Mental Floss

ALL STORIES



You won’t bee-lieve how honeybees give directions.

Not everyone gives directions the way you do—in fact, the way people tell others how to get where they want to go can vary by city, town, and culture. Some of these directional systems might just change how you navigate the world.

Brett Reynolds


Vice President Charles Dawes.

Long before he was Calvin Coolidge’s vice president, Charles Dawes wrote an instrumental piece called “Melody in A Major” that later became a #1 hit.

Stacy Conradt




You ‘aught’ to know the answer of this question.

Suggestions for what to call the period of time from 2000–2009 ranged from ‘the nillies’ and ‘the oh-ohs’ to ‘the double zeroes’ and ‘the noughties.’ So how’d we land on ‘the aughts’?

Mark Peters








Bagel history is far from simple.

The bagel’s success is undeniable, but its path to breakfast dominance wasn’t straightforward.

Michele Debczak








Bring back tug of war!

If you’re looking forward to polo and tug of war at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, we have bad news for you.

Ethan Trex
He's spreading one helluva message, alright.

Some dogs lift their leg to pee as a way of marking their territory. But they also do it as a way of letting other dogs know they're the baddest canine in town.

Ken Ossea, Jr.
Notre-Dame de Paris in a 19th-century illustration.

The 800-plus-year-old Parisian cathedral has centuries of French history built into its stone. Here are 13 things you might not know about it.

Allison C Meier