Mental Floss: Instant Knowledge

by Editors of Mental Floss

  ROLLER COASTERS, PART II

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, chatting up thrill seekers, and explaining to your kid why the coaster you just waited in line for 45 minutes to ride really was fast enough

  KEYWORDS: Can’t this thing go any faster?

  THE FACT: Not all early roller coasters were as dull as Coney Island’s first coaster, the Gravity Pleasure (which went a whopping 6 miles per hour). Of course, they weren’t as safe, either.

  In about 1895, a ride called the Flip-Flap Railway opened on Coney Island. It was arguably the world’s first loop-the-loop-style coaster, but with one key difference: The loops of the Flip-Flap were perfect circles. This doesn’t sound like a big problem…until you start considering physics. Modern coasters use elliptical loops and reach a maximum g-force of 6g’s. By contrast, in the tight circles of the Flip-Flap, passengers experienced up to 12g’s of gravitational force, which, coincidentally, is also the limit of force the human body can withstand. Many riders’ necks were snapped as they hung on for dear life to safety-belt-less wooden carts. Despite this hazard, the death coaster managed to remain open for eight years.

  instant personalities

  “Peanuts” creator CHARLES M. SCHULZ hated getting his hair clipped at his pop’s barbershop as a kid, because whenever “real” customers came in, he’d have to get up and walk around with only half a haircut. (Good grief!)

  SIR ISAAC NEWTON only made one recorded comment during his term as a member of British Parliament: He asked that someone open the window.

  By age 13 THELONIOUS MONK was so accomplished on the keys that the Apollo Theater banned him from the weekly amateur contest because he’d won too many times.

  RONALD MCDONALD

  (secret agent man)

  USEFUL FOR: barroom banter, drive-thru chatter, and anytime you spot a clown

  KEYWORDS: top secret, covert ops, or Happy Meal

  THE FACT: Who knew the CIA and McDonald’s had so much in common?

  McDonald’s execs, like their less delicious counterparts at the Central Intelligence Agency, uphold an intense policy of employee secrecy. Clowns who portray Ronald McDonald are strictly forbidden to disclose their identities. It’s also taboo for two (costumed) Ronalds to be in the same place at the same time. In fact, the only time they get together is at the biennial Ronald McDonald Convention, which, as you might imagine, is also very top secret. All of this helps maintain the image that Ronald, the second-most-recognizable figure worldwide (after Santa), is a single, magical character. There are, of course, many Ronalds—an estimated 250, in fact. Their average income is about $40,000 a year, but the busiest clowns can bring in as much as $100,000. The Ronald McDonald who appears in the company’s television commercials earns a salary of more than $300,000. We could tell you who he is, but we’d be risking a lifetime of toyless Happy Meals. Some things just aren’t worth the risk.

  SADDAM

  (and his sweet tooth)

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, chatting with Desert Storm vets, and making people really curious about one of the world’s worst tyrants

  KEYWORDS: Saddam Hussein, chocolate, pizza party menu

  THE FACT: The bizarre contents of Saddam Hussein’s residences—velvet paintings of Elvis and all—have provided endless fodder for cocktail conversations, but none like his fridge.

  Amid the revelations of Saddam’s incredibly bad taste, it was also revealed that Saddam was a bit of a sugar fiend. In his last rather ignoble residence—the “spider hole” where he was finally apprehended in Ad Dawr in December 2003—American soldiers found a refrigerator filled with Mars and Bounty candy bars and 7-Up. Thank God! No longer relegated to the realm of middle school sleepovers and Little League pizza parties, these snack foods have finally broken through to a new demographic: dictators evading prosecution for crimes against humanity.

  THE SAFETY PIN

  USEFUL FOR: chatting with punks, moms who use natural diapers, and anyone who loves safety

  KEYWORDS: pin, prick, or pinprick

  THE FACT: If you’re looking for someone to thank for the invention of the safety pin, all credit should go to Walter Hunt—and his inability to pay off his debts.

