WORLD WAR III
(as almost started by a bear)
USEFUL FOR: impressing your history teacher, terrifying your friends, and occasionally as a fun fact whenever you’re watching Yogi Bear cartoons
KEYWORDS: Cuban Missile Crisis, nuclear holocaust, or the Bad News Bears
THE FACT: On October 25, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a security guard at an airbase in Duluth, Iowa, saw a shadowy figure scaling one of the fences enclosing the base. It almost led to a world war.
The guard shot at the intruder and activated an intruder alarm, automatically setting off intruder alarms at neighboring bases. However, at the Volk Field airbase in Wisconsin, the Klaxon loudspeaker had been wired incorrectly, and instead sounded an alarm ordering F-106A interceptors armed with nuclear missiles to take off. The pilots presumed that a full-scale nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union had begun, and the planes were about to take off when a car from the air traffic control tower raced down the tarmac and signaled the planes to stop. The intruder in Duluth had finally been identified: it was a bear.
THE WORST
(a guy named Napoleon)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, academic gatherings, and making friends with a Yanomami
KEYWORDS: Napoleon, anthropology, or “I’ve never had the measles”
THE FACT: Until 2000, Napoleon Chagnon was known as author of the best-selling anthropology text of all time: Yanomamö: The Fierce People. But since then his so-called research has been mired in controversy.
The anthropologist, along with geneticist James Neel, inoculated many of the Venezuelan tribe’s members against measles. Unfortunately, it was right about this time that the Yanomami experienced their first-ever measles epidemic, leading to thousands of deaths and reducing the tribe to half its original size. Coincidence? Perhaps. Many defend the expedition, claiming it would be impossible for a vaccine to spark such an outbreak. Critics point to the expedition’s financier, the Atomic Energy Commission, as proof that the accused were using the Yanomami as human test subjects. Either way, the scandal raised serious questions about the practices of studying indigenous peoples, and made it nearly impossible for Neel and Chagnon to pick up ladies at future anthropological conventions.
WRIGHT
(’cause when you’re Wright, you’re Wright)
USEFUL FOR: housewarming parties, chatting up architects, and irritating fans of Frank Lloyd Wright
KEYWORDS: temper tantrum, prima donna, or Trading Spaces
THE FACT: Whether or not Frank Lloyd Wright could walk on water, the genius designer behind Fallingwater sort of believed he could.
It’s true, the amazing designer of the Robie House, Fallingwater, Taliesin West, the Guggenheim Museum, and countless other buildings was notorious for his belief in his superiority to mere mortals. In fact, the architectural egomaniac frequently acted as if the rules did not apply to him—even the rules of geography and climate. But when you’re Wright, your Wright. Commissioned in 1935 to design a Dallas home for department store magnate Stanley Marcus, the project quickly went sour when he insisted that his client sleep outdoors year-round on “sleeping porches.” He also decreed that the Marcus small bedroom “cubicles” would have almost no closet space. When Stan respectfully explained that a) it is frequently well over 90 degrees at night during Dallas summers and b) a high-fashion tastemaker might need bigger closets, Wright threw a series of tantrums in letters still extant that make for delicious reading.
XIUHCÓATL
(and the wrathful god that wielded it)
USEFUL FOR: scaring kids, impressing mass murderers, and making conversation during the Kali Ma scenes of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
KEYWORDS: Aztec, sacrifices, or the phrase “show a little heart”
THE FACT: The ambition of the Aztec empire might well be linked to one wrathful god and his turquoise snake.
According to Aztec legend, Huitzilopochtli’s 401 older siblings tried to kill him, but the clever god turned the tables on them and wiped ’em out with his weapon of choice, the xiuhcóatl (or for those of you who don’t speak Aztec, a turquoise snake). Represented either as a hummingbird or as a warrior with armor and helmet made of hummingbird feathers (not exactly bulletproof), Huitzilopochtli was both God of the Sun and the God of War. As such, Aztecs believed that he needed a steady diet of human hearts—preferably of the warrior variety—and human blood. In fact, the need to feed Huitzilopochtli fueled the Aztecs’ ambition, and increased their urgency for fighting and conquering other peoples.
X-DRESSING
(for success)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, classical performances, and making small talk at drag shows and divorce procedures
KEYWORDS: jealousy, cross-dressing, or Berlioz
THE FACT: Luckily for the world, French composer Hector Berlioz was fished out of the Mediterranean. Unluckily for Berlioz, he was wearing women’s clothing at the time.
The renowned musician Hector Berlioz was, among other things, wacky. While away in Rome studying on a scholarship, he heard that his beloved girlfriend, Camille, back in Paris, had started seeing another guy. Furious, he resolved to kill his rival. But he needed to disguise himself. So he bought a gun, put on a dress, and boarded a train for Paris. Halfway home, however, Berlioz chickened out and threw himself into the Mediterranean. Thankfully for the world, and for music, he was fished out (minus the gun).
