1 Schwarzenegger’s Comedy Payday Strategy
No one in Hollywood wanted to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger in a comedy, so in 1988, Arnold, Danny DeVito, and director Ivan Reitman made a daring deal for their comedy “Twins.” Instead of taking a salary, they agreed to work for free in exchange for 40% of the movie’s back-end profits. The gamble paid off when the film became a global hit, earning Schwarzenegger over $40 million, his biggest payday ever.
2. During the filming of “This Is the End” (2013), Rihanna made a deal with actor Michael Cera in which he could slap her on the rear if she got to slap him in return. When the cameras rolled, she delivered her hit so hard that Cera had to retreat to his trailer to recover for thirty minutes. The moment was real and unscripted, and it made it to the final cut.
3. The actors of The Blair Witch Project agreed in 1999 to use their real names for the film’s found-footage realism. But years later, when the sequel used their names again without their consent, they took the studio to court. Each actor won a $300,000 settlement.
4. The children who voice Bluey and Bingo in the Australian series Bluey remain uncredited to protect their privacy. Producers chose anonymity to prevent public attention or unwanted exposure. Their identities have never been officially revealed.
5. In 1997, researchers at a Swedish zoo observed a chimpanzee calmly collecting stones in piles of three to eight. The chimp later threw them at visitors when upset, demonstrating clear foresight. It was the first documented case of a non-human animal planning for a future event.
6 Centenarian Prisoner Refuses Release
Bill Wallace, born in 1881, was convicted of murder in 1926 and committed to a psychiatric facility rather than a prison. He spent nearly 60 years confined at Wolston Park Hospital in Queensland after being found unfit to stand trial. When a petition sought his release on his 100th birthday in 1981, Wallace refused, saying, “Don’t be fucking silly, I live here.” He died in 1989.
7. In January 2020, internal employee messages released by Boeing showed staff mocking the FAA and criticizing the 737 Max before the 2018 and 2019 crashes that killed 346 people. One employee wrote that the plane was “designed by clowns, who are in turn supervised by monkeys.” The disclosures intensified scrutiny of Boeing’s safety culture after the two disasters.
8. Don LaFontaine, the iconic trailer narrator known for thousands of voiceovers, died in 2008. In the years that followed, studios increasingly leaned on music and sound design rather than narration. As a result, classic trailer voiceovers became less common.
9. In 2011 at Darien Lake Theme Park in New York, Sgt. James Hackemer, a double amputee who had lost his legs, was permitted to ride the Ride of Steel despite a rule requiring two legs to ride it. During the ride, he was ejected from his seat and died.
10. In 2013 at the Sacramento County Jail in California, Etta Mae Lopez waited outside and slapped Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Campoy. She was promptly arrested, which was her plan all along, as she believed jail was the only way to quit smoking because tobacco is banned there. A judge sentenced her to 63 days in jail.
11 Ake Message Leads to Love
In 1956, Swedish sailor Ake Viking sent a message in a bottle that read “To Someone Beautiful and Far Away.” It reached 17-year-old Paolina in Sicily, and the pair began corresponding across countries. They married in 1958.
12. In 1991, magician Sophie Lloyd became the first woman admitted to The Magic Circle by disguising herself as a man named Raymond Lloyd. A few months later, the organization discovered the truth and expelled her from it.
13. In Wichita Falls, Texas, 67-year-old Hurshell Ralls underwent bladder cancer surgery in 1999 and awoke to find doctors John S. Dryden and Farid Khoury had amputated his penis after they believed cancer had spread. A pathology test later indicated the penile tissue was not cancerous. In 2003, as jury hearings began, the parties reached an out-of-court settlement with undisclosed terms.
14. When Disney fixed the release date for Toy Story 2, Pixar compressed production of the movie into nine months to meet the deadline. The grind led to injuries and one incident where an animator, in a mental haze, forgot his baby in the car at the parking lot before rescue workers intervened. The film still premiered on November 24, 1999.
15. For U.S. males ages 20 and older, the average weight is 199.8 pounds, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. They also have an average waist of 40.5 inches and an average height of 69 inches.
16 Fungal Poisoning from Coconut Water
In Denmark, a 69-year-old man drank coconut water through a straw from a ready-to-drink coconut that had been kept on a kitchen table for 1 month instead of refrigerated at 4–5°C. The fungus Arthrinium saccharicola had spoiled the water and produced the toxin 3-nitropropionic acid. He developed severe encephalopathy and died 26 hours after hospital admission.
17. U.S. national surveys have found that 95% of Americans do not consume the minimum recommended amount of daily fiber.
18. In April 1912, Irish passenger Jeremiah Burke wrote a note that read, “From Titanic, goodbye all, Burke of Glanmire, Cork,” and sealed it in a bottle before throwing it overboard while the ship was sinking. The bottle washed ashore a year later near the Burkes’ home in County Cork, Ireland. The note stayed with his family for nearly 100 years before they donated it to the Cobh Heritage Centre museum.
19. When the 18th Amendment introduced Prohibition in 1920, supporters claimed banning alcohol would eliminate crime across the United States. Some towns believed the promise so strongly that they sold their jails, expecting no further need for them. Instead, organized crime and bootlegging surged in the following years.
