addictive Podictionary).

DYK? Recent studies indiciate that, in America at least, areas with the highest population densities appear to have the lowest rates of suicide. New York State has the third lowest in the country (at 6.2 percent of annual deaths) and the District of Columbia second. The emptiest states seem to also have the emptiest hearts. Suicide rates are highest in Montana, Nevada, Alaska, New Mexico, and Wyoming respectively.

I found this statistic in a great November New York Magazine article about the false myth of cities being lonely isolating places. Author Jennifer Senior married the above findings (from New York State’s Office of Mental Health) with theories from the great French sociologist (and hero of mine) Emile Durkheim and his legendary studies of suicide. Fundamentally, Durkheim asserted that suicide resulted from feelings of profound isolation (as opposed to moral failing) and failure to find one’s place in the machine work of society.

Recent DYK? Posts:

• Sesame Street and Urban Decay

• The British Comics Industry

• Jane Austen

DYK? That the "street" setting of Sesame Street was a conscious response to the squeaky clean suburban setting of Mr. Rogers and the firm desire to create children’s television with "no toy maker’s workshop, no enchanted castle, no dude ranch, no circus."

That was the mandate of Sesame Street creator Joan Ganz Cooney and her team at the then newly formed Public Broadcasting Service set for themselves. Born of leftist politics (Cooney was a volunter publicist for "The Partisan Review"), the ideals of President Johnson’s Great Society and the writings of Jane Jacobs, Cooney and Co. envisioned 123 Sesame Street as a reborn urban environment where children of different races and creatures of different species (even those who dwell in garbage cans) play and learn together.

According to a review of "STREET GANG: The Complete History of ‘Sesame Street.", urbanity so imbued the identity of Sesame Street that in the 90s when the backyard-dwelling Barney showed up, conservative commentators sneered that Sesame Street’s resultant ratings slide were the result of its dated clean-up of urban decay. Sesame Street developed a second, cleaner, prettier set called “Around the Corner."

It lasted only a few years.

Sources:

• "STREET GANG: The Complete History of ‘Sesame Street."

• NPR Interview with Joan Ganz Cooney.

DYA? One of the main reasons Great Britain has produced so many outstanding graphic novelists in the last two decades (Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, to name but two) is the weekly comics anthology 2000 AD, where many of England’s young comics writers and artists made their debuts and honed their talents. The publication, going strong since 1977, has showcased so many young bucks later picked up by the American market that, upon hearing of them for the first time today, your humble narrator dubbed them "The Motown Records of British comics."

To which the proprietor of the world’s coolest comic book store nodded in agreement, making your humble narrotor (who knows as much about comics as others tell him) feel very smart on a rainy San Francisco afternoon.

DYA? All six of Jane Austen’s novels were first published anonymously with only "A Lady" appearing in place of the author’s name (via The Writer’s Almanac).