Daily Dirt for Monday, July 7, 2025
Carter’s life was much more than just farming peanuts and serving as president. Welcome to The Daily Dirt’s Vol. 1,335: Three Thoughts for Today.
1. There s one account of former President Jimmy Carter s life that rarely gets showcased.
The fact that Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States, had detectable levels of radioactive urine at one point must rank close to the top of the list of noteworthy aspects of his life, according to a 2021 report by Jake Rossen, a senior staff writer formentalfloss.com.
According to Rossen, Carter was trained to work in the government’s atomic energy program while serving in the Navy in 1952. He was ordered to descend into a Canadian nuclear reactor near Chalk River, Ontario, as part of his job. Carter was part of a crew sent to clean up the damaged reactor before it was used again.
Carter received an amount of radiation that would be unthinkable today, but at the time, there were still a lot of unanswered questions in nuclear studies. Carter would go on to become as well-known as he is now as a peanut farmer.
In 2008, Carter, who passed away at the age of 100 in December 2024, told author Arthur Milnes, “We were fairly well instructed then on what nuclear power was, but for about six months after that I had radioactivity in my urine.” They likely allowed humans to receive a thousand times as much radiation as they currently do. They were unaware of it because it was still in its early phases.
Carter’s conservative stance on nuclear weapons during his presidency was said to have been influenced by the event. on the event that he had to resign from his position as president, he also ensured that Walter Mondale, his vice president, was well-versed on nuclear protocols.
It is unknown if Carter experienced any (other) long-term consequences from the exposure, aside from the radioactive pee.
2. Did you know (Part 418)
- That Hawaii is moving toward Japan approximately four inches a year, which means they will conjoin about 62 million years.
- That the first MLB player to have a hyphenated surname was Australia s Ryan Rowland-Smith, who debuted on June 22, 2007.
- That Michael Jackson was 25 years, 4 months and 29 days old when his hair caught on fire in 1984 while filming a Pepsi commercial. He died exactly 25 years, 4 months and 29 days later.
- That India is home to the world s only two vegetarian McDonald s in the world.
- That New York City s Central Park is larger than the country of Monaco. In fact, much larger: Central Park 843 acres, Monaco 514 acres.
3. To add to our expanding list of senior citizen texting codes, here are some more:
-
TL:
Talk louder. -
FWIW:
Forgot where I was. -
BTW:
Bring the wheelchair. -
LMDO:
Laughing my dentures out. -
BFF:
Best friend fell. -
GHA:
Got heartburn again. -
BYOT:
Bring your own teeth.
Steve’s Daily ThoughtForty is the only number with every letter in alphabetical sequence. You’re welcome.
Every day, Steve Eighinger contributes to Muddy River News. He would never enter a McDonald’s that served vegetarian food.
