12 Rousing Facts to Roll Up Your Eyelids and Read

If you’ve ever looked at Betty Boop and thought, man, that’s a weird-looking lady, there’s a reason: Betty Boop was originally an anthropomorphic poodle.

You’d be forgiven for thinking Walt Disney’s first breakout character was Mickey Mouse. In fact, that honor goes to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the less popular but earlier critter created in 1927.

If you’ve been understandably not entirely occupied with pound cake’s origins, you might not know the origin of the name, or assume it has to do with serving size. It actually comes from the original recipe, that included one pound of every ingredient (flour, sugar, butter and eggs).

If you’re handed an unfamiliar cake known as king cake during Mardi Gras, be a little careful while chowing down. A trinket, most popularly a small baby figurine, is hidden inside the cake and is meant to give whoever receives it good luck.

Maryland is the only state in the U.S. with zero naturally occurring lakes.

In the 1980s, the head of American Airlines came up with a novel way to save the company money that wasn’t “mass layoffs.” By removing a single olive from every salad provided to customers, he was able to save $40,000.

It turns out that popcorn’s connection to microwaves goes back to the microwave’s very inception. Popcorn was the first ever food intentionally microwaved (the first unintentional food microwaved was a chocolate bar that melted in the inventor’s pocket).

A very rich, very weird history buff purchased Winston Churchill's dentures at auction this year for 18,000 pounds.

Famous film Casablanca was based on a famous play, that was originally titled: Everybody Comes to Rick's. Good switch.

Bill Paxton holds the questionable honor of being the only actor to be killed by a Predator, a Terminator and a Xenomorph.

Being the first woman featured on American currency would, you’d think, be a laudable achievement. Unfortunately, that honor goes to Lucy Holcombe Pickens’ appearance on the Confederate $1 bill.

Honors in sports don’t get much higher than having your jersey retired by the team you played for. One thing that would qualify is having your jersey retired by a team you never played for, like the Miami Heat did with Michael Jordan's number 23.