More bits from the book of Washington state trivia.
1. Washington is the only state named after a US president.
2. David Letterman once phoned the president of the Washington Association of Pea and Lentil Producers to ask what a lentil is.
3. Kyle MacLachlan of Twin Peaks was born in Yakima.
4. Bing Crosby was a native of Tacoma.
5. Adam West is from Walla Walla.
6. Bob Barker is from Darrington.
7. The Frank Zappa song "Jewish Princess" makes reference to the aroma of Tacoma.
8. Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, attended Evergreen State College.
9. In 1910, Harry Houdini leaped while manacled into the Spokane River.
10. Alice B Toklas (of magic brownie fame) and her partner Gertrude Stein both studied music at the University of Washington.
11. Before appearing on Dallas, Patrick Duffy went to Cascade High School in Everett and trained at UW.
12. Bruce And Brandon Lee are buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle.
13. In 1926, Bertha Landes was elected as mayor of Seattle and became the first woman mayor of a large American city.
14. Washingtonian May Arkwright Hutton became the first woman delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1912.
15. Serial killer Ted Bundy was from Washington.
16. The oldest house in Tumwater was built by Captain Nathaniel Crosby III (Bing's grandfather).
17. Washington cartoonist Gary Larson (The Far Side) has had his work displayed in the Smithsonian.
18. Crime writer Dashiell Hammett was once a detective in Seattle.
19. Frank Herbert, author of Dune, once lived in Port Townsend.
20. Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard attended Union High School in Bremerton.
21. Modern dance legend Martha Graham was a faculty member at the Cornish College of the Arts.
22. EB White, author of Charlotte's Web, was a reporter for the Seattle Times.
23. Seattle artist Hank Ketcham drew the Dennis the Menace comic strip.
24. Novelist Thomas Pynchon was a technical writer for Boeing in the 1960s.
25. Mark Twain once said, "The nicest winter I ever spent was a summer in Seattle."
26. Rudyard Kipling once said about Tacoma, "They are all mad here, all mad."
27. True crime writer Ann Rule is from Washington.
28. Jack Kerouac had a job as a firewatcher at Desolation Peak in 1956.
29. Kitty Kelley, best known for her unauthorized biographies of famous public figures, is from Spokane.
30. Wilt Chamberlain was briefly a member of the 1978 Seattle Smashers volleyball team.
31. Actor/comedian Danny Kaye was one of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners.
32. The first American to climb to the summit of Mt Everest was Washingtonian Jim Whittaker.
33. Bruce Lee attended UW and set up a martial arts school in the U-District.
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