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A fact is the amuse-bouche of knowledge

33 Random Bits of Trivia Harvested From the Factoid Mines

November 27, 2023

One of these facts could lead you down quite the rabbit hole, if it tickles your fancy. Ugh, that term about tickling fancies just kind of creeped us out a bit. What does that even mean?!?! Anyway, you never know where a single fact could lead you. It’s the spark that could make you want to learn more about Glenn Close, or cults, or even tickled fancies themselves.

33

CRACKED.COM Jack Kerouac helped build the Pentagon. Before he became an iconic Beat writer, Kerouac had several jobs in the 1940s - including a gig as a construction worker at the new HQ of the War Department. Не would bring a pint of gin or whiskey to work every day. — Source

32

Georgia O'Keeffe hated that people saw anything sexual in her paintings. O'Keeffe was adamant that she painted flowers, not vaginas. It was photographer Alfred Stieglitz (who eventually became her husband) who began promoting her paintings as softcore porn, against her objections. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

CRACKED.COM IMDb started as a list of hot actresses. The biggest website for film buffs was originally just a list of actresses and their credits compiled on Usenet. The list was later expanded to include actors too, and the whole thing was eventually made available online in 1990. IMDb Fi — Source

30

CRACKED.COM The Navy maintains a forest to service just one ship. The USS Constitution is the oldest ship still afloat - and the U.S. Navy grows a 50,000-acre forest just to maintain it. Every 60 years, the oldest trees are chopped down and turned into new planks for the Constitution. — Source

29

Time to sit down, dude

GRACKED.COM Crippled by student loan debt? Thank Albert L. Lord. SHERVE NOTE 60 T As a top officer of the Student Loan Marketing Association (SLMA, or Sallie Mae), Lord did his aggressive best to dominate the student loan market and lobby Congress to keep profits high. Now that his own grandkids are in college, he pontificates about how gosh-darn expensive it is. — Source

28

CRACKED.COM Machiavelli never said, The end justifies the means. Machiavelli was much less Machiavellian than people think. His actual quote from The Prince was more about how power perpetuates itself, as whatever means the powerful use to remain powerful will always be defended as justifiable. — Source

27

A bank robber failed because of his bad handwriting. In March 2021, Alan Slattery from the U.K. handed a note to a bank teller, demanding money and threatening the customers - and walked away empty-handed, as the teller couldn't understand Slattery's handwriting. Не was arrested after trying a couple more times. GRACKED.COM — Source

26

CRACKED.COM Mother Teresa's charities were less charitable than usually described. Mother Teresa's legacy has come under examination in light of discoveries like the unsanitary (and not always free of charge) facilities run by her charities. Former Kolkata mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya has questioned the image she gave of the city as needing to be saved by a white, Catholic woman. — Source

25

CRACKED COM Medieval theologians thought that Jesus was born a tiny man. Since the Bible never says that baby Jesus looked like a baby, some took the liberty of deciding that he was fully formed at birth. That's one of the reasons why medieval art often depicts him as a middle-aged accountant. — Source

24

WHERE EVERYONE HAS A SECRET TRUMP TOWER A NOVEL DONALD J. TRUMP WITH JEFFREY ROBINSON Donald Trump wrote an erotic thriller. Crediting him as the author wasn't exactly truthful, but his fingerprints are still all over the book. The by-product of his attempt to create a soap opera, 2012's Trump Tower narrates the, um, sexy goings-on between (buxom) women and (rich) men happening in Trump's domain. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Prince has been described as a pool shark. The Purple One's personal photographer (who considered himself as a fairly decent pool player) told a story about how Prince beat him: He proceeded to basically clean the table two times in a row before I even had a chance to shoot. When I did finally have a chance, he beat the pants off me. Не was that good. And he was cocky about it, too. CRACKED COM — Source

22

CRACKED.COM Dr. Phil used to race moto- cross. Не can still pop a wheelie on a dirt bike. — Source

21

Before getting his big break, Jon Hamm worked as a set dresser for Cinemax soft-core- porn movies. Не said it was soul crushing. GRAGKED.COM — Source

