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Guy slams his hand into a car door. You're welcome.


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Real names of 23 fictional characters

I found this great article on CNN.com, and thought I'd share it with you as it's great cocktail party fodder! Link to full article

By Jason English, Mental Floss
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Many famous fictional characters are known only as their nicknames
Cap'n Crunch's full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch
Wizard of Oz: Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs
On Entourage, Turtle's real name is Salvatore Assante
(Mental Floss) -- You know the characters, but you might not know their full names. Store these away for future trivia nights.

1. Did you know the Comic Book Guy on "The Simpsons" has a name? It's Jeff Albertson. But that wasn't the decision of creator Matt Groening.
"I was out of the room when [the writers] named him," he told MTV in 2007. "In my mind, 'Louis Lane' was his name, and he was obsessed and tormented by Lois Lane."

2. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. (Ken's last name is Carson.)

3. Cap'n Crunch's full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch. His ship is the S.S. Guppy.

4. In the Peanuts comic strip, Peppermint Patty's real name is Patricia Reichardt

5. Snuffleupagus has a first name -- Aloysius. Want more Snuffleupagus trivia? In a Sesame Street scene that never aired, Snuffy's parents announced they were separating. But in testing, children were too devastated by the news, so the idea was scrapped.

6. The Wizard of Oz rolls off the tongue a lot easier than the man behind the curtain's full name, Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. From Frank Baum's Dorothy And the Wizard in Oz:
"It was a dreadfully long name to weigh down a poor innocent child, and one of the hardest lessons I ever learned was to remember my own name. When I grew up I just called myself O.Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D; and that spelled 'pinhead,' which was a reflection on my intelligence."

7. Mr. Clean has a seldom-used first name -- "Veritably." The name came from a "Give Mr. Clean a First Name" promotion in 1962.

8. In a deleted scene in the 2006 Curious George movie, The Man With the Yellow Hat's full name was revealed as Ted Shackleford. (Since the scene was deleted, perhaps the last name doesn't count.)

9. The real name of Monopoly mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags is Milburn Pennybags.

10. The policeman in Monopoly has a name, too. You can thank Officer Edgar Mallory the next time he sends you to jail.

11. On Night Court, Nostradamus Shannon was better known as Bull.

12. On Entourage, Turtle's real name is Salvatore Assante.

13. Sesame Street'sresident game show host Guy Smiley was using a pseudonym all these years. He was born Bernie Liederkrantz.

14. The Michelin Man's name is Bibendum.

15. On Gilligan's Island, Jonas Grumby was simply called The Skipper.

16. The Professor was Roy Hinkley.

17. The unkempt Shaggy of Scooby-Doo fame has a rather proper real name -- Norville Rogers.

18. The Pillsbury Doughboy's name is Poppin' Fresh. He has a wife, Poppie Fresh, and two kids, Popper and Bun Bun.

19. The patient in the classic game Operation is Cavity Sam.

20. The true identity of The Lone Ranger was John Reid.

21. MacGyver's first name? Angus.

22 & 23. OK, these last two aren't fictional, but just in case it comes up, Bono was born Paul David Hewson, and The Edge's name is David Howell Evans.

For more mental_floss articles, visit mentalfloss.com
Entire contents of this article copyright, Mental Floss LLC. All rights reserved.

A leaning tower on Purpose!

See, I'd just build it wrong, and then say that I meant to do it...

This amazing tower in United Arab Emirates is the "leaniest" tower in the world. read on...

(from CNN.com)
(CNN) -- Chalk another record to the United Arab Emirates' collection.

The Capital Gate building in the desert kingdom's capital, Abu Dhabi, has been certified by Guinness World Records as the "World's Furthest Leaning Man-made Tower."

How far does it lean? Nearly five times farther than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.

The 35-story Abu Dhabi building has an 18-degree slope, compared with four degrees for the freestanding bell tower.

But unlike the tower in Pisa, the Capital Gate building has been deliberately engineered to slant.

"It is a signature building which speaks to the foresight of the emirate," said Sheikh Sultan Bin Tahnoon al Nahyan, the chairman of the building's owner, Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company.

More CNN news in Arabic
The mixed-use building will be ready for occupancy at the end of the year. It is featured in a new National Geographic documentary, called "Megastructures."

In January, Dubai -- one of seven emirates that make up the UAE -- unveiled the world's tallest skyscraper: the $1.5 billion, 160-story Burj Khalifa, which has a height of more than 800 meters (2,625 ft).

Link to FULL ARTICLE ON CNN

IfItWasMyHome.com - Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster

I'm always cautious posting "cause" or "agenda" items, but I don't think anyone can deny that this whole BP situation is very bad. It's defaulted to view over Calgary, but you can put the spill over anywhere. Scary!

IfItWasMyHome.com - Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster