THE QUEEN WHO

SAVED CHRISTMAS
P. 44
FEEL SMART AGAIN

THE TEENAGE
GIRL WHO ONE-
UPPED PAUL
WHO TO THANK
REVERE P. 48
FOR KITTY LITTER
P. 40

*ACCORDING TO US

INCLUDING

15 10 10 5
GENIUSES ANCIENT ASSISTANTS WHO VERY
UNDER 17 P.50 REAL-LIFE CHANGED SIGNIFICANT
MACGY VERS P.32 THE WORLD P.30 GOATS P.39
MENTALFLOSS.COM
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 9
DECEMBER 2015

HOW TO OPEN CHAMPAGNE WITH A

SWORD, WIN A DOG FRISBEE CHAMPIONSHIP,
AND, UM, LIVE FOREVER! P.20
Learn more at toyota.com/tacoma
Professional drivers on closed course. Do not attempt. Prototypes shown with options.
Production models may vary. Bunny head not included. ©2015 Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
 DECEMBER 2015 • VOL. 15 ISSUE 9 CONTENTS

I R ST
FEATURES F ER !
EV
THE ^ MENTAL_FLOSS 500
54 41 34 54 52 55
Exclusive! The brilliant Is your cat a Meet a real- Who was the The badass
Chewbacca’s mind that good therapist? world Indiana hardest-working behind Winnie
secret pact with bequeathed us Really? Be Jones (actually, baboon of all the Pooh’s
Sasquatch the spork honest. meet five). time? lovable tiger

There’s something you should know about kangaroos p. 32

PLUS: The history of 12 college majors p. 47 + 27 overachieving overachievers p. 56

IN EVERY ISSUE

S C AT TE RB RAIN LEF T BR AIN / R IG H T BR AIN

ALAMY (CHEWBACCA, INDIANA JONES, TIGGER).

8 THE PACIFIC: Fast times at California’s coolest 22 The pooch who turned dog Frisbee into a
high school, the best breakfast food you’re not pro sport
eating (yet), and swimming lessons from the
GO MEN TAL
world’s greatest divers
ISTOCK (SPORK, CAT, BABOON)

61 The hidden beauty of Doritos

L I V E SMA RTE R Cover by
62 Sports movies even non-athletes will enjoy
Stephan Walter
16 Extreme hedge-trimming 62 Our holiday book guide!
18 Science solves the New Year’s resolution 63 Why squirrels don’t eat pancakes
19 The Zippo’s spark of inspiration 64 Meet the flying heroes of the night sky
20 Your new bottle opener: a sword 65 The mental_floss quiz
 CONTENTS THE INDEX

A Musicians
Alcohol, transformation of 49, 55 turned Federal Reserve
chairman 50
André the Giant 37
turned guitar upside down 32
Astronauts, identical twin 41 turned linebacker 50
B N How Spider-Man
shows up
Bacon 15, 58 New York City subway, Shakespeare
Beetle excretions 33, 61 voice of the 35 p. 37
Bendy straws 29 O
Benjamin Button syndrome 11 Overlords, our forest 46
Blunderbusses, best uses for 54 P
What’s on Jon
Batiste’s résumé? Breakdancers 50 Parachuters, accidental 38
p. 44
C Pet
Cat videos, 19th-century 34 flies 49
rocks 59
Crash test dummy, human 54
of U.S. presidents 25, 44, 65
D Potato, misspellings of 41
Dead People, Pppppppppprice, Tim 54
The Association of 53 Pranksters, democratic 35, 43
Duct tape 29 Professional fetchers 22
Dwarves, apple-sniffing 33 The 13th century’s
Q answer to Ronda
E Queen
Rousey
Is this the key to p. 45
Olympic victory? Echolocation 32 the band 56
p. 52 of England 44
F
Fake beards 31 S

ILLUSTRATION BY BYRON EGGENSCHWILER (DOGS). ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON LOVING (KHUTULUN). ALAMY (BATISTE).
Fountain of youth 11, 44 Satan, Church of 14
Shining, The 49
Frequency, what’s the, Kenneth
36 Soccer fans, octopus-poaching 29

ISTOCK (CHICKEN NUGGET, DIAMOND, GUINEA PIG, POPE FRANCIS). EVERETT COLLECTION (SPIDER-MAN)
Fugitive, bovine 34 Sudoku, 13th-century 35
Sugar substitute,
G
bacteria-infused 33
Gestation periods, ridiculous 12
Super Soaker 44 Why is this guy an
Gingerbread man 44 Oval Office VIP?
Sweet ’n Low 33
Goats, caffeine-addled 39 p. 44
T
H
Teddy bears
Hedge mazes 17 animatronic 46
Meet the LeBron
James of dogs. Helicopters, democratic 44
p. 22 whale snot–collecting 52 Toast, the truth about 31
Hunger strikes, non-human 13 U
Hurston, Zora Neale 44, 47 Underwear 46, 52
J
V
Jaguars
Vanilla substitute,
fateful plots involving 38, 54
bacteria-infused 52
perfume-loving 52
Ventriloquist, life-saving 55
L
W
The Lord of the Rings 14, 46
Can tequila turn Wizard, Turns out, pontiff
into diamonds? isn’t Francis’s only
(Actually, yes.) M government-appointed 44 odd job.
p. 49 Muses, secret pop song 36 Writers, naked 31, 46 p. 39
Learn more at toyota.com/tacoma
 EDITOR’S NOTE
A SWEET SAGA
It started, as many great things in history undoubt-
edly have, with waffles. The mental_floss team was
brainstorming over breakfast when someone tossed out
the idea of the “Floss 500.” It was a magazine geek joke: a
nod to the annual Fortune issue that ranks huge compa-
nies. We laughed. Then we stopped laughing. It was
actually a great idea. After all, we love a good list. Why not
compile the ultimate directory of the people who have
shaped the weird and fascinating world that we aim to
celebrate in each issue?
As it turns out, there is a good answer to that question.
It’s an epically ambitious task to comb several thousand
years of civilization for stories about people doing things
that were not just important but interesting. I’m not much
on endurance, personally—I have never run a marathon,
written a novel that has an ending (or a middle), or been
granted a patent. And it was clear early on that this wasn’t
an ordinary issue: It was a mental_floss Mount Everest.
But the thing about climbing mountains, or so we’re
told, is that there’s no more valid reason to do it than
“because it’s there.” And once something is in motion, we
know there’s a pretty good chance it’ll stay in motion1. We
forged on.
1
Thanks to Isaac Newton, but not to his mischievous dog, Diamond (see page 49).
6 mentalfloss.com December 2015
What we produced is quite unlike any list you’ve read
before. (It begins on page 26.) We sought out not just the
most interesting and important adventurers, innovators,
thinkers, and tinkerers who ever lived, but in particular,
those who’ve gone underappreciated elsewhere. (Or those
whose most delightful achievement is overshadowed by
their more “significant” ones—did you know we have
Queen Elizabeth I to thank for gingerbread men?)
We’re not vouching for everything everyone on our list
has ever done—Kim Jong-il found his way on it (page 35);
so did the guy who invented email spam (page 54) and at
least one psychopath (page 54). But we’re confident that,
for better or worse, each has made a notable contribution
to shaping the strange and wonderful world we live in.
Hopefully, we just did too.
@jessanne
P.S. Did we leave anybody out? (Spoiler: We definitely did.)
Let us know at letters@mentalfloss.com or @mental_floss
#Floss500.
ISTOCK
 In researching Pacific
High for “1 Crazy
Curriculum” (page 14),
VO LU M E 15, I S S U E 9 | D E C E M B E R 2015
SALLY GAO found
FOUNDERS more than a few
Mangesh Hattikudur Will Pearson photos of “joyfully
EDITORIAL
nude” students. And in writing our piece
VP, EDITOR IN CHIEF Jessanne Collins on creatures of the sea (page 12), she
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Winslow Taft discovered a horror: “The image of the
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Foster Kamer
ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Lucy Quintanilla
frilled shark will haunt me forever.” The
MANAGING EDITOR Jen Doll Columbia graduate has published her
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lucas Reilly work at Slant News and the Columbia
EDITORIAL FELLOW Samuel Anderson
COPY EDITORS Regan Hofmann, Autumn Whitefield-Madrano FACT CHECKER Riki Markowitz
Daily Spectator.
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT Aliya Best PHOTO RESEARCHER Kendra Rennick

MENTALFLOSS.COM
SAMUEL ANDERSON
VP, DIGITAL/EDITOR IN CHIEF Jason English was destined to be
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Erin McCarthy EDITOR AT LARGE Nick Greene editorial fellow at
SENIOR EDITORS Arika Okrent, Jen Pinkowski, Abbey Stone, Jennifer M. Wood
STAFF EDITORS Erika Berlin, April Daley, Bess Lovejoy, Beth Anne Macaluso
mental_floss: Both
ASSISTANT EDITORS Rebecca O’Connell, Caitlin Schneider man and magazine
STAFF WRITERS Stacy Conradt, Michele Debczak, Kirstin Fawcett, Shaunacy Ferro, Anna Green, were extras in the
Chris Higgins, Kate Horowitz, Kara Kovalchik, Andrew LaSane, Jake Rossen
2003 movie Bad Santa. “In the original
SENIOR DIGITAL EXPERIENCE DESIGNER Emem Offong
DESIGNER Chloe Effron PRODUCER Colin Gorenstein cut, Bernie Mac’s character can be seen
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DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY AND PARTNERSHIPS Taylor Lorenz
The then-11-year-old Anderson, who has
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VP, MARKETING Tara Mitchell
ACCOUNT DIRECTORS Dan Figura, Molly Hollister ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Abby Sharpe
NORTHWEST ACCOUNT DIRECTOR Steve Thompson CARMEN SEGOVIA
MIDWEST DIRECTOR Erin Sesto
got an idea or two
SOUTHWEST DIRECTORS James Horan, Richard Taw
SOUTHEAST DIRECTOR Wheeler Morrison while working on
DETROIT DIRECTOR Don Schulz her drawings for the
SALES ASSISTANT Alma Heredia
“Floss 500” (page 26):
INTEGRATED MARKETING DIRECTOR Nikki Ettore “I’m going to tell my
ART DIRECTOR, MARKETING Joshua Moore boyfriend about Nabokov’s wife” (and
INTEGRATED MARKETING MANAGER Adam Clement
editor, translator, security guard, and
PROMOTIONS MANAGER Jennifer Castellano RESEARCH MANAGER Joan Cheung
MARKETING COORDINATOR Reisa Feigenbaum muse), says the Barcelona-based illustrator.
MARKETING DESIGN LEAD Paige Weber “Maybe he’ll get inspired.” Segovia’s work
AD OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Garrett Markley
has recently graced The New Republic
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DIGITAL PLANNER Jennifer Riddell and Nautilus.
EVP, CONSUMER MARKETING Sara O’Connor
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WALTER has produced
MENTAL FLOSS, INC.
work for Wired, Time
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Post—as well as for Sony, Volkswagen, and
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ACCOUNTS PAYABLE CLERK Domenique Humphreys David Byrne and Brian Eno. He designed
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COURTESY GAO, ANDERSON, SEGOVIA, WALTER

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December 2015 mentalfloss.com 7

8 mentalfloss.com December 2015
 SCATTERBRAIN
MEET CANADA’S LEWIS AND CLARK
8 DEEP-SEA BEAUTY QUEENS
SEAWEED: A BREAKFAST REVOLUTION?
LIVE FOREVER—JUST LIKE A JELLYFISH

THIS MONTH’S THEME

T H E PA C I F I C

THE CROOKED
LINE THAT
CHANGED TIME
Y E S , T H AT I S T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L DAT E L I N E , and yes, it’s
funny-looking. For decades, the line bisected the island republic
of Kiribati into halves. The country—33 atolls over 1.35 million square
miles of ocean—was sick of it. The western side was always nearly
a day ahead of the eastern side. “Today” meant something different
depending on which side of the country you stood on, and business
between the two sides could be conducted only four days a week. So in
1995, president Teburoro Tito fixed the problem—by simply moving
the line. (No international committee regulates the line’s placement,
so all it took was the bravery to redraw the map.) Now united, all of
Kiribati is the first country to see each new day.
 LIFE HACK
4 SPECIFICALLY
PACIFIC SKILLS
Several ethnic groups in Southeast Asia
have adapted to their environment in
superhuman ways.
BY S A M U E L A N D E R S O N
10 mentalfloss.com December 2015
SEEING: One group, the Moken, who
are concentrated in the islands of the
Andaman Sea, have trained their eye
muscles to constrict their pupils to a
smaller aperture just by swimming a
lot, allowing them to see about twice as
clearly as the typical human underwater.
SWIMMING: Moken children swim
before they can walk. Other groups,
such as the Orang Laut in the Riau
Islands and the Bajau in eastern Indo-
nesia, spend up to 50 percent of their
workday at sea. Thanks to a natural
reaction called the mammalian dive
reflex, they can lower their heart rate
and divert blood from their extremities
to vital organs. That means the Bajau
can stay underwater for five minutes on
one breath.
DIVING: As youngsters, some Bajau
will intentionally rupture their eardrums.
“You bleed from your ears and nose, and
you have to spend a week lying down
because of dizziness,” Imran Lahassan
told The Guardian. “After that you can
dive without pain.”
STORYTELLING: The Moken
people have passed down a folk tale
for centuries. When the spirits of their
ancestors are angry, the ocean recedes
and a “wave that eats people” floods
the islands. The wave cleanses the land.
So when the water retreated before the
2004 tsunami, the Moken knew exactly
what to do: They ran to higher ground,
taking tourists with them. There were
no casualties.
 SCATTERBRAIN
THE INVISIBLE T H E PA C I F I C

MONEY-EATING
MONSTER OF THE
PACIFIC
BY H A N N A H K E Y S E R

Remember the smoke monster of Lost? It has

nothing on the jet streams of the Pacific. Earlier this
year, the scientific journal Nature: Climate Change
released a study on the changing jet stream pat-
terns of the last 20 years. In short, the climate is
changing, and as a result, the jet stream is getting
stronger. So what does that mean for you?

1
MINUTE
The amount of time flights from Los Angeles
to Honolulu gain as planes fly against stron-
ger Pacific jet stream winds.
T

300,000
HOURS
The amount of time this adds up to after
totaling carriers on the L.A.–Honolulu route,
per year.
T

1,000,000,000
GALLONS
The amount of extra jet fuel needed to fly SCIENCE SAYS
these additional hours.

3,000,000,000
T
Are Jellyfish the Key
DOLLARS
How much that jet fuel will cost.
to Immortality?
T

10,000,000,000
KILOGRAMS
How much CO2 that jet fuel will release into
the atmosphere every year, causing—you
guessed it—even more climate change.
FAST FACT
ILLUSTRATION BY ELLEN SURREY. ALAMY (DIVER)
A F T E R H E C AU G H T S O M E T I N Y J E L LY F I S H I N 1 9 8 8 ,
marine biology student Christian Sommer noticed
something strange happening in his petri dishes. The
Turritopsis dohrnii appeared at first to shrivel up—but
Sommer soon realized they were going back to the polyp
stage. In other words, they were aging backward. He had
discovered the Benjamin Button of the marine kingdom.
T. dohrnii toggles between two life phases: one as a
squishy, gelatinous polyp and one as a tentacled medusa.
This isn’t unusual. Some jellyfish can return to earlier life
stages. (Scientists liken the process to a butterfly turn-
ing back into a caterpillar.) But unlike other jellyfish, T.
dohrnii don’t lose the ability to turn back the clock once

they become sexually mature. The jellyfish can repeat the

Most large satellites process indefinitely, so they are, hypothetically speaking,
immortal—hence their nickname, “the immortal jellyfish.”
This ability is due to a process called transdifferentia-
that fall to Earth are tion, in which specialized cells transform into new kinds of
cells—it’s akin to your skin cells turning into muscle cells.
entombed in a watery The change is controlled by microRNA, molecules that
regulate how genes are expressed. Changes to microRNA
graveyard 2,500 miles may be responsible for some cell mutations, like cancer, so
studies on the jellyfish could lead to promising research for
curing or treating the disease. T. dohrnii won’t make you
off New Zealand’s coast. live forever, but they just might help us live longer.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 11

 1

THE
LINEUP

THE DEEP-SEA
BEAUTY PAGEANT
8 remarkable ocean inhabitants and
their incredible talents.
2
BY S A L LY G AO

1 2 3 4 5 6

THE JAPETELLA THE ANGLERFISH THE THE FANGTOOTH THE FRILLED THE NAKED SEA
OCTOPUS a.k.a. Miss Light Up ENYPNIASTES FISH SHARK BUTTERFLY
a.k.a. Now You See Your Life a.k.a. The Pink See- a.k.a. Miss a.k.a. Miss Baby- a.k.a. Miss Sexual
Me, Now You Don’t REPRESENTING: Through Fantasia1 Ever-Smile on-Board Dysphoria
REPRESENTING: 2,000–3,000 FEET REPRESENTING: REPRESENTING: REPRESENTING: Cannibal
3,000 FEET 8,200 FEET 16,000 FEET 5,000 FEET REPRESENTING:
Talk about a fairer 1,500 FEET
To evade predators sex: Only female The transparent The fangtooth With over 25 rows
in shallow, sunlit anglerfish have fantasia leaves little boasts the largest of teeth, the frilled Basically shell-less
waters, the two- that forehead- to the imagina- teeth-to-body-size shark may be a sea snails, sea
faced japetella is mounted luminous tion—you can ratio in the ocean. dentist’s night- butterflies start life
transparent. But in fishing lure. Male see its guts. It Holes in the roof mare, not to men- as males but may
the deep, dark sea, anglerfish can’t also has a built-in of its mouth act tion a nutrition- develop eggs later
where most hunt- feed themselves burglar alarm: as pockets for the ist’s—it’ll eat half in life. As for diet,
ers search for prey without one, so When a predator lower fangs—but its body weight in they’ll eat other
by scattering blue they latch onto a bumps into the it still can’t close one sitting. But it’s species of sea
light, it turns dark female, fuse with sea cucumber, the its mouth. Despite also an impressive butterflies. Grue-
red. The trick would her body, and tap enypniastes emits that and poor mother-to-be, sus- some but graceful,
make any physics into her circulatory light, exposing its eyesight, it’s social, taining the longest they glide through
teacher proud—the system to survive. attacker to other hunting by “con- gestation period water flapping a
color renders the The female can predators. tact chemorecep- for a vertebrate: pair of wing-like
octopus invisible carry six or more tion,” essentially three and a half fins at the top of
again. male fish at a time. bumping into prey. years. their body.

12 mentalfloss.com December 2015 1

We didn’t make this nickname up. It’s actually called this. By scientists.
 SCATTERBRAIN
T H E PA C I F I C
3

4 6

7
ALAMY (SEA BUTTERFLY, FANGTOOTH, ANGLERFISH, ISOPOD, FRILLED SHARK, DRAGONFISH)

7 8

THE BLACK THE GIANT 8

DRAGONFISH ISOPOD
a.k.a. Miss High a.k.a. Miss Low
Beams Maintenance
REPRESENTING: REPRESENTING:
6,000 FEET 7,000 FEET

Covered in photo- Many giant isopods

phores from head will eat only once
to tail fin, when or twice a year. In
the dragonfish 2009, a captured
is disturbed, its isopod on a hunger
entire body lights strike survived
up and the barbell five years without
dangling from food. The critter,
its chin begins to related to the
beam. Unlike many terrestrial wood
deep-sea creatures, louse, is also used
it can perceive in a popular brand
light, so it uses it as of Japanese senbei
a flashlight to hunt rice crackers.
for prey.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 13

 FLASHBACK

1 CRAZY
CURRICULUM
GOVERNMENT PSYCHOLOGY COMPARATIVE
AND LAW For a sex and RELIGION
Pacific had no hi- psychology Students spent
erarchy. Students seminar, students hours meditating
weren’t required determined that and practicing
What happens when a boarding school to attend class or
do their home-
a session should
be attended in
Zen breathing
techniques. They
meets a hippie commune? Welcome to work. At school-
wide meetings,
the buff. Only one
student stripped
also attended
Catholic masses
Pacific High. students had as
much power as
down for the class,
but nudity was par
and services
with Seventh-day
staff—they could for the course on Adventists and the
FROM RIDGEMONT HIGH TO 90210’S WEST BEVERLY, even fire their campus. Church of Satan.
teachers!
California’s legendary high schools have earned their
place in America’s teenage pop culture canon. But the
wildest of all? It was real. In 1961, a group of parents and
teachers who’d had “a little too much wine” founded a
radically alternative education community they hoped
would change the high school experience. Dubbed
PHOTO COURTESTY PACIFICHIGHSCHOOL.NET

Pacific High, the school had a nomadic existence at first, MARINE ENGLISH CIVICS AND
but soon settled on a parcel of land in the Santa Cruz BIOLOGY To better CRIMINAL
Police once found understand JUSTICE
Mountains. As former director Michael S. Kaye recounts a bunch of Pacific J.R.R. Tolkien’s The school once
in his book, The Teacher Was the Sea, it was staffed by students on the The Lord of the took a weeklong
an endlessly rotating group of teachers (many of whom beach, and called Rings concept of field trip to a
their director to hobbit-holes, stu- demonstration and
had no teaching experience), and had no written rules, ask why a teacher dents dug holes riot at the Oakland
let alone lesson plans. The kids more or less ran the place wasn’t with them. in the woods. Induction Center,
The answer: “The where draftees
until it ceased to exist by the mid-’80s. (And they say teacher was the were examined for
millennials are spoiled!) Here are six subjects the student sea.” They were service in Vietnam.
then taken to Three students
body excelled in. — SALLY GAO juvenile hall. were arrested.

