Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops Book Giveaway
I love trivia, so I was thrilled to be offered a review copy of a brand new book, Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops: The Origins of Objects in Our Everyday Lives, by Harry Oliver.
I actually think about things like this on a regular basis. A couple of days ago I was eating potato chips, and I vaguely recalled a story I heard about the very first potato chips resulting from an unsatisfied restaurant patron sending back his fried potatoes to the kitchen, repeatedly insisting that they weren’t thin enough.
The legend goes that the cook was so annoyed, he sliced the potatoes ridiculously paper thin and fried them to a crisp.
What he didn’t expect was that the customer would love them, and the genius that is potato chips was born.
In Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops: The Origins of Objects in Our Everyday Lives, you can read interesting tales about how laziness resulted in the invention of the dishwasher, the discovery that made the milkshake possible, and a king whose mistress inspired the first elevator.
Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops will be released on January 5th.
I have three copies of Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops to give away to three Mom Most Traveled readers.
1.) To enter to win, leave me a comment with your favorite bit of trivia!
Please don’t just comment with “Enter me” or “Sounds great”. That totally annoys me. Those entries are not eligible to win.
Three winners will be chosen by random number generator.
This giveaway is open to those with a US mailing address.
2.) Email subscribers get an extra entry for as long as their subscription is active.
Already a subscriber? Leave me a separate comment on this post to let me know you’re interested in this giveaway.
Want to subscribe? Just click here: Subscribe to Mom Most Traveled by Email (Only verified subscriptions are entered for all the giveaways.)
3.) Twitter about this giveaway (include a link to this page and @MomMostTraveled ) and comment here with your Twitter name.
4.) Blog about this giveaway, including a link to this post. Leave me a comment with the link so I can check your post!
This giveaway will close on January 10, 2010, 11:59 pm EST.
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26 December 2009, 4:04 pm
I think Mike Nesmith (from the Monkees) mom invented Liquid Paper. Is that trivial enough?
26 December 2009, 4:41 pm
It sounds like a great book! I hope you had a lovely Christmas!
26 December 2009, 5:00 pm
I heard that the Taco Bell chihuahua commercials that everyone remembers more than any other Taco Bell advertising were a complete flop in drawing in customers. Total fail.
26 December 2009, 5:01 pm
I’m an email subscriber.
26 December 2009, 6:21 pm
this would be great:
Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes
26 December 2009, 8:35 pm
Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If they were captured, the cards could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
How James Bond is that?! The Brits are so rad.
26 December 2009, 9:59 pm
Tamiflu’s main natural ingredient, shikimic acid, is found in Chinese star anise.
27 December 2009, 5:42 am
Too funny,Whether Thomas Crapper really invented the toilet
Thanks
27 December 2009, 5:43 am
Email subscriber
27 December 2009, 5:44 am
tweet
http://twitter.com/velvet1116/status/7088350152
27 December 2009, 7:03 am
The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, the exclamation point came from the Latin word “Lo”, meaning something important that should be heeded. (Lo and behold…)
27 December 2009, 7:04 am
Email subscriber.
27 December 2009, 7:53 am
Here is some coffee trivia: From the early 20th century up until the mid-1940s, when the piston lever espresso machine was introduced, espresso was made solely with steam pressure.
27 December 2009, 7:54 am
Email subscriber
27 December 2009, 7:59 am
https://twitter.com/aitmama/status/7090467332
27 December 2009, 8:04 am
My trivia is: a mockingbird sings their songs in the same order every time.
My husband would love this book! He is into trivia.
27 December 2009, 8:06 am
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/writereader/status/7090681700
I am @writereader
27 December 2009, 8:21 am
Birds don’t poo at all; just pee. Don’t ask me why i know that.
27 December 2009, 8:24 am
I’m an e-mail subscriber.
27 December 2009, 8:24 am
One breed of horse, the Arabian, has fewer vertebrae than other horses.
And yeah, that’s the first thing that came to mind. Weird, huh?
Looks like a fun book! Thank you! eliza.osborn@gmail.com
27 December 2009, 9:11 am
I found this one:
Hawaii is the only US state that grows coffee.
I didn’t know that!
27 December 2009, 10:28 am
: For every dollar you spend for produce at the supermarket, 5 cents goes to the farmer who produced it.
