Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS





Phone numbers with letters look like gibberish to most people making a phone call today.

You may have noticed these weird phone numbers while watching reruns of your favorite ’50s-era TV show—and though they look like gibberish to modern phone-users, they were perfectly normal at the time.

Nick Greene




Vocal fry predates the Kardashians.

Vocal fry describes a specific sound quality caused by the movement of the vocal folds—and it’s nothing new.

Arika Okrent
There’s no shortage of theories.

‘For Pete’s sake’ originated around the early 20th century, but the Pete in question may have lived long before that.

Ellen Gutoskey














Ye olde boob tube.

When TVs became popular in the 20th century, some people started calling it ‘the tube.’ That nickname soon spawned an even catchier one: ‘the boob tube.’

Ellen Gutoskey