20. In 1967, the U.S. Air Force selected Major Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. as the nation’s first Black astronaut. During a press conference, a reporter asked if he would have to sit at the back of the space capsule, referencing segregation. Lawrence died later that year in a plane crash during a training exercise before he could fly to space.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Hillary Step Vanishes on Everest
Climbers long considered the Hillary Step, a near-vertical rock face just below Mount Everest’s summit, the final major obstacle. In 2017, mountaineers confirmed it had collapsed, likely due to the 2015 Nepal earthquake. The once-steep wall is now a 45-degree snow slope, making the final ascent easier but less iconic.
22. Studies show that between 10 and 15 percent of married couples reconcile after separating. Around 6 percent of divorced couples eventually remarry each other.
23. In 2023, Tennessee resident Kevin Maginnis spent 100 days eating only McDonald’s for every meal but limited himself to half portions. Without exercising or counting calories, he lost 58.5 pounds and saw his cholesterol drop by 65 points. His wife, Melody, joined him for the final 60 days and also lost weight.
24. Around 3000 BC, ancient Egyptians documented cancer on a papyrus that described visible tumors and surgical removal techniques. Centuries later, Greek physician Hippocrates studied the disease and named it “karkinos,” meaning crab, for the tumor’s spreading shape. His terminology became the root of the modern word “cancer.”
25. The Honjo Masamune, forged by 13th-century swordsmith Gorō Nyūdō Masamune, was revered as one of Japan’s finest blades and a symbol of the Tokugawa shogunate’s power. After World War II, Tokugawa Iemasa, a descendant of the shogun and head of the Tokugawa family, surrendered the sword and other heirlooms to Tokyo’s Mejiro police station in 1945. A U.S. officer listed as “Sgt. Coldy Bimore” of the Foreign Liquidations Commission collected them in 1946, and the legendary blade was never seen again.
RE: Fact #27 (Diocletian’s Price Control Edict) – It’s funny how everyone here is acting like they’re not part of the 95%.
My diet is actually pretty high in fiber. For breakfast, I have eggs and bacon. Then, for a snack, pancakes. Lunch is a hamburger and chocolate cake. In the afternoon, I have a 2×4 plank. And for dinner, spaghetti.
RE: Fact #11 (Ake Message Leads to Love) – He tossed a message in a bottle into the sea back in 1955. After two years, he got a reply from a 17-year-old girl in Italy who found it. They ended up writing more letters, sending photos, and eventually got married! It’s kind of like an old-school, super slow dating app, but without all the ghosting and blocking.
Is his last name Viking, or is that just a nickname?
There are about 800 people in Sweden with the surname Viking or Wiking, so it’s not a super common last name.
RE: Fact #15 (Average American Male Weight) – That’s a lot of weight for someone who’s, on average, 5’9″.
BMI is 29.5, which is almost obesity.
Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean the average BMI is 29.5.
Yeah, but BMI isn’t really accurate for folks who are really muscular or athletes!
RE: Fact #6 (Centenarian Prisoner Refuses Release) – I’m gonna make it a point to start a reply with “Don’t be fu*king silly” this week.
RE: Fact #18 (Titanic Message in a Bottle) – Nah, probably not. The note is dated April 10th, but the Titanic didn’t even get to or leave Ireland until the 11th. So, it’d be weird for Jeremiah to say goodbye from a time and place he wasn’t even at yet.
Also, the story about when he supposedly threw it changes a lot depending on who’s telling it. Your source says he tossed it during the sinking on the 15th, but other versions claim he threw it as he left Ireland on the 11th. Either way, how would anyone even know for sure?
After the sinking, messages in bottles claiming to be from the Titanic showed up pretty often. It was a pretty common way for people to try and pull a fast one and get into the newspapers, and usually, it worked.
The Titanic disaster was a huge global tragedy, like the 9/11 of its time in terms of how much it dominated the news and caused social changes. Naturally, opportunists, hoaxers, and attention-seekers saw a chance to cash in. Fake messages in bottles from survivors became a thing, as did people claiming to talk to the dead. Even people with a loose connection to the Titanic were making money by giving talks, and fake survivors, as well as real ones telling fake stories, were selling out speaking engagements to large, paying crowds. For an event that shook the world like the Titanic, anything and everything was going to make headlines and sell papers.
So, it’s highly likely this was just another hoax. However, with all the strange coincidences that have happened with Titanic artifacts, I wouldn’t say it’s completely impossible. But for now, unless something major turns up, it’s safe to assume it was faked.
Yeah, I’m with you on this. This whole situation feels off, and I’m not even trying to make a joke. The timeline just doesn’t add up, and it’s pretty strange that the bottle ended up so close to his place. Weird.
And also, when he said “Goodbye all,” maybe he meant he was saying farewell to Ireland before heading out on the Titanic, and then tossed the bottle before he left.
It’s pretty wild how statistically unlikely it is that the bottle just showed up a few miles from his place.
Back when the Titanic went down, “messages in bottles” were often faked to give families some sense of closure for loved ones lost at sea. It got pretty wild, with one poem supposedly written as a ship was sinking.
RE: Fact #5 (Chimpanzee Plans Ahead in 1997) – So, this chimp named Santino started flinging rocks at people at a zoo back in ’97, and the folks there were trying to figure out where he was getting all this ammunition. Turns out, he had these secret stashes where he’d collected rocks, and sometimes even made his own projectiles, for later.
