Three events on Feb. 16

I'm a bit late posting this but wanted to honor Trivial Thursday so I'm forging ahead despite bronchitis.

The question on everyone's lips is: what inane thing will be discussed today at the old Sling Words office? Good question. I'm intrigued by three things that happened on February 16.

On this day in 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen was unsealed. Just think of the many creations to which that event gave birth. Everything from the Mummy movies to the Stargate mythology in the movie and the long-running SciFi series Stargate SG-1. If you're a fan of SG-1, then you know that the rulers of the ancient world were really a race of sentient beings called Go'auld who used the sarcophagus as a means of prolonging the human bodies they used as hosts. If only Lord Carnarvan could have visualized how the human imagination would take flight from the findings of the Egyptologists. Of course, he died shortly after the tomb was opened. The mummy's curse, you know.

The second thing is that on this day in 600CE (or AD if you are a traditionalist), Pope Gregory I decreed that "God bless you" was the correct response to a sneeze. Ah-choo! It may seem funny to you that they know the exact date "God bless you" was accepted, but remember, it was a papal decree.

The third thing, just for fun, is that this day in 1956 good old Play-Doh was invented. Actually, I think that was probably the date a patent was issued to Noah McVicker and Joseph McVicker for a "plastic modeling composition of a soft, playable working consistency" that eventually became the product known as Play-Doh.

They were actually trying to invent a wallpaper cleaner. When it failed in its original purpose, the men noticed how similar it was to modeling clay but without the toxicity ad mess so they pitched it as a toy. As a result, Joe McVicker became a millionaire before his 27th birthday.

The men founded Rainbow Crafts to manufacture the product but sold out to a toy company. Hasbro now owns Play-Doh.

The formula for Play-Doh still remains a trade secret. Originally Play-Doh came only in off-white, but by 1957, yellow, red, and blue were added.

Many a parent has cursed that day as they tried to scrape the colorful pliable junk from carpet fibers, but kids everywhere have fond memories of Play-Doh pies.