15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, January 11, 2025
This week saw massive fires eat up Los Angeles, which brings to mind other deadly fires from America’s past. You might think of the Cocoanut Grove fire, the Iroquois Theatre fire or the Brooklyn Theatre fire — each of which was much tinier than any wildfire but killed far more people. Or, if it’s buildings you’re thinking about, maybe your mind goes to the burning of Notre-Dame in Paris, which killed no one but still destroyed some irreplaceable stuff.
But there’s one thing about that Paris fire that a lot of people got wrong. Find out below, along with some information about syrup, storms and spite.
Oh Wow, a Promotion
Britain hands out a great many hereditary titles, and the person who held one for the shortest time was Wilfred Stamp. Stamp and his father, Baron Josiah, died simultaneously during the Blitz. British law declared that the father died first, meaning Wilfred held the title of baron — for an infinitesimal length of time.
Attack of the Life-Saving Tomatoes
In 2015, Japanese scientists created a robot that can perch on your back and feed you tomatoes as you run. This wasn’t a mere side project to show off some more generally applicable feature but was specifically commissioned by a vegetable company to encourage people to eat tomatoes.
In the Face of Pain
George Orwell was hospitalized soon after completing 1984 and died just months later. He did get married between that book’s publication and his death. The wedding was held in his hospital room, with him on his deathbed.
Sweet Demand
In 1966, an advertising firm interviewed buyers, asking them what brand of syrup they generally bought. The majority of respondents picked “Aunt Jemima” out of the listed choices. Aunt Jemima didn't actually make syrup at the time, but this survey proved the public associated the brand with syrup, convincing the company to go into the syrup business.
Birth of Chaos
In 1887, the King of Sweden held a contest related to the three-body problem. Mathematician Jules Poincaré won the prize. Then he realized his proof was wrong. He paid to have all copies of it destroyed, and in finding that the thing he called stable was actually unstable, he launched the field of chaos theory.
Literal Rags
The heads of banks and investment companies often come from rich backgrounds. Not Sidney Weinberg, who was the head of Goldman Sachs for almost 40 years. He first joined the company in 1907 as an assistant janitor.
I Have Confidence
While filming The Sound of Music, Charmian Carr, who played 16-year-old Liesl, went through the glass window of a gazebo and broke her ankle. She danced the next scene on that broken ankle, which sounds painful.
Green Initiative
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company produces special resistant grass, for hardier lawns. The grass escaped containment, and though the USDA initially fined the company, we now agree that the grass cannot be defeated and can only be yielded to.
Pure Catfishing
“The Piña Colada Song” (whose official name is “Escape”), was written and sung by Rupert Holmes. He had never drunk a piña colada when he wrote the song and still had not when he was interviewed a quarter century later.
Another Ubisoft Scam
When a fire hit Paris’ Notre-Dame cathedral in 2019, news sources said renovations would use a surprising source: Assassin’s Creed Unity, a video game that depicts Notre-Dame. In the end, they didn't use that video game at all. Instead, renovators used the many far more accurate records of the cathedral they themselves had, as it was one of the most documented buildings in the world.
Touchy Feely
Leprosy is considered famously contagious, to the point that lepers were shunned and isolated in their own colonies. In reality, the disease is hard to catch even if you touch someone who has it — and 95 percent of people are completely immune to it no matter what.
Bitter Hearts
On Valentine’s Day 2014, a group of single men in Shanghai colluded to buy every odd-numbered seat in a movie theater showing a romantic film, to ensure no couple could sit together. Many experts note that those men could have instead spent that money going on dates.
The Hand of Fate
The roof of a plane in Hawaii ripped off in 1988. One, and only one, person flew out — flight attendant Clarabelle Lansing. Her body was never found.
Enquiring Minds
Anthony Perkins first learned that he was HIV positive by reading it in the National Enquirer. The nurse shared his blood test results with that paper without sharing them with him.
Curse You, Andrew
The first country to regularly assign names to storms was Australia. The system there was created by one guy, Clement Wragge, who sometimes gave cyclones women’s names so he could make double entendres. Other times, he gave them the names of male politicians, to criticize politicians who refused to fund him.
