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40 Random Bits of Trivia to Simmer Into a Cozy Autumn Brainstew

September 09, 2024

It was cheaper for Christopher Nolan to crash an actual 747 than to CGI it.

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40

Martin and Emilio seem so chill.

Radar Online / Today

39

Powering up the pool.

RISHI SUNAK: UPGRADING THE GRID TO HEAT HIS POOL, ONE TAXPAYER AT A TIME. CRACKED The Prime Minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak, had the electricity network in his area upgraded so that he could get more power from the National Grid to heat his swimming pool in North Yorkshire. — The Guardian

38

Tenet

CRACKED CGI: MORE EXPENSIVE THAN AN AIRLINER Christopher Nolan explained that they crashed a real 747 instead of using CG for the set-piece in spy-thriller Tenet, revealing that it was more efficient to buy a real plane than to use miniatures or CGI. — Gamesradar / Variety

37

You're never more than six miles from a body of water in Michigan. CRACKED.COM You're always a few min- utes from water, whether it's a river, a lake, or one of the Great Lakes. Maybe this explains why the state sits at the top three in the nation when it comes to boat registrations. — Source

36

Armageddon

Michael Bay and his movies - .... POLICE MH MH HH HH MM HM HH HH Armageddon 104 This was Michael Clarke Duncan's first speaking role. Duncan gushed crying during the audition, but acted all stiff during the shoot. Bay told him to just be his adorable, genuine self, and every actor took him under their wing. A year later, The Green Mile earned him an Oscar nomination. CRACKED.COM — Source: Collider
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures

35

Reality TV Villains

WORST REALITY TV TROPES THE VILLAIN Long before a certain reality show host became a real-life supervillain, The Apprentice's Omarosa was perfecting the reality TV villain act. She was not there to make friends, and didn't care who knew it. Still, this trope is as tired as the genre itself. CRACKED.COM — Source

34

FRANCE STILL USED THE GUILLOTINE IN 1977, 3 MONTHS AFTER STAR WARS WAS RELEASED... CRACKED COM — Source

33

Paul McCartney nixed Weird AI Yankovic's idea for a parody of one of his songs. Weird AI wanted to parody the Wings song Live and Let Die called Chicken Pot Pie, but McCartney, as a vegetarian, wouldn't condone eating meat. CRACKED.COM — Source: MentalFloss

32

The Bears took time out of their historic season to record a silly smash hit.

Sports Reinvented OC 7 5 3 83 0 5 THE SUPER BOWL SHUFFLE The historically dominant 1985 Chicago Bears showed their sillier side with the song (and video) The Super Bowl Shuffle. It reached #41 on Billboard, received a Grammy nom, and sold half a million copies (with the proceeds going to charity). CRACKED — Red Label
Sports Illustrated

31

Elijah Wood shot his own audition tape for the LOTR trilogy back in the day. Не did that way before making your own tape was common and, he says,he enlisted some friends, including George Huang, who is a writer and filmmaker. We went out to the woods in Griffith Park and shot two of the audition sequences there and one at my house. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

Disney World was actually just a small part of Walt Disney's Florida plans. His priority was building Epcot as a utopian living blueprint where solutions to city problems worldwide could be continually developed. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: Business Insider

29

Senator Drazkowski: Out of touch.

SENATOR DRAZKOWSKI: HUNGRY? NEVER HEARD OF IT. Steve Drazkowski, a senator from Minnesota, voted against a plan to give students free lunch at school, saying he hasn't met anyone in the state who was hungry. CRACKED — Steve Drazkowski
NBC Washington

28

Daylight savings time. makes us depressed (because we're sleep-deprived). In one study, right after the DST change in fall (but not in spring), hospitals dealt with 11% more depressive symptoms -- that's been linked to loss of sleep. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — UT Southwestern

27

The Amish actually celebrate Christmas twice in a two-week period. The first celebration is on Dec 25, and the second one on Jan 6 - Christmas used to be celebrated all over the world on Jan 6 until relatively recently, and the Amish kept that tradition (but also took on the new one). CRACKED.COM — Source

26

The Poop Emoji

The poop emoji comes from comics. Everyone's favorite emoji was already big in Japan before emoji were even a thing. A popular 1980s manga called Dr. Slump (later adapted to anime) regularly featured sentient piles of poo. Its author eventually left friendly feces behind and went on to create Dragon Ball. CRACKED.COM — Source

25

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

24

TGI Fridays quietly discontinued its flair policy because of Office-Space. CRACKED.COM One of Mike Judge's assistant directors once asked a Fridays waiter why they stopped wearing flair, and was told they removed it because of that movie Office Space. — Deadline

23

Water balloons can stop a bullet! Water slows down the speed of a bullet so much, 5 water balloons in a row can totally stop a bullet (even one from a rifle) CRACKED.COM — Source

22

Only 1/3 of the wealthiest people think kids should have good public schools.

CRACKED COM Only 1/3 of the wealthiest people think kids should have good public schools. 3 3 24 2 : - + - When asked if the government should spend what is necessary to ensure that all children have good public schools, only 35% of the one-percenters agreed. The next time you get called out for being ignorant at work, blame your CEO for not supporting your education. — Source: Brookings

21

From cotton farm to best-selling author.

