The tradition of christening a new ship by breaking a bottle of champagne (or other alcohol) over it is a time-honored one. The U.S. has done it since the launch of the USS Constitution in 1797, but the practice was taken from the Brits, who borrowed the concept from the ancient Greeks among others.

After so many centuries, you’d think that we would have the practice down—but as First Lady Bess Truman found out in 1945, practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect. Bess was supposed to christen a pair of new ambulance planes for the Army and Navy, but when she tried to break a bottle of bubbly on the nose of the Army plane, it refused to break. Someone had forgotten to score the glass on the bottles ahead of time, which, it turns out, is the secret to a successful smash.

When it came time for the Navy ambulance plane to be christened, they came up with a crafty solution to the seemingly unbreakable bottle—positioning a hammer under the plane’s nose, where Bess duly aimed.

 
The crowd members weren’t the only ones who got a kick out of the bungled bottle—the president was also entertained. “They showed me pictures of you trying to break that champagne bottle on the plane,” he wrote to her. “They are very good. They caught the navy with the hammer redhanded.”

The first bottle never did smash—you can still view the stubborn, sturdy thing at the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri.

Before we get into any of this, if you’re not caught up on HBO’s Game of Thrones, we’re about to unleash a whole lot of spoilers. (Same goes for all of the published books.) So if you haven’t finished watching the sixth season, go do that now. Then come back.

By now, even the most casual Game of Thrones watchers know that when there are still a few months to kill before the new season premieres (in this case, season seven on July 16), any hint at what the next episodes will bring is enough to get the creative wheels turning in a serious fan’s head. Which is why, at various times over the years, we’ve reported on several fan theories—some of them plausible, some of them kookier than Lady Lysa Arryn.

One of the theories that has long been debated by viewers revolves around a vision that Daenerys has in George R.R. Martin’s book series, A Song of Fire and Ice. The vision is of her brother, Rhaegar Targaryen, who talks about his son as “the prince that was promised.” In the vision, Rhaegar also says “there must be one more … the dragon has three heads.” As Nerdist reports, “it has long been assumed that in order to ride a dragon—and in turn be one of the three heads to ride Dany’s kiddies into the future to save Westeros from the White Walkers—one must have Targaryen blood.”

We got one step closer to figuring out who this dragon-riding trio might be when it was revealed in season six that Jon Snow, the supposed bastard son of Ned Stark, is actually the son of Lyanna Stark (Ned’s sister) and Rhaegar, which makes him Daenerys’s nephew. Rather than bask in the joy of finally knowing for sure who Jon’s parents were, fans immediately began wondering about that third head—and how it might play into another popular fan theory that asserts that Tyrion Lannister is not a Lannister at all, but the product of an affair between Joanna Lannister and Aerys II Targaryen (a.k.a. the Mad King).

This is where we get to the new theory we promised: Over at Mashable, Alex Hazlett has laid out an extremely detailed—and very believable—idea that it’s that Kingslayer Jaime Lannister who, in fact, has the Targaryen blood and is being set up to become the show’s true hero. To understand the nuances of Hazlett’s theory, you’ll want to read her piece in full. But if you go in a skeptic, be forewarned that she has photographic proof … well, sort of.

The picture above, one of the promotional images for season seven, is what sparked the theory because of one tiny detail: that shiny sword. Remember that prince that was promised? Well, he’ll carry a burning sword known as Lightbringer with him, and he’ll use it to wreak all sorts of havoc before he can begin on his path to redemption. (Nerdist breaks that all down here.)

It’s an intriguing theory, to be sure, and one that would open the door to a variety of surprising—and bloody—storylines. (Hey, it’s Game of Thrones.) For now, we’ll all just have to wait and wonder.

Saturday, April 22 is Earth Day, celebrated since 1970 to raise awareness of global environmental issues and activism. Events and celebrations, coordinated by the Earth Day Network, are held around the world.

1. SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL GOOD POP-UP // NEW YORK CITY

More than 70 organizations come together for Earth Day in New York City, and one event sponsored by the Earth Day Initiative and Kargoe (a social shopping app) is a pop-up shop of sorts featuring companies and groups that support sustainability and social responsibility. The event will be held near Chelsea Piers from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m on Saturday.

