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40 Random Bits of Trivia to Drown Your Sorrows In

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40 Random Bits of Trivia to Drown Your Sorrows In

November 23, 2024

The CEO of Southwest Airlines once arm wrestled a rival CEO to settle a copyright dispute out of court.

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40

Weddings

The word Wedding originates from the Anglo-Saxon word wedd which meant gamble. CRACKED.COM The first marriages were by capture. The groom, with the help of his warrior friends (his best men), would steal into another tribe's camp and kidnap the woman of his choice. — Source

39

Avatar

Source: Google Books

38

The Golden Girls

A 25-year old Quentin Tarantino appeared as an Elvis Presley impersonator in one episode of THE GOLDEN GIRLS GRACKEDOON

37

Southwest Airlines

Two CEOs arm wrestled over copyright infringement. GRACKED.COM Instead of going to court over a copyright infringement dispute, the CEOs of Southwest Airlines and Stevens Aviation challenged each other to an arm wrestling duel. No lawyers were ever involved, and the men honored the outcome of the match. — NPR

36

Love & Basketball

LOVE & BASKETBALL New Line said they would give Prince-Bythewood and her movie a chance, but only if she cast Omar Epps as Quincy. Omar was a star at the time, and he was also my first choice, SO there was no compromise whatsoever. We had one phone call, and — LA Times

35

Fast-Food Buffets

Fast Food Buffets SUPERBAR GARDEN SPOT GRAGKED.COM In the days of the universal salad bar, every fast food restaurant wanted in on the bar ac- tion, and we don't mean hotel mini fridges stashed in PlayPlaces for weary parents. Piz- za Hut, of course, had a buffet to accompany their obsolete dine-in service, KFC offered trays of pudding and chicken gizzards, Taco Bell challenged diners to all-you-can-eat cheap burritos, Burger King's traditional sal- ad bar went largely ignored, but the Wen- dy's Superbar was the true MVP, offering sal- ad, pasta, and a Mexican Fiesta. Honestly, we should bring this — Source: 15 Weirdest Food Trends of the ‘80s

34

Star Trek

Uhura STAR TREK CRACKED.COM Uhura's full name is Nyota Uhura, which is Swahili for Star Freedom. You know, for a series that's meant to show the future, the creators really overestimated the beehive haircut's staying power. — Buzzfeed

33

Binge Drinking

40 Random Bits of Trivia to Drown Your Sorrows In — Source: Science Daily

32

Blade Runner

In an early version of the Blade Runner script, Roy Batty's dying word is Crap. Also, Deckard takes Rachel to the countryside and shoots her in the head because, he says, if he hadn't done it, they definitely would have. CRACKED.COM — Source: Gizmodo

31

Frank Abagnale

Frank Abagnale, the con artist whose exploits were the basis for Catch Me If You Can, said the book was highly inaccurate and exaggerated. catch me CR

30

Rutger Hauer

Rutger Hauer thinks Deckard is the bad guy in Blade Runner. Не gets a gun pointed at his head and then he f***S a dishwasher, and then he falls in love with her. It doesn't make any sense, Hauer says. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source: 13 Movies, Science, And History Now-You-Know Fascinating Facts

29

HMS Trident

A WWII submarine had a reindeer onboard for six weeks. The British sub HMS Trident carried Pollyanna the reindeer, a personal gift from a Soviet admiral, back to England. She ate so much food (plus some navigation charts) that she got too big to walk out, and had to be lifted out with a winch (a sailor with a broom helped). CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Lakeview Terrace

THe oBsessive COP in LAKEVIEW TERRACE WAS A REAL GUY. In 2002, Officer Irsie Henry terrorized his Altadena, CA neighbors for being a mixed-race couple. But instead of being shot, Henry was fired. CRACKED.COM — Pasadena Weekly

27

Benjamin Franklin

The first US coins said Mind Your Business. MIND YOUR BUSINESS You'll never believe this: it was Benjamin Franklin's idea. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — Source

