

Ellen Gutoskey
Joined: Jun 24, 2019
Ellen Gutoskey was a Mental Floss senior staff writer who especially loved covering pop culture, not-so-popular culture, literature, really tiny things, really giant things, and anything that was previously thought to be lost. She used to work in publishing, she's usually laughing, and you can follow her on Twitter @ellengutoskey.




Americans favor 'Merry Christmas,' while Brits opt for 'Happy Christmas.' Here's how we got here.
Life is bursting with pairs of commonly confused things—we’ll teach you how to tell a bunch of them apart.
Do members of congress get paid during government shutdowns? And do they get free health insurance? Let’s get to the bottom of some common myths.
Thanksgiving isn’t the only major November holiday—here’s how Native American Heritage Month first came to be.
Whether we're springing forward or falling back, we do it at exactly 2 a.m.—but why?
As anyone who’s seen the movie ‘Titanic’ already knows, the ship didn’t sink immediately. So how long was the process?
The origins of the phrase (indirectly) involve smelly cabbage, Donald Duck, and several Canadian journalists.
We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?
This multiple-choice quiz challenges you to match the hit 1980s song to the movie it was made for.
We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?
Test your knowledge of the best and worst Halloween candies in this timed quiz.
Historical cures for insomnia were sketchy at best and outright dangerous at worst. Fortunately, modern medicine has discovered a few techniques that can help those suffering from insomnia.