Circus Song: What is that Song?

Question:

What's the Name of that song that they always play at the circus?


Background:

For time out of mind circuses have been playing the same song, usually when the clown come in.  It goes.  "Duh du du..."  er "Duh da duh du...."  Hmmmm.   Oh hell.  I'll link to it below.  But where did that song come from?


So What's the Answer:

The song is called "Entry of the Gladiators."  It was written by a Czech guy named  Julius Fucik (I'll let you figure out how to pronounce "Fucik.") in 1897.  He was a big fan of all things Roman so the song is supposed to represent the pomp and ceremony of Roman Gladiators entering the coliseum.  It got re-arranged and introduced to the America's by Canadian Louis-Phillipe Laurendeau in 1910.  This is the version played a circuses.   The original version  (showing here")

Entry of the Gladiators

is much slower and more complex than the 1910 circus version (showing here.)

Circus Version

We here at the National Foundation for Obscure Question Research (NFOQR) did a little poking around and decided the best bet was to dump both these versions and go for a really ass kicking march like John William's "Imperial Death March" from the Star Wars Movies (showing here.)

Imperial Death March

Oh yes,  much better.

So, "Entry of the Gladiators" is the name of the circus song, but it's been radically changed.  Also, John Williams kicks its ass.

Got a question?  Drop us a line at obscurequestions@yahoo.com or just leave a comment.   We love comments.

Sources:

Sources?  We don't need no stinking sources!  We are the source!

A Bare Bodkin? What's That?

Question:

What is a "bare Bodkin?"

The Background:

In William Shakespreare's "Hamlet" during Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" speech, Hamlet says:

"When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?"

We know, from Mrs. Scott's 10 grade English class that Hamlet is talking about killing himself.  So, "his quietus make" means to kill himself but with what?  A bare bodkin?  Really?

So What's the Answer:

Most people agree that a bodkin is a small knife or dagger similar to a poniard.  We at the Organisation for the Investigation of Life's Most Important and Obscure Questions (OILMIOQ) wish to point out that a Bodkin is also a long hat pin or blunt needle used for threading ribbon.  It would come as no surprise to us to learn that what Shakespreare was pointing out was pointing out that people are really very easy to kill.  Who doesn't have an old aunt who died in an unfortunate hat pin accident?  What a great Christmas story that is!

So, a bare bodkin is a pointy thing, possibly a dagger or sewing implement, that Hamlet could have used on himself in the first hour of the play thus saving us all a great deal of torment in Mrs. Scott's English class.

Got a question?  Drop us a line at obscurequestions@yahoo.com or just post a comment.  We love comments.

Sources:

Sources?  We don't need no stinking sources!  We are the source!

Moon Brain: Why Do We Always See the Same Side of The Moon?

The Question:

Why do we always see the same side of the moon?



The Background:

Remember the man in the moon?  Ever wondered what the back of his head looks like?  Ever wonder why no one except a couple of Apollo Astronauts have ever seen the "dark side" of the moon?

It can be a little hard to wrap your head around the fact that the same side of the moon always faces the Earth.  Try it like this.  Look up at the moon.  Imagine that the side of the moon that you are looking at were to come crashing straight down into you and through the Earth. When it pushed its way out the other side, the folks in China would see the back side of the moon as it flew back up into space right?  Right.  Only that's not what happens.  Folks in China see the same side of the moon we do.    Observe this picture of the full moon rising over the National Stadium in China:

It's the same side of the moon!   WTF?!!

So What's the Answer?

The answer to this question comes in two parts.  

First, the moon is turning at exactly the same rate it orbits the Earth.  Weird huh?  But it makes sense if you think about it.  In order your you and me, on opposite sides of the planet, to see the same side of the moon, it must be turning at exactly the same rate that it is orbiting the Earth.  You can do this with your fingers.  Hold a finger on one hand still.  Now spin a finger from the other hand around it slowly, turning it so that the same side is always facing the first finger.    That's what the moon is doing.  

The orbital period for the moon is roughly 27.321583 days.  Roughly.

The moon rotates on its axis roughly once every 27.321583 days as well.

How trippy is that?  Even weirder is why.

It turns out that the gravitational drag between two spheres will eventually slow their rotation so that their rotation matches their orbital periods.  This weird force is called tidal locking.  When the moon first formed, it did spin but the drag of gravity has slowed it till it always shows us the same side.  Since the moon is not a perfect sphere, the heaviest part of the moon settled toward us.  If you turned your bike over, put a weight on the back wheel, and then spun the wheel, when it slowed the weight would settle toward the Earth right?  Same thing happened to the moon.

Tidal locking with the moon has slowed the Earth too but the Earth is much more massive so we still spin once every 24  hours...Roughly.

We see the same side of the moon at all times because tidal locking has pulled the heaviest side toward us and it now spins at exactly the right speed to keep the heaviest side toward us.  

Sources: 

We don't need no stinking sources!  We are the source.

Got a question?  Drop us a line at obscurequestions@yahoo.com or just leave a comment.  We'll find the answer for you.  We do this because we rock.