this isn't happiness.
January 2013
45 Amazing Facts for National Trivia Day →
mentalfloss.com
- Jim Cummings is the voice of Winnie the Pooh. He calls sick kids in hospitals and chats with them in character.
- In the mid-1960s, Slumber Party Barbie came with a book called “How to Lose Weight.” One of the tips was “Don’t eat.”
- The Constitution does not require the Speaker of the House to be a member of the House. Yesterday Colin Powell got a vote.
- The first webcam watched a coffee pot. It allowed researchers at Cambridge to monitor the coffee situation without leaving their desks.
- When asked if he knew the speed of sound, Einstein said he “didn’t carry such information in my mind since it’s readily available in books.”
- Marie Curie’s notebooks are still radioactive.
- Hunger Games author Suzanne Collins also wrote for Clarissa Explains It All.
- The last time a Republican was elected president without a Nixon or Bush on the ticket was 1928.
- When three-letter airport codes became standard, airports that had been using two letters simply added an X.
- There is a word that rhymes with orange! Sporange is a botany term that means “spore case.”
- The original Space Jam website still exists.
- In 1979, Japan offered new British PM Margaret Thatcher 20 “karate ladies” for protection at an economic summit. She declined.
- Before Google launched Gmail, “G-Mail” was the name of a free email service offered by Garfield’s website.
- During the Cold War, the U.S. considered airdropping enormous condoms labeled “Medium” on the Soviets.
- Nikola Tesla on Thomas Edison: “He had no hobby, cared for no amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene.”
- Kentucky tweaked its Wildcat logo in 1994 after people complained the tongue was too phallic.
- The final speech by Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird was done in one take.
- When New Jersey’s Action Park sent crash-test dummies down its looping waterslide, the dummies were dismembered.
- In 1980, Detroit presented Saddam Hussein with a key to the city.
- The “Where’s the Beef?” lady (Clara Peller) lost her job in 1985 after doing a Prego ad in which she “found the beef at somewhere other than Wendy’s.”
- Just before the Nazis invaded Paris, H.A. and Margret Rey fled on bicycles. They were carrying the manuscript for Curious George.
- In Super Mario Bros., the bushes are just clouds colored green.
- When fruit flies are infected with a parasite, they self-medicate with booze—they seek out food with higher alcohol content.
- In colonial America, lobster wasn’t exactly a delicacy. It was so cheap and plentiful it was often served to prisoners.
- Crayola means “oily chalk.” The name combines “craie” (French for “chalk”) and “ola” (short for “oleaginous,” or “oily”).
- The Pittsburgh Penguins made Mister Rogers an honorary captain in 1991.
- Ben & Jerry originally considered getting into the bagel business, but the equipment was too expensive.
- Liz Sheridan, who played Jerry’s mom on Seinfeld, wrote a book about her love affair with James Dean.
- Until coffee gained popularity, beer was the breakfast beverage of choice in some parts of the United States.
- In 1493, Columbus thought he saw mermaids. They were “not as pretty as they are depicted, for somehow in the face they look like men.” (Probably manatees.)
- When the Westboro Baptist Church protested a soldier’s funeral in Oklahoma, their tires were slashed. People in town refused to repair them.
- Taco Bell is named for its founder, Glen Bell.
- In a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill, Admiral John Fisher used the phrase “O.M.G.”
- In 2007, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said there was “no chance the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.”
- An early ATM was deemed a failure because its only users were “prostitutes and gamblers who didn’t want to deal with tellers face to face.”
- Even Fidel Castro hated New Coke, calling it “a sign of American capitalist decadence.”
- Bob Ross on his Air Force career: “I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine…who screams at you for being late to work.”
- William McKinley was on the $500 bill, Grover Cleveland was on the $1,000, and James Madison was on the $5,000.
- Truman Show Delusion is a mental condition marked by a patient’s belief that he or she is the star of an imaginary reality show.
- In 1973, Mao Zedong told Henry Kissinger that China had an excess of females and offered the U.S. 10 million Chinese women.
- Judge Judy reportedly makes $45 million a year.
- During the first Super Bowl in 1967, NBC was still in commercial when the second half kicked off. Officials asked the Packers to kick off again.
- The male giraffe determines a female’s fertility by tasting her urine. If it passes the test, the courtship continues.
- Tenor Luciano Pavarotti’s standard contract required that there be no noise or “distinct smells” in the vicinity of the artist.
- Cookie Monster is not changing his name. In a 2012 episode he said, “We’ve got to stop this Veggie Monster rumor before me reputation ruined.”
