Jake Rossen

Jake Rossen

Joined: May 6, 2013

Jake Rossen was a senior staff writer for Mental Floss.

Think twice before reaching for those weird, colored contact lenses.

Caleb Milne wasn't wealthy, but his grandfather was.

A line of hogs.

It's pumpkin time.

Booth may have toured the country as a mummy.

The ‘Misery’ star’s grandfather believed that Lincoln’s assassin lived another 40 years after he was supposedly killed by the government in late April 1865. His proof? The mummified corpse he kept in his garage.

Keith Moon in his then-trendy sunken living room.

The bold architectural choice was a literal step down from conventional living rooms.

Sin-eater, hokey-pokey man, and pure finder are all actual jobs from the past that no longer exist.

Harry Reichenbach brought a circus barker's attitude to movie marketing.

Harry Reichenbach would do anything to get publicity, even if it meant staging deaths.

Here’s a rare chance to own some rare coins.

An auction house is giving away valuable coins and banknotes to those who can solve their riddles.

Harry Potter and the Corn Maze of Secrets.

Design firms turn acres of grain corn into pop culture art you can get lost in.

‘The Shining’ made King one unhappy camper.

King has nursed a grudge against Stanley Kubrick’s film for decades. In 1980, he explained to David Letterman why it left him so cold.

The cover of ‘ ’Salem’s Lot.’

King’s sophomore novel left out a scene deemed too horrific to leave in.

‘Tron’ was one of the earliest examples of CGI filmmaking.

The original’s July 1982 release date was selected just to mess with an ex-employee.

Shag carpet: the flooring choice of swingers.

Shag was once synonymous with ’70s cool. Now we loathe it. How did that happen?

The Sawzall in action.

The origin of the multipurpose saw's catchy name, explained.

The BBC got the wrong kind of attention for a Halloween special.

A live Halloween special in 1987 had viewers convinced that a magic trick had just gone very wrong.