15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, July 13, 2024
After Warren Harding died, his mistress Nan Britton wrote a book about their relationship. She described touring the White House, which meant seeing the Cabinet Room and then the man’s private office. “Whereupon,” she wrote, “he introduced me to the one place where, he said, he thought we might share kisses in safety. This was a small closet in the ante-room, evidently a place for hats and coats, but entirely empty most of the times we used it. ... In the darkness of a space not more than five feet square, the President of the United States and his adoring sweetheart made love.”
Not everyone believed this account, but evidence came many years later. Find out about it below, along with something new to put in your socks.
Government Work
Don't Miss
The 1880 census took eight years to tabulate, by which time it was almost time for the next census. “We really need to invent some sort of mechanized computer to handle this,” said people, and then they did.
Mental Fitness
When Louisiana Governor Earl Long gave an incoherent speech in 1959, his wife and opponents had him committed to a psychiatric hospital. Long retained the powers of the governor and used them to replace the hospital director with a new one, who declared him sane.
Shitty Attitude
In 2000, Vitek Boden was rejected from a job with the local government. He took revenge by hacking into the sewage control system and releasing a quarter million gallons of sewage into parks and rivers.
RangerBot
The crown-of-thorns starfish eats coral, which is a problem. Scientists came up with a solution, with no downsides at all: an autonomous robot that hunts and kills the starfish. It kills by shooting bile at them.
You Know How I Know?
The man on the left in the below image is 40-Year-Old Virgin actor Shelley Malil. In 2008, he stabbed his girlfriend 23 times, landing himself in prison for attempted to murder.
Universal Pictures
Dust Busters
NASA lost track of a bag of moon dust, and a woman bought it at an auction for just $995. NASA later argued it should never have been auctioned and seized it back. The buyer sued, regained control of it and sold it in 2017 for $1.8 million.
R-Mail
In 1934, Austria was regularly sending mail from one post office to another using rockets. Though rockets could travel 300 miles per hour, this was ultimately not considered a practical way of delivering letters.
Lights Before Your Eyes
Mysterious lights appear before earthquakes, but we don’t know exactly why. It might have something to do with rocks grinding against each other and releasing an electric charge. They look so strange that they’re often dismissed as hallucinations.
Catch Me a Catch
Matchmaking used to be a dangerous business. No, we aren't talking about romantic matchmakers. We mean people who made matchsticks. Dealing with all that phosphorus led to a disease called phossy jaw. Best-case scenario was full jaw removal.
The President’s Daughter
In 1927, a woman came forward and said she’d given birth to the illegitimate daughter of deceased president Warren Harding. Many disbelieved her at the time. It took until 2015 for a DNA test to confirm her claim.
via Wiki Commons
Clumsy Spy
An intruder entered a Wisconsin National Guard Base during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the automatic response to this was for aircraft to take to the sky, armed with nuclear bombs. It turned out the intruder was a bear.
Running of the Bulls
If you ever find yourself hunting buffalo, you can try an old Crow tactic. You dress up as a buffalo yourself and run toward a cliff, so the herd run past you and fall off. Of course, this comes with the risk that they’ll trample you to death.
Pirate Island
In an attempt to shield itself from international copyright law, in 2007, the Pirate Bay tried to buy Sealand, a tiny abandoned naval platform that called itself a micronation. It didn’t work out.
Hot Peppers
When chili peppers came to Japan in the 16th century, people didn’t find any room in their cuisine for the new arrival. But they found that placing the peppers in their foot coverings made their feet feel warm.
Astro-Blogging
In 2006, there was this popular blog called “Walmarting Across America.” A couple named Laura and Jim talked about their cross-country road trip, parking in Walmart lots. Readers only later learned that the blog was funded by Walmart. This foreshadowed the entire influencer economy.
