Diamonds are a sparkly, fancy — and very expensive — miracle of science. Superman’s hands In many comic books, Superman showed off one of his coolest powers: He can squeeze a lump of coal into a diamond. Spoiler alert: Superman may be strong, but he isn’t real, and so doing making a diamond “by hand” […]
Put down that pumpkin spice latte (which doesn’t have any actual pumpkin in it, by the way) and check out these facts about everyone’s favorite gourd. Word Origins Origin of the word pumpkin: In 1584, French explorer Jacques Cartier visited what’s now Canada and reported seeing grow melons. The French then called them pompions, which […]
Sure, plenty of boy bands and multi-member singing groups preceded the existence of present-day pop sensations BTS, but this musical collective is special and different (and that’s according to more than just the hysterical teenage fan in your life). WHO ARE THESE GUYS? The Beatles were the Fab Four, and most late ‘90s and early […]
Everybody has heard of Albert Einstein, and everybody knows a handful of things about him. The only problem: They don’t know the whole truth about those facts. Einstein didn’t fail math as a kid. It’s one of those common factoids that’s most often repeated as words of comfort in times of failure, or to kids […]
Here are some common phrases and images that everybody knows…but if you use them, you just might owe somebody some money. A soft and crunchy tale On the second workday of every week, millions of Americans celebrate the wonderful but informal holiday of “Taco Tuesday.” That means they eat tacos, either prepared at home, or […]
Fast food burger places, barbecue joints, and Chinese restaurants remain stalwarts on the American food scene, outlasting a lot of other types of eateries that have come…and mostly gone. Fondue While the notion of dipping pieces of bread, meat, and vegetables in hot oil or cheese and calling it a (very filling) meal dates back […]
There’s a long association between beverages and songs — there are a lot of old country tunes about drinkin’, and Jimmy Buffett’s entire career is based on liking margaritas. Here are some times when musicians told the people what to drink…and they obliged. “The Piña Colada Song” popularized the piña colada The piña colada, a […]
English is a living, breathing, constantly evolving language. It’s a Germanic language, which means that German also has its fair share of made-up words (specifically, “compound nouns”) to describe very specific experiences in life. Der Treppenwitz This translates to “the staircase joke,” and it refers to when you think up the perfect comeback or witty […]
What was the most popular activity of the summer of 1985? Hating on New Coke, Coca-Cola’s ill-fated attempt to reformulate its popular product. First Diet Drinks The first major diet drink on the market was Diet Pepsi, launched in 1964. Coca-Cola offered Tab, but as its cans bore a warning about how the sugar substitute […]
Some of the most memorable songs ever written are commercial jingles — that catchy tune about Folgers being the “best part of waking up” certainly helped move product. Some ad songs were so well done that they became hit songs in their own right…and we all forgot that they were originally made to sell things. […]
Occasionally, the foot soldiers in the war on drugs get a little too excited. Here are some stories about people who were busted for possessing narcotics…which turned out to be far more innocent substances. The white stuff On July 31, 2019, police in Clinton County, South Carolina, pulled over Shai Werts, quarterback for the Georgia […]
As if getting paid millions to play make believe wasn’t enough, Hollywood stars can make big demands for certain concessions on movie sets. Tom Cruise Tom Cruise has been a movie star for more than 40 years, and he still insists on doing his own stunts in action-packed movies like The Mummy and those Mission […]
Tragically, countless individuals have died in airplane crashes or accidents. A rarer way to move over to the afterlife: dying in a model airplane accident. But it happens. Killed by His Own Plane Model plane enthusiast Roger Wallace was flying his five-foot-wingspan toy at the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson, Arizona, in May 2002, when […]
If you’re a Trekker, or a fan of the 1966-69 TV show Star Trek and its many spinoffs, right now is a great time to be alive, with multiple Trek shows in production or on the way. Here’s a look at some of the weirder parts of the Trek universe. The spiritual origins of the […]
In his 1920 play Rossum’s Universal Robots, Czech writer Karel Capek coined the word robot, jumping off of the Czech word robota, which means “forced labor.” Here are some interesting robot firsts. First movie robot: A female robot named Maria is a main character in the 1927 silent science-fiction film Metropolis. That marks the first […]
Here’s a brief history of how people sought to change the shade of their chompers — and “white” wasn’t always the desired effect. GOAT MILK, SAGE, AND SUNFLOWERS Because the general wear-and-tear on teeth for the common man before the age of modern dentistry (or even toothbrushes and toothpaste), white teeth in Ancient Rome were […]
Everybody has to start somewhere, even some of the greatest writers of all time. He’s a Survival survivor Dan Brown is another rare writer to launch a craze: He wrote The Da Vinci Code and its many sequels about Robert Langdon, an art history professor who solves historical and conspiratorial mysteries. In the late ‘80s, […]
Sometimes Hollywood can’t get a promising movie made even if a huge superstar is on board to star in it. Skate Jam, starring Tony Hawk In 2018, NBA superstar LeBron James announced he’d be starring in a sequel to the 1996 movie Space Jam. That film combined live action and animation, as Michael Jordan teamed […]
