"And even if he was a lazy man - and The Dude was most certainly that - quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles County .. which would place him high in the runnin' for laziest worldwide."

I read a webcomic once where the scores in a belching contest were measured on the Richter Scale

Thomas Midgley, one of the other scientists, didn't "die with a smile on his face" as the article speculates. He contracted Polio, built an elaborate rope and pulley system to help himself in bed, and ended up strangling to death when it malfunctioned. So yeah, backfired would be an understatement.

Guess this joke isn't historically accurate then..
One day in ancient Egypt, the boatmaster of the Pharaoh's barge comes down belowdecks and makes an announcement to the oarmen. "First, the good news: today, double rations for all oarsmen!" The crew cheers. "And now the bad news: the Pharaoh wants to waterski."

I hope Doctor Who sticks with the original design.

According to the Far Side it was cigarette smoking.

I have to suspect the one gal wearing glasses was scripted as well, don't think I've ever seen that in a ballet before.

My favorite IAWL trivia: the scene where a drunken Uncle Billy crashes into an off-screen garbage can was an ad-lib. As Thomas Mitchell left the shot, a stagehand accidentally dropped some props causing the crash, and Mitchell was quick-thinking enough to yell "I'm alright! I'm allllrright!"

A random stretch of country road, just north of Omaha. Omaha, Illinois. On the positive side, there's a piece of earth-moving equipment parked there, and I'd have money to bribe the operator to let me drive it around...

Yeah, Rankin/Bass did an animated TV-movie adaptation of The Hobbit in the 70's, and their Gollum looked a lot like the movie version; I don't know how much of an influence it was.

When actress Celia Lobsky appeared on Star Trek as the Vulcan dignitary T'Pau, her character makes the salute at one point. It's said she had to force her fingers into position ahead of time and hide them under a blanket.

And it's almost impossible to read the time off it..

It's certainly not literally true that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, as fiddles hadn't been invented yet.

Interesting stuff, though that chip that WTM carries on his shoulder about Carter and De Camp gets in the way of the story he's trying to tell.