by Will Pearson
X-DRESSING
(for success)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, classical performances, and making small talk at drag shows and divorce procedures
KEYWORDS: jealousy, cross-dressing, or Berlioz
THE FACT: Luckily for the world, French composer Hector Berlioz was fished out of the Mediterranean. Unluckily for Berlioz, he was wearing women’s clothing at the time.
The renowned musician Hector Berlioz was, among other things, wacky. While away in Rome studying on a scholarship, he heard that his beloved girlfriend, Camille, back in Paris, had started seeing another guy. Furious, he resolved to kill his rival. But he needed to disguise himself. So he bought a gun, put on a dress, and boarded a train for Paris. Halfway home, however, Berlioz chickened out and threw himself into the Mediterranean. Thankfully for the world, and for music, he was fished out (minus the gun).
X-ROADS
(where to sell your soul for the blues)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, barroom banter, and jazz club discussions
KEYWORDS: Robert Johnson, the devil, or how the hell can someone be that good
THE FACT: According to some folk, there’s only one way to get as good as Robert Johnson did—by making a pact with the devil.
Considered the most influential bluesman of all time, Robert Johnson is also one of the most turbulent. And few musicians have achieved Johnson’s mythical status, whether the devil had a hand in it or not. As the story goes, one night Johnson happened upon a large black man walking near the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49 outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The man offered to tune Johnson’s guitar, and claimed Johnson’s soul in return. Within a year, Johnson was in demand throughout the region. Actually, the story may have started when Johnson sat in on a gig with Sun House and Willie Brown. House and Brown were so impressed with Johnson’s playing they thought the only explanation was that he’d sold his soul. Of course, mythic lives require mythic endings. Known for his womanizing, Johnson was fatally poisoned when he sipped some whiskey laced with strychnine—the act of a jealous husband.
THE YAP
(currency for a rockier time)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, chatting up a world traveler, and joking with your teller
KEYWORDS: too much change, bulky wallet, or hernia
THE FACT: If you’re frustrated by the market, and you’re looking for a currency that can stand the test of time, look no further.
In the Caroline Islands in the South Pacific, there’s an island named Yap (or Uap). In 1903, an American anthropologist named Henry Furness III visited the islanders and found they had an unusual system of currency. It consisted of carved stone wheels called fei, ranging in diameter from a foot to 12 feet. Because the stones were heavy, the islanders didn’t normally carry their money around with them. After a transaction, the fei might remain on a previous owner’s premises, but it was understood who owned what. One family’s fei, Furness was told, had been lost at sea many years earlier while being transported from a nearby island during a storm. But that stone was still used as currency, even though it was unseen and irretrievable beneath hundreds of feet of water.
YEMEN’S NATIONAL PASTIME
USEFUL FOR: barroom banter, impressing locals wherever finer nicotine and drug paraphernalia are sold
KEYWORDS: dip, chewing tobacco, or national pastime
THE FACT: Believe it or not, the national obsession of Yemen is basically chewing a mild stimulant known as qat.
Every afternoon, much of Yemen simply shuts down as men gather together to chew great wads of qat and convivially discuss events. A few writers have gone so far as to blame Yemen’s persistent poverty on the drug, largely because chewing it simply eats up so much time. A more reasonable concern is that qat cultivation is undermining Yemen’s agriculture, because other crops are being abandoned in favor of the much more profitable drug. Yemen was once the world’s major supplier of coffee, but those days are long gone. The Yemenis evidently think that they have found a better stimulant, even if most of the rest of the world begs to differ.
ZAMBONI
(and its best hood ornament)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, dates at the aquarium, and stirring up conversation at a sushi dinner
KEYWORDS: octopus, Red Wings, or pimp my ride
THE FACT: Everyone knows that octopi can really touch up a Zamboni at the center of an ice rink or add just a hint of pizzazz when fashionably draped from the rafters. At least anyone who’s ever been to a Detroit hockey game.
If you’re looking for more tips in mollusk décor, though, you’ll actually need to head out to one of the Red Wings’ games for yourself, where you’ll be sure to find 20 to 30 octopi displayed on the ice. Why, exactly? It’s a tradition that started in 1952 during the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup run. During the game, fans Jerry and Pete Cusimano tossed a boiled octopus onto the ice—its eight legs symbolic of the Red Wings’ eight straight wins (at the time, only eight wins were needed to win the playoffs). The crowd went wild (instead of being confused), and a sports tradition was born. Since then, the largest octopus to land on the ice weighed in at 50 pounds. Later in the game, it was displayed on the hood of the Zamboni while the ice was being cleaned between periods, definitely a hood ornament worth emulating.
ZERO
(as in the number of witches burnt to a crisp)
USEFUL FOR: bonfire banter, Halloween parties, and road-trip chatter en route to Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: witches, Joan of Arc, or Salem, Massachussetts
THE FACT: No matter what impression you’ve gotten from your high school reading The Crucible or bad late night PBS, the truth is there were zero (as in no) witches burned at the stake in New England.
While most people think the witches of Salem were skewered en masse, the truth is that no witches were ever burned during the infamous witch hysteria of 1692. However, this doesn’t mean that they didn’t have it really, really bad. Of the 150 people accused of witchcraft, only 20 were sentenced to death: 19 of them were hanged; the remaining “witch” was crushed to death by stones. Oh, and six of them were men.
