One of my favorite things about reading is the small tidbits and fun facts you learn along the way. It’s always a sign that a book is worth reading when you happen upon a kernel of information that you haven’t heard before. Here are a few things I learned from books this year:
- You know when you notice something new and then suddenly you begin seeing it everywhere? In the age of algorithms it’s not entirely organic, but there is no denying that there is a creepy coincidence that occurs after you hear about something for the first time and then begin noticing it repeatedly. It happened to me recently when I saw a movie starring a woman named Maike Monroe. I had never heard of her before, but suddenly I was coming across references to her everywhere: her filmography, a surreptitious photo of her kissing her boyfriend at a Paris cafe. Turns out there is a named for this: the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Try an elk taco for the first time? Now sit back and watch while you notice references to it in strange places. And now that I’ve introduced Baader-Meinhof to you, let it commence and you will start hearing about it more and more.
- In Brooklyn Heights, there are three streets named after fruit: Cranberry, Pineapple, and Orange. The first was the location of a house that Cher lived in in the movie Moonstruck. The second, Pineapple, was the inspiration for a recent novel. And on nearby Willow Street, Truman Capote rented a basement where he wrote Breakfast At Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood.
3. 75% of flights attendants are women. (And, yes, the majority of male flight attendants are gay.) Not surprising stats, but what is interesting is that the jump seat was designed by the first flight attendant, Ellen Church, after she was concerned that a passenger might open the cabin door.
4. Speaking of flight attendants, the weight restrictions on them weren’t lifted until 1991, after smoking allowances (1990) and age restrictions (1968).
5. TWA first-class (circa 1979) served chateaubriand (carved up by the flight attendant) mixed greens salad, specialty cocktails, and a sundae bar.
6. On another (now defunct) airline there was the “Air Strip”… in which flight attendants started the flight in a cape, then removed it in full view of passengers to reveal a Pucci suit, and later stripped down to a yellow serving dress.
7. The woman who inspired “Sara Smile” by Hall and Oates was a flight attendant who dated Daryl Hall for decades. She also inspired their lesser-known song “Las Vegas Turnaround.” A turnaround schedule is one in which stewardesses fly back and forth to and from the same city within a day.
8. The Maple Belt in Vermont is slowly shifting north due to climate change. Since maple trees only produce sap when temperatures are below freezing at night and above freezing during the day, US sugar makers may see their businesses closing and the global market relying on Canadian syrup.
9. In her novel Heartburn, Nora Ephron has a character say, “Pasta is the quiche of the ’80s.” Another character describes a woman as “thin, pretty, big tits. Your basic nightmare.” These lines were later repurposed as dialogue for Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher in Ephron’s screenplay When Harry Met Sally.
10. And, finally, a not-so-fun fact: according to Andrew Morton, Mick Jagger was obsessed with Angelina Jolie at the tail end of his marriage to Jerry Hall. He left impassioned voice mails on Angie’s mother’s phone after Angie gave him a false number. He also had bandmate Charlie Watts call her on his behalf. And, even more creepily, in Mackenzie Phillips’ High on Arrival she describes being seduced by Jagger just after she turned eighteen. He had known her since she was ten (he was a close friend of her father, John Phillips) and told her he had been waiting for her to become legal before he made his moves on her.
Books Smitten 