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 […]
You can get a burger with everything on it at almost everywhere these days —gas stations, convenience stores, grocery stores…but you’ll have to go a little but father for these bizarre meat-cutes. All the Cholesterol the Law Allows Since the ‘90s, Atlanta’s The Vortex has served “Coronary Bypass Burgers” to those who dare…and who should […]
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 […]
In 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state in the union. Here are some other things that make the Aloha State unique and special. …with an isolated population center. It’s actually the most densely populated place in the world that’s thousands of miles from other crowded places. It’s nearly 2,400 miles from California, nearly 4,000 from […]
Is there a person alive who doesn’t like Dolly Parton? Here are some interesting facts about her. Just Dolly The name Dolly is often a nickname or “diminutive” of a more formal first name, particularly Dorothy or Dolores. Not for Dolly Parton. Her real first name is Dolly. First acting roles After a successful career […]
The Who Knew? titles are collections of articles filled with gems of wisdom to dazzle your brain cells. These books have plenty of tales to surprise and delight even the most ardent trivia fan. The two newest editions to the series are Who Knew? Women in History and Who Knew? Human Anatomy. Enter our giveaway […]
The serious origins of your favorite characters from the funny pages. BLONDIE At its outset in 1930, Blondie was just one of many comics about flappers, those ladies of the Jazz Age who danced all night in bold, calf-exposing dresses. Chic Young’s strip centered on Blondie Boopadoop (cribbing heavily from the catchphrase of fellow fictional […]
Summer of 2019 marks 50 years in the past that humans did the most futuristic thing possible: We put a man on the Moon. Here are some quirky facts about that time Apollo 11 made its moonshot. Who Needs You Anyway, Moon? While John F. Kennedy embodied the hope and optimism of the early ‘60s […]
