Looney Tunes wanted to add a rabbit to their lineup and animator Ben "Bugs" Hardaway had a sketch of the proposed bunny. When the drawing was finished, he labeled it as "Bug's Bunny," his nickname and bunny.

Later the studio was looking for a name, saw the caption at the bottom, so just eliminated the apostrophe from bug's and the new name was born.

Another Yosemite Sam

Somewhere in the New Mexico desert, possibly on the Laguna Indian Reservation outside of Albuquerque, there is a radio transmitter first noticed in 2004, that occasionally sends a mysterious burst of transmissions. These transmissions, called the Yosemite Sam transmission do not appear to make sense.

Spynumbers has a great post  that says beginning in December 2004, the FCC began getting reports of the Yosemite Sam transmission, which begins as an 800 millisecond data burst, similar to the sound a Blu-Ray player might make when it makes some horrible error. That is immediately followed by a clip of an arch nemesis of Bugs Bunny’s, Yosemite Sam, announcing, “Varmint, I’m gonna blow you to smithereens!”

Radio geeks/conspiracy trackers/curious people pinned down the phrase from the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon, “Bunker Hill.” Why it is attached to a burst of compressed information, often used by intelligence community is mysterious. That it is transmitted in on four frequencies - 3700, 4300, 6500, and 10,500 kHz - for a full two minutes without any missed time mark tends to make it even more mysterious.

These are the numbers stations - radio stations on shortwave that broadcast some sort of repetitive noise followed by strings of numbers. Amateur tech geeks first identified the stations after World War II. No one is sure what their purpose is.

Fabricated Animal Facts

Rabbits eat carrots, but as any bunny owner will attest, rabbits prefer leafy green vegetables. The image of the rabbit enjoying a carrot was made iconic by the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. However, when Bugs first did it, he was actually parodying a then famous scene from another movie called It Happened One Night. In the movie, Clark Gable is munching away on the carrot while talking and, when Bugs did it, he was merely referencing a scene which was quite well-known at the time, but became less so over the years.

Old cartoons tell us elephants love peanuts and they were constantly fed peanuts at circuses and zoos. This is no longer a common practice. In the wild, peanuts are not a part of an elephant’s diet and most who have been fed peanuts in captivity do not like them. They prefer hay and other grains along with fruits and vegetables.

An elephant's nose is a regular nose. Since it is very long and dexterous, an elephant can use it to grab things, but its primary role is to breathe air, just like any other nose. Something an elephant definitely cannot do is drink water through it like a straw. It might appear that way, because elephants do suck in water through their trunks, but only to carry it into their mouths.

Ostriches been never been observed sticking their head in a hole, except in cartoons. When an ostrich is in danger, it will either 'fight or flight' like most other animals. It is equipped to do both quite well. It can reach speeds of up to 40 mph. In a fight, an ostrich has big, sharp claws and a kick powerful enough to take down a lion.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

It is not just for people. Some other famous characters with stars include Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Tinker Bell, and more, including most recently Shrek. Dubious achievement to be able to say, "Yes I am right up there with Mickey Mouse."

Ducks, Pigs, and Bunnies

For those of you who remember the good old days of clean and entertaining cartoons, here is a site that has what it bills as the top ten best Looney Tunes cartoons. Daffy is daffy, Bugs is bugged, Elmer is befuddled, Sylvester is sly and Porky is porky, plus more.  LINK