Wikipedia Factoids

Recently, while consulting Wikipedia, the source of all human knowledge and wisdom, I randomly came across some interesting trivia.

Did you know that Shel Silverstein, the beloved children’s poet, lived at the Playboy Mansion? Neither did I.

Nor did I know this stuff about Vincent Van Gogh: “Legend has grown up about Van Gogh. One of the myths is that no one recognised his work. In fact it was praised in Le Mercure de France and he was called a genius. He was invited to participate in Les Vingt, an exhibition of avant-garde painters in Belgium and Monet said that his work was the best in the show. Toulouse-Lautrec challenged someone to a duel because they had insulted Van Gogh’s work. Another myth is that he cut off his ear, and although he did cut his ear, it was not the whole ear but part of it, at least the lobe and probably a little more with a diagonal cut. Van Gogh is sometimes thought of as the mad painter, but he could not paint during his disturbed episodes, only the time in between. Sometimes it is said that he did not sell any work, or only one painting in his lifetime (The Red Vineyard at Arles, 1888; Pushkin Museum, Moscow), but this is stretching the point, as he did receive some commissions, which are sales, and he also bartered work for meals etc, which is another form of sale.”

Also, anyone ever play Ultima 7? (Perhaps the greatest computer RPG of all time.) Back in my formative years, the maker of the Ultima series, Origin Systems, was locked in a death struggle with rival Electronic Arts. Origin was known for uncompromising quality and for creating games that were true works of art. Electronic Arts was known for creating games that were unplayable dreck, but the company had deep pockets and spent massive amounts of cash on marketing. The storyline for Ultima 7 concerns a sinister extradimensional entity called the Guardian who is able to influence events through the use of three giant artifacts — a cube, a sphere, and a tetrahedron — which the player must destroy in order to save the world. Until I read the Wikipedia article, I never made the connection between these artifacts and the Electronic Arts logo [dead link]. Ha! Good one! (Sadly, in the end Eletronic Arts bought out Origin, and the long-running Ultima series declined drastically in quality and quickly died.)