15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, August 17, 2024
Life wasn’t so great in the past. You might have found yourself ridden with cholera, or killing puppies in a quest to stay young. But life isn’t so great now either. Sure, it may be fine where you are, but what if you find yourself 63,000 feet in the air or in an airless cave? Suddenly, life may become very difficult, while death will become easy. The best way to guard yourself against these threats is to read all about them below.
This Sucks
In the 1930s, airports that had had two-letter codes all switched to three-letter codes, through the addition of an “X” at the end. Sioux City airport got the code SUX. In 1988, they asked the FAA for a new code, and the FAA offered to change theirs to “GAY.” Sioux City turned down the offer.
Exhibitionism
The original reason that bathroom stalls were designed with such a gap between the door and the floor was janitorial. The bigger the gap, the more easily you can mop the floor of the stall from outside, without ever having to open the door.
Any Way You Can
The song “Mickey” by Toni Basil was originally called “Kitty” and was sung by a boy group called Racey. The lyric “I'll take it like a man” remained unchanged from one version to the next.
Carnival Barker
One type of scene from The Price Is Right was removed whenever the show aired repeats. It was any scene of Bob Barker with a fur coat, due to his later advocacy for animal rights.
Fruit & Nut
Each individual cashew starts out attached to its own fruit the size of an apple. So, eating a couple dozen cashews is like consuming the resources that made a couple dozen apples. Each nut is removed from its fruit by hand.
A Shitty End
James Polk didn’t run for reelection after his first term as president, figuring he’d completed his work. But during his farewell tour, he caught cholera and died three months after leaving office.
Armstrong’s Limit
If you find yourself 11 miles above sea level, bad news: You’ll die. It’s not because of the lack of oxygen — an oxygen tank won’t save you. The problem is the fluids in your body will boil, even at the low temperature there, because of the reduced air pressure.
Wedded Bliss
The “honey” in the word “honeymoon” may come from the old practice of giving new couples a supply of mead. When you got married, you could look forward to a month of drinking.
Pussy Whipped
A Comic-Con attendee attacked another attendee in 2014. A third attendee happened to be dressed as Catwoman with a whip and used it to subdue him.
Cruella Approves
We used to make moisturizer by mashing up puppies. A preparation of puppy water (juiced puppies) mixed with wine and oil had several applications in the 18th century, including treating gunshots and moisturizing skin.
The Movile Mystery
A cave in Romania has 33 species of animals that live nowhere else on Earth, despite the cave having no light for plants to grow and no other way of food entering. The animals dine on bacteria, which create food by oxidizing the rock.
The Anglo-French War
When you hear people refer to a struggle as a metaphorical tug-of-war, that idiom isn’t based on the game. Instead, the game is named after the idiom. Before, the game was called "French and English."
Yearning for the Mines
During World War II, some 50,000 men in Britain were conscripted not to fight but to work in coal mines. Then the war ended, and many of them were kept in the mines in involuntary servitude for another three years.
Bjork and Baldur
In Iceland, you can’t give your horse a wacky name, like the kind you hear in horse races worldwide. Iceland has a horse-naming committee, which must approve all names. Among other criteria, they ban you from giving choosing any name that sounds foreign.
Season of Renewal
TV seasons traditionally begin in autumn, and that’s not because the school year also begins in autumn. It’s because networks’ biggest sponsors were car companies, and autumn was when these companies unveiled their new models.