Mental Floss’s 2022 Amazing Facts Desk Calendar Is Here—Get It While It's Hot

Tucked between all the entertaining lists and bizarre news articles on the Mental Floss homepage is the “Amazing Fact Generator.” True to its name, this nifty little text box offers up one amazing fact at a time—from the reason the Spangler Candy Company christened its lollipops “Dum Dums” (it’s easy for kids to pronounce) to the names of pirate Richard Worley’s first two ships (the New York Revenge and the New York Revenge’s Revenge).

In 2020, Mental Floss partnered with Andrews McMeel Publishing to transform the Amazing Fact Generator into a 2021 desk calendar. Though the facts themselves haven’t expired, keeping track of dates in 2022 using a calendar from 2021 might cause some confusion. So we've got a whole new 2022 edition of the calendar with fresh facts for each day of the year.

On St. Patrick’s Day, when everybody’s focused on the color green, you’ll be thinking about orange—more specifically, the neon orange dust stuck to your fingers after you crunch your way through a bag of Cheetos. As revealed on the March 17 page of the calendar, that dust is called cheetle. And in late July, you’ll learn that not every vending machine has dispensed snacks or drinks. One 19th-century machine in Corinne, Utah, sold divorce papers for just $2.50.

The calendar measures just over 5 inches by 5 inches, and there’s an easel mechanism on the back so that you can stand it up. If that sounds like something you and your desk need, you can order your calendar here.