the magazine

The Secret Life of the Banjo

By Robbie Whelan When you hear the banjo, you probably picture one of two things—Kermit the Frog strumming away or the inbred boy from Deliverance. How can one instrument conjure up images both so sweet and so repugnant? The answer lies in the hist

How Cereal Transformed American Culture

by Ian Lender More than a century ago, Christian fundamentalists invented cereal to promote a healthy lifestyle free of sin. Little did they know, their creation would eventually be used to promote everything from radio and cartoons to Mr. T and tooth de

9 Modern-Day Independence Movements

by Jeff Fleischer You've heard all about Palestine and Tibet, Quebec and Chechnya. But those aren't the only places that want to be sovereign. Here are 9 more would-be countries looking forward to paying U.N. dues. 1. Saving up for Independence:

3 Bald encounters on the set of Star Trek

Here are 3 surprising wig and toupee stories from the set of Star Trek-- a show that baldly went where no show has gone before. BY CHRIS HIGGINS Captain Jean-Luc Picard tries out in wig Patrick Stewart's Male Pattern Baldness (androgenetic alopecia) had r

How a Great Political Prankster Messed With Richard Nixon

Democratic prankster Dick Tuck began tormenting Richard Nixon in California in 1950, after he became a mole in Nixon’s successful Senate campaign. When Nixon unsuccessfully sought the presidency 10 years later, his opponent, John F. Kennedy, hired Tuck to

How the Bicycle Emancipated Women

On this date in 1920, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. To mark the occasion, we're re-running Chris Connolly's piece on the role of the bicycle in the women's

President Jimmy Carter's Carnal Mistake

In December 1977, President Jimmy Carter planned a trip to Poland, a country whose masses were, at the time, still fiercely huddled behind the Iron

How Saipan got Obsessed with SPAM

BY ARIN GREENWOOD. On Saipan, the most populated of the Northern Mariana Islands, people eat a lot of SPAM. SPAM sushi, SPAM-fried rice and SPAM-n-Egg McMuffins are just the start. In fact, SPAM-heavy foods are so common there that grocery stores devote e

5 Massive Screw-Ups in Paleontology

By Jeff Fleischer 1Â» THOMAS JEFFERSON'S MISTAKE In decades past, American presidents apparently had hobbies other than playing golf and eating at McDonald's. Thomas Jefferson, for one, was an avid paleontologist. As early as the 1790s (before it was cool

5 Presidential Secrets Left off the White House Tour

1. Washington Wasn't the First American PresidentYour teachers all

What's the Difference: Coke vs. Pepsi

There's no denying that cola aficionados have refined palettes. They can tell a vintage RC Cola just from the nose, and their cellars are stocked full of Shasta, Tab and Pepsi Kona. Needless to say, they weren't born this way. They've spent years cultivat

10 Sports Heroes You Won't Find on a Wheaties Box

It's time Wheaties started thinking outside the box. At least about the outside of their box. And that's why we're asking for America's support. We've posted Ethan's Trex's piece below, and we're using the comments section as a petition. Once we've collec

Embarrassing Moments in Engineering (and what they taught us)

This article was written by Mark Fischetti and originally appeared in mental_floss magazine. Remember giving that long and tearful toast at your brother's wedding, only to find out later that you had a huge chunk of spinach stuck in your teeth? Or the ti

6 Baby Names You Probably Shouldn't Give Your Kid

Forget Apple and Pilot Inspektor. If you really want to give your kid a hard time growing up, just pick from the following

3 Extreme Ways To Go Green

This article was written by Maggie Koerth-Baker, and appears in the March-April 2008 issue of mental_floss magazine. Recycle, schmecycle. These days, saving the Earth requires a lot more than just collecting cans. 1. Build Your House Out of

6 Horrifying Parasites

By Chris Connolly These life-sucking go-getters have managed to carve out some of the most ingenious survival strategies in the world. By some estimates, parasites outnumber free-living species nearly four to one. So show some respect. After all, moochin

5 Artistic Rivalries That Got Ugly

50 Reasons to Subscribe to mental_floss (#42, One Scheming Princess)

With the holidays just a few months away, we're introducing a new feature where we sift through 6 years of print archives and give you a smattering of the best of the _floss. If you dig what you see, subscribe here. GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE HUNS The Schemi

50 Reasons to Subscribe to mental_floss (#45, Gary Larson)

Gary Larson is a huge hero of mine. We begged and begged his handlers to ask him to draw a mental_floss cover for us, and though he refused, the Far Works group agreed to let us run a bio on him, and they were happy to fact check it for us. (Apparently, m

50 Reasons to Subscribe to mental_floss (#47, How to be a Superhero revealed!)

With the holidays just a