26

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs in movies Then vs. Now In every genre Adventure, sci-fi, and action movies are the norm for dinosaurs, but there's also cheesy adventure dramas like Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, and most of all, dumb comedies. We have stuff like The Flintstones and Night at the Museum -and at the bottom, Tammy and the T-Rex and Theodore Rex. CRACKED.COM — Wikipedia

25

The Suicide Squad

EASTER EGGSTRA MEANINGS, AND REFERENCES THE SHICIDE YOUR PRESIDENT IS SQUAD GIVING YOU AN ORDER, CRAY! SHUT UP! SenATOR CRAY Waller at one point mentions that she's supposed to play golf with Senator Cray. Sen. Cray is a key figure in the comics, and after he is killed, his son The Atom joins the Suicide Squad. CRACKED.COM — Source

24

Blue Whale

A BLUE WHALE'S HEART IS ABOUT AS TALL AS A SHORT PERSON A blue whale's heart is about 4 feet wide by 5 feet long by 5 feet tall. It weighs about 400 pounds. CRACKED.COM — Source

23

Heroin

The Treaty of Versailles took away Bayer's trademarks on Aspirin and Heroin. That applied in the U.S., UK, and France. Bayer is a German company, and this was one of the consequences of Germany's defeat. NOW YOU KNOW CRACKED.COM — BBC

22

Windows 95

CRACKED WINDOWS 95: CHRONIC CRASHES Windows 95 was released with a number of software products tailored to run on it, one of which was SoftRAM 95, which claimed to double memory but ended up causing crashes due to data compression issues. FLUI — Microsoft / iStock

21

Garbage Disposals

CRACKED.COM Only the U.S. has widely adopted in-sink garbage disposals. insinkerabord food waste disposer Because of how much water they use and the burden they put on sewage systems, in-sink garbage disposals are really unpopular outside the U.S. For example, nearly half of U.S. households have in-sink garbage disposals, but only 5% of U.K. ones do. They used to be banned in Japan and Australia, and still are in Austria, Portugal, and the Netherlands. — Source

20

Abe Lincoln

One of Abe Lincoln's most famous portraits is a fake. They didn't have any heroic likeness of the president- so they just pasted his face onto South

19

Ghost Rider

GHOST RIDER SET IN: TEXAS FILMED IN: MELBOURNE The bridge seen in the background of the riding a flaming motorcycle on water scene in Ghostrider def

18

U.S. Military

Between 1942 and 1964, the U.S. Military built an artificial island in the Pacific. Johnson Atoll, 860 mi southwest of Hawaii It was abandoned in 2004. We don't know how much it cost, but a comparable project in scope and scale would be the Japanese Kansai Airport. That was another artificial island built to support a landing strip, and it cost around $20 billion. CRACKED.COM www.urbanghostsmedia com/2010/04/isolated-and-abandoned-military-airbase-johnston-atoll/ — Source

17

The Thing

Sci-Fi Horror Films 1982 The Thing The cold isolation of an Antarctic research station, mixed with paranoia and absolutely freaky special effects and puppetry, make for a quality time at the movies. The film's ending has been the subject of nerdy debate for decades. CRACKED.COM — IMDb

16

Up

How many balloons would it take to lift a person? BBC estimated that it would take 10,000 normal helium balloons to lift an adult of average weight. Sorry, kids, Up lied to us. CRACKED.COM — Source: ScienceFocus

15

Blanket Octopuses

Female Blanket Octopuses can grow up to 2 meters or 6 feet 6 inches. Their male counterpart, however, can grow only up to an inch. It's the largest known size difference between genders in the animal kingdom, with the female being 10,000 to 40,000 times heavier than the male. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

Goodfellas

Doctors tried to treat fake wounds from a Goodfellas actor. CRACKED.COM While filming his death in 'Goodfellas,' Michael Im- perioli cut his hand on a glass and was taken to the ER where the doctors rushed to treat his fake bullet wounds. — Source