A researcher, Mathias Osvath, says this is the first clear sign we’ve seen of an animal, besides humans, actually planning for a future mental state. In Santino’s case, it was about getting ready to show dominance when he was feeling agitated.
Santino, who was born in ’78, became the main male chimp in ’94 and the only one a year later. For the first few years of his reign, he didn’t throw stones much. But in June ’97, the zoo staff noticed a huge jump in his rock-throwing, sometimes launching 10 or more if they didn’t stop him – one keeper even called it “hail storms.”
This led to them checking out the chimp island, where they found five caches, each with about three to eight stones. They figured out the stones came from the nearby waterbed because of algae on them.
The next year, he even started using pieces of concrete, and people saw him carefully breaking off smaller bits from larger concrete rocks. Since then, the zoo staff has found hundreds of these stashes, and they’ve seen him gathering stones at least 50 times.
Osvath believes Santino gathering stones is a definite example of future planning because the way he collected them was so calm, which was totally different from his agitated state when he threw them. He figures this suggests chimps have a pretty advanced consciousness, kind of like simulating future events in their minds. He thinks they probably have an “inner world” where they can replay past events or think about what’s coming up.
RE: Fact #30 (Ludacris Joins 2 Fast 2 Furious) – Was the reporter trying to diss him, or were they pointing out that even though he was picked to be an astronaut, segregation was still a thing in the US?
The Air Force had been desegregated since ’48, just a few years after segregation was banned.
RE: Fact #8 (End of an Era: Trailer Voiceovers) – That was his last TV voice-over gig, for the Phineas and Ferb episode “The Chronicles of Meap.” His final line was, “In a world… There, I said it. Happy?” What a perfect way to go out!
When it originally aired, there was an “In Loving Memory” message at the end, but it didn’t show up that way in my country.
RE: Fact #46 (John Sweeney’s Unclaimed Benefits) – As a forensic accountant, I’ll say they’ve got a really solid system.
It’s the absolute best when it comes to shoplifting, and if anything goes down at a Target, you can bet they’ll have the security footage.
Yeah, I used to work in asset protection at Target, and you’re totally right. I could pull up the video footage just by using a receipt or a credit card number.
RE: Fact #16 (Fungal Poisoning from Coconut Water) – So, I got a coconut from the grocery store and tried the same thing as him, same day. I poked a straw in with a drill, and we all took a sip. It tasted pretty gross. Turns out, when I hacked it open with a cleaver, it was full of mold. Definitely a lesson learned. I guess this is the kind of thing you should only do if the coconut just came off the tree, not one that’s traveled over 3000 miles to get to the supermarket. Glad I didn’t get sick though!
Yeah, if you’re dealing with fruit, even straight from the tree, you gotta be careful because it can stay bad for a while after it’s actually dead. Just open your coconut the usual way and give it a good check. Just ’cause it’s natural doesn’t mean it’s safe.
This whole thing could be avoided by cutting off the top instead of just drilling into it. I don’t really trust berries from the supermarket not to have worms, so I definitely don’t trust coconuts from halfway around the world to be good either.
Just ’cause something’s natural doesn’t mean it’s good for ya, and just ’cause it’s made doesn’t mean it’s bad.
We usually just hack our coconuts open with a machete around here. I don’t really know anyone who uses a drill for it.
Yeah, in some places, people don’t really keep machetes around as much.
RE: Fact #12 (Sophie Lloyd’s Magic Circle Deception) – The Magic Circle is full of pretentious blowhards
They probably get stuck on the names, like insisting they’re “illusions” instead of “tricks.”
Yeah, it’s kind of what you get when you have a bunch of guys in a room who are convinced they’re experts on something. As an engineer who works with a lot of men, I’ve seen that a lot.
RE: Fact #23 (Tennessee Man’s McDonald’s Diet) – What’s the settlement? I hope it was a penis for a penis, even if that makes the whole world dickless.
The judge ordered the doctor to transplant his own penis to the patient.
RE: Fact #12 (Sophie Lloyd’s Magic Circle Deception) – So, she spilled the beans after 75% of the club voted to let women in. Then, they kicked her out for lying. Last year, in 2024, the first woman to be chair started looking for Lloyd, and in 2025, they found her and let her back in using her real name.
RE: Fact #19 (Prohibition Leads to Jail Sales) – Alcohol; it’s the reason for and the answer to everything.
My dad had a poster with Homer saying that. He passed away this week at home from alcoholism, not far from it.
RE: Fact #3 (Blair Witch Actors Win Settlement) – These three must have made way more cash from that lawsuit than from making the movie itself. The Blair Witch Project pulled in close to $250 million, so there’s absolutely no way those three shouldn’t have been set for life after that movie’s huge success. They filmed it, they starred in it, they *are* it. And all they got was a thousand bucks and a fruit basket? Honestly, you’d think someone behind the scenes would have spotted an extra couple of million lying around and thought, “Hey, let’s give that to them,” especially with the other $200 million they made.
It’s wild to me that the movie’s directors wouldn’t show more respect for the actors once the film started raking in cash. Like, “Hey, thanks for making this movie for us, here’s ten grand and get lost.”
Directors usually focus on making the movie itself, not the money. That’s more the producers’ job – they decide where the budget gets cut and where the money is spent.
