Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS









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Much like Halloween itself, the practice of dressing up in costumes is the result of a hodgepodge of traditions from around the world.

Hannah McDonald
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Trick-or-treating for candy on Halloween only became common a few decades ago, but the tradition's roots stretch back to ancient pagan celebrations.

Michele Debczak








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If your experience with bears is largely limited to reading Winnie the Pooh as a kid, you might think that these fuzzy mammals will do anything to get their gigantic paws on a jar of honey.

Alvin Ward


No more teachers, no more books.

Discover the real reason why students get summers off each year, which contrary to popular belief, wasn’t because kids had to work on the family farm.

Lucas Reilly






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The ubiquitous packaging is everywhere, from cereal to deliveries to impromptu cat beds. But where did it come from?

Jake Rossen
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You may know an ice cream headache by one of its other names: brain freeze, a cold-stimulus headache, or sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia ("nerve pain of the sphenopalatine ganglion"). But no matter what you call it, it hurts like hell.

Matt Soniak