Bohemian Rhapsody, a film about the life of rock legend Freddie Mercury, and his band, Queen, hits theaters soon. Before you see that eye-opener about the group’s impact on music, check out these unbelievable but true facts about Mercury and Queen. Naked bicycling In 1978, Queen released the hit single “Bicycle Race” and filmed a video […]
College football is one of the oldest sports in the country, with east coast teams squaring off on the gridiron in the late 1800s. Here are some of the oldest players to ever play the game — as in they weren’t exactly of the “traditional” college age. Joe Thomas, Sr. The oldest guy to ever […]
The 2018 “Fall Classic” is all over. The Boston Red Sox defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games to win its ninth overall World Series. It was a bit of a nutty postseason, and here are some of the records that were set since the end of the regular season. Longest game ever The […]
Close your eyes and think back on your school days. Picture that chalkboard and the hand-cranked pencil sharpener, and that soft pink eraser in your desk. Here’s where all that stuff came from. (This article was first published in our 31st annual edition, Uncle John’s Actual and Factual Bathroom Reader.) Pink Erasers The Faber-Castell Company had been making pencils in Bavaria […]
How are you celebrating All Hallow’s Eve? Trick-or-treating, taking someone trick-or-treating, or bobbing for apples? You probably won’t get up to some of these old-fashioned things. Apple Wedding A Scottish tradition that spread to New England, and rarely done in either spot these days: apple peeling. Revelers would engage in a little game where the object was to use […]
In countless movies, TV shows, and plays — particularly Shakespeare’s spooky Macbeth — witches are depicted stirring up a cauldron full of a nasty and powerful potion that will make others do who knows what. All the ingredients inevitably come with creepy, witchy-type names…but there’s really not all that weird. Here’s what (fictional) witches are really using when […]
After you head in after the trick-or-treating and costume parties are over, will you watch one of these fall classics? Addams Family Values In Charles Addams original New Yorker cartoons, the family had no names, so they were created for the Addams Family TV show in the ‘60s. For the dim son, Addams suggested either Pugsley or Pubert. Producers chose […]
Ever wonder who put the “strone” in “minestrone”? The “owder” in “chowder”? The “ho” in “pho”? (Careful, there, soup boy! This is a family soup book!) Then sit thee down at the Table of Label—and read all about the name origins of several well-known soups. . (This article was first published in our 31st annual edition, […]
Sports stadiums in the U.S. are historic buildings, with some dating back to the early 20th century or beyond. And you know what they say, the older a building gets, the more likely it is that ghosts are hanging out there. Here are some spooky sports stories. George Gipp The University of Notre Dame was […]
Do you play the video game Minecraft? If you don’t, your kids or somebody close to you probably does. Not since Pac-Man has a single video game been this popular. Here’s a look into the origins and impact of this cultural behemoth. (This article was first published in our 31st annual edition, Uncle John’s Actual and […]
Put that competitive instinct and that deep-seated pathological need to win to the test: Here are some ways to increase the likelihood you’ll win at that classic battle of weapons and wits: Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Right now, Lady Gaga is dazzling audiences with her first major role in a movie, a remake of A Star is Born, directed by co-star Bradley Cooper. It’s an auspicious first stab at film stardom, unlike these other attempts by pop stars who tried their hand at acting. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band A […]
In which Uncle John corrects widespread grammatical and language abominations. Here are a few celebrity names that you may be pronouncing wrong. Martin Scorsese You can use a pneumonic device with this one to remember that the director’s last name is not pronounced “score-says-he.” When it comes to award nominations, Martin “scores easy.” Demi Lovato […]
Well, according to those celebrities, that is. Sammy Hagar In his 2001 memoir Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock, Van Halen singer and solo star Sammy Hagar (“I Can’t Drive 55”) recounted an encounter with what he believes to be extraterrestrials. While lying in bed as a kid, he looked out the window outside his […]
We all want to be in the safest place possible, especially when we’re in these harrowing situations. (This article was first published in our 31st annual edition, Uncle John’s Actual and Factual Bathroom Reader.) SAFEST PLACE TO SIT ON A PLANE In 2015 Time magazine analyzed data from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aircraft Accident Database […]
Uncle John can barely fathom the agony doing all the work to make a book, get it out to thousands of bookstores…and then having to gather them all back up again. It occasionally happens to publishers, however—forced to recall a book because of a really bad mistake that nobody noticed. Kindle’s 1984 and Animal Farm In […]
When the microwave was first released in the late ‘70s, people thought that was a silly kitchen gadget, so who knows? Maybe over time people will swear by these things, too. Bear Paws Meat Shredder Claws You could shred meat or make a pork roast into pulled pork with the gentle use of a fork […]
Apples, oranges, melons, and berries—they’re sweet, delicious, nutritious…and extremely dangerous, apparently. Here are some weird news stories about people who sustained some nasty injuries courtesy of nature’s candy. Bad Breadfruit In December 2017, a Salt Lake City woman named Valerie Zaugg took a vacation to Hawaii, home to an exotic piece of produce called the […]
