15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, April 5, 2025
Listen, it might seem like everything has suddenly gone to hell, but you’ve gotten through worse. Why, remember the time a clown sailed by on a tub pulled by geese, and so many people showed up to see him that the bridge tipped over, and dozens died? The clown killed many, but he didn’t kill you.
Or what about the time a fire broke out and burned down New Orleans? That one shouldn't have gone as badly as it did, but needless measures made it worse. Find out exactly how below, along with something about Madonna that her handlers tried to hide from the public.
Sterilization
Calvin Coolidge chose not to seek reelection partially because he suffered from respiratory illness, which ultimately killed him. We now know one cause of this illness. He purposely inhaled chlorine — in a failed attempt to treat other less serious respiratory illnesses.
Prison Song
If you know only English, the title of that famous Spanish song “Guantanamera” means nothing to you, and if you know Spanish, you might be just as clueless because that’s no common Spanish word. But it is a proper Spanish noun, meaning “woman from Guantanamo.”
The World of Tomorrow
Screenwriter J.F. Lawton originally pitched the movie Pretty Woman under the title 3,000, $3,000 being the price that Vivian demands for being hired for the weekend. Along with various other changes, Disney retitled it for fear that people would think it was a sci-fi movie, set in the year 3000.
Had It With These
When Samuel L. Jackson was a student at Morehouse, he locked the administration in a room using chains. Not only did this get him expelled — it landed him with a felony conviction.
That’s Where The Money Is
In the 1990s, banks in Texas kept being robbed by a woman named Cowboy Bob. Cowboy Bob (or Peggy Jo Tallas, as she was otherwise known) dressed as a man in a cowboy hat to hide her identity, and when she finally got caught, authorities had to give her a lenient sentence when they discovered she’d never used a weapon during the robberies.
Re-Re-Reboot
The Brady Bunch got a TV revival in 1990 starring most of the original cast. CBS canceled it after just six episodes because almost no one watched it. It was a surprise then when The Brady Bunch Movie topped the box office five years later, since this movie had none of the original cast and was a parody.
Thanks for Nothing
In 2009, an interviewer asked Quentin Tarantino why he chose that unusual spelling for the title Inglorious Basterds. “I’m never going to explain the spelling,” he replied. See, this is the sort of insider info that justifies the entire field of entertainment reporting.
My Two Dads
The Barí people of Venezuela believe in partible paternity, which means that a child might have multiple biological fathers. This theory says that the child inherits the best characteristics from the mother’s several sexual partners.
Zombie Milk
In the early 20th century, companies were trying to extend the shelf life of milk, and they came up with a new preservative that they named Preservaline. Preservaline was made of formaldehyde, and it lost popularity due to the many people who died after drinking milk containing it.
Hayworth Gave Good Face
Madonna’s first song came out in 1983. For this single, titled “Everybody,” her label decided to market her as a Black artist. The initial strategy was to hide her face, in hopes of scoring her additional airplay on R&B stations.
Bob Blank's Blank Tape
Hidden Depths
Ron Howard was planning to direct a different biopic about a schizophrenic before he settled on A Beautiful Mind. His film was going to be about Michael Laudor, who graduated Yale despite his illness. But then Laudor murdered his wife while Howard was planning the movie, which made him a slightly harder protagonist to root for.
Hot and Cold
You might have seen fridges in RVs that are powered by propane instead of electricity. In the 1940s, these were a serious competitor for electric fridges. There was no consensus that kitchen appliances should be powered by electricity — until there was, and companies that focused on gas-powered stuff went bust.
Insane Vocals
A Dutch band named Gulaggh released an album in 2008 that consisted mostly of screaming. No, we’re not dismissing the band’s own singing as just screams. Instead, the album was one 45-minute track of the wails of mental patients from an institution where one singer worked.
Paving Paradise
Brazilian organizers caught some flak this year when it emerged that they cut down eight miles of rain forest for a climate summit later this year. However, the 50 or so acres cleared for this road sound less significant when compared to the 10,000 acres that have been cleared every day for decades.
Hell’s Bells
A fire burned down much of New Orleans in 1788. In those days, church bells often served as alarms, but Pere Antoine in St. Louis Cathedral forbade the bells from being rung, as it was Good Friday.
