Think you know everything about the USA? Think again. From quirky state laws to little-known historical moments, America is full of surprises. In this third installment of our fascinating fact series, we bring you 50 more intriguing nuggets that highlight the strange, the proud, and the just plain unexpected corners of American culture, geography, and history. Whether you’re a trivia buff or just curious about the country’s lesser-known side, these facts are sure to entertain and enlighten.
Missed the earlier parts? Catch up here:
1 Homegrown Rice Dominates U.S.
About 80% of the rice consumed by the United States is produced domestically.
2. The IRS provides specific tax filing guidelines in the event of a qualifying dependent being kidnapped.
3. If Bronx High School of Science were a country, it would rank 23rd in the number of Nobel Prizes earned. Remarkably, it has produced more Nobel laureates than 45 U.S. states.
4. In some regions of the United States, people have long painted their porch ceilings a specific shade of blue-believed to ward off evil spirits, haints, and ghosts. As a result, all major paint companies now offer this color, such as Sherwin-Williams’ SW9063 “Porch Ceiling.”
5. The United States Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy actively supported and influenced the film Top Gun: Maverick to portray the military positively and boost recruitment and retention.
6 Army Employs Most U.S. Musicians
The United States Army employs more musicians than any other single organization in the country.
7. During the Great Depression, many U.S. towns created their own currencies, known as “scrip,” because the national currency was so scarce that people couldn’t afford basic goods.
8. Interestingly, more ethnic Norwegians live in the United States than in Norway itself.
9. On average, Americans lose their virginity at 17 years of age.
10. Each year in the United States, walk-in freezer accidents cause the deaths of around 60 people.
11 iPhones Dominate Teen Market
According to a survey done by investment firm Piper Sandler in 2023, 87 percent of American teens owned an iPhone, and 88 percent expected it to be their next phone.
12. When warned of a potential missile launch against the United States, the Pentagon and Strategic Command war rooms have just one minute to brief the president, who then has approximately six minutes to decide whether and how to respond.
13. In the United States, a 16 oz. box of spaghetti can legally contain up to 450 insect parts and nine rodent hairs.
14. The U.S. federal witness protection program boasts a 100% success rate-provided participants strictly follow the program’s guidelines.
15. Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as “Angola,” is the largest maximum-security prison in the United States. It operates its own radio station, TV station, magazine, fire department, sugarcane fields, market gardens, and herds of cattle and horses.
16 New Mexico Adds “USA”
New Mexico stands out as the only U.S. state to include “USA” on its license plates, specifically to prevent confusion with the country of Mexico.
17. Many U.S. states have filial responsibility laws that legally require adult children to support their sick or impoverished parents.
18. The IRS requires U.S. taxpayers to report taxable income from illegal activities, including earnings from selling drugs, accepting bribes, or even the fair market value of stolen property.
19. In 2023, seed companies across the United States accidentally mixed up pepper seeds, causing gardeners nationwide to grow the wrong varieties-a blunder now known as “Peppergate.”
20. Roughly one in every eight workers in the United States has been employed by McDonald’s at some point in their lives.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Bus Tragedy Reshaped Safety Laws
Kentucky enforces the strictest school bus safety standards in the United States-for example, requiring nine emergency exits. This regulation followed a tragic 1988 school bus crash, where a fire killed 27 trapped children and adults. The bus, built in 1977, had only two exits and ran on flammable gasoline stored in an unprotected tank.
22. Due to the ongoing territorial dispute between Canada and the United States over Machias Seal Island, anyone born on the island receives dual citizenship claims from both countries.
23. North America-and the United States in particular-experiences the world’s most extreme weather, averaging over 10,000 severe thunderstorms and more than 1,000 tornadoes annually.
24. In 1960, the United States alone generated 40% of the entire planet’s GDP.
25. Texarkana refers to two separate towns bordering one another, one in Texas and the other in Arkansas, that share the same name. Although governed by two different state laws, they function in many ways like a single community. Uniquely, their courthouse is the only one in the United States built directly on a state border.
RE: Fact #34 (America Says ) – The Philippines is an English speaking country – in many cases we have better grammar than most Americans – and we mostly pronounce the letter Z as “zee”, not so much as “zed”.
RE: Fact #38 (1916 List: Cancer, Murder, Gluttony) – Here’s the rundown of the 20 problems in the article: millions of single people, more divorces, fewer babies, tons of infant deaths, lots of kids with disabilities, rising rates of mental illness, huge numbers of people with drug and alcohol problems, way more murders than any other country, tons of money wasted on preventable illness, stress through the roof, desk jobs, overeating without exercising, obesity, weak bodies, poor health, organs failing early, tons of deaths from disease, too many deaths from infections, skyrocketing cancer rates, terrible teeth and eyesight, and 15,000 suicides a year. Think about it: in 1916, 15,000 out of 102 million people died by suicide, but in 2014, that number was 42,773 out of 318.9 million.
RE: Fact #47 (Screwworm Eradicated with Science) – That’s why border agents are so strict about food – they’re not worried about your goodies, but about the creepy crawlies that might be hiding in them.
Right, that’s the main thing border control should be concentrating on. It must be a tougher job in a place like the US with a much leakier border. Here in Australia, it’s a bit simpler for the ABF, but when something does get through, the consequences for the country can be really bad.
You never got over the chazzwozzers.
RE: Fact #6 (Army Employs Most U.S. Musicians) – I figured Starbucks hired the most musicians.