RE: Fact #13 (Surgery Error Leads to Settlement) – It’s so awful how little care those doctors showed for that man, to do something like that based on a hunch. I can’t even imagine the terror of waking up to that.
So this guy was on ABC news, and he said his wife had to hold his hand in bed. She told him it was over because they got all the cancer, and then after a few minutes, she told him they had to remove his penis. He said he was one mad dude!
My friend had to get a hysterectomy when she was around 25. They thought they’d probably have to remove her ovaries too, but the surgeon decided against it because she didn’t see any signs of cancer and it would have felt unnecessary to take them out if there was no need. So, they just did a lot more follow-ups instead. Seems like unless it’s an emergency, you’d want to be part of that decision-making process, weighing the risks and benefits and all that.
Yeah, back in the day, these surgeries were a really big deal with a lot of risks. The thinking was, if you’re already cutting someone open and dealing with all those dangers, you might as well take out anything that looks like it could cause problems down the road, just to be safe.
That way, you don’t have to put them through another big surgery in the same spot once they’ve healed and there’s a lot of scar tissue.
These days, it seems like they can do a lot of the initial checking with tiny cuts and cameras. This way, doctors can be more sure about what they’re dealing with before operating and get the patient’s full agreement.
I’m sure they still have plans for unexpected situations where things have spread more than the initial scans or cameras showed, but it’s definitely a huge improvement from 20 years ago.
RE: Fact #7 (Boeing Engineers Criticize 737 Max) – This whole situation was actually predicted by Boeing engineers way back in the early 2000s. They wrote a message that went around to employees and was later shared on Airliners.net, a well-known aviation site.
The message is super long and goes into a lot of detail, but here’s the main takeaway from the original letter:
“The Boeing Company is headed down a dark and dangerous path, moving at a reckless speed with no thought for the future. Top executives are making decisions that might look good on paper but are actually ruining the company. Because of the reckless choices of Boeing’s senior management, the safety and quality of their planes are at risk.”
This was written around 2002-2003, long before the 737 Max was even a thing.
I bet we’ll hear similar things from car engineers here in the States over the next few years.
RE: Fact #13 (Surgery Error Leads to Settlement) – Is there some kind of form I can fill out before surgery to say, “Wake me up and ask first if you’re going to decide to remove my penis”? If not, can we add that to the list of medical forms?
RE: Fact #16 (Fungal Poisoning from Coconut Water) – Your death was so messed up that they actually wrote a whole scientific article about it.
RE: Fact #19 (Prohibition Leads to Jail Sales) – I’m pretty sure the folks who sold those jails made a ton of money.
RE: Fact #2 (Rihanna and Cera’s Slap Agreement) – How many times did he slap her butt during all the takes in the movie?
Rogen mentioned that they did the slap a few times, and on the fourth take, Rihanna really went for it and smacked Cera.
Yeah, I think the video mentioned 5 takes. During the last one, she really gave it her all, cupped her hand, and smacked him right on the ear. It totally messed with his balance, which is why he had to lie down.
A good ear slap can really mess someone up, especially if you hit both with both hands. The poor guy will be disoriented, stumbling around like gravity’s suddenly against him, everything upside down. It’s as bad in a fight as getting the wind knocked out of you – you just can’t do anything but fall and wait for it to be over.
Getting smacked like that is super disorienting, almost like feeling the shockwave from a big explosion. It can totally make you dizzy for a bit.
RE: Fact #14 (Pixar’s Toy Story 2 Deadline) – Yeah, I recall reading about this in an interview with Lasseter. The car was still in the shade when the employee’s wife called him during the meeting. Thankfully, the baby was fine and sleeping soundly – they really lucked out there.
We did it, Buzz! Saved the day.
Yup, Woody.
Then it went to a black screen.
“Dedicated to Thomas Bancroft” showed up with his picture, then disappeared.
The credits rolled with a Randy Newman song playing.
RE: Fact #4 (Bluey and Bingo’s Secret Voices) – Good move.
The one exception seems to be Chloe. She’s voiced by a past child actor whose name is already out there.
Yeah, looks like Macaulay Culkin!
The info’s out there, and a small number of kids are involved, with people who’ve heard them talking. So, yeah, limiting that is a smart move. Announcing that “these people’s identities are secret” actually makes people want to figure it out. By saying it’s “not actually hard” to find them, I’m hoping those looking for a challenge lose interest. Those who were determined to find them don’t need this to motivate them – I’m just pointing out it’s not truly a secret.
Seriously, I think it’s absolutely wild that people go out of their way to find out who kids are when their privacy was clearly meant to be protected.
RE: Fact #17 (Americans Lack Sufficient Fiber) – So, for a middle-aged guy, the recommended daily amount of fiber is 38 grams. To give you an idea, getting that much fiber would mean eating a ton of high-fiber foods – like 10 cups of broccoli, 13 bananas, 8 apples (with the skin on!), or 8 cups of Brussels sprouts every day. Basically, hitting the RDA for fiber is a serious amount!
RE: Fact #4 (Bluey and Bingo’s Secret Voices) – That’s a good parenting win in the entertainment world.
Most of the kids were actually children of the production staff. Knowing how show business works, they probably thought, “Yeah, I’m not going to put my kids through this craziness.”
