The Peculiar Truth: 2022 Year-End Compilation

Photo by Tristan Gassert on Unsplash

The following is the 52nd entry for my weekly newsletter, The Peculiar Truth — one year’s worth. I hope you’ll subscribe for more and enjoy some of the previous pieces.

The Peculiar Truth’s full archive is now available (click here).

This week’s entry contains a collection of odd facts that weren’t substantial enough to warrant full, individual stories.

The Peculiar Truth will return next week — and throughout 2023 — with new stories. Thanks and Happy New Year!

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• During the reign of Henry VIII, four men were designated as the king’s Grooms of Stool. Their sole duty was to wipe his ass after he used the toilet. All four later received knighthood.
• Hitler hated cigarette smoking so much that he promised gold watches to any of his close associates who would quit.
• Robert McNamara was US Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War era. His middle name was strange. Literally. His full name was Robert Strange McNamara.
• Actor Richard Gere’s middle name is Tiffany.
• Before becoming a spiritual guru, Deepak Chopra was an endocrinologist.
• The legend of D.B. Cooper began with bad reporting. The infamous 1971 skyjacker checked in for his flight under the name Dan Cooper — not D.B. No one knows where those initials came from. But newswires everywhere ran with the erroneous information, and the name stuck.
• Of all the indigenous peoples of North and South America — including the Maya, Aztecs, Inca, Cherokee, Lakota, Iroquois, Sioux, or any of the many North American tribes — none had carts or wagons prior to the arrival of Europeans. That’s because their societies never invented the wheel.
• Bruce Lee was so popular in Hong Kong that his 1960s American TV show, The Green Hornet, in which he played Kato the sidekick to the title character, was given a different name. In Hong Kong, it was called The Kato Show.
• The second most popular sport in the world after football (soccer) is cricket. Major League Cricket is scheduled to debut in the United States in the summer of 2023. Minor League Cricket has already existed in the US since the spring of 2021. They play a 21st Century version of the classic game called T20 Cricket, which was only adopted internationally within the past 20 years. Unlike test cricket, which can go on six hours per day for 3–5 days, T20 matches take place one day only in roughly 3 hours.
• John, George, and Ringo hated Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Lennon called it “Paul’s granny music” and refused to play on the track. McCartney was continuously dissatisfied, which grated on the nerves of his band mates. Ringo said, “It went on for fucking weeks. I thought it was mad.”
• When Elizabeth Taylor married for the 8th time — to construction worker Larry Fortensky — the wedding took place at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. The ceremony was officiated by New Age guru Marianne Williamson. She ran for US President in 2020.
• Tom Hanks is distantly related to Abraham Lincoln.
• The brother of North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un is such a fan of Eric Clapton that he has traveled the world to attend all of the musician’s concerts.
• Queen Elizabeth and Marilyn Monroe were born the same year (1926). They met only once in 1956. That year, Monroe appeared in the film Bus Stop. Her costar was Don Murray. He’s the only one of Monroe’s leading men who was younger than her. And of all of Marilyn’s costars, husbands, and lovers — you can add the Queen to the list now, too — Don Murray is the only one still alive. As of this writing, he is 93.

Dan is the author of over a dozen novels. His latest is Tight Five. He publishes The Peculiar Truth every Tuesday.