Gary Detro lost his high school class ring at a football game in Sherman, Texas during his senior year. That was in 1969, and he never found it. Until now.
Fast forward to July, 2010. Crews working on Bearcat Stadium's drainage problems are putting in a new field. They removed about seven inches of dirt. That's when the rains came and flattened out the soil.
"I just saw something shiny down there. I picked it up and I didn't think a whole bunch about it. It was a ring," said Jeff Hinton, a Sherman ISD employee.
Hinton and Matt Mitchusson found a 1969 yearbook and matched the initials engraved on the ring to Detro. They found a "Detro" in Sherman, Gary's sister-in-law, who led them to Gary in Celina.
Detro had looked through the field for days after losing the ring, and then bought a replacement. Link
The 1984 film Ghostbusters starred Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, and Dan Akroyd as paranormal exterminators in New York City (later joined by Ernie Hudson). The script was written by Ramis and Akroyd. The movie was #1 for five weeks straight that summer, and became the most successful comedy of the 1980s. But you already knew all that, didn't you? Here are ten things you might not know about Ghostbusters.
1. The story as Dan Akroyd originally envisioned it involved time travel and many more ghostbusters. He wrote the principle roles for John Belushi, Eddie Murphy, and John Candy. Belushi died before the movie was made, and Candy and Murphy weren't interested. Harold Ramis changed most of the original plot to make the production affordable.
2. The film had no name through most of its development. One name that was considered was Ghoststoppers. After the producers settled on Ghostbusters, plans went ahead. Some time later, it was brought to their attention that a live action children's show named The Ghost Busters had aired during the 1975-76 TV season. Columbia quickly pursued negotiations with Filmation, the owners of the series, to secure rights to the title they were already using. After the movie became a hit, Filmation went back and produced an animated series called Filmation's Ghostbbusters, using the same characters from the earlier live-action series. A separate animated series from Columbia Pictures called The Real Ghostbusters based on the movie began in 1986.
3. The voice of the gatekeeper Zuul, the minion of Gozer, was that of Ivan Reitman, the film's director, but he didn't take a credit for it. Just another trick at a producer's disposal for saving money -one more voiceover artist they didn't have to pay!
4. The Proton Pack is the weapon of choice for the Ghostbusters. It is sort of a particle-beam weapon. We have some of those in real-life now, such as the Large Hadron Collider and other particle-acceleration laboratories, but you can't carry something like that on your back. Columbia Pictures had the Proton Packs made by the prop department out of fiberglass with various gizmos added like pneumatic fittings, resistors, and anything else lying around that might look appropriate.
5. Adult film star Ron Jeremy appeared in a the crowd as the containment unit explodes. The scene is about an hour into the movie, and Jeremy is to the left, sporting his iconic mustache.
6. Harold Ramis, who played Dr. Egon Spengler, is better known as a director. Before writing and acting in Ghostbusters, he directed Caddyshack and National Lampoon'sVacation. After Ghostbusters, he directed Bill Murray again in Groundhog Day.
7. The spirit/diety Gozer takes the form of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man because Dr. Raymond Stantz (Akroyd) thought of him as someone who would never hurt him. Stay Puft is a fictional company. The Marshmallow Man was only one of many oversized monsters in the original script -the rest were cut due to budget concerns.
8. The voracious green ghost that passes through walls and leaves slime behind is known as Slimer, although he was never referred to by name in the first Ghostbusters movie. Instead, the cast and crew called him "Onion Head"! Oh yes, the voice of the-ghost-to-be-later-known-as Slimer was also director Ivan Reitman.
9. "Who you gonna call?" The theme song "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr. went to #1 on the Billboard singles chart and stayed there for three weeks. It was nominated for an Academy Award in the best original song category, and won a Grammy. But you won't find the music video on the home video version of the movie Ghostbusters, due to a plagiarism suit brought by Huey Lewis in 1984. Lewis charged that the tune to "Ghostbusters" was essentially the same as "I Want a New Drug" by Huey Lewis and the News, which came out six months earlier. The suit was settled out of court in 1985, with one of the stipulations being that neither party would ever discuss the suit in public. Believe it or not, Huey Lewis was asked to come up with a theme song for Ghostbusters, but turned down the project, after which the producers approached Ray Parker, Jr.
10. Ghostbusters III has been in discussion for years. Dan Akroyd had a script ready long ago. Producer Ivan Reitman says the movie will begin filming this fall for a 2012 release. The principle characters will be played by younger actors, although the original cast may appear as well. Bill Murray is not interested in participating.