What’s really amazing is how they were coached and guided! Getting good performances from kids can be super tough. To do it this well, this often, they must have had some seriously good methods.
RE: Fact #6 (Centenarian Prisoner Refuses Release) – Yeah, I get that being in an institution sucks, for sure. But what’s this guy gonna do when he’s 100 on the outside anyway? His friends and family are probably all gone or he’s not close with them anymore. And there’s no way he’s getting a job that pays the bills. Honestly, prison might be his only choice now.
He’s friends with the guards and the other long-term inmates, which is pretty messed up.
If I had to pick between jail and a retirement home, jail might actually be the better option.
RE: Fact #3 (Blair Witch Actors Win Settlement) – So, Haxan gave the actors this short memo before filming. They basically just skimmed it, but one part seemed pretty wild: if the movie made over a million bucks, the actors would get 1% of any profits beyond that.
The actors also didn’t really think twice about Haxan wanting to use their real names instead of generic ones like Jane, Bill, and John. The filmmakers said it was to make a fictional documentary about their characters vanishing while looking for the Blair Witch feel more real. They said the footage would only be about 10 minutes of the film.
But then, about a year later, the cast found out the filmmakers had actually made their footage the whole movie!
When Donahue tried to talk to some studio execs in New York, they just blew her off and gave her some free stuff.
Towards the end of the summer in ’99, the actors got a small bonus, like maybe a bit over ten grand.
Meanwhile, their friends and family kept seeing all this new Blair Witch merchandise, like a journal Donahue wrote and comic books using their names and faces. Then they found out Artisan was even using their identities for a sequel called “Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.”
Right before “Blair Witch 2” came out in October 2000, Donahue got Williams and Leonard together to sue Artisan. Three years later, in February 2004, they settled for about $300,000 each, paid out over time. For perspective, The New York Times reported that Haxan and its investors made an estimated $35 million to $40 million from “The Blair Witch Project.”
RE: Fact #14 (Pixar’s Toy Story 2 Deadline) – Those last few sentences really shed some light on things. It turns out Pixar actually had rules against super long work hours and put caps on overtime. The real issue was that employees, especially the younger ones, felt this intense pressure to do their best, which often overrode any other limits. The book “The Pixar Touch” pointed out that this terrible accident was a clear sign that some people were just working way too much.
That sounds like sh*t. So, they had to work overtime to meet the deadline but didn’t get paid for it? What a cop out to say they didn’t encourage it just because they didn’t approve overtime!
The government’s been doing this for ages to skip out on paying overtime. They say you need approval for it, but that doesn’t mean you’ll only be working 40 hours.
Honestly, it’s not the corporations’ fault, folks. We’re the ones who say it’s okay to work long hours without getting paid – we told them “don’t” do it, but apparently, they didn’t listen.
Even if the official policy said something else, these workers were definitely feeling some pressure to be putting in so much effort. Stress like that doesn’t just come out of nowhere.
Yeah, it’s like cramming about two years of work into a nine-month deadline. And they’re saying no overtime, which is wild.
RE: Fact #33 (Smelly Feet Legal Victory) – Yeah, he dropped his calorie intake and lost weight, which makes total sense.
And lowered his cholesterol too, don’t forget that.
Your liver actually makes most of the cholesterol in your blood. That’s why what you eat only plays a small part in lowering your blood cholesterol levels.
Yeah, all the stuff that happens when you lose weight.
RE: Fact #6 (Centenarian Prisoner Refuses Release) – Yeah, it’s pretty common for people who have been locked up for a long time to actually want to stay there because they’ve become so used to life inside.
Honestly, at that age, what else are you supposed to do?
RE: Fact #11 (Ake Message Leads to Love) – For those curious, the guy was 20 years old. She mentioned she was 15 when they started writing each other, not 17, and they met in person when she was 17. They had a long, loving relationship and even asked the Pope for his blessing to get married. He passed away before her, and she shared their whole story with the news to keep his memory alive, which is how we know about it.
Someone who looked like a sailor almost hit on a minor.
That’s how they did things back then.
RE: Fact #19 (Prohibition Leads to Jail Sales) – Yeah, it’s not surprising that the people pushing for Prohibition made up a bunch of crazy, untrue stuff to get their amendment through.
Back then, there were genuinely good reasons for prohibition. Lots of men would blow their entire paycheck at the bar after work, then come home with no money for their families. They’d also get super drunk and end up beating their wives and kids. So, the push for prohibition wasn’t just a bunch of lies; a lot of people felt those arguments on a personal level. It’s tough for us to imagine now because the U.S. is pretty moderate with drinking these days, not like in Europe or even Asia.
Back then, Americans really drank a ton, so a lot of the domestic violence, fights, and minor crimes were likely due to that. In the 1860s, a gallon of whiskey was actually cheaper than milk.
To be fair, “The proponents of Prohibition” were a pretty mixed group. It included early feminists, labor activists, capitalists, white supremacists, and even civil rights activists. The reason Prohibition took off so much is that it ended up impacting pretty much every part of American life.
And what’s more important, the average amount people in the US were drinking each day went way down. Alcoholism, public intoxication, and other drinking-related issues really dropped and never went back up to how they were before Prohibition.
Yeah, a gallon of milk is still cheaper than a gallon of whiskey.
