Mental Floss

ALL STORIES

Stopping by woods on a snowy evening.

Americans have no lack of idioms for snow and other features of winter weather. Here are 15 regional terms you should know.

Grab your magnifying glass.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

We’ve all been there.

Whether you’re at a hotel on a business trip or crashing at a relative’s house for the holidays, getting quality sleep on the first few nights can be a challenge. Here’s why.

In his long career, Carrey’s given us comedy, kookiness, and drama.

Carrey has given us an array of looks, laughs, and lamentations in his career—did your favorite performance make the list?

Juggalos often claim to be misunderstood.

Fans of the horrorcore group Insane Clown Posse find themselves on the outskirts of society. They like it that way.

Kiss your pets under some artificial mistletoe.

Traditional Christmas plants like poinsettias, holly, and mistletoe can be dangerous for pets.

Scroll down for the full map.

The analysis used data from search and social media posts to determine where people around the world wanted to go for Christmas—and dug deeper to provide American data state by state.

KFC | THE FUTURE IS NOW, THE FUTURE IS EDUARDO

KFC customers in Spain can now raise their own digital fried chicken pet.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is one of the institutions fooled by an expert art forger.

Some of history's most notorious forgeries include a Vermeer that tricked a Nazi and a fake sculpture by Michelangelo.

See if you can figure out this twisted tune.

It’s time to play Tune Twist, where we translate the lyrics of popular songs into multiple languages and then back into English. Can you figure out what the song is, or who performed it?

Not a snack.

And what happens if you chow down on one anyway?

‘Searching for Franklin,’ ‘The Indifferent Stars Above,’ and ‘Cannibalism.’

You might want to skip dinner after reading these.

Adorable or terrifying?

Are time out dolls cursed? People in certain corners of the internet seem to think so.

A giant Santa statue in North Pole, Alaska.

From North Pole to Bethlehem to Eggnog, here are 14 places in the United States with names that will remind you of the winter holidays.

You don’t want to run into these creatures in the woods after dark—or ever.

The Cleveland Spiders in 1890.

From the Macon Whoopees to the Piedmont-Westernport Drybugs and beyond.

Brain rot can be a consequence of too much TikTok.

The phrase for being terminally online is not flattering, but it is Oxford’s Word of the Year.

Turns out the monikers of romance books and cosmetics can sound eerily similar.

Let’s crack the history wide open.

These shows did way more than just provide entertainment.

Ken Jennings.

All five answers to the questions below have something in common. Can you figure it out?

Christmas trees are an essential part of the holiday.

Discover the origins of the Christmas tree tradition that brings joy to millions each season.

Peter Billingsley in A Christmas Story (1983).

The holiday classic—which could have starred Jack Nicholson as The Old Man Parker—has cemented its legacy as a Christmas classic.

English bulldog today and English bulldog circa 1930

These breeds aren’t what they used to be.