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40 Random Bits of Trivia That Would Befuddle the Founding Fathers to the Point of Rage and Exhaustion

George would have chipped his wooden teeth on these puppies

40 Random Bits of Trivia That Would Befuddle the Founding Fathers to the Point of Rage and Exhaustion

August 11, 2024

Benjamin Franklin wouldn’t have understood what a “janitor” or a “Flamin’ Hot Cheeto” was, let alone the fact that a janitor pitched the idea of Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

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40

A wallet from 1972 was returned to a plane crash survivor. a 1 ONO LAKE IT'S you cta take CHU il Class LOCO I I Sample I a DONOR CHOCOLATE CRACKED.COM All but 16 passengers died in a plane crash in the An- des in 1972. Hiker Ricardo Peña found the wallet of one survivor, a Uruguayan rugby player, and returned it to him after tracking him down. — Source

39

Incan people tied knots in rope to keep records. GRAGKED.COM Called quipu, the types of knots and their loca- tion relative to the top of the cord would modi- fy the meaning of the apparatus. — Source

38

Nearly 1 billion metric tons of food is wasted on the planet every year. CRACKED.COM The majority of wasted food (61%) comes from homes, while restaurants and other food services produce 26% of wasted food. Grocery stores make up just 13% of food waste. — Source

37

Like the rings of a tree, a narwhal's tusk tells us about how it lived. CRACKED.COM Each year, layers of the tusk are added, and they offer insight into the whale's age, the level of pollution it lived in, tem- perature levels, and what its diet consisted of. — Source

36

The original 'Beauty and the Beast' was meant to help girls accept arranged marriages. CRACKED.COM It was written in 1740 to encourage girls into forced marriages, for an alliance that required ef- facing their own desires and submitting to the will of a monster. — Source

35

The first roller coaster was created to distract the public from debauchery. GRACKED COM In 1884, disgusted with the uprising of hedonistic amusements like saloons and brothels, LaMarcus Adna Thompson invented the Switchback Gravity Railway at Coney Island. — Source

34

The Netherlands sends poets to a funeral if the deceased has no one else. CRACKED.COM The country implemented the ritual of 'lonely funer- al poems,' where poets research the deceased and write a poem in their honor to recite at the fu- neral. — Source

33

It was against Brigham Young University for students to grow a beard until 2015. CRACKED COM Exceptions at the Mor- mon flagship school were given to students with medical conditions, actors who need a beard for a role, or for reli- gious reasons. — Source

32

A janitor pitched the idea of Flamin' Hot Cheetos to Frit-Lay. CRACKED.COM Richard Montañez had the idea to add chili powder to the cheesy treat, and has since risen up the ranks to serve as a PepsiCo executive. The movie Flamin' Hot about these events is cur- rently in post production. — Source

31

Koko the gorilla instinctively knew to help Mr. Rogers out of his shoes when she met him CRACKED.COM Mister Rogers' Neighbor- hood was Koko's favorite show, so it stands to rea- son why she would know to help untie his shoes when they met. She also cradled him in her arms because who wouldn't? — Source

30

Britain had a hotline to report errant traffic cones in the early'90s. CRACKED.COM The Cones Hotline was launched in 1992 for citi- zens to report traffic cones on the road for no appar- ent reason, and then shut- tered in 1995 for being a waste of government re- sources. — Source

29

The acronym 'OMG' was first recorded in a letter to Winston Churchill. CRACKED.COM A retired British admiral of the Royal Navy wrote to Winston Churchill to share his take on the headlines of the day, some of which were so exciting, he wrote, O.M.G. (Oh! My! God!). — Source

28

New Zealand was put up for auction on eBay. GRACKED COM An Australian man in 2006 put the country up for sale for just $0.01 AUD, and bids got all the way up to $3,000 before eBay put a stop to it. — Source

27

A pig was executed in France for leading to the death of a child in the middle ages. CRACKED COM The young pig attacked a three-month-old in the French village of Fonte- nay-aux-Roses in 1386, who died after surgery complica- tions. The pig stood trial and was publicly executed. — Source

26

Quaker Oats was sued by a woman who thought Cap'N'Crunch had real berries. CRACKED.COM Jeanine Sugawara felt tricked that the Crunch Berries cereal didn't have a single real berry, so she sued Quaker Oats on the grounds of false advertis- ing. The case was quickly dismissed. — Source

25

Roald Dahl was a super sexy spy for the Brits. CRACKED.COM The 'Charlie and the Choc- olate Factory' author gath- ered intelligence for the British Security Coordina- tion during World War II, using his charm to seduce congresswomen, actresses, and oil heiresses'. — Source

24

The idea of using lines in roadways to create lanes was inspired by a milk wagon. CRACKED.COM Edward Hines in 1911 came up with the idea, consid- ered the most important single traffic safety de- vice, when he saw the dotted drippings from a leaking milk wagon. — Source

