15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, December 28, 2024
2024 has nearly come to an end. As the year closes, you may find yourself staring into a beer glass, wondering, “Is there a way to pour beer faster?” Or you might stare at a hotel room wall and wonder if anyone on the other side is trying to kill you. Or you might stare at a slice of prosciutto and wonder, “What if this meat will be the end my whole criminal enterprise?”
We have answers to all those questions below, along with the promise that a new car can be a great motivator.
Always Faithful
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A professor named Mike Cilgram briefly faked his death in 1998, just so he could teach his wife to appreciate him more. He reappeared and returned to her, after which she very reasonably filed for divorce.
Black Gold
We know caviar are eggs, so we picture fish laying maybe a small clutch of them from some chamber in their bodies. But caviar fills up pretty much the entire sturgeon’s body. Cut the fish open, and it’s full of the stuff, with seemingly no room left for organs.
Be Vewwy Quiet
Scientists brought cats to an Antarctic island to kill the mice there. It turned out the real problem was the rabbits they brought for eating, which ended up stripping the island of all its vegetation. Even releasing a special anti-rabbit virus didn’t stamp them out, and the cats meanwhile had to be individually shot with guns.
Time Capsule
The famous Nokia ringtone was written in 1902 by the Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega. The company first used it as a classical piece in a 1992 ad, and it became the default ringtone from there.
Madness to Method
A famous theory says that William Shakespeare didn’t write any of the plays we attribute to him. This theory was proposed by Ohio writer Delia Bacon, who went on to die while committed to an asylum for the insane.
Wine, Women and Song
Carl Jung had an inner circle of female supporters, referred to as maenads or Valkyries. His last words before dying were to them: “Let’s have a really good red wine tonight.”
Don’t Touch That Dial
You might have heard about how amazing it first was to not have to go all the way up to the TV to flip the channel. But being able to go up to the TV to flip the channel was itself a big step forward. Before, you’d have to fine-tune the TV to make the signal clear, so getting the TV to do that automatically with each channel change was a huge convenience.
Magic Bullet
Authorities first thought that a man found dead in a hotel room in 2010 had suffered a heart attack. Later, they noticed an unusual wound. It turned out that the guests next door had accidentally discharged a firearm, and the bullet went through the wall and fatally struck him in the crotch.
Handyman
The inventor of the Game Boy started out as a janitor at Nintendo. The company made physical toys at the time, and Gunpei Yokoi gained attention for his simple invention of an extendable mechanical hand and then moved on from there.
Glass Half Empty
The standard pint glass is uniquely bad at holding beer. Due to the way it creates currents in the fluid, you must pour slowly and ideally stop and pause halfway through. You could eliminate that if you served beer in a giant martini glass.
Game Show Prize
Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim the English Channel, had a few motives for this quest. One was that her father promised to buy her a new red roadster if she went through with it.
Retirees Refuge
In 1954, Arizona developers founded a town that would only admit residents aged 55 or older. They named it Youngtown. Later, the state noted that no city has the authority to ban residents based on age, and so, Youngtown had to drop the rule.
Go Black, Go Back
Researchers had to walk back a recent claim that said it’s dangerous to use black spatulas. When you use those, they’d maintained, you get nearly the daily limit for a compound called BDE-209. But it turned out the actual amount’s nowhere near the limit. The study accidentally multiplied the levels by 10.
Mocking Jay
Before jaywalkers, people used to complain of “jaydrivers.” These were drivers who didn’t know the rules of the road — presumably because they were rubes, as “jay” used to mean rube.
Greedy Pig
A man who went by the name of Prince Khalid bin Al Saud, and lured in investors by claiming to represent the Saudi royal family, was really a con man named José Moreno. One way he eventually attracted suspicion was when this supposedly Muslim prince took investors out for a meal, he ordered ham.