12 Exotic Bits of Trivia That Are Technically Illegal to Own, So You Didn’t Get ’Em From Us
Look, this could get us in some hot water, okay? But we know a trivia enthusiast when we see one, and you look like you’d appreciate our collection of rare and exotic factoids. Please, join us in our menagerie. We got tidbits about the horniest leafy green, the unluckiest pitcher in MLB history, even a guy who got concussed so thoroughly, he became a math genius.
Go ahead, take a look around! Just, if anyone asks, you didn’t get ‘em from us, kapeesh?
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Nintendo Copyrighted ‘It’s on Like Donkey Kong’ as a Marketing Stunt
Ice Cube most likely coined the phrase in 1992, but Nintendo filed for copyright in 2010 ahead of the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns. (Source)
The French and the English Have Dueling Insults Embedded in Their Own Languages
What Americans affectionately call the “Irish Goodbye” — sneaking out of a function without notifying anyone — is an offensive act that Europeans have used as an opportunity to dunk on each other. The English call it a “French Leave,” and the French call it “filer à l’anglaise.” Similarly, a condom is respectively referred to as a “French letter” or “la capote anglaise,” and syphilis is “the French disease” or “la maladie anglaise.” (Source)
The Nuclear Football Was Haphazardly Stuffed in Reagan’s Shoe
While under treatment for an acute case of attempted assassination, a doctor found a laminated card in Reagan’s pocket and stuck it in his shoe, for safekeeping. It was actually the “biscuit,” a part of the nuclear football that contains the secret codes the president needs to identify himself as the guy who’s allowed to launch the nuke. (Source)
Salvador Dali Was Legitimately Afraid That Yoko Ono Was a Witch
She offered to buy a slice of his mustache for $10,000. That’s just the type of weird thing he’d do, but he worried that she’d use it to place a hex on him. He went through with the transaction, but sent her a blade of grass, presented as if it were a single strand of greasy hair. (Source)
The First Computer Virus Was an Accident
It was designed to brick any discs that attempted to copy an IBM heart-monitoring program, and the brothers who coded it didn’t expect it to be able to spread. They even included messaging that told anyone infected to contact them for the “vaccination.” When it did start copying itself and spreading to more computers, they were inundated with angry phone calls. (Source)
Only One Person in MLB History Has Hit Two Grand Slams in One Inning
In 1999, Fernando Tatís — Jr.’s dad — became the first and only guy to nail two bases-loaded homers in a single inning. That also makes Chan Ho Park the only guy to ever give up two grand slams to the same batter in one inning. (Source)
The Man Who Was Punched So Hard, He Got Good at Math
Jason Padgett was robbed and beaten to a pulp outside a karaoke joint in Tacoma, Washington in 2002. As he was recovering, he started to see the world in shapes, spirals and rays, like if the Matrix was made of geometry instead of computer code. He had apparently come down with acquired savant syndrome, an extremely rare condition where a blow to the head gives you mental superpowers. He essentially became a living calculator; in his words, “math is literally everything. We are math, and everything that we experience is.” (Source)
The Jury Is Out on Whether Lettuce Makes You Horny
Ancient Egyptians saw lettuce as an aphrodisiac. But Ancient Greeks and Romans thought it was the opposite, an anaphrodisiac — if you were going to eat lettuce, you had to balance it out with some overtly sexual arugula, or risk a drooping boner. (Source)
'Yahoo!' Is an Acronym
The search engine was originally named like a high school project presented on a tri-fold board: “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web.” When they realized people were actually going to see this thing, they renamed it: “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” (Source)
Bank Robbing Has Gotten Almost 10 Time Less Lucrative in the Last Half Century
The average payday for a bank robber in the 1960s was $5,200, or $38,000 adjusted for inflation. In 2019, it was a scant $4,200. (Source)
The Founder of PETA Wants to Burden Her Enemies With Parts of Her Dead Body
Ingrid Newkirk has a plan to send bits of her body to her enemies after she dies. For example, a sliver of her heart will go to Elon Musk, who she says doesn’t have one. She has a pathologist and an attorney working out the details, but overall “it’s perfectly legal. The body will be preserved and then little bits of it can be carved up.” (Source)
Japan’s Royal Family May Be Over 2,600 Years Old
Emperor Naruhito is the 126th monarch of Japan, according to their official order of succession. The first was Emperor Jimmu, who started his rule in 660 B.C., although he’s sometimes considered mythical. The first who has been historically verified was Emperor Kinmei, the 29th emperor, who started his rule in 539 A.D. (Source)