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Cover design and illustration by Leander Reeves/www.kittycave.net
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MENTAL_FLOSS PRESENTS: INSTANT KNOWLEDGE. COPYRIGHT © 2005 by Mental Floss LLC.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition October 2005 ISBN 9780061747663
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Contents
—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE —
THE AMISH
ANTIBIOTICS
APPETITES
ARITHMETIC
ASPARAGUS
ATTILA
THE BABE
BABY FOOD
BABY JUMPING
BABY NAMES
BAD TRADES
BANK ROBBERY
BEARDS
instant personalities
BERTRAND RUSSELL
BLACKJACK
BOWER BIRDS
BOXING
BRIDES
BUDDY RICH
BURIALS
BUTTERED TOAST
THE CAN OPENER
CASTRATION
CHARLES II
CHEESE ROLLING
CHEMISTS
instant personalities
CHEWING GUM
CLAMS
CLICHÉS
COCKROACHES
COFFEE
CONDIMENTS
CONDUCTORS
CROSSED EYES
CRUISE CONTROL
CRUSADES
D-DAY
DALI
DEADBEAT DAD
instant personalities
DEATH
DIABETES
DICTATORS
DINOSAURS
DISPENSERS
DIVINITY SCHOOL
DIXIE CUPS
DOUBLE DECAF
DOWNSIZING
ELEPHANTS
THE ELITIST DICTIONARY
END OF THE WORLD
ESCALATORS
instant personalities
EVA PERÓN
EXECUTION
EX-LAX
FAN CLUBS
FISHING
THE FLASHLIGHT
FLIRTING
FORESKINS
FORGERIES
FORMAL WEAR
FREEMASONS
FUNERAL FEASTS
GANDHI
GENGHIS KHAN
GERMOPHOBES
G.I. JOEL
instant personalities
GOD COMPLEX
GOLDFINGER
GUM CONTROL
HAIR LOSS
HAM
HANGOVERS
HITCHCOCK
HORSES
HUMAN MEAT
IMELDA MARCOS
INFLATION
INSTANT BACON
instant personalities
INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS
IRELAND
JAPANESE DIETS
JEFFERSON
JELL-O
JESUS’ BROTHERS
JEWS
KIM JONG IL
KITTY-CAT
KLACKERS
KLUTZINESS
KOALAS
instant personalities
KUDZU
LANGUAGE ARTS
LA-Z-BOY
LEMMINGS
LEONARDO DA VINCI
LEONA HELMSLEY
LICKS
LIONS
LIQUID PAPER
LORD OF THE (CIGAR) RINGS
LOSING A BET
THE LOTTO
LOVE LETTERS
instant personalities
THE MAD HATTER
MARQUIS DE SADE
MASTICATION
MATZO BALLS
MERCEDES-BENZ
MICE
MICROWAVES
MILK
MONA LISA
MONOGAMY
MOTHS
MOUNT EVEREST
MOUNT RUSHMORE
instant personalities
NAPPING
NATIONAL ANTHEMS
NEW COKE, PART I
NEW COKE, PART II
NIETZSCHE
NIXON
NOUGAT
NUTS
OBJECTION!
OPUS DEI
OSLO
OZONE
PADDLE BALL
instant personalities
PAGANINI
THE PAPER CLIP
PASSENGER PIGEONS
PATERNITY
PERFUME
PET ROCKS
PETS
PEZ
PHYSICISTS
POLO
PONZI SCHEME
POPCORN
POPES
PORN
instant personalities
PORT ROYAL
PREGNANCY
PRESIDENTIAL AFFAIRS
PYGMY
THE QUADRO
QUOTES
RATS
REVENGE
RICHARD III
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
ROGET
ROLLER COASTERS, PART I
ROLLER COASTERS, PART II
instant personalities
RONALD MCDONALD
SADDAM
THE SAFETY PIN
SALIVA
SCHOPENHAUER
SCOPES (MONKEY) TRIAL
SEA MONKEYS
SHAKERS
SHAKESPEARE
SHEEP
SIBLING RIVALRY
SLICED BREAD
SLOT MACHINES
instant personalities
SOUP
SOUTHERNERS
SPANISH FLY
SPOILED MILK
SQUID
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
STELLA (THE FELLA?)
SUDDEN DEATH
TELEGRAPH
TELEPROMPTERS
TELEVISION
THALES OF MILETUS
instant personalities
TOADS
TWINKIES
UNENVIABLE PREGNANCIES
UNSHELLED NUTS
USSR
VACUUM CLEANERS
VACUUMS
VAN HALEN
VELCRO
VELVET REVOLUTION
VODKA
W. C. FIELDS
instant personalities
WAR
WEBSTER
WEDDING TRADITIONS
WEREWOLF SYNDROME
WHITE-FRONTED PARROTS
WOODCHUCKS
WORK
WORLD WAR III
THE WORST
WRIGHT
XIUHCÓATL
X-DRESSING
X-ROADS
THE YAP
YEMEN’S NATIONAL PASTIME
ZAMBONI
ZERO
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