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36 Doe-Eyed Bits of Trivia That Followed Us Home From School, Can We Keep Them? Please? We Promise We’ll Take Care of Them!

Come on, mom! Look how knowledgeable they make us!

36 Doe-Eyed Bits of Trivia That Followed Us Home From School, Can We Keep Them? Please? We Promise We’ll Take Care of Them!

August 17, 2024

Facts are quiet, hypoallergenic and require very little care. Don’t get us wrong, we will definitely care for them. We’re just saying, if we happen to take a trip, we can leave an overflowing bowl of food in the corner and ask a nice neighbor to pop over every so often.

How’s our pitch so far, mom? We practiced it in the mirror for hours. We can’t stress how much we want these facts, so please, can you just let them count as our Christmas gift?

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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

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

When pirates caught a. merchant vessel, some of its crew joined the pirates. That was relatively common, anyway, and the reason was simple: the conditions aboard merchant (and military) ships were terrible. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Gigantic dinosaurs look super heavy, but they were actually surprisingly light. 3-FINGERED HAND Some of them, anyway, including the largest ones - and it's all because they had really light bones, plus air sacs throughout their body. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

25

The popularity of the death by meteor theory of dinosaur extinction is new. Other ideas include a ton of volcanic eruptions, or a similar worldwide catastrophe - but the meteor thing emerged as the leading theory in the '80s. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Salami are completely uncooked, but still totally safe to eat as they are. The curing process, which involves the sausage maturing in its skin, makes them safe and gives them their characteristic intense flavor. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

23

The Statue of Liberty sways a little during a strong wind -up to 3 inches. That happens in 50 mph winds, and the torch alone swings up to 6 inches. But considering the statue is over 151 feet high, that's imperceptible from the ground. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Justin Timberlake was paid $6 million to sing the I'm Lovin' It jingle M i'm lovin' it™ Timberlake recorded the McDonald's jingle expanded into a full song, written by Pharrell Williams. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

21

In Victorian England, drunk homeless people would sleep on a rope. It was called a two-penny hangover, because you'd pay two pennies to spend the night hanging over a rope. At around 5 or 6 AM, you'd be woken up by falling onto the ground, as the rope would get cut (and you'd then get kicked out onto the street). NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

20

When President McKinley got shot, a gynecological surgeon operated on him. Dr. Matthew Mann was the first doctor who responded, so he did the surgery. They did try to call experienced abdominal surgeon Dr. Roswell Park, but he was with another patient and said he couldn't leave even for the president of the United States. They told him that's who it was for, but it didn't change Park's mind. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

19

The East German secret police, the Stasi, took odor samples from interview subjects. GK Vorname Name Datum: 1/86 PKZ: Zeit: 1000 Delikt: Reg.Nr.: Dienstateller They used special chairs that had a sterile cloth - the cloth would hold the odor, and they'd keep it in a glass jar. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

18

Dolphins can tell the difference between predators and (nearly identical) playmates. Bigg's killer whales snack on dolphins, while southern resident killer whales avoid red meat (including dolphins). They're so similar that they're considered the same species, but dolphins only play with the safe kind. Science isn't sure how they do it, but it might be down to the whales' calls. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

17

Pulp Fiction wouldn't have gotten made without Danny DeVito. His production company Jersey Films bought the Pulp Fiction script from Tarantino. DeVito was the person who then shopped the script around, and eventually brought it to Miramax, which made the movie. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

16

They had to push Jimmy Fallon's jeep in his Band of Brothers cameo. It was a real WWII jeep, and he was a pretty bad driver, so he couldn't make it move. Two guys ended up having to push the jeep forward at the right moment while Fallon pretended to drive. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Halle Berry spent 3-4 hours a day training dogs for John Wick: Chapter 3. It came after three hours of martial arts training and two hours of gun training. She didn't have to train dogs, but she did it just to be able to say she could. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

14

A deleted scene from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer explains why Cornelius licks his ax. After Rudolph guides Santa to the Island of Misfit Toys, Cornelius picks up his ax after throwing it in the air, then licks it and says Peppermint! What I've been searching for all my life! I've struck it rich. So he was just licking his ax to see if he'd finally found peppermint. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

13

WEIRD WORLD In California, they're trying to fight crows with actual laser beams. Crows have been plaguing Sunnyvale, CA, for a while, so the city plans to try and scare them off with green lasers. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

WEIRD WORLD In New Jersey, a very honest patron returned a book after 42 long years. The book was Paddington Abroad by Michael Bond, and the library said in a Facebook post that it's a Good thing we're fine free. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

WEIRD WORLD In Maryland, a lawmaker who's also a surgeon tried to combine those jobs. Terri Hill showed up in virtual legislative meetings while literally in the middle of surgery - and got fined a total of $15,000 for it. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

WEIRD WORLD A guy in Indiana got strange powers thanks to a horrible, freakish incident. X-X I Y-Y x2 2-X After a head injury from a violent attack, he became kind of a math genius - and even found a home thanks to his gift. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

WEIRD WORLD In Syracuse, a deer smashed through the window of a business called iSmash. It's a place where you can, well, smash things for fun, and the deer got in on the action. Nobody, human or animal, was harmed. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

WEIRD WORLD There's a corona monument in Belgium, but you can't go to the unveiling. Nobody can, and it's purely because of corona restrictions. We'll have to wait until the pandemic is over to see a monument to the pandemic, we guess. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

CRACKED IN IRAN, FLAGS OF THE US, UK AND ISRAEL ARE MADE TO BE BURNED. In Iran, the biggest flag-making factory produces flags from the US, UK and Israel for people to set on fire during protests, even though lots of Iranians have been taking to the streets to demonstrate against their own government. اتيع منوم أمريكا at DONN We ١٤ 2 — Source

6

CRACKED ZOOS TRADE ANIMALS LIKE POKÉMON CARDS. Zoos don't buy or sell animals, they just swap them with other zoos. The system is based on the trust between the different institutions. — Source

5

CRACKED IN THE 1400S, A GUY THOUGHT WOMEN SHOULD FIGHT TOO. In the 1400s, one dude wrote a book about how men and women should fight each other. Не seemed to think that women should be able to defend themselves in certain situations. R. hanarden the noises قم — Source

4

CRACKED DAVID HASSELHOFF WAS LIKE A GOD IN GERMANY. David Hasselhoff's 1989 song Looking for Freedom was really big in Germany - it was more popular than Jesus, reportedly. — Source

3

CRACKED TEXAS TITLE INSURERS MAKE A PENNY FOR EVERY DOLLAR. The Texas title insurance industry is very successful, with a loss ratio of only 1.2 percent. That means for every dollar they make, they only have to pay out a penny to policyholders. POOL FOR SALE — Source

2

CRACKED KRAFT MAC AND CHEESE WAS ORIGINALLY SOLDIER RATIONS. Kraft mac and cheese was created in 1916 and was first sold to the U.S. military to feed troops during World War I. — Source

1

CRACKED LEPTIS MAGNA: THE ROMAN EMPIRE'S BEST-KEPT SECRET. Not many people go to Leptis Magna, one of the most stunning cities from the Roman Empire. It's in Libya and it's really well looked after, so it's been kept safe from any kind of attack. It's even been given UNESCO World Heritage status. — Source

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