2. EARTH DAY UNITED // COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

Earth Day United will be held at Christiansborg Castle Square in Copenhagen on April 22. It will begin with an address by organizer Angajoq Nattortalissuaq (a Greenlandic shaman), and then a circle will be formed for sessions of drum-playing, aimed at all four corners of the world. Participation is free; bring your own drum or other musical instruments. There will be 15 minutes of drumming every half-hour for two hours, then the group is invited to join the March for Science.

3. EMPOWER EARTH DAY CELEBRATION // LONDON

There are at least seven bands scheduled to perform at The Hive in London for an Earth Day celebration sponsored by the Gaia Warriors, a collective of activists and musicians. The event will raise funds for British charities and groups fighting climate change and will feature environmental speakers, dance, yoga, shamans, a vegan cafe, and more.

4. EARTH DAY PARADE AND FESTIVAL // VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

The 7th annual Earth Day Parade and Festival will take place in Vancouver on April 22 beginning at 1 p.m. A parade starts things off, with the festival, which includes various educational talks and activities, continuing at Grandview Park until 5 p.m. The event is sponsored by Youth for Climate Justice Now.

5. GLOBAL UNITY AND REGENERATION GATHERING // LANJARON, SPAIN

New Earth Nation in Lanjarón, Granada, Spain, will hold a 24-hour Global Unity and Regeneration Gathering with presentations and workshops on environmentalism, healing, and awakening. Stop by to learn how to cultivate spirulina pools or make a self-regenerating water system for use at home.

6. EARTH DAY TOKYO // TOKYO, JAPAN

In Tokyo, Earth Day is a two-day celebration, this year on April 22 and 23 in Yoyogi Park. Around 100,000 visitors are expected to enjoy family activities and learn about businesses that use sustainable methods and materials and organizations that promote environmental protection. There will also be plenty of vegetarian food and music from socially conscious entertainers. Admission is free.

7. NURRAGINGY RESERVE NATURE WALKS // SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA

Nurragingy Reserve is a public park in Doonside, New South Wales, near Sydney. For Earth Day, the park has a full slate of activities, including four different nature walks with experts, storytelling, a recycled bike giveaway, and talks on attracting frogs and birds to your home garden.

8. EARTH DAY SAN FRANCISCO // SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

San Francisco will stage their street festival for Earth Day at the San Francisco Civic center. Events include the sustainable chef showcase and organic food court, an eco fashion show, DIY workshops, activities for kids, an art gallery, and lots of live music. This will be the 46th year the city has held an Earth Day Festival and is being held in conjunction with this year’s March for Science.

9. EARTH EXPO // JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

South Africa is among the countries that call April 22 International Mother Earth Day. The Rand Show is the biggest consumer exposition in South Africa, held this year from April 14-23 in Johannesburg, and a big part of the exposition is Earth Expo, which is sponsored by several environmental organizations. Earth Expo will present educational forums on topics like nutrition, fashion, and technology, and discuss entrepreneurship and developing skills with those who want to make their businesses more sustainable.

10. THE MARCH FOR SCIENCE // UNITED STATES AND ELSEWHERE

There will be Earth Day celebrations all over the United States, but the one you’ll see on the news will be the March for Science In Washington, D.C., with satellite marches in at least 425 other locations around the world. Scientists, science students, and science fans will converge to advocate for evidence-based government policies and environmental protection. The march is sponsored by 170 partner organizations, including the Earth Day Network. Many European countries are participating, too.

Other Earth Day celebrations will be taking place around the U.S., in Austin, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Reno, and somewhere near you.

Recycling isn’t—and shouldn’t be—limited to separating plastic cartons, junk mail, and tin cans for the garbage collector. This Earth Day, think outside the plastic bin, and brainstorm creative ways to convert or re-purpose old, discarded, or unexpected materials into something new and useful. Don’t know where to start? Get inspired by one (or all) of the sustainable organizations and initiatives below.