RE: Fact #18 (Illegal Income? IRS Still Cares) – Maybe they’re saving that for later, to nail some big-time crooks on tax stuff.
RE: Fact #29 (Gage Beats “Gauge” at USGS) – During a semester in college long back, we did a lab on stress gauges, and our prof used both spellings—gauge and gage—all over the place. It was super frustrating trying to decide which one to use in my report!
RE: Fact #31 (U.S. Sets Oil Output Record) – The US actually gets more oil from Canada than all the OPEC countries put together! People think it’s Saudi Arabia, but it’s really our neighbors to the north.
Should we blame Canada for high gas prices?
Canada’s really hurting because we don’t sell much oil overseas. The US has us over a barrel—our oil sells for way less than it should. We thought boosting the Trans Mountain pipeline would help, but it hasn’t made a difference. Our oil’s so cheap, American companies buy it, refine it, and then sell *their own* oil globally for full price.
Unfortunately, oil’s a worldwide market.
RE: Fact #40 (U.S. Has Only 10 Fjords) – So?
RE: Fact #12 (Six Minutes to Nuclear Decision) – They’ve pretty much thought of everything like that already. The president’s already decided what he’ll do in most situations, especially that one.
RE: Fact #19 (Peppergate Ruins Gardens Nationwide) – I got a load of jalapeños, and ended up with way more spicy wax peppers than I wanted.
Ugh, I ended up with jalapeños, and I didn’t even want them!
RE: Fact #26 (1994 Cup Most Profitable Ever) – Soccer’s been around in America for ages, but it’s really exploded in popularity lately. It’s become one of the fastest-growing sports, and by the end of 2022 it was the fourth most popular, way up from sixth place just a couple of years earlier. It’s still behind the big domestic leagues, though.
It was hugely popular before the Depression, but it fell apart because the leagues couldn’t get along.
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
The US had a huge immigrant population in the 1910s and 20s. Think 22% of city folks were foreign-born, and even 14.7% in rural areas. Cities were cramped, and immigrants usually didn’t have much money—that wasn’t a coincidence. Lots of awesome soccer players come from poor city backgrounds, even now. Americans aren’t huge soccer fans, but immigrants are. How many white, wealthy Americans started for the US men’s national team in the last World Cup? Only three out of eleven against the Netherlands. So, yeah, that’s still true.
Except goalkeepers. We’ve always produced amazing goalies, way back to the 80s.
Check out the rosters from the US Open in 1914—most of those players were born outside the US.
Boxing was huge in the 1920s and 30s too. Radio was new then, and boxing was a popular, accessible sport—perfect for those underdog, working-class stories.
RE: Fact #22 (Island Birth Grants Dual Citizenship) – Basically, nobody lives there except for two lighthouse keepers who swap out every month.
RE: Fact #18 (Illegal Income? IRS Still Cares) – There’s no specific law that says illegal income isn’t taxed, but all income is generally taxed, so that includes illegal stuff. However, there *is* a law (IRC 280E) that says you can’t deduct drug trafficking expenses from your taxes, except for the cost of the goods.
And for those wondering if the IRS rats people out to the cops, check out IRC 6103.
I was curious, but I really don’t want to dig through tax codes. Couldn’t you have just given me the info instead of hinting at it?
I checked it out. The IRS is pretty strict about keeping your tax info private – that’s the law. But, there are some exceptions. For example, they can share it with law enforcement if there’s a court order for a criminal investigation.
RE: Fact #15 (Angola Prison Runs Own Town) – Reminds me of a classic Southern town, complete with its own plantation. It’d be great if they could get some volunteers to help out in the fields.
RE: Fact #25 (Texarkana: Two States, One City) – It’s not like a town or city is just one local government area.
This town’s actually split between two.
Big cities usually have a bunch of different local governments running them.
RE: Fact #46 (Quake Made People Question Florida) – Yeah, the South in the 1880s… a real hotbed of science and, uh, normal stuff.
RE: Fact #49 (U.S. Balanced on a Pin) – Sure, you’ll find a pinhead in the US Government, easy peasy.
RE: Fact #26 (1994 Cup Most Profitable Ever) – They played it in stadiums way bigger than usual—like, two or three times the size of other places. That was the least they could do, honestly.
Wow, US sports stadiums are seriously huge! Eight of the eleven stadiums worldwide that hold 100,000 people or more are US college football stadiums. The rest are in India, Australia (cricket stadiums), and North Korea.
RE: Fact #42 (Ohio Became State… in 1953) – That’s wrong. Ohio became a state in 1803, after Congress passed the Enabling Act in 1802. Congress didn’t usually issue a fancy declaration of statehood back then. Ohio just got one later, in 1953, for a special occasion – it wasn’t actually required.
So, I looked it up, and apparently Congress didn’t always do a joint resolution for new states—that only became the norm after Louisiana joined in 1812. It’s not really needed, though.
RE: Fact #3 (Bronx School Outranks Nations) – Wow, Class of ’69! No Nobel for me, haha. But this post is cool.
So, I was at this education conference, right? Some guy from a less-than-impressive state started trash-talking NYC schools. I just blurted out, “I bet NYC high schools have more Nobel Prize winners than your whole state!” And guess what? I was pretty much right.
RE: Fact #44 (States Have Official Fossils) – So, Minnesota doesn’t have an official state fossil! Wow, that’s embarrassing.
Edit: Actually, the MN DNR site says the Giant Beaver’s the state fossil, but I’m not sure if it’s been officially approved by the state government.
