Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS

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The concept of the “Happy Hour” isn’t merely a marketing strategy, and the history of hitting the sauce at half price has a surprisingly strong—if not varied—connection to American history.

Sean Hutchinson
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If, for whatever reason, you long to wed somebody who’s already departed for the great beyond, your local government might just be willing to oblige … depending on where you live, and if you meet certain criteria.

Mark Mancini






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You’d think that if you lived on a small cul-de-sac with only four houses, it would be simple: The house numbers would simply be one, two, three and four. But Government is not about “simple.”

Kara Kovalchik


Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

If you’ve ever shakily stepped onto the ice at your local skating rink, you are intimately familiar with the fear of falling on slippery ice. But what makes ice so slippery in the first place? Interestingly enough, scientists are still trying to figure th

DeAnna Kerley


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It happened to me just this morning, when I was fiddling with my closet doors, trying to get them back on their tracks so they would slide correctly. As one door fell off and slammed into the other, my response was automatic. “Aye yai yai, these doors!”

Will McGough


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There are two questions that have haunted wannabe astronomers for decades: “Why is our galaxy called the Milky Way?” and “Does it have anything to do with the delicious candy bar?”

DeAnna Kerley




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For some time now, we have known the basic outline of the story of “dude.” The word was first used in the late 1800s as a term of mockery for young men who were overly concerned with keeping up with the latest fashions.

Arika Okrent
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If you’ve ever seen a cat wiggling around in its sleep, or come across three different-sized beds after eating porridge in a bear family’s inexplicably furnished home, you’ve probably wondered if animals are capable of dreaming.

Alex Watt


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Dried prunes can be juiced by steaming or simmering them to rehydrate them, running them through a strainer to remove the pits, seeds and skin, and then adding more water to the resulting paste.

Matt Soniak




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Some argue that standing to pee helps spread disease and ruins men's sex lives. Is that actually true?

Meghan Holohan


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“Stand beside her, and guide her,” we sing in “God Bless America.” Come to think of it, most nations of the world are referred to in the female gender. Why is that?

Kara Kovalchik
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The Dilemma: You're at a football game and there's a large, cigar-shaped object hovering suspiciously close to you. Question: Is it a blimp or a zeppelin? And more important, why didn't you get better seats?

Floss books
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According the Oxford English Dictionary, if you “turn the tables” on someone, it is generally understood that you have reversed the fortunes in your favor to some capacity, so as to “reverse one’s position relative to someone else, especially by turning a

Will McGough