CRACKED JOHN GRISHAM John Grisham was born in 1955, the second of five kids. Не grew up on a cotton farm in Arkansas, and his family had a tough time. His dad had to work really hard, sometimes seven days a week and up to twelve hours a day, just to make ends meet. — The Guardian / Clarion Ledger

20

The iconic main character from 35 Br eaking 56 Bad was inspired by a real notorious dealer called Walter Eddie White. CRACKED.COM Не was known in Alabama for having the best meth available. — Characters Based On Celebs, Really

19

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

October on hulu October The Girl With the 1 Dragon Tattoo George Clooney and Brad Pitt were approached for the Mikael Blomkvist role before Daniel Craig was cast, . CRACKED.COM — Columbia Pictures, MGM
Screen Rant

18

Joe Rogan: fooled again.

CRACKED A PROPOSED AUSTRALIAN LAW In 2022, Joe Rogan said untrue things on his podcast about a law in Australia that was trying to stop people from growing their own food. Не was really angry, but it turned out that the news he was talking about was made up. — Salon / LLS

17

Nokia was always in the communication biz, kind of. OKia SILK NO nerEnc CRACKEDcO Nokia started as a Finnish pulp mill in 1865, and pumped out paper (including that of the... toilet variety) for a while before pivoting multiple times, and ultimately landing on remarkably robust mobile phones.

16

Silent bags are used in movies and TV.

Movies have their own style of grocery bags that are silent for better sound recording. a aNY erries is made form 1 POT All kinds of silent material can be bought to use on set, including silent cellophane, gift wrap, manila envelopes, and lunch bags. CRACKED NOW YOU KNOW — Prop Trx

15

Humans are the only primates withoute a penis bone. DSQUARED2 DSQUARED2 The penis bone (also known as baculum) increases a male's chance of having offspring by making sexual intercourse last longer. But because our species doesn't have much mating rivalry and is mostly monogamous, evolution decided to leave actual bones out of our boning. CRACKED.com — Source: 15 Scientific Reasons Humans Are The Weirdest of All Animals

14

Male approval, achieved.

CRACKED I persisted because I believed that eventually, men would tell women the pants looked great without really understanding why. CHIP WILSON, Lululemon founder, on the design philosophy of Lululemon pants — Lululemon
Vox

13

Pochemuchka (pob-cha-MOOCH-ka), noun. A person who asks too many questions. ? ? ??? ? ? ? Language of origin: Russian CRACKED words-that-are-verv-difficult-to-translate-2010-10-29 htm/- — 31 Phrases English Needs To Steal From Other Languages

12

SESSION Danvers State Hospital is a real abandoned mental asylum. No set dressing was necessary -the place was already as spooky as seen on screen, complete with patient records and other creepy memorabilia. CRACKED.COM — Source: 26 Eyebrow-Arching Facts About Hit Movie Locations

11

In 2003, a metal detector at the Athens airport was set off by a chastity belt. The British woman (who was flying to London) wearing the belt explained that her husband made her wear it to ensure she'd be faithful while she visited Greece. They let her board the plane. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Smarties were made with the same machines that produced bullets during WWI. Machines that compressed gunpowder into pellets for use in ammunition were repurposed to make the candy after swapping out some ingredients. CRACKED.COM — Source: CBC

9

Johnny

Easter Eggs in stephen King Movies It: chapter TWO Here's Johnny! In an intense scene in where Beverly is trapped in an illusion, stuck in a bathroom stall, one of the several images of people taunting her is Henry Bowers, who drops the line from The Shining. CRACKED.COM — Source: CBR, Scene on YouTube

8

40 Random Bits of Trivia to Simmer Into a Cozy Autumn Brainstew — Source: YouTube

7

Guest Stars on Bob's Burgers , STI 'O SEASON 8 ARE YOU THERE BOB? IT'S ME, BIRTHDAY BOBBY MOYNIHAN as Sam Moynihan plays the owner of Wrap-topia, a sandwich wrap themed restaurant. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

You can easily scare off ordinary moths just by shaking your keys at them. The shaking emits sonar that's a lot like the sonar produced by bats, so the moth thinks there are predators nearby and quickly dives to the ground. CRACKED.COM — Source: UF/IFAS Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department

5

Empathy

Teens with secure family relationships have more empathy for others CRACKED.COM However, those teens without secure family relationships were able to catch up with peers and increase empathy to close friends as they developed. — Source: EurekAlert!

4

Apparently, teeth come from our fish ancestors. Ancient fish had dermal denticles -- small, spiky scales that some fish, like sharks or mantas, still have. Scientists think that, as those fish evolved into land animals, the denticles moved from the skin and into the mouth, where they became teeth. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Florida passes, HBCU catches.

CRACKED APPARENTLY YOU CAN BELT OUT A RACIAL SLUR AND ... GET INTO AN HBCU? Quarterback Marcus Stokes had a scholarship offer from the University of Florida taken away after a video of him singing a racial slur surfaced. Не was offered a spot at an HBCU instead, and accepted. SE — CBS

2

Wild Side

Anne Heche Movies Wild Side The director committed suicide after his movie was taken away from him. Producers kept pressing director Donald Cammell to make the movie more trashily sexy, and locked him out of the editing process entirely. Cammell's brother talked him out of shooting the producer-so he just shot himself (in an intentionally very messy way). CRACKED.COM — Senses of Cinema

1

Cats understand when their owner points at something Previously thought to be limited to dogs, cats can follow a human's point. Also, 70% of cats will follow their owner's gaze, even when its very fast. CRACKED.COM — Source: 14 Cat Facts To Make Your Brain Purr

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