Page 65 - Other Facts

UC Berkeley awarded a Bachelor's Degree in Magic in 1970!

You’re first guess is probably that Berkeley gave an honorary degree to a child as a token of goodness, but the truth is that Berkeley legitimately gave a single bachelor’s degree in magic to a man named Isaac Bonewits. Why would they do this? Bonewits was born in Michigan and from very early on claims he was obsessed with magic and the occult.

He enrolled at UC Berkeley in 1966 and graduated in 1970 with a “Bachelor of Arts in Magic,” making him the first and only person to have ever received an academic degree in magic from any accredited university. While there he likely created the major himself and did so much work they formally acknowledged his degree.

While at Berkeley, he joined the Reformed Druids of North America and was ordained as a Neo-druid priest before joining the Church of Satan. Bonewits wrote several works on magical potency and even established a hypothesis on the “Laws of Magic,” in which he explained various beliefs around the world and categorized magical feats. In 1990, he was diagnosed with a disease that forced him to retire as Archdruid, and later developed cancer, which lead to his death.

During his life Bonewits was extremely controversial and left many guessing what it was that he actually did, but regardless of his career, becoming the only person to ever receive a degree in magic is something of an accomplishment.

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Trey Parker has to raise his voice three semitones in post production of South Park to make Stan’s voice.

If you’ve any behind the scenes videos on the season DVDs, or even the short film 6 Days to Air, you probably know that Trey Parker and Matt Stone have their voices altered for many characters in post production. While some voices, like Mr. Garrison and Randy Marsh, aren’t altered at all, others require being toned up.

It’s a fairly common practice in voiceover. For example, Jason Steele, the creator of Charlie the Unicorn, had to tone up his voice to do the voices of the pink and blue unicorns. Originally, Parker didn’t use voice manipulation software to voice Stan though.

If you go back and watch the first episode, the voices of most of the child characters sound much deeper. As the series progressed, Parker and Stone both started using voice manipulation software to make their voices higher, and spoke with a child’s inflection in their normal voices.

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A janitor invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos!

Just another reason to be thankful for janitors. Richard Montanez had worked as a janitor at the Frito-Lay Rancho Cucamonga plant in California since 1976. But his entire life was kicked to the next level the moment he saw a “corn man” adding butter, cheese, and chile to his corn.

Montanez thought, “what if I add chile to Cheeto?” Right after this big epiphany, Richard ran to his mother’s kitchen, and made his first batch of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. His friends and his coworkers loved it!

This inspired him to call up the president of the company to say that he had an idea for a new product. He was given 2 weeks to prepare a presentation for the company’s executives. He copied a marketing strategy from a book he found at the library and used his artistic skills to design bags for his soon-to-be successful snacks.

The president immediately loved the idea, and Montanez now leads Multicultural Sales & Community Promotions across PepsiCo’s North American divisions. Montanez says; “Many times, greatness will come in ridiculous forms, a ridiculous idea might be a billion dollar idea.”

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Ian Flemming’s last recorded words were an apology to the ambulance drivers.

Everyone wants their last words to be meaningful; everyone wants make a dramatic exit. Now, Ian Flemming speech didn’t end with bang, but it didn’t exactly end with a whimper either.

For those of you who don’t know, Ian Flemming was an English author, journalist, and Naval Intelligence Officer, best known for his James Bonds series of spy novels. Being a heavy smoker and drinker throughout his life, Fleming suffered from heart disease.

At the age of 56- on his son Caspar’s twelfth birthday-he collapsed of a heart-attack that eventually too his life. His last recorded words were an apology to the ambulance drivers for having inconvenienced them. He said; “I am sorry to trouble you chaps. I don’t know how you get along so fast with traffic on the roads these days.”

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A homeless man has become famous for scaring tourists along Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco in 1980.

David Johnson, aka: the World Famous Bushman, is a homeless man who has been scaring innocent passer-by along Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco since 1980. He was originally planning on dressing up as a robot and popping out from behind bushes, but he’s since decided to go with a more simple approach.

Johnson hides motionless behind some eucalyptus branches and waits for unsuspecting people to approach. When they do, he then shakes the bush towards them, and startles them. What a show!

Crowds actually gather to watch him work his magic. They usually watch Johnson from in front of Joe’s Crab Shack. In a “good year,” Johnson claims to earn $60 000 in donations from his fans. At one point, he had to hire a body guard to protect himself against attacks from “unamused” victims, distract his targets, and alert him if an elderly couple was approaching so that he could avoid scaring them.

There have been several complaints about the Bushman. In 2004, he was charged with four misdemeanors, but a jury cleared him. The District Attorney has also dropped several public nuisance complaints made against him. Looks like everyone loves the Bushman!

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