35 Random Phenomenal Facts that’ll Leave a Lasting Impression on You – Part 45

A French philosopher named Jean-Paul Sartre hallucinated seeing crabs for most of his life after taking mescaline (psychedelic alkaloid).

2. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is based on a poem Tim Burton wrote in 1982 while working at Disney, who had purchased the film rights but felt it was too weird. Years later (after being fired from Disney) Tim realized they still owned the rights and convinced Disney to greenlight the movie.

3. The parody Twitter account DPRK_News has been quoted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and Fox News as if speaking for the real North Korean state news agency.

4. Bladerunner is so visually stunning partly because of the 1980 Hollywood Actors Strike, which gave the film's Art Department and Designers an extra 3 months to improve and refine significantly their futuristic sets and props.

5. Actress Veronica Lake, famous for her "peek a boo" hairstyle with one eye covered, changed her style during World War 2 in order to encourage women to adopt safer hairstyles when working in factories.

The bald eagle hasn't been considered an endangered species since 2007.

7. Sardine isn't actually a species of fish but rather a generic name given to various small, oily fish within the herring family of Clupeidae.

8. The cast/crew of Star Wars: A New Hope flew coach to England due to a low budget. Carrie Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, called George Lucas to complain about her daughter flying coach. Fisher took the phone from Lucas and said "Mother, I want to fly coach, will you fu*k off?!" and hung up.

9. The Count of Monte Cristo has never been out of print in most modern languages.

10. October 31, 2017, will be the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting the 95 Theses, sparking the Protestant Reformation.

If you send a letter to Israel addressed to God, they will place it in the Western Wall, where visitors traditionally place handwritten notes of prayer and wishes in the cracks between its stones.

12. During the Irish Potato Famine, the poor were given construction jobs, so they could earn food rather than receive it as a handout. However, to avoid taking jobs from other workers, these people built useless projects, like roads in the middle of nowhere, and piers in the middle of bogs.

13. Despite its name, "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", the show hasn't actually aired live since 2004, when censors were unable to properly bleep a swearing rant from actor Thomas Jane.

14. Warriors on the Pacific Island of Kiribati fought with porcupinefish helmets and wooden swords lined with shark's teeth.

15. When famed reclusive author Thomas Pynchon appeared as himself on The Simpsons, he refused to speak one of the lines in which he was supposed to call Homer a "fat a*s," arguing he couldn't possibly say anything bad about his "role model".

Phasing out large currencies reduce crime and corruption because smaller currencies increase the amount of space and weight needed to transport, store, and process cash while maintaining the same value.

17. "Chemo curls" is a documented phenomenon that can occur after chemotherapy where one's hair structure can completely change from blonde to dark and/or straight to curly and vise versa.

18. Several high school friends formed the Committee to End Pay Toilets in America (CEPTIA) in 1968, which eventually led to laws banning pay toilets in several states.

19. In order to eliminate gender bias, many orchestras use blind auditions in which the candidates play their instrument behind a screen.

20. There are now more overweight than underweight people in the world.

The generation born between 1925 and 1945 is called the "silent generation" because many focused on their careers rather than on activism, and people in it were largely encouraged to conform with social norms."

22. There are only 6 ingredients in Spam: ham, salt, water, sugar, sodium nitrite and potato starch.

23. There is a Museum of Broken Relationships in Croatia. You can go and leave there personal objects left by former lovers, accompanied by brief descriptions.

24. Police officer James Niggemeyer who took out Dimebag Darrell's killer was so affected by the incident that he had to give up his career due to PTSD and severe anxiety disorder.

25. Danny DeVito was hired for TV show Taxi after he came in for the audition during a long casting process and said: "Which of you guys wrote this sh*t"?