Ellen Gutoskey

Joined: Jun 24, 2019

Ellen Gutoskey is a Mental Floss staff writer who especially loves 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.

A grain of salt a day keeps the misinformation away.

Why Do We Tell People to Take Something “With a Grain of Salt”?

You can skip a couple vowels here ... but which ones?

The 20 Most Commonly Mispronounced Names in the World

Jazz Up Your Vocabulary With Mental Floss’s 2025 Word Nerd Desk Calendar

An illustration of Samuel Morse and company sending the first telegraph message from 'The Story of the Nineteenth Century of the Christian Era,' 1900.

‘What Hath God Wrought’: The Biblical Phrase That Made Scientific History

The Olympic rings outside the IOC headquarters in Switzerland.

20 Colorful Slang Terms From Olympic Sports

Here are 20 fun bits of Olympics slang, from diving’s ‘bingo’ to gymnastics’ ‘twisties.’

This baby's middle name is probably Lee.

The 20 Most Popular Middle Names in the Decade You Were Born

Is your middle name Marie? You could've been born in 1900 or 2015.

Five-Timers Club members Emma Stone, Paul Rudd, and Tina Fey.

All 26 Members of the ‘Saturday Night Live’ Five-Timers Club

You might already know that Tina Fey and Steve Martin are in SNL’s Five-Timers Club. But what about Drew Barrymore and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson?

What Do A.M. and P.M. Stand For?

The abbreviations are widely understood as “morning” and “afternoon,” but what do the Latin translations actually mean?

Just call it "giggle smoke." Or "Nixon."

18 Old-Timey Slang Terms for Marijuana That We Should Bring Back

From 'giggle smoke' to 'Nixon,' these marijuana nicknames deserve a resurgence.

‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility’: From Age-Old Axiom to Spider-Man’s Mantra

The origins of 'with great power comes great responsibility' and the story of how it became a canon event for Spider-Man.

Do you know where your copy is these days?

When American Girl’s ‘The Care & Keeping of You’ Taught a Generation How to Grow Up

‘The Care & Keeping of You’ paved the way for countless puberty books to come.

These ragdoll kittens know exactly how popular they are.

The 15 Most Popular Cat Breeds in the World

Your scruffy shelter tabby is every bit as beautiful as these pedigreed cats.

Woman Rescues Baby Hedgehog, Realizes It’s a Hat Pom-Pom

This can't be the only hedgehog-hat mix-up in history.

Submarine vs. Submersible: What’s the Difference?

There’s a reason nobody’s referring to the missing ‘Titanic’ submersible as a submarine.

(Clockwise from yellow) Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived.

Divorced, Beheaded, Died: A Guide to King Henry VIII’s 6 Wives

It would be easier to keep these not-so-merry wives of Tudor straight if half of them weren’t named Catherine.

The Mysterious Origins of the Phrase ‘The Whole Nine Yards’

Linguists and lexicographers have truly gone the whole nine yards to uncover the origin of ‘the whole nine yards.’