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We pumped a little too much info into these facts

36 Powerful Bits of Trivia That Are Banned From Professional Competition

June 22, 2024

Technically, a fact is only supposed to be one interesting sentence. So we apologize for cramming a whole lot more than that into each one of these. We couldn’t help ourselves. Once we stumble upon a sweet tidbit, we just need to elaborate. If it were up to us, we’d write a whole essay on each one!

Trust us — when you see these, you’ll want to do the same.

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36

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

35

Mother Teresa

CRACKED.COM Mother Teresás 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

34

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. CRACKED.COM — Source

33

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

32

CRACKED.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

31

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

30

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

29

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

28

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

27

Crime Facts

CRACKED A GIRL WAS LOCKED IN A ROOM FOR 11 YEARS FROM AGE TWO. When she was discovered at 13, she had never had any contact with the outside world and didn't know any words, because her father (and captor) only ever growled at her like a dog. — Source

26

CRACKED LOCAL POLICE KNEW THAT THE COLUMBINE SHOOTERS WERE DANGEROUS. They refused to do anything about it, despite one of the shooters maintaining a blog that explained how he built pipe bombs, and how he was going to use them. — Source

25

CRACKED BOULDER'S FIRST FIRE TRUCK AND POLICE CAR CRASHED INTO EACH OTHER. They were both on their way to the same emergency. B.F.D. — Source

24

CRACKED THIRSTY PLANTS SCREAM. We just can't hear them. When condensed and translated by scientists, it kind of sounds like bubble wrap. — Source

23

The Mexican Mafia

CRACKED IN THE EARLY 1990S, THE MEXICAN MAFIA STOPPED DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS. As hundreds of innocent people were getting killed or wounded, the Los Angeles Mexican Mafia put out a statement that anyone arrested and incarcerated for a drive-by would be murdered in prison. Killings dropped significantly. — Source

22

Touch Grass

CRACKED TOUCH GRASS IS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD HEALTH ADVICE. Over 28 studies have found that being outside can lower blood pressure and reduce depression symptoms. — Source

21

CRACKED THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE STILL USES MULES. There are a few locales, mostly located in steep canyons and the like, that require mules to get to. — Source

20

CRACKED YOU HAVE TO REPORT THE VALUE OF STOLEN PROPERTY ON YOUR TAXES. You also have to report any income generated from drug deals. — Source

19

CRACKED ALAN RUCK (CAMERON IN FERRIS BUELLER) HAD TO WORK AT SEARS AFTER THE FILM'S RELEASE. Не only made $40,000 from the film, and had to take a warehouse job at Sears in between other gigs. — Source

18

CRACKED JOHN MALKOVICH STARRED IN A MOVIE THAT WON'T BE RELEASED UNTIL 2115. The film will reside behind bulletproof glass until that year. — Source

17

CRACKED ERNEST HEMINGWAY NEVER WROTE, FOR SALE: BABY SHOES, NEVER WORN. Some version of this six-word story has existed since Hemingway was a child, having first appeared in the 1910s and 1920s. — Source

16

CRACKED THE SCRIPTS FOR CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM ARE JUST SEVEN PAGES LONG. Each page represents a scene, with an outline but not much dialogue - most of the show is improvised. — Source

15

CRACKED THE RESULTS ARE IN: NO AMOUNT OF ALCOHOL IS GOOD FOR YOU. A new giant meta-analysis of over 100 studies debunks the idea that red wine has any health benefits - and confirms that any amount of drinking can lead to a higher risk of death. — Source

14

CRACKED The Giving Tres by She LL DONALD TRUMP COULD NOT BE CONVINCED THAT THE GIVING TREE WAS A REAL BOOK. During his SNL hosting stint, one writer wrote a sketch for Trump that was a play on The Giving Tree. Trump refused to do it, because he wouldn't believe that it was a real book (despite many people telling him it was). — Source

13

Purple is a royal color because of the properties of purple dye in ancient times. It was made from sea snails' glands, and unlike so many other dyes, it only got more intense over time instead of fading away. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

A surge in pizza orders heralded Kuwait's attack by Iraq in the 1990s. That is, orders by the CIA-21 pizzas were delivered to CIA HQ on the night before the attack, a CIA record at the time. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

In Sweden, they call helicopter parents something different. DOL.YOURS. HOT. soch OIT Their phrase is curling parents - as in ice curling, since parents basically sweep away obstacles in their children's path. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

In 2000, a woman basically performed an emergency C-section on herself. She made a slice to her abdomen that was 17 cm (about 7 inches long) and delivered her baby, because medical assistance was unavailable. She and her kid both survived after being hospitalized. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

The US has a massive stockpile of cheese buried underneath Missouri. The stockpile consists of 1.4 billion pounds of cheese, kept inside caves that maintain a temperature of 36 degrees Fahrenheit. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

The first artist to use auto-tune was Cher, who used it in 1998 for Believe. If you're not sure what that song is, you've almost certainly heard it - it goes Do you believe in life after love? CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Apollo astronauts had no toilet in space - they just had a plastic bag. E KIA NOW SALE The bag had a rim that would stick to their skin and, after using the bag, they'd put disinfectant in it and knead the resulting mixture by hand. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Russia had an elaborate system for cheating in the 2014 Olympics. Apparently, they exchanged their athletes' urine samples with fake ones through a tiny mouse hole in the anti-doping lab - so their athletes, who definitely were doping, totally looked like they weren't. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

A lawsuit by Uri Geller meant Kadabra had to be removed from Pokemon cards. Geller sued because Kadabra also bent spoons, and its Japanese name was Yungeller. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Patient Zero

The term patient zero is actually built on a misunderstanding. It comes from Patient О, an early HIV patient, and the label meant Out of California - but it was misinterpreted as zero, and that stuck. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

The last time a Canadian team won the NHL Stanley Cup finals was in 1993. And the first ever winner, exactly a century before in 1893, was the Montreal Amateur Athletic Association (ААА). CRACKED.COM — Source

2

When John Denver wrote Country Roads, he'd never even been to WV. Neither had either of his co-writers on the song. CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Finding Nemo is a surprisingly accurate movie-at least in one sense. It's apparently a pretty good depiction of an amnesic syndrome - the way Dory acts is pretty on the mark, and the movie is one of the best portrayals of that condition in Hollywood. CRACKED.COM — Source

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