14 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 BIG QUESTION
SCATTERBRAIN
T H E PA C I F I C
IS SEAWEED
THE NEW
BACON?
What’s packed with vitamins,
minerals, antioxidants, protein, and
contains such a wealth of nutrients
it might as well be kale—except that
it tastes like bacon?
That would be dulse seaweed,
and for 15 years, it’s been the
subject of a study at Oregon State
University’s Hatfield Marine Science
Center. There, researchers have
been cultivating a strain of the
translucent red seaweed, which
grows naturally along the coastline,
as a way to feed abalone (a type
of shellfish served as a delicacy in
Asian restaurants). Last year, an
instructor at the business school
suggested they farm it for human
consumption, making the food far That Time Canada Beat
more accessible to the market.
Now OSU is working with chefs
in Portland to develop dulse dishes
Lewis and Clark to the West
and products like a rice cracker Meet the guy who wrote the CliffsNotes
and a salad dressing that have to crossing North America.
them particularly excited. So it’s
probably only a matter of time BY H A N N A H K E Y S E R

before it shows up for brunch.

A N YO N E W H O ’ S E V E R M A D E a cross-country trip knows the importance
of bringing along some good reading material. Just ask Meriwether Lewis,
who made his way west with William Clark in 1804, bringing with him a book
by Alexander Mackenzie—in which Mackenzie handily laid out how he’d crossed
North America 11 years earlier.
On July 3, 1793, Mackenzie, a Scotland-born fur trader, and his crew—two
native guides, seven assorted Canadians and Americans, and a dog named “Our
ILLUSTRATION BY ELLEN SURREY. STEPHEN WARD, OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY (ALGAE)

Dog”—had been sailing for nearly two months, searching for the Northwest
Passage to the Pacific Ocean, when they were forced to abandon their canoe
in British Columbia. It was the second time Mackenzie had tried to sail across
North America (an earlier attempt dumped him in the Arctic Ocean).
They continued over land, following a grease trail created by indigenous
people carrying fish oil from the Pacific. It took 12 days to travel the 180 miles to
another river. On July 22, they reached the Bella Coola delta, near modern-day
Vancouver, and Mackenzie became the first white guy to cross the continent.
Heading home, he wrote a book about his travels. More than a decade later,
Thomas Jefferson read Mackenzie’s book and gave Lewis and Clark their march-
ing orders, and thus, their legacy. (Canada, on the other hand, has poutine.)

FAST FACT

The first native English speaker to teach English in

Japan arrived in 1848. His name? Ranald MacDonald.
December 2015 mentalfloss.com 15
ALAMY
 LIVE SMARTER
MASTER YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
THE MOST BRILLIANT LIGHTER EVER
HOW TO PARTY LIKE IT’S 1809

THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD TO …

Get Lost!
The world’s longest hedge maze,
built on the estate of the Marquess
of Bath in 1975, is also one extreme
landscaping job. So confounding
are the 7-foot-tall walls, the maze
is dotted with flags on poles that
can be raised for rescue if any LONGLEAT
HEDGE MAZE
of Longleat’s 400,000 yearly
visitors find themselves hopelessly Warminster,
England
stuck. The grounds need to be LENGTH: 1.7 miles
trimmed twice a year, a job that SIZE: 1.5 acres
once required five gardeners and
a whole lot of scaffolding. But in
2012, that changed: The gardeners
are now equipped with aluminum
stilts so they can find their way
around with ease. So while maze
runners enjoy losing themselves,
the hedge trimmers get a different
experience: a bird’s-eye view of the
best backyard in England.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 17

BRAINTRAINER

Resolve to
Resolve Better THE LITTLE THINGS

BY FO ST E R K A M E R

It’s our yearly auld lang sigh: Why do New Year’s resolutions
persist, when history proves that so many people don’t
The
keep them? The fact is, people who make them are nearly
twice as likely to change their lives as those who don’t1. And
there are ways to put the odds in your favor. This year, get it
right once and for all.
Zippo
1 STOP TELLING PEOPLE. The urge—or pressure—to
tell people about how you’re planning to change
your life might be strong, but resist it. In fact, hide your
resolution from everyone. A 2009 New York University
Lighter
study2 concluded that when other people notice BY FO ST E R K A M E R
your new resolve, “one’s performance of the intended P H OTO G R A P H Y BY
behaviors is compromised.” It’s not that they’re going ROB CULPEPPER
to sabotage you—it’s that you will. Talking about the
person you want to be gives you a premature sense of
accomplishment, which hampers your desire to keep
working hard.
The Zippo’s In 1907, One night

2 THINK SMALL. THINK SIMPLE. When you father is Blaisdell’s Blaisdell was
George Grant parents gave up on at a country club
exercise self-control, it takes energy. Literally. Blaisdell of the school thing, when he saw a
Researchers monitored glucose levels in people who Bradford, training him in fellow member
Pennsylvania. His metalworking for lighting a cigarette
were using their willpower3. Their glucose levels dropped, childhood was only the family machine with an Austrian
and with them went their self-control. In other words: remarkable for factory. He took brass lighter—it
how much he over the factory, was windproof, but
We have only so much physical energy, and making too hated school—he selling it in 1920 ungainly. Blaisdell
many resolutions will dampen your chances of sticking dropped out in fifth and starting the knew he could
to one of them. Pick one, and remember: The resolutions grade and was Blaisdell Oil do better.
booted from Company.
people are likeliest to keep are both realistic and specific military school in
(vague, unrealistic resolutions are just asking for vague, seventh.
unrealistic results).

3 GO EASY ON YOURSELF. This might sound

counterintuitive, but it’s true: People with a greater
capacity for self-forgiveness are more likely to stay the
Blaisdell set
out to make a
windproof lighter
At first, the
Zippo didn’t
sell—it was, after
More than
500 million
lighters have been
that was functional, all, invented during sold since the
course after the inevitable slip-up. Attempt to understand sturdy, and the Great company began.
cool-looking. On Depression. But the The design has
why your mistake happened. Then try again: 71 percent of March 3, 1936, war effort would mostly stayed the
one study’s resolvers said their first slip-up was actually a patent 2,032,695-A boost its same. The
was approved. The popularity. They company is still in
significant boost to achieving their goal. Just remember: zipper had recently became nearly Bradford. And they
This won’t happen overnight. You might’ve heard that it been invented and standard issue on still honor the
takes 21 days to create a habit—research shows it’s more he liked the sound the battlefield for lifetime repair
of the word, so he their durability and warranty they’ve
like 904. borrowed it for his the ease with had since day one:
lighter’s name: which they could “It works or we fix
1
After six months, anywhere from 44 to 46 percent of resolution-makers the Zippo. be lit and stored. it free.”
have stuck to it! Via: “Auld Lang Syne: Success Predictors, Change
Processes, and Self-Reported Outcomes of New Year’s Resolvers and
Nonresolvers,” Journal of Clinical Psychology, April 2002, Norcross, J.
2
“When Intentions Go Public: Does Social Reality Widen the Intention-
Behavior Gap?” Psychological Science, May 2009, Gollwitzer, P.
3
“Self-Control Relies on Glucose as a Limited Energy Source,” Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 2007, Gailliot, M.
4
Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing Your Goals and Resolutions,
Norcross, J.

18 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 LIVE SMARTER

IT LOOKS SIMPLE,
BUT THE ZIPPO
IS A BRILLIANT
ARRANGEMENT
OF 20 DIFFERENT
WORKING PARTS. IT’S
REMAINED LARGELY
THE SAME SINCE 1946,
WHEN THE COMPANY
ADJUSTED THE
STRIKING WHEEL.

GET IT!
$17,
zippo.com

IN 1957, ZIPPO
STARTED IMPRINTING
LIGHTER BASES WITH
DOTS AND DASHES—A
QUALITY CONTROL
MECHANISM THAT
ALSO IDENTIFIED THE
MANUFACTURING
YEAR. NOW ZIPPO
USES LETTERS AND
NUMBERS.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 19

TRY THIS!
HOW TO SABER CHAMPAGNE
Because nothing says “party” like a big knife, pressurized booze,
and French military tradition.
BY FO ST E R K A M E R
P H OTO G R A P H Y BY R O B C U L P E P P E R
Opening Champagne with a sword may seem like
an obnoxious display of hedonism best reserved for
czars, princes, and regatta winners. Except: It’s a ton of
fun. And if you’re drinking Champagne to celebrate, why
not amp that celebration up a few gigawatts?1
One of the best parts of sabering is explaining its
history to whomever you’re with. The oft-repeated origin
myth for the art of sabrage invokes Napoleonic-era
French soldiers given Champagne before they set off to
battle, the presumption being that victory was imminent.
Comically, French soldiers found a bottle of Champagne
too cumbersome to uncork—especially while on
horseback—so they had a better idea: Use a sword! And
sabering was (supposedly) born.
1
We know you won’t really try this at home; we’re obviously just explaining how a professional would do it.
20 mentalfloss.com December 2015
The reason sliding a blade up the neck of a Champagne
bottle results in a clean opening—and not the comically
dramatic explosion pictured here—is a matter of pressure.
Champagne bottles hold around 90 PSI, almost three
times what car tires have in them. The standard bottle
of Champagne has a ¾-inch opening, which adds up
to 35 pounds of pressure on the cork. Add two stress
concentrations—the lip at the top of the bottle, and the
tiny, thin seam running up the bottle’s side—and you’ve got
something that’s ready to explode. When you drive a sword
up the bottle’s seam into its lip, the blunt force cracks the
bottle open where the seam and lip meet. If done correctly,
it cleanly lops the top right off, launching it up to 30 feet
and sending that sweet bubbly pouring right out. Cheers!
 LIVE SMARTER

(DON’T) TRY THIS

AT HOME
1 Ice your bottle. Put it in the freezer
or drop its neck into a bucket of ice
and water for 30 minutes. This will reduce
the pressure (so your cork won’t fly off) and
compress your glass, making it more prone
to a clean break. Rest the bottle upright for a
few minutes before proceeding.

2 Choose your weapon. No saber? Of

course not. You can buy one, but a
heavy kitchen knife will do just fine. Whatever
it is, it should have a handle that allows you a
firm grip. Don’t worry about the blade, or its
sharpness—you’ll be using the blunt side.

Ensure your safety. Wear protective

3
eyewear. In the event the bottle shatters
in your hand, a kitchen towel or a sturdy cloth
wrapped around the base of the bottle (where
you’ll hold it) always helps. And for the love
of Napoleon, make sure everyone’s standing
behind you.

4 Find the seam. There’s a barely visible

line running up the bottle to the lip.
That’s the path your saber will take.

5 Prep the bottle. Unwrap the foil at

the top, and take the wire cage off the
cork. Be delicate. That thing wants to explode.
Hold the blade in your dominant hand and
the bottle in the other, at an angle of about
30 degrees.

6 Off with its head! In one smooth, firm,

quick motion, run the blunt side of your
blade up the seam, smacking it into the lip.
The vibration and impact will knock the top
clear off the bottle. Make sure people have
their flutes ready, because bubbly is about to
come foaming out. Before you serve, inspect
the neck for loose shards of glass. Now bask
in the glory of your victorious sabering—the
next toast is to you.
 LEFT RIGHT
BRAIN BRAIN

The Dog
Frisbee
Pioneer
How one whippet changed canine
athletics (and got his owner arrested
in the process).

BY J A K E R O S S E N
I L LU ST R AT I O N BY BY R O N E G G E N S C H W I L E R

IT WAS THE TOP OF THE EIGHTH. The Los Angeles

Dodgers were playing the Cincinnati Reds in a game be-
ing nationally broadcast by NBC on August 5, 1974. Alex
Stein, a scruffy 19-year-old clad in shorts and a T-shirt,
walked from the parking lot into the ballpark with a dog
following a few feet behind him. Dogs were not allowed
on the premises. The security guard eyed Stein. “That
your dog?” he asked. “Never seen him before in my life,”
Stein answered.
As the guard took the trespasser by his collar and
shooed him into the lot, Stein found his seat in the top
row near the exit. A few moments later, with the guard’s
attention drifting elsewhere, the dog joined Stein and
settled in under his seat. In fact, he did belong to Stein,
and he had followed his owner’s scent into the bleachers.
Everything was going according to plan.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 23

 Stein watched the changeover Stein and Ashley,
at right, with Hyper
as the Dodgers came up to bat. Hank, an Australian
Then, just as the game was about sheepdog that also
excelled at Frisbee,
to resume, he ran down 26 steps to and his owner.
the retaining wall that separated
the seats from the field, stopped,
and tossed a Frisbee 40 yards. The dog, named Ashley
Whippet, bounded over the 3-foot wall and sunk his
teeth into the Frisbee before it could touch the ground.
The animal seemed to linger in the air like Jordan off
the rim, his muscled hind legs propelling him skyward.
The crowd roared, and as cameras trained their lenses
on the spectacle, the outfielders sat down on the grass
and watched.
With 50,000 people cheering in the stands and mil-
lions watching at home, Stein and his dog effectively in-
vented the phenomenon known as dog Frisbee.
NO ONE KNOWS WHO FIRST THOUGHT to launch a
Frisbee into the air and watch a dog chase it. Originally
named Pluto Platters, Frisbees were first marketed by the
Wham-O toy company in the late 1950s. They held an
inherent catch-and-fetch appeal, and while Stein knew
he wasn’t the first, he did know he was one of the few
taking it seriously.
As a sophomore at Ohio State University in 1971, Stein
received a 3-week-old puppy from his girlfriend, Lisa,
who had named the dog after Ashley Wilkes in Gone
With the Wind. Her family bred whippets, lean, muscu-
lar dogs reminiscent of greyhounds. Stein took Ashley
back to the house he shared with 10 other students and
quickly realized he didn’t own a dog dish.
“I didn’t want to use plates the guys ate off of,” he says,
24 mentalfloss.com December 2015
“so I grabbed a Frisbee, flipped it upside down, and
thought it made a good bowl.”
Ashley ate from the Frisbee every day. When Stein
dragged the empty disc across his bedroom floor with his
toe, he noticed Ashley staring at it like it held the secrets
of the universe. Before long, Stein was tossing it to the
dog outdoors and hanging it from a tree branch so Ashley
could take flying leaps to retrieve it.
Stein was a man of flexible plans. When winter came,
he decided he’d rather live in Florida as a warm college
dropout than in Ohio as a cold student. Once in their new
home of Palm Beach, Stein forged Ashley into an athlete.
Measuring just 21 inches at the shoulder and 28 pounds
on the scale, Ashley could leap 8 feet into the air from the
sand on the beach. “When he got back on grass, it was
like being on a trampoline,” Stein says. That firmer foot-
ing added another 12 inches to his jump.
Stein and Ashley went to the beach nearly every day for
years, attracting crowds who couldn’t believe the athleti-
cism of the dog, who caught most of Stein’s throws. After
performances, Stein would pass the Frisbee around,
looking for tips. As dollar bills piled up, Stein started to
think there might be a bigger audience for Ashley’s skills.
COURTESY THE ASHLEY WHIPPET MUSEUM
In 1974, the two headed for California, where Stein
marched into the offices of Wham-O and told them he
had a dog unlike any they had ever seen. They weren’t in-
terested. (Though he left with a few collectible Frisbees.)
Stein then tried cold-calling talent agencies, most of
whom didn’t deal with animals or didn’t understand
what Stein was trying to pitch. A neighbor in Manhattan
Beach who was an agent shook his head when Stein sug-
gested he throw a cape on Ashley to advertise Domino’s
Pizza. No one shared Stein’s enthusiasm.

That’s when he came up with a wild idea: storming
Dodger Stadium. A radio broadcast mentioned that the
Reds would be in town, and so would NBC’s cameras.
Stein figured it was his chance to get Ashley discovered—
even if he did get arrested. He expected he could get three
or four throws in before being hauled off, maybe a min-
ute of exposure. That would be enough time to capture
the attention of thousands of fans. In the end, “the police
report said we were out there for eight minutes,” he says.
“I think security knew that trying to catch a dog running
that fast would not be a good idea.”
When Stein left the field, he jogged up the same set
of stairs he’d come down on. Security was waiting. They
zip-tied his wrists and ushered him to a holding cell full
of drunks and thieves. Ashley remained on the field, con-
fused. He wanted to keep playing.
THE PLAN HAD GONE EVEN BETTER than anticipated.
While Stein was still in the stadium’s holding tank, a man
handed him a card through the bars. He was the halftime
coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams and wanted the
two to appear at their next home game.
Stein was elated. But there was one big problem. In the
chaos after the game, Ashley had vanished. Stein called
television stations and newspapers to spread the word.
Three days after the game, an article caught the attention
of a woman in Long Beach whose son had just brought
home a dog of unusual aerial skills. She called Stein.
“I go to this house and call his name,” he says. “And he
comes bounding over the backyard patio.”
Reunited, Stein and Ashley wasted no time mak-
ing the rounds. In addition to the Rams games—where
Ashley prepared for his performance by peeing on the
goalpost—the two were booked on Merv Griffin, The
Tonight Show, and Mike Douglas. The ensuing media at-
tention also changed the minds of Wham-O executives,
who signed on to co-sponsor the First
Annual Fearless Fido Frisbee Fetching MEASURING JUST 21
Fracas dog competition. Ashley’s stunt
INCHES, ASHLEY
had inspired the contest, but when
Stein showed up to enter Ashley, he COULD LEAP 9 FEET
was told he wasn’t allowed. IN THE AIR.
“Your dog,” an official said, “is a pro-
fessional. This is for amateurs.”
An upstart Australian sheepdog named Hyper Hank
won the Fracas and would go on to perform with Stein
and Ashley during their pregame, halftime, and race-
track appearances. In one record-setting sprint, Ashley
ran 106 yards, almost the length of the football field, to
make a catch.
Thanks to Ashley, canine athletics had become a cottage
industry. The new popularity of dogs and discs prompted
the World Frisbee Championships to begin offering a ca-
nine division in 1975. The rules were simple: The winner
was the dog who could retrieve the most throws in under
two minutes, each at least 15 yards out. Contestants got ex-
tra points if all four paws left the ground during their catch. lege and not being allowed in if Ashley wasn’t with him.
In the nascent world of dog athletics, Ashley was
LEFT BRAIN RIGHT BRAIN
LeBron James playing pickup basketball. He won the
world title three years in a row, sometimes receiving a
free pass to the finals as the incumbent champion. By
1978, Stein says, the organization wanted Ashley to step
aside and become an ambassador; the contest was later
renamed the Ashley Whippet Invitational.
LIKE ANY PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE, Ashley moved on
to a series of lucrative endorsement deals. He appeared
in ads for dog food companies; Stein would name-drop
the brands during their many television appearances. At
the height of Ashley’s fame in the late 1970s, Stein was
pulling in $50,000 in sponsorship money annually. “It
wasn’t always sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll,” Stein quips.
“But some days it was.”
Irv Lander, Wham-O’s publicity hound and director of
the International Frisbee Association, helped book many
of their appearances. (He also convinced Wham-O to pay
Stein’s $250 fine for trespassing on the baseball field.)
He kept writing to the White House and insisting Ashley
would be an excellent play partner for the Carter family’s
dog, Grits. Lander was so persistent they finally agreed. In
1977, Stein and Ashley showed Amy Carter, the president’s
daughter, how to perform some simple Frisbee tricks.
Stein began getting requests for Ashley’s offspring. But
of the 60-odd puppies the dog sired, only three showed
any real intuition for the game. It wasn’t his breed or his
lineage that made Ashley successful, but his rigorous
years of training and innate desire to fetch.
Ashley and Stein continued to appear at football games
throughout the early 1980s. Though long retired from
active competition, Ashley could still dart across a field.
It seemed like age would never catch up with him.
Then, in 1984, the normally mild Ashley got into
a fight with one of his pups, who was eager to become
the alpha dog. Ashley was put on injury reserve, stay-
ing home while Stein traveled with
three of his offspring—Lady Ashley,
Ashley Whippet Junior, and Ashley
Whippet III—as the Ashley Whippet
Invitational Celebrity Touring Team.
The pioneer would never again
take the field. He died in Stein’s arms
on March 11, 1985, of natural causes at age 13. Sports
Illustrated eulogized him (“… he was a giant in his field,
both a Naismith and a Ruth, the creator of a sport and its
greatest practitioner”). A heartbroken Stein traveled for a
few more years with Ashley’s family before calling it quits
to run a deli in Vermont.
Today, the Ashley Whippet Invitational hosts more
than 20 regional and international competitions lead-
ing up to a finals event each October. The sight of a dog
catching a Frisbee is no longer a novelty, but few have
been able to duplicate Ashley’s formidable speed and
grace—or, for that matter, his personality.
Stein remembers showing up to house parties in col-
“That dog,” he says, “was loved by everybody.”
December 2015 mentalfloss.com 25
T H E M E NTA L _ F LO S S