1. THE SHOPPING CENTER THAT SELLS RECYCLED/UPCYCLED ITEMS

 
The adage “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure” rings true in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The metropolis is home to a shopping center, ReTuna Återbruksgalleria, which only sells upcycled, recycled, or sustainable merchandise. (The name ReTuna Återbruksgalleria combines Tuna, which is a nickname for the city; återbruk, which means “reuse” in Swedish; and galleria, which means mall.)

Patrons can drop off objects they no longer want or need at a designated recycling depot. Items that can be repaired are fixed and re-sold in the mall’s nine shops, which offer customers everything from furniture to clothing items to sporting equipment. Goods that can’t be sold are donated to needy institutions or organizations, or recycled.

2. THE MALL THAT FEEDS ITS FOOD WASTE TO HOGS

The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, is the nation’s largest shopping center—and it’s also vying for the title of “greenest.” In addition to LED parking garage lighting, water-efficient toilets, and thousands of air-purifying plants and trees, the mall annually recycles more than 2400 tons of food waste by donating it to a local hog farm. (If you’re an entrepreneur who’s interested in emulating the MOA’s large-scale food waste strategy, you can check out the Environmental Protection Agency’s guidelines for getting started here.)

3. THE NONPROFIT THAT TRANSFORMS FLIP-FLOP FLOTSAM INTO ART

 
Around 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year. Soda bottles, grocery bags, and six-pack rings aren’t the only plastic items polluting the world’s waterways and harming fish, turtles, and other animals: In 1997, marine conservationist Julie Church came across a beach in Kenya that was strewn with discarded flip-flops.

Church noticed children making toys from the debris, and convinced local women to collect, wash, and process the flip-flops into colorful art objects. This initiative grew into Ocean Sole, a fair-trade business that today collects flip-flop flotsam from Kenya’s beaches and waters and transforms them into plastic sculptures, accessories, and trinkets. Ocean Sole’s goal is to recycle 400,000 flip-flops per year, and the organization also provides business opportunities to women living in city slums and remote coastal areas.

4. THE COMPANY THAT TURNS USED DIAPERS INTO USABLE ITEMS

 
Founded in 1989, Knowaste is a Canadian company that recycles diapers and absorbent hygiene products (AHPs), such as baby diapers, feminine hygiene products, and incontinence pads. They’ve developed a way to strip them of their plastic and fiber, which they then use to make products like composite construction materials, pet litter, and cardboard industrial tubing.

5. THE ECOLOGICAL NONPROFIT THAT COLLECTS HAIR TO CLEAN UP OIL SPILLS

 
Work at a beauty salon or own a furry pet? Instead of tossing shorn or shed hair into the trash, donate it to Matter of Trust. The San Francisco-based ecological charity’s Clean Wave program collects hair and fur, and uses it to make oil-absorbing mats and stuff containment booms. Hazmat teams use these all-natural tools to clean up after oil spills, and public works departments use them to keep motor oil drip spills out of waterways.

In addition to large-scale donations from beauty salons, barbershops, and groomers, Matter of Trust also accepts smaller contributions from private individuals. If you’re interested in helping out, visit Matter of Trust’s website, register to participate in the nonprofit’s Excess Access recycling program, and follow the instructions to donate. The program’s need for hair and fur ebbs and flows, depending on the volume of recent donations. But in the case of an emergency oil spill, all donations are welcome. (Cases in point: Matter of Trust’s hair mats and booms were used to help clean up after both the 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill in the San Francisco Bay and the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.)

6. THE NONPROFIT THAT RE-PURPOSES OLD CRAYONS INTO NEW ONES

 
Crayola’s crayon-making factory in Easton, Pennsylvania, produces around 12 million crayons each day, making it all too easy and inexpensive to toss scuzzy, broken, and worn-down wax stubs into the trash and purchase new ones. Crayons are typically made from paraffin wax and aren’t biodegradable—so to keep old art tools from clogging landfills, a Northern California-based nonprofit called The Crayon Initiative collects unwanted crayons from restaurants and schools and melts them down to make fresh ones. Then, they donate the re-purposed goods to children’s hospitals. Family restaurants and schools can find out how to organize crayon donation drives online.