  In 1849, Hunt was a prolific, if not entirely well off, inventor whose previous efforts included a repeating rifle, artificial stone, and an ice plow. Unable to draw any of his inventions, he was forced to hire a draftsman to produce the diagrams that had to be submitted with his patent applications. Several patents later, Hunt found himself in debt to the artist for a whopping $15. Realizing he wasn’t going to get the cash, the draftsman proposed an alternate way for Hunt to pay him back. He dared Hunt to invent something using only a piece of wire and to hand over the rights. In return, the debt would be forgiven and the draftsman would pay Hunt $400. It seemed like a great deal—that is, until Hunt’s hours of twisting produced the first practical safety pin. The draftsman walked away with a million-dollar patent under his belt, while Hunt got $400 and, we assume, a lifetime of bitterness.

  SALIVA

  (that’ll get you tanked!)

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, barroom banter, and knowing what beverage not to order in the South Pacific

  KEYWORDS: alcohol, drool, or what could possibly be worse than licking a toad to get a buzz

  THE FACT: In much of the South Pacific, kava is the traditional drug of choice. Kava supposedly reduces inhibitions and enhances conviviality, much like alcohol. However, it isn’t the drug itself so much as the traditional mode of preparation that often dismays outsiders.

  The active substance in kava is apparently released in interaction with chemicals contained in human saliva. Kava roots are thus thoroughly chewed, the masticated mass is wrung out in a twisted cloth, and the resulting liquid is then ready for drinking. Even though young people with good teeth and fresh breath are usually the designated chewers, kava drinking is still likely to put off the fastidious traveler.

  SCHOPENHAUER

  (the poodle-loving pessimist)

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties and talking about philosophy, without actually talking about philosophy

  KEYWORDS: Schopenhauer, misogynist, or glass half empty

  THE FACT: One of philosophy’s most notorious sourpusses, Arthur Schopenhauer was a definite pessimist, and viewed reality as a malicious trap. In fact, he believed we live in the worst of all possible worlds.

  As if that wasn’t bad enough, though, notorious misogynist Schopenhauer once pushed a woman down a flight of stairs. Grudgingly, he paid her regular restitution for her injuries until her death, when he recorded in his journal, “The old woman dies, the burden is lifted.” Schopenhauer despised noise but inexplicably had a fondness for something more odious—poodles. A series of disposable poodles were his constant companions for most of his life. Not a pleasant academic colleague, Schopenhauer resented the success of Hegel, whose philosophy he thought was the worst kind of nonsense. Perhaps planning to undo Hegel, Schopenhauer scheduled his course lectures at the same time as Hegel’s. The result, however, was an early retirement for Arthur.

  SCOPES (MONKEY) TRIAL

  USEFUL FOR: PTA meetings, impressing your high school history teacher, and irritating people at Sunday school

  KEYWORDS: creationism, evolution, biology class, or monkeys

  THE FACT: Everyone knows the Monkey Trial had something to do with teaching evolution in school. Not everyone remembers the actual outcome, or the monkey that was made of the prosecution.

  It was a simple case. A Dayton, Tennessee, teacher had taught Darwin’s theory of evolution, in defiance of a new state law. But the charges quickly became international news when Clarence Darrow, the era’s most famous liberal lawyer, took up teacher John Scopes’s defense. The case only got more intriguing when William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate, joined the prosecution. During the defense’s case, Darrow stunned the courtroom by calling Bryan to the stand. For two hours, the two dueled over Bryan’s literal interpretation o
f the Bible which hardly helped Mr. Scopes. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. Bryan died a few days after the trial. But the state’s ban on teaching evolution was reversed in 1967.

  SEA MONKEYS

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, stirring up ’60s nostalgia, and taking the wind out of an eight-year-old’s sail

  KEYWORDS: monkeys, brine shrimp, or the worst pet ever

  THE FACT: Ah, sea monkeys. You know ’em; you love ’em; you’re totally confused by ’em. Well, consider the monkey mystery solved.