ALAMY (SIMMONS, MANZANO). GETTY (NABOKOV). CORBIS (LIL BUB). ISTOCK (LINCOLN)
NABOKOV’S
SECRET
WEAPON
P. 30

A VERY
MERRY
PRANKSTER
P. 35

26 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 There’s a canon
of very important
people everyone
already knows.
This is the one you
should know.1

COOLEST.
TEACHER.
EVER.
P. 37

THE
UNIVERSAL
DEN MOTHER
P. 59

THANKS,
THOMAS
EDISON!
P. 34

1
Note: We have a
pretty liberal definition
of the word people.
THE
M E NTAL
FLOSS

The Original
Biker Chick
Annie Cohen Kopchovsky had only
touched a bicycle twice in her life
NO. 500 when, one day in early June 1894,
Annie the Boston mother of three mounted
Londonderry one and headed west. Armed with a
(1870-1947), USA revolver and a change of underwear,
she’d accepted a challenge posed by
two local men over an argument:
that the modern woman couldn’t do everything a man
could—like, say, fund her own trip around the world.
Kopchovsky stood to win $10,000 if she could bicycle
around the world in 15 months, earning herself $5,000
along the way.
So she did the natural thing: She turned herself into
a bicycling billboard, selling ads to sponsors to fund her
adventure. For $100 she agreed to go by “Annie Lon-
donderry” as a promo for the Londonderry Lithia Spring
Water Company. She first pedaled to Chicago and back,
then sailed to France, rode around Egypt, and hit Asia,
collecting more cash all the way. When she returned to
the United States 15 months later, she regaled the press
with tales of time spent in a Japanese prison and on tiger
hunts in India with German royalty.
Whether these tales were true wasn’t the point. In
fact, there’s doubt the wager that inspired the trip ever
happened at all. More likely, the entire adventure was
an ambitious marketing ploy: a clever plot Kopchovsky
hatched to fund an incredible journey just for the fun of
it—and to make the case that, indeed, a modern woman
could do everything a man could.

A DV ER T ISEMENT

BOLD FACT NO. 14938

A DESERT TORTOISE CAN
GO A FULL YEAR WITHOUT
CONSUMING FRESH WATER.

Professional drivers on closed course. Do not attempt. Prototype shown with options.

28 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 NO.
499. Bertha Benz
(1849-1944), GERMANY 495 In 2010, this
aquarium octopus
She unintention- successfully picked
ally made history 11 out of 13 World
when, in 1888, she Cup winners. When
took her teenage Germany lost to
sons on a 65-mile WILLIAM JONES Spain in the semi-
car ride now recog- (1675-1749), WALES finals, fans threat-
nized as the world’s ened to kidnap and
first road trip. cook him.
498. Vesta Stoudt
Until 1706, pi was known 489. Paul Krugman
(1953- ), USA
(1891-1966), USA
The mother of as “the quantity which, Before Krugman
two Navy sailors was a Nobel-
complained to when the diameter is winning econo-
President Franklin mist, he wrote
Roosevelt that multiplied by it, yields the “The Theory of
ammo boxes took Interstellar Trade,”
too long to open, circumference.” Jones a comical paper
on how moving at
and suggested a
rippable, cloth- started using  › , making the speed of light
would affect inter-
based tape take
its place on the math homework simpler est rates.
battlefield. Voilà! 488. Tycho Brahe
Duct tape. for generations to come. (1546-1601), SWEDEN
Brahe made major
497. Joseph contributions to
Friedman astronomy, like
(1900-1982), USA calculating the po-
After watching his sition of Mars, de-
toddler daughter spite not having a
struggle to sip a 494. Aryabhata worked out by
telescope. He also
milk shake, Fried- (476-550), INDIA carrying a calf supposedly owned
man invented the An Indian math- every day—from a pet elk, and hired
bendy straw. It’s ematician, Aryab- the day it was born a clairvoyant jester
since been cited in hata found pi 1,200 until it was a full- who told fortunes
patents for tampon years before the sized ox. On top of from under the
applicators and Europeans did. having the world’s dinner table.
smartphone socket 493. Olympias
most ripped
core, he won six 487. Harrison
extensions. (375-316 BCE),
Olympic medals Schmitt
MACEDONIA
and studied with (1935- ), USA
496 Alexander the
Great’s mom was Pythagoras. An Apollo 17
FEBB BURN astronaut, Schmitt
(20TH C.), USA
pretty, well, great. 491. Fanny landed on the
When legislators She slept with Blankers-Koen moon in 1972 and
snakes, claimed
ILLUSTRATION BY GARY MUSGRAVE

debated the 19th (1918-2004), started feeling ill.

Amendment for to have been NETHERLANDS Years of training
women’s suf- impregnated by Dubbed the couldn’t prepare
frage, Burn’s son, Zeus, and ran the “female athlete of him for what he
Harry, became the empire while Alex the century,” the soon learned—he
deciding vote. He was out of town on sprinter won four was allergic to
opposed it until “business.” gold medals at the moon dust.
his mother mailed 1948 Olympics ...
492. Milo of Croton 486. Katherine
him a letter saying, while pregnant.
(6TH C. BCE), ITALY Johnson
‘’Don’t forget to be The wrestler did 490. Paul the (1918- ), USA
a good boy.” He CrossFit before Octopus This NASA math
changed his mind. it was cool. He (2008-2010), GERMANY guru calculated

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 29

 THE
M E NTAL
FLOSS

10 Unlikely Influencers Who

Dese r ve Their Own Acclaim
The assistants and supporters of legends
are heroes in their own right.

Christopher Ludwig During (made not of wood, but of hippo-

485
the Revolutionary War, the
Continental Congress appointed him
“superintendent of bakers, and
director of baking, in the Grand
Army of the United States.” In 1777,
he visited Valley Forge to feed
exhausted American soldiers and
helped troops survive the brutally
cold winter.
Ida Young Kurt Vonnegut
484
described his childhood cook
and housekeeper as one of the
biggest influences on his life: “The
compassionate, forgiving aspects of
my beliefs came from Ida Young.”
potamus ivory and gold wire). When
Washington’s last tooth fell out, he
gave it to Greenwood as a gift.
Arthur Alexander He wrote
480
songs covered by the Beatles,
Elvis Presley, Tina Turner, the Rolling
Stones, and Bob Dylan. In 1987, Paul
McCartney admitted, “We wanted to
sound like Arthur Alexander.”
Yakima Canutt The stuntman
479
and son of a rancher mentored
and did stunts for John Wayne, who
modeled his on-screen persona on
Canutt.

Morris Karnofksy A Jewish Tenzing Norgay Sir Edmund

483
Lithuanian coal merchant, he
helped Louis Armstrong pay for his
first cornet. For the rest of his life,
Armstrong wore a Star of David
around his neck to remember
Karnofsky’s kindness.
Peter Dinklage’s Dog-Sitter
482
When Game of Thrones actor
Peter Dinklage won the Emmy for
Outstanding Supporting Actor in
2011, he thanked his dog-sitter, Kitty.
“She’s an important person in my
life,” he said.
John Greenwood As George
481
Washington’s dentist, he made
the president four sets of dentures
478
Hillary gets credit for summit-
ting Mount Everest, but it was the
Nepali Sherpa who saved him from
tumbling into a crevasse.
Vera Nabokov She was muse,
477
editor, translator, agent, and
security guard, wielding a handgun
to protect her husband, Vladimir.
When he tried to light his manuscript
for Lolita on fire, she saved it.
Susan Wojcicki Before
476
she was YouTube’s CEO,
Wojcicki paid off her mortgage by
renting her garage to two Stanford
University students. Her tenants
founded Google.
ILLUSTRATION BY CARMEN SEGOVIA

the flight paths for computer’s math est to get the stuff pardon plea, which a while since you 472. Madam C.J.
every major space for errors. (older, hairy men, the Texas governor last updated your Walker
program from for the record). approved. He went extensive playlist (1867-1919), USA
475. Karl
Project Mercury on to become one of Armenian America’s first
Kruszelnicki 474. Lead Belly
through the space of the most cov- hymns, but we self-made female
(1948- ), AUSTRALIA (1888-1949), USA
shuttle. Her work ered and copied recommend millionaire, Walker
Without his Huddie “Lead musicians of all
was so accurate pioneering study Belly” Ledbetter Khosrovidukht’s started a line of
time.
that, when NASA on the belly button got out of prison “Zarmanali e Ints.” popular beauty
switched to com- lint of nearly 5,000 after a musicolo- 473. Khosrovidukht She’s the world’s products after
puters, they asked people, we’d never gist recorded the (8TH C.), ARMENIA first known female having a dream in
her to check the know who’s likeli- virtuoso guitarist’s It’s probably been musician. which a man told

30 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 her how to boost He shot back some You know Saint reidolia.” The find-
hair growth. of the greatest Nick for inspiring ings? Your English A DV ER T ISEMENT
last words ever Santa Claus, but muffin isn’t staring
471. Virginia Woolf
(1882-1941), ENGLAND spoken: “Now now, the patron saint of at you. You’re just
She has a reputa- dear sir, this is not repentant thieves hardwired to
tion as a serious the time to be and reformed pros- see faces.
novelist, but Woolf making enemies.” titutes was also
once fooled all of known for chal-
lenging heretics
460
London by don- ROBERT
ning a fake beard to fistfights. And MATTHEWS
and dressing as an winning. (1959- ), ENGLAND
Abyssinian prince. 462. Saint Paul A scientist at Aston
She even snuck (5-67), TURKEY University, Mat-
onto a Navy boat Christianity’s great- thews conducted a
and got the royal est proselytizer, study that dropped
treatment. Paul is arguably as 21,000 pieces of
470. D.H. Lawrence
464. Thespis influential as Jesus. buttered toast,
(1885-1930), ENGLAND (6TH C. BCE), GREECE Not to brag, but he finding that the
Lawrence enjoyed The first person to wrote 14 of the 27 toast landed but-
climbing mulberry appear on a stage books in the New tered side down 62
trees—naked. He playing a character Testament. percent of the time.
said it “stimulated instead of speaking
461. Jiangang Liu
his thoughts.” as himself, he’s why 459. Matthew
(21ST C. ), CHINA
actors are called
thespians. (He
In 2014, Liu co- Henson BOLD FACT NO. 3487
469 also invented
authored the study (1866-1955), USA
ANNETTE the tragedy.)
“Seeing Jesus in Give a toast to the ANTARCTICA IS
Toast: Neural and first black Arctic
KOWALSKI
(1944- ), USA 463. Saint Nicholas Behavioral Cor- explorer and THE WORLD’S
In 1982, Kowalski (270-343), TURKEY relates of Face Pa- Robert Peary’s LARGEST DESERT.
joined a five-day
painting seminar.
The teacher? Bob
Ross. She was so
impressed with 8 REAL SUPERPOWERS OF REAL PEOPLE
his skill that she
eventually pitched
his show to PBS.
The rest is happy 458 The Super-Sight of 454-452 The Extra Endur-
little history. Veronica Seider This German ance of Tarahumara
dentist with 20/2 vision (20 Children Thanks to low
468. Wangari
times better than average) resting heart rates, people
Maathai can identify people from a of this tribe from northwest-
(1940-2011), KENYA mile away and once wrote a ern Mexico regularly run
Between planting 20-verse poem on a thumb- 200 miles—in two days. In
51 million trees nail-size piece of paper—sans the 1920s, when they were
and helping train magnifying glass. invited to run a marathon
30,000 women in Kansas, they purportedly
457 The Hot Hands of sent three kids to run the
in a trade, it’s no
wonder she was Tibetan Monks The Dalai mere 26.2 miles.
the first African Lama has helped spread
the practice of tummo medi- 451 The Incredible
woman to receive
a Nobel Prize. tation, in which monks raise Insomnia of Ferdinando
the temperature of their Pavoni Plenty of doctors
467. Pericles extremities by 17 degrees. pull odd hours, but this
(495-429 BCE), GREECE For fun, they drape each Italian physician beats
This promoter of other with wet sheets on cold them all. Until his death in
the arts and litera- nights to see who can dry the 1950, he hadn’t slept in 60
ture is responsible most sheets before dawn. years! He relaxed at night by
for kickstarting reading the works of Homer,
the Acropolis. He’s 456 The Groovy Mind of Virgil, and Dante (which he
the dead guy Arthur Lintgen After a friend eventually memorized).
keeping Greek joked that Lintgen knew so
tourism alive. much about classical music 450 The Super-Strength of
he could identify records by Louis Cyr The French-Cana-
466. Aziz Ansari
(1983- ), USA
reading their grooves, he dian could resist the pull of
tried it—and found that he four horses and lift a plat-
In 2013, the come-
could. In 1981, he correctly form holding 18 men onto his
dian tested new
identified 20 of 20 albums back. In 1896 he lifted 552
material by asking
before a live audience. pounds with a finger.
his audiences to
submit basic per- 455 The Furious Fluen- 449 The Ridiculous Re-
sonal information:
cy of Francis Sommer flexes of Isao Machii
gender, age, and Able to speak 94 As in the Matrix,
relationship status. languages, the Machii has superhu-
Then he tweaked Cleveland librarian man hand-eye coor-
his act based on said, “I am afraid dination. An expert
the demographic. to cram any more swordsman, he can
Who knew big words into my halve tennis balls
data could lead to head. Either the hurtling at 400
big laughs? top will come off, mph. One time,
465.Voltaire or I will wake he sliced a BB
ISTOCK (MASKS)

(1694-1778), FRANCE up speaking pellet traveling

Funny to the end, Babel.” 217 mph.
Voltaire was asked Professional drivers on closed course.
to renounce Satan Do not attempt.
on his deathbed.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 31

 THE 445. Dean Karnazes that a special gel in physics helped After his 15-month-
M E NTAL (1962- ), USA the banana’s skin create the math old son was
FLOSS After running 50 makes the peel we know today— diagnosed with
marathons in 50 more slippery than even though juvenile arthritis,
days, Karnazes other fruits. she couldn’t teach Jacuzzi designed a
tried running home under her own pump that turned
right-hand man; to fully circle the to San Francisco— name (and didn’t his bathtub into
he helped the globe, Baré tricked all the way from 443 get paid) for most a therapeutic
expedition reach 300 sailors into New York. He quit ERATOSTHENES
of her career whirlpool.
the North Pole. thinking she was a in Missouri, but not (276-194 BCE),
ALEXANDRIA because she was a
man (ladies weren’t because he was 439. Roscoe Turner
448. James Holman The Greek woman. (1895-1970), USA
(1786-1857), ENGLAND allowed on Navy tired; he was bored
and wanted to see mathematician 441. Julia Warhola Flying planes is
Despite his blind- ships). The ruse
his family. once accurately (1892-1972), SLOVAKIA one thing; flying
ness, the Naval worked until she measured the When Andy Warhol a plane with a pet
Knight of Windsor hit Tahiti, where na- 444. Kiyoshi earth’s circumfer- was little, his mom lion named Gilm-
circumnavigated tives outed her. Mabuchi ence—with a stick. encouraged him ore as your co-pilot
the globe alone (21ST C.), JAPAN
446. Elspeth Beard to draw and often is quite another.
in 1832 and, by Slipping on a way- served him Camp-
(1957- ), ENGLAND 442. Emmy Noether
ward banana peel 438. Lilian Bland
1851, had visited As a student, Beard bell’s soup for
is a classic comedy (1882-1935), GERMANY (1878-1971), ENGLAND
every inhabited zipped around the lunch. When her
gag, but are the When Einstein calls The original Mac-
continent. To get world alone on an son finally made it
fruits really floor you a “mathemati- Gyver, this aviator
around, he used old motorcycle big, she’d claim, “I
hazards? In a 2012 cal genius,” you built her own plane
echolocation. she rebuilt herself, am Andy Warhol!”
paper, “Frictional know you’ve done from spruce, bam-
447. Jeanne Baré covering more Coefficient Under something great. 440. Candido boo, canvas, an old
(1740-1807), FRANCE than 48,000 miles Banana Skin,” his Noether’s work Jacuzzi whiskey bottle, and
The first woman in three years. team discovered in algebra and (1903-1986), USA an ear trumpet.

THE LEFT-HANDERS’ HALL OF FAME

437
In 1931, Quincy
436 Hershey made
Eudora Welty— history filing patent
along with her US1846867A for
mother and uncles— “convertible right-
was a lefty, but her and left-handed
father taught her scissors.”
to be ambidex-
trous.
435-434
Each year at
Juniata College in
Pennsylvania, two
incoming student
southpaws receive
scholarships of
up to $1,500.

ALAMY (WELTY, FLANDERS, HENDRIX, FLEISHER, MISS PIGGY), ISTOCK (KANGAROO, APPLE, SLINKY)
433
Jimi Hendrix
restrung his
guitars and flipped
them upside down
to play left-
handed. 432
A 2015 Current
Biology study by
Andrey Giljov found
that kangaroos use
their left hands
95 percent of
431 the time.
The Simpsons’
Ned Flanders’
“Leftorium” store
was fictional until
a lefty emporium
opened in San
Francisco in
2008.

429
After concert
430 pianist Leon
Miss Piggy is a Fleisher lost control
lefty. That’s because of his right hand in
puppeteers tend to 1964, he continued
use their right hand performing with
to control the head, just his left
the left for arms. hand.

