Fun Fact: River Reversal Edition

The Chicago River originally flowed in to Lake Michigan, but was reversed in 1900 to prevent sewage from flowing in to the lake by constructing a canal to the Des Plaines river, part of the Mississippi River watershed. [Wikipedia]

On the Origin of "Indians"

The Trombones' "Indians" section feature is music from "Go Go Gophers," a short-lived cartoon show from the late 1960's featuring two Dogs in the U.S. Army that are constantly after two Gophers that are, yes, Indians.

The actual tune is a combination of the introduction music and the actual theme for the Indians/Gophers.

An Episode of the Show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH7TXnFJNeE
(for the impatient, watch the first 10 seconds and then skip to 3:30 for the music in question)

Wikipedia Article on the Show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_Go_Gophers

Fun Fact: Uptown Rainbow Edition

The Uptown Rainbow grocery store is built on the site of Minneapolis Arena, which served as the home of Golden Gopher Hockey before Williams Arena (old Mariucci) opened in 1950. [Vintage Minnesota Hockey]

Fun Fact: Beer Statistics Edition

The Student's t-distribution was developed for quality control measures at the Guinness Brewery. [Wikipeida]

Fun Fact: Blues Edition

Howard Shore (composer of The Lord of the Rings soundtrack, among others) was the first to suggest the name "The Blues Brothers" to Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. [Wikipedia]