A Fish Called Ponder

Hello everyone, Brad here!

This week I have been pondering to myself.

There are a number of deep and philosophical questions I wanted answered, so I felt compelled enough to do some research and share with you what I have found.

My first ponder

Being in WinterKids, I was thinking about the birth of the CD. I wondered what the first song ever pressed onto this format was.

The answer: The first CD ever pressed was in the US, and it was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."

My second ponder

I was walking through town the other day and happened to notice a Motorola advertisement.

I thought to myself ‘I wonder where they got that name from’.

The answer: The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At the time, the most known record player on the market was called the 'Victrola'...so they called themselves Motorola!

My third ponder

For those of you who aren't aware, Chris (drummer) and Hannah (organ/vocals) are going to be getting married next year. This got me thinking about he word ‘honeymoon’.

What does it actually mean?

The answer: It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink.

Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the "honeymoon".

(Some mead)

My fourth ponder

When touring in Germany a couple of weeks ago with the band, I noticed several statue’s of soldiers on horses in parks.

One horse had both legs in the air, whereas another had just one leg in the air. This made me think ‘do the legs mean anything?'

The answer: If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

(This soldier died as a result of wounds received in battle)

My fifth and final ponder
Birthdays; whenever its someone’s birthday, they usually receive a rendition of the classic ‘happy birthday’ song from friends and family.

Well this got me thinking ‘does that song have a copyright or is it owned by the public?’

The answer: The company, Warner Communications actually paid $28 million for the copyright to the song "Happy Birthday".

Thanks for reading my ponders. If you have anything you'd like answered, feel free to write to me, and I'll do my upmost to find out the answers.

Btw, thank you everyone for your fanzine entries! We've had some real gems. There is still time to place an entry, so read the last blog for more info! (comp closes next Friday)

Cya soon

Brad

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