32 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 NO.
428
CHASER
(2004- ), USA
This border collie has
the largest memory of
any non-human animal.
Using the same inferential
skills as toddlers, she can
identify 1,000 words and
knows the difference
between nouns and verbs.
427. Agent 355
(18TH C.), USA
A Revolutionary
War hero, Agent
355 was a prized
member of George
Washington’s spy
ring, snooping on
Brits in Manhattan.
Her identity is still
a secret.
426. Odoric of
Pordenone
(1286-1331), ITALY
Something of an
early diplomat,
this Franciscan
monk traveled all
the way to China
in the early 1300s.
Sir John Mandev-
ille stole from his
travel journals for
his work.
425. Sir John
Mandeville
(C. 1300-1371), ENGLAND
His book, The
Travels of Sir John
Mandeville, was a
medieval bestseller
and inspired Chris-
topher Columbus’s
career! Except that
most of it was pure
plagiarism and lies.
Mandeville—who
might not have
existed—claimed
to discover islands
of ox-worshipping
people with the
heads of dogs, cy-
clopes, and a tribe
A DV ER T ISEMENT
16
Accidental
Geniuses
The inventor of plastic
420
is what Leo Baekeland
became while searching for a
replacement for shellac, the
resin secreted by lac bugs.
419
The father of Sweet ’n
Low, chemist Constan-
tin Fahlburg, was experiment- BOLD FACT NO. 14098
ing with coal tar one evening THE FASTEST
in 1877. He forgot to wash his MOTORCYCLE
hands before dinner and
CAUGHT SPEEDING
found everything he tasted
was unusually sweet. He had
WAS GOING 205 MPH
discovered saccharin. IN A 65 MPH ZONE.
The inventor of
of dwarves who 418
lived off the smell
Vaseline, Robert
of wild apples. Chesebrough, noticed gunk
424. Blas de Lezo called rod wax collecting on
(1689-1741), SPAIN oil rigs. He realized it could
A one-eyed, one-
replace lubricants, and ate a
legged, one-armed
pirate hunter, de spoonful daily.
Lezo managed to
fend off 195 British The discover-
ships in 1741 ... with 417 TO 413
a fleet of just six. ers of the
423. William
Lascaux cave—18-year-old
Dampier Marcel Ravidat, his dog
(1651-1715), ENGLAND
Robot, and three friends—
A pirate and
were roaming the forests
naturalist, Charles
Darwin’s unofficial near Montignac, France, in
reconnaissance September 1940 when Robot
man in the Gala-
pagos coined the began sniffing around a hole
word subspecies. in the ground. They ventured
in and found a cave with
422 Paleolithic paintings dating
CHING SHIH
(1775-1844), CHINA
back 17,000 years.
Sorry, Blackbeard.
The greatest pirate The excava-
of all time was 412 TO 406
tors of the
a woman who
managed 40,000 Terra-Cotta Army, seven
other pirates, Chinese farmers unearthed a
fought off the
life-size army of 8,000 clay
Chinese, British,
and Portuguese soldiers from the 3rd century
navies—and was while digging a well in 1974.
never captured.
The Slinky was born in
421. Rabban Bar 405
1943 when Richard
Sauma
(1220-1294), CHINA James was designing a
A reverse Marco battleship power monitor.
Polo, he trekked
from Beijing to
Bordeaux, France.
His writings give
a rare outside Professional drivers on closed course.
perspective of Do not attempt.
medieval Europe.
December 2015 mentalfloss.com 33
 THE The eccentric
M E NTAL exterminator who
FLOSS promoted himself
as “rat and mole
destroyer to Her
Majesty,” Black
404. Eduardo Kac explored London’s
(1962- ), USA sewers with a le-
In 2000, Kac con- gion of pet ferrets,
vinced a French which helped him
lab to pluck some catch vermin.
green fluorescent
proteins from a 397. Larry the Cat
jellyfish and (2007- ), ENGLAND
inject them into Since Henry
a fertilized rabbit VIII, the British
egg. The result? government has
A glow-in-the- employed a Chief
dark rabbit. Mouser. Larry re-
ports to the prime
minister and holds
403 an indefinite term.
MICHAEL
JACKSON 396. Nim Chimpsky
(1958-2009), USA (1973-2000), USA
The King of Pop Named after
had slick moves, linguist Noam
but he had help Chomsky, the
with his patented chimpanzee
“Smooth Criminal reportedly learned
Lean.” Literally. fragmented sign
In 1993, Jackson language. Which,
patented a pair of frankly, is better
gravity-defying than most humans
shoes. manage.
395. Molly the Cow
402. Henry Ford (C. 2006- ), USA
(1863-1947), USA After escap-
Ford mass- ing a Montana
produced every- slaughterhouse,
thing, including Molly led police on
enthusiasm for a six-hour chase,
square dancing. dodged a train,
He started a and forged the
national dance Missouri River
program and before getting
required factory caught. Impressed,
workers to attend the packing plant
dance classes. owner granted
Molly her freedom.
She now lives on
a farm.

401. Thomas

The First Pop Star

Edison
(1847-1931), USA
In 1894, he re- 394. Temple
corded the world’s Grandin
first cat video. (1947- ), USA
One of the first
400. Jessica Gall
Born into slavery in 1848, Tom Wiggins seemed like a autistic people
Myrick to earn a PhD,
(21ST C.), USA strange kid. When he’d hear a rooster crow, he’d crow
In 2014, more than
2 million cat videos
NO. 398 back. He’d drag furniture across the floor just to hear
Grandin is also the
world’s foremost
expert on humane
were posted on Tom it make a sound. And when he’d hear his slave-master’s livestock handling.
YouTube, garner- Wiggins
ing nearly 26 bil- daughter play piano, he’d hop onto the bench and re- 393-390. The
lion views. Myrick, (1849-1908), create the piece perfectly, despite not being able to read Monuments Men
a professor at USA (1943-1946), USA
Indiana University, music, since he was blind. In fact, Wiggins could play This task force—
ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON LOVING

published a study any tune after hearing it just once, and once he’d played George Stout,
to see how they it, he had it memorized. Soon the 6-year-old prodigy was a sensation, James Rorimer,
affected our well- Walker Hancock,
being. Her conclu- selling out Georgia concert houses and touring nationally. He became the and Ralph Ham-
sion? A video of Lil first African American to perform at the White House and packed concert mett, among
Bub is more than others—saved
entertainment: It’s halls around the globe, making him one of the first internationally known thousands of
legitimate therapy. popular musicians. Historians later determined he was an autistic savant pieces of priceless
art from ruin by
399. Jack Black who had a vocabulary of just 100 words. That didn’t stop him from pulling the Nazis.
(19TH C.), ENGLAND
(No relation in as much as $100,000 annually. Mark Twain was so mesmerized by his 389. Irena Sendler
to Jack Black.) music, he swore that Wiggins was an angel. (1910-2008), POLAND

34 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 World War II’s A few years later, landfills, turning
Harriet Tubman, he bought out the trash into jewelry,
Sendler smuggled 10 FACES YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU KNOW other sharehold- art, and furniture.
more than 2,500 ers and built a Dos Santos fights
Jewish children soft drink empire: for each worker’s
out of Poland. Coca-Cola. The rest rights to a living
388. Luis Martins
is history. wage—represent-
de Souza Dantas ing about 800,000
369. Princess
people.
(1876-1954), BRAZIL Ennigaldi-Nanna
Brazil’s ambas- (C. 500 BCE),
sador to France BABYLONIA
granted diplomatic The high priestess
visas to anyone curated the world’s
who wanted to first museum of
escape the Nazis, 382 381 380 antiquity … during
despite his supe- Rosie the Riveter Sacajawea Nevermind’s antiquity.
riors forbidding The iconic image How do you end Cover Baby 368. John Lomax
it. He saved some was based on cel- up on the U.S. Spencer Elden’s (1867-1948), USA
800 lives. list Geraldine Hoff. Mint’s newest dad got $200 to This pioneering 363. The Roomba
Hoff actually did coin? Ask the mom toss his baby son musicologist pre- (2002- ), USA
work in a factory, of Randy’L He-dow into a pool for a
387 but quit, fearing in- Teton, who signed photo shoot—for
served thousands What other robot
vacuum has sold
SUSILO BAMBANG of folk songs. With-
jury to her hands. her up for the gig. Nirvana. more than 10
YUDHOYONO out him, “Little Do-
(1949- ), INDONESIA gies” wouldn’t “Git million units
Since becoming Along,” and we’d worldwide, played
president of Indo- have no “Home on a pivotal role on
nesia, Yudhoyono the Range.” Breaking Bad, and
has released three serves as a viral
transportation
pop music albums.
His last was titled
367-365 system for cats?
THE NYACK
I’m Sure I’ll Get 362-351 The
GHOSTS
There, which is a (UNDEAD), USA Wrecking Crew
great slogan for (1962-1975), USA
In 1989, Jeffrey
any politician. 379 378 377 In the 1960s and
Stambovsky
Coppertone Baby Captain Birdseye Sun-Maid Girl bought a house ’70s, recording
386. Kim Jong-il Cheri Brand was The Birds Eye A Sun-Maid haunted by three artists didn’t have
(1941-2011), NORTH the 3-year-old frozen food mas- executive spotted ghosts. The owner to play a single
KOREA daughter of Joyce cot was portrayed Lorraine Collett hadn’t told him chord in the studio.
While nobody Ballantyne Brand, by English theater in her backyard— about them, and Instead, they en-
outside of North who drew the ad actor John Hewer and asked her when Stambovsky listed this prolific
Korea was a fan for $2,500 in 1959. for 31 years. to model. found out, he sued. group of incognito
of the dictator’s The New York Ap- musicians who
politics or human pellate Court ruled laid tracks for
rights record, he that if you unwit- everybody from
supposedly wrote tingly buy a known the Beach Boys
six operas that, haunted house, to Cher.
according to his you can break the 350. Mehter Band
official biography, contract. (C. 1300), OTTOMAN
are “better than EMPIRE
any in the history Seven hundred
of music.” He also 364. Tião dos years before John
wrote the book On Santos Philip Sousa, the
ALAMY (ROSIE, NEVERMIND, AMERICAN GOTHIC). ISTOCK (SUNMAID RAISINS, SACAJAWEA COIN, CAT)

the Art of Opera. (21ST C.), BRAZIL

mehters were the
376 375 374-373 In Brazil, scav-
385. Ahmad al-Buni world’s first march-
Coca-Cola’s Chiquita American engers called ing band. Each
(13TH C.), ALGERIA
Santa Claus Banana Lady Gothic “Couple” catadores roam musician doubled
An Arab mathema- Lou Prentiss, a Carmen Miranda’s Nan Wood and B.H.
tician, al-Buni has kind-faced retired tutti frutti hat in McKeeby were
helped millions salesman, mod- 1943’s The Gang’s (respectively) the
burn time. His eled for his friend, All Here inspired sister and dentist NO.
“magic squares” painter Haddon the Chiquita Ba- of artist Grant
are basically
ancient Sudoku
Sundblom. nana illustration. Wood. 349
puzzles.
384. Abraham
Lincoln
(1809-1865), USA CAROLYN HOPKINS
Teenage prankster (C. 1948- ), USA
is full of non-native State universi- anything—books
Abe noticed two
animals and plants ties analyzed the were chained to
boys playing
that can hurt an topography of shelves! Dury
barefoot by a mud
puddle. Sensing
ecosystem. Bun an IHOP pancake suggested making If you travel, you know
an opportunity, Lai, a sushi chef, is and compared it libraries public to
he brought them tackling the prob- with the state of communicate “all Hopkins. Her folksy voice
into his house, held lem with his palate. Kansas. It’s true: good things freely
them upside down, His Connecticut Kansas is flatter to others.” booms over the PA system
and asked them restaurant, Miya’s than a pancake.
370. Asa Griggs
to “walk” across Sushi, serves
invasive species as
371. John Dury Candler of 200 airports, countless
the ceiling, leaving (1596-1680), SCOTLAND (1851-1929), USA
a trail of brown delicacies.
Before Dury, most Candler knew a train stations, and the New
footprints. (He 372. Mark Fonstad libraries weren’t deal when he saw
had to repaint the (1973- ), USA open to the public. one. In 1888, he York City subway. Those
ceiling.) In 2003, Fonstad And if you were bought stake in an
383. Bun Lai and two other allowed inside, you unknown, cocaine- automated TV weather
(1971- ), USA researchers from were forbidden laced drink from its
The environment Texas and Arizona from borrowing inventor for $550. warnings? That’s her too.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 35

 THE
A DV ER T ISEMENT M E NTAL Elizabeth
FLOSS 347
Tower
Erroneously called
7 Pe ople Who Big Ben (that’s the
clock bell’s name), the
Built Our World tower was designed
in 1852 by Augustus
You know the buildings, Welby Northmore
but do you know Pugin, who wins
the people who made mental_floss’s coveted
BOLD FACT NO. 8265 “The Most British
them possible?
THE EARLIEST BIKE Name Ever” award.
HELMETS WERE
MADE OF CORK.
348
Château de
Chenonceau
Katherine Briçonnet
was history’s first
female architect,
overseeing work on
the 16th-century
French château.

as an infantryman,
making for rather
interesting “this THE REAL INSPIRATIONS OF 10 POP HITS
one time at band
camp” jokes.
341. Encino Man 337 Vince Neil of Mötley 333 Caroline Kennedy,
(STONE AGE), SAHARA Crüe has such luxuriant hair it according to lore, inspired
Cavemen threw was the basis for Aerosmith’s “Sweet Caroline.” Neil
literal rock con- “Dude (Looks Like a Lady).” Diamond later backtracked,
certs. The Natural saying JFK’s daughter’s name
History Museum of 336 William Tager yelled simply fit better than “Sweet
ISTOCK (CHENONCEAU, ELIZABETH TOWER, WILLIS TOWER,

Paris had a handful “Kenneth, what is the fre- Marsha”—his wife’s name.
of oblong rocks, quency?” when attacking Dan
thought to be Rather in 1986. R.E.M. asked 332 Pattie Boyd, George
Stone Age pestles it again in 1994’s “What’s the Harrison’s wife, inspired three
for grinding grain. Frequency, Kenneth?” tunes: Harrison’s “Something”
But one day, and Eric Clapton’s “Layla” and
ST BASIL’S, WORLD TRADE, STREET SIGN)

335 Gary’s Girl. Rick Spring- “Wonderful Tonight.”

somebody tapped
one with a mal- field took a stained glass
class with a guy named Gary. 331 Elle Macpherson was
let—and realized it
was a prehistoric He couldn’t take his eyes off dating Billy Joel when she
xylophone. Gary’s—or “Jessie’s”—girl. inspired “Uptown Girl.”

Professional drivers on closed course.
Do not attempt.
340-338. Critics with 334 Scrambled Eggs. Origi- 330 Igor in Young Franken-
Statues nally, Paul McCartney sang stein. Aerosmith watched Mel
Composer Jean “Yesterday” as “Scrambled Brooks’s film—with Igor’s clas-
Sibelius said eggs / Oh, my baby how I love sic direction—and wrote the
“Remember, a your legs.” lyrics to “Walk This Way.”
statue has never
been set up in
honor of a critic!”

36 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 346 TO 345
The Willis Tower
Chicago’s tallest
building is structur-
ally stable thanks to a
bundle of nine huge
tubes, an idea Bruce
Graham and Fazlur
Rhaman Khan struck
upon after Graham
grabbed a handful of
Camel cigarettes out
of his pocket in 1970.
St. Basil’s
343
Cathedral
(Dubious) legend has
it that Postnik
Yakovlev was
blinded by Ivan the
Terrible after finishing
the cathedral in 1561
so that he couldn’t
build a rival to it.
Not quite. Critics to make nearly $7
Charles Augustin million in today’s
Sainte-Beuve, money—and gave
Vladimir Stasov, it away.
and Roger Ebert
all have statues in
their honor.
329. Li Fang
(925-996), CHINA
The editor of the
Four Great Books
of Song was no
slouch. The work
was one of the first 327. Adrian Frutiger
(1928-2015),
encyclopedias, SWITZERLAND
boasting 3,500 vol-
Frutiger designed
umes purporting the typefaces
to contain all the for London’s
ALAMY (GUANGZHOU OPERA HOUSE)
knowledge within street signs, the
the Song dynasty. Paris Metro, San
Francisco’s BART
328. Biddy Mason
(1818-1891), USA system, countless
Born into slavery, European airports,
Mason saved and Apple’s old
enough money keyboards.
to become one 326. Helen Holmes
of the first black (1892-1950), USA
landowners in Los The world’s first
Angeles. Then she female action
worked her way up hero, the 22-year-
A DV ER T ISEMENT
344
1 World Trade
Center Senior
technical architect
Nicole Dosso was in
charge of construct-
ing the tallest building
in the United States, BOLD FACT NO. 28365
which, upon its 2013 THE FASTEST COUCH
completion, rose to a CRUISE CLOCKED
symbolic 1,776 feet. IN AT 92 MPH. THE
HIGHPERFORMANCE
Guangzhou
SOFA WAS FULLY
342
Opera House FURNISHED WITH A
Completed in 2010, DESK, PLANTS, AND A
Zaha Hadid’s opera PLATE OF COOKIES!
house on China’s Pearl
River is designed to
resemble two pebbles
eroded by a stream.
old made 26 silent wright put Shake-
films titled “The speare to shame.
Hazards of Helen” He wrote 90 plays,
in 1914 alone. more than double
She performed the Bard’s output.
her own stunts,
323. Gene Simmons
fighting on top of
(1949- ), USA
moving cars and
The Kiss frontman
riding a motor-
cycle off a bridge taught sixth-
graders in Harlem
and into a river.
and was fired for
replacing Shake-
325 speare with Spider-
SAMUEL BECKETT Man comics.
(1906-1989), IRELAND
Sure, he wrote 322. Musa I of Mali
Waiting for Godot. (1280-1337), MALI
But he also drove The richest man in
André the Giant to history, Musa was
school each morn- worth $400 billion
ing. André couldn’t in today’s money.
fit into the school On a pilgrimage
bus, so Beckett (his to Mecca, Musa
neighbor) chauf- gave thousands of
feured him. pounds of gold to
the poor—so much
324. Zeami that it lost practi-
Motokiyo cally all value. It
(1363-1443), JAPAN took the economy
This Noh play- years to recover.
December 2015 mentalfloss.com 37
 THE
M E NTAL
FLOSS

321. John Fairfax leading to the

(1937-2012), ENGLAND creation of Haiti.
At 13, the adven- His victory was
turer ran away to a major factor in
live in the Amazon changing Euro-
jungle. After a pean minds about
failed suicide slavery.
attempt—which
involved a jaguar—
he signed up to be 315
a pirate’s appren- GIOVANNI
tice and opened a BATTISTA
mink farm. Then BELZONI
(1788-1823), ITALY
he became the first
person to row solo An Egyptologist, he
across an ocean. traded in his career
as a meathead—he
320. Hattori Hanzo was a former circus
(1542-1596), JAPAN strongman—to be
A legendary an egghead. He’s
samurai, Hanzo best known for
was an accom- breaking into the
plished ninja by second pyramid
age 12. He was so of Giza.
good at sneaking
around that people
believed he was 314. Yoshida Oikaze
invisible. (C. 1758-1806), JAPAN
How did a sport
319. Louisa Boyd best known for
Yeomans King loincloths become
(1863-1948), USA Japan’s quintes-
During World War sential pastime?
I, King helped put Oikaze legitimized
20,000 women sumo wrestling
known as farmer- by steeping it in
ettes on farms, an crowd-pleasing
effort that kept shinto rituals and,
the agriculture of course, funding.
industry afloat
while thousands of 313. Josh Gibson
farmers were busy (1911-1947), USA
fighting overseas. Dubbed the black
Babe Ruth, the
318. Roxelana Negro League
(1504-1558),
OTTOMAN EMPIRE baseball legend
A captured slave, possibly hit 200
Roxy eventually more home runs
married a sultan than the Sultan of
and ran the entire Swat. Maybe Ruth
empire, ushering should be called
in what historians the “white Josh
call the “reign of Gibson”?
women.” 312. Babe Didrikson
(1911-1956), USA

Lofty Ambitions
Jim Thorpe gets
called the “World’s
Greatest Athlete” a
lot, but Didrikson
makes him look
like a one-trick
pony. She excelled
at golf, basketball, In 852, Abbas Ibn Firnas donned a winged cloak made
317. Galvarino boxing, bowling, of silk and wood supports and jumped from a mina-
(C. 155O), CHILE
The indigenous
billiards, cycling,
tennis, handball,
NO.310 ret at the Grand Mosque in Cordoba. He believed he
warrior lost both of volleyball, and Abbas Ibn could hang-glide to safety, but his wings weren’t strong
his hands after the baseball. One time, enough. As he fell, his cloak inflated enough to slow his
Spanish captured a reporter asked,
Firnas
him during the “Is there anything (810-887), Spain descent—ensuring Ibn Firnas’s legacy as the accidental
inventor of the world’s first parachute.
ILLUSTRATION BY GARY MUSGRAVE

Arauco War. Unde- you don’t play?”

terred, Galvarino Her response:
fought back by re- “Yeah, dolls.”
Decades later, proving his spirit was unflappable,
placing his hands 311. Ibn Battuta
the polymath tried to fly again. In 875, he built a flapping glider and cov-
with knives. (1304-1377), MOROCCO ered his body in bird feathers. “By guiding these wings up and down,” he
316. Toussaint Arguably the said, “I should ascend like the birds.” A small crowd gathered at a cliff
Louverture greatest traveler
(1743-1803), HAITI of all time, Battuta and nervously watched the 65-year-old jump. He plummeted at first, but
The military leader mounted a donkey suddenly caught a breeze and began to glide. “He flew a considerable
guided a rebellion when he was 21
that freed an entire and kept riding distance as if he had been a bird,” witnesses said. It was the first recorded
society of slaves, until he hit the flight in history.