A leisure firm in Golubitskaya on the Azov Sea launched a donkey into the air on a parasail as a promotional stunt. After the video was released, Russian police began investigating the matter and may file charges of animal cruelty. If convicted, those responsible could be sentenced to up to two years. Link
Authorities at the international airport in Mexico city detained a man because of a strange bulge under his t-shirt. A search revealed that he had 18 tiny monkeys hidden in a girdle underneath!
The Public Safety Department said in a statement Monday that 38-year-old Roberto Cabrera arrived on a commercial flight Friday from Lima, Peru, when authorities noticed the bulge and conducted a body search.
The department says Cabrera was carrying the 6-inch titi monkeys in pouches attached to the girdle.
Two of the monkeys were dead.
Cabrera was arrested on charges of trafficking an endangered species.
Cabrera told authorities he was carrying the monkeys in a suitcase but decided to put them in his girdle "so the X-rays wouldn't hurt them."
The cargo ship M.V. Altavia began to offload cargo in the U.S. territory of Guam when thousands of spiders of different species emerged from the cargo! Stevedores immediately refused to bring anything else off the ship. The offloaded cargo was returned to the ship, which was ordered out of dock.
Agriculture officials said they didn't know what type of spiders were on the ship. But they said it's a type that is not normally found on Guam and there was concern the spiders could damage the island's environment.
"It's not on Guam," Torres said. "We don't want it here."
The ship was carrying housing units and accessories that were to be used at a work force village expected to house up to 18,000 temporary workers.
The M.V. Altavia had most recently ported in South Korea. The ship was told not to return to Guam. Link
The new caption contest is up at NeatoGeek! The best caption for this week's sci-fi picture will win a t-shirt of your choice from the NeatoShop. Firefly fans might have a bit of an edge in this competition, but even if you have no idea what's going on, I bet you can think of something funny to say! Link
How many humans does it take to pull a platypus from a sewer pipe? About 27 were there when the creature was pulled from a pipe at the Penrith Sewage Treatment Plant in Sydney, Australia.
After Sydney Water staff gently flushed the pipe, it took four National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers to corral the juvenile male in a net before he was whisked away to a vet for a check-up.
Sightings of platypus in Western Sydney are rare, said the NPWS area manager, Jonathan Sanders.
A spokeswoman for the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service said there were no records of a platypus rescue in Sydney in the past four years.
But cleaner waterways might be helping the animals to make a comeback, Mr Sanders said.
"It could be that we're getting a re-colonisation of old habitats."
Trains go where other vehicles can't, but only if there are tracks in those places. So it only makes sense to lay train tracks with a train! The P811-S Track Renewal Train does just that. This train finished the line to Overpelt, Belgium on May 5 of this year. -via the Presurfer
Every time we blog about an octopus, or rather, more than one octopus, we can count on a debate in the comments about the proper plural form for the animal. Here's the real scoop from Kory Stamper, who is an Associate Editor at Merriam-Webster, the dictionary company. -via Holy Kaw!
The Horton Plains slender loris has never been photographed before, and was thought to have been extinct before a rare sighting in 2002. Now a team of researchers led by Saman Gamage have captured the tiny primate on camera in Sri Lanka.
The pictures show a 20-centimeter long male adult sitting on a forest branch forest. Conservationists have discovered it appears to have shorter and sturdier limbs than other loris; a possible adaptation for the cooler, high-altitude montane -- or cloud -- forest in which it lives.
That could mean the Horton Plains slender loris is a distinct species in its own right, said Gamage. Results of the study are published in the latest edition of the journal Primate Conservation.
What kind of twisted mind came up with a baby harp seal as a pinata for kids to whack with a stick? It's OK to laugh, since it is only paper, filled with blood-red candies ready to spill out when the clubbing is done. Link
From the 1958 until 1992, the Greenbriar Resort in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia sat on top of a secret. Underneath was a huge fallout shelter designed to accommodate members of the US Congress and their aides in case of a nuclear attack.
The 18 dormitories could sleep 60 people each on metal bunk beds. Each had a shower, toilets, and small lounge.
The clinic covered 600 square feet and had 12 beds, an operating and intensive care room. It would be manned by military doctors and nurses.
During its life, it was constantly maintained in a state of readiness. Communications, electronics, and mechanical equipment was updated as needed. Supplies were cycled to insure freshness.
A complete TV and radio studio was equipped with modern facilities including a 75' telescoping antenna hidden on the top of the rise beside the new West Virginia Wing. Congressmen and Senators would broadcast to survivors important information, most importantly that the central government was still in operation.
