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 […]
Just some kooky stories about people who died…while flirting with death in other ways. Death by the shock of death In 2010, a man in India named Than Singh received a letter from a local crematorium. That was something of a surprise, as no one in his family or circle of friends had recently died. […]
Silly fast food companies: Promotions are supposed to earn money, not lose tons of it! No quiero Taco Bell In the late ‘90s, Taco Bell was responsible for one of the most famous fast food advertising campaigns of all time. In a series of TV commercials, an adorable Chihuahua (a dog breed from Mexico) walked […]
The English language is a constantly evolving beast with lots of rules and quirks. For example, “orphan initialisms,” which are acronyms that stand for…nothing. MTV. The channel that started off as “Music Television” hasn’t had a music video-schedule in decades, so it kind of makes sense that “MTV” is the network’s actual name, and the […]
Here’s how all the stuff in your garage, shed, and on the truck got their names. CHISEL Along with the gentle or aggressive tapping of a hammer, a chisel is used to chip away into very hard surfaces like stone or bricks. In a very slow, even indirect way, chisel cuts into stone, so it […]
Those Hollywood celebrities: they’re just like us! By which we mean they get themselves into embarrassing situations in restrooms. MAGNUM, PEE? AYE! Even Tom Hanks, the most likeable movie star in the world, can embarrass himself once in a while. In a 2013 interview, he told the story of a moment he wishes he could […]
“Big in Japan” is a slightly derisive term in the music business. It refers to American singers and bands that haven’t quite found much success stateside, but who are supposedly “big in Japan.” Sometimes, it’s actually true. Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Cheap Trick didn’t really pop in the U.S. until after Live in […]
Sears filed for bankruptcy late in 2018, bringing an eventual end to a retail and catalog juggernaut that lasted for well over a century. Sears had such a huge customer base that it could sell just about anything. Optometry Kits Decades before every mall (often anchored by a Sears) featured a chain optician service, Americans […]
A lot of people think of their father as their hero…especially the kids of the dads in these amazing news stories. Hero Dad vs. Speeding Car Early in the evening of November 16, 2018, Michael Devore and his 11-year-old daughter were walking through a crosswalk in Los Angeles. They’d nearly crossed the street when a […]
We recently had one of those weird, made-up holidays: “Be a Millionaire Day.” That got us thinking — if we were to suddenly inherit $1 million, exactly how much of some stuff we could we buy with that? Movie tickets The average movie ticket price in the U.S. in 2019: $9. That means you could […]
In major cities across the nation, public transportation like buses and subways are full of huge ads for every product imaginable. Well, almost every product imaginable. Here are some companies who were forbidden from hocking their wares. TUSHY In 2018, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which regulates subways in New York City, rejected posters for a […]
Taos, New Mexico is home to an artistic community, a lot of turquoise jewelry, unbelievably beautiful landscapes…and a strange noise that’s baffled scientists. Out of the blue Sometime out of the blue in the early ‘90s, residents of the northern New Mexico city of Taos — and not from any one part of town either […]
Now that your completed taxes (and a check) are on their way to the government (unless you got an extension…or forgot), here’s a look at some of the strange ways Washington will invest your money. Christmas tree marketing Because they’re a seasonally harvested item, Christmas trees qualify as “specialty products” under Dept. of Agriculture guidelines, […]
News from the bathroom…specifically, the kinds of horrific things that can happen when a person doesn’t go to the bathroom for a while. TOO MUCH In February 2018, a man (his name was unsurprisingly not released in news reports) sought treatment at The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Japan for an injury he […]
They’re called “landmarks” for a reason — giant buildings that define a city, dot its skyline, and become monuments to human architectural achievement. Only the biggest and best buildings get official names, but sometimes those names change…and it’s hard to get anybody to call these institutions by that new moniker. Chicago’s Sears Tower Chicago’s Sears […]
In January 2012, Kodak, the company that made casual photography a reality, and a relatively inexpensive one at that, filed for bankruptcy, ending a history of nearly 130 years. While George Eastman’s company brought picture-taking to the masses, it also had a lot of weird ideas and made some odd choices. Eject Disc In 1982, […]
Just because a writer can craft a novel full of compelling characters, remarkable plots, and universal themes doesn’t mean they can come up with a decent name for the thing…at first. Here are some classic and familiar books that were almost published with a different (and maybe not-so-great) title. 1984 George Orwell’s publisher agreed to […]
January 26 is Australia Day, and so we thought we’d take a look at some inventions that we — and maybe you — didn’t know originated Down Under. Disposable Syringes In the 1940s, drug company A.M. Bickford and Sons identified a problem in the pharmaceutical market: patients who needed to inject medications, such as diabetics, […]