RE: Fact #11 (iPhones Dominate Teen Market) – That whole green versus blue bubble debate seems totally American. I’d never heard of it until I saw it on a tech forum recently. It’s crazy.
I had no idea what color my text boxes were until I just looked. I guess I can change them to any color, though. Yeah, it’s kinda strange to be so focused on that.
It’s iPhones, not Androids, that do that. You’d see the difference if you had an iPhone.
RE: Fact #42 (Ohio Became State… in 1953) – Some folks use this to back up some pretty wild political ideas. For example, they think income tax is illegal because it wasn’t voted on by the states.
RE: Fact #33 (Farmers Hated Daylight Saving) – It doesn’t really save energy; lighting uses next to nothing these days. Messes with your sleep schedule and makes you feel crummy, even increasing the risk of accidents. It’s a huge headache for software and management, too. Plus, it costs a fortune – hundreds of millions of dollars a year. And Franklin? He was just joking.
It’s a dumb plan, started by people who meant well but didn’t think it through.
Alright, so those are the downsides. What are the upsides?
Congress can just leave things as they are.
Sunrise wasn’t at 4:40 AM this morning, and that’s really not early at all where I live.
RE: Fact #40 (U.S. Has Only 10 Fjords) – I just learned the Hudson River’s a fjord!
Can someone explain this?
Checked out Hudson River real estate lately? No one could possibly afjord those! Sorry
Glaciers from the north carved out a super deep channel—that’s the Hudson River. Look at a US satellite map; the straight lines east of the Hudson run north-south all the way to Maine. New England’s full of ridges carved from bedrock, and Long Island marks where the glaciers stopped, dumping their rock stuff before melting back 22,500 years ago. Considering all that, it’s pretty obvious the Hudson’s probably the southernmost fjord on Earth.
RE: Fact #35 (Food Network Soothes Post-9/11) – It’s because a handful of companies own tons of channels, so all you saw was news. For weeks after the attacks, Food Network and Cartoon Network were pretty much the only ones *not* covering it.
RE: Fact #49 (U.S. Balanced on a Pin) – Before computers, people often figured out the center of mass, area of weird shapes, and integrals using cardboard cutouts.
That’s how chemists used to do integrations, too. They’d cut out the curve from the analog machine, weigh the pieces, and compare the weights to see how strong each signal was.
That’s freakin’ awesome! I’m a chem major with a physics minor, really into molecular modeling. Growing up with computers, it’s mind-blowing that even the biggest supercomputers can’t perfectly model molecules. I’m always thinking about better tech and quantum simulations—imagine a program that’s 100% accurate! But thinking about how chemists worked before computers is wild. Stuff like using paper cutouts to figure out intensities? That’s hilarious.
I’ve done this peak area calculation before, on a super old gas chromatograph. It only printed on one of those roll-fed paper things, so a balance and a craft knife were the best way to get the data. Worked like a charm!
RE: Fact #36 (Park Cost More Than Alaska) – Did the feds pay for Central Park, or was it the state?
That source article says New York State paid for Central Park.
RE: Fact #14 (Witness Protection Never Fails) – Richie Aprile got into that thing and vanished.
RE: Fact #32 (Tylenol: Top Liver Killer) – Years ago, I had a total meltdown. I wasn’t suicidal or into drugs, but a fertility drug messed me up – it made me want to end it all, temporarily. One day, during the craziness, I found an old bottle of oxycodone from a surgery I never used and took the whole thing. The hospital saved me with Narcan, but much later I found out I almost died, not from the oxy but from the acetaminophen in it – the Tylenol part. Four years later, I still get liver tests every year.
Seriously, no doctor ever mentioned this, but some women are super sensitive to hormone changes. Fertility drugs are common and life-changing, but we need to know the risks. Don’t let anyone brush it off as “just hormones.” A really awesome ER doctor figured it all out; otherwise, I might still be in a mental hospital.
RE: Fact #5 (Top Gun Boosts Navy Image) – That seemed pretty clear to me.
That’s propaganda; they won’t even say who they’re up against, just “the enemy.”
Yeah, it’s pretty clear. The first Top Gun movie really exploded Navy recruitment. There are even documentaries with sailors saying they signed up because of the movie – some even became janitors instead of pilots, but still, Top Gun was their reason.
I saw the first one in theaters, and there was a Navy recruiting booth right outside.
Didn’t see anything like that for Iron Eagle, though.
So, they totally talk about it in both movies. It’s pretty well-known.
Whenever you see military stuff in a movie, the Pentagon’s already signed off on the script.
RE: Fact #1 (Homegrown Rice Dominates U.S.) – I always thought it was from Asia, and guessed that if it grew here at all, it’d be a tiny amount. Turns out, we grow way more than we use – we even export half! So we’re producing a whopping 160% of what we need.
Southern Mississippi’s flatlands are perfect for rice—think massive rice fields in eastern Arkansas! And you can even grow crawdads there too.
Yeah, the US is a huge agriculture player. It’s crazy we ship rice to Asia! Funny thing, the Japanese use the rice character 米 to represent the US.
RE: Fact #23 (America Has Wildest Weather) – It’s a huge country and so many different regions. It’s crazy the kind of weather we get. I took a college class all about the weird weather you find where different parts of the US meet.
Crazy specific conditions are needed for freezing rain, huh? Seems like it happens a bunch lately.
Freezing rain’s pretty rare in other places, huh?
