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Mental Floss
Encores have become concert standard issue. Artists pencil in a big hit or two at the back end of their set list, walk off stage, wait for fans to shout for the encore, act surprised, play aforementioned hit songs in all their encore glory, rinse, repeat.
Erik van Rheenen|
Kara Kovalchik|
Erik Sass|
Back in the day, comic strips changed often. Some strips changed their course completely. Here are four that you might not have recognized in their original form.
Clay Wirestone|
Meghan Holohan|
Unfortunately, the first athlete to playfully slap a teammate on the butt didn’t record his reasoning for history, but it’s become common practice among professionals and amateurs alike, and many have their own take on it.
Matt Soniak|
In the late 1920s, Airstream’s founder Wallace (Wally) Merle Byam created a travel trailer in his backyard to satisfy his wife’s refusal to camp without her kitchen and her dislike of sleeping on the ground.
Tara Cox|
Fred Newman, who creates sound effects for the radio show A Prairie Home Companion, has been called a mimic, an actor, and a saboteur of modern communication.
Meg Boeni|
Ethylene glycol is syrupy, odorless, and sweet-tasting, which makes it easy to mix into coffee, tea, soda, and juice drinks undetected.
Matt Soniak|
Long before the days of Match.com and Facebook stalking, the ancient Romans had their own guide to dating.
Meg Boeni|
Think poets are just stodgy writers who sit at their desks penning boring poems? Think again. Here are eleven poets who sometimes showed their more bawdy side.
Sean Hutchinson|
They don't make PSAs like they used to.
Erin McCarthy|
Florida is often the subject of strange and surprising news headlines, and for good reason. The Sunshine State is full of ecological anomalies and cultural fusions, and it carries a richer history than non-Floridians may realize. Here are a few interestin
Laura Steadham Smith|
Whether you were playing with your friends or gleefully terrorizing your siblings, few things brought as much joy growing up as NERF’s wide array of toys.
Erin McCarthy|
Prisoners make millions of license plates each year. But what else do they make for us?
Lucas Reilly|
Being a legend doesn’t necessarily mean you get to go out like one.
Jens T Carstensen|
Teddy bears are beloved everywhere. They make up roughly 70 percent of the billion dollar plush toy industry. But it wasn’t supposed to be that way. The supporters of President William H. Taft wanted you to snuggle up to an opossum instead.
Lucas Reilly|
While Where the Wild Things Are is Maurice Sendak’s best known book, it’s not his only notable one. Here are five other masterpieces from the author and illustrator you should read.
Erin McCarthy|
Every industry has a trade magazine, so the members of its world can follow the latest developments. To an outsider, however, these magazines offer a tantalizing (or baffling) glimpse at the obscure corners of human endeavor.
Arika Okrent|
The history of video gaming is littered with consoles that didn't live up to the hype. Here are 10 of them.
Rudie Obias|
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