No matter who you are, you’ve got something that everybody else has got, too: a skeleton! Underneath your skin sits a complex system of bones to keep you upright and moving. Here are some fascinating facts you and your kids can enjoy about the human skeletal system. How many bones do humans have? It’s common […]
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 […]
We did! Here are some deep dives into some of the questions we all face when we’re standing in the supermarket, trying to decide what foods are delicious, best beneficial to our bodies…and which are also not too expensive. Is “eating local” healthier than not? Yes, but it might not be your health. Eating locally-produced […]
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. […]
For the 32nd year, Uncle John and his loyal researchers have teamed up to bring you the latest tidbits from the world of pop culture, history, sports, and strange news stories. If you want to read about celebrity misdeeds, odd coincidences, and disastrous blunders, Uncle John’s Truth, Trivia, and the Pursuit of Factiness has what you need. […]
Episodes of a successful TV show get made, air, and then get rerun and rerun endlessly for years on end. That’s usually the case…except for certain installments like these. After their initial airings, they were pulled from circulation for being way too controversial. Seinfeld TV critics almost universally hail Seinfeld as one of the best […]
What’s strange? Playing “make believe” and “dress up” for a living…and getting multi-million-dollar paychecks to do it. What’s even stranger? Using some of that acting money to open up a restaurant. Here are some stars who got into and then out of the kitchen. Pat Boone’s Dine-O-Mat Pat Boone made a name for himself singing […]
Bigfoot, Sasquatch, the Yeti — whatever you want to call the (probably) mythical hairy forest beast, the big guy is an undeniable newsmaker. Oh deer, a Bigfoot! A woman from Tensed, Idaho (unnamed in news reports) was driving on U.S. Highway 95 in Latah County in March 2017 when she saw something strange along the […]
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 […]
Hitting a dinger against the closer to get your team out of the cellar? Those baseball terms would sound like nonsense to an early baseball player in the 1860s and 1870s. And the terms they’d use to describe their fledgling sport may sound equally bizarre to you. • People who sit in the grandstands to […]
Fifty years ago, more than half a million people descended on upstate New York for the Woodstock Music and Art Festival. A lot of famous people were there, and we’re not just talking about the bands and singers on stage. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith Legendary American rock band Aerosmith played Woodstock…the 25th-anniversary […]
“Dying” is comedian and musician slang for giving a terrible performance that the audience hated. But these performers literally died on stage, making for some of history’s weirdest deaths. Awkward Guest American publisher and writer Jerome I. Rodale, who advocated organic foods and healthy living, was a guest on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971 […]
In pursuing and sharing fun facts and interesting trivia, we sometimes like to get a little fancy around here. Pour yourself a glass of myth-busting! Myth: You’re supposed to drink red wine with beef and white wine with fish. Truth: First of all, you shouldn’t drink red wine if you don’t like red wine, even […]
