Weird, Wonderful World
By Brian Boone It’s winter, so that means it’s also cold outside. But imagine for a moment that you get trapped outside, in the wilderness, in frigid temperatures, and have to rely only on your wits to survive. Stock your brain with these winter survival tips. MAKE FIRE OUT OF ICE Ice and fire are pretty […]
Have you figured it out yet? Happy National Puzzle Month! Puzzle solved! If that’s not enough puzzle for you, Portable Press has more to choose from. Check this link for more puzzling books, including Scary Mommy Word Search, Escape Room Puzzles, and more. Or read on to enjoy some not-so-puzzling stories about the origins of […]
Billions of people celebrate Christmas, and there are almost as many ways to celebrate, with many beloved traditions around the world enduring for decades or even centuries. Here are some fun facts about how they came to be. Wreaths Made from a fir and decorated with ribbons and other adornments, wreaths are like very small, […]
Uncle John’s Awesome 35th Anniversary Bathroom Reader is on bookshelves today! We’re bringing it home for this auspicious book birthday with fun facts from 2011-present. Facts, don’t fail us now!
We’re keeping the party going for Uncle John’s birthday—and the brand-new Uncle John’s Awesome 35th Anniversary Bathroom Reader—with more fun facts from the 2000s Facts, don’t fail us now!
We’re celebrating 35 years of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader—and the brand-new Uncle John’s Awesome 35th Anniversary Bathroom Reader—by looking back at the last three-and-a-half-decades with amazing facts or stories from the new book from the years since Uncle John made reading in the bathroom a cultural phenomenon. We’ve got so much to share, this is […]
In the last few years, the St. Louis Rams and San Diego Chargers moved to Los Angeles, while the Oakland Raiders headed to Las Vegas. Those are some team moves that worked out — unlike these proposed franchise relocations that didn’t quite work out. St. Louis Patriots About a decade before quarterback Tom Brady arrived […]
It’s Beatlemania all over again around here, both in this article filled with little-known facts about the Beatles, and in our publishing sibling Thunder Bay Press’s new book, The Beatles: Illustrated Lyrics,So get back, come together, drag a comb across your head, and get ready to love eight days worth of facts. The Beatles’ “White […]
Mahatma Gandhi is a towering, larger-than-life historical figure who changed the geopolitical makeup of the world of the 20th century. But how much do you really know about Gandhi, what he did, and why it’s important? As we prepare to release a book about the man, here’s a look at some of the misconceptions about […]
John Lennon was tragically assassinated in 1980. But according to some people, the Beatle never completely left the earthly realm. And your bird can sing In 1995, the three surviving Beatles at the time — George Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr — reunited for the first Beatles recording in decades. They added their vocals […]
Disneyland: It’s the happiest place on Earth! Well, not if you die there, it’s not. In 1984, a California woman named Dolly Regena Young boarded the Matterhorn Bobsleds. Sometime during the ride, her seatbelt came undone and she was thrown from the ride and onto the tracks. As she was riding in the back of […]
And now, a sober, haze-free look at some noble and venerable historical figures who (somewhat surprisingly) partook in cannabis, the favorite pastime of Cheech, Chong, Snoop Dogg, and Willie Nelson. Queen Victoria. The monarch who reigned over the British empire from 1837 to 1901 was highly influential on many aspects of British life, from food […]
In July 2021, Amazon founder and multibillionaire Jeff Bezos launched himself into space. What’s more surprising about this? He’s hardly the first non-government-agency-affiliated person to reach the edge of the cosmos. Here’s a brief history of private spaceflight. 1961: Just four years after the Soviet Union launched two Sputnik satellites, the first manmade objects to […]
Neil Armstrong will never fall out of the history books — in July 1969, the astronaut became the first human being to ever step foot on the moon. Here are some little-known facts about the man and his work, which are also the subjects of a new book from Portable Press. Neil Armstrong got into […]
This year’s NBA Playoffs are a little bit different than usual. Not only did they start a lot later than in years past, owing to delays caused by coronavirus shutdowns, but they’re also full of quirks and monumental firsts. The fifth-seeded Atlanta Hawks upset the Eastern Conference’s #1 team, the Philadelphia 76ers, in the conference […]
Based on the author’s love of things weird, bizarre, and strange, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Greatest Know on Earth is an all-new collection of curiosities and oddities throughout the ages. A nonfiction book with dazzling facts, jaw-dropping blunders, and astounding lists of trivia, this impeccably-researched compendium includes a range of single-page articles to extended page-turners. Tune in […]
After a coronavirus-shortened, largely live spectator-free season in 2020, Major League Baseball is back in 2021, and so are the fans. And so is the ballpark food available in the concession stands at the big ballpark and stadiums. But it’s not exactly hot dogs and soda anymore. Lumberjack Slammie (Toronto) This baseball glove-size monster is […]
Today we’re going “indy” with these interesting facts about auto-racing’s annual Memorial Day weekend event, the Indianapolis 500. Perhaps the Indy 500 is so big because it’s contested in a place that is literally huge. You could fit the entirety of Vatican City inside of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway… and Yankee Stadium… and the Rose […]
