Useless Knoweledge Part 2: LOST

• John Locke was named after a 17th century philosopher who described individuals as "tabula rasa" or "blank sheet."
• The average pilot of a tv show costs $4 million, but LOST's premiere episode cost somewhere between $10 million and $14 million.
• In France, the show is called "Lost: Les Desparus" which has two connotations--the missing people or the dead people.
• Parts of the plane were used as percussion instruments in the soundtrack.
• The pilot attracted 18.65 viewers.
• The actors who play Charlie, Jack, and Hurley all auditioned for the part of Sawyer.
• Kate was originally supposed to be an elderly woman who was separated from her husband, but they ended up using that idea for Rose.
• Charlie's band was originally going to be called "The Petting Zoo."
• The symbol on Boone's shirt is Chinese for the number 84, which, when switched around is 48, the number of survivors on the island.
• The number 42 is taken from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy, where it is the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
• Evangeline Lily almost didn't get to be in LOST, because the creators thought that her Canadian citizenship might be an issue.
• In the original script for LOST, Jack was supposed to be killed by the monster when they arrived at the cockpit.
• Ethan Rom is an anagram for "other man."
• Ranked #5 on Empire magazine's 50 Greatest TV Shows Of All Time
• Anthony Cooper, Locke's dad, was named after an 18th century philosopher who studied under John Locke.
• It won 55 awards, including a Golden Globe, and was nominated for 256 other awards.
• Danielle Rousseau was named after Jean Jacques Rousseau an 18th century Enlightenment philosopher who believed that civilization corrupts people.
• Season 1 has some similarities to William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies.
• The name Richard Alpert is a reference to the real life ex-Harvard psychologist Dr. Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass).
• Of the six mysterious numbers, 23 is used the most. Kate gets turned in for $23,000; 23 people die when Hurley stepped on a platform/dock and it collapsed; flight 815's gate number is 23; Jack's seat number is 23; and the room number where the Dharma group do experiments is #23. 
• Charlotte's full name is Charlotte Staples Lewis, which is after C.S. Lewis, and shows the unpredictable nature of time on the island.
• Jeremy Bentham, Locke's pseudonym, also alludes to an English philosopher.
• Rose and Bernard are the only survivors who don't die or leave the island.
• The amount of money Hurley says he won in the jackpot changes, at least twice.

Please feel free to share your newly accumulated useless knowledge with every neighbor, coworker, and great aunt that you know.

Disposable Doilies & What They Lead To

As I'm sure you're already aware, Halloween is coming up. You know what that means? It means you have to watch a whole bunch of movies that make you pee your pants, fling popcorn in your neighbor's face, and eat candy corn like the kids in Lord of the Flies ate wild pigs. By the way, Lord of the Flies is a good example of a dystopian novel. A dystopia is a utopia that goes all wrong and becomes the opposite of a utopia for some people. If you still have no idea what a dystopia is, read The Giver or volunteer for the hunger games. Okay, now that all you unintellectual people have a vague idea of what this world is coming to, I will move onto more difficult, important subjects.

Doilies. Doilies are perfectly sewn rags that old people use at tea parties and to cover a deceased person's face. They've been around for about as long as Harvard. Yet, they are still considered fancy. In my opinion, they probably soak the doilies in bleach and glue every night to keep them looking nice. Anything that's been in use for 400 years tends to look a little crusty and...old. My advice for you is:

If you are eating at someone's house and they serve you a cookie on a doily, don't accept it. It probably hasn't ever been washed in the 400 years that it's been around. Remind yourself that the only reason that it isn't the color of chocolate is because they bleach it. I'm afraid that if you were to even touch an ancient doily, your bones would rot and you would become a mummy.

However, they have now invented a special kind of doily that even those aware of  their side affects will cautiously use. They're called "disposable doilies." This means that after one day in use, the owner can throw it away without worrying that by getting rid of it, they are disgracing the name of their great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother who sewed it when she was coming across on the Mayflower. Gosh, civilization is progressing so much that now we can throw away disgusting doilies. Ah, but don't get too happy, my loyal reader. Disposable doilies are the first step towards a dystopian earth. What a cheerful future we have in store for us.

Happy Halloween. I hope that this story enabled you to accomplish some of the necessary Halloween traditions, such as peeing your pants and eating candy corn.