Text Version: If you were to go to Australia and get a craving for food from Burger King, you’ll have to go to a fast food chain called “Hungry Jack’s”. This is because, when Burger King first decided to expand their franchise to Australia, they found out that there was already a food chain there called “Burger King”. This forced […]
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Text Version: President Thomas Jefferson was never a fan of formal affairs, and was often reported to have worn his pajamas while meeting with Foreign dignitaries. On one such occasion, when meeting with British Minister to the U.S., Andrew Merry, he wore his PJ’s. Needless to say, Andrew Merry was not amused and he was later quoted as saying, “I, […]
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What do a thimble, a sack of money, a battleship, and a top hat have in common? Not much, other than that they are among the eleven playing tokens you receive in a standard Monopoly set. And don’t forget the wheelbarrow, which you’ll need to carry all that cash you are going to appropriate from your hapless opponents. The history […]
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In November of 1966, The Monkees‘ first single, “Last Train to Clarksville”, went to number one on the charts two months (to the day) after The Monkees TV series premiered. The Partridge Family (a series about a fictional singing family/rock group) actually beat that mark. The Partridge Family premiered on ABC on September 25, 1970. The Partridge Family single, “I Think I Love […]
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On this day in history, November 26th… 1842: The University of Notre Dame was founded by Father Edward Sorin. He also became the University’s first President. The University’s name “Notre Dame” is French for “Our Lady,” being a catholic school, the term “Our Lady” is a reference to the Virgin Mary. When the University was first founded, it was an […]
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On this day in history, November 25th… 1926 : An outbreak of 27 twisters rip up the Midwest in one of the worst tornado storms in U.S history. The strongest of these tornadoes was an estimated F4 that tore up Herber Springs, Arkansas. The storm caused over 76 deaths, 51 of which were in Arkansas alone and over 400 injuries in […]
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Text Version: Vodka comes from the Russian word for “water,” which is “Voda.” Poland likes to brag about how their Vodka is older than Russia’s Vodka, dating it back to the 8th century, where it went by different names such as “burnt wine” and “gorzalka.” Like most distilled liquors back then, Vodka was mainly used as a medicine. Vodka was […]
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Humans have invented a variety of amazingly cruel and unusual ways to kill or maim one another (often for shockingly arbitrary reasons). And, of course, wars tend to bring out the worst in people; so it’s not surprising that war-time executions can occasionally be among the most bizarre and cruel. On that note, I was recently reading the first volume […]
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On this day in history, November 24th… 1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin published ‘On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life‘, more popularly known as simply “On the Origin of Species”. Darwin had already been working on his theory of “natural selection” since 1938, as the idea […]
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It was to be one of the strangest chapters in the storied history of the Beatles. In most Beatle controversies, John Lennon, the most outspoken and controversial Beatle, was usually at the bottom of it, but not this time. George Harrison “The Quiet Beatle” brought on the 1963-64 Jelly Bean controversy that was to drive the Beatles batty. In a […]
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On this day in history, November 23rd… 1963 : The first episode of “Doctor Who” aired on BBC. The show went on the become the world’s longest running science fiction drama. Based on the adventures of a Time Lord—a time traveling, humanoid alien known as the Doctor, the show quickly become a significant part of British popular culture. After 26 seasons, in 1996, the show was put on […]
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Text Version: We’ve all heard of Yahoo and have probably seen their commercials and heard the famous yodel “Yahoooooo!” The famous yodel comes from Wylie Gustafson. He made the yodel for Yahoo in 1996 for a one time payment of $590 U.S. Dollars. However in 2002, I guess he wanted more, so he sued Yahoo, settling out of court for […]
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Trevor A. asks: Why did Coke try to switch to “New Coke”? It turns out there was actually (if you squint at the problem hard enough), a semi-good reason for doing the switch. It didn’t work out, of course… But then, it kind of did work out amazingly well at the same time, as you’ll soon see. Now, before I […]
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He is one of the most admired actors in the history of the movies. Marilyn Monroe called him “the sexiest man” she had ever seen. And if you watch his early, incredible performances in “On the Waterfront” (1954), “Streetcar Named Desire” (1951), “The Wild One” (1953), “The Men” (1950), and my favorite Brando film “Guys and Dolls” (1955), you can […]
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