RE: Fact #31 (U.S. Sets Oil Output Record) – We import a lot of crude oil, even though our refineries are top-notch. People think the US relies on OPEC for energy, but that’s just not the whole story, even without things like renewables.
Even though the U.S. isn’t reliant on OPEC, what they do still impacts global oil—and that includes our prices.
Oil’s a global market, so prices are the same everywhere.
RE: Fact #25 (Texarkana: Two States, One City) – So, Lead Belly’s “Cotton Fields”—the Beach Boys and Johnny Cash did awesome covers, right?—says it’s “down in Louisiana, near Texarkana.” But Texarkana’s actually nowhere near Louisiana; it’s in Texas and Arkansas, pretty far from the Louisiana border. Lead Belly was from the Shreveport area, so he knew that. I don’t know why this bugs me, but sorry if I’ve annoyed anyone with my obsession!
Texarkana’s a lot closer to Chicago than it is to El Paso—about 40 miles closer, actually.
Driving from Houston to LA? If you stop in El Paso, you’re basically over the halfway point.
RE: Fact #15 (Angola Prison Runs Own Town) – That article calls it a “former slave plantation,” but then says it’s still being used as one—that’s pretty messed up.
It’s also called that because of the country where most of the slaves were from.
The slave trade happened in a huge area, covering what’s now Angola and both Congos. Angola as we know it today wasn’t around back then.
RE: Fact #17 (Children Must Support Parents) – Basically, nobody ever enforces these laws except maybe in Pennsylvania, where nursing homes sometimes try to get kids to pay up.
This is freaking me out. I think my estranged mom lives in Pennsylvania now. Haven’t spoken to her in two decades, and after the way she treated me growing up, I’m definitely not paying for her nursing home.
I only heard about one case – some kid missed the Medicare deadline and got stuck with the bill.
Maybe the kid signed papers to become his parent’s power of attorney but didn’t do the job. That seems fair. Kids can’t just handle their parents’ money without that legal permission; it’s like them doing your taxes without asking.
Nursing homes and hospitals have social workers who help family members get emergency court orders for power of attorney when someone’s permanently unable to manage their affairs. It’s a big deal.
RE: Fact #2 (IRS Has Kidnap Tax Rule) – They have a rule for everything, which is why even the short version of the rules is a huge book—seriously, it’s seven inches thick! They even tell you how to report your airline miles as income.
Reminds me of this guy I know who figured out a frequent flyer deal on pudding—the miles were worth way more than the pudding itself! He ended up raking in a million miles.
Back when the Sacagawea dollar first came out, you could get them online, shipped free, and people were buying tons of them just to put them in the bank.
Should you report money from selling drugs?
So, the Fifth Amendment’s got your back on revealing where your money came from, but you still gotta report that income. There’s a way to do it without spilling the beans on the source, though.
Yeah, there’s a supposedly secret way to report that money and pay taxes on it without giving your name. I picked that up in tax law class back in school.
Al Capone went to jail because he didn’t pay his taxes. And even the Joker’s scared of the tax man.
RE: Fact #39 (Street Divides U.S. and Canada) – That’s totally illogical. How on earth do people even get around that street if you have to go through border control just to cross it? You couldn’t even get into your own house without filling out paperwork!
It’s probably just a rule nobody bothers with. Doing a U-turn there would be a total headache.
From the article
“So, Boisvert’s saying he and his wife – and all 23 families on their street – have to check in at the US or Canadian border every time they leave the house, even just for a quick errand. The border’s nearby, but there are often waits. And if you skip the check-in, it’s a hefty $5,000 fine and/or two years in jail in the US, or $1,000 in Canada. Plus, there’s no way to avoid being watched.”
RE: Fact #21 (Bus Tragedy Reshaped Safety Laws) – Non-flammable gas would totally solve that.
It’s called diesel…very hard to ignite actually
RE: Fact #39 (Street Divides U.S. and Canada) – I wonder what kind of deal they’d have to make to get that road plowed.
Toss a beer to your neighbor!
Canada could just send Kinder eggs to the US, huh? Makes me want to move there!
RE: Fact #35 (Food Network Soothes Post-9/11) – I had absolutely nothing else to watch; every channel was the same old depressing stuff. I drowned my sorrows in a bunch of James Harriet books.
RE: Fact #14 (Witness Protection Never Fails) – Don’t get murdered.
Solid life advice.
Following that rule means you’re safe.
Bart Simpson taught me that we’ll all die someday! I’d rather it be a surprise, though.
RE: Fact #45 (Death Valley Keeps Sinking Lower) – Death Valley’s way below sea level – about 86 meters down, actually. New Orleans is also below sea level, but only about 2 meters. Death Valley’s sinking at 3 centimeters a year, and parts of New Orleans are sinking even faster at 4 centimeters a year. So, do the math, and in roughly 8400 years, New Orleans will be lower than Death Valley. Meaning, Death Valley would be the lowest point in the US after all that time – unless you count stuff underwater.
By then, some of us will be total basement dwellers, right?
RE: Fact #13 (Bugs Allowed in U.S. Pasta) – It’s unavoidable, we all eat bugs. Just deal with it.
It’s pretty much impossible to get every single bug out of a huge pile of wheat before you make it into flour, unless you’re willing to spend a fortune. Even one little bug gets ground up and mixed in, so there are going to be tiny bug bits in just about everything made from flour. It’s no big deal though. Even the pickiest vegan wouldn’t care, because it’s unavoidable. And let’s be honest, even harvesting the wheat with a tractor, let alone a scythe, means you’re going to accidentally kill a bunch of bugs anyway.
