Mental Floss: Instant Knowledge Read online

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  instant knowledge

  Edited by

  WILL PEARSON

  and

  MANGESH HATTIKUDUR

  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

  Also by mental_floss

  Credits

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  —FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—

  from mental_floss specialty roasters, inc.

  Dear Consumer:

  We’re happy to tell you that you can still get knowledge the old way. mental_floss will always be the family-owned company you can trust for those delicious, slow-roasted facts you’ve grown to love. But after numerous taste tests and focus groups, we’ve realized that there’s an even better way to serve our most active readers—the ones rushing straight from one draining conversation to the next. Whether you’re racing to a cocktail party or the water cooler, a poker game or a United Nations bake sale (you know who you are, Kofi!), mental_floss’s Instant Knowledge is a full-bodied jolt for thirsty minds on the go.

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  Bottoms Up,

  Will and Mangesh

  THE AMISH

  (especially those fond of the “devil’s dandruff”)

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, whenever the electricity goes out, and anytime you’re in Lancaster, Pennsylvania

  KEYWORDS: bikers, buggies, or blow

  THE FACT: Amish youths experiencing some requisite angst have plenty of ways to rebel (like oh, say, flipping on a light switch!), but these two guys really went above and beyond.

  In June 1998, two members of the conservative Old Order Amish sect in Pennsylvania were arrested for buying and selling cocaine. The men, both named Abner Stoltzfus but not related, had apparently been riding their horse and buggy to meet up with a motorcycle gang known as the Pagans (seriously) and then distributing cocaine at their community hoedowns (honestly, we’re not making this stuff up). Between 1993 and 1997, the wild and crazy pair reportedly purchased over $100,000 worth of cocaine.

  ANTIBIOTICS

  (a.k.a. Chicken Throat for the Soul)

  USEFUL FOR: waiting rooms, chatting up scientists, and hitting on pharmacists

  KEYWORDS: penicillin, Alexander Fleming, or chickens

  THE FACT: Believe it or not, biologist Selman Waksman discovered a revolutionary antibiotic in the back of a chicken’s throat.

  In the 1930s, Selman Waksman, working at Rutgers University, became interested in isolating antibiotics from fungi, hoping to find another “penicillin.” To aid his quest, he asked his colleagues to send him samples of any unusual species they encountered. One day a farmer came to see a Rutgers veterinarian with a sick chicken in tow. All of his chickens, he said, were suffering from the same kind of disease as the sample. The vet found that the bird had a fungal throat infection, and remembering Waksman’s request, he sent him a throat swab. From a culture of this fungus, Waksman eventually isolated streptomycin, an antibiotic that revolutionized the treatment of infections, particularly tuberculosis. So the next time you’ve got strep throat, make sure to thank a chicken for the cure.

  APPETITES

  (for construction)

  USEFUL FOR: making small talk at the salad bar

  KEYWORDS: iron stomach, all you can eat, or I’m so hungry I could eat a plane

  THE FACT: Looking for inspiration when trying to down your mother-in-law’s meat loaf? Just consider the story of Michel Lotito, the French gent who once ate an entire Cessna 150.

  Yes, that’s an entire plane we’re talking about, and the guy who did it goes by the nickname Monsieur Mangetout (French for “eats everything.” See what he did there?). Lotito engaged in the stunt to earn a place in the Guinness World Records (his actual record is for the Strangest Diet: 2 pounds of metal per day), but his iron stomach’s downed a lot more than just a plane. He’s also the proud eater of 18 bicycles, a bunch of TVs, a wooden coffin, and several supermarket shopping carts. Not to mention all the lightbulbs, razor blades, and other knickknacks he’s downed on variety shows. Looking for a reason why you shouldn’t try this at home (or with your home)? Well, Lotito’s got a natural advantage because his stomach lining is twice as thick as a normal person’s. He’s also aided by the fact that he’s French, which means he’ll eat just about anything if prepared right (escargot, anyone?).

  ARITHMETIC

  (you’re not the only one who hates it)

  USEFUL FOR: irritating your math teacher, impressing your (other) liberal arts profs, or just plain comforting anyone who hates math

  KEYWORDS: asymptote, parabola, or quadratic equations

  THE FACT: Despite the fact that it can be applied to just about everything, there’s still no Nobel Prize given out for mathematics.

  When dynamite inventor (that’s not a comment on his abilities; he really did invent dynamite) Alfred Nobel stipulated in his will that his fortune be used to establish a fund to award five annual prizes “to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind,” he mysteriously left out math. And all kinds of theories have popped up to explain the omission, most of which claim that Nobel hated all mathematicians because his wife was schtupping one on the side. Nope. The most likely reasons for Nobel’s ditching math are 1) He simply didn’t like math all that much, and 2) Sweden already had a big, fancy prize for mathematics, from the journal Acta Mathematica. Although math is still a Nobel bridesmaid, a prize for economics was added in 1968, thereby giving the extremely boring sciences their due.

  ASPARAGUS

  (and your tee-tee)

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, explaining yourself at the urinal, and chatting up people from the Philadelphia Historical Society

  KEYWORDS: kites, Ben Franklin or “I really, really have to powder my nose”

  THE FACT: Who would have guessed that the genius who figured out that asparagus and unscented urine don’t always go together was none other than Ben Franklin?

  Benjamin Franklin made many contributions to science, including bifocals, the Franklin stove, and lightning rods. But he was also the first to record that some people produced urine with a disagreeable odor after eating asparagus. You’ll be grateful to know that the smell has now been identified and due to sulfur-containing compounds produced when asparagus is metabolized. It seems, however, that not everyone can generate these compounds. A study examined the urine of 115 people who dined on the green vegetable, and only 46 produced the smell. Strangely, not everyone can smell it either.

  ATTILA

  (“the honey pie”)

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, wakes, and proving too much lovin’ will actually kill a barbarian

  KEYWORDS: lucky, truly blessed, or what a way to go

  THE FACT: Attila the Hun, history’s perennial bad boy, was apparently also a perennial playboy. In fact, the guy actually died in the act.

  The leader of the Huns, Attila somehow also found time to marry 12 women and father an unknown number of children. Despite his insatiable appetite, though, Attila probably should have kept that last relationship platonic. After all, it was on his wedding night in 453 CE that the middle-aged Hun burst an artery while celebrating his most recent installment of conjugal bliss. Burying him with vast treasures for the afterlife, his followers reportedly ensured that grave robbers would never find his burial place by diverting a tributary of the Danube, burying the body (in a gold coffin inside a silver coffin inside a lead coffin) under the exposed riverbed, and then diverting the water back to its original course to cover it. Of course, the captives who buried him were all killed afterward.