Weird, Wonderful World
Where are books loved more than anywhere else on Earth? It just might be the tiny Scandinavian nation of Iceland. In the U.S., the biggest gifts tend to change each Christmas. There’s often a “hot ticket” item that adults want, or a fad toy that every kid asks for; for example, this year millions of […]
It’s that time of year again—when the Girl Scouts show up at your front door determined to ruin your New Year’s Resolution to eat less sweets. Here’s a little about the wonderful world of Girl Scout Cookies. The Beginning: 1922 Girl Scout Cookies began in earnest in 1922. The director of the Girl Scouts of […]
Dogs’ noses are wondrous things. Their acute sense of smell enables them to be trained to detect bombs and drugs, and find earthquake survivors. But it also makes them fine-tuned to human emotions, strengthening the bond between dog and owner and helping them serve as therapeutic companions to those in distress. (This article was first […]
In 2016, a vacation rental company transformed a first-floor conference room in the Eiffel Tower into a luxury two-bedroom apartment, and four lucky contest winners got to call the tower home for a night. But there once was a man who could live there as he pleased. (This article was first published in Who Knew?) […]
For better or for worse, money is an important part of life. Everybody talks about it a lot, which means there are a lot of slang terms for it. Here’s where some of them come from. Bucks The $100 bill is sometimes called a “C-note,” because C is the Roman numeral for 100. Roman numerals […]
The beloved actress turns 96 today. Here are some things you might not have known about everybody’s favorite Golden Girl. “Betty” was a very popular name for girls and women in the mid-20th century, and it’s usually a nickname for “Elizabeth.” Not in the case of Betty White. Her real name is Betty White—her parents […]
Do you like extremely innovative beers? Do you consider yourself environmentally conscious? Well…urine luck! (And if you’re not a big fan of beer, well, then this probably isn’t going to be the beer that grabs you.) Roskilde Music Festival In 2015, more than 100,000 music fans traveled to Denmark for the Roskilde Music Festival. The […]
We can’t look into the future…but these people with psychic abilities say that they can. Here are some major events we can all apparently look forward to this year. Aliens = Humans Sylvia Browne was talk show fixture in the ‘90s and 2000s (back when there were a lot more cheesy talk shows on daytime […]
There are a lot of silly, made-up holidays out there…and today is our favorite one. It’s National Trivia Day. Trivia is totally our thing (!) so, well, here’s some trivia about animals. • Have you ever given a hungry-looking stray cat a saucer of milk? Sure, cats love milk. That may well be the case, […]
It’s 2018 now, which means a bunch of laws passed by legislatures around the country have now taken effect. Here are some of the most interesting and amusing ones. Facebook Checks Keep posting those Facebook rants about what a jerk your boss is…if you live in Vermont. Employers in the Green Mountain State are now […]
You could watch a movie and eat while you watch—popcorn, candy, and such. Or you could taste the movie itself at one of these theme restaurants based on popular films. Caddy Shack The World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida, is home to Caddy Shack, a restaurant whose theme is the biggest golf movie of […]
Meghan Markle was a moderately famous actress, best known for her role on a USA drama called Suits. Now she’s a princess-to-be — she’s been dating Prince Harry, fifth in line to the British throne, and the couple will marry next year. It’s especially newsworthy because Markle is both a “commoner” and she’s American. This […]
How your favorite candies got their names. Kit Kat The current and most famous form of Kit Kat consists of a bar of four “fingers” of cookie wafers covered in chocolate. That’s a bit different from the first iteration of food sold under the name. The Kit-Cat Club was a place where late 1800s London […]
Readers sometimes ask if we’ll ever run out of things to write about. No way. Origins are a good example: as we recently discovered, even lowly snack foods can have fascinating (and delicious) origins.
Today’s consumers are more sophisticated than ever, and they’re hip to the often wily ways of advertising. That means in order to get noticed and sell their wares, companies have to get a lot more creative…and strange. Here are some companies that promoted their products by making other, bizarre products. Pizza Shoes Are $300 basketball […]
Doughnuts (or donuts) have been around for ages. But where did they come from? Oily Cake When Dutch settlers arrived in what’s now New York in the 17th century, they brought with them something called olykoek, or “oily cake.” They were much like today’s doughnuts in that they were fried balls or discs of sweetened […]
When you think about it, it’s kind of weird and amazing that humans have created machines that allow us to travel through the sky and into space. It makes sense then that there are going to be some weird stories about what happens when humans take to the skies. THE SKY KING The U.K.’s Prince […]
The turkey (or ham) is usually the star of the show, but we think that the other foods that make up the traditional Thanksgiving dinner are all something to give thanks for. Stuffing Sure, you could make your own stuffing, or you could buy a box, add it some butter and hot water and be […]
