Mental Floss

NEWS









The history of pizza is packed with myths and misconceptions—but it sure is delicious.

The history of pizza is a large pie—half Margherita and half lies. Let’s take a bite out of pizza’s past, covering styles from Neapolitan and New York to Sicilian and St. Louis and beyond.

Jon Mayer








Language is weird.

Some nouns only have a plural form, regardless of how we think of them. They are known as ‘pluralia tantum,’ Latin for “plural only.”

Arika Okrent
These cats went to sea and to space, and inspired artists, writers, and scientists.

Anyone with a cat will probably argue that their feline is the coolest—but there have been at least a few other candidates through the ages, from Able Seacat Simon to Abraham Lincoln’s kitties to the feline that inspired Nikola Tesla.

Kerry Wolfe






You rang?

Cats and “Pspsps” go together like toddlers and the crinkling wrapper of a candy bar that you were trying to eat in secret. What gives?

Ellen Gutoskey