20

CRACKED.COM Justin Bieber can solve a Rubik's Cube in less than two minutes! RUBIK'S 4LIFE Yes, probably faster than you can! Bieber has been showing his puzzle-solving skills in many interviews through the years, for example on The Late Late Show with James Corden in 2015. — Source

19

CRACKED.COM Helen Mirren was a carnival barker. Her job was talking fast and loud to draw people to a dart stall. — Source

18

Missy Elliott was bumped up two grades in school, because her IQ was super high. WANG She got so lonely, she decided to fail everything and get moved back. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

CRACKED.COM Comedic actor Steve Carrell was originally going to pursue a career in law! Не changed his mind while filling out his law school application: Не couldn't answer the question Why do you want to be a lawyer? — Source

16

Glenn Close was raised in a cult. Close's parents joined the Moral Re-Armament, a right-wing religious cult, when she was seven and she was in it up until she was 22. The actress says the experience had a profound impact on her life, and that for years after she wouldn't trust any of her instincts because all her beliefs had been dictated to her. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

WEIRD WORLD A company can't figure out how it spent 460 million dollars. DOLLA 6556960 A 390 - TEEK UNITED STATES VISTE - OF AMERICA THE DERAL IK17258282A D РВ В 50 ITA NOTE RESERVE NOTE 05471231 SHL of FirstEnergy was supposed to spend that money on modernizing its electric grid, but there's zero evidence that that actually happened. CRACKED.GOM — Source

14

WEIRD WORLD Apparently, cats are a serious cause of fire in South Korea. Turns out, according to South Korean officials, cats have started over 100 fires in the last 3 years. The officials say cats did this by turning on electric stoves by jumping on them. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

WEIRD WORLD Because of a bug, the Tesla Model 3 farts very loudly at times. Apparently, the weird bug makes the car fart every time its doors were opened. CRACKED.GOM — Source

12

WEIRD WORLD After a parakeet breeding plan went wrong, parakeets crowded an animal shelter. A guy left some parakeets at the shelter in Michigan - he said he'd drop off a few, but there were 497 parakeets. Apparently, his son wanted to breed just a few of them, but had no idea how quickly birds would breed. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

WEIRD WORLD A school in Tasmania tried to resolve a sexual abuse allegations with a ZOO pass. After a mother went to her daughter's school and stated that an older boy sexually abused her daughter, the school offered her a free one-year zoo pass. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

WEIRD WORLD The filming of a heist movie in Winnipeg was delayed by a real-life heist. Canon XF300 Before shooting could start, all the crew's equipment was taken. The irony is not lost on us, said the director. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

WEIRD WORLD Usain Bolt said he can thank Mario Kart for all his extraordinary success. 20% Mario Kart and Mortal Kombat, to be specific - he says his love of gaming really helped him in becoming an Olympic Champion. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

WEIRD WORLD A Singaporean banned from driving pretended to be his brother, but that backfired. Not because he wasn't convincing, but because his brother was wanted by the police - so he got arrested. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

The titan Cronos, from the God of War series, stands 1,600 FEET TALL. By way of comparison, the Empire State Building is 1,450 feet high. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

CRACKED.COM Minecraft's total surface area is over 9 MILLION EARTHS. Or if you prefer big, unwieldy numbers, 4,722,366,482,869,645 square kilometers. — Source

5

In Star Trek: Voyager, the titular spaceship needs 70 years to make the 70,000-light-year trip back home. Today's spacecraft would take 300 MILLION travel years to the same distance. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

The website Obsessed with Film calculated that in order to master piano, ice sculpture, and Phil to spend so on, Connors 10 had stuck DAYS in Groundhog Day. 12,403 2 10 3 0 4 That's just under 34 years. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

The main cast of Seinfeld dated a grand total of 212 GIRLFRIENDS AND BOYFRIENDS over the course of the series. 27 73 50 62 CRACKED.COM — Source

2

A World of Warcraft player can run the whole length of Azeroth in one hour and ten minutes. At marathon speeds, this suggests that Azeroth is about 14 MILES LONG. Roughly the size of Manhattan. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

CRACKED.COM In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the cloud that surrounds V'ger is stated to be 82 AU across. That is more than the distance FROM THE SUN TO PLUTO AND BACK. It was scaled back to only 2 AU (twice the Earth's distance to the Sun) in the special edition DVD. — Source

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