MCF Might Know

I was surprised while visiting an old college friend a few weeks ago, when my host interrupted me to ask, “What's IMDB?" After about four people said, “Internet Movie Database" in near unison, I went on to explain that any time I see a movie or television show, and wonder where I've seen an actor or actress before, I'll log on, and commit their name to memory. “Man," said my friend, “Tell me MCF wouldn't be scary in Trivial Pursuit."

How is it that one of my smarter friends had never heard of such a popular site? Here was a skilled painter and illustrator, a fellow cinephile, and a guy who had gone back to school to better support his family, and was in the midst of a six year pharmacy program. Earlier he showed us some of his thick textbooks and frighteningly complex notes. I guess once you commit the nervous system to memory the way a mechanic might study a wiring diagram for a car, other information shifts aside. I don't think I'm any different from anyone else, but I guess a lot of my surfing consists of looking up the answers to trivial things I'm curious about. And for whatever reason, though anyone can use a search engine, a lot of times I find things quicker than my friends could. A lunch conversation will often lead to me seeking more information upon my return to a computer.

TheGreek suggested this week that I start a second blog focused on all the celebrity connections and other useless information in my brain. I think that might be redundant, and lately I've had trouble keeping up with this blog, evidenced by the fact that I went to sleep last night without posting and am now scrambling to catch up. Maybe this could be the start of a new feature though, and readers could e-mail me questions about things they want to know, or even just to try and stump me. Since no one's done that yet though, I'll go with some questions I've answered in the past:

”Why do some of my friends end their e-mails with the letter “J”? Is that some kind of emoticon? What does that even mean?”

It is an emoticon, though not the way you think. This most commonly occurs when someone on a Mac corresponds with someone on a PC. Rather than an ASCII smiley, :), the PC user opted to put in a single character from the font Wingdings, which will appear as a smiley if the recipient has the same font, and his or her e-mail hasn't lost the typeface in translation. Otherwise, the corresponding character in a default font will appear, which is the letter “J”.

”Where have I seen the guy that played Samson, Tommy's rival for Jenny's affections on The Black Donnellys?”

That would be James Badge Dale, whom 24 fans might remember as Chase Edmunds. Other familiar faces on the show include the Donnelly matriarch Helen, played by Kate Mulgrew of Ryan's Hope and Star Trek: Voyager fame, Kevin Corrigan, best known for his Grounded For Life role, and the ominous Peter Greene, from Pulp Fiction and The Mask. As soon as Zed gets there, you know it's going to be a real party....

”How big are traffic lights?”

You might not realize it since you're never up close normally, but a traffic light is almost as big as an average human being. I drove by some workers this week in the process of putting up new ones, and was amazed to see the size relationship. You can actually purchase a used one, if you're so inclined, 44" tall with 12" lenses. And in London, an artist made a bunch into a Christmas Tree Sculpture, something to slow down and stop to admire before you go on.

”What is your real name?”

Sorry, we are out of time. J

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Is there a question you can't find the answer to? MCF might know...