12 Flavor-Blasted Bits of Trivia Honked Out by Our Malfunctioning Factoid Machine
Wuh-oh!!! There’s been an accident at the factoid factory! Now all our facts are coming out more random and mind-blowing than ever before! For a limited time only — better get ‘em before they’re gone!
Seriously though, this is a pretty major OSHA violation. We could’ve been killed, frankly. Someone is absolutely getting fired for this.
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Pharaoh Ramses IV Was Buried With Onions in His Eye Sockets
Onions were revered for their healing properties, and it’s thought that their many layers may have also represented eternal life — both of which would be pretty attractive to a dying king.
Beethoven Never Learned How to Multiply or Divide
He left school at the age of 11, so he never made it past addition and subtraction. Even as an adult, if he needed to multiply, he would just add, a lot.
No One Knows How the World’s First Novel Ends
The Tale of Genji, by 11th-century poet and noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu, ends mid-sentence. The first person to translate it to English says he’s pretty sure it’s supposed to end like that (which doesn’t seem very plausible). Other scholars are split on whether there are missing chapters, or the author simply had no ending in mind, and planned to just keep writing for as long as she could.
A British Woman Called the Cops Because She Didn’t Get Enough Sprinkles on Her Ice Cream
In 2014, a woman got in an argument with an ice cream truck driver who, she says, put a little bit of sprinkles on one side of her cone, and none on the other. She assured the operator, “It doesn’t seem like much of an emergency, but it is a little bit.”
Thousands of Allied Troops Escaped the Nazis via ‘Monopoly’
The Nazis, uncharacteristically, allowed the British government to send care packages to their POWs. These packages included special Monopoly games, which the soldiers would know by the small red dot on the Free Parking space, indicating there was a compass, a file and a silk map hidden inside.
Penicillin Almost Had a Much Cooler Name
Alexander Fleming invented penicillin by mistake when he noticed the liquid runoff from a moldy petri dish was killing nearby bacteria. Before he called it “penicillin,” he spent several months referring to it as “mold juice.”
The First Stroller Was a Luxury Item Designed to Be Hitched to a Beast of Burden
In 1733, a British duke asked an architect to build him something to drag his baby around in. The duke wasn’t going to push the thing himself, so it was designed to be operated by a goat or a pony.
Popes Aren’t Allowed to Donate Organs
Pope Benedict, a huge fan of organ donation, had to declare his donor card invalid after he assumed the papacy. The church doesn’t want its relics being toted around inside of living randos after a Pope dies.
Norway’s Dalai Lama Is a Penguin Who’s a Royal Knight
A penguin named Nils Olav has been the mascot of the King’s Guard since 1972, and he was officially knighted in 2008. Whenever he dies, his name, rank and honors are passed on to a younger penguin.
Animals Have Accents
Pitch, tone and other vocal qualities can vary greatly among geographically remote populations of the same species. Birds, cows, whales and gibbons have all had regional accents studied and documented.
Young Chimps Make Dolls
Scientists have observed chimps using sticks in four ways: as a tool, as a weapon, as a toy and in a distinct activity called “stick-carrying.” They’ll carry a twig, a small log or a piece of bark for hours at a time, finding a way to keep it on or around them while they engage in other chimp activity. It’s said to resemble the way a human child cares for a doll.
There’s Only One Non-Human Animal Known to Enjoy Spicy Food
The Chinese treeshrew is impervious to spicy foods and alcohol. A team of researchers found they tended to prefer chili peppers to other sources of food in a lab setting. It’s thought that developing a fondness for hot food gives them exclusive access to a spicy leafy green in their natural habitat, the piper plant.