38 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 Great Wall of up buildings—
China. By the time columns. A DV ER T ISEMENT
he returned home,
300. Frank Wills
5 Goats T hat
he was 45.
309. Zheng He
(1948-2000), USA
When the 24-year- Changed
(1371-1433), CHINA
Decades before
old security guard
at the Watergate the World
Christopher office building
Columbus was noticed tape cover-
even born, Zheng ing the basement The Bravest Goat
294
led seven major door’s lock, he During World War I, a
expeditions, sailing called the police.
from China all the Two years later, crew of Canadian soldiers
way to East Africa. President Nixon procured a goat and smug-
His ships were so resigned.
big that they re-
gled it into France. There,
299. Mary Kather-
quired nine masts. “Sergeant Bill” suffered
ine Goddard
Columbus’s entire (1738-1816), USA shrapnel wounds and was
fleet could have fit A Baltimore news-
on the deck, with arrested for eating military
paper publisher,
room to spare. Goddard was the equipment. He’d later save
first to print the three lives, head-butting men
Declaration of
Independence with into a trench as a shell
the signers’ names, exploded nearby.
forcing Hancock’s
crew to back up
words with action. The Archaeologist
293
298. John Paul Goat In 1947, a group of
Jones Bedouin herders were
308-305. The (Hon-
(1747-1792), USA
orary) Harlem Little-known searching for a lost goat when
Globetrotters history: America
(1926- ), GLOBAL one goatherd stumbled into a
invaded Britain
What do Whoopi during the Revo- cave full of clay jars stuffed
Goldberg, Bob lutionary War. In
Hope, Jackie with ancient papyrus—the BOLD FACT NO. 23
1778, Jones and
Joyner-Kersee, and Dead Sea Scrolls.
Henry Kissinger all
his crew stormed
England, but when
BUNGEE JUMPING
have in common?
They’re honor-
crew members The Caffeinated Goat WAS INVENTED
were sent to raid 292
ary members a pub, they got According to legend, BY A GROUP OF
of everybody’s
favorite exhibition
distracted and coffee was discovered after a THRILLSEEKERS
spent most of the
basketball team. invasion drinking. 9th-century Ethiopian herder BASED IN OXFORD
304. Pope Francis noticed his goats went crazy AND LONDON.
(1936- ), ARGENTINA
Another honor-
297 whenever they nibbled on
DEBORAH
ary Globetrotter,
SAMPSON the berries of the Coffea
Francis knows how
to play tough. As
(1760-1827), USA arabica tree.
The 5-foot-8
a cash-strapped woman disguised
student in Buenos herself as a man to The Power Goat In
Aires, he worked fight in the Revolu-
291
as a nightclub 1986, Clay Henry was
tionary War. When
bouncer. she was struck in elected mayor of Lajitas,
303. Heather the thigh by two Texas, population 100. It
McKay musket balls, she
(1941- ), AUSTRALIA removed one of wouldn’t have been a big deal
The squash player them herself with if it weren’t for the fact that
went undefeated— a sewing needle
for 19 years. It’s the to avoid revealing
Clay was a beer-drinking goat.
longest winning her identity at the
streak in sports hospital. The Dread Pirate Goat
history. 290
A criminal and river
302. Robert Smalls 296. Johann Rall
(1839-1915), USA (1726-1776), GERMANY pirate, Sadie Farrell was
A slave during the The Hessian known as “Sadie the Goat”
Civil War, he stole a colonel was so
Confederate ship, involved in a game because she incapacitated her
steered it to free- of cards (or chess) victims by head-butting them.
dom, and gave it one night that he
to the Union. After ignored a note (Also, she was a human.)
the war, he bought stating that George
his former master’s Washington and
house and became his men were plan-
a congressman: re- ning to secretly
venge done right. cross the Delaware
ISTOCK (GOAT, KNIFE)

River and attack.

301. Imhotep
(27TH C. BCE.), EGYPT 295. Annette
Imhotep, the Kellerman
world’s first archi- (1886-1975), AUSTRALIA
tect and physician, A champion syn- Professional stuntperson on closed course.
created a whole chronized swim- Do not attempt.
new way to hold mer and vaudeville

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 39

 THE
A DV ER T ISEMENT M E NTAL
FLOSS

20 Brilliant Inventions!
And their equally brilliant inventors

Sea Monkeys! 288

TV! (1927)
289
(1957) Inspired Inventor Philo
by a visit to the pet Farnsworth hated
store, Harold von his brainchild and
Braunhut marketed actually banned it in
brine shrimp eggs as his own household.
“Instant Life.” “There’s nothing on it
worthwhile,” he said.

287
Beer Keg Tap! Muzak! (1910) Karaoke! (1971)
286 285
(1910) Richard The gentle, An admittedly
Spikes also made the wimpy music piped terrible drummer, bar
gear shift, shoe shine into elevators was musician Daisuke
chair, automatic car invented by macho Inoue created karaoke
washer, and multibar- man Major General tracks—for when he
rel machine gun. George Owen Squier. didn’t feel like playing.

Crossword Recipes! 282

The Jigsaw
284 283
Puzzles! (1913) (1896) Boston Puzzle! (1766)
Arthur Wynne’s first Cooking-School Cook A cartographer,
puzzle, created for a Book author Fannie John Spilsbury
newspaper as a “men- Farmer pioneered carved up a world
tal exercise,” included standardized recipe map as an
words like nard, tane, measurements. educational tool.
and doh.

The Flushing 280

Kitty Litter! Liquid Paper!
281 279
Toilet! (1596) (1947) Edward (1956) Secretary
BOLD FACT NO. 657 “The john” refers to Lowe gave a cat- Bette Graham was
Sir John Harington. loving neighbor a bag also a window artist
THE FIRST BUNGEE Game of Thrones’ of industrial granu- who painted over her
JUMPA BACKFLIP Kit Harington is a lated clay, prompting a errors, inspiring her
OFF A BRIDGE 250 descendant. $2 billion industry. idea for fixing typos.
FEET ABOVE A
RIVER IN BRISTOL,
ENGLAND
HAPPENED ON APRIL The Pool Quiz Bowl!
278 277
Noodle! (1984) (1940s)
FOOL’S DAY 1979.
Nobody wanted The game was first
Steve Hartman’s conceived as a USO
foam floater 30 years activity by Don Reid,
ago. Now, 6 to 8 who later created
million sell annually. NBC’s College Bowl.

Professional stuntperson on closed course.

Do not attempt.

40 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 star, Kellerman key was the first
was arrested in monkeynaut to fly
1907 for inde- in space and
cency when she return alive.
publicly appeared
263-262. Scott and
in the world’s first
Mark Kelly
one-piece bathing
(1964- ), USA
suit—scandalous!
Identical twin
269. Moderata astronauts, the
Fonte Kellys are part of
(1555-1592), ITALY a NASA genetics
The Amy Schumer study investigating
of the 16th century, the effects living
Play-Doh! (1955) The Bikini! Pogs! (1991) Fonte wrote witty in space has on
276 275 274 feminist prose, the body. While
Originally (1946) After a Teacher penning sentences Scott carries out a
created as wallpaper tiny swimsuit called Blossom Galbiso like, “You ought one-year mission
cleaner, Joe McVick- “the atom” appeared, revived the 17th- to consider the in space right
fact that [history now, Mark is acting
er’s Play-Doh has sold Louis Réard made a century Japanese books] have been as the control
more than 2 billion tinier suit dubbed “the game of Menko for written by men, on Earth.
who never tell the
cans since its birth. bikini,” after the Bikini her math class. truth except by
Atoll nuclear test site. accident.” Ouch. 261
ANATOLI PETRO-
268. Potoooooooo VICH BUGORSKI
(1773-1800), ENGLAND (1942- ), RUSSIA
Also known as Bugorski stuck
Pot-8-Os, the his head inside a
The Remote thoroughbred was particle accelera-
273 one of the greatest tor—and survived.
Control! (1955) racehorses of all He was checking
Designed by Eugene time. He acquired a broken part
the unique name when a proton
Polley, the first because his beam zoomed
clicker was called stable lad didn’t through his skull
know how to at the speed of
the Flash-Matic. It spell potato. light. The radiation
resembled a ray gun. 267. The was 1,000 times
Tanzanian Rat the fatal limit, but
(21ST C.), TANZANIA Bugorski survived!
In Tanzania, Afri- He lost hearing in
can giant pouched one ear, and now
rats save lives by the left side of
sniffing out land his face refuses
mines. Equipped to wrinkle.
with an excellent
sense of smell, the 260. Nicolaus
rodents—too light Copernicus
to set off explo- (1473-1543), PRUSSIA
sives—are trained You know him as
to detect buried the guy who said
TNT. According to the Earth wasn’t
the NGO Apopo, the center of the
the rats can do in universe. Econo-
just 20 minutes mists know him
what it typically as the first person
takes a metal de- to outline the
The Pull-Tab tector five days to
272 “quantity theory of
Can! (1963) do. So far, they’ve money,” arguing
uncovered that prices vary
Ernie Fraze got the 48,000 mines. with a society’s
idea for the pull-tab 266. Trakr the Dog money supply.
after he couldn’t (1994-2009), CANADA
259. Emperor
find a can opener The former police Wu-tsung
dog came out of (814-846), CHINA
at a picnic. retirement to help Under this Tang
search the rubble Dynasty emperor,
ISTOCK (TROLL, PLAY-DOH, PULL-TAB)

of Ground Zero China produced

after the Septem- the world’s first
ber 11 attacks and paper money. (He
located the last was, presumably,
The Spork! The Troll Doll! survivor. In 2011,
271 270 the first person to
(1874) The (1959) Thomas he was cloned make it rain.)
hybrid utensil’s Dam carved the first five times.
258. Preston
patentee, Samuel W. wooden troll as a 265. The Brussels
McAfee
Griffon Dog (1956- ), USA
Francis, also cheap gift. He missed (21ST C.), USA
This economist
invented a self- out on $4 billion due George Lucas wrote a paper
owned sev- imagining what
opening coffin. to copyright error. eral pups, which would happen to
inspired the Star America’s GDP if
Wars ewoks. the world was flat
264. Miss Baker and Christopher
(1957-1984), USA Columbus had
This squirrel mon- fallen off of it.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 41

THE
M E NTAL
FLOSS A HANDY GUIDE TO CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

WHO GETS WHO REALLY WHO GETS WHO REALLY

THE CREDIT? DESERVES IT? THE CREDIT? DESERVES IT?

256
257
Alexander Charles Alfred
Graham Elisha Darwin Russel
Bell Gray
Wallace

The Telephone The Definitive Theory of Evolution

Hours before Gray issued an intent to file a patent, Darwin got there first, but Wallace deserves
Bell applied for one. A patent office staffer swore in some credit. His ideas of natural selection
an affidavit that he’d been bribed to favor Bell’s. in the 1850s pushed Darwin to publish
On the Origin of Species.

James
255
Watson
and Francis Rosalind 254
Crick Franklin Dmitri Julius
Mendeleev Lothar
Meyer
The DNA Double Helix
Franklin developed an X-ray technique
allowing her to capture the first photos of DNA. The Periodic Table
A colleague showed her work to Watson and Meyer arranged 28 elements on a table by their
Crick without her knowledge and the pair atomic weights. Mendeleev would expand it, predict-
published its Nobel Prize-winning articles. ing the weights of several unknown elements.

252
Alois 253 Charles
Babbage Ada
Alzheimer S. Beljahow Lovelace

The Discovery of Alzheimer’s Disease Computer Programming

Alzheimer never claimed to discover the Babbage is called the father of the computer
disease; he just presented a case in 1906 for his 1837 “Analytical Engine,” but
that became a common point of reference. But Lovelace was the brains behind the computer’s
Beljahow had done similar research 15 years earlier. algorithm—the first in history.

Edmund
251 A B 250

ISTOCK (TELEPHONE, PHONOGRAPH, COMPUTER, HAMILTON, SAXOPHONE)

Nettie John Venn Leonhard
Wilson Euler
Stevens

Sex Chromosomes The Venn Diagram

In 1905, Stevens discovered that the Euler invented the Venn diagram nearly 100 years
X and Y chromosomes determined sex. Edmund before Venn simplified and popularized it.
Wilson discovered it that same year.

248
Otto
249
Hahn Lise
Thomas
Charles Meitner
Edison
Cros

The Phonograph
In April 1877, Cros cooked up the idea for a phono-
graph three months before Edison. Problem was,
he dilly-dallied, and Edison built a prototype first.
Nuclear Fission
Hahn was stumped when he first split the
nucleus of an atom. He wrote to Meitner seeking
help, and she (with the help of her nephew)
wrote the theory of nuclear fission.

42 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 242. Cleisthene as the suspect scaring passersby.
(570-508 BCE), GREECE claimed. He makes $60,000 A DV ER T ISEMENT
Shout-out to Uncle a year pretending
236. Budai
Cleis, the father to be a plant.
(10TH C.), CHINA
of democracy, for
The Buddha was
making govern- 231. L.L. Zamenhof
ment by the not portly, bald, or
(1859-1917), POLAND
BOLD FACT NO. 20857
people possible! jolly. His name was
Siddhartha Gau- He invented the Es- BUILT IN 1885, THE
tama, and he was peranto language
247. Lin-Manuel 241 incredibly thin—he so everyone could FIRST MOTORCYCLE
Miranda
(1980- ) USA
DICK TUCK fasted until near- find common HAD WOODEN
(1924- ), USA starvation. The ground and end
Arguably the most The closest thing chubby, chuckling war. That didn’t WHEELS WITH
groundbreaking America has had to
person to enter a court jester, Tuck
Buddha is Budai, a
Chan monk widely
work, but the ap- METAL RIMS AND
proximately 1.6 mil-
the Broadway
theater ring since
was hired by JFK to cherished for lov-
lion speakers seem
TWO STABILIZING
repeatedly prank ing life.
Jonathan Larson of Richard Nixon. pretty peaceful. WHEELS LIKE
Rent, he wrote the 235. Leo Africanus
music, lyrics, and
(One time, as
Nixon spoke from (1494-1554), SPAIN TRAINING WHEELS!
book for the new a parked caboose, The Moorish dip-
musical Hamilton. Tuck donned an lomat’s book De-
Oh, he stars in it engineer’s cap and scriptions of Africa
too (and won a whistled for the was, for better and
2015 MacArthur train to leave.) worse, Europe’s
genius grant). main source of
knowledge about
246. Bartolomé de 240. Moms Mabley the continent for
las Casas (1894-1975), USA 230. Saint John
(1484-1566), SPAIN
300 years, and
One of the first may have even Coltrane
As the Spanish woman comics
colonized the influenced Othello. (1926-1967), USA
and a pioneer of A pioneer of hard
Americas, native black entertain- 234. King Tamar of
cultures were Georgia bop jazz, the
ment, Mabley
destroyed. De (1160-1213), GEORGIA saxophonist was
was also once the
las Casas fought country’s top-earn- The Georgians canonized by the
for the humane, ing actress, selling didn’t have a word African Orthodox
equal treatment of 1 million copies of for queen by the Church. In San
indigenous people, her debut comedy time this boss-lady Francisco, you
making him one album. rose to power, so can worship at the
of the first human they dubbed her
rights advocates. 239. Menander Church of Saint
king instead.
(342-291 BCE), GREECE John Coltrane.
245. Gudridur The original king 233. Emperor
Thorbjarnardottir of comedy, he was Norton
(10TH C.), ICELAND known for his “New (1818-1880), USA 229
The Spanish Comedy”—humor A San Francisco KATE
weren’t the first to that focused on or- eccentric, Norton SCHELLENBACH
visit the Americas. dinary people and declared himself (1966- ), USA
In the 10th century, daily life (think the America’s emperor One of the original
this Viking woman Seinfeld of ancient in 1859. He made Beastie Boys wasn’t
gave birth to the Greece). his own money, a boy at all. She
first European which shops
child on North 238. Joseph Leidy drummed with the
actually accepted.
America. (1823-1891), USA Young Aborigines,
Nearly 30,000
In 1846, the pale- a band that ad-
244. Cecilia Payne- people attended
ontologist became opted the Beastie
Gaposchkin his funeral.
the first person to Boy alter ego as
(1900-1979), USA solve a murder us- 232. David Johnson
Her 1925 PhD a way to blow off
ing a microscope. (1952- ), USA
thesis suggested He examined Johnson has steam. When the
that stars were blood on the shirt spent more than joke band took off,
flaming balls of the accused 30 years hiding they switched to
of helium and and determined behind a bush on hip-hop. Schellen-
hydrogen gas. She it was human, not San Francisco’s bach left and kept
sent the study to chicken blood, Fisherman’s Wharf, playing rock.
Henry N. Russell, a
Princeton profes-
sor, who dismissed 228. Victoria
the findings. Four NO.
Woodhull
years later, he
took credit for the 237 (1838-1927), USA
Hillary Clinton is
discovery.
hardly the first
243. Susette La woman to run
Flesche for president.
(1854-1903), OMAHA MARIE CURIE Woodhull ran in
NATION (1867-1934), POLAND
After the Ponca 1872—48 years
people were forc- before women
ibly removed from could vote. She
their land in 1877, A clever prankster, Curie was a clairvoyant,
La Flesche testified
before Congress. once flipped a friend’s a fortune-teller,
and a magnetic
Her work led to the
Dawes Act in 1887, room upside down by healer—and she
founded the
which outlined
land rights and nailing his bed, table, and first lady-owned
Professional stuntperson on closed course.
made Native brokerage on Wall Do not attempt.
Americans citizens. shoes to the ceiling. Street.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 43

 THE
M E NTAL
FLOSS
227. Sir Walter 224. Jerry Lawson
Raleigh (1940-2011), USA
(1554-1618), ENGLAND One of the first two
After traveling to black members
South America, Ra- of Silicon Valley’s
leigh wrote about Homebrew Com-
a tribe of headless puter Club, Lawson
people with eyes joined fellow “hob-
in their shoulders byists” Steve Jobs
and mouths on and Wozniak. He
their chests. “I am developed the first
resolved it is true,” cartridge-based
he wrote—even
though he’d never
video game con-
sole, the Channel F.
seen one of the
monsters himself. 223. Ian Channell
(1932- ), NEW ZEALAND
He’s New Zealand’s
government-
appointed wizard.
(You read that
correctly.) In 2009,
Queen Elizabeth II
awarded him the
Queen’s Service
Medal.
226. Jean Eugène
Robert-Houdin
(1805-1871), FRANCE 222
ELIZABETH I
Widely consid-
ered the father (1533-1603), ENGLAND
of “conjuring,” he Queen, lover of
turned magic into gloves (she owned
about 2,000 pairs),
upscale entertain-
ment. Erich Weiss and inventor of the
NO.
220
THEODOR GEISEL
(1904-1991), USA
A student at Dartmouth
during Prohibition, Geisel
threw a drunken rager
and was banned from the
school’s humor magazine.
To keep publishing, he
came up with a pen name:
“Seuss.” (“Dr.” came later.)
219. Teddy
Roosevelt
(1858-1919), USA
Guinea pigs were
one of President
Roosevelt’s favor-
ite pets. He named
his pigs Fighting
pression mecha- an app reads what
nism that led him
to invent the Super
they’re saying.
211. Prince Charles
Soaker.
(1948- ), ENGLAND
215. Ida Tarbell He owns an Aston
(1857-1944), USA Martin that runs
The mother of on biofuel … made
investigative from wine.
journalism, she
exposed John
Rockefeller’s
monopoly, spark-
ing the breakup of
Standard Oil.
214. John Peter
Zenger
(1697-1746), USA
In 1734, the printer 210-208. Snap,
and journalist was Crackle, and Pop
arrested after New (1930- ), USA
York’s governor Do Rice Krispies
sued him for libel.
Zenger was found
by any other name
taste as sweet? In
not guilty, the
first case showing
Mexico, the char-
acters are called
that truth was an
absolute defense
“Pim, Pum, Pam.”
In South Africa,
against libel. they go by “Knap,
The freedom of Knetter, Knak.”
America’s press
was established. 207-206. Both
George Harrisons
exposé about the
213
(19TH C.), SOUTH
AFRICA
conditions there.
PAUL YOUNGER (1943-2001), ENGLAND
Later, she reen- In 1886, the pros-
(1962- ), ENGLAND
acted Jules Verne’s pector discovered
Around the World In 2001, he found
a way to clean a gold-bearing
in Eighty Days—in
polluted water outcrop on a
only 72. parcel of rocky
leaking from Bo-

ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON LOVING. ISTOCK (RABBIT)

later took Houdin’s gingerbread man. 217. Jon Batiste livia’s mines: llama land and sold it for
Bob Evans, Father
name as part of his O’Grady, and Admi- (1986- ), USA droppings. Bacte- $20. Bad idea. That
own stage name: 221. Horace ral Dewey. He also Bandleader of The ria absorb danger- parcel became
Harry Houdini. Emmett had a bear named Late Show with ous acid that could Johannesburg,
(19TH C.), ENGLAND Jon Edwards. Stephen Colbert, leak into the local South Africa, the
225. Pete Conrad
Not every weird (Presumably a the jazz pianist re- drinking water world’s major ex-
(1930-1999), THE MOON
idea is brilliant. In Democrat.) leased his first CD supply. porter of gold and
While Neil
Armstrong spoke 1889, Dr. Emmett at 17 and is artistic diamonds. (The
218. Nellie Bly director-at-large at other George
poetry during their claimed he’d (1864-1922), USA 212. Anton
seven-and-a-half- discovered the the National Jazz Harrison found
The inspiration Stepanov “Something.”)
hour stay on the secret of eternal Museum. Oh, and (C. 1985- ), UKRAINE
for Lois Lane, this he’s not even 30.
moon, this 5-foot-6 youth: ground-up reporter faked The programmer 205. Zora Neale
astronaut cracked squirrel testicles. insanity to be com- 216. Lonnie helped develop Hurston
jokes: “Man, that He injected himself mitted in New York Johnson a pair of “sign (1891-1960), USA
may have been a with an elixir daily City’s Blackwell’s (1949- ), USA language interpre- The Harlem
small one for Neil, and claimed he felt Island asylum. This former NASA tation gloves.” As Renaissance
but that’s a long 30 years younger. Afterward, she scientist patented a person wearing folklorist traveled
one for me.” And then he died. published a major a special air com- the gloves signs, the Caribbean to

A DV ER T ISEMENT

BOLD FACT NO. 369

GEOPHAGY IS THE ACT
OF EATING DIRT.