Each month, we round up the most interesting comics, graphic novels, webcomics, digital comics, and comics-related Kickstarter campraigns that we recommend you check out.

1. ALIENS: DEAD ORBIT #1

By James Stokoe
Dark Horse Comics

Timed to coincide with “Alien Day” on April 26^th (the date was chosen because 4/26 matches LV-426, the name of the moon on which the film Aliens takes place), this highly anticipated new mini-series is James Stokoe’s next foray into popular movie monster territory. Previously, the visionary artist produced two astounding Godzilla books that showed off his attention to finely detailed destruction. Expect that same level of stylish intricacy being applied to H.R. Giger-designed spaceship technology and oozy Xenomorph anatomy. The first issue sets things up with your typical Aliens premise—a lone engineer is  trapped on a spaceship with a Xenomorph—and lets Stokoe just run with it in his own way.

2. BATMAN #21

By Tom King, Jason Fabok, Jay Leisten, and Brad Anderson
DC Comics 

When DC kicked off their line-restarting publishing event last summer with a one-shot comic called DC Rebirth, they dropped lots of hints that they were planning on bringing the characters of Alan Moore’s Watchmen comic into DC continuity. There were allusions to Dr. Manhattan’s Martian palace and Batman even unearthed the iconic smiley face button from a wall inside the Batcave. Yet, almost a year later, DC has not done much to follow up on these teases. Now, in a four-part story called “The Button” that will run in two issues of Batman and two issues of The Flash, those two hero detectives will team up to solve the mystery of this smiley face button while DC will risk the ire of Watchmen fans who are likely still steaming from the 2012 decision go against Moore’s wishes and make the Before Watchmen prequel books.

3. COLLECTING STICKS

By Joe Decie
Jonathan Cape Books

Collecting Sticks is a camping story for those who aren’t all that comfortable with outdoorsy activities. In it, Joe Decie describes what “glamping” (glamorous camping) is like with his wife and son: a drive to the woods to stay in a rented cabin that’s furnished with beds and within walking distance of a grocery store. They wrestle with building a fire, sketch the scenery, argue about the lameness of Jango Fett, and, of course, collect sticks and other found objects (that can be sold on eBay later). Decie portrays himself as a bit of a nebbish, but he and his family are perfectly happy with their version of camping and their endearingly sarcastic-but-loving dynamic is infectious.

4. CATSTRONAUTS: MISSION MOON / CATSTRONAUTS: RACE TO MARS

By Drew Brockington
Little, Brown Books

Dogs have had their turn in space, so why not see what cats can do? Drew Brockington has debuted his first two graphic novels at once, and they mark the beginning of a delightful—and even educational—series set in a world populated by felines and starring an intrepid band of cat astronauts. Book one, Mission Moon, starts off with an energy crisis on Earth that requires the CatStronauts to install a solar power plant on the moon before the last bit of energy runs out. In book two, Race to Mars, they’re called upon again to compete against other countries to be the first cats to land on Mars. Like little cat versions of Matt Damon in The Martian, they must use some technical know-how and real science to complete their missions and get themselves out of some jams. Young readers will get a kick out of the cute cat jokes, but will also learn some simple facts about aeronautics along the way.

5. X-MEN: GOLD #1 / X-MEN: BLUE #1

By Marc Guggenheim, Ardian Syaf/By Cullen Bunn and Jorge Molina
Marvel Comics

Marvel’s X-Men franchise has been in an oddly diminished place for the past few years. Star players like Wolverine and Cyclops are dead, and mutants, in general, have seemed of secondary importance compared to Marvel Cinematic Universe-driven titles like The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and even The Inhumans (the X-Men film franchise is controlled not by Marvel, but by Fox). Now, in an effort to harken back to an era of peak popularity, Marvel is returning to the informal Blue/Gold team structure that was used to differentiate the two main X-books during the 1990s, although with different rosters for each team. X-Men: Gold will be led by Kitty Pryde, who is fresh off a stint in space with the Guardians, and will consist of Old Man Logan (the inspiration for the new Logan film), Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Rachel Grey. X-Men: Blue will have the original teenage X-Men—Jean Grey, Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, and Beast—who have been transported through time to find themselves stuck in the present.

