Since the 1965 debut of A Charlie Brown Christmas, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts characters have appeared in more than 40 animated specials. The classics leave us feeling warm and fuzzy; others leave us wondering, “What were you thinking, Charlie Brown?” Charlie Brown’s All Stars! (1966) Plot: A recurring storyline in the Peanuts comic strip is Charlie Brown’s […]
Some forgotten fads are forgotten for a reason. DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A GAME? In the late 1980s and early ’90s, board game publishers feared that the popularity of video games spelled doom for their industry. Solution: VCR Board Games, which included a board game, and, to compete with electronic games, a videotape. The […]
Vodka is practically tasteless, which means that distilleries can add whatever bizarre flavors they want to it. For example… Grass Polish company Bak makes Bison Grass vodka. It’s not bison-flavored—it’s grass-flavored (and bison eat grass). The grass infusion leaves a small amount of coumarin, which is a main ingredient in rat poison and leads to […]
You probably grew up eating some of these “classic” comfort food dishes, the recipes of which were printed on food packaging or promoted in magazine ads. If you’re like us, your feelings range from “Did we really eat like that?” to “I wish I had some right now!” VELVEETA QUESO DIP Ingredients: One 16-ounce package […]
The Miss America Pageant added the talent portion to the contest in 1935. Most contestants sing or dance, but some display more unusual skills. 1957: Amanda Whitman (Miss Tennessee) did a gymnastic tumbling and trampoline routine to the theme from The Third Man. 1959: Elizabeth Holmes (Miss New York) did an impression of French singer […]
At the top of the superhero list, you’ve got your Superman, your Batman…and then way, way down the list, you’ve got these. Shamrock In 1982 artists at Marvel Comics—tasked with creating an Irish superhero—came up the most stereotypically Irish lass possible. Shamrock (Molly Fitzgerald) is the daughter of a militant IRA member and has long […]
For this tale, we take you back to the 1970s—to a time when the TV landscape was much more sparse, and political correctness was more than a decade away. It was the inaugural Battle of the Network Stars, a celebrity sports event chock full of drama, scandal, triumph, cigarettes, and a few ethnic slurs. MALIBU, […]
Gossip and trivia from pop music. RADIOHEAD Bucking the tradition of rock groups trashing hotel rooms, Radiohead actually does the opposite. Not only do they clean up their own rooms, but they once snuck back into a hotel after checking out to clean up a room that their opening band had trashed. THE WHITE STRIPES […]
In honor of Harper Lee, who passed away at the age of 89, we look in our vault for some interesting facts about her famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Celebrities who didn’t appear on Dancing with the Stars. Cindy McCain Shortly after John McCain lost the 2008 presidential election, DWTS producers signed up his wife, Cindy McCain. John nixed the idea. Vincent Pastore The Sopranos co-star Vincent Pastore, who once appeared on the weight-loss reality show Celebrity Fit Club, had to drop out during […]
Throughout history, many leaders were given lofty nicknames— Catherine the Great or Richard the Lionhearted, for example. But not everyone could be Great or Magnificent. Some rulers got strange, and strangely specific, nicknames. ALFONSO THE SLOBBERER: King Alfonso IX ruled León (now part of France) from 1188 to 1230. He was prone to fits of […]
Sometimes a musician will create lightning in a bottle and write and record a song that storms the charts. Other times, it takes a little time—or a lot of time—for that song to become a hit. “A Little Less Conversation” Take 1: In 1967, singer-songwriter Mac Davis and his writing partner, Billy Strange (a session […]
A few more violent, racist, and otherwise inappropriate items with one strange thing in common: Kids are supposed to play with them. Black Bandit The LEGO company has distanced itself from what Muslim groups have dubbed the “terrorist LEGO.” Sold by an unlicensed LEGO enthusiast from Seattle named Will Chapman, Black Bandit is a head-scarf-wearing, […]
Strange baseball stats, baseball facts, and baseball trivia from Major League Baseball.
The music-and-comedy variety show was a television mainstay until the 1980s. Why did the format die out? Probably because of shows like these. Joey and Dad After Sonny and Cher got divorced, Allan Blye, producer of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, attempted to create another variety show duo: sultry singer-dancer Joey Heatherton…and her father, […]
Cheese’s exact origin is unclear, but archaeological evidence reveals that people have been eating it for nearly 8,000 years. These facts are so gouda we had to share them. According to Greek mythology, cheese was invented by Aristaeus, a demigod who was the son of Apollo. According to an Arab legend, thousands of years ago a […]
This is a major election year. It is your civic duty to vote. When you do, is it at a school or public building, or one of these more eccentric polling stations? In one Los Angeles precinct, voters went to a swimming pool, with curtained booths set up just inches away from the shallow end. That’s not even […]
It’s always interesting to find out where the architects of pop culture get their ideas. Some of these may surprise you. Biff Tannen The jerk played by Tom Wilson in the 1985 film Back to the Future was named after studio executive Ned Tannen, who once acted like a jerk to director Robert Zemeckis and […]
