Cleopatra is said to have attributed her beauty to eating pickles. Here are some more fascinating facts about pickles. 1. First known pickling of a cucumber: in Meso – potamia (Iraq), 2500 B.C. 2. Cucumbers are native to India, and were spread from there across Western Asia about 5,000 years ago. 3. East Asians were […]
Hey, more dogs are always a good thing, right? Well, it’s a little bit odd, and straight out of science fiction, that cloning pets is now a reality.
Assorted weirdness from around the baseball diamond. 1. On September 30, 1934, Charley O’Leary of the St. Louis Browns became the oldest big leaguer to get a hit and score a run. He was 51. 2. In Japan, catchers learn to crouch by having spiked boards placed under their behinds. 3. From 1936 to ’46, […]
Music is a big part of the movies…except when the song gets cut out entirely. Producers of the 1965 James Bond movie Thunderball couldn’t make up their minds on a title song. After rejecting “Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” by Shirley Bassey (who had done “Goldfinger” for Goldfinger), they asked Dionne Warwick to re-record it. […]
You might not want to read this page with the lights out. WANDERING SOLES Employees at a store in Cornwall, England, claim a ghost has taken up residence in the shop. And the ghost, they say, is obsessed with shoes. “I was standing at the counter,” says a salesclerk named Helen Honey, “when the top […]
Of the two major party presidential candidates, one gets to be president and the runner-up…has to find something else to do.
Trivia you don’t know about the songs you definitely do know. Penny Lane The song described real locations in Liverpool. Or at least they were real—the street called Penny Lane is no longer there, although the barber, banker, and “shelter in the middle of the roundabout” still stand. The barber and banker are still a […]
Every football team has a storied history. So do their names. PITTSBURGH STEELERS Originally named the Pirates after Pittsburgh’s professional baseball team, in 1940 owner Al Rooney renamed the team for the city’s steel industry. HOUSTON TEXANS The Dallas Texans were one of the original AFL teams. They moved to Kansas City in 1963, so […]
You would think that more bands would name themselves after lines in songs that they like—after all, who’s a bigger fan of music than musicians? 1. Lady Gaga gets her name from the Queen hit “Radio Ga Ga.” 2. The Australian alternative rock band Jet (“Are You Gonna Be My Girl”) named itself after the […]
(1) The U.S. Mint’s first production in 1793 consisted of 11,178 copper cents. Today the Mint produces an average of 14.7 million coins per day. (2) How many paper bills does the Mint print every year? Not a single note. (That’s the job of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.) (3) The first real woman […]
Tired of apples and peas? Need a break from prunes and brussels sprouts? Here’s a list of unusual fruits and vegetables to look for next time you’re at the supermarket. Kiwano: Also known as the African horned cucumber and the jelly melon, the kiwano is a yellow-orange, oblong, spiky fruit with lime-green flesh that looks […]
Because age is just a number. At age 76: Min Bahadur Sherchan successfully climbed Mount Everest in 2008. He’s the oldest person ever to do it. At age 83: Thomas Edison applied for his 1,093rd—and final—patent (1931). The invention: a holder for items being electroplated. At age 84: Eamon de Valera won a second term […]
All of us regular people might have a hard time understanding why anyone would willingly walk away from a lucrative sports career in their prime. But they had their reasons. 1. First baseman Adam LaRoche played for six Major League Baseball teams for more than a decade. During the 2016 preseason, he suddenly announced his […]
Once again the BRI asks—and answers—the question: Where does all this stuff come from? Telethons After writer Damon Runyon died of cancer in 1946, his friends in the entertainment industry established the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. The charity held its first big fund-raiser in April 1949—an unprecedented 16-hour television broadcast to solicit donations. This […]
As a kid growing up in New Jersey, Uncle John often went to Palisades Amusement Park. Then one day they announced they were tearing it down to build an apartment complex. Many areas have an attraction like that—it’s an important part of the cultural landscape for decades…and then it’s gone. ATTRACTION: The Hippodrome LOCATION: New […]
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with these words and phrases straight out of the Emerald Isle. Cat: Something terrible or annoying. Not that the Irish hate cats; it’s short for cat malojan, a Gaelic corruption of an old English phrase, “cat on a melodeon,” which is a type of organ. (Indeed, cat walking across an organ’s keyboard […]
Well, as it says in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, you’re supposed to beware them. But why? What are the Ides of March?
With The People vs. O.J. Simpson currently airing, we’re reminded of how the televised criminal case against the popular football player and actor was labeled “the trial of the century.” Guess what else the media dubbed the “trial of the century”? Lots of other high profile trials. Here are a few.