This relaunch was saddled with some unintended controversy when online readers of X-Men: Gold #1 pointed out that the artist, Ardian Syaf, had hidden some anti-Christian and anti-Jewish messages in that issue’s artwork. Marvel has since released an apology, fired Syaf from the book, and even pulled the issue from Comixology’s digital storefront, promising that future printings of the book will feature revised artwork.

6. IMAGINE WANTING ONLY THIS

By Kristen Radtke
Pantheon Books

While in college, the path of Kristen Radtke’s life was influenced by two events: the death of her uncle from a congenital heart disease that she herself may share, and the discovery of some photos in a rundown building that would spark a years-long fascination with ruined places. Radtke’s first graphic novel is part travel memoir/part environmental journal/part philosophical exploration of the places that human beings leave behind. She explores coal mines, deserted American cities, an Icelandic town buried in volcanic ash, and even imagines a future New York City flooded by climate catastrophe. Her photorealistic illustrations give this book a documentary-like feel; her essay-like writing and her own presence throughout the story add a personal and emotional element.

7. NAMELESS CITY VOL. 2: THE STONE HEART

By Faith Erin Hicks
First Second

The middle volume of Faith Erin Hicks’s Nameless City trilogy comes on the heels of an announcement that the books will be adapted into a 12-episode animated series. This volume picks up where the last book left off, and continues to build on the friendship between Kaidu, the son of the leader of the invading Dao army, and Rat, the native orphan of the beleaguered Nameless City. That friendship becomes strained when Kaidu is made privy to a secret that could help his father bring order to the City, but at the cost of betraying the culture of its people. Hicks’s beautiful artwork is full of intricately drawn vistas and manga-style action, giving this story of political intrigue a snappy, addictive pace. 

8. THE INTERVIEW

By Manuele Fior
Fantagraphics

Manuele Fior’s 5,000 km Per Second, the winner of the prestigious Grand Prize at the 2010 Angoulême International Comics Festival, was released in English last year by Fantagraphics to wide critical acclaim. This year, we get to read his 2014 follow-up, The Interview, which takes 5,000 km’s knack for depicting brooding relationship drama and adds a tinge of existential sci-fi dread. Set in Italy in 2048, it follows a psychologist trying to hold his marriage together when he has a close encounter with a UFO, followed by an even closer encounter with a young female patient from a free love commune. This is a gorgeous and moody book that uses science fiction to explore the way the nature of relationships changes from generation to generation.

9. THE REALIST: PLUG AND PLAY

By Asaf Hanuka
Boom! Studios

Asaf Hanuka is well known for his collaborations with his twin brother, Tomer (their most recent graphic novel being 2015’s The Divine). But in his native Israel, Asaf is best known as the creator of The Realist comic strip, which has been running in the Israeli business magazine Calcalist since 2010. Boom! Studios is releasing the second collection of Hanuka’s strips which are short (sometimes even one-page), full-color observations about parenthood, achieving work/life balance, and the geo-political world around him. He has a comedian’s knack for pointing out the little, relatable moments we all share in life and his drawings burst with such creativity that you’ll chuckle with appreciation if you aren’t already chuckling with fellow parental commiseration.

10. BLACK PANTHER AND THE CREW #1

By Ta-Nehisi Coates, Yona Harvey and Butch Guice
Marvel Comics

Ta-Nehisi Coates takes his Black Panther series from the African kingdom of Wakanda to the streets of Harlem and turns it into a team book comprised of prominent black superheroes like Luke Cage, Storm, Misty Knight, relative newcomer Manifold, and, of course Black Panther himself. Marvel Comics fans may recognize the name “The Crew” from Christopher Priest’s short-lived 2003 series of the same name, about an all-black team of heroes. Coates has nodded to Priest as a comic book influence before—particularly his run on Black Panther in the late 1990s. Outside of comics, Coates is a famed writer on race relations and the black experience and will no doubt be addressing such issues in this new series, which begins with the Crew looking to solve the murder of a Harlem activist. Coates is joined by co-writer Yona Harvey (who worked with him on the Black Panther spin-off series World of Wakanda) as well as veteran artist Butch Guice.

