In late August of 1968, 22-year-old Tibor Sarossy set a record by riding a motorcycle from New York to Los Angeles in 45 hours, 41 minutes. He had rigged up extra fuel tanks on the back of his bike so that he only had to stop for gas four times. Also, he wore a condom connected to a hosepipe to avoid stopping for bathroom breaks.
Attempting to set a speed record for driving across the United States is known as doing a Cannonball Run. The term traces back to 1914 when Erwin Baker was nicknamed "Cannonball" by the media after he drove his motorcycle coast-to-coast in 11 days and 11 hours. That may seem slow today, but it was before modern highways and widely available gas stations. So, for the time and driving conditions, it was incredibly fast.
The current motorcycle record for a Cannonball Run is 32 hours, 27 minutes set by Felix Hofmann in October 2023.
The Splendid China theme park in Florida was open from 1993 to 2003, located just a few miles from Disney World. Details from SFGate.com:
Hoping to capitalize on the rich tourism industry surrounding Walt Disney World, the companies teamed up to bring a theme park filled with miniature Chinese landmarks to the middle of a residential neighborhood in Kissimmee. Up went over 60 replicas, among them a small Forbidden City, a not-so-Great Wall of China, dozens of terra cotta warriors and a recreation of a street in Suzhou during the 1300s.
Critics mocked it as a "propaganda theme park". And eventually it was revealed to have been owned by the Chinese government, which was the only reason it managed to stay open as long as it did.
Happy Newyear was a carpenter who lived in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. Technically his first name was 'Emil', but everyone, including his parents, had been calling him Happy since he was a child .
The media found out about his unusual name sometime in the early 1940s, and from that point on Newyear would be hounded by reporters every New Year.
Minneapolis Star - Dec 31, 1943
Brantford Expositor - Jan 4, 1947
At first he reluctantly played along with it all. In 1947, he and his wife even participated in a New Year's show in Toronto. But as the years went by, it's evident he had had enough. By the 1960s, when reporters were still seeking him out each year, he would simply close the door in their face.
Sioux City Journal - Jan 2, 1960
I think 'Happy' or 'Hap' must be a fairly common nickname among people whose last name is Newyear. A quick search of cemetery records found two Newyears with the nickname 'Hap': Francis "Hap" Newyear and Harold "Hap" Newyear.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have been studying people shaking boxes in order to shed light on "epistemic action understanding." Or rather, "Can one person tell, just by observing another person’s movements, what they are trying to learn?"
In other words, as you watch someone shake a box, can you figure out what information they're trying to gather about the contents of the box (i.e. the shape or quantity of things in it)?
Why a stinker of a B-movie would have its soundtrack issued under a different title is a mystery best left to the ages. But it means you can enjoy some exotica tracks without watching the film. The embedded player is at the bottom of the post.