Sure, it stings to write a big check to the IRS every April, but that money goes to pay for schools, roads, bridges…and this stuff, too. An exhaustive history of smoking in Russia In 2015, the U.S. National Institutes of Health paid more than $48,000 to an individual to research and write an exhaustive history […]
On this day in 1899, a guy named Alfred Mosher Butts was born. What did he do? He invented Scrabble, the word-forming crossword-like board game that’s been extremely popular for more than 50 years. The Great Depression Butts came up with the basic idea for Scrabble—a board game where players took turns drawing letter tiles […]
According to superstition and modern folklore, “Friday the 13th” is a day where weird stuff is destined to happen. There’s no truth to that, of course…or is there? Lighting Strikes On Friday, August 13, 2010, a boy was at the Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival in England. That’s when lightning struck him. He was hospitalized with […]
Sure, finding a message in a bottle is a rare, amazing, once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Even better: finding the oldest ever message in a bottle. Wedge Island In January 2018, a Naceline, Australia, family named the Illmans (and some friends) took off for a beach trip in the western part of the country. They drove on the […]
We’ve got Mother’s Day in May, Father’s Day in June, Grandparents Day in September, and we’ve got this holiday to celebrate brothers and sisters…Siblings DAY! Here are some famous people you might not have known share the same parents. Imagine the pride if one of your children won an Oscar. Then imagine if two of […]
In science, there’s a word for everything—especially all the weird and gross things your body does and makes. Ice Cream Headache If you eat ice cream too fast, you’re going to give yourself an “ice cream headache” or “brain freeze.” But what are you supposed to do? If you eat ice cream (or a popsicle, […]
Here’s a look into the history and origins of the lauded Mexican fast food item. A burrito is a Mexican or Mexican-inspired food, and since Spanish is the main language in that country, burrito is a Spanish word. It translates to English literally as “little donkey”—burro means donkey and the ito makes it diminutive. What’s […]
The early ‘90s gave rise to one of the strangest family feuds of all time: The Bush family—as in President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush—and the Simpsons…as in the fictional one from TV’s The Simpsons. This dispute had some near-Hatfields and McCoys levels of tension. “The dumbest thing I had ever seen.” […]
There are only a few TV producers and TV show creators whose names are as famous as TV stars—people like Norman Lear, Garry Marshall, Shonda Rimes, and Steven Bochco, who died this month at age 74. Steven Bochco was a TV innovator who developed and produced classic, groundbreaking shows like the gritty and harrowing police […]
Here are some fab facts about the most underrated, overlooked, and mocked Beatle, Ringo Starr. “Ringo Starr” is not his real name. The “Starr” is short for “Starkey” and “Ringo” comes from his habit of wearing rings. Somebody called him that once and it stuck, which the drummer himself liked because he thought it made […]
March 14 was “International Ask a Question Day,” and over on our Facebook page, we invited our readers to, well, ask a question and be entered in a giveaway. The response was overwhelming—hundreds of you BRI stalwarts posed a trivia conundrum. Unfortunately, we can’t answer all of them and not everyone can be a winner, but […]
March 14 was “International Ask a Question Day,” and over on our Facebook page, we invited our readers to, well, ask a question and be entered in a giveaway. The response was overwhelming—hundreds of you BRI stalwarts posed a trivia conundrum. Unfortunately, we can’t answer all of them and not everyone can be a winner, but […]
March 14 was “International Ask a Question Day,” and over on our Facebook page, we invited our readers to, well, ask a question and be entered in a giveaway. The response was overwhelming—hundreds of you BRI stalwarts posed a trivia conundrum. Unfortunately, we can’t answer all of them and not everyone can be a winner, but […]
March 14 was “International Ask a Question Day,” and over on our Facebook page, we invited our readers to, well, ask a question and be entered in a giveaway. The response was overwhelming—hundreds of you BRI stalwarts posed a trivia conundrum. Unfortunately, we can’t answer all of them and not everyone can be a winner, but […]
March 14 was “International Ask a Question Day,” and over on our Facebook page, we invited our readers to, well, ask a question and be entered in a giveaway. The response was overwhelming—hundreds of you BRI stalwarts posed a trivia conundrum. Unfortunately, we can’t answer all of them and not everyone can be a winner, […]
Who’s a good blog entry full of facts about puppies and dogs? These are! Yes they are! Puppies at Birth Puppies are born without teeth, sight, and hearing. (Those come at about two weeks old.) Nor can they regulate body temperature or know how to expel body waste. The first sense they develop is touch, […]
Say you’re a musician and you work and toil for years and finally score a big hit song…but then you can’t ever manage another one. How to pay the bills? Write musical scores for film and television. Jay Ferguson Jay Ferguson is a double one-hit wonder. In 1968, his rock band spirit scored its only […]
We are celebrating poetry with these fascinating and interesting stories about some poetic titans of the English language. Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer only published one work in his life, and he didn’t even finish it before he died, but fortunately that one work was The Canterbury Tales, the first work of narrative poetry in the […]
