March 27, 2009 - The Austin Chronicle

MR. SMARTY PANTSKNOWSHopper, a border collie owned by Pauline Alligood and MitchBynum of West, Texas, retrieved a meteorite in March 2009.E.B. White, Frank Herbert, and Tom Robbins werewriters for the Seattle Post-Intelligenc er, whose lastprint edition was March 17.According to the Urban Dictionary, to “prank” means to ring someone’s cell phone to letthem know you’ve arrived or to signal something, as in, “When I get there, I’ll prank you.”According to one Houston rocket scientist, the astronauts on the space shuttle oncereceived a prank fax of a fish chasing its tail. The fax machine, which had a roll of paperinstead of individual sheets, ran out of all its paper because of the prank, so theastronauts couldn’t receive faxes for the rest of the mission.A book of maps is called an “atlas” because the earliest ones had a picture of Atlasholding the world on his back on the cover.The above is information that Mr. Smarty Pants read in a book, a magazine,or the newspaper; heard on the radio; saw on television; or overheard at a party.Got facts? Write to Mr. Smarty Pants at the Chronicle, or e-mail mrpants@austinchronicle.com.110 T H E A U S T I N C H R O N I C L E MARCH 27, 2009 a u s t i n c h r o n i c l e . c o m