15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, July 20, 2024

A guy got drunk one time, and suddenly, the whole country banned alcohol
15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, July 20, 2024

This past week lasted approximately four months, while also passing by in no longer than 50 hours. The entire world may be going mad, but we urge you to anchor yourself, using the power of facts. Learn about the panics of the past, and of predictions of the future. Learn of battles underwater and up in the air. You might even learn something about potatoes, if you read very carefully. 

Moon Shot

The manager of the New York Giants once noted that a pitcher of his, Gaylord Perry, couldn’t hit well. “There would be a man on the Moon before Gaylord Perry would hit a home run,” he said. Perry went on to hit a home run on July 20, 1969, shortly after Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. 

Lucky Mistake

In 1982, Baltimore police went to an apartment, suspecting they’d find marijuana and cash. They knocked on the wrong door by mistake. This apartment turned out to also have a bunch of marijuana and cash, so they made an arrest. The resulting legal case went all the way to the Supreme Court. 

Wicked Ways

One American town in the 19th century was known as “the wickedest town in the west.” A single saloon there had seven murders in two years, and such killings generally went unpunished. This town was Bismarck, North Dakota

Valium and Sour Cream

In the mood for some benzodiazepines? You can find some just by eating potatoes! You wont find a lot, to be fair, but you’ll encounter trace amounts. 

The Slime Defense

The hagfish has a method for fending off any sharks that attack: slime. It just needs to squeeze out a teaspoon of the stuff. Then, once outside the fish’s body, the slime can expand to 10,000 times its original volume in a matter of seconds.

An Atlantic hagfish (Myxine glutinosa) using its slime to get away from a kitefin shark

Vincent Zintzen, et al.  

Fine in the ocean but catastrophically messy when we transport the slime.

We Have to Go Back

Toasters 70 years ago were better than they are now. You didn’t need to lower bread into the toaster with a lever. The toaster detected the weight of inserted slices, automatically lowered them, and then smoothly raised them again once toasting completed. 

Loose Lips

An armed naval ship from Venezuela rammed into a German passenger cruise ship in 2020, attacking it. The cruise ship had no way to fight back, but the naval ship split itself open in the process and sank

No Law in the Sky

The first airplane thief was acquitted. The case went in 1931 to the Supreme Court, who noted that there was no law against stealing planes — just against stealing “vehicles,” and airplanes weren’t deemed vehicles. 

Aurora Bore-ARGH-lis

Norway launched a rocket to study the northern lights in 1995. Russia handed the nuclear briefcase to Boris Yeltsin so he could respond, because they thought this rocket came from the United States

Cup of Flower

If you want real vanilla, instead of the synthetic stuff, that’ll cost you. That’s because it’s cultivated by individually pollinating the flowers by hand. It’s unclear why you’d want real vanilla, though, since the synthetic stuff is chemically identical.

Vanilla planifolia

NPS

 Probably the same reason you’d want real diamonds, which is, uh, hold on.

The Ides’ Eve

 “The best sort of death would be sudden and unexpected,” said Julius Caesar. He said this on March 14th. The next day, he was stabbed to death — by (along with other people) the guy whod been next to him when hed said that remark. 

The Drunken Prince

Saudi Arabia has opened its first liquor store, following a ban that was in place since 1952. The country didnt simply ban alcohol because of Islamic law, as many think. They banned it after the king’s son got drunk and shot a British diplomat. 

Erectile Robusta

In the 1600s, a petition circulated around London, protesting coffee. It claimed to be written by the city’s women, complaining that the drink had rendered their husbands impotent

Legacy

After he stopped being president, Andrew Johnson ran for Congress. That would have been quite a step down. But he lost. He came in third place.

Noted

Lisa McVey vanished in 1984, right after writing a suicide note. She hadn’t killed herself — she’d been kidnapped by a serial killer. She managed to escape that killer, never killed herself and is still alive today. 

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