The useless bits of info to see if we can make a million posts thread

[cAstAgeAr]

In Quebec, Canada, an old law states that margarine must be a different colour from butter. This law is the result of Quebec dairy lobbyists' pressure to ''protect'' their dairy business. They claimed margarine was beginning to resemble butter, as to be mistaken for real butter. Make margarine unattractive, and consumers would stick to butter. The Quebec government caved in, and tried to impose a dark vermilion-coloured margarine, which was disgusting. The colour, finally, at the other extreme, is a pallid almost-white-colourless margarine.

[cAstAgeAr]

According to a british law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. Offenders could be hanged for trying.

[cAstAgeAr]

The song with the longest title is 'I'm a Cranky Old Yank in a Clanky Old Tank on the Streets of Yokohama with my Honolulu Mama Doin' Those Beat-o, Beat-o Flat-On-My-Seat-o, Hirohito Blues' written by Hoagy Carmichael in 1943. He later claimed the song title ended with "Yank" and the rest was a joke.

[cAstAgeAr]

Michael Jackson won the most grammy's ever with a total of eight.

[cAstAgeAr]

The longest piano piece of any kind is 'Vexations' by Erik Satie. It consists of a 180-note composition which, on the composer's orders, must be repeated 840 times so that the whole performance is 18 hours 40 minutes. Its first reported public performance in September 1963, in the Pocket Theater, New York City, required a relay team of 10 pianists. The New York Times critic fell asleep at 4 a.m. and the audience dwindled to 6 masochists. At the conclusion, one sado-masochist shouted 'Encore!'

[cAstAgeAr]

Everyone knows that the Buggles 'Video Killed the Radio Star' was the first video to premire on MTV on August 1, 1981. The millionth video to air on MTV was 'Video Killed the Radio Star', aired on MTV February 27, 2000. It's also the 3rd most aired video in MTV history. Peter Gabriel's 'Sledgehammer' is #1.

[cAstAgeAr]

The longest rendering of a national anthem was 'God Save the King,' performed by a German military band on the platform of Rathenau railway station in Brandenburg, on February 9, 1909. King Edward VII was struggling inside the train to get into his German Field-Marshall uniform, so the band had to play the anthem 17 consecutive times.

[cAstAgeAr]

'Billie Jean' by Michael Jackson was the first video to air on MTV by a black artist. Initially, the channel did not want to air any music by black artists.

[cAstAgeAr]

3-Day advance purchase tickets for the first Woodstock (1969), were $18.00. The price at the gate, $24.

[cAstAgeAr]

Jim Morrison (of the 60's rock group The Doors) was the first rock star to be arrested on stage.

[cAstAgeAr]

In 1976 Sarah Caldwell became the first woman to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

[cAstAgeAr]

Mamas and Papas star, Cass Elliot met with an untimely end when she choked to death on a sandwich in 1974.

[cAstAgeAr]

The frontman of the band Chigago met the same fate as Johnny Ace by shooting and killing himself in a game of Russian Roulette in 1978. His last words were, 'Don't worry, it's not loaded.'

[cAstAgeAr]

Shortly after recording 'Three Steps to Heaven', Eddie Cochran was killed in a car crash in Wiltshire, England. The song became a posthumous number one single in the UK.

[cAstAgeAr]

The INXS frontman was found hanging in a Sydney Hotel room in 1997. There was some speculation that it was an ill-conceived sex game that went wrong rather than suicide.