11. SPENCER & LOCKE #1

By David Pepose, Jorge Santiago, and Jasen Smith
Action Lab Entertainment 

Calvin & Hobbes fans might just love this gritty crime drama about Detective Locke and his imaginary partner/stuffed panther Spencer (though I can also imagine some will revolt at seeing even analogs of Bill Watterson’s precocious young boy, his imaginary tiger, and their supporting cast depicted in such a bleak and adult way). Writer David Pepose, artist Jorge Santiago, and colorist Jasen Smith get a lot right as they age up this Calvin stand-in into a tough, slightly unhinged cop who has to revisit his past to solve the murder of his childhood friend Sophie Jenkins. 

12. WITCHLIGHT

By Jessi Zabarsky
Czap Books

The debut book from new publisher Czap Books (a company funded through a successful Kickstarter last year) is a beautifully illustrated, LBQT-friendly adventure by Jessi Zabarsky that originally ran as a Tumblr webcomic. Witchlight is about two women—innocent, naive Sanja and dark, adventurous Lelek—who are thrown together on a journey across a magical land. The two get to know each other and learn about themselves and the idea of growing close to another person in this sweet, manga-inspired fantasy.

Bonsai trees may be small, but according to David Castro, curator of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Bonsai Museum, they have big stories to tell.

You may not be able to afford adult summer camp, but you can pretend to be hanging out at Camp Firewood with all your friends. Wet Hot American Summer is set to become a role-playing game.

Wet Hot American Summer: Fantasy Camp is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter by humor publisher The Devastator. At press time, the project was less than $2000 away from its $12,500 goal (with nearly a month to go). The game is officially sanctioned by the original movie’s co-writer and director David Wain, and according to the Kickstarter, the game’s rulebook will include never-before-seen material and playing tips from members of the cast and crew, including Joe Lo Truglio, Marguerite Moreau, Michael Ian Black, and Wain himself. You can get the print version of the manual for $20 or a digital copy for $10.

Because it’s a role-playing game, all you need is the manual and some friends. You can either design your own summer camps and create your own characters, or you can play as your favorite characters from the film and Netflix series, pursuing three different story lines: “Save the Camp,” “Superstardom,” and “Bonfire Boinking.” In each version, your character will attend classic camp activities like the talent show, complete counselor chores like flushing out contraband from campers’ bunks, and hoard special items to make your last day of camp the best ever (read: beer).

Take a look at a preview below:

[h/t Den of Geek]

Based on Jacqueline Susann’s best-selling 1966 novel (which sold more than 30 million copies), Valley of the Dolls was a critically maligned film that somehow managed to gross $50 million when it was released nearly 50 years ago, in December 1967. Both the film and the novel focus on three young women—Neely O’Hara (Patty Duke), Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), and Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins)—who navigate the entertainment industry in both New York City and L.A., but end up getting addicted to barbiturates, a.k.a. “dolls.”

Years after its original release, the film became a so-bad-it’s-good classic about the perils of fame. John Williams received his first of 50 Oscar nominations for composing the score. Mark Robson directed it, and he notoriously fired the booze- and drug-addled Judy Garland, who was cast to play aging actress Helen Lawson (Susan Hayward took over), who was supposedly based on Garland. (Garland died on June 22, 1969 from a barbituate overdose.) Two months after Garland’s sudden demise, the Manson Family murdered the very pregnant Tate in August 1969.

Despite all of the glamour depicted in the movie and novel, Susann said, “Valley of the Dolls showed that a woman in a ranch house with three kids had a better life than what happened up there at the top.” A loose sequel, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls—which was written by Roger Ebert—was released in 1970, but it had little to do with the original. In 1981, a TV movie updated the Dolls. Here are 14 deep facts about the iconic guilty pleasure.

