Tuesday Trivia

Kind of a potpourri for today.

ABOUT TV:

The General Lee cars used in the popular show The Dukes of Hazards were 1969 Dodge Chargers.

The Muppet Show was banned from TV in Saudi Arabia because one of its stars was a pig.

The first music video ever played on MTV Europe was by Dire Straits, "Money For Nothing."

The childhood word game Hangman was the inspiration for TV's Wheel of Fortune.

Lenny Kravitz's mother played the part of Helen on the TV sitcom "The Jeffersons."

The first letter Vanna White ever turned on the game show Wheel of Fortune was the letter "T."

ABOUT BAND NAMES:

"Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." ~~ Charlie Parker

ABBA - An acronym for the first names of the band members: Agnetha Fältskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Anderson and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad.

BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD - The band took their name from a brand of heavy asphalt roller they saw while stuck in Los Angeles traffic.

THE FOUNDATIONS - The band members came up with this name based on their surroundings, a rehearsal space in the basement of a coffee shop in Bayswater, England.

JETHRO TULL - When Ian Anderson, Glenn Cornick, Mick Abrahams and Clive Bunker formed their new band in 1967, they tried out a variety of names, including Navy Blue and Bag of Blues. Their manager suggested Jethro Tull, the name of a British barrister and farmer who, in the mid-1700s, invented a device called the seed drill, which could sew three rows of seeds simultaneously. The memorable name stuck with audiences.

THE O'JAYS - Named after the Cleveland disc jockey Eddie O'Jay, who helped the band out in their early days. They were originally called the Mascots.

THE PIPS - It was at a family birthday party that Gladys Knight, her brother Merald, their sister Brenda, and two cousins - William and Elenor Guest - first sang together as a quintet. Another cousin present, James 'Pip' Woods, suggested they sing together professionally. Taking his advice, they hired him as their manager and called themselves The Pips in his honor.

ABOUT COMPANY NAMES:

Google - The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named ‘Googol’, a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After the founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor - they received a check made out to ‘Google.’

Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company ‘Moore Noyce’ but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.

Motorola - Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.

Sony - It originated from the Latin word ’sonus’ meaning sound, and ’sonny’ a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.

Yahoo! - The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book ‘Gulliver’s Travels’. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.

Apple Computers - It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn’t suggest a better name by 5 O’clock.


There you have it! It's time to get back to work now! Scat!!