The project was abandoned after a 1993 Washington Post article brought it to the public's attention. Link -via Atlas Obscura
Today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss continues the popular Typeface/Off series with more brands and products you should be able to guess by the font only. Beware, the words say Mental Floss, not the product name. Spelling counts, but there is a list of answers you can highlight. I scored 80%, as I switched the two candy bars. Link
According to traditional baseball lore, our national pastime was invented by Abner Doubleday, in Cooperstown, New York. Was it? Not even close. Here's the story.
Baseball team, circa 1870s.
THE MISSION
At the turn of the century, baseball was becoming a popular pastime ...and a booming business. Albert G. Spalding, a wealthy sporting goods dealer, realized that the American public would be more loyal to a sport that had its origins in the U.S. than one with roots in Europe. So it became his mission to sell baseball to Americans as a completely American game.
THE COMMISSION
In 1905, Spalding created the Special Baseball Commission to establish the origin of baseball "in some comprehensive and authoritative way, for all time." He appointed six cronies to serve on it: Alfred J. Reach, head of another sporting goods company; A.G. Mills, the third president of the National League; Morgan G. Bulkely, first president of the National League; George Wright, a businessman; and Arthur P. Gorman, a senator who died before the study was completed. James Sullivan, president of an amateur athletic union, functioned as secretary for the commission.
In 1907, the commission issued its report, which it called "The Official Baseball Guide of 1906-1907." One member, A.G. Mills, declared confidentially that it "should forever set at rest the question as to the origin of baseball." But the truth was, they had done almost no research. Their files contained just three letters-one from Henry Chadwick, an Englishman who had helped popularize baseball; one from Spalding himself; and one from James Ward, a friend and supporter of Spalding.
THE "ROUNDERS CONTINGENT"
In his letter, Chadwick pointed out the obvious similarities between baseball and a game called "rounders", a popular sport in England as well as colonial America. Rounders was played on a diamond with a base in each corner. A "striker" with a bat would stand behind the fourth base and try to to hit balls thrown by a "pecker". If he hit the ball fair, the striker could earn a run by "rounding" the bases. If the striker missed the ball three times, or if his hit was caught before touching the ground, he was "out". After a certain number of outs, the offensive and defensive teams switched. Ring a bell? It didn't with Spalding and his men. The commission, which selected Chadwick's letter to represent the "rounder's contingent", quickly dismissed it, because Chadwick was born in England.
THE "AMERICAN CONTINGENT"
In deference to Spalding, James Ward supported the theory of American origin, though his letter stated that "all exact information upon the origin of Base-Ball must, in the vary nature of things, be unobtainable." His testimony amounted to no more than a friendly opinion.
In his own letter, Spalding argued vehemently that baseball had been created by Abner Doubleday in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York. "The game of Base-Ball," he said, "is entirely of American origin, and has no relation to, or connection with, any game of any other country." On what evidence did he base his argument? On the letter of a mystery man named Abner Graves, a mining engineer from Denver, who, Spalding said, recalled Doubleday inventing the game 68 years earlier (Graves was over 80 years old when he gave his account).
CREATING HISTORY
In his report, Spalding stated that Graves "was present when Doubleday first outlined with a stick in the dirt the present diamond-shaped field Base-Ball field, including the location of the players on the field, memorandum of the rules of his new game, which he named Base-Ball."
However, none of this romantic imagery was actually in the Graves letter-no stick and no "crude pencil diagram of the rules." Spalding made the whole thing up. Nor was Graves present at the first game, as Spalding claimed. Graves stated in his letter, "I do not know, nor is it possible to know, on what spot the first games was played according to Doubleday's plan." Graves's letter simply recounted the rules of the game and how he though Doubleday "improved" an already existing game called "Town Ball". Spalding cleverly embellished and promoted the old miner's tale to make it the stuff of legends.
Spalding was also clever enough to know that Doubleday, a famous Civil War general, was "legend material" and would be an effective marketing tool in selling the myth. "It certainly appeals to an American's pride to have had the great national game of Base-Ball created and named by a Major General in the United States Army," wrote Spalding.
DOUBLEDAY AND BASEBALL
In fact, no record anywhere associated Doubleday with baseball before 1905. Circumstantial evidence indicates that the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown probably should be somewhere else.
*Doubleday entered West Point on September 1, 1838, and was never in Cooperstown in 1839.
*Doubleday's obituary in The New York Times on January 28, 1893, didn't mention a thing about baseball.
*Doubleday was a writer, but never wrote about the sport he supposedly invented. In a letter about his sporting life, Doubleday reminisced, "In my outdoor sports, I was addicted to topographical work, and even as a boy amused myself by making maps of the country." No mention of baseball.
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