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Mental Floss
CBS/Landov Once upon a time, magazine publishers hired teams of commissioned salesmen that went door-to-door to drum up new subscriptions. It was a pretty inefficient way to sell magazines. So in 1953 Harold Mertz, the manager of a magazine sales team, ca
Rob Lammle|
Tomatoes image via Shutterstock If you take a bunch of very smart, passionate science geeks, deprive them of sleep, fill them with booze, and put them in a room together, the conversations can take some pretty wild turns. That's what happened earlier thi
Matt Soniak|
If you’re a member of my generation or the one that raised it, your house was probably full of all sorts of glow-in-the-dark stuff in the 80s and 90s. Yo-yo's, stickers, action figures, clothing, you name it. As a kid, I thought it was just short of magic
Matt Soniak|
Installment #22: The naval arms race between Britain and Germany (along with smaller naval arms races between other European powers) was precipitated by a new ship, the HMS Dreadnought, which revolutionized naval weaponry. Her size, armor, and firepower e
Erik Sass|
Let’s picture a typical moment in my day: I’m minding my own business, with my iPhone in my back pocket. Suddenly, my left cheek is shaking as the phone vibrates and does the bzzt, bzzt, bzzt-ing dance of its people on my backside. I check the phone, and
Matt Soniak|
All the domestic breeds of dogs that we are familiar with, from chihuahuas to pit bulls, are the same species: Canis lupus familiaris. In fact, our dogs are a subspecies of Canis lupus, or wolf. Your dog could interbreed with most wolves -if you weren't a
Miss Cellania|
Dorothy "Dot" Rhone, a quiet girl from Liverpool, England, grew up with an emotionally distant mother and an abusive father who drank. She was terribly shy, introverted, and withdrawn, and she thought her nose was too big, going so far as to sleep with a
Eddie Deezen|
Their faces aren't as famous as those on the boxes, but odds are you’ve heard each of these beloved cereal mascots' voices somewhere else. 1. Paul Frees Paul Frees was one of the most sought-after voiceover actors in his time. He recorded Boris Badenov i
Danny Gallagher|
"It's 10 PM. Do you know where your children are?" This ominous question, somberly intoned just prior to the local news, was eventually parodied by a multitude of stand-up comedians, novelty song artists, and horror movie posters. But the original intent
Kara Kovalchik|
Happy Bloomsday!! If you're not a James Joyce aficionado (or if you don't celebrate obscure holidays), June 16 is the day all of the events in Joyce's Ulysses take place. The name comes from Leopold Bloom, the main character in the novel. To honor Bloo
Stacy Conradt|
In 1963, 16-year-old Bruce McAllister mailed a four-question survey to 150 novelists, asking if they intentionally planted symbolism in their work. Here’s what they had to say.
Lucas Reilly|
In the late 19th century, R.T. Davis purchased a struggling milling company that put out a ready-made pancake mix branded with an older, matronly black woman in an apron and kerchief. Aunt Jemima's appearance on the package implied long hours in a souther
Matt Soniak|
The very first traffic light, installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London in December 1868, had red and green gas lamps for nighttime use. The device was pretty crude, and less than a month after it went operational, it exploded and killed the un
Matt Soniak|
In 1916, four years before the Constitution recognized her right to vote, Jeannette Rankin was elected to Congress. While women had not achieved suffrage across the U.S. yet, there were no laws barring them from holding office in the Capitol. So Rankin, w
Matt Soniak|
Installment #21: The turn of the century was a time of upheaval in the American economy, as powerful corporations formed during the latter half of the 19th century came under fire from populist politicians who accused them of conspiring with each other to
Erik Sass|
From the film in Infinite Jest to Margot's plays in The Royal Tenenbaums, here's a look at some famous fictional masterpieces. 1. The film in Infinite Jest The title of David Foster Wallace’s 1996 near-future epic refers to a fictional film of the same
Maggie Ryan Sandford|
We’ve ranked our favorite fictional bears by your likelihood of surviving an unplanned run-in with them.
Caity Weaver|
It’s just kind of a strange coincidence. The diameter of the Sun is about 400 times larger than the Moon's, but it is also roughly 400 times farther away from Earth.
Matt Soniak|
Thanks to lost paperwork, diplomatic technicalities, or just plain forgetting they had declared war in the first place, many countries remained in a state of war long after the actual fighting had stopped. 1. Roman Republic vs. Carthaginian Republic – 2,
Kathy Benjamin|
You guys are still into tongue twisters, right? I didn't want to admit it. Even for me, it just seemed too childish. But recently a Jason Mraz-tweeted tongue twister had me delighting in my inability to enunciate “Irish wristwatch.” I texted it to all m
Jamie Spatola|
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