27 December 2009, 10:58 am
In Finland, Donald Duck comics were once banned because he didn’t wear pants. This sounds like a fun book to read. Thanks for the chance.
27 December 2009, 11:17 am
52% of americans drink coffee
27 December 2009, 11:41 am
The first email was sent in 1971… a lot earlier then most people know about.
27 December 2009, 11:42 am
Email Subscriber!
27 December 2009, 12:04 pm
The “M’s” on M & M’s stands for Mars and Murrie
27 December 2009, 8:39 pm
Dragonflies only live 24 hours.
27 December 2009, 8:40 pm
E-mail subscriber
27 December 2009, 8:40 pm
Tweeted (genny315)
http://twitter.com/genny315/status/7108998689
27 December 2009, 9:30 pm
this book sounds fantastic! I love learning about how things are created! I didn’t have a trivia piece of my own, but I looked this one up:
Elizabeth Blackwell
1849 — 1st woman to receive medical degree in US. (from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.)
girlygirlugh at gmail dot com
27 December 2009, 9:30 pm
I am an email subscriber.
girlygirlugh at gmail dot com
27 December 2009, 9:31 pm
I tweeted! http://twitter.com/girlygirlugh/status/7110471413
girlygirlugh at gmail dot com
28 December 2009, 7:34 am
The glue used on post-it notes was a mistake. It was being tested as a SUPER-sticky glue like super-glue
28 December 2009, 7:34 am
I subscribe via email.
28 December 2009, 7:36 am
Tweeted
http://twitter.com/LisaSVance/status/7122655575
@LisaSVance
28 December 2009, 3:05 pm
The first product to have a bar code scanned was Wrigley’s gum.
28 December 2009, 3:06 pm
email subscriber
28 December 2009, 4:08 pm
In Flagstaff Arizona a pinecone is dropped at midnight on New Years Eve.
smchester at gmail dot com
28 December 2009, 4:26 pm
The price of eggs in China is 12 cents each. (At least when I was there in 1997.) And you buy them individually. (Is the price of eggs in China trivial enough?)
If not, 5% of Americans go to McDonalds each day.
28 December 2009, 7:43 pm
Ravens’ wings are clipped so that they stay in the Tower of London because it is believed that the kingdom and monarchy will fall if they were to leave.
28 December 2009, 9:14 pm
Philo Farnsworth invented the television in Idaho!
28 December 2009, 10:09 pm
email subscriber
29 December 2009, 10:18 pm
Kermit the frog is left-handed!
eponine367@yahoo.com
01 January 2010, 10:37 am
Love trivia. Here’s one:The doorbell was invented in 1831.
02 January 2010, 10:51 am
More people own cats then dogs. Willard scott used to play Ronald Mcdonald. Thanks!
02 January 2010, 10:51 am
I subscribe.
02 January 2010, 10:52 am
Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
02 January 2010, 10:53 am
I subscribe by email.
02 January 2010, 11:41 am
did you know that our eyeballs are the same size from birth? lol
02 January 2010, 9:39 pm
More than 80% of high rises do not have a 13th floor.
nhmummab@comcast.net
02 January 2010, 9:40 pm
email subscriber
nhmummab@comcast.net
02 January 2010, 9:54 pm
I love the story of how a sandwich was named after the Earl of Sandwich, when he didn’t want to take time out from card playing and asked for a piece of meat between two slices of bread.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
02 January 2010, 9:54 pm
Email subscriber.
bgcchs(at)yahoo(dot)com
03 January 2010, 12:29 am
Did ya know that the Chinese invented noodles and NOT Italians?
03 January 2010, 5:09 am
In 1935, Eastman Kodak, based in Rochester, introduced Kodachrome, the first commercially successful color film for amateurs
03 January 2010, 5:09 am
Im a subscriber!!
03 January 2010, 5:11 am
I tweeted here http://twitter.com/firedancer6234
03 January 2010, 8:42 am
Polar bears don’t actually have white hair. The hairs are hollow tubes that reflects the sun’s light.
03 January 2010, 8:42 am
subscriber!
03 January 2010, 1:06 pm
The average brain looses about 50% off its brain cells between the ages of 20 and 29. Scary, eh?
03 January 2010, 1:06 pm
I subscribe.
03 January 2010, 6:52 pm
The first e-mail was sent in 71, interesting
04 January 2010, 9:45 am
can’t think of much other than basketball began in springfield, mass
04 January 2010, 9:45 am
e-mail subscriber
04 January 2010, 3:51 pm
Elephants can’t jump.