That’s the most you can do before getting a fine, not the least. Nobody’s secretly messing with the products to meet a target.
This ant testicle vat’s totally empty. Kill the line! We’re out of commission till that new shipment gets here – the snow’s messing things up. Time to check what we’ve got left!
RE: Fact #2 (IRS Has Kidnap Tax Rule) – Detective: So, you got that ransom call. What happened next?
Parent: I called my accountant.
That’s clever. If you need to tap your 401k for the ransom, make sure it’s treated as a short-term loan, not an early withdrawal.
RE: Fact #22 (Island Birth Grants Dual Citizenship) – Google Maps just says Machias Seal Island is an “Island”—no state, province, or country. Seems like Google’s trying to stay out of the whole dispute. Grand Manan Island, though, is clearly marked “NB, Canada”.
Back in 2010, they were blamed for a Nicaraguan invasion of Costa Rica. Basically, someone used a map to claim some disputed land belonged to Nicaragua, and then sent troops in.
RE: Fact #40 (U.S. Has Only 10 Fjords) – Washington’s number one, baby!
I think they should call it Fjordington. That way, no one would mix it up with Washington, D.C.
RE: Fact #24 (U.S. Once Owned Global GDP) – So, before you get too hyped, those numbers are just the raw dollar amounts. They don’t show how much stuff you could actually buy with that money, or how wages compared to prices in each place. Think about it—all of Europe, China, Japan, and the Soviet Union were totally wrecked, millions died. America was totally unscathed.
The US had high wages and high prices compared to other countries back in 1960, and that’s still true today. A similar apple might cost 25 cents in the US, but just 2 cents in India. Economists now use something called “Purchasing Power Parity” to make fairer comparisons between countries.
RE: Fact #45 (Death Valley Keeps Sinking Lower) – You can even spot the highest point in the continental US from the lowest.
RE: Fact #21 (Bus Tragedy Reshaped Safety Laws) – Safety rules are learned the hard way.
RE: Fact #36 (Park Cost More Than Alaska) – I wonder if anyone’s compared how much Central Park is worth compared to all of Alaska? Maybe include the area around the park too, maybe not.
So, I looked up some quick stats: Alaska’s GDP in 2016 was $47 billion, while Manhattan’s in 2015 was a whopping $630 billion. Central Park takes up 6% of Manhattan. If you figure Central Park’s value per square foot is similar to the rest of Manhattan in driving its economy, that means the park contributes about $37 billion to Manhattan’s GDP – almost as much as Alaska! Or, if it were developed like the rest of Manhattan, it might even generate around $40 billion, maybe more since it’s in midtown.
Real estate values and GDP don’t match up perfectly. I’ve seen estimates for Central Park’s value around $500 billion.
One calculation online I am reading now puts all of Manhattan at $1.75 trillion.
One guy suggested selling Alaska back in 2012, figuring it was worth around $2.5 trillion.
If Alaska’s oil rights are part of the deal, its real estate will be worth a ton more.
I kinda just guessed at the numbers. Central Park is 39 million square feet, and if you figure $1773 per square foot, that’s roughly $70 billion. I’d say a reasonable estimate is somewhere around $700 billion, give or take. A Washington Post article said Alaska could fetch at least $2.5 trillion.
Manhattan’s land is supposedly worth about $1.74 trillion, according to something I read. Someone on factrepublic figured Central Park is about 6% of Manhattan, and I think they were right on the money. I still bet Alaska’s worth more, though. And yeah, I know my first estimate was a total crapshoot—I said it was a rough guess.
Including just oil rights? Probably not. But if you’re going for the value of all the oil itself, then maybe.
RE: Fact #41 (Postal Police Precede United States) – They’ve got their own crime show on CBS! It’s not bad, kind of like CSI meets a PSA, but for the Post Office.
Wow, I’d never heard of this show before! I really liked how they discussed ways to dodge the scams they featured each week.
Thanks for the new tip—that’s a great addition to my knowledge!
RE: Fact #42 (Ohio Became State… in 1953) – An Ohio rep, who didn’t even have the right, pushed through that 1953 law. So, some say the whole thing—Congress approving Ohio’s constitution—was illegal. Meaning, maybe Ohio’s still not officially a state.
The Constitution lets Congress decide who’s in and what the rules are. So unless Nancy Pelosi tries to boot Ohio, it’s staying put.
Yeah, that’s true—I was being a bit technical. Plus, as someone from Ohio, it’s just another chance to rib my home state.
RE: Fact #27 (Pennies Cost More Than Worth) – Half pennies were a thing, but they stopped being made when they were worth about as much as a dime is now. We should just stick to making quarters.
Funny thing – a local burger joint changed all its prices to be multiples of 25 cents, tax included, a few years back. It was only at the places where people mostly pay with cash. The other locations kept their usual pricing.
Half a cent? That’s kinda ridiculous these days.
RE: Fact #23 (America Has Wildest Weather) – I moved to Texas from West Virginia for a job five and a half years ago. My first West Texas storm was insane! I’d never seen anything like it – hail piled up almost to the curb. It was pitch black at 3 PM, with lightning flashing so much it was like daylight. I thought that was wild, but then I found out that’s pretty normal there – they get a bunch of storms like that every year.
Got soaked in a North Houston thunderstorm – so much lightning, I was scared to leave my car!