RE: Fact #17 (Americans Lack Sufficient Fiber) – It’s wild how some folks barely get any fiber, then get stomach issues after eating something like Mexican food and somehow blame the food instead of realizing it’s the first decent fiber they’ve had in ages. Kind of sad, honestly.
RE: Fact #7 (Boeing Engineers Criticize 737 Max) – Boeing’s internal messages are seriously something else. I remember one time a guy sent a company-wide reply all saying that all the villages in Washington were missing their idiots, and they could all be found at Boeing.
RE: Fact #38 (True Nature of Cremated Remains) – In some places, like California, it’s actually required by law to grind up bone fragments into a fine powder.
But in other cultures, families can take the whole cremated bones. For instance, in Japan, it’s a common practice to cremate a body, then family members use chopsticks to carefully place the larger bone fragments into an urn, starting with the feet and moving up. The cremator will step in to break up bigger bones, like those from the skull, if needed.
This can lead to some misunderstandings when Japanese families relocate to the US and find they can’t perform this ritual, even if it’s how they’d prefer to say goodbye.
My brother passed away while he was traveling in Japan, and my family got to do this ritual for his remains. It was a really interesting cultural experience, and I know my brother would have been super jealous he couldn’t be a part of it. I felt like the whole thing was a really healthy way to deal with death. First, you get to see the body and put flowers on it. Then, they take the body to be cremated, and you have a few hours to just hang out together and reflect. After that, you do the bone lifting, which is like a final acknowledgment that the person you loved isn’t in that body anymore. The head of the family usually places the skull in last, and it was incredibly moving to see my mom do it, thinking about how she brought that body into existence. Anyway, it was pretty wild! The funeral directors even complimented our chopstick skills, saying they weren’t sure if we Americans could manage it!
RE: Fact #36 (Target’s Forensic Labs Assist Police) – Back in the day, I worked at a Target where they actually caught a serial rapist. Apparently, they used other stores in the area to track him down after he touched a shelf.
I heard they have this system that watches how long you stand in front of certain items, and if you linger too long, it flags you as a potential shoplifter.
That whole experience made me super anxious that I was always being watched and that one tiny mistake would get me fired.
I worked at Target for a few months between better jobs. Towards the end, I started pocketing things, nothing big though. I’d scan a snack if I couldn’t afford food that day, or grab some travel-size Advil. Honestly, it got pettier as time went on. I’d just put stuff in my online shopper cart that wasn’t part of an order and take it to the break room. Those were nicer snacks than the dollar popcorn. I’d hide moisturizers in my sleeve, and a couple of toys, which I’m most embarrassed about. I’d take them out of the packaging in the back rooms on shelves where the cameras couldn’t see. No one ever said anything to me about it; my supervisors mostly told me I was doing a great job. I quit with less than two weeks’ notice, and nobody seemed to care.
Either I’m super sneaky, or they just don’t care that much.
You probably left before you hit the point where they’d press charges. Places like Target and Walmart usually don’t bother unless you’ve stolen enough to reach felony levels. They definitely have proof you shoplifted, but unless a manager really has it out for you, that proof doesn’t lead to anything as long as you stay under that threshold. It’ll still be on file, though, obviously.
I used to work overnight stocking electronics. Sometimes, management would ask me to leave a specific case unlocked or a camera out on the counter while we took breaks. And guess what? That item would disappear during the break, and before the store opened, an employee would get escorted out by an officer.
I used to work there, and one of my coworkers got fired for giving out too many discounts. For example, they’d give a 5% off coupon because someone didn’t like a damaged box, or they’d do a price match that management thought was a rip-off. They weren’t charged with anything or even banned from the store. So, I guess they track so much information that they figured firing a long-time employee was worth it to get someone who wouldn’t give out as many discounts.
RE: Fact #35 (Caffeine Pills Instead of Speed) – My generation totally remembers this episode!
Whenever I hear that song, I can’t help but cry and sing along to “I’m so scared.”
I’m really looking forward to it!
Totally agree! And to add a couple more:
There was that gun buyback episode in *Family Matters*.
And the one in *The Fresh Prince* where Will’s dad shows up.
Oh, and also those episodes about racial profiling on both shows. Like when Will and Carlton were driving to Palm Springs, and when Eddie got stopped in a white neighborhood and the cop just told Carl he should’ve mentioned he was a cop’s kid.
RE: Fact #14 (Pixar’s Toy Story 2 Deadline) – During COVID, I was totally swamped. I was running the only home oxygen place in town, putting in 12-hour days. My wife worked at the hospital nearby, so we were carpooling. We got to the daycare, and she and our son hopped out to go in. But instead of waiting for her, I just drove off. I got about two blocks away when she called me, asking what on earth I was doing.
At least your wife had your son safely in daycare when you took off!
RE: Fact #19 (Prohibition Leads to Jail Sales) – So, the Wikipedia source for this is from The Anti-Saloon League’s 1920 Yearbook, which lists the supposed benefits of prohibition, state by state. The specific quote about Buck Grove, Iowa, in the fall of 1919 mentions they sold the town jail to a farmer who then used it as a pig pen and chicken house.
So, nope, it didn’t turn into a private jail. And according to the source – which, by the way, is a publication that supported prohibition – this only happened in one place.
