Page 59 - Other Facts

A man once tried to sue the Devil!

On December 3rd 1971, Gerald Mayo of Pennsylvania took legal civil rights action against Satan and his servants for allegedly placing deliberate objects in his path, which resulted in his downfall.

The plaintiff however, was not granted leave to proceed in his case under the grounds that the US Court system lacks jurisdiction over Hell. Another reason was that the plaintiff has not given the court proper instructions as to how he would like to proceed with the case.

The complaint was given a miscellaneous docket number (5357, not 666 for those of you who were wondering), and was denied the right to be resubmitted. Now denying him the right to re-appeal may seem a little harsh, but it was probably for the best; imagine if Satan decided to countersue.

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Coffins and caskets are NOT the same thing! Learn what the difference is here

Coffins and caskets are very alike. They can both be made of either steel or wood, they can both decompose naturally into the soil, and they are both used to hold our loved ones as we place them into the ground. Although coffins and caskets share many things in common, they are indeed different. Imagine what you think a coffin looks like.

If you imagined a perfectly rectangular box, you thought of a casket! However, if you imagined a rectangular box that extends to the side where the person’s shoulders are, you imagined a coffin!

If being put in a box below the surface of the Earth gives you the creeps, don’t worry, you are not alone. In fact, in 1822 a doctor by the name of Adolf Gutsmuth designed a coffin with a feeding air tube! Just to prove that it worked, he tested himself by being buried and was able have soup, beer, and sausages in his coffin before being dug up again by his assistant!

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Marge Simpson wrote a letter to Barbara Bush after she called her family Dumb.

Barbara Bush was the first lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. In 1990, when the Simpson’s was just in its second season she told People Magazine that she thought the show was ‘the dumbest thing [she] had ever seen”. The Simpson’s weren’t about to sit back and take this criticism though, even if it was from the President’s wife!

So Marge put pen to paper and wrote a polite letter, speaking her mind. After reading this Barbara felt bad, and wrote an apologetic letter of her own back, making friends with the feisty blue haired character. She even ended it with the comment that, “Homer looks like a handsome fella!”

Unfortunately this friendship didn’t last, after Barbara’s husband George H.W. Bush implied that the Simpson’s weren’t a good role model for American families! The show fought back once more with an episode called ‘Two Bad Neighbours’. Maybe one day they’ll make up again. Click here to see the letters in their entirety!

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Some hospitals cut Livestrong wristbands from patients! Why do they do that?

The Livestrong (or rather LIVESTRONG) wristband is a yellow silicone gel bracelet launched in May 2004. It is a fundraising item for the Lance Strong Foundation. It is part of the “Wear Yellow Live Strong” education program intended to raise money for cancer research, awareness, and encouraging people to live rich and full lives. The bands raised $24.1 million for the Lance Armstrong Foundation in a matter of 6 months!

So, what is the hospitals’ problem with these fund-raising little trinkets? Well, it turns out that the Livestrong wristbands bear a deep resemblance with the yellow “Do Not Resuscitate” bands used by some medical facilities. These bands indicate that the wearer does not wish to undergo CPR or advanced cardiac life support if their heart stops or they stop breathing, and that the medical practitioner is legally obligated to respect this wish. So yeah, there’s a bit of a difference between the two.

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IKEA ran the first commercial in the US featuring a gay couple. It was pulled after one showing due to bomb threats!

Usually when you hear “bomb threat,” xenophobia kind of takes control and the mind defaults to thinking of someone from outside trying to cause harm. But there’s no real high ground when it comes to countries having people angry enough to kill people over something, because those people are in every country.

IKEA had been airing a series of ads that focused on unconventional families. Not just gay couples, but single moms and the like. IKEA had some reservations about airing the ad knowing the potential negative reaction, so they slid it in at a 9:30 PM slot in New York City and Washington DC to get a feel for how warm the welcome would be.

Unfortunately the only warm feeling would be the heat of a bomb, or at least the threat of one, because there were bomb threats following that single ad. It was consequently pulled.

Regardless of your feelings on homosexuality, isn’t it a little strange that we’ve had major network shows with homosexual main characters for years but homosexuality is still taboo in advertising? Well if there’s anything important to take away from this, it’s that tolerance is the bomb.

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