Friday Facts: Thanksgiving Parade, Freon, Events

:: Number of states represented by marching bands in this year’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: 5

:: Number of people saved by this year’s parade Grand Marshal, Janelle Welks, when that van went off of Pier 8 in June: 7

:: Number of candidates for next year’s mayoral race who will be marching in the parade: 3

:: This year’s balloons: Farley, a tin soldier, Batman, the Haddon Bros. Meats Tom Turkey

:: Number of elves used for the penultimate Santa float: 12 (8 on the float and 4 alternates)

:: An upcoming episode of the Discovery Channel series Mythbusters is scheduled to explore the myth that rock candy stored in the back of a refrigerator will absorb free-floating freon molecules and, if ingested, result in a “serious high.” This urban legend is believed to have originated with local late night horror tv host Count Film-Ula during a spirited 1978 broadcast.

:: Due to a change in their membership’s male/female gender ratio from 19:1 in 1968 to 1:3 in 2006, the 39th annual Sadie Hawkins Day Dance, held as a fundraiser by the Westside Independent Business Owner’s Group (WIBOG) on the third Saturday of every November, will feature a bachelorette auction instead of the traditional bachelor auction. This year’s festivities will take place at 8pm on November 17 in the old BPOE hall on West 19th Street.

:: The local chapter of the University of Oklahoma Alumni Association will take over the Pitcairn Room at the Hyatt Regency Shaffer Boulevard Hotel on November 17 to celebrate the Oklahoma Statehood Centennial (46th State, entered the union 11/16/1907) and watch their beloved Sooners try to position themselves for the Big 12 championship game and the BCS title game in their prime time tilt in Lubbock against the hated Texas Tech Red Raiders. Halftime will feature the piñata-bashing of a life-size likeness of Tech head coach Mike Leach.

:: On November 19 at Noon, actor Mike Rooney will recreate Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on the front steps of the City Hall Annex. Don’t be late, as the 16th President’s most famous speech runs a scant 278 words. Rooney is best known for portraying Mr. Lincoln in widely-seen television commercials selling Rozerem sleep aids and co-starring a talking beaver.

:: And remember- If, in the next week, someone asks where Black Friday came from, you know the real answer.
– David Andrews, Jon Morris, RJ White