  Turns out, they’re Artemia salinas, or brine shrimp. In the 1960s, inventor Harold von Braunhut discovered that the shrimp’s eggs lie dormant in salt flats waiting for the right conditions before they spring to life, so he started experimenting with them for his toy product, Instant-Life. Later, he changed the name (and struck pop culture gold) after a colleague heard him call the creatures his “cute little sea monkeys.” The shrimp became popular because of their ability to “come back to life” after being stored dry on a shelf, but fell from favor after children discovered that they had a lifespan of about a month. Over the years, however, von Braunhut managed to breed better sea monkeys—the shrimp can now live up to two years. As for von Braunhut, who passed away in 2003, he was also responsible for X-Ray Specs and the late-1980s hermit crab craze.

  SHAKERS

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, barroom banter, anywhere martinis are being drunk

  KEYWORDS: Shaker?

  THE FACT: Officially known as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, the Shakers were founded in Manchester, England, in1747. Nearly 250 years later, though, there isn’t a whole lot of Shaking going on.

  As a group of dissenting Quakers under the charismatic leadership of “Mother Ann” Lee, the Shakers came to America in 1774. Like most reform movements of the time, the Shakers were agriculturally based, and believed in common ownership of all property. Unlike most of the other groups, however, the Shakers practiced celibacy, including rejection of marital sex. So how exactly did the movement spread? Membership came via conversion or by the adoption of children. Shaker families consisted of “brothers” and “sisters” who lived in gender-segregated communal homes. And during the required Sunday community meetings it wasn’t uncommon for members to break into a spontaneous dance, thus giving them the “shaker” label. However, their religious movement wasn’t built to last. In fact, of the original 19 communities, there is only one in existence today.

  SHAKESPEARE

  (as in the whole typing monkeys thing)

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, dates at the zoo, and whenever someone brings up the idea of infinity

  KEYWORDS: Shakespeare, monkeys, and typing

  THE FACT: If a million monkeys typed on a million typewriters for a million years, would they produce a work of Shakespeare by chance? Well, not according to this experiment.

  This notion has been used to indicate how over the vastness of time complex creations may arise from chance. Well, researchers at Plymouth University in England have carried out a small-scale experiment by placing a computer in an enclosure with six macaques (short-tailed monkeys). After pounding on it with a rock, defecating on it, and urinating on it, some of the monkeys did hit a few keystrokes, producing mostly a lot of S’s. Theoretically, the hypothesis defies statistics. The odds of striking the correct sequence is so small that you’d have to have a million monkeys typing at a rate of 31,000,000 strokes a year (1 per second) each for a million years, and then multiply that amount by itself almost 200 times. We think there are better odds at winning the Powerball jackpot.

  SHEEP

  (specifically, the blackest one of the Brontë family)

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, impressing your English teacher, and making friends at the library (please keep the facts to a whisper)

  KEYWORDS: Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, or any Brontë

  THE FACT: Anne Brontë may have had an inferiority complex living with sisters like Charlotte and Emily, but she was hardly the least-accomplished child in the family.

  That honor goes to their only brother, Branwell. As a child, Branwell showed a lot of promise as an artist and writer, and because of that, ironically enough, Branwell was considered the prodigy of the family. With high expectations, his parents sent him to attend the Royal Academy Schools in London, but that proved to be an embarrassing mistake. Pretty much all Branwell did while he was away was spend exorbitant amounts of family money, become a raging alcoholic and opium addict, sleep around with legions of different women, and get fired from jobs for not showing up or, in one case, “fiddling with the books.”

  SIBLING RIVALRY

  USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, chatting up the French, and consoling the Jan Brady in your family

  KEYWORDS: Fredo Corleone, Jan Brady, or Mom always loved you best

  THE FACT: It’s not easy being the little brother, especially when your big sib is a self-made emperor. So it’s no wonder relations between Lucien Bonaparte and brother Napoléon were often abrasive and strained.

