12 Trivia Tidbits for Tuesday, February 27, 2024
When you think about it, all the blessings in your life have come in the form of trivia. Every morning, you learn that you’re alive. Every evening, you learn that your nemesis is, too, still alive, thus fueling you with the vengeance and hate you need to carry on for another day. It’s really kind of beautiful.
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Wealthy Norwegians Are Being Targeted by Drones
Specifically, food delivery drones. A Norwegian company that previously delivered blood to hospitals via drone has pivoted to delivering sushi to a mountain town. Residents who haven’t been ordering sushi have been filing noise complaints.
The Second Battle of Tannenberg (That Never Happened)
The 1410 Battle of Tannenberg ended, essentially, with the defeat of the Germans at the hands of the Russians. The two forces met again, kind of near Tannenberg, in 1914, and this time the Germans won. They then began referring to it as the Battle of Tannenberg, which would be like modern Confederates winning a battle in Hershey, Pennsylvania and claiming they de facto won the Battle of Gettysburg.
Kim Jong Il Had Live Lobsters Airlifted to His Armored Train Every Day
The Kims are famous for their armored express train to Moscow, and of course their obscene displays of wealth. When they both converge, cartoonishly evil opulence ensues. He reportedly had helicopters chase down the train on a daily basis to replenish his lobster stock. He’d then eat them with silver chopsticks.
The Longest Crowdsurf in History Lasted Over Two Hours
Dutch radio host Giel Beelen set the record in 2011 — and donated proceeds from the event to the Alzheimer’s Foundation.
The First Movie to Record Audio on Sight Also Killed 27 People
1931’s The Viking was the first movie to record dialogue and video simultaneously. But it’s more often remembered for a tragedy that struck while collecting B-roll: After the director sent a crew out on the SS Viking during a seal-hunting journey, the ship got stuck in ice, then exploded, forcing the surviving crew to set out across a vast expanse of ice to find rescue.
An Ohio Prosecutor Proposed the Death Penalty for Punxsutawney Phil
When Ohio prosecutor Michael T. Gmoser saw snow on a day that had been earmarked for spring by a Pennsylvania groundhog, he filed a criminal indictment, arguing, “Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause people to believe that spring would come early.” Since Phil already lives in captivity, Gmoser recommended the death penalty as punishment.
William Henry Ireland: The False Shakespeare Whisperer
Ireland was a 19th century collector who, against all odds, kept chancing upon incredible, priceless relics: correspondences and original poems from The Bard himself. When he discovered a long-lost play called Vortigern, theatre dweebs rejoiced. But the instant the play was performed, it became extremely obvious that this was not a work of Shakespeare. Dweebs in attendance started fighting on the spot, ultimately leading to Ireland’s outing as a fraud.
SEGA’s Infamous Snake Oil
During a particularly heated moment in the brutal console wars of the 1990s, SEGA resorted to hyping up a near-useless proprietary computer technology. They claimed Nintendo couldn’t match their “blast processing,” which technically existed, but didn’t really do anything.
A Christmas Tree Throwing Competition Cost a Woman Nearly $1,000,000
An Irish woman sought $820,000 for debilitating pain after a 2017 car accident, but a court threw her claim out after an image surfaced of her winning a tree-hucking contest.
An Ill-Timed Test Reel Caused Mass Panic About a Russian Invasion
Back in 2010, when Russia making a sustained attack on a bordering country was merely an impending threat, a Georgian TV station ran some convincing test reporting depicting a surprise invasion. People freaked out, which was understandable, as they had just endured a surprise five-day war with Russia just two years earlier.
Author Carolyn Keene Is Kind of a Being John Malkovich-Type Fusion of Consciousnesses
Keene is the author behind the popular, enduring Nancy Drew anthology, but she wasn’t a real person. That’s just the pen name of the many authors who wrote Nancy Drew adventures (a gig that paid $125 per book at the time). Their contracts forbade them from either taking credit for or further profiting from their work on the series.
A Living Ghost Founded a Club for Dead People
Lal Bihari, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, India, was denied a bank loan in 1975 on the grounds that he was legally dead. He ultimately found out that his uncle had bribed an official to declare him dead, so he could seize family land that rightly belonged to him. Bihari created the Uttar Pradesh Association of Dead People to gather folks who had suffered the same legal fate, and collectively advocate for their legal aliveness.