RE: Fact #16 (New Mexico Adds “USA”) – Cool fact: Hispanos, a Hispanic group in New Mexico since the 1500s, trace their roots to Spanish settlers and Native Americans. Many identify as Spanish or New Mexican, some as Chicano or Mexican-American. You’ll mostly find them in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
Apparently, when they go overseas, people often think their accent’s fake—it sounds like old-school Spanish, you know, like someone speaking Shakespearean English.
I’m in central New Mexico, and a bunch of the small towns around here are on land grants.
RE: Fact #19 (Peppergate Ruins Gardens Nationwide) – Was it all a big conspiracy? People are way overusing “-gate” lately.
RE: Fact #7 (Depression-Era Towns Made Currency) – It’s different from the money of the same name used in company towns, like those mining towns in West Virginia. Workers got paid in scrip and had to use it at company stores – they sold everything, from medicine to clothes.
RE: Fact #10 (Freezer Accidents Kill Dozens) – It’s strange walk-in freezers aren’t seen as confined spaces. You can go inside, but getting in and out can be tricky, and they’re not meant for people to hang out in.
At Baskin-Robbins, that freezer door was a total pain. Sometimes I had to really kick it to get it open.
Sounds like it’s probably a Permit-Required Confined Space. Basically, three things make a space “confined”: you can fit inside to work, it’s hard to get in and out of, and it’s not meant for people to hang out in. And then to make it a “Permit-Required” confined space, there’s stuff like dangerous fumes, the risk of being buried, a shape that could trap you, or other serious hazards.
That’s a great point! I think we should add a few more basic safety features – they don’t need to be fancy or cost a fortune.
Read somehwere that a bunch of those freezers have axes inside, so you could escape if things went really south. Seems like a simple, cheap solution. Sadly, most businesses would probably rather a worker freeze than have their freezer wrecked.
RE: Fact #2 (IRS Has Kidnap Tax Rule) – My husband used to work there, and he told me about this crazy case: a model who wrote off breast implants and other cosmetic surgery. It had been to court before, apparently, so as long as it’s directly related to work, it’s deductible.
Back in 1988, self-employed dancer Cynthia Hess won a tax case! The court said her breast implants were a business expense, so she could deduct the cost. She argued they were essential for her work and that she wouldn’t have gotten them so big otherwise.
That’s why ABBA’s stage outfits are so crazy! Apparently, they can write them off as a business expense because they’re way too wild to be considered regular clothes.
Watch out with that thinking—it’s super rare to get tax breaks for personal stuff, even if it helps your work.
RE: Fact #25 (Texarkana: Two States, One City) – Back in ’77, a real carefree trucker bet he could haul 400 cases of Coors from Texarkana all the way to Atlanta. That trip? Total legend.
RE: Fact #38 (1916 List: Cancer, Murder, Gluttony) – Wow, cancer deaths are way up! It must be the wi-fi and chemtrails!
RE: Fact #15 (Angola Prison Runs Own Town) – I think they used to have a prisoner rodeo every year, not that long ago.
RE: Fact #20 (1 in 8 Worked McDonald’s) – I used to kid around that other countries have mandatory military service when you turn 18. Some even include women, like Israel. Here in the US, though, it’s mandatory food service. I did six months at McDonald’s and two months at this drive-in, Penguin Point.
It’s gotta be mandatory, seriously. You can spot a food service newbie a mile away.
RE: Fact #13 (Bugs Allowed in U.S. Pasta) – Check out Upton Sinclair’s *The Jungle*.
RE: Fact #11 (iPhones Dominate Teen Market) – No grown-up’s ever commented on my phone, but tons of kids have asked why I don’t have an iPhone.
Lots of grown-ups have given me grief for not having an iPhone, usually with some snarky comment about being the “green bubble” in their chats.
Being young probably plays a part. I’m older Gen Z, and remember the iPhone vs. Android thing being a huge deal back in high school. Now that I’m older, it’s barely even mentioned.
Remember the iPhone and Blackberry battle?
RE: Fact #43 (Taos Pueblo Inhabited 1,000 Years) – The Taos Pueblo people have a really cool history. For a deep dive into the Spanish influence in northern New Mexico and the Taos people’s story, check out “Kiva, Cross, and Crown.”
Yeah, the Pueblo people were seriously impressive. They built a real civilization, but got held back by not having enough food crops and animals they could tame. Lots of other Native American groups faced the same problem, actually. If they’d had better plants and animals to work with, we’d be talking about them like we talk about ancient Mesopotamia.
Cahokia, this super advanced civilization in the Midwest—we call them that, anyway, since they didn’t write anything down, so we don’t know what they called themselves—had a capital city with over 40,000 people back in the 1200s! I grew up near St. Louis, and everyone in middle school goes on a field trip to Cahokia Mounds; it’s awesome.
RE: Fact #30 (Love Boat: Pregnancies at Sea) – Morning sickness at sea? That sounds utterly awful.
Ugh, morning sickness is the worst! Can’t even walk to the store for whatever crazy cravings hit, like sardines and Hershey’s syrup.
Big boats often have little shops on them.
My wife walked in from Costco with a huge tray of raw shrimp. She gave me a little bowl to snack on, then settled in with her own and, five minutes later, totally serious, said, “Hey, we could just eat this for lunch and dinner.”
RE: Fact #6 (Army Employs Most U.S. Musicians) – They probably employ more people than anyone else in tons of different jobs.
I bet there are tons of other cool ones out there, especially in logistics. Like, is the Army actually the biggest employer of FTL truckers in the whole country?