Professional drivers on closed course. Do not attempt. Prototype shown with options.

44 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 The
Fiercest
Princess
In a lot of
fairy tales, a
NO.204 disapprov-
Khutulun ing father
(1260-1306), or a witch’s
Mongolia curse stops
the princess
from finding
Prince Charming. But things
were a little different in 13th-
century Mongolia. Any single
lad could marry the khan’s
daughter, Khutulun, regardless
of status or wealth. There was
one caveat, which she herself
decreed—you couldn’t take her
hand in marriage until you took
her down in a wrestling match.
If you lost, you had to give the
princess a prize horse.
Sounds easy, right? Nope.
After all, this is the great-great-
granddaughter of Genghis
Khan we’re talking about! Over
the years, Khutulun accumu-
lated more than 10,000 prize
horses from failed suitors.
Though she did ultimately
marry a man whom she didn’t
wrestle, she remained unde-
feated—for life.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 45

 THE
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NO. 203 NO. 202
Morris Michtom Philip Baron
(1870-1938), USA (1949- ), USA
8 People Who Having secured Theodore Roo- Voice of Teddy. His soothing, deliberate
Cont r i bu t e d sevelt’s blessing, this toy store tenor can currently be heard at Valley
owner dubbed a pair of stuffed Beth Shalom in Encino, California, where
t o Te ddy animals he’d sewn “Teddy’s bears,” he is the cantor.
Ruxpin, Bear and the rest is history.

o f S i ngula ri t y NO. 201

Ken Forsse
(1936-2014), USA
Centuries of work
The creator and benevo-
culminated in one of lent god of Teddy Ruxpin.
the most delightful and
creepy toys of the ’80s.
Here’s how.
NO. 200
Peter L. Jensen
NO. 196 (1886-1961), USA

Villard de Honnecourt Inventor of speakers

(13TH C.), FRANCE (a.k.a. Teddy’s voice box).
Inventor of animatronics, the core
technology behind Teddy’s sear-
ingly lifelike demeanor.

NO. 197
Lou Ottens
(20TH C.),
NETHERLANDS
Led the team that
invented cassette tapes
(which Teddy accepted
through the player in
his rump, allowing him
to spin his yarns).
NO. 198 NO. 199
Lee De Forest Al-Jazari
(1873-1961), USA (1136-1206), TURKEY
Inventor of the amplifier (used by Made the first humanoid automaton
Teddy’s speaker-box innards). prototype using hydropower.

research voodoo the name was flowing by exercis- engineer for the 188. Sister Mary
and Haitian lore. ridiculous. But we ing each day naked Apollo missions, Kenneth Keller
Her work would in- digress.) in front of the she wrote the (1913-1985), USA
troduce Americans window. code that landed The first American
woman to earn a
to zombies. 194 192. Nell Gwyn
NASA on the moon
when she was 32. PhD in computer
195. Felix Dennis MARGRETHE II (17TH C.), ENGLAND
science was, inci-
(1947-2014), ENGLAND (1940- ), DENMARK Once a prostitute, 190. David Chan dentally, a nun.
The multimil- The Queen of she worked her (1948- ), USA 189. Playtex
lionaire poet Denmark also way from selling Chan has eaten (1947- ), USA
187. Elena Lucrezia
bequeathed the illustrated J.R.R. oranges at the at nearly every Everybody knows Cornaro Piscopia
vast majority of his Tolkien’s Danish theater to King Chinese res- Neil Armstrong was
(1646-1684), ITALY
wealth to reforest edition of The Lord Charles II’s inner taurant in Los The first woman in
the first person to
30,000 acres of of the Rings. circle. Then she Angeles—and has history to receive
step on the moon.
English country- founded the first a spreadsheet a PhD—she got it
Not everybody
side. Dennis made veteran’s hospital. detailing all 7,000 in 1678!
193. Franz Kafka knows the space-
his fortune owning (1883-1924), CZECH 191. Margaret establishments. suit that kept him 186. Akhenaten
magazines, includ- REPUBLIC Hamilton (That’s 17 percent alive was designed (14TH C. BCE), EGYPT
ing mental_floss. The writer got his (1936- ), USA of the country’s by Playtex, the bra This Egyptian
(He thought creative juices The lead software Chinese places.) manufacturer. pharaoh was the

46 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 first ruler to test quencies (between and 42 minutes a
out monotheism, 2,000 and 4,000 week. Americans, A DV ER T ISEMENT
elevating the Sun Hz) that make on the other hand,
God Aten above all you cringe. read for only 5
others. It failed. hours and 42
178. Joshua ben
185. Georges Gamla minutes. (We’re
Lemaître (1ST C.), JUDEA honored if some of
(1894-1966), BELGIUM Smart kids, curse that time includes
The Big Bang the name of ben 175. Kate mental_floss.)
and the theory Gamla, the father Greenaway 172. Lady Allen of
of an expanding of compulsory (1846-1901), ENGLAND Hurtwood
universe were education who Raise a crayon to (1897-1976), ENGLAND
first suggested made us attend the illustrator of Three cheers for
by this physicist school by age 6. the first coloring
and priest. Lady Allen, who
177. James Howell
book! It was such
turned the humble
184. Ignaz (1594-1666), ENGLAND a novelty that it
included instruc- playground into a
Semmelweis The first person global pastime.
(1818-1865), HUNGARY to make a living tions.
Before Semmel- writing in English, 174. Murasaki
weis, the father of he’s the one who Shikibu 171
medical hygiene, gave us, “All work (978-1014), JAPAN MUHAMMAD
doctors didn’t and no play makes Noblewoman (570-632), SAUDI
wash their hands Jack a dull boy.” Shikibu wrote The ARABIA
or sterilize surgical Tale of Genji—the You know him
176. Samuel as a prophet, but
instruments. world’s oldest
Wilderspin known full novel. he was also a den-
(1791-1866), ENGLAND
tist’s best friend.
183 This educator was 173. The Average
He promoted
EVAN O’NEILL an advocate for Indian
“structured play”— (21ST C.), INDIA early toothbrushes,
KANE
the idea that fun People in India spreading the
(1861-1932), USA
He proved anes- helps kids learn. read more than habit worldwide.
thetics work ... by (We knew that anybody else in Now, don’t forget
removing his own all along!) the world: 10 hours to floss.
appendix.

182. Noah Webster

(1758-1843), USA
Do you argue
12 COLLEGE MAJORS AND THE MAJOR
with Brits over ACADEMICS BEHIND THEM
the spelling of
colour? Thank
this chap for re- 170 Chemistry Someone had It existed. She boosted the
forming American to transform alchemy into then-contentious idea that the
spelling. chemistry, and discover distil- earth was millions to billions
lation, purification, evapora- of years old.
tion, and filtration along the
way. Jabir Ibn Hayyan was 165 Linguistics As if sharing
the man to do it. Emphasizing a name with a great sandwich
experimentation, he founded weren’t enough, Panini was
the chemistry we know today. a total grammar geek, giving
us the earliest known work of
169 Historiography, descriptive linguistics.
Sociology, Economics
One guy invented all three: 164 Photography,
181. Al-Mu’izz li-Din
Allah North African philosopher Experimental Physics
(931-975), EGYPT and Muqaddimah author Ibn The Greeks believed our eyes
Angry that ink Khaldun. emitted rays, like lasers, to
always stained his see. Mathematician Ibn
hands and clothes,
168 English Blame Francis Alhazen knew better, and
March, who established the invented the first camera
the caliph ordered
study of the English language, obscura.
the invention of BOLD FACT NO. 8924
the fountain pen. for your pretentious younger

180. William
cousin who won’t stop
gabbing about Flaubert at
163
Anthropology
The father of modern anthro-
THE “SNURFER”
Holmes McGuffey Thanksgiving. pology—and, more impor- WAS THE FIRST
(1800-1873), USA tantly, the concept of cultural
He wrote the 167 Pre-Med As the father relativism—is a guy named MODERN
earliest grade- of modern surgery, Abu Al- Franz Boaz. He also taught
both Margaret Mead and
SNOWBOARD. ITS
school textbooks, Qasim Al-Zahrawi wrote a
used from 1836 to pioneering 30-volume Zora Neale Hurston, so NAME IS DERIVED
that helps.
1960. Only the encyclopedia on medi- FROM THE
ISTOCK (PEN, CRAYONS, NIGHTINGALE)

Bible and Web- cine. Some of the in-

ster’s dictionary struments he invented 162 Nursing WORDS “SNOW”
outsold him. are still used during Florence Nightingale
surgeries today. introduced ventilation AND “SURFER.”
179. D. Lynn systems to hospitals,
Halpern 166 Paleontology vastly improving
(21ST C.), USA The fossil discover- conditions. She was
Everybody hates ies of Mary Anning such a celebrity,
fingernails on changed the way her face appeared
a chalkboard. people thought about on souvenir bags
Halpern, a scientist prehistoric life. As in: and pottery.
at Northwestern, Professional stuntperson.
discovered it’s the Do not attempt.
low-to-middle fre-

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 47

THE
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The Teenage Paul Revere

As if! To call her such is an insult: Sybil through dark woods to alert fellow revolu-
Ludington rode twice as far and, unlike tionaries. She yelled warnings, banging on
NO. 161

ILLUSTRATION BY GARY MUSGRAVE

Paul Revere, actually finished her ride. The
Sybil 16-year-old’s father was a colonel serving
Ludington the Revolutionary cause when, in April 1777,
(1761-1839), USA British soldiers marched on Danbury, Con-
necticut, sacking and burning storehouses
and homes. A messenger begged Ludington’s
father for reinforcements, but his militiamen
were home at their farms. So, at 9 p.m., the
teenager rode off into the rainy night, bolting
doors and windows with a stick. Dodging
British loyalists and outlaws, she covered
40 miles over the course of the night. The
militia she assembled arrived too late to
save Danbury, but thanks to Ludington, it
did chase the British back to their ships.
Later, the teenager received a commendation
from General George Washington. (Oh, and
America won the war!)

A DV ER T ISEMENT

BOLD FACT NO. 16897

THERE ARE PARTS OF THE ATACAMA
DESERT IN CHILE WHERE NO RAIN HAS
EVER BEEN RECORDED.

Professional drivers on closed course. Do not attempt. Prototypes shown with options.

48 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 160. Oscar trained his pet NO. 149. single-spaced
Hammerstein II parrot to say, fantasy manuscript
152
(2010- ), JAPAN
(1895-1960), USA “Cézanne is a great Whether you in his Chicago
The only person painter.” He’d then can’t handle the apartment. His
named Oscar to point to the bird comments section magnum opus had
ever actually win and say, “That’s my or just watched taken six decades
an Oscar. art critic!” a YouTube to complete and
159. Bette Davis
JAVIER MORALES video that left you gained a cult
(20TH C.), MEXICO questioning the following.
(1908-1989), USA 155 fate of humanity,
The actress VIRGIL
claimed that Shruggie is there
(70 BCE-19 BCE), ITALY
for you.
Academy Award The poet report- In 2008, Morales took
statues are called edly had a pet fly. 148. Russell Dohner
Oscars because
the statue’s butt
When the bug evaporated tequila, (1925-2015), USA
croaked, Virgil held An Illinois doctor
resembled that of
her first husband,
a lavish funeral and
hired an orchestra
heated it to 1,400 degrees, for 58 years,
Dohner worked
whose middle
name was Oscar.
and mourners
to weep. He’d
and deposited it on a seven days a
week and charged 145. Dolly Parton
(In truth, it’s prob- (1946- ), USA
ably named after
later build a special
mausoleum for the
silicon substrate. The patients only $5
per checkup. “I re- Dolly the sheep,
Academy librarian housefly and write ally never thought the first animal
Margaret Herrick’s verse for it. (Virgil
result? Pure diamonds. about being in it cloned from an
uncle, also Oscar.) wasn’t crazy—he for money,” he told adult cell, was
may have used the the BBC in 2012. named after the
158. Rene
tomb as an excuse “It’s to take care famous bust of the
Descartes actress, business-
(1596-1650), FRANCE to keep the govern- of people.”
ment from taking woman, country
The philosopher 147. Ian
his land.) over the other. urine. Gold it did singer-songwriter,
wasn’t ashamed Humphreys
So, amazingly, not make, but it and humanitarian.
to admit he (21ST C.), USA
the courting guys did yield a white “Dolly is derived
had an unusual 154. Diamond Around 2011, a
trade off, ensuring paste that glowed from a mammary
fetish: cross-eyed the Dog 4-year-old girl with
they never sing in the dark: gland cell and we
women. “When I (C. 1690), ENGLAND a rare disorder
over one another. phosphorus. couldn’t think of a
saw a cross-eyed Isaac Newton’s visited the Chil-
That behavior People called it more impressive
woman, I was pup changed the dren’s Hospital of
inspired computer the “miraculous pair of glands than
more prone to world for all the Michigan with an
scientists in Spain bearer of light.” Dolly Parton’s,” ex-
love her than any wrong reasons. As uncontrollable,
to develop algo- Later, it would be plained Ian Wilmut,
other,” he wrote one story goes, the life-threatening
rithms that make the project’s lead
in 1647. dog knocked over developed to make nosebleed. Doctors
wireless networks scientist.
a candle, causing a the first matches. tried everything,
157. Vyasa more efficient.
fire that destroyed but her nose kept 144. Stanley
(C. 3000 BCE), INDIA 150. Isidore of
20 years’ worth of bleeding until Kubrick
Vyasa gets credit Seville (1928-1999), USA
for writing the calculations. New- (560-636), SPAIN Humphreys stuffed
ton was despon- a few strips of In the early 1940s,
world’s longest Isidore is the
dent. “O Diamond!” cured pork up before he was
poem, the epic patron saint of a world-famous
Mahabharata. he shouted. “Thou the Internet for a her nose as a last
little knowest the resort. (Nasal pork film director, he
Not only is it reason. He wrote supplemented his
seven times longer mischief thou 20 books called tampons create
hast done!” swelling that stops income by playing
than Homer’s “Etymologies,” chess in New York
Odyssey and Iliad in which he tried bleeding.)
153. The Japanese 151. Hennig Brand City’s Washing-
combined, it’s also Tree Frog to record every 146. Henry Darger ton Square Park.
ISTOCK (MATCHES)

(C. 1630-1692),
the bedrock of JAPAN GERMANY piece of human (1892-1973), USA Kubrick loved the
Hinduism. Female Japanese In the 17th century, knowledge ever After Darger, a game so much
156. Paul Cézanne tree frogs can’t alchemists were so known. We assume humble hospital that, while film-
(1839-1906), FRANCE tell the difference desperate to make he was really good custodian, died, his ing The Shining,
To keep his confi- between one male gold that Brand at Dark Ages landlord discov- he supposedly
dence up, Cézanne frog croaking resorted to boiling Trivial Pursuit. ered a 15,145-page, canceled a whole

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 49

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day of shooting to
finish a match.
137. Michelangelo
(1475-1564), ITALY 15 Geniuses Under 17
Michelangelo’s
143. The Turk
(1770-1854), EUROPE
father was terri- Harry Potter, meet your match.
A chess-playing ro- fied when his son
bot that resembled chose art as a ca-
those fortune- reer. (Some things The Patriot Designer put its principles to work at his
never change!) 132
telling automatons Robert Heft is often credited family home in Malawi in 2002,
at the pier, the Turk The Sistine Chapel
beat everybody painter didn’t first with designing the layout of the building power-producing windmills
from Ben Franklin taste fame as an
artist, but as an art 50-starred American flag—the one out of scraps like broken bicycles.
to Napoleon. Its se-
cret? Being a hoax. forger. He made we still use today—for a school Soon, he was providing solar-
The Turk was con- a statue, buried project in 1958. He received a B-, but powered energy and water pumps
trolled by a skilled it, and claimed it
chess player hiding was ancient so he his history teacher eventually made to his entire village.
inside. could sell it at a good on his promise to change the
higher price.
grade to an A if the design of seven The Math Genius
142 136. Jon Bon Jovi
staggered rows were selected.
127
Kim Ung-Yong once held the
ALAN (1962- ), USA
GREENSPAN Before his musical record of the world’s highest IQ (210).
(1926- ), USA blaze of glory, The Inventor of Hip-Hop The Seoul native was such a sharp
Before becoming the crafty John F. 131
chairman of the Bongiovi Jr. made Clive Campbell, a.k.a. DJ Kool cookie, NASA invited him to work for
Federal Reserve, Christmas decora- Herc, was only 17 when he invented them—when he was 8 years old.
Greenspan played tions for a living.
sax and clarinet
the entire genre of hip-hop in the When he turned 18, he quit his job
135. Fred Smith
in Greenwich Vil- (1944- ), USA
Bronx in 1973 by mixing isolated (at NASA) to go to college in 1978.
lage’s jazz clubs. As a student at beats with funk and soul albums. He
(He studied at the Yale, Smith cooked
prestigious Juil- also spawned a new genre of dance The Medical Diagnostic
up the idea of 126
liard School.) an overnight when he dubbed his dancers Pioneer
delivery service. “b-boys”—for break-dancers. Brittany Wenger developed and
141. Mike Reid His professor was
(1947- ), USA not impressed. programmed a minimally invasive
The No. 7 NFL “The concept is The Molecular test in 2012 that can detect breast
draft pick in 1970 interesting and 130
moonlighted as a
Chemistry Pioneer cancer—with 99.11 percent accuracy—
well-formed, but
symphony pianist in order to earn Clara Lazen was in her fifth-grade at 17. Needless to say, she won the
and co-wrote Bon- better than a C, class a few years ago, using science fair. The Google Science Fair.
nie Raitt’s classic the idea must be
“I Can’t Make You feasible,” he wrote. ball-and-stick models to visualize
Love Me.” Smith would go on molecules. The 10-year-old from The Human Rights Activist
to found FedEx. 125
140. Nadia Kansas City put the carbon, Gregory R. Smith was 12 when
Boulanger
(1887-1979), FRANCE
nitrogen, and oxygen atoms he got nominated by the Nobel
Aaron Copland. together in a complex way. She Peace Prize committee in 2002, for
Philip Glass.
Quincy Jones.
asked her teacher if she had made a his advocacy work on behalf of child
Elliott Carter. All real molecule, but he wasn’t sure. It victims of war, violence, and poverty.
of them studied turned out Clara discovered a new That was just the first time. Smith
under Boulanger,
one: tetranitratoxycarbon. went on to rack up three more

ILLUSTRATION BY CARMEN SEGOVIA. ISTOCK (YIN YANG SYMBOL)

the world’s great-
est music teacher. 134. Fu Xi nominations before turning 20.
Hundreds of her (13TH C. BCE), CHINA
students became Responsible for
The Ceiling-Breaking CEO
129
world-class profes- every yin-yang Sindhuja Rajaraman was 14 124
The Graduate
sionals. tattoo in existence, when she became the youngest Michael Kearney got his
139. Johnny Cash he authored the
I Ching, a founda- CEO in India. What’s amazing isn’t degree at 10, and went on to earn a
(1932-2003), USA
His estate once tional text that in- just that she assumed her title at 14; total of four—in anthropology,
refused permission cluded one of the
earliest attempts it’s that she did it in a country where computer science, geology, and
for his hit “Ring of
Fire” to be used in to explain cosmol- companies run by women account chemistry—by the time he was 21.
a commercial for ogy. At least, for just 3 percent of the GDP. Now 18, (Bonus: He was on Who Wants to Be
hemorrhoid cream. he supposedly
did—chances are she runs the computer animation a Millionaire? in 2008).
138. Shel Fu Xi was simply a
Silverstein
company Seppan Entertainment.
legend.
(1930-1999), USA The Peace Activist
Silverstein wrote 133. Patricia Bath 123
The Green Energy Activist Samantha Smith wrote, “Are
Cash’s “A Boy (1942- ), USA 128
Named Sue.” The Harlem native William Kamkwamba was 14 you going to vote to have a war or
Before writ- developed laser when he finished reading a library not?” to then–Soviet Premier Yuri
ing children’s devices that dis-
literature (which solve cataracts, book on generating energy, then Andropov, a move that famously
he hated, by the allowing people
way), Silverstein who’d been blind
was a cartoonist for decades to
for Playboy. see again.

