Going to see a local production of The Nutcracker ballet is a holiday tradition for many families. Surprisingly, watching this old-fashioned entertainment is a relatively new idea. Based on a fairy tale The ballet, with famous, original music by Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky, was not originally written for the stage. It’s based on a fairy […]
Nearly every TV Christmas special and Christmas movie indirectly or directly descends from A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel about Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the Ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. Here’s a deeper dive into the most influential Christmas story of them all. SOUNDS FAMILIAR Dickens wrote the novel in just […]
Kick your holidays into high gear with these facts about America’s most famous dance troupe: the Rockettes, a part of Christmas for millions. The Missouri Rockets The Rockettes’ performance home base has been Radio City Music Hall in New York City since the 1930s, which explains its association with the city that never sleeps. But […]
If you’re a little tired of eggnog, fruitcake, and those other familiar holiday sweets, try one of these special goodies from distant lands. Sweden: Knäck The name translates to “break,” an apt word to describe this “Christmas Butterscotch,” a toffee- or brittle-esque dessert. It’s made out of slowly cooking heavy cream, sugar, syrup, butter, vanilla, […]
These are the singers and bands recently nominated for enshrinement into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…and some bizarre and interesting trivia about them. Rock on! Def Leppard The ‘80s heavy metal / hair metal band (“Photograph,” “Rock of Ages”) misspelled its name on purpose. The name was originally Deaf Leopard, but they got […]
People all over the world celebrate the holidays in different ways, but there are some standards of the holiday that are nearly universal. Here are the cities and towns that can make a claim as the birthplace, chief production area, or “capital” of different aspects of Christmas. Candy Canes If you’re sucking on a red-and-white, […]
Here’s your first Tooth Fairy fact: She (or he, at the BRI, we’re woke) isn’t real. We hate to be the ones to tell you but it was your parent who put money under your pillow when you lost a tooth. Here’s some more trivia about this beloved, dental-obsessed mythological magical creature. Origin story The […]
Need a bottle of soy sauce? You could drive five minutes to the nearest grocery store and pick up a bottle for three bucks…or you could make some from scratch with the same method that soy sauce makers in Asia have been using for centuries. (Warning: Choose the latter option, and it’s going to take […]
Back in the ‘80s, there was almost a second huge pro baseball league. It fell apart before a single pitch was thrown. Trying to buy a team In addition to acquiring properties and developing real estate in New York, Donald Trump spent a good deal of time in the 1980s trying to buy a Major […]
If you think music today is weird, think of how many bands and singing groups in pop music history that had names where, after the name of the lead singer was given, the rest didn’t make any sense without a primer. Well, here’s that long lost primer, because what even is a “Shondell,” anyway? Gladys […]
President George H.W. Bush, who served from 1989 to 1993, passed away at the edge of 94. Here’s a look back at the long and interesting life of the Commander-in-Chief. Near death experience As a teenager, he contracted such a serious staph infection — which nearly killed him — that he missed so much school […]
It’s one of the most famous scenes in one of the most popular holiday movies of all time. In A Christmas Story, the 1983 big-screen retelling of the embellished Midwestern Christmas recollections of humorist Jean Shepherd, a kid named Flick (Scott Schwartz), best friend of main character Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) has no choice but to accept a winter-time, schoolyard “triple dog dare” and places his tongue against a metal pole in the freezing cold.
That’s no understatement — for the 2.3 billion people around the world who don’t have access to sanitation, a new kind of loo could save countless lives. Flush toilets aren’t everywhere Flush toilets are commonplace in the U.S. and Europe, but for large swaths of the developing world, the technology is yet to land. Many […]
96 percent of the internet consists of cute cat pictures and funny cat videos. Okay, that’s not true, and neither are these long-held myths about cats. Myth: Cats love milk. Truth: It’s one of things we most associate with cats — they love to lap up a saucer of milk in much the same way […]
Does Uncle John, the guy responsible for producing a 600-page book every year, drinking a lot of coffee? You better believe he does. Here’s how the good stuff works. Awaken! Caffeine affects neurotransmitters. Normally, those keep blood vessels mostly closed, but the stimulation by caffeine widens them, allowing more blood to flow right through them. […]
Catch a whiff of these recent stories all about natural gas. (They’re about farts is what we’re saying.) The Air Up Here On a February 2018 flight from Dubai to Amsterdam on Transavia Airlines (a discount Dutcher carrier), an elderly man just couldn’t stop farting…nor would he (or could he) hold it in. He was […]
Here are some facts about Thanksgiving that are darker than the turkey’s dark meat, and more alarming than your aunt’s green gelatin casserole. Be Glad You’re Eating Turkey We often think of the Pilgrims as the inventors of Thanksgiving. And while they certainly popularized the idea with a feast with Native Americans in 1621 in […]
The Simpsons has been on the air for more than 30 years now, and the setting of Springfield has expanded to include literally hundreds of characters. On occasion, the population contracts. Here are some characters no longer on the show…and why. APU NAHASAPEEMAPETILON The discussion has been going on for years, but the idea that […]
