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DID YOU KNOW …? Did a beloved “Star Trek” actor almost wind up on a different science fiction show?

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January 22, 2026

It's time for the first mea culpa of 2026! Yes, it seems I've been caught in an error in the column two weeks ago. In it, I mentioned the fact that actor Michael J. Fox's middle name doesn't actually begin with a “J.” That wasn't the error, however. The error was in the listing of his birth. I said he was born in 1981, when he was actually born in 1961. To his credit, Mr. Fox wasn't the one who pointed it out, and if he saw it at all he probably appreciated my taking 20 years off his age. I do want to thank my friend Hack Stone at valorguardians.com for correcting me on Mr. Fox's year of birth. Now, on to this week's trivia!

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Here’s To a Healthy New Year!
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January 22, 2026

Ah, health. The thing we should value most in our lives. With 2026 now in full swing, it’s time for me to take a little stock in good health, considering how things have gone for me recently. Since getting out of the hospital on November 1st, I have managed to gain back some (okay, a lot) of the weight I had lost. That did not make me popular with my cardiologist on my last visit to his office last week. The nurse practitioner asked me point blank, “Are you trying to have another heart attack? Because that’s one way to make it happen.” I was properly chastised and said I would back off the snacking. You see, I count calories at each meal, and try to keep my calorie intake at between 1500 and 2000 a day.  That’s easy to do - if you don’t snack between meals, as I have a tendency to do.

It Ain’t Hard to Decide on Good or Healthy
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January 22, 2026

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), at least one in five adults (about 20% of the population) in the United States is living with obesity. Now, if you live in Georgia, that number is greater. According to the CDC, the states with the highest adult obesity rates (35% or higher) include: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. How do you know if you are suffering from obesity? The CDC says anyone with a body mass of 30 or higher is suffering from obesity. So, I decided to look into what might be considered what makes healthy food. According to Healthline, the foods most people consider to be healthy are whole foods that contain beneficial nutrients, are low in saturated fat, sodium and do not contain additives like sweeteners. In other words to eat healthy the food has to be what I would consider to be kind of, well shall we say bland.

Some Are Easily Misled
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January 22, 2026

Watching the continuing issues in Minnesota is extremely disheartening and reminiscent of times past. Some of you that have been around for a while will remember protests held regarding Lt. William Calley and the My Lai Massacre that took place during the Vietnam War. For those unfamiliar, on the morning of March 16, 1968, American soldiers murdered 400 to 500 Vietnamese in Quang Ngai province in South Vietnam. Almost all those murdered were old men, women, and children. In addition to the murders, some of the women were raped -- including girls as young as 12 years old.

They Lie to Us All the Time!
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January 15, 2026

Some folks in Illinois, my home state, have filed a class action lawsuit against the food giant McDonald’s, claiming their advertising lies about one of the chain’s sandwiches. It seems that the McRib, the popular sandwich that for some reason is only available at the holidays, does not actually contain any rib meat. The suit says the name is deceptive advertising, and the shaping of the pork patty on the sandwich to appear as rib meat is deceptive as well. Sounds to me as if some folks in Illinois have run out of productive things to do. So what if the McRib doesn’t have actual rib meat? McDonald’s calls the meat in the sandwich “seasoned boneless pork,” which is a heck of a lot longer name than McRib and would be much harder to put up on their signs when the sandwich is available. If these people are upset because the McRib doesn’t have any actual rib meat, they’re going to apoplectic when they realize a lot of other things have been advertised as lies.

My Advice for 2026: Become a Hermit
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January 15, 2026

Okay, let’s face facts. Another year has come and gone, most of us are a year older, maybe not wiser but are happy to live for another year. Having made another year of life is something to get excited about. A wise man once said, “Everyone wants to go to heaven, they just don’t want to go right now.” Bob Tribble, the former newspaper owner had a saying that I will always remember. Anytime someone would say to him, “It’s good to see you.” He would respond with, “Yep, it’s better to be seen than viewed.” I could not think of a truer statement. Anyway, a new year always means some type of change. One in particular that has forever been a claw in my side, it’s writing the year. It always takes me months to begin writing the new numeral. I assure you it will be August or September before I start writing 2026 and then it’s not long before I have to start writing another new year date.

What a Start to 2026
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January 15, 2026

Who would anticipated that 2026 would have begun in such a manner? Some of what has transpired began in 2025 but exploded in the opening days of 2026. First was the capture of Nicolas Maduro, the dictator of Venezuela. A socialist, Maduro came to power in 2012 as vice president of Venezuela becoming president in 2013. Freedoms quickly disappeared. Subsequent elections after that were won by Madura, though charges of manipulation increased each time. Once a prosperous country, under Maduro’s socialist regime the Venezuelan people suffered. In 2024, Maduro won the presidential election by a considerable margin again – or did he? International observers reported widespread voting issues, saying the election was not free or fair. It was suggested that Maduro lost by a large margin and it was at this point the US no longer recognized Maduro as the legal president of Venezuela.

DID YOU KNOW …? Was one of radio’s longest broadcast marathons tied to a baseball team’s losing streak?
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January 15, 2026

Sometimes I just want to do the following: On “write the column” day, sit down at my keyboard, clear my throat, crack my knuckles, and type “This Space for Rent.” It gets really hard sometimes to come up with an introduction to the column. When the world doesn’t give me much to work with, I have to be creative - and we all know where that leads. So the introduction this week is no introduction at all, and we’ll just move along to the trivia. By the way, if you feel the urge to write to me, do so at didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com and I always answer quickly. Thanks!

DID YOU KNOW …? How many different television shows named “College Bowl” have aired in the U.S.?
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January 8, 2026

The New Year is more than a week old at this point, so the time has come to ask - how are your resolutions holding up? Are you still keeping them? Or did you (as I do) just say “the heck with it” and give up on them? Whichever you do, I am certain it’s the right thing for you, and you’re going to be fantastic at keeping them - or not keeping them, as the case may be. I did keep one resolution - to bring you the finest in trivial stuff every week, and I’m going to keep doing it. So here’s this week’s selection of trivial stuff! Enjoy.

Looking Back to Look Ahead
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January 8, 2026

I was going through some old columns of mine, looking for some kind of spark to touch off a new one for this week, when I came across the one I’d written in January of 2021 regarding predictions for the future. You have to remember the time we were in: Covid was raging, we were all staying six feet apart and wearing silly masks, most if not all places that weren’t deemed “essential” were closed, and the government wasn’t sure what to do next. So the only thing we could hope for in that year was that the virus would subside (which it did) and that life would return to normal (which is just a setting on your dryer). I took a look at some of the predictions for the future that had been made, and shared ten of them with you.  If you don’t remember - and I have no idea why you even would try to - here they are, as I presented them five years ago: I have a 100% accuracy rate as far as predictions go - I am consistently wrong. So I’m not going to stick my neck out and try to guess what the next twelve months hold in store for us. What I will do, however, is look up some of the earlier predictions for this new year, and put them forth here.  You can keep this column and, one year hence, see which were right and which were wrong.