23

Wealthy Russians hire fake ambulances to speed through traffic. 03 CRACKED.COM С827АУ The ambulance-taxis are equipped with plush interiors and are being rented our to VIP commuters too good to sit in traffic like the rest of us. — Source

22

Buried treasure may be hidden in Bedford County, Virginia. CRACKED.COM Of the three texts known as the Beale Ci- phers has been cracked, revealing the possible location of $43 million in gold, sil- ver, and jewels. — Source

21

A Virginian park ranger was struck by lightning seven times. CRACKED.COM Between 1942 and 1977, Roy Cleveland Sullivan was struck by lightning on 7 different occasions, earn- ing him an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records and the nickname Human Lighting Rod. — Source

20

Sneezing while driving at 60 mph means your eyes are closed for 50 feet. Drivers who tempo- rarily lose vision due to sneezing are the cause of 2,500 acci- dents every week in England. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

19

African wild dogs are the animal kingdom's most successful hunters. These canines have an 85% kill rate, totally blowing away the likes of falcons (47%), domestic cats (30%), and even lions (17-19%). CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

18

The tap water in Manhattan is not kosher. Tiny crustaceans called co- pepods have been found in New York City tap water. Because of the high quality of its water, NYC is not re- quired by the EPA to me- chanically filter its water. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

17

A former Harvard instructor and an early advocate of LSD walked out of prison. Dr. Timothy Leary walked out of California Men's Col- ony West, where he was serving a sentence for marijuana possession, and changed out of his prison jumpsuit in a gas station bathroom. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

16

Medicine bottles have foil seals because of poisonings in the 1980s. They were put in place af- ter a rash of poisonings ос- curred in 1982, in which seven people in the Chica- go area were killed after ingesting Tylenol laced with potassium cyanide. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

15

Someone hung up a photo of their dad in the Baseball Hall of Fame and no one noticed. A bar owner visiting Coo- perstown, New York slipped a photo of his dad wearing a baseball uniform into one of the glass cases. No one noticed for six years before taking it down. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

14

The largest pyramid on Earth is located in Mexico. With a base four times the size of the Great Pyr- amid of Giza, the Great Pyramid of Cholula, lo- cated in Cholula, Puebla, is the largest monument ever constructed. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

13

Roosters don't hurt their own ears with their crowing thanks to natural ear protectors. Researchers found that when a rooster opens its beak to crow, its external auditory canals close off, preventing sound from coming in and doing any damage. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

12

A bridge for squirrels in the Netherlands didn't see much squirrel traffic. Costing £120,000 ($150,000 USD) over a two-year span, the bridge was used by just five squirrels in two years between 2014 and 2015. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

11

Being tickled triggers a defense mechanism. When we're being tickled, the part of the brain that anticipates pain is trig- gered.We might strike at whoever is tickling us or we might laugh, which is a sign of submission. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

10

Watermelon is Oklahoma's state vegetable. Senator Don Barrington sponsored the 2007 bill to bestow watermelon the honor, saying that water- melon comes from the cu- cumber and gourd fami- lies, which are classified as vegetables. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW

9

A species ofcat-fox was discovered in Corsica. The kitties are bigger than normal house cats, with golden colored fur and ringed tails, and may be part of an unknown spe- cies that originated in Afri- ca or the Middle East thou- sands of years ago. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

8

The average person will spend 6 months of their lives waiting for red lights to turn green. The average time spent waiting at a red light is 75 seconds, accounting for approximately a full fifth of all time behind the wheel for the average person. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

7

There is an unopened wine bottle from the 4th century. The Römerwein, or Speyer wine bottle, was discov- ered during the excavation of a Roman nobleman's tomb in modern-day Ger- many. It's on display, still sealed, in a museum in Germany. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

6

A museum displayed cheese made from bacteria collected from celebrities. The Victoria & Albert Mu- seum in London displayed five types of cheese made from microbes collected from the armpits, ears, noses, and bellybuttons of British celebrities. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

5

Almost all the wasabi sold in the U.S. is fake. 99 percent of what's called wasabi in the U.S. is actually a mix of horseradish and hot Chinese mustard, plus green dye. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

4

An island in Norway wants to stop telling the time. Sommarsy, which lies north of the Arctic Circle, doesn't get any sun from November to January. When the sun doesn't set during the Sum- mer solstice, they live with no regard to conventional timekeeping. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

3

The Pledge of Allegiance was created to sell flags. GM The magazine Youth's Com- panion sponsored a promo- tional essay contest for stu- dents in 1890, and also thought up a celebration for the 400th anniversary of Co- lumbus arriving in the Ameri- cas that involved, yep, more flags. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

2

Chickens lay eggs the same color as their ear lobes. While they lack outer ears, chickens still have lobes on the side of their heads. The color of the egg they lay will correspond to the col- or of this wrinkly patch of skin. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

1

The glaze on many types. of candy is made from bug poop. Confectioner's glaze, the shiny coating on candies like jelly beans and candy corn, is made from the excre- tions of female Kerria lacca insects. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Source

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