50 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 A DV ER T ISEMENT

helped ease Cold War tensions after
the letter was published in the USSR
Communist newspaper Pravda. She
was 10. When she was tragically
killed in a plane crash in 1985 at 13,
her mother received personal letters
of condolence from both Ronald
Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
The Linguistics Expert
122
Jean-François Champollion
spoke eight languages by the time
he was 16; by 19, he was a history
professor at the Lycée de Grenoble.
During the early 19th century, his
expertise came in handy when
translating the Rosetta Stone.
to the draft in the first World War, he
left the League of Nations because
President Woodrow Wilson wouldn’t
withdraw troops.
The Number Cruncher
118
Shakuntala Devi, a.k.a. the
human computer, was a certifiable
mathematical genius by the age of
5, and supported her family
counting cards during gambling
games with her father in 1930s India.
She went on to beat a UNIVAC
computer at calculating numerical
roots as an adult, and set a world
record by multiplying two 13-digit
numbers in 28 seconds.

The Novelist
121
Nancy Yi Fan was 12 when she
penned Swordbird as a way of
working through her feelings on 9/11.
The work of the Syracuse, New
York–based tween became a New
York Times bestseller.
BOLD FACT NO. 36578
The Chess Prodigy
120 THE COLDEST LAKE IN
Rochelle Ballantyne played
Garry Kasparov, then the world’s
THE WORLD IS CALLED
greatest chess player, in 2008. She LAKE VOSTOKIT’S
lost, but of the 19 players Kasparov FOUR KILOMETERS
beat in the tournament, the BELOW ANTARCTICA’S
then–13-year-old Brooklynite was his ICY SURFACE.
toughest opponent.

The Harvard Freshman

119
William James Sidis became
the youngest person to enroll in the
university in 1909, at age 11. His
thoughtfulness went beyond the
scholarly: A conscientious objector

Professional stuntperson on closed course.

Do not attempt. Prototype shown with options.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 51


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NO.
117
MEKATILILI WA MENZA
(C. 1850-1914), KENYA
As Europeans colonized
East Africa, Menza
rebelled in the grooviest
way possible: with dance.
Dancing from village
to village, she attracted
crowds that drove the
colonists out of town.
116. Usain Bolt
(1986- ), JAMAICA
During the 2008
Beijing Summer
Olympics, Bolt
won three gold
medals and set a
world record in the
100-meter dash.
His game fuel?
Chicken nuggets.
He ate approxi-
mately 100 a day
while competing.
115
POPEYE
(1929- ), USA
Our inspiration for
going to the gym,
Popeye originally
got his strength
from rubbing a
magic hen named
Bernice.
114. Erich von Wolf
(19TH C.), GERMANY
Why did Popeye
switch to spinach?
In 1870, von Wolf
tested the amount
of iron in leafy
greens. While
doing the math,
he misplaced a
decimal point, ac-
cidentally making
spinach sound like
a muscle-building
superfood.
113. Barbara
McClintock
(1902-1992), USA
This Nobel-winning
geneticist discov-
52 mentalfloss.com December 2015
Animal
blowholes and
waits for the whale
to sneeze, captur-
ing the result in
Instinct
petri dishes.
110. Sascha Usenko
(21ST C.), USA
Whale earwax can
unlock clues about
the ocean too. The
wax is like a time One day in the 1880s, a peg-legged
capsule that, over
railway signalman named James
years, collects pol-
lutants, hormones, NO. 104 Edwin Wide was visiting a buzz-
and pesticides Jack the
present in the ing South African market when he
water. Usenko col- Baboon witnessed something surreal: a
lects and dissects (c. 1870-1890), Chacma baboon driving an
it to study how
much the sea has
South Africa
oxcart. Impressed by the primate’s
changed.
skills, Wide bought him, named
109. Horace him Jack, and made him his personal assistant. Years
Greeley Johnson
earlier, Wide had lost his legs after falling under a
(19TH C.), CANADA
The “Edison of train, which made his half-mile commute to the train
underwear,” John-
station difficult. So he trained the primate to push
son invented the
“Kenosha Klosed him to and from work in a small trolley, as well as to
Krotch” union suit,
a onesie with an
help with household chores, like sweeping the floor
opening in the and taking out the trash.
back to make way But the signal box is where Jack truly shined.
for, um, important
business. As trains approached the station where Wide
worked, they’d toot their whistle, which alerts the
signalman to change the tracks. By watching his
owner work, Jack picked up the pattern and started
changing the tracks himself. One day, a posh pas-
ered that genes
are capable of senger saw the baboon manning the gears, panicked,
moving between and complained to authorities. The railway managers
chromosomes. A
wild discovery for
promptly tested his abilities—and were astounded.
108. Yvan Mayeur
the time, it sug- (1960- ), BELGIUM “Jack knows the signal whistle as well as I do,
gested that your
Brussels, in case also every one of the levers,” said railway superin-
genome isn’t set in you didn’t hear,
stone, and can be has an underpants
tendent George B. Howe. Jack was given an official
rearranged. museum. (OK, it’s employment number, and was paid 20 cents
in a bar.) In 2014,
112. Marie Dacke a day and half a bottle of beer weekly. He worked
(21ST C.), SWEDEN somebody stole
a pair of under- the rails for nine years without once making a mis-
Until 2013, sci-
entists believed pants signed, and take, reminding us that perfectionism is not just a
that only humans, once owned by,
the city’s mayor, human condition.
birds, and seals
used stars to Mayeur.
navigate. But in 107. Calvin Klein
2013, Dacke’s team (1942- ), USA
learned that, when
Jaguars are more
the moon isn’t vis- obsessed with
ible, dung beetles The world’s first 102. Christine de every five minutes
Klein’s cologne
use the Milky Obsession for known author and Pizan of his life from
poet, the Sumerian (1364-1430), ITALY 1972 to 1997.
Way to navigate Men than humans
writer used both She wrote the first
back home. are. Researchers
use the scent to the third- and first- feminist listicle,
111. Karina person perspec- The Book of the
attract big cats
Acevedo- tives—a literary City of Ladies,
Whitehouse toward game
cameras. breakthrough in which she
(21ST C. ), ENGLAND compiled the great
not reproduced
One of the best 106. Snowball for almost women who came
ways to learn (1935-1950), USA
2,000 years. before her, from
about an animal’s The first six-toed Dido to the Queen
health is to look cat Ernest Heming- 103. Mayu
of Sheba. We fig- 100. Ben Wilson
at the bacteria in way owned, Yamamoto
ured it was time to (21ST C.), CANADA
its snot. As you Snowball would be (21ST C.), JAPAN
ISTOCK (UNDERPANTS, HERRING)
return the favor. Around 2003, the
can imagine, it’s joined by dozens Extracting natural
dangerous to ob- more. Hemingway vanillin from 101. Robert Shields Swedish Navy was
tain such samples had more than 50 vanilla beans is (1918-2007), USA worried about
from whales. The felines, making expensive. But in The greatest strange sounds it
scientist per- him literature’s 2006, Yamamoto diarist of all-time, heard in the water.
fected a method most prolific cat discovered a way Shields makes Afraid of Russian
of collecting whale hoarder. to harness vanilla Samuel Pepys look submarines,
mucus by using a flavoring that costs like a hack. His it called upon
105. Princess
remote-controlled Enheduanna half as much: 37.5-million-word Wilson’s team to
helicopter. The extracting it from diary, the world’s investigate. Turns
(2285-2250 BCE),
drone hovers over SUMERIA cow dung. longest, chronicles out the sounds
 A DV ER T ISEMENT

BOLD FACT NO. 14582

THE FIRST BICYCLE
WAS PATENTED
IN 1818 AND
WAS CALLED
A VELOCIPEDE.

were coming from was also an oph- full-time writers. 94

herrings. The sci- thalmologist. He She tackled topics LAL BIHARI
entists discovered never saw a single from slavery to (1955-1975, 1994- ), INDIA
that the fish patient, though, impotence, leading In 1975, Bihari tried
communicate making him the Virginia Woolf to to apply for a bank
by farting. laziest polymath of write that Behn loan, but it was
99. William
all time. earned women denied because,
McGonagall 97. Victor Goulet
the “right to speak according to the
(1825-1902), SCOTLAND (20TH C.), their minds.” Crit- government, he
Considered the AUSTRALIA ics regard her work was legally dead.
worst poet in An Australian as instrumental to And once the gov-
English literature, dancer, Goulet the development ernment decides
McGonagall was broke his Achilles of the novel. you’re dead, prov-
ILLUSTRATION BY BRANDON LOVING

undeterred by criti- tendon during a 95. Hans Christian ing you’re alive
cism. He capital- 1907 performance. Andersen is pretty tough. It
ized on his infamy Doctors restored (1805-1875), DENMARK took Bihari 19 years
by performing at his career by The author of fighting Indian bu-
venues where the replacing it with classics like The reaucracy to prove
audience could the tendon of a Little Mermaid was that he was, in
throw food at him. wallaby. afraid of being bur- fact, still breathing.
98. Arthur Conan 96. Aphra Behn ied alive. So afraid, He’s since created
Doyle (1640-1689), ENGLAND actually, that he’d the Association
(1859-1930), ENGLAND This spy-turned- put a note by his of Dead People to Professional stuntperson.
The author of playwright proved bed saying, “I only help others with Do not attempt.
Sherlock Holmes women could be appear to be dead.” the same problem.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 53

 THE name to deter 79. Ray Tomlinson ting hit in the head breakfast, lunch,
M E NTAL telemarketers. (1941- ), USA with an empty and dinner. In fact,
FLOSS When Samuel beer bottle, or a the average Ameri-
81. Mercedes
Morse sent the full beer bottle? can man downed
Márquez first telegraph, he Bolliger conducted
(1932- ), COLOMBIA
half a pint a day.
wrote, “What hath a study and found
93. Lady Hester modern art was The cornerstone God wrought?” that, apparently, 74. Rusty Haight
Stanhope once considered of Gabriel García Beautiful! In 1971, getting hit in the (1960- ), USA
(1776-1839), ENGLAND an oxymoron. Márquez’s work, Tomlinson sent head with either is A professional
This rebellious Then Barr, the first his wife of 56 years a terrible experi- crash test dummy,
the first email,
English socialite director of the Mu- put a yellow rose ence. (Empties are Haight has sur-
which read—well,
conducted the first seum of Modern on his desk worse.) vived more than
its creator doesn’t
archaeological dig Art, exalted the every day. 1,000 collisions.
in Palestine in 1815. remember, calling 76. Ann Druyan
offbeat styles of
Bedouin tribes its text “completely (1949- ), USA
Picasso, van Gogh,
were so impressed and the Bauhaus 80 JAMES forgettable.” Co-creator of the
they called her school. FALLON 78. Gary Thuerk original Cosmos
“Queen of the (1947- ), USA (1943- ), USA TV series, Druyan
86. Rodolphe In 2006, Fallon, can thank the
Desert.” History Without Thuerk,
remembers her as Töpffer a neuroscientist, inventor of email universe for help-
(1799-1846), ing her meet her
the first Holy Land SWITZERLAND was studying the spam, where
archaeologist. brain scans of would you get the future husband,
Spider-Man, pay
psychopathic mur- Vicodin that’s ship- Carl Sagan.
92. Christopher homage. Töpffer 73. Chewbacca
Monck wrote picture derers. He used ping! today! for a 75. The Average (A LONG TIME AGO),
(1653-1688), ENGLAND books to entertain his own brain scan special price? American Man A GALAXY FAR,
The English duke his friends, but as a control, but 77. Stephan in 1820 FAR AWAY
organized the Johann Wolfgang quickly discovered Bolliger (C. 1798-C. 1836), USA While shooting
first modern von Goethe something unex- (21ST C.), In the early 19th Star Wars in the
boxing match in insisted he publish. pected: He, too, SWITZERLAND century, Americans Pacific Northwest,
1681, pitting his “The Adventures was a psychopath. What’s worse: get- drank whiskey for Peter Mayhew,
butler against of Mr. Obadiah
his butcher. (The Oldbuck” would
butcher won.) be the world’s first
comic book.
91-90 85. Mark Inglis
5 People Who Were
GRANPREE (1958- ), NEW ZEALAND
AND LE PIQUE
(19TH C.), FRANCE
In 2006, Inglis
climbed Mount
Basically Indiana Jones
In 1808, two men Everest ... despite
feuded over the having no legs.
love of a dancer One prosthesis The Guy Who First Identified swallowed by the deepest regions of
snapped in half at 72
by dueling 3,000 Dinosaur Egg Fossils Some the Amazon while searching for a
feet over Paris 21,000 feet, but
in balloons with he still made it to of the narrower brushes of Roy legendary city he dubbed “Z.”
blunderbusses the top. Chapman Andrews (1884-1960):
(an early shotgun 84. Amerigo
that resembled “Once we were in great danger from 69 The Guy Who Was After the
Vespucci
an overweight (1454-1512), ITALY fanatical lama priests, two were close Holy Grail German researcher
clarinet). Badass. The explorer was calls when I fell over cliffs, once was Otto Rahn (1904-1939) was so
incorrectly credited nearly caught by a huge python, and assured of the Grail’s existence,
89. Frank Conrad with discovering
(1874-1941), USA South America. In twice I might have been killed by Hitler’s SS commissioned him to
Sports broadcast- 1507, a cartogra- bandits,” he wrote. (And like Indy, the search for it. “What was I supposed
ing was effectively pher created a map
born in 1921 when of the New World American hated snakes.) to do? Turn Himmler down?” Rahn
the station Conrad and named the told friends. He later rejected helping
founded and man- landmasses after
aged—KDKA in
The Guy Who Discovered the Nazis and resigned.
Vespucci—hence 71
Pittsburgh—deliv- the name America. Machu Picchu The tales of
ered play-by-play trekking Peru told by Yale lecturer The Guy Who Became a
coverage on a pro 68
boxing match. Hiram Bingham III (1875-1956) Pirate Treasure–Hunting
88. Marian inspired Charlton Heston’s Honorary Mexican Outlaw
Anderson Secret of the Incas, in His 1954 memoirs are titled
(1897-1993), USA
In 1939, the black which an American Danger, My Ally. He was a spy
contralto was treasure hunter dons a prisoner of Pancho Villa who
forbidden from fedora and leather eventually joined Villa’s
singing before an 83. Homer
integrated audi- Simpson jacket—the same gang of Mexican outlaws.
ence at a venue (C. 1956- ), USA getup used by the He sought forgotten
owned by the IQ doesn’t mean
Indiana Jones empires, found a crystal
ALAMY (INDIANA JONES, CHEWBACCA)

Daughters of the everything. As

American Revolu- a nuclear safety costume team. skull, went toe-to-toe
tion. In protest, inspector, Simpson
Eleanor Roosevelt makes $20,000 with jaguars, uncovered
organized an more than the The Guy Who Mayan ruins, docu-
70
open-air concert average American. Got Lost mented cannibal rites,
for Anderson at
82. Tim Searching for a Lost and dug up buried
the Lincoln Memo-
Pppppppppprice
rial: 75,000 people (C. 1963- ), ENGLAND City In 1925, British treasure. So, yeah: F.A.
attended. That’s not a typo. archaeologist Percy Mitchell-Hedges (1882-
87. Alfred Barr Pppppppppprice
(1902-1981), USA changed the Fawcett (1867-1925) was 1959) was the real deal.
A “museum” for spelling of his

54 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 who played brewery into his
Chewbacca, was home.
accompanied by
50. Joseph
bodyguards to
Priestley
protect him from (1733-1804), ENGLAND
Bigfoot hunters. Beer helped
67. Ron Dubren Priestley discover
(1943- ), USA oxygen. He started
In 1995, Sesame his world-changing
Street was low on experiments after
funds and on the noticing gas rise
verge of being from vats of suds
sold. But then at a brewery.
Dubren had the 49. Eva Ekeblad
idea for Tickle-Me- (1724-1786), SWEDEN
Elmo, launching a By discovering that
toy craze that, at potatoes could be
its height, led to a turned into flour,
black market for Ekeblad helped
Elmo dolls. The Sweden avoid
boost in revenue famine. Also, she
arguably saved invented potato
Sesame Street. vodka!
66. John Creasey 48. William Henry
(1908-1973), ENGLAND Perkin
If rejection ever (1838-1907), ENGLAND
gets you down, just The chemist was
remember that this trying to turn coal
novelist received tar into quinine
743 rejection slips when the tar
for his books. (That turned a brilliant
said, he also pub- purple. At the time,
lished 564 novels people could get
in just 40 years.) purple dye only
65-54. Australia’s by crushing exotic
First Police Force snails, but Perkin’s
(C. 1789), AUSTRALIA discovery made it
In 1789, Australia accessible to com-
was one big Brit- mon folks. It made
ish penal colony. him so rich, he
Governor Arthur retired at age 36.
Phillip wanted to 47. Frank Welker
assemble a police (1946- ), USA
force, but pickings Welker is the
were slim. So he highest-grossing
gave the job to actor of all time
12 of the colony’s ... and you’ve
best-behaved probably never
convicts. heard of him. He’s
done voice-overs
for more than 40
years, lending his

The Life-Saving
pipes to Garfield,
Batman, Megatron,
and both Fred and
Scooby-Doo.

Ventriloquist
46
53. The Lego MANI
Professor at (216-276), IRAN
Cambridge He founded
(2015- ), ENGLAND Manicheanism,
This October, a Neapolitan
the University of As a kid, Paul Winchell had a noticeable stutter. He ice cream of
Cambridge estab- took up ventriloquism as a treatment, and not only did religion that mixed
lished a “LEGO
Professor of Play
NO.51 the craft fix the impediment, it turned out to be a crafty
Christian, Zoroas-
trian, and Buddhist
in Education, Paul career move. Winchell became a renowned ventriloquist, principles. It
Development.” spread from Rome
Dream job?
Winchell and went on to voice beloved cartoon characters, includ- to China before
(1922-2005), ing Winnie the Pooh’s Tigger. That success allowed him vanishing around
52. Niels Bohr USA 1000 AD.
(1885-1962), DENMARK to pursue passions beyond the mic—and he had many.
Bohr is a hero
Over the years he built careers as an acupuncturist,
ILLUSTRATION BY GARY MUSGRAVE

to many for 45. Laura

winning the 1922 hypnotist, and inventor. Ultimately, he held 30 patents, including those Bridgman
Nobel Prize in for a disposable razor, a flameless cigarette lighter, an invisible garter (1829-1889), USA
physics for his At 24 months old,
work determining belt, battery-heated gloves, and, most significantly, an artificial heart. His she lost her senses
the structure of at- design was critical to the first implants in the early 1980s (which, inciden- of sight, hearing,
oms. He’s a hero to and smell. She was
others for the gift tally, Winchell developed with Henry Heimlich, of the maneuver). One of considered a lost
he later received: the patients who received it even broke the survival record at the time. By cause. But in 1937,
a perpetual supply Dr. Samuel Howe
of free beer piped learning to throw his voice, Winchell not only creatively threw off adver- at the Perkins
from the Carlsberg sity, he saved lives. All it took was a little heart. School for the Blind

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 55

 THE
A DV ER T ISEMENT M E NTAL
FLOSS

27 Overachieving Over achievers

BOLD FACT NO. 458

You can be good at one thing ... but what about everything?
UNDERNEATH THE
STRIPED FUR OF A 44
The Rocket Science Rock
TIGER IS STRIPED Star Queen lead guitarist Brian
SKIN WHICH May ditched his PhD studies in 1970
to join the band, but finished his
PRESERVES THE
degree 37 years later, wrote his thesis
CAMOUFLAGE on reflected light from interplanetary
EFFECT. dust, co-authored two books on the
subject, and, in 2008, had an asteroid
named after him.
The Bookiest Ancient One of
43
the first women to study math
and philosophy, Hypatia was one of
the last people with a library card to
the famed Library of Alexandria. Her
death marked the end of classical
antiquity.
The Realest McCoy Born to
42
runaway slaves, Elijah McCoy
worked for a railroad company where
he designed a device that lubricated
steam engines (he also invented the
lawn sprinkler!). Engineers recog-
nized the quality of his work and
refused to accept substitutes,
insisting on “the real McCoy.”
41
The Most Romantic Aviator
Barbara Cartland wrote 723
romance novels in her lifetime,
selling billions of books, despite
cheesy titles like The Husband
Hunters. That’s not her only accom-
plishment. Cartland invented a
method of towing glider planes,
allowing the engineless aircraft to fly
long distances. The technology was
used by militaries to transport troops.
The Hardest-Working Doctor
40
If you had a headache in
Middle Age Europe, apothecaries
prescribed you mummy powder,
which was exactly what it sounds
like: ground-up Egyptian mummies.
Not Avicenna. An all-around
know-it-all, he penned nearly 450
works, including The Canon of
Medicine, and was the first person to
base medical treatment on some-
thing called “evidence.”
39
The Cosmic Early Adopter If
you follow theoretical astro-
physics (who doesn’t?), you know
about the debate over the existence
of a multiverse (that is: universes
outside our own). The idea’s not new.
Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi, a 12-century
theologian and astronomer, was the
first to write about “a multiverse
beyond this known universe.”
38 TO 22
The Genius Jokesters
Writers for The
Simpsons have slipped complex
math jokes in scripts for years. Many
have advanced math degrees, some
even PhDs. Jeff Westbrook left a job
at Yale to write for the show. In one
episode, Homer nearly solved
Fermat’s Last Theorem, one of math’s
toughest puzzles.