RE: Fact #18 (Titanic Message in a Bottle) – Jeremiah Burke had a holy water bottle from his mom for his trip to the US. When the Titanic went down, he tossed it overboard with a note. A year later, it washed up near his family’s place. The note, which said “From Titanic, goodbye all, Burke of Glanmire, Cork,” stayed with his family for ages. Now, one of his nieces, Mary Woods, a local councilor, has given it to the Cobh Heritage Centre. She mentioned Jeremiah was going to America with his cousin Nora to join his two sisters who had already gone to Boston. Sadly, both Jeremiah and Nora perished. The councilor also shared that when the bottle was found, one of Jeremiah’s bootlaces was tied to it. His mother passed away from grief within a year, before the letter even washed ashore.
Seriously, this hit me way harder than I expected. Like, the dude’s last words, and his mom never even got to see him come home, that’s rough.
I was about to get all picky and point out that Glanmire is pretty far inland, but then I remembered it actually stretches all the way into the harbor, going past Cobh and everything.
Yeah, she passed away from a broken heart that same year, before Jeremiah’s letter even washed ashore. He really should’ve just sent a text, but nope, he had to go all dramatic with the message in a bottle thing.
RE: Fact #27 (Diocletian’s Price Control Edict) – I saw a copy of this decree carved into a stone tablet in Greek. It was one of the coolest things I saw on my trip, I guess I’m a bit of a nerd!
Where were you traveling?
I took a quick trip to Bodrum in Türkiye from Kalymnos, a Greek island in the Dodecanese.
RE: Fact #23 (Tennessee Man’s McDonald’s Diet) – If you’ve ever lost weight, you know it just comes down to a calorie deficit. Exercise is great for your health, but it’s not the main thing that makes you lose weight since our bodies are built for running.
It’s pretty obvious he lost weight by eating 500-calorie meals. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was Oreos.
Seriously, the hardest part of starting to work out is finding out how little you actually burn. You can go for a whole hour of running and only torch a few hundred calories. And yeah, there are tons of other awesome health benefits, but it really stinks to realize that skipping a soda can save you the same calories as running a whole mile.
RE: Fact #21 (Hillary Step Vanishes on Everest) – Wow, so in 2040, the famous Mt Everest climb won’t even be there anymore? That sounds wild! Apparently, it’s the last thing standing in the way of the peak, but it’s changing from a super tough mountain climb to an easier 45-degree escalator.
When I’m in a wheelchair in 2055, I’m picturing a chill trip up the summit. The real challenge will be navigating all the garbage and poop, though.
RE: Fact #37 (Keith Moon’s Explosive Antics) – Alice Cooper mentioned that only 10% of what people heard about him was actually true. But with Keith Moon, everything you’ve heard is true, and that’s only 10% of the story.
Yeah, I’ve been dealing with clogged toilets for ages. Let me know when things get so bad they need to call in the hazmat crew for Keith.
RE: Fact #2 (Rihanna and Cera’s Slap Agreement) – Cera said it was worth it when asked.
What do you think he needed that half hour alone for?
RE: Fact #14 (Pixar’s Toy Story 2 Deadline) – The baby survived.
RE: Fact #36 (Target’s Forensic Labs Assist Police) – Seriously, who here hasn’t done something dumb when they were younger that they’d rather forget? I’m just happy smartphones weren’t around until I was old enough to make better choices.
RE: Fact #17 (Americans Lack Sufficient Fiber) – For breakfast, I add 2 tablespoons of chia seeds to my yogurt and granola. It’s a fast way to get an extra 10 grams of fiber, and they help you feel full for longer, which means less snacking between meals.
Chia seeds are a game-changer.
RE: Fact #1 (Schwarzenegger’s Comedy Payday Strategy) – So, when Arnold was asked if he made over $20 million from “Twins,” he said his final earnings were actually more than that. And when they asked if it was over $40 million, he replied, “It was more than that. It was more than any movie I ever made.”
He also recently told his son Patrick that nobody wanted him in a comedy. They thought, “The more people this guy kills on-screen, the more money we make. Why would we change that?” That’s what they said until Ivan Reitman and Danny DeVito got involved.
Since nobody wanted to make a comedy with Arnold, he came up with a plan. He suggested, “If we don’t take any salaries, we can shoot the movie for $16.5 million.” They worked out a deal where they got 40% of the backend, and it turned out to be the best deal they ever made.
He talks about this in his book too. He didn’t want to just play the bad guy in action movies; he wanted to be a leading man and made choices to make that happen.
When you check out some of his best movies, he’s only really killing a lot in T1. Usually, his physique actually gets in the way of his character.
Think about Predator: the muscles and guns of the other guys become a problem and get them all killed except Arnold, so Arnold has to use his brain to win.
In Total Recall, the muscle guy loses his mind and needs to use his brain to win.
Then there’s Kindergarten Cop, where the muscle guy has to teach kids.
And Jingle All The Way, where the muscle guy has to save Christmas from the postal guy and his wife from that creepy neighbor.
You can say whatever you want about Arnold’s acting, but he chose movies that highlighted things other than just his muscles.
RE: Fact #20 (Robert Lawrence Jr.’s Tragic End) – Yeah, it’s wild that he passed away so soon after. It’s easy to forget now just how risky the early astronaut program was.