05 January 2010, 10:39 am
fav trivia- President Lincoln has a secretary named Kennedy & President Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln.
05 January 2010, 10:41 am
Im an email subscriber of YOURS!!
05 January 2010, 6:29 pm
ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine
05 January 2010, 6:30 pm
email subscriber
06 January 2010, 4:09 pm
It takes 7 times to completely shuffle a deck of cards.
07 January 2010, 11:08 am
George Lucas was fined heavily for the original Star Wars film because he refused to credit the actors at the beginning instead choosing to use the scrolling text - A long time ago in a galaxy far away…
(My son and dh are self-professed Star Wars geeks!)
07 January 2010, 11:10 am
tweeted
http://twitter.com/Greatgiveaways/status/7485071239
07 January 2010, 11:12 am
blogged
http://greatbloggiveaways.blogspot.com/2010/01/blog-giveaway-roundup-1710.html
08 January 2010, 3:21 pm
Awesome blog and thanks for the giveaway!….would love to win this! =]
08 January 2010, 11:42 pm
The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache!
08 January 2010, 11:42 pm
I’m a subscriber
09 January 2010, 6:00 am
Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes
09 January 2010, 12:21 pm
The average woman consumes 6 lbs of lipstick in her lifetime.
09 January 2010, 1:52 pm
I love this piece of trivia I found the other day on a website about Lincoln: “The clutter in Abraham Lincoln’s law office was notorious, and a continual source of irritation to his partner, William Herndon. On his desk, Lincoln kept one envelope marked “When you can’t find it anywhere else, look into this.”"
09 January 2010, 2:12 pm
There is a word that, sort of, rhymes with “orange”; it is doorhinge.
09 January 2010, 2:53 pm
A sneeze can exceed the speed of 100 mph.
09 January 2010, 2:57 pm
My favorite bit of trivia is that “One inch of rain over one square mile is 17,378,700 gallons of water. ”
Amanda Barnes
amandakbarnes90@gmail.com
09 January 2010, 3:34 pm
A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime!
09 January 2010, 3:34 pm
I already subscribe
09 January 2010, 3:39 pm
I tweeted
http://twitter.com/ShesAnAngel417/status/7569919839
ShesAnAngel417
09 January 2010, 6:27 pm
Polar bear livers are poisonous to humans.
09 January 2010, 7:06 pm
When John Landis made the film ANIMAL HOUSE, he wanted Dean Wormer to be played by Jack Webb.
09 January 2010, 10:40 pm
[...] Bubble Gum and Hula Hoops Book by Harry Oliver (Mom Most Traveled) [...]
10 January 2010, 12:28 am
In 1906, Frank Fleer invented the first bubble gum called Blibber-Blubber gum. However, the bubble blowing chew was never sold.
Such fun reading all this trivia!
lrsweeps[at]gmail[dot]com
10 January 2010, 7:31 am
Did you know that Austin is considered the Live music capital?
10 January 2010, 8:34 am
Jeanne Louise Calment of Arles, France was the world’s longest living person. Jeanne was born on February 21, 1875 and died on August 4, 1997. Jeanne died at the age of 122 in a nursing home in Arles
10 January 2010, 9:54 am
elephants can’t jump
10 January 2010, 9:55 am
subscriber
10 January 2010, 10:03 am
The 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had!
10 January 2010, 10:03 am
I’m an email subscriber
10 January 2010, 10:44 am
The first Pizza hut was started in Wichita, KS. This book looks interesting and like a fun read.
10 January 2010, 3:33 pm
Mustang did not product a car in 1964.
10 January 2010, 5:37 pm
No English words rhyme with
‘orange’ or ’silver’
(which is why I didn’t write
this as a poem!)
10 January 2010, 7:23 pm
•Whether Thomas Crapper really invented the toilet lol
10 January 2010, 8:20 pm
Gerald Ford became President without receiving a single vote in an election. He was appointed Vice President and then Became President.
10 January 2010, 9:16 pm
Ancient Rome became the first city to reach a population of one million in 5 B.C.
10 January 2010, 10:25 pm
The largest mammal is blue whale. It can be up to 100 feet long.
10 January 2010, 11:57 pm
George Washington was the first president.
11 January 2010, 12:05 am
I subscribed by email.