X-ROADS
(where to sell your soul for the blues)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, barroom banter, and jazz club discussions
KEYWORDS: Robert Johnson, the devil, or how the hell can someone be that good
THE FACT: According to some folk, there’s only one way to get as good as Robert Johnson did—by making a pact with the devil.
Considered the most influential bluesman of all time, Robert Johnson is also one of the most turbulent. And few musicians have achieved Johnson’s mythical status, whether the devil had a hand in it or not. As the story goes, one night Johnson happened upon a large black man walking near the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49 outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The man offered to tune Johnson’s guitar, and claimed Johnson’s soul in return. Within a year, Johnson was in demand throughout the region. Actually, the story may have started when Johnson sat in on a gig with Sun House and Willie Brown. House and Brown were so impressed with Johnson’s playing they thought the only explanation was that he’d sold his soul. Of course, mythic lives require mythic endings. Known for his womanizing, Johnson was fatally poisoned when he sipped some whiskey laced with strychnine—the act of a jealous husband.
THE YAP
(currency for a rockier time)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, chatting up a world traveler, and joking with your teller
KEYWORDS: too much change, bulky wallet, or hernia
THE FACT: If you’re frustrated by the market, and you’re looking for a currency that can stand the test of time, look no further.
In the Caroline Islands in the South Pacific, there’s an island named Yap (or Uap). In 1903, an American anthropologist named Henry Furness III visited the islanders and found they had an unusual system of currency. It consisted of carved stone wheels called fei, ranging in diameter from a foot to 12 feet. Because the stones were heavy, the islanders didn’t normally carry their money around with them. After a transaction, the fei might remain on a previous owner’s premises, but it was understood who owned what. One family’s fei, Furness was told, had been lost at sea many years earlier while being transported from a nearby island during a storm. But that stone was still used as currency, even though it was unseen and irretrievable beneath hundreds of feet of water.
YEMEN’S NATIONAL PASTIME
USEFUL FOR: barroom banter, impressing locals wherever finer nicotine and drug paraphernalia are sold
KEYWORDS: dip, chewing tobacco, or national pastime
THE FACT: Believe it or not, the national obsession of Yemen is basically che
wing a mild stimulant known as qat.
Every afternoon, much of Yemen simply shuts down as men gather together to chew great wads of qat and convivially discuss events. A few writers have gone so far as to blame Yemen’s persistent poverty on the drug, largely because chewing it simply eats up so much time. A more reasonable concern is that qat cultivation is undermining Yemen’s agriculture, because other crops are being abandoned in favor of the much more profitable drug. Yemen was once the world’s major supplier of coffee, but those days are long gone. The Yemenis evidently think that they have found a better stimulant, even if most of the rest of the world begs to differ.
ZAMBONI
(and its best hood ornament)
USEFUL FOR: cocktail parties, dates at the aquarium, and stirring up conversation at a sushi dinner
KEYWORDS: octopus, Red Wings, or pimp my ride
THE FACT: Everyone knows that octopi can really touch up a Zamboni at the center of an ice rink or add just a hint of pizzazz when fashionably draped from the rafters. At least anyone who’s ever been to a Detroit hockey game.
If you’re looking for more tips in mollusk décor, though, you’ll actually need to head out to one of the Red Wings’ games for yourself, where you’ll be sure to find 20 to 30 octopi displayed on the ice. Why, exactly? It’s a tradition that started in 1952 during the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup run. During the game, fans Jerry and Pete Cusimano tossed a boiled octopus onto the ice—its eight legs symbolic of the Red Wings’ eight straight wins (at the time, only eight wins were needed to win the playoffs). The crowd went wild (instead of being confused), and a sports tradition was born. Since then, the largest octopus to land on the ice weighed in at 50 pounds. Later in the game, it was displayed on the hood of the Zamboni while the ice was being cleaned between periods, definitely a hood ornament worth emulating.
ZERO
(as in the number of witches burnt to a crisp)
USEFUL FOR: bonfire banter, Halloween parties, and road-trip chatter en route to Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: witches, Joan of Arc, or Salem, Massachussetts
THE FACT: No matter what impression you’ve gotten from your high school reading The Crucible or bad late night PBS, the truth is there were zero (as in no) witches burned at the stake in New England.
While most people think the witches of Salem were skewered en masse, the truth is that no witches were ever burned during the infamous witch hysteria of 1692. However, this doesn’t mean that they didn’t have it really, really bad. Of the 150 people accused of witchcraft, only 20 were sentenced to death: 19 of them were hanged; the remaining “witch” was crushed to death by stones. Oh, and six of them were men.
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MENTAL_FLOSS PRESENTS: INSTANT KNOWLEDGE. COPYRIGHT © 2005 by Mental Floss LLC.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition October 2005 ISBN 9780061747663
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