Prototype shown with options.
taught her English, for discovering Taoism—a philoso- days, the Christian
making Bridgman artificial radioactiv- phy that, in a (very theologian enjoyed
the first deaf-blind ity. The Curies have reductive) nutshell, sinning with the
child to get an edu- won more Nobel embraces “keeping ladies, if you know
cation—50 years Prizes than any it real”—Laozi was what we mean.
before Helen Keller. other family—and rumored to have He’d pray: “Lord,
they didn’t even exited the womb make me chaste—
17. Irène Joliot-
brag with a “My as an old white- but not yet.” Hey,
Curie you have to re-
(1897-1956), FRANCE
Daughter Won a haired man stuffed
Nobel Prize” bum- with wisdom. spect the honesty.
Everybody knows
about her mom, per sticker. 14. Valentina
15. Saint Augustine
Marie. But people 16. Laozi of Hippo Tereshkova
forget that Irène (604-531 BCE), CHINA (354-430), CHINA (1937- ), RUSSIA
won a Nobel Prize The founder of In his younger Despite having no

56 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 A DV ER T ISEMENT

BOLD FACT NO. 98653

THE RECORD FOR
THE LONGEST
MOTORCYCLE
JUMP OFF A RAMP
IS 425 FEET.

The Most Storied Traveler Athanasius Kircher wrote 44

21
She traveled the world twice,
worked as a British spy, spoke fluent
Persian, and taught herself Arabic
surveying the Arabian Desert on
camelback. As Gertrude Bell
mapped Mesopotamia, she befriend-
ed tribal leaders, making her the
perfect choice to draw the borders
for a new country called Iraq.
books on topics ranging from
Egyptology to magnetism, was
one of the first to suggest that germs
caused the plague, once explored
the crater of Mount Vesuvius—shortly
after it erupted—and translated
hieroglyphics. It turned out that most
of his translation was pure gobbledy-
gook, but hey, he tried.

The Polymath’s Hero Jack of The Busiest Man Alive

20
all trades, Ziryab popularized
the tablecloth, improved methods for
washing clothes, designed deodor-
ant, invented the three-course meal
and toothpaste, became a trend-
setting hairstylist, introduced the lute
to Europe, transformed the study of
music theory, and started the world’s
first music conservatory.
The Original Know-It-All
19
A literal Renaissance man,
18
The CV of F. Story Musgrave
puts the rest of ours to shame. He’s a
Marine, electrician, pilot, surgeon,
mathematician, and professor of
physiology and biophysics. He has
seven graduate degrees, including an
MBA and an MA in literature, is a
parachutist with 100 experimental
free falls, and is the only astronaut to
have flown in all five space shuttles.
Today, he’s a palm farmer and
concept artist at Disney.

piloting experi- he may not be your spider plant college, he wrote

ence, Tereshkova a man at all! In alive: He was the all of the songs
ILLUSTRATION BY CARMEN SEGOVIA

was accepted into China, people see first to demon- on his show. And,
the Soviet space the “moon-toad.” strate that plants in 1969, when the
program because The Japanese are sensitive to government was
of her expertise swear it’s a rabbit. heat and light. In cutting the budget
in parachuting. In thanks, the Interna- for public televi-
12. Jagadish
1963, she became tional Astronomi- sion, Mr. Rogers
the first woman to Chandra Bose cal Union named a
(1858-1937), helped increase
go to space. BANGLADESH
crater on the moon funding from $9
Thank this Bengali after him. million to $22
13. The Man on the
Moon polymath, physi- 11. Mr. Rogers million. It was a Professional stuntperson on closed course.
THE MOON cist, botanist, and (1928-2003), USA beautiful day in the Do not attempt. Prototype shown with options.
Though to be fair, writer for keeping A music major in neighborhood.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 57

 THE
M E NTAL
FLOSS

3 8

Our Totally Impartial (OK,

NO. 10 NO. 9 NO. 8 NO. 7 NO. 6
Susannah Mary Kingsley Shajar al-Durr Kareem Abdul- Judy Blume
Mushatt Jones (1862-1900), ENGLAND (C. 13TH C.), EGYPT Jabbar (1938- ), USA
(1899- ), USA The mother of culture When France invaded (1947- ), USA She’s the patron saint
At 116, the Brooklyn writing, Kingsley Egypt in the mid-13th The all-time NBA leg- of young adult litera-
resident is the human changed the genre century, al-Durr, a end is also a legendary ture. Her characters
race’s oldest living by telling stories with widowed sultana, literature fiend. He’s dealt with racism,
member, and she empathy. She explored outwitted the super- written 10 books. He bullying, virginity,
ILLUSTRATION BY VIDHYA NAGARAJAN

swears by eating four West Africa alone, power at every turn. avidly reads everything menstruation, and
strips of bacon every fought crocodiles with- She captured Louis from John LeCarre to God—all in service of
morning. The phrase out shedding her styl- IX, demanded nearly Miranda July. And: He’s helping young readers
“Bacon makes every- ish Victorian garb, and half of France’s GDP in Airplane! The book- roll with the punches
thing better” still hangs humanized those she for ransom, got it, and ish accomplishments of puberty. When the
in her kitchen today—a met. Her work broke effectively ended the of one of the coolest world made the least
reminder that it’s never stereotypes about Seventh Crusade— people in the world sense to us, Blume
too late to celebrate the Victorian women and truly, an original boss make Abdul-Jabbar an was there to shine
power of little things. the people of Africa. lady of foreign policy. MVP in our book. some light.

58 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 9

4
1

10

a Little Bit Partial) Top 10

NO. 5 NO. 4 NO. 3 NO. 2 NO. 1
Adolphe Sax The Pet Rock Elizabeth Sonia Manzano Edward Cave
(1814-1894), BELGIUM (1975- ), USA Jennings Graham (1950- ), USA (1691-1764), ENGLAND

Inventor of the sexiest Between 1975 and 1976, (1826-1901), USA Jim Henson might’ve In 1731, Cave published
(and ugliest) musical more than a million An entire century been Sesame Street’s the first general-
instruments of all were sold. Unassuming before Rosa Parks, architect, but Maria— interest magazine:
time—from the unfor- precursors to today’s Graham, an African played by Manzano The Gentleman’s
gettable saxophone to virtual pets, the rocks American, stepped for 44 years—was its Magazine. In an age of
the unforgivable sax- came with instruc- onto a horse-drawn den mother, embody- lousy yellow journal-
tuba—Sax is a model tions on training your streetcar in New York ing its sunny, patient ism, the punchy peri-
in never giving up. He pet to do tricks. (Stay! City. The conductor spirit. Fifteen-time odical featured stories
gave us Lisa Simpson, Good boy!) Absurd? Of demanded she leave; Emmy winner Man- about fire-eating as
John Coltrane, and ba- course. But they were Graham refused and zano retired this year, well as essays by a
sically all of romantic also a lesson in how to was arrested. After she but her impact on the young upstart named
R&B, without which see something worthy sued (and won!), NYC’s Street—and countless Samuel Johnson.
many of us wouldn’t of love where others public transportation children’s lives—won’t Where would maga-
be here. just saw … a rock. was desegregated. be forgotten. zines be without him?

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 59

 RED NO. 40 ISN’T
ACTUALLY RED UNTIL
IT’S ATOMIZED AND
DRIED. UP TO THAT
POINT IT’S JUST A
FEW GRAY POWDERS.

WE’VE BEEN TINTING

FOOD SINCE 5000
BCE; THE “YELLOW
NO. 5” OF THE
1300s CAME FROM
SAFFRON AND
MARIGOLDS.
 GO MENTAL
MAPLE SYRUP ’S BIGGEST FAN
THE BEST BOOK ABOUT ROBOTS
WOODSY OWL’S LITIGIOUS PAST
+ OTHER STUFF WE LOVE RIGHT NOW

READ THIS!

WE ARE
SHELLAC, A SEALANT
MADE FROM INSECT
EXCRETIONS, IS USED
ON EVERYTHING
FROM VEGETABLES
WHAT WE EAT
TO CHEWING GUM.
A new book gives a colorful backstory to the
nutrition label.
BY P R I YA N K A M AT TO O
P H OTO G R A P H Y BY DW I G H T E S C H L I M A N

Reading an ingredient label isn’t quite the same as

meeting each component of your guilty pleasure—from
the Blue No. 1 in Cool Ranch Doritos to the dehydrated
onions in Campbell’s Chunky Classic Chicken Noodle
Soup—face to face. Enter Ingredients: A Visual Explora-
tion of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products, a collaboration
between photographer Dwight Eschliman and writer
Steve Ettlinger.
The two dissect a range of processed foods and addi-
tives—from MorningStar sausage patties to shellac—
walking the reader through unexpected tidbits about
each item, like that most of the country’s cornstarch pro-
duction goes into making paper and cardboard. Whether
or not you want them on your plate, these Ingredients
prove a feast for the eyes and mind.

WE’VE KNOWN
ABOUT COFFEE SINCE Ingredients: A Visual
THE NINTH CENTURY, Exploration of 75 Additives
BUT ONLY STARTED
MAKING CAFFEINE & 25 Food Products, by
EXTRACT IN 1821. Steve Ettlinger and Dwight
Eschliman (Regan Arts, $35)

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 61

 TO DO

3 SPORTS DOCS TO WATCH

RIGHT NOW
1 THE SHORT GAME (2013)
An early start sets athletes on a
path to greatness—Tiger Woods was
swinging clubs before he was a year
old, and Venus and Serena Williams’s
father tore the heads off their dolls to
discourage non-tennis interests. But
watching this film about eight kids on
the road to the 2012 U.S. Kids World
Golf Championships, you might
wonder if it’s worth it. The 7-year-olds
(including Anna Kournikova’s half
brother) deal with intense pressure,
at times acting more grown-up than
the grown-ups around them.
2 RUNNING ON THE SUN (2000)
Get inside the heads of the
ultra-marathoners who compete in
the Badwater 135, a 135-mile, nearly
15,000-foot climb that begins in Death
Valley (280 feet below sea level, the
lowest spot in North America) and
ends near the peak of California’s
Mount Whitney (the highest point in
the contiguous United States). Oh,
and they do it at the height of summer.
This film follows 13 runners as they
try to beat the course record (currently
just under 23 hours)—or just make it
to the finish line in one piece.
3 THE KING OF KONG (2007)
Don’t try to tell these guys that
video games aren’t a real sport. The
heartbreaking, nail-biting tale of the
rivalry between “Video Game Player
of the Century” Billy Mitchell and
perennial underdog Steve Wiebe is
as tense as any sports epic, complete
with shady officials and dirty tricks.
Will Wiebe beat Mitchell’s high score
in Donkey Kong (which originally
was designed to be a game featuring
Popeye)? Or will Mitchell’s influence
take him out of the game like a
strategically thrown barrel?

THE PAPER TRAIL

10 BOOKS PERFECT FOR GIFTING

BRAIN CANDY

Robo-Sauce Last Night’s Reading Contraband Slaughterhouse Tales From

by Adam Rubin by Kate Gavino Cocktails 90210 Concrete Jungles
(Dial Books, $19) (Zest Books, $25) by Paul Dickson by Maris Kreizman by David Lindo
(Melville House, $20) (Flatiron Books, $20) (Bloomsbury, $27)
This story about “A book is a very
the ultimate secret demanding love letter This drunk history Riffing off her hit See urban spaces with
sauce—a condiment to someone,” says traces modern imbibing blog, Kreizman pairs new eyes through
that transforms kids Gary Shteyngart in this from the appearance literature quotes with this collection of
into robots—folds out collection. Gavino’s love of the word cocktail in stills from TV and film, personal stories about
into a full-on robot, letter to readers includes D.H. Lawrence’s Lady giving each medium a city bird-watching.
which Publishers illustrated author Chatterley’s Lover to the fresh treatment that’s Bonus: Lindo critiques
Weekly describes as portraits (Zadie Smith, invention of the bloody equally funny (Virginia cosmopolitan birds in
“the best gatefold Junot Díaz, Octavia mary. Plus, it comes with Woolf plus Friends) film (Charlie’s Angels
ever.” Activate robo- Butler, and others) and recipes for famous- and poignant (Sylvia trumps The Birds, but
domination! memorable quotes. author-approved drinks. Plath plus Mad Men). not Blade Runner).

62 mentalfloss.com December 2015

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DEC . 17
AL
NATION
M AP LE
S Y RUP
DAY

HOT DATE!

North American
squirrels will gouge
the bark of maple trees
with their front teeth
to drink the sap. No
pancakes required.

BRAIN KALE

Hunger Makes Me The Good News A Colorful History of First Bite Lingo
a Modern Girl About What’s Bad Popular Delusions by Bee Wilson by Gaston Dorren
ISTOCK (GOLFBALL). ALAMY (SQUIRREL)

by Carrie Brownstein for You … by Robert E. Bartholomew and (Basic Books, $28) (Atlantic Monthly Press,
(Riverhead, $28) by Jeff Wilser Peter Hassall $25)
(Flatiron Books, $20) (Prometheus Books, $19) Wilson dives into
The Sleater-Kinney the science and Until the 1960s, it was
guitarist, Portlandia Love kale and standing What caused an itching culture of food rude to use you in
co-creator and star, desks? By all means, epidemic in South preferences and Swedish conversation.
animal shelter activist, keep chewing and African schools in 2000, concludes that we can Morsels like this dot
and former mental_ standing. If you don’t, or or French nuns to meow change our tastes. Dorren’s tour of 60
floss cover model want to know more, this for hours in the Middle (If the teacher she obscure European
writes powerfully is your guide. Bacon can Ages? The authors mentions who lived languages—like
about navigating her be good for you; so can investigate “popular on ketchup, Oreos, Romansh, the closest
multifaceted creative swearing. (Also: Don’t delusions” throughout and instant noodles relative to Latin, still
life in this memoir. apologize so much!) history to explain. can do it, anyone can.) spoken by 35,000.

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 63

 POP
CULTURE
SYLLABUS

OWLS
ARTSY CHARMERS
Artist Matt Sewell, a.k.a. the “Banksy of the Bird World,” is on
a mission to acquaint us with a few of the 216 known species
of owls. His watercolors capture 50 different species of the
mostly nocturnal bird, like the elf owl, which weighs 1 ounce and
measures 5 inches, and Blakiston’s fish owl, which catches fish
up to three times its size.
READ Owls: Our Most Charming Bird, by Matt Sewell
(Ten Speed Press, $13)

GUESS HOOT?
Created to commemorate the first Earth Day in 1970, Woodsy
Owl almost wasn’t an owl. When the U.S. Forest Service
commissioned a team to create a character to teach kids about
pollution and preservation, they also considered a raccoon, a
ladybug, and a trout. The owl they chose remains one of two
mascots protected by an act of Congress (the other is Smokey
Bear). Passed in 1974, the Woodsy Owl Act protects Woodsy’s
signature Robin Hood–style hat and forest-green pants, as
well as his catchphrase, “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.” Use either
without permission and you’ll face up to six months in jail.
WATCH Woodsy Owl PSAs, USDA Forest Service’s YouTube channel

NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

A symbol of wisdom starting with the Greek goddess Athena,
owls are also fearsome carnivores. After gulping their catch
whole, they regurgitate pellets of undigestible matter (bones,
fur), which are big business for educational companies that sell
the pellets to teachers for classroom dissection. See if you can
spot any at this conservation center and avian medical clinic.
VISIT The Center for Birds of Prey, Awendaw, South Carolina

BIRD TROUBLE
Rain is more than an inconvenience to owls—it can incapacitate
them. The ring of feathers surrounding each eye directs sound
into their ears, and since their feathers aren’t waterproof, their
sense of hearing is dampened, which affects their ability to
hunt. But that’s just the bad news—this beautifully captured
documentary is an uplifting look at the incredible physical
capacities of owls.
WATCH Owl Power, PBS (on Netflix)

1. Statement required by 39 U.S.C. 3685 showing the ownership, management, and circulation of mental_floss. 2. Publication No. 021-941. 3. Date of filing: September 28, 2015. 4. Issue Frequency: Bi-monthly Jan/Feb, Mar/Apr, July/Aug. Monthly
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Location of Headquarters or General Business Offices of Publisher is same as above. 9. The names and addresses of publisher, editor-in-chief, and managing editor are Publisher: Molly Bechert, 55 West 39th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY
10018. Editor-in-Chief: Jessanne Collins, 55 West 39th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10018. Managing Editor: Jen Doll, 55 West 39th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10018. 10. The owner is: The Week Publications, Inc. 55 West 39th Street, 5th
Floor, New York, NY 10018. Known bondholders, mortgages and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: none. 12. For non-profit organizations. 13. Publication Title:
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ALAMY

USPS 15,000 C. Total Paid Distribution 101,107 D. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution 1. Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies included on PS Form 3541 1,859 2. Free or Nominal Rate In-county Copies Included on PS Form 3541 3. Free
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Total 153,867 I. Percent Paid 94% 17. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. (Signed) Leslie Guarnieri, Consumer Marketing Director

64 mentalfloss.com December 2015

 GO MENTAL
The Quiz
BY LU C A S A DA M S 8 Birth control was first synthe-
sized from what vegetable?
A Tiger nut
START B Prairie turnip
HE RE C Wild leek
D Mexican yam

9 Which is not a state in Mexico?

1 What was
Kermit the
Frog’s cologne
A Hidalgo
B Chetumal
C Sinaloa
named? D Jalisco

A 10 Which writer is not buried

Amphibia at “Author’s Ridge” at Sleepy
B Hollow Cemetery in Concord,
A Tad of Tadpole Massachusetts?
A Louisa May Alcott
B Nathaniel Hawthorne
C C Herman Melville
Mr. Ribbit D Henry David Thoreau
D
Eau de Toad 11Which insect has only one ear?
A Cricket
B Praying mantis
C Earwig
D Termite
2 Civil War soldiers protected 5Which was not one of George
steamboats by covering them in Washington’s dogs?
________.
A Cotton
A Sweetlips
B Vulcan 12 In Alaska, a museum is
dedicated to what tool?
B Pillows C Drunkard
C Sandbags D Sugar Puck
D Tar
6 Over the last 100 years,
3Which is not a bone in your which name has been the most
hand? popular for girls in the United
A Trapezium States? A B
B Scaphoid A Mary Ice pick Hammer
C Ulna B Anne
D Capitate C Betty
D Jennifer
4 Where was Otis Redding when
he came up with the song “(Sittin’ 7What was Union general
on) The Dock of the Bay”? George B. McClellan’s nickname?
A Sausalito, California A Virginia Creeper
B Baytown, Texas B Lonesome George C D
C Naples, Florida C Puddin’ Screwdriver Jackhammer
D Coney Island, New York D Fightin’ Philly

YOUR
SC OR E !
ANSWERS 2. A Ragman, Mopsey, 9. B (Chetumal is a
1. A (The citrus 3. C (The ulna is and Madame city in the state of
perfume was sold one of the two long Moose.) Quintana Roo.)
exclusively at bones along your 6. A (Jennifer held 10. C (He’s buried 0–3 Pretty Good
Bloomingdale’s forearm.) the No. 1 spot at Woodlawn 4–6 The Best
in 1995, marketed 4. A from 1970 to 1984, Cemetery in New 7–9 The Worst
with the tag line 5. D (Other however.) York City.)
“Pour homme, pooches owned by 7. A 11. B 10–12 Also Pretty Good
femme, et frog.”) Washington: Tartar, 8. D 12. B

December 2015 mentalfloss.com 65

1,006 WORDS

SPIDERS
RECYCLE WEBS
BY EATING
THEM.
ALAMY
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