13

Planet of the Apes

PLANET OF THE APES Charlton Heston CRACKED COM ORIGINAL REMAKE 1968: George 2001: Zaius; Taylor; ape, father to astronaut, Thade, guy who protagonist, guy yells Damn who yells Damn you! God damn them! Damn you all to hell! them all to hell! — Source: 15 Stars Who Passed The Torch By Appearing In Their Franchise’s Remake

12

The Titanic

Someone wanted to blow a hole in the submerged Titanic so the bodies would float up. GRAGKED.COM Shortly after the Titanic sank, the son of John Jacob Astor IV, who went down with the ship, proposed 400 pounds of gum cotton should be dropped into the wreckage, with the resulting explosion hopefully freeing the bodies of those that perished that night. — Source: MentalFloss

11

Grey’s Anatomy

40 Random Bits of Trivia to Drown Your Sorrows In — 22 Real-Life Inspirations For Your Favorite Movie & TV Moments

10

Taphophobia

George Washington and Hans Christian Andersen both had taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive. Washington insisted that his dead body be left alone for three days in case he woke up. Other sufferers insisted on being decapitated to avoid it. CRACKED — Source / White House

9

Facial Hair

FACIAL HAIR TRENDS MAY BE GUIDED BY EVOLUTION In the mating game those in pursuit of a potential mate are often attracted to a rare trait. I For insta

8

Selena

Selena The movie was announced a few months after Selena's death. Selena's biopic was announced in August 1995, after she was tragically shot and killed in March. The movie was released in 1997. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Alien3

Alien3 (1992) Fincher never wanted the Alien to come out of Ripley in the end. He was forced to reshoot the scene after Terminator 2 came out with a similar ending. I never felt it was necessary to show the creature. I was very much against this and dragged my feet and said 'I don't believe in it, I don't think it's important to see the monster but if we're going to do this we're going to have to do something that has a little bit of top spin to it, something else going for it. CRACKED.COM — Moss Film

6

Method Acting

CRACKED MERYL STREEP AS MIRANDA PRIESTLY THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA Her performance was Oscar nominated, but she said it was the last time she'd ever attempt method acting. It was horrible. I was miserable in my trailer. I could hear them all laughing... I was so depressed! — Buzzfeed

5

The Crocodile Hunter

Australians don't want King Charles on their money, they want Steve Irwin. GRACKED.COM The Australian Nation- al Bank announced that King Charles III will appear on their $5 notes, to which the Aussies responded, Yeah, nah. — Indy100

4

Adam McKay

COMEDY NERD CRACKED.COM Не was depressed while making Talladega Nights. WO The Ferrell NASCAR comedy was McKay's biggest opening and the #1 movie in America. It was everything you would want out of that experience, says McKay. And in the classic Hollywood fashion, I'm at the lowest point I've been at for a while. — Vanity Fair

3

Retired Husband Syndrome

Looking forward to your partner's retirement? It might drive you crazy. In Japan, they call it Retired Husband Syndrome. Wives of workaholics go from — For details, read The 5 Strangest Ways Your Mind Can Get Your Body Sick

2

Jurassic Park

Apparently, Godzilla ravaged the world of Jurassic Park. In The Lost World: Jurassic Park, there's a shot of terrified Japanese businessmen running from the rampaging T-Rex, shouting in Japanese, We left Tokyo to get away from this! CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Pythagoras

Pythagoras is revered as a great mathematician and scientist. YOU'RE PROBABLY FAMILIAR WITH HIS THEOREM. THE CRAZY: He founded a religion that forbade people to eat beans. A FEW OF THE COMMANDMENTS OF PYTHAGOREANISM: Do not, under any Do not walk on highways. circumstances, eat beans. Do not leave the pot's impression Smooth out all bodily indents in the ashes after removing it on pillows and/or beds. from the fire. Do not step over a crossbar. Do not stir a fire without iron. Do not sit on a quart measure. Do not let swallows nest under the roof. CRACKED.COM MartintCoheh 2009 — Source

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