“Shoeless” Joe Jackson was illiterate. In restaurants, rather than ask someone to read the menu to him, he would wait until his teammates ordered and then order one of the items that he heard.
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To deflect flight noises…
To deflect flight noises from the Amsterdam Airport, an 80-acre park in the shape of perfectly aligned furrows with high ridges in between (inspired by old farming techniques and Chladni patterns), was built. Finished in October 2013, the park cut the noise level in half almost immediately.
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Students at Oberlin College…
Students at Oberlin College can rent original paintings by Picasso, Monet, and Dalí (among others) to hang in their dorm rooms for $5 per semester. On top of the $5 each student has to cough up, only a minimal liability agreement is signed, although the full consequences for damaging a work are unknown to the renters.
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Korean college students once…
Korean college students once protested against the amount of air in potato chip packets by building a raft out of them and sailing across a river.
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The two founders of Pizza Hut…
The two founders of Pizza Hut sold the business to Pepsi in 1977, and one of the founders then became a prolific Papa John’s franchisee, owning 133 locations by the year 2001. During legal struggles with Pizza Hut in the late 1990s, Papa John’s ran commercial advertisements highlighting the fact, including a dramatization showing Frank Carney [the founder] coming to a Pizza Hut stockholders’ meeting wearing a Papa John’s apron, saying, “Sorry, guys. I found a better pizza.”
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There used to be rat fishing…
There used to be rat fishing tournaments in an alley behind a saloon in Baltimore. Men would rig fishing poles with traps and bait, cast them down the ally and try and catch the largest rat.
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Nutraloaf is a food served…
Nutraloaf is a food served in prisons in the United States and Canada to prisoners who have misbehaved. Due to its lack of flavor, it has been banned in several states where food cannot be used as punishment.
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Between 1907 and 1922, American…
Between 1907 and 1922, American-born women who married non-citizens automatically lost American citizenship. In 1917, hundreds of American women who had married German men were forced to register with the government as ‘enemy aliens’.
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“The” was originally written as…
“The” was originally written as “þe” in old english. It was eventually abbreviated to “þͤ”. Since “þ” looked similar to “y” in old english blackletter script, they were both mixed up. So, in old english, “Ye olde” was simply pronounced “The olde.”
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A study published in the medical…
A study published in the medical journal Pediatrics found Spongebob Squarepants causes learning difficulties and impulse control problems in 4 year old viewers.
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