Who knew what a didgeridoo can do for you?

The didgeridoo (also known as a didjeridu or didge) is a wind instrument developed by indiginous Australians of  northern Australia at least 1,500 years ago and is still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or "drone pipe".  You might recall mention of it in the song “Tie Me Kangaroo Down” which we played this morning.  Some are four feet or more long.

According to a study done at the University of Zurich, playing a didgeridoo can relieve the symptons of sleep apnea and help eliminating snoring, thereby letting sufferers sleep better.  Although, playing a didgeridoo at night probably won’t help your partner sleep better. 

And we need to sleep better because a new study at Stanford University discovered one in five Americans can be classified as excessively sleepy. They found about 20% of us fit the criteria for excessive sleepiness – with 17% admitting we have trouble remaining awake and alert at work.  -So one in five of us can be classified as sleepy. The other four, of course…being classified as either Dopey, Grouchy, Bashful…or Happy.

 

The 101 number one song of the day became a merchandising bonanza and it all started with a riddle. It was written by an actor who had aspirations to be a singer/songwriter. After auditioning some of his ballads for the president of MGM records he was asked if he had anything else. The only other thing he had was in his own words, “the bottom of the barrel.” And it all started as a joke, literally. A friend asked him a riddle and after he heard it, he thought he had the makings of a song. Not a good song necessarily, after all, he rated it the bottom of the barrel. But it wound up leading to the merchandising of hats, t-shirts, even ice cream. So now the riddle that led to today’s 101 number one song of the day which ruled the charts on this day in 1958: What has one eye, has a horn and eats people? Sheb Wooley’s answer is The Purple People Eater.

Here’s the story behind today’s 101 Gold Nugget of Knowledge: A Washington state business is offering a $1,000 reward to catch a thief who took a doormat worth about $20. The owners of Advanced Metal Technologies in Spokane are angry and want to catch the man who may be looking to break into the business. Surveillance video shows the thief drove up about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, looked in the window and then grabbed the doormat.

And get a load of this: They’re doing a Census this year in Indonesia this year too. And the Census takers believe they may have found a woman who is 157-years old! She claims she was born in 1853 – but says she had to destroy all of her legal documents during a communist coup back in 1965. Her daughter vouches for her age. Her daughter is 108. The 157-year old woman still works around the house everyday…and smokes clove cigarettes.