He wasn’t even involved with the astronaut program when he died; he was teaching at the test pilot school. Flying back in the 60s was seriously risky.
I just read about test pilots from back in the day. It’s always wild reading their wiki pages, like, “Test Pilot was the first to break an amazing record, then tragically died in a crash a year later.”
It’s pretty wild how some early space program test pilots lived so long, like Chuck Yeager making it to 97. I’m really struck by the accident report for Scott Crossfield though.
Around 11:09 AM, the pilot radioed, “Atlanta, this is seven niner x-ray, I’d like to deviate south for weather.” The controller responded, “Six five seven niner x-ray, roger, we’ll show you deviating south for weather, and your mode C indicates one-one-thousand-five-hundred.” The pilot didn’t reply. Around 11:10 AM, radar contact was lost with the plane at 5,500 feet.
Radar track data showed the aircraft entering a level 6 thunderstorm before losing contact. Local law enforcement found the wreckage on April 20, 2006, in remote mountainous terrain about 3.3 nautical miles northwest of Ludville.
As for the pilot, he was 84 and held commercial pilot certificates for single-engine land, multiengine land, and instrument airplane. His multiengine rating was limited to visual flight rules. His last medical exam in December 2004 required him to wear glasses for distance vision and have them for near vision.
On his medical application, he reported over 9,000 total flight hours. His logbook, found at the crash site, showed he flew 95.5 hours in the past year, 28.5 hours in the prior 6 months, and 23.1 hours in the last 30 days. All his logged flights in the past year were in the accident plane. His last flight review was on August 27, 2004.
His logbook indicated 423.1 hours of total flight experience in actual instrument conditions and another 106.0 hours using a view-limiting device. He logged only 5.4 hours of instrument flight time and completed two instrument approaches in the past 12 months. He hadn’t logged any instrument flight time or approaches in the 6 months before the accident. The logbook also showed he hadn’t received instrument instruction or completed an instrument proficiency flight in the previous year.
Back in the day, he was an aeronautical research pilot for NACA at Edwards Air Force Base. During his 5 years there, he flew the X-1, XF-92, X-4, X-5, the Douglas D-558-I Skystreak, and the Douglas D-558-II Skyrocket. In 1953, he was the first person to fly faster than twice the speed of sound in the D-558-II Skyrocket. From 1955 to 1960, he worked for North American Aviation as the chief engineering test pilot for the X-15 rocketplane development.
Yeah, it’s similar with the Russians. Yuri Gagarin made it back from space okay, but sadly, he passed away while testing a MIG jet.
RE: Fact #41 (Baghdad Bob’s Bold Claims) – You miss every shot you don’t take
RE: Fact #22 (Married Couples Reconcile Statistics) – So, a coworker of mine went through something similar. He and his wife were always fighting, so they split up, sold their place, you name it. But they kept seeing each other and then she got pregnant. They ended up getting back together, bought a new house, and now have a 7-month-old. It seems like the baby has actually helped calm things down. Instead of arguing about what they each want, they’re both on the same page, focusing on what’s best for their daughter. Keep in mind, this might not work for everyone, and having a baby just to fix a relationship isn’t exactly recommended.
RE: Fact #22 (Married Couples Reconcile Statistics) – I’m in a similar situation. My first marriage was from 2000 to 2002, and I got remarried in 2014. This time, we’re for sure committed for the long haul.
RE: Fact #12 (Sophie Lloyd’s Magic Circle Deception) – After 75% of the club voted to let women in, she spilled the beans. Then, they kicked her out for lying. Last year, in 2024, the first woman to be chair started looking for Lloyd. In 2025, they found her and let her back in using her real name.
So, basically, our job is all about tricking people on purpose, and then they get fired for doing the exact same thing.
What’s not “turtle-y” enough about me for this club?
This reminds me of an old story about a painting contest in ancient Greece between two artists, Zeuxis and Parrhasius.
Zeuxis painted some grapes that looked so real, birds actually tried to eat them. But when Parrhasius unveiled his painting, it turned out the “curtain” hiding it was actually part of the painting! Parrhasius won, and Zeuxis admitted he’d been fooled by the painted curtain.
RE: Fact #26 (Lincoln’s Sword Duel Truce) – Lots of duels ended up like this. Basically, two people would agree to a duel, but then when they actually met up, they’d just decide to make peace. Usually, one or both of them would apologize for what they said or whatever caused the dispute. It was also pretty common for people to just shoot their pistol into the air instead of aiming at the other person.
Hamilton’s death really came out of nowhere, huh? People used to agree to duels all the time and usually came out of it fine. But for some reason, Burr’s shot that day was either spot on or way off, and this country lost a real early leader over basically nothing.
Actually, Hamilton’s death wasn’t totally out of the blue. They were following the Irish Dueling code back then, and it basically meant if you weren’t planning on actually shooting your opponent, you shouldn’t even show up for the duel. Showing up signaled you meant business. If Hamilton was planning to just shoot in the air, it would have been seen as really dishonorable. When Burr heard about Hamilton possibly doing that, he reportedly said it was “contemptible, if true,” which was a pretty typical reaction for the time.
So, Burr killing a founding father was just a small part of his long history of treason. He also tried to start a rebellion in the South with some plantation owners, basically trying to create something like the Confederacy.