Adrienne Crezo

Adrienne Crezo

@a_crezo
Writes about: Lists , politics , science
Adrienne Crezo used to be mentalfloss.com's biggest fan. (She still is, but she used to be, too.) Adrienne is a long-time _floss regular and handyperson, freelance writer and editor. She lives in Oklahoma, where she nurses incurable addictions to coffee and Reddit and owns an absurd number of dictionaries. Before she was a pixel-pusher, Adrienne worked in research and development at a cosmetics and over-the-counter drugs laboratory; she was also the co-founder and editor-in-chief of LitStack.com and a social media editor for TheWeek.com. Adrienne is a voting member of the National Book Critics Circle and a member liaison for the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc.

lists

5 U.S. Cities That Were Destroyed—and Completely Rebuilt

As recovery efforts begin in areas ravaged by Hurricane Sandy, rebuilding may seem like an impossible task right now. But rebuilding will happen. We’ve talked about historic disasters like the Great Chicago Fire and the 1906 earthquake that devastated San Francisco. Let’s look at five other U.S. cities that bounced back after natural disasters. 1. Galveston,... READ ON

lists

16 International Idioms That Describe Heavy Rain

Maybe you've heard about Hurricane Sandy. (In case you haven't, check out The Weather Channel's live coverage.) The so-called Frankenstorm is expected to drop a few tons of water on the East Coast, which got us thinking: what do non-English-speaking people say when it's raining cats and dogs? Here are 16 idioms that mean "heavy rain" from around the world. 1. Argentina: "It's raining dung head-first." In Spanish: Esta lloviendo caen soretes de punta. 2. China Hong Kong: "Dog poo is falling." In... READ ON

lists

7 People Who Died and Left Their Fortunes To Strangers

It's not unusual for wealthy people to leave part or all of their wealth to family and friends. It's extremely rare, however, that people leave estates and fortunes to complete strangers. Here are seven of those exceptional people. 1. An unnamed wealthy Brooklynite A New York man who died in 1919 was well-known for his "wealth and eccentricity," and his will did not disappoint. He left these instructions to the executor of his estate: "I own seventy one pairs of trousers. It is my desire that they be... READ ON

articles

100 Years Ago Teddy Roosevelt Got Shot in the Chest, Then Gave a Speech Anyway

On October 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was on the campaign trail in Milwaukee, running for a third term. It was a tough race: Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson proved to be a formidable opponent, and William Howard Taft, while unpopular, was the Republican incumbent. Roosevelt was running as a third-party Progressive, and in order to keep pace with his big-ticket rivals he had to work hard. By this point in the election season, he was giving 15 to 20 speeches per day, most of which stretched on for an... READ ON

lists

11 Amazing Letters from Nobel Laureates

1. "Nothing more than the expression and product of human... READ ON

lists

9 Ways People Used Radium Before We Understood the Risks

Radium was discovered by Marie Curie and her husband Pierre in 1898. In 1903, the Royal Academy of Sciences awarded Marie and Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel the Nobel Prize in Physics, making Marie the first woman to win the prize. Later, in 1911, she would win her second Nobel for isolating radium, discovering another element (polonium), and for her research into the new phenomenon of radioactivity, a word she coined herself. By 1910, radium was manufactured synthetically in the U.S. But before the... READ ON

lists

13 Little-Known Punctuation Marks We Should Be Using

Because sometimes periods, commas, colons, semi-colons, dashes, hyphens, apostrophes, question marks, exclamation points, quotation marks, brackets, parentheses, braces, and ellipses won't do. 1.... READ ON

lists

11 Bizarre Old Contraptions That Promised to Improve Your Looks

1. Nose... READ ON

articles

Perk Up: It's International Coffee Day!

Look sharp, java monsters. It's joe's big day! While the holiday's origins are a little murky, we do know that an annual bean-themed event began in Japan in 1983 and has since spread to at least 16 countries that import or export the globe's favorite hot beverage. The holiday falls on various dates around the world, but today the United States, Canada, England, Ethiopia and Malaysia are celebrating the globe's love affair with... READ ON

lists

27 Cowboy Slang Terms for Things You Eat and Drink

If your bread wallet is empty and you need to line the flue, knight the ribbons and mosey to a beanery. Your cookie-pusher will know what you mean when you order any of these 27 cowboy food and drink items. 1. Bear Sign: Doughnuts * 2. Overland trout: Bacon * 3. Blue John: Skimmed milk * 4. Boggy-top: A pie with no top crust * 5. Cackleberries: Eggs * 6. Charlie Taylor: A butter substitute made of sorghum or syrup mixed with fat. It wasn't good, and apparently neither was Charlie Taylor, who... READ ON

Pages

Subscribe to Author Articles