Right. To give you an idea, the US military budget is about 1% of the world’s total economic output. That’s basically the same as Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s combined income.
So it’s not shocking that the US military’s impact on the global economy is around 1%. Some areas will feel it more than others, for sure. But don’t underestimate how huge and far-reaching the US military is – it’s a major economic player with its fingers in a lot of pies.
One of the biggest employers of M1 Abrams tank crew, for example
Wow, I totally thought Walmart would be top in that category
RE: Fact #48 (Canada Beat 74 Americans) – Always go for quality, not just a whole lot of stuff.
That’s Canadian money.
RE: Fact #1 (Homegrown Rice Dominates U.S.) – Back in colonial times, rice was a major cash crop in many southern colonies. And those southern states still have a great climate for growing it.
Southerners still eat a whole lot of rice, and it’s a big part of their cooking.
My grandma swore by butter rice for anything that ailed ya. Remember that time I got sick and threw it up? Turns out, I just didn’t eat it quick enough; had to be piping hot.
My Indian roommate was totally surprised I, a Southerner, ate rice more often than him.
Lots of enslaved people in the Southern US ate a whole lot of rice. There was a cool New York Times piece about finding “Hill Rice” again, like the kind they talked about in Trinidad and Tobago back in the 1800s.
Lots of different kinds of native rice grew in North America, plus other grains too.
RE: Fact #32 (Tylenol: Top Liver Killer) – Don’t mix acetaminophen with alcohol—not even for a hangover. It’s really hard on your liver.
It’s actually a bit more complicated than that. The real problem isn’t the alcohol or the hangover itself, but regular drinking or alcohol dependence. See, regular alcohol use makes your liver more sensitive to acetaminophen, which is toxic in higher doses. Acetaminophen is usually safe at the recommended dose—even if you’ve got liver problems. But it’s tricky because: 1) Even one alcoholic drink a day can sometimes make your liver process acetaminophen differently, and 2) Acetaminophen is in tons of over-the-counter remedies for hangovers, colds, headaches—you name it. It’s easy to accidentally overdose when you’re mixing stuff to cure a hangover.
That’s a big misunderstanding, and thanks for bringing it up! Turns out, a little alcohol actually protects your liver from Tylenol’s bad effects because it slows down the stuff that turns Tylenol into something toxic. It’s only if you drink a lot all the time that your liver gets more sensitive to Tylenol. So yeah, you can take Tylenol for a hangover, unless you’re a heavy drinker.
Nah, popping a couple of acetaminophen for a hangover now and then, or even while you’re drinking, won’t hurt your liver.
This is info I wish I’d known forever.
RE: Fact #50 (Two-Thirds of Firefighters Volunteer) – Lots of community fire departments are really struggling with staffing – they just don’t have enough people, and the ones they do have are getting older.
Yeah, it’s tough getting enough people for daytime calls. Towns want cheap fire protection, so they lowball everything, but still expect top-notch certifications.
Michigan’s upping the training requirements, but don’t hold your breath for firefighters’ pay to go up too.
The problem is, we’ve always relied on volunteer firefighters and EMTs, and that worked back in the 50s and 60s when there weren’t many calls, and the idea of professional services wasn’t really around. Now, though, we have national standards, and these are full-time jobs. But lots of rural areas won’t pay for paid staff, because they still have volunteers. I know, I used to run a rescue squad while working two other jobs—if I wasn’t at one, I was at the station covering calls. That’s just not realistic anymore. It’s one thing if it’s Jim Bob leaving the farm, but it’s totally different expecting high schoolers to be firefighters and handle complex rescues on a busy highway while also working and going to school.
People say there’s no money, but that’s crap. These areas need to decide: fund professional fire and EMS services, or do without. As a paramedic, I sometimes had 40-minute response times to nearby counties that relied on volunteers with no one available. In some places, two volunteers over 65 cover a huge area—they’re not handling much, and the care is terrible because they can’t keep up.
The volunteer system in the US needs to go. I say this as a former volunteer who respects the volunteers who work hard. They deserve to be paid, or we need to get people in who can be paid to do the job.
I’m in Michigan, and a coworker who volunteers at the local firehouse says they all walked out for a bit because of a fight with city hall. They came back after a few weeks, but, seriously, a little extra cash would go a long way to keeping them happy.
My town’s fire department wanted a new truck – a specific one, actually. The township said no, calling it the “Lamborghini of fire trucks.” Big deal. It’s not for racing; it’s for saving lives and homes.
It’s tough, risky work, and cities are demanding more and more qualifications. I’m amazed we’ve gotten away with having volunteers do it for free for so long.
RE: Fact #28 (Draft Included Elderly in 1942) – It wasn’t like the earlier sign-ups; these guys weren’t actually signing up for the army. It was more like a huge list of everyone who could help with the war, finding jobs for guys who weren’t working, and freeing up younger, fitter soldiers to fight.
Germany probably did something similar, right?
Most German soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge weren’t exactly top-tier troops.
This comment’s got me imagining teenagers and seniors battling it out together. Crazy.
My great-grandpa fought in both World Wars, but in the second one, he was mostly stuck doing desk work. He wasn’t on the German side, by the way.
The US Army in WWII was a seriously huge operation. They fought, sure, but think about fighting a war in Europe and the Pacific *before* we even had UPS or FedEx! And they were supplying their allies, too. So much paperwork.
RE: Fact #31 (U.S. Sets Oil Output Record) – No way!
