The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.
Wednesday May 27, 2015
Finishing off the week with three installments of a new feature, #FunFacts. Each piece will have a bit of trivia about sports, music, and culture/more (I love saying “more” because it’s so wonderfully vague). Today’s fun: a practical use for video games, a sackbut by any other name, and the intelligence of pigs.
When sports and video games meet reality
Evidently it is common practice for NFL players to brush up on their game by playing the Madden video game franchise. I wonder what a player could learn from a video game that they couldn’t from practical knowledge and practice. I’m no knockin’ it, I’m just sayin’.
Sackbut, tee hee
An early version of the trombone was called a “sackbut.” It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense but “I’m blowing the sackbut” just sounds terrible. Trombones should be featured more predominantly in rock music. For the Simpsons fans among us: "Do you find something amusing about the word tromboner?"
Pigs are probably smarter than your dumb kid
Pigs are actually a lot smarter than people may realize. They’re curious, social, insightful, and smarter (in general) than dogs, some primates, and children under the age of three. Their grunts and squeals even function as a sort of low level language. So they roll around in their own filth, big deal.
Sources
http://www.ballerstatus.com/2012/08/24/interesting-facts-madden-nfl-game-franchise/
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-26/site/ct-perspec-0526-things-20130526_1_classical-music-arturo-toscanini-10-things
http://www.onekind.org/be_inspired/animals_a_z/pig/
Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He is also a contributor for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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