1. JACQUELINE SUSANN DIDN’T LIKE THE MOVIE.

To promote the film, the studio hosted a month-long premiere party on a luxury liner. At a screening in Venice, Susann said the film “appalled” her, according to Parkins. She also thought Hollywood “had ruined her book,” and Susann asked to be taken off the boat. At one point she reportedly told Robson directly that she thought the film was “a piece of sh*t.”

2. BARBARA PARKINS WAS “NERVOUS” TO WORK WITH JUDY GARLAND.

Barbara Parkins had only been working with Judy Garland for two days when the legendary actress was fired for not coming out of her dressing room (and possibly being drunk). “I called up Jackie Susann, who I had become close to—I didn’t call up the director strangely enough—and I said, ‘What do I do? I’m nervous about going on the set with Judy Garland and I might get lost in this scene because she knows how to chew up the screen,’” Parkins told Windy City Times. “She said, ‘Honey, just go in there and enjoy her.’ So I went onto the set and Judy came up to me and wrapped her arms around me and said, ‘Oh, baby, let’s just do this scene,’ and she was wonderful.”

3. WILLIAM TRAVILLA BASED THE FILM’S COSTUMES ON THE WOMEN’S LIKES.

Costume designer William Travilla had to assemble 134 outfits for the four leading actresses. “I didn’t have a script so I read the book and then the script once I got one,” he explained of his approach to the film. “I met with the director and producer and asked how they felt about each character and then I met with the girls and asked them what they liked and didn’t like and how they were feeling. Then I sat down with my feelings and captured their feelings, too.”

4. SUSANN THOUGHT GARLAND “GOT RATTLED.”

In an interview with Roger Ebert, Susann offered her thoughts on why Garland was let go. “Everybody keeps asking me why she was fired from the movie, as if it was my fault or something,” she said. “You know what I think went wrong? Here she was, raised in the great tradition of the studio stars, where they make 30 takes of every scene to get it right, and the other girls in the picture were all raised as television actresses. So they’re used to doing it right the first time. Judy just got rattled, that’s all.”

5. PATTY DUKE PARTIALLY BLAMES THE DIRECTOR’S BEHAVIOR FOR GARLAND’S EXIT.

During an event at the Castro Theatre, Duke discussed working with Garland. “The director, who was the meanest son of a bitch I ever met in my life … the director, he kept this icon, this sparrow, waiting and waiting,” Duke said. “She had to come in at 6:30 in the morning and he wouldn’t even plan to get to her until four in the afternoon. She was very down to earth, so she didn’t mind waiting. The director decided that some guy from some delicatessen on 33rd Street should talk to her, and she crumbled. And she was fired. She shouldn’t have been hired in the first place, in my opinion.”

6. DUKE DIDN’T SING NEELY’S SONGS.

All of Neely’s songs in the movie were dubbed, which disappointed Duke. “I knew I couldn’t sing like a trained singer,” she said. “But I thought it was important for Neely maybe to be pretty good in the beginning but the deterioration should be that raw, nerve-ending kind of the thing. And I couldn’t convince the director. They wanted to do a blanket dubbing. It just doesn’t have the passion I wanted it to have.”

7. GARLAND STOLE ONE OF THE MOVIE’S COSTUMES.

Garland got revenge in “taking” the beaded pantsuit she was supposed to wear in the movie, and she was unabashed about it. “Well, about six months later, Judy’s going to open at the Palace,” Duke said. “I went to opening night at the Palace and out she came in her suit from Valley of the Dolls.”

8. A SNEAK PREVIEW OF THE FILM HID THE TITLE.

Fox held a preview screening of the film at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre, but the marquee only read “The Biggest Book of the Year.” “And the film was so campy, everyone roared with laughter,” producer David Brown told Vanity Fair. “One patron was so irate he poured his Coke all over Fox president Dick Zanuck in the lobby. And we knew we had a hit. Why? Because of the size of the audience—the book would bring them in.”

