Here, ladies and gentlemen, are the stories behind some well-known products (and one character) who prefer to be addressed as “Mister.” Mr. COFFEE In the 1968, Vincent Marotta and Sam Glazer, highschool friends who became partners in a small construction company, decided to start a coffee delivery service. Obsessed with finding a way for people […]
Hairstyles can define a time period as much as music or clothes. Here are the stories behind some iconic styles of yesteryear. Beehive Margaret Vinci Heldt, who owned Margaret Vinci Coiffures in Chicago, won the National Coiffure Championship—a tournament for hairdressers to introduce and invent new hairstyles—in 1954. A few years later, a hairdresser trade […]
In our quest to not cook up a bland book, our seasoned researchers spiced things up with a dash of tasty origins. ALLSPICE Allspice grows naturally in the West Indies and Central America, where Spanish explorers discovered it in the 16th century. They thought the shrubby tree’s fruit looked like peppercorns, so they called the […]
You probably know that red roses symbolize love and passion, but you may not know that the color, number, and how roses are combined have coded meanings dating to the Victorian era. Here’s a guide to sending the perfect bouquet. 1 red rose: “I like you.” 6 red roses: “I adore you.” A dozen red […]
While Uncle John was listening to Prince’s eight-minute-long “Purple Rain” on a loop over the weekend, he got to thinking about long songs. Really long songs. The Longest Hit Songs Before the late ‘60s, radio stations rarely played songs over four minutes long. It took a band as powerful as the Beatles to change that. […]
Our favorite childhood classics make us feel as snug as a bunny in bed. Here’s a look at what’s down the rabbit hole. GOODNIGHT MOON “Goodnight light and the red balloon…” Margaret Wise Brown wrote more than 100 books for children, but her most famous is Goodnight Moon, published in 1947. It was a revolutionary […]
We were driven to write this post on unusual cars. PHILION ROAD CARRIAGE: One of the oldest American automobiles, patented in 1892 by showman Achille Philion. It had a 2-cylinder, 1 horsepower, steam-powered engine; had a movable steering wheel (it could go on the front or back of the car); and could reach 8 mph. The […]
Trivia books—even ours—are full of fun facts about American presidents. Well, President Taft may have gotten stuck in a bathtub and Abe Lincoln was once a bartender, but they were never the judge on a reality show. Newly elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the first second-generation leader of Canada (his father was Pierre […]
Ever watched rounders and fish splash the pot until they’re down to the felt? If so, you’ve seen some serious poker players. They have their own language, too. Ante up! All in: Bet all your chips Down to the felt: So broke all you see in front of you is the green felt of the […]
Rock stars are cool, but they don’t emerge fully formed. They have to pay their dues, and many paid their dues in bands far different from the ones that made them famous. Billy Joel Billy Joel’s music is pretty simple: piano, singing, standard pop-rock backing band. It worked pretty well: Joel racked up 33 Top […]
Fascinating origins that answer the question: What lies beneath? CORSET Meaning: A stiffened undergarment extending from a woman’s hips to below her chest, to support and shape the torso Origin: Corset is Old French for “little body,” from the Latin corpus, or “body.” (Body—later bodice—was used to refer to the part of a dress that […]
Stop watching Netflix for a minute and read these facts about Netflix. CEO Reed Hastings got the idea for a company where uses pay a monthly fee to keep out DVDs—instead of a fee to rent a single movie for a day or two, and then incur late charges—in 1997. He’d returned Apollo 13 […]
The stories behind some of baseball’s most colorful nicknames. OIL CAN Dennis Boyd, who pitched for the Red Sox in the 1980s, grew up playing baseball in the hot summers of Mississippi. Every time he’d drink a beverage to cool down, he supposedly remarked that it was so smooth, it was “just like drinking oil.” […]
In 1976 the United States celebrated its bicentennial. Here is a look at how much things cost 40 years ago! (1) Want to watch a movie at home? There’s a new invention called a VCR that sells for a mere $1,600. (2) Rather attend the theater to see the year’s hottest flicks, like Rocky or Network? […]
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has hit home video after a box office run of $934.89 million, making it the highest grossing movie of all time. Here’s just how much money that is. If The Force Awakens were a country, it would have the 174th largest GDP on Earth, just behind Guinea-Bissau and ahead of […]
From the iPod to the iPhone to the iPad, Apple has had a lot of successes in recent years. It wasn’t always like that. Macintosh Portable A portable computer was positively revolutionary in 1989. Apple’s entry had a black-and-white LCD screen, which folded down over the keyboard to make the whole thing easy to cart […]
These spider facts are more scared of you than you are of them. SPIDERS ARE SNEAKY! Ever seen a newborn spider? No? That’s because they’re colorless (and tiny), making them virtually invisible to predators…and you. Hundreds can colonize your home and by the time you realize it, they’re all fully grown. THEY CAN SEE YOU! […]
We’ve written about the bold leaps taken by Archie and the Riverdale gang before, but there are just so times this comic book about a bunch of high school kids got really strange. Faculty Funnies In 1989, Archie publishers apparently thought that what their legions of kid and preteen readers really wanted was a comic […]
