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These are barely worth writing down, to be honest

12 Bland Bits of Trivia to Keep in Your Cupboard in Case Your Oatmeal Is Too Spicy

January 08, 2024

Have you ever bitten into a big, sloppy, lukewarm bowl of plain oatmeal and thought “YOWZA! There’s just too much flavor for my stupid little mouth to handle!” The next time that happens, remember this list of trivia. These factoids are so mundane and banal, they’ll make you sleepwalk through your entire humdrum morning routine. Give ‘em a try!

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People keep reinventing the cat piano. CRACKED.COM The katzenklavier is a large, organ-like instrument that pokes caged cats, who are organized according to the pitch of their meow, to make noise. There's a 16th century account of a bear on a chariot playing one to welcome King Phillip II to Brussels. A century later, German scholar Athanasius Kircher described a similar device (although there's no evidence it was actually built). Then, of course, there's the classic Monty Python sketch, Ken Ewing and His Musical Mice. — Source

11

Mozart's filthy love letters to his cousin. CRACKED.COM Mozart wrote a bunch of impressively raunchy letters to his cousin, Maria Anna Thekla. In one, he instructs her to shit in your bed with all your might, and in another, ponders a severe burning sensation: Oh my ass burns like fire! What on Earth is the meaning of this! Maybe muck wants to come out? Yes, yes, muck. — Source

10

19th-century Brits had a collective shoe fixation. CRACKED.COM There were a lot of superstitions based around shoes: a girl could dream about her future husband by placing her shoes in the shape of a T and saying a little rhyme; untied shoes meant your future husband was thinking about you; sticking a clover leaf in your shoe was a good way to ensure you'd meet the man of her dreams. In addition, burying shoes could help find missing children, and ward off the bad luck that comes with getting struck by lightning. — Source

9

The heart disease drug that makes you less racist. CRACKED.COM Propranolol is a drug used to treat heart disease, anxiety and migraines, and happens to also demonstrably reduce racism in users. Oxford University researchers concluded this after administering a subconscious racism test to both users and non-users of the drug. Their hypothesis is that the drug targets the amygdala, which is where fear seems to be controlled. — Source

8

Your skin might be able to smell. CRACKED.COM The sense of smell is already pretty mysterious, and this discovery isn't helping matters any. Researchers found that skin exposed to a type of sandalwood oil triggered a response that began a skin cell healing process (apparently just from detecting the oil in the air). — Source

7

Gray whales love group sex. CRACKED.COM Gray whales regularly have threesomes-it appears that a more mature couple will recruit a younger male to hang out and help keep the female in the best porking position. When they're not boning procreationally, they're doing it recreationally-up to five males at a time will hang dong and rub up on each other for up to 90 minutes. — Source

6

The well that turns everything into statues. CRACKED.COM There's a petrifying well in North Yorkshire, England that has such a high mineral content, people have made creepy stone statues out of various objects - bikes, teddy bears-by just leaving them down there for a few months. It essentially turns the objects into stalactites/stalagmites with record speed and efficiency. — Source

5

Elite sprinters are genetically distinct. CRACKED.COM Running sports have evolved dramatically, as has our understanding of the mechanics of sprinting. People with a very specific mutation in the ACTN3 gene create a protein called alpha-actinin-3 that helps with the firing of fast-twitch muscles. That mutation allows people to use their muscles more efficiently, leading to, technically, super-human speed. — Source

4

The largest personal collection of miniature chairs is over 3,000. CRACKED.COM An American woman has amassed several thousand miniature chairs, at which point she decided heck, why not start the Museum of Miniature Chairs? Don't worry, she didn't start this weird collection for weird reasons - she found that putting a doll in a small chair put her in the writing zone and helped her pen psychiatric nursing articles. If that's weird, I don't want to be normal. — Source

3

Modern clowning was invented by a theater kid with an insane father. CRACKED.COM Joseph Grimaldi, the father of modern clowning, had a pretty messed-up childhood. His own father was an infamous performer, known as Grim-All-Day, who physically tortured aspiring actors and warded off death by locking himself in a room full of clocks once a month. It's no wonder that Grimaldi chose to express himself on stage with an act that was described as part-child, part-nightmare, where he'd vacillate between mania and depression, all with his mouth painted blood red. — Source

2

Japan's mummy-headed dog ghost. A in CRACKED.COM Inugami are legendary ghost dogs that are summoned by Japanese sorcerers using an actual mummified dog's head as a spiritual seed. These werewolves don't bite, but inhabit the bodies of stressed-out tourists by floating into their ear, and making them extra hungry. It's kinda cool that someone invented a legendary spirit beast to remind you that if you're having a shitty vacation, it's not your fault. — Source

1

Peter Dinklage's twenties sucked. CRACKED COM After getting a theater degree in Vermont, he relocated himself and his gargantuan student loan debt to New York City, where he bounced around couches for a while before settling down on the floor of an unheated industrial loft. For work, he took part-time cleaning gigs before finding a full-time data entry job that he hated. Не got more acting work in his thirties, but wouldn't land Game of Thrones until he was 40. — Source

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