Mental Floss

BIG QUESTIONS

Olivia Colman, Mahershala Ali, and Regina King celebrate their Oscar wins at the 91st Annual Academy Awards in 2019.

The voting process that determines the Oscar nominees is a long and complicated undertaking that involves approximately 8000 voting members and hundreds of eligible films and filmmakers.

Sean Hutchinson










Santa with a NORAD escort.

On December 24, 1955, the red telephone at the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center started to ring. When they picked up the phone, a little girl asked an unexpected question: “Are you really Santa Claus?”

Matt Soniak






iStock

Certain Christmas traditions never seem to go out of style. Along with wreaths, gingerbread cookies, and reruns of 'A Christmas Story' sits the poinsettia, a red-tinged leafy arrangement that’s become synonymous with the holiday.

Jake Rossen


Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“The parent who always expects the baby to be kissed, and the person who feels bound to kiss every baby that comes within reach are equally foolish and obnoxious characters."

Stacy Conradt