Sometimes the only person who can truly tell the story of a person on screen…is that person. Here are some movies based on a true story in which people played themselves. The Big Sick The Big Sick was one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2017. Married screenwriters Kumail Nanjiani (a standup comedian) and […]
The clown prince of rock n’ roll is known primarily for his gentle, silly parodies of popular songs, most of them about food. But the man behind “Eat It” and “Like a Surgeon” can also get a little nasty. “It’s Still Billy Joel to Me” The hottest thing in rock music in 1980 was New […]
In 2016, a vacation rental company transformed a first-floor conference room in the Eiffel Tower into a luxury two-bedroom apartment, and four lucky contest winners got to call the tower home for a night. But there once was a man who could live there as he pleased. (This article was first published in Who Knew?) […]
Or at least what’s supposedly going on beneath the surface of popular TV series aimed at children…if these bizarre “fan theories” spread around the internet are to be believed. Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne’s “Hundred Acre Wood” characters of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and all the rest are probably more famous for multiple movie […]
Most major companies first find success when one big product breaks through with customers. Then they try to expand their horizons (and profits) with “brand extensions.” Successful examples: Coca-Cola’s Diet Coke, or the Disney movie studio launching Disneyland. Unsuccessful examples: keep reading. Colgate The name “Colgate” probably makes most consumers think of toothpaste, which is […]
For better or for worse, money is an important part of life. Everybody talks about it a lot, which means there are a lot of slang terms for it. Here’s where some of them come from. Bucks The $100 bill is sometimes called a “C-note,” because C is the Roman numeral for 100. Roman numerals […]
The beloved actress turns 96 today. Here are some things you might not have known about everybody’s favorite Golden Girl. “Betty” was a very popular name for girls and women in the mid-20th century, and it’s usually a nickname for “Elizabeth.” Not in the case of Betty White. Her real name is Betty White—her parents […]
Some TV shows are successful because audiences rely on it being the same thing week after week. Other shows keep going back to the drawing board, and revamp until they hit on something that works. Last Call with Carson Daly After the late-night TV shakeups of the last few years, a lot of hosts switched […]
There are only so many notes in the music, which means that every now and then one popular song winds up sounding a lot like another popular song. Here’s a look at a case of copyright infringement that’s currently burning up the charts. One of the bestselling albums of 2017 was Lust for Life, the […]
The holidays aren’t over yet…they’re just getting started. Here are some quirky “celebrations” coming up this month. January 12: National Pharmacist Day First responders, emergency workers, and military personnel are heroes, sure, but pharmacists perform low-key heroics every day. This is the day to acknowledge and even personally thank your pharmacist for always having your […]
Do you like extremely innovative beers? Do you consider yourself environmentally conscious? Well…urine luck! (And if you’re not a big fan of beer, well, then this probably isn’t going to be the beer that grabs you.) Roskilde Music Festival In 2015, more than 100,000 music fans traveled to Denmark for the Roskilde Music Festival. The […]
Even weirder than that one about Rick Moranis teaching at a school for monsters? Or even The Smurfs? Yes! Yo Yogi! (1991) NBC attempted to revive 1950s and ‘60s cartoon character Yogi Bear for a whole new generation. That mean giving the smooth-talking bear a makeover so he looked cool and hip for the 1990s. […]
Imagine you’re one of the lucky few people in this world who writes a book, gets it published, and it goes on to be such a big hit that Hollywood comes calling and turns it into a movie. Double the good luck, right? These authors who hated the film adaptations of their novels didn’t see […]
We can’t look into the future…but these people with psychic abilities say that they can. Here are some major events we can all apparently look forward to this year. Aliens = Humans Sylvia Browne was talk show fixture in the ‘90s and 2000s (back when there were a lot more cheesy talk shows on daytime […]
Actor Jerry Van Dyke, an affable fixture on sitcoms from the ‘60s to the present, passed away this weekend at the age of 86. Here are some of the quirkiest moments from his long career. The Jerry Van Dyke Show Just like his older brother, Dick Van Dyke, Jerry Van Dyke found work on TV […]
Today, Elvis Presley would turn 83 years old. But the King died in 1977, leaving us wondering about all the music he never got a chance to record. Elvis was also an actor, starring in a string of cheesy movie musicals like Change of Habit and The Trouble With Girls. Here are some movies he […]
Are you like the millions of other Americans who enjoy watching an entire TV series in one sitting via Netflix? How about a little reading break? Most Watched Movie A couple of years ago, movie star Adam Sandler signed a huge contract that made Netflix his exclusive home — meaning his popular movies would hit […]
There are a lot of silly, made-up holidays out there…and today is our favorite one. It’s National Trivia Day. Trivia is totally our thing (!) so, well, here’s some trivia about animals. • Have you ever given a hungry-looking stray cat a saucer of milk? Sure, cats love milk. That may well be the case, […]