  At first a supporter of his big bro, Lucien became disillusioned by what he saw as the betrayal of the French Revolution. Unfortunately, he was sort of the Fredo Corleone of the family, being stupid enough to let a subversive pamphlet he had written fall into the hands of Napoléon’s police. Obviously, it strained their relationship even further and made him one of the few Bonapartes who didn’t end up king of something. In 1804, Lucien went into exile in Rome, and the pope named him Prince of Canino, largely to annoy Napoléon. Not the brightest move. Napoléon imprisoned the pope in 1809. Lucien on the other hand was America-bound. Captured by the British, he remained a prisoner for several years before returning to a comfortable, Napoléon-free retirement on the Continent.

  SLICED BREAD

  USEFUL FOR: impressing bakers, inventors, and anyone who loves their bread

  KEYWORDS: toast, sandwich, or the best thing since sliced bread

  THE FACT: It may get a lot of credit now, but at the time of its debut in 1928, sliced bread received less-than-rave reviews.

  Baker and inventor Otto Frederick Rohwedder had spent 15 years perfecting his bread slicer (finally settling on one that wrapped the sliced bread to hold it together as opposed to the hat pins he’d tried earlier), but consumers weren’t quick to convert. People found the sliced bread strange and senseless. In fact, it wasn’t until the advent of Wonder bread, and the collective realization that sliced bread worked better in the toaster, that Rohwedder’s invention really took off. By World War II, the military was using sliced bread to serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as part of soldiers’ rations. Previously uncommon, the PB&J gained a loyal following among servicemen, who kept making the sandwich, sliced bread and all, after they came back to the home front.

  SLOT MACHINES

  (and one man’s tireless shenanigans)

  USEFUL FOR: trips to Vegas, bachelor parties, and impressing anyone who’s ever tried to cheat the system

  KEYWORDS: always bet on the house

  THE FACT: Working from the back of his TV repair shop, Tommy Glenn Carmichael figured out more than a few ways to take Vegas, and all their slot machines, for a heck of a ride.

  Starting in 1980, Carmichael invented, refined, then manufactured devices for cheating slot machines. Tommy’s bag of tricks ranged from coins on strings to light wands that blinded machine sensors, fooling them into dropping their coins. Then, for most of two decades, Carmichael and his partners raked in millions of dollars. But his luck finally ran out when federal agents tapped his phone and heard him discussing a new device that would rack up hundreds of credits per minute on slot machines. In 2001, Carmichael was sentenced to about a year in jail, and was ordered to stay out of casinos. In 2003, he told an Associated Press reporter he was developing a new gadget, called “the Protector.” It was designed to stop slot cheaters.

  instant personalities

  EDGAR ALLAN POE was expelled from West Point for “gross
neglect of duty,” but many accounts tell it slightly more colorfully. After hearing that the mandatory uniform of the day comprised white gloves and belt, Poe showed up to parade duty wearing those two items but little else.

  For his first 35 years, MR. POTATO HEAD came equipped with a pipe. But in 1987 he kicked the habit with the help of the American Cancer Society (and no doubt, a nagging Mrs. Potato Head).

  GEOFFREY CHAUCER was taken prisoner by the French during the Hundred Years’ War, and offered back to England for the measly price of 16 pounds.

  SOUP

  (or how to give a dog a bowl)

  USEFUL FOR: chatting up people who love Fear Factor, nonvegetarians, mailmen, and cat lovers

  KEYWORDS: I hate dogs or I love soup

  THE FACT: While you might be hard pressed to find someone who’ll eat it, man’s best friend makes man’s best soup in some parts of the world.

  For those of you with iron stomachs (and no fear of the SPCA), the Chinese Bosintang, or dog meat soup, is relatively easy to make, assuming Bowser is agreeable. The soup requires taking strips of dog meat and boiling them in a soy paste. Then vegetables like green onions, taro stalk as well as the herb perilla leaves are added to the mixture, and the broth is brought to a boil. Finally, a sauce made from mashed garlic, red pepper, and ginger is mixed in. Rumor has it that it goes very well with a glass of soju (an Asian liquor). Of course, the dish has a bit of versatility. Rice can be served with the soup or the combination can be mixed together to make sumptuous leftovers or a warm meal the kids can take in their lunch box…or a doggie bag. Ugh.