Weird, Wonderful World
This week, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama was awarded to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer. But some years, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama or Fiction isn’t awarded at all. Here’s a look at those years when the judges just couldn’t agree. In 2006, […]
Here are 11 random facts about America’s longest-running game show. (1) The Price is Right debuted on American television in 1956 on NBC, in both prime-time and daytime versions. Both were hosted by former radio announcer Bill Cullen, and they were huge hits—in the top 10 from 1959 to 1961, making it the most popular […]
The Bathroom Readers’ Institute was born in 1987. Here’s what was going on in the rest of the world in 1987. The Tracey Ullman Show, a variety program on the new Fox Network, airs a short cartoon called “The Simpsons.” Sen. Gary Hart, the likely 1988 Democratic presidential nominee, drops out of the race after reports […]
Because if we didn’t we’d go to jail. Okay, but there are other reasons why taxes are due by that particular date. The United States was founded after declared independence from the United Kingdom, an action in part due to “taxation without representation.” Not being taxed was an American concept that lasted for a good […]
Great ice cream! You can really taste the beaver butt! Ingredient: Beaver secretions Found in: Ice cream Explanation: The male North American beaver marks its territory by urinating on things. Along with the urine, it secretes a liquid called castoreum, which gives off a sweet scent. Castoreum also enhances the intensity of vanilla flavor, which […]
We don’t really mind if this page puts you to sleep, here are 16 sleep facts you should know. (Nighty night.) (1) If it takes you less than five minutes to fall asleep, it probably means you’re sleep deprived. Healthy sleepers need between 10 and 15 minutes to doze off. (2) Researchers at Oxford University […]
Celebrities, politicians, and captains of industry had to start somewhere. Turns out they pretty much started out with the same lame jobs as the rest of us. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, was a summer intern at Hewlett-Packard. J. K. Rowling worked for Amnesty International. Chris Rock was a busboy at a Red Lobster. […]
The baseball season has just started, and with it comes this year’s round of insane ballpark concessions.
12 trivia bits about cookies (or bisoketto, if you’re Japanese). (1) “Cookie” comes from the Dutch word koekje, meaning “small cake.” They’re called biscuits in England, galletas in Spain, and keks in Germany. (2) Cookies probably originated in 7th-century Persia, the first culture to cultivate sugar. (3) Best-selling cookie in the United States: Oreos for […]
This stuff used to be a part of everyday life. Now it’s gone. So where did it all go?
It’s not unusual to find odd-but-true stories in the news these days. But if the date of the article is April 1, you might want to think twice before assuming it’s true. In 1959… The Indiana Kokomo Tribune announced that due to budget cuts, the city police department would now be closing each night from […]
April Fool’s is a holiday to play harmless jokes on your friends. Here are some that weren’t so innocent. In 1998, Babil, an Iraqi newspaper ran a front page story announcing that the U.S. had lifted sanctions against Iraq, which could lead to all kinds of humanitarian aid pouring into the country. The headline on […]
When you think about it, all cheese is weird—it’s hardened milk that smells kind of weird (but tastes pretty good). However, here are some a little bit more out there than your everyday cheddar or Parmesan. Stilton Stilton is a rich, pungent variety of blue cheese made in England. In 2013, cheesemaker Clawson unveiled the […]
Cleopatra is said to have attributed her beauty to eating pickles. Here are some more fascinating facts about pickles. 1. First known pickling of a cucumber: in Meso – potamia (Iraq), 2500 B.C. 2. Cucumbers are native to India, and were spread from there across Western Asia about 5,000 years ago. 3. East Asians were […]
Hey, more dogs are always a good thing, right? Well, it’s a little bit odd, and straight out of science fiction, that cloning pets is now a reality.
You might not want to read this page with the lights out. WANDERING SOLES Employees at a store in Cornwall, England, claim a ghost has taken up residence in the shop. And the ghost, they say, is obsessed with shoes. “I was standing at the counter,” says a salesclerk named Helen Honey, “when the top […]
Of the two major party presidential candidates, one gets to be president and the runner-up…has to find something else to do.
(1) The U.S. Mint’s first production in 1793 consisted of 11,178 copper cents. Today the Mint produces an average of 14.7 million coins per day. (2) How many paper bills does the Mint print every year? Not a single note. (That’s the job of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.) (3) The first real woman […]