9. IT MARKED RICHARD DREYFUSS’S FILM DEBUT.

Richard Dreyfuss made his big-screen debut near the end of Valley of the Dolls, playing an assistant stage manager who knocks on Neely’s door to find her intoxicated. After appearing on several TV shows, this was his first role in a movie, but it was uncredited. That same year, he also had a small role in The Graduate. Dreyfuss told The A.V. Club he was in the best film of 1967 (The Graduate) and the worst (Valley of the Dolls). “But then one day I realized that I had never actually seen Valley of the Dolls all the way through, so I finally did it,” he said. “And I realized that I was in the last 45 seconds of the worst film ever made. And I watched from the beginning with a growing sense of horror. And then I finally heard my line. And I thought, ‘I’ll never work again.’ But I used to make money by betting people about being in the best and worst films of 1967: No one would ever come up with the answer, so I’d make 20 bucks!”

10. THE DIRECTOR DIDN’T DIG TOO DEEP.

In the 2006 documentary Gotta Get Off This Merry Go Round: Sex, Dolls & Showtunes, Barbara Parkins scolded the director for keeping the film’s pill addiction on the surface. “The director never took us aside and said, look this is the effect,” she said. “We didn’t go into depth about it. Now, if you would’ve had a Martin Scorsese come in and direct this film, he would’ve sat you down, he would’ve put you through the whole emotional, physical, mental feeling of what that drug was doing to you. This would’ve been a whole different film. He took us to one, maybe two levels of what it’s like to take pills. The whole thing was to show the bottle and to show the jelly beans kinda going back. That was the important thing for him, not the emotional part.”

11. A STAGE ADAPTATION MADE IT TO OFF-BROADWAY.

In 1995, Los Angeles theater troupe Theatre-A-Go-Go! adapted the movie into a stage play. Kate Flannery, who’d go on to play Meredith Palmer on The Office, portrayed Neely. “Best thing about Valley of the Dolls to make fun of it is to actually just do it,” Flannery said in the Dolls doc. “You don’t need to change anything.” Parkins came to a production and approved of it. Eventually, the play headed to New York in an Off-Broadway version, with Illeana Douglas playing the Jackie Susann reporter role.

12. JACKIE SUSANN BARELY ESCAPED THE MANSON FAMILY.

The night the Manson Family murdered Tate, the actress had invited Susann to her home for a dinner party. According to Vanity Fair, Rex Reed came by The Beverly Hills Hotel, where Susann was staying, and they decided to stay in instead of going to Tate’s. The next day Susann heard about the murder, and cried by the pool. A few years later, when Susann was diagnosed with cancer for the second time, she joked her death would’ve been quicker if she had gone to Tate’s that night.

13. PATTY DUKE LEARNED TO EMBRACE THE FILM.

Of all of the characters in the movie, Duke’s Neely is the most over-the-top. “I used to be embarrassed by it,” Duke said in a 2003 interview. “I used to say very unkind things about it, and through the years there are so many people who have come to me, or written me, or emailed who love it so, that I figured they all can’t be wrong.” She eventually appreciated the camp factor. “I can have fun with that,” she said. “And sometimes when I’m on location, there will be a few people who bring it up, and then we order pizza and rent a VCR and have a Valley night, and it is fabulous.”

14. LEE GRANT DOESN’T THINK IT’S THE WORST MOVIE EVER MADE.

In 2000, Grant, Duke, and Parkins reunited on The View. “It’s the best, funniest, worst movie ever made,” Grant stated. She then mentioned how she and Duke made a movie about killer bees called The Swarm. “Valley of the Dolls was like genius compared to it,” Grant said.

A new line of high-tech earplugs called Knops promises to grant wearers the gift of selective hearing. According to The Verge, the plugs can be adjusted to filter out background noises ranging from low to high.

Tiny knobs positioned on the sides of the earplugs allow wearers to switch between four “hearing” settings: no filter; an ambient noise blocker, which filters city sounds; a setting meant for live music; and a fourth one designed for silence. Wearers can keep their Knops in all day, allowing them to hear what they want, when they want.

Knops plans to bring their product to the masses by November 2018, following a successful (and still ongoing) Kickstarter campaign. The earplugs range in price from $62 to $117, and come in a variety of different colors and trims. Individuals who support the project can score their own set of Knops for a special price before the campaign ends on May 4.

See how Knops work below:

[h/t The Verge]