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| Me, reading Goethe, at a young age. From here. |
As much as I like reading really intellectual things like German philosophy, post-modernist poetry and world economical news, from time to time I like to indulge in the trivial -- and a big, heaping wad of trivia is just the thing (that, or
people.com).
January 4th was National Trivial Day --don't sweat, I missed it too-- but I did not miss Mental Floss' exemplarly list of trivial tidbits. Let me share a few or my favorites:
In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel was spending $2,500 a month on rubber bands just to hold all their cash.
There really was a Captain Morgan. He was a Welsh pirate who later became the lieutenant governor of Jamaica. I knew there was a reason I liked rum - the bottles are educational!
That thing you use to dot your lowercase “i” is called a tittle.
In 1991, Wayne Allwine, the voice of Mickey Mouse, married Russi Taylor—the voice of Minnie. I bet that was an interesting work-place romance!
Editor Bennett Cerf challenged Dr. Seuss to write a book using no more than 50 different words. The result? Green Eggs and Ham.
The German word kummerspeck means excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon. This is an excellent and most necessary word. Let's add this to the English vernacular, ok?
The sum of all the numbers on a roulette wheel is 666.
Only one McDonald’s in the world has turquoise arches. Government officials in Sedona, Arizona, thought the yellow would look bad with the natural red rock of the city.
According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spend $310 million on pet costumes last Halloween.
Meredith, I'm looking at you -- and judging.
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