Thursday, September 20, 2007

Burgers and Nazis and Fries, Oh My!


Fast Food Nation (the book) is fascinating. Not only does it give the lowdown on the fast food industry, it contains all these bizarre little tidbits of American history... Did you know that Walt Disney's Tomorrowland and Man in Space programs were advised and hosted by Nazis? I mean, I knew about Nazis in the space program, but who knew that they designed rides for Disneyland and wrote children's books like Our Friend the Atom?
And speaking of mice, if you happen to have a mouse problem, Alan directed me to this very thorough site he found that proposes dozens of ways to catch 'em without resorting to deathtraps.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like it or not, the Nazis built our space program. The Nazis designed the rocket and the jet. When we invaded Germany, we immediately lured as many top Nazi scientists as possible to the U.S. We got half, the Russians got the other half.

Quick guess. Who do you think built the Russian space program?

Common knowledge among us historians.

Wandering Coyote said...

I just tagged you...it's a pretty short one.

I love the guy who sold scrip to teachers and invested it...the potato baron, I believe...He was hilarious!

I was also shocked to hear that the colouring they use for grapefruit cocktail comes from a South American beetle. I don't buy that stuff anymore.

S.M. Elliott said...

ZS - Oh, I know it. But somehow Nazi rocket scientists working at Disneyland creeps me out way more than Nazis running NASA. Weird, eh?
WC - I don't recall the name of that beetle, but it's used in LOTS of red/pink food dyes, under several different names. It takes about 7500 of the beetles to make 1 lb. of dye.

tweetey30 said...

Wow I just got a science lesson when I should be teaching Kora all this stuff. LOL.. I had no idea that the Nazi's were part of building Disney land though. That is weird.

Anonymous said...

I think they were more advisers to how the future would look. But that's just a guess, I never got into this part of history deeply.

S.M. Elliott said...

They were paid to help promote nuclear power, space exploration, and other iffy technology to kids and families, and Haber helped design a rocket ride at Tomorrowland before becoming Disney's full-time science advisor. Von Braun and Haber co-hosted the cartoon series "Man in Space". The entire Tomorrowland venture was less of a "how the future might look" thing than a government-backed "this is how the future should look, and will look if we get our way" thing.

S.M. Elliott said...

Correction: It takes about 70,000 of the beetles to make 1 lb. of food coloring.

Vest said...

SME: Actually the Beatle (cochineal)is found in Mexico Nth Am too, it is nothing more than a dried dead red female wood louse.
Prawns(shrimps)various are nothing more than hordes of shit filters plying the oceans sewage outfalls.
Excite your taste buds with an Oyster, the cousin of the slimy juicy garden slug.
El Toro Testes are delicious too, but beware, the smaller ones Eltoro Victorio are contributed by Matador's who had a bad day.

Zom: The rusco space program was built by American Communist defectors Andkocov Rubinoslob and his cousin Neuronicov Bulcravaitch.