Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Wise Up! Read Online Free PDF Page B

Washington’s middle name was Taliaferro, which he pronounced “Tolliver.”
    The “S” in Ulysses S. Grant didn’t stand for anything; his real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant.
    France had kings named Charles the Fat, Charles the Bold, Charles the Simple, and Charles the Well-Served.
    Queen Elizabeth’s last name is Mountbatten-Windsor.
    Soprano Maria Callas was christened Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulou.
    Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard’s full name: Ray Charles Leonard. (He was named after singer Ray Charles.)
    Malcolm X’s last name is symbolic of the African names his ancestors lost to slavery.
    Before his victory at Hastings, William the Conqueror was called “William the Bastard.”
    Robert McNamara, U.S. secretary of defense in the 1960s, had a strange middle name: Strange.

Dance, Dance, Dance
    Justin Timberlake once won a “Dance Like the New Kids on the Block” contest.
    Bobby Pickett titled his song “Monster Mash” to cash in on the 1960s Mashed Potato dance craze.
    A 1909 song called “Uncle Josh in Society” was the first whose lyrics contained the term “jazz.” In the song, it referred to a type of dancing known as ragtime.
    World record: in August 1983, Peter Stewart of England disco-danced for 408 hours.
    “Dance floor dehydration syndrome” (DFDS) can be fatal.
    Tap dancing is derived from Irish clogging.
    Athlete Jim Thorpe was a national ballroom dance champion.
    In his youth, King Louis XIV of France was an avid ballet dancer.
    State dance of South Carolina: the shag.

Inventions
    Guitarist Les Paul invented the multitrack recording. The first song to use it was his “How High the Moon” (1951).
    Henry Ford, father of the Model T, is also the father of the charcoal briquet.
    Englishman Sir Humphry Davy created the technology for the lightbulb in 1800, more than 70 years before Thomas Edison did.
    Eli Whitney came up with the idea for interchangeable parts to fill a large army order for muskets in 1797.
    Jerry Lewis invented and patented a video monitor system in 1956; it’s still used throughout the film industry today.
    Thomas Edison at first thought his phonograph was “a mere toy, which has no commercial value.”
    Jacques Cousteau invented the Aqualung (scuba-diving gear) while fighting with the French Resistance in World War II.
    Leonardo da Vinci invented an alarm clock that woke him by rubbing his feet.
    In 1891, Samuel O’Reilly used a Thomas Edison invention (the electric pen) as a model for the first electric tattoo machine.
    Film star and racing enthusiast Steve McQueen patented a type of bucket seat in 1969.
    Benjamin Franklin is credited with the invention of the odometer.
    Thomas Jefferson invented the dumbwaiter, swivel chair, and lamp heater.
    Wilhelm Maybach got the idea for the carburetor after observing a perfume pump spray.

Underwear
    Pro golfer Gary McCord split his pants open at the 1984 Memphis Classic—and had no underwear on.
    The first boxer shorts appeared in the 1920s as part of the costume for boxers, whose footwork in the ring benefited from the loose shorts.
    Lisa Zobian-Lindahl and Hilda Miller of Vermont invented the sports bra in 1978. It was was called the Jogbra.
    Michael Jordan always wore the shorts of his North Carolina uniform under his Chicago Bulls uniform.
    According to one study, 25 percent of women in Arkansas keep a spare pair of panties in their car’s glove compartment.
    Average number of days a German man goes without washing his underwear: seven.
    A pair of nylons is made from a single filament four miles long, knitted into 3 million loops.
    King Tut was buried with 145 pairs of loincloth underwear.
    What do Scottish men wear under their kilts? Traditionally, nothing at all.
    According to manufacturers, the average bra size today is 36C. In 1980, it was 34B.
    Surveys say: about two-thirds of American men prefer boxers to briefs.
    Harpo Marx and George Burns enjoyed golfing together in their underwear.
    Large-scale production of the