RE: Fact #27 (Pennies Cost More Than Worth) – Get rid of them.
RE: Fact #49 (U.S. Balanced on a Pin) – It’s a bummer that the US’s geographical center isn’t so great for the folks living nearby. Internet location services use it as a default spot for addresses they can’t pinpoint, so when police look into things – crimes, missing people, whatever – a ton of investigations end up at those poor people’s farm in Kansas.
As the government zeroed in on the center, the folks there had to dodge giant pins raining down from the sky.
Wow, that code’s a mess! Why would they make the default a real place?
It’d take just a few minutes to change the default to the middle of the Atlantic – 0 N, 0 E – and then flag an error if those coordinates ever popped up as an IP address’s location.
RE: Fact #44 (States Have Official Fossils) – Seriously, we found a saber-toothed tiger, but our state fossil’s a clam? That’s weird!
RE: Fact #6 (Army Employs Most U.S. Musicians) – It’s a sweet gig – 20 years of trumpet playing, then you retire with benefits. And it’s not all marching band stuff, either. You do have to audition, though.
Does J.K. Simmons yell if you’re too fast or too slow?
So, I’ve been with a couple of military musicians, and neither did the marching band thing. But they both said the same thing: it’s one of the best music gigs out there if you’re not famous. It’s pretty much the only way to make a full-time living playing music and still get all the usual job perks – health insurance, steady paychecks, the works. Plus, their schedules were flexible enough that they could still do other musical stuff on the side – gigs, teaching, even a state symphony for one of them.
It’s a fast track to promotion, too. Think about it: Marines in the infantry wait six years for Sergeant, but musicians can do it in one enlistment.
RE: Fact #22 (Island Birth Grants Dual Citizenship) – That’d be a great spot for a passport mill, wouldn’t it?
RE: Fact #18 (Illegal Income? IRS Still Cares) – I wonder if the cops would get involved. It’s really tempting to say I got 20 sacks.
Getting IRS records is a huge pain. They’re super secure, even from other government agencies. I had a client facing an FBAR lawsuit from the DOJ Tax Division (referred by the IRS), and even the DOJ lawyer was frustrated he couldn’t access certain documents because of disclosure rules – I’d already gotten them through a FOIA request.
The IRS can’t just give that info to the cops or the SEC. Their job is collecting taxes, that’s it. They only help out law enforcement if they need their accounting skills for tax evasion cases – which the IRS handles themselves. They even have their own investigators (the Treasury Inspector General’s office) who look into tax cheats and problems within the IRS, plus threats to their staff.
My mom worked at the IRS for 42 years, so I know this stuff. She had a crazy experience with TIGTA once. Some guy threatened to crash his truck into her building, and she just said, “I wish you hadn’t said that.” He used a burner phone and tried to stay anonymous, but within three hours they tracked him down using his phone call and a previous conversation, finding his driver’s licenses. They sent them to my mom so she could confirm the guy’s identity. TIGTA had agents flying out THAT DAY to talk to him. It was seriously intense – TIGTA means business.
So, I think the IRS has two teams, right? One’s TIGTA for internal stuff, and the other handles tax cheats and all that.
RE: Fact #46 (Quake Made People Question Florida) – Bugs Bunny was gonna try to mop up the mess the earthquake made.
RE: Fact #8 (More Norwegians Live in America) – Believe it or not, more Lebanese people live in Brazil than in Lebanon.
RE: Fact #1 (Homegrown Rice Dominates U.S.) – Driving through Stuttgart, Arkansas — apparently the self-proclaimed rice capital of the world — I was surprised at how much rice we grow here in the US.
Wait, you have a city called Stuttgart? I was a little thrown by that.
Let’s pick a European city—lots of US cities are like it. Some are even in old Roman areas! Think about it: Memphis and Cairo are both on the Mississippi, the longest river in the US. And Lebanon, Tennessee, is where Cracker Barrel’s main office is.
Yeah, that’s also where they have the duck calling championship! If you’re ever in the area, check out Mack’s Prairie Wings – it’s a really cool outdoor store.
Tons of Germans moved to Arkansas in the late 1800s and early 1900s. I think there are even some wineries in Altus that use German grapes.
Arkansas grows more than half the rice in the US, I should know, I grew up there! Duck hunting was awesome, but the mosquitoes were brutal because the rice fields were flooded all summer.
Wild rice is one of the few grains that’s actually from North America, and it’s seriously misunderstood. It’s not related to Asian rice at all. That black rice you see in tons of Thanksgiving recipes? Fake news. Around here in northern Minnesota—the heart of where wild rice seeds are kept—we call that stuff paddy rice. Back in the 60s, the University of Minnesota started farming it, growing it in fields like any other crop. So, yeah, paddy rice isn’t wild at all.
Real wild rice changes a bit in look from lake to lake, but when it’s cooked it’s always this beautiful milky brown color. It cooks up into these curly strands that are so fun to eat. The taste? Like a campfire in the morning – smoky and misty.
I’d visited Sahkahtay before—I live nearby—but this time I paid more attention to how they talked about the harvest. Some folks called it manoomin, which means “the food that grows on water,” a big part of Ojibwe culture. Nobody called it “wild rice,” they just called it rice.
RE: Fact #26 (1994 Cup Most Profitable Ever) – 2026 is gonna smash the old record, and that’s *before* we even think about it being a 48-team tournament!
RE: Fact #45 (Death Valley Keeps Sinking Lower) – Things just keep getting worse.