The story goes something like this: an ancient Arab sets out on a journey across the desert. In preparation, he puts a ration of milk into a handy sheep’s stomach to transport it. (Those ancient Arabs didn’t waste many animal parts.) When the sun goes down, he makes camp and discovers that, due to the rennet in the sheep’s stomach […]
Read more
Today I found out that Cinderella’s Castle at Disney World and Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in Disney Land are modeled after Bavaria’s Neuschwanstein Castle. Each castle was also inspired by several other castles, including Fontainebleau and Versailles, but with Neuschwanstein’s dainty turrets and romantic views, it’s easy to see how one castle could take the credit for such iconic masterpieces. While […]
Read more
Kerry asks: What did people use for birth control before modern methods like the pill and condoms? Pregnancy prevention around the world has a lengthy history that includes many effective yet sometimes lethal methods of early contraception. Early contraceptive options offered an array of colorful, creative (and in some cases, incredibly smelly) choices that included innovative options in barrier devices, […]
Read more
Sue T. asks: Why do people say “say cheese” when taking pictures? Also, why did people not smile in old pictures and when did they start? “Say cheese!” This simple command is meant to elicit a smile from potential photography subjects no matter what their age. It has become so commonplace that the word “say” is often no longer uttered. […]
Read more
Although yoga is something of a recent fad in the West, you’re probably aware that this system of gentle exercise and meditation has very ancient roots. What you might not know is just how ancient some aspects of yoga are, or how much yoga has changed on down through the millennia, with some of the most significant changes coming in […]
Read more
Kelly asks: When did women and men start shaving different parts of their body? Both sexes have a love-hate relationship with removing body hair. We’ve been pulling, plucking, burning, tweezing and ripping out undesirable hair since the dawn of time. It’s believed that as far back as 4,000 B.C., women were using dangerous substances like arsenic and quicklime to get […]
Read more
Although the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States currently seem extremely polarized, they did not start out that way. In fact, these two parties originated as one, single party. This party was called the Democratic-Republican Party, and it was organized by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in 1791. The purpose of the Democratic-Republican Party was to stand in […]
Read more
Jp23 asks: When and why did men start wearing ties? The neck tie has its roots in military history. For starters, a collection of terracotta sculptures discovered in 1974 in Xian, China gives insight into the style worn by Chinese soldiers over a thousand years ago. China’s first emperor, Qin Shih Huang, wanted his army to be buried with him […]
Read more
Google is practically synonymous with “search” today. But back in 1999, Excite (better known today as Ask.com) was a bigger force in the online world. It was one of the most recognized brands of the 90s. In today’s digital environment, it’s almost unfathomable to think a company would pass up the chance to acquire Google. But to fully understand this […]
Read more
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Oh… it’s, a blimp… 1925 marked the year when the first Goodyear airships ascended to the skies. More than 85 years later, the iconic Goodyear blimps can still be spotted drifting through the clouds during football games, basketball tournaments, and even over the 2012 London Olympics. While today the Goodyear blimps are invariable associated […]
Read more
Today I found out that for something that’s supposed to be clean and pure, soap has a murky past. No one knows for sure when soap was first invented, although it appears to have been around since the dawn of civilization. One of the reasons it’s so hard to pin down soap’s first appearance is that it can be made […]
Read more
Perhaps one of the most iconic images to come out of the Vietnam War (see photo here), this photo depicts a uniformed South Vietnamese officer shooting a prisoner in the head. When you look into it, however, there is much more to this photograph than first meets the eye. There is an undeniable brutality to this photo, but even Eddie […]
Read more
“The war began in my front yard and ended in my parlor.” This statement about the start and the end of the U.S. Civil War was spoken by Wilmer McLean and is surprisingly almost perfectly true. A little background- Wilmer McLean was born on May 3, 1814 in Alexandria, Virginia, one of fourteen children. When his parents passed away at […]
Read more
For those not familiar, the “First Lady” is a title which refers to the official hostess of the White House. Although it is not a firm prerequisite for the title, the First Lady is commonly thought to be the wife of the President. But who was actually the first-ever “First Lady”? If you guessed the logical answer, you, of course, […]
Read more
Today I found out the English “alphabet song”, also known as “The A.B.C.”, is based on a tune by Mozart, which in turn is based on a French tune, “Ah, vous dirai-je, maman” (“Ah! Would I tell you, mother?”), which popped up in 1761. A couple decades later, Mozart used this tune in his Twelve Variations on Ah, vous dirai-je, […]
Read more
Much of the genesis of the Beatles is a bit nebulous and is often argued, but most Beatles historians cite the date, July 6, 1957, as the official beginning of the Beatles. John Lennon, a neighborhood guitar-player (local trouble-maker, part-time shoplifter and full-time egomaniac) had been playing around at a few local gigs in the area for a year or […]
Read more
Gracen asks: How did the tradition of predicting weather by checking to see if a rodent did or didn’t see their shadow get its start? Like so many holiday traditions, the origins and progression of Groundhog Day to what we think of it today as are a bit murky. However, we’ll try to shed some light on the subject, starting […]
Read more
This is a guest post by Adam Kutner. (more on Adam at the bottom) Today I found out about a shocking weather incident that happened in London not very long ago. In December of 1952, the city of London experienced a 5-day bout of “fog” that killed at least 4,000 people and made an estimated 100,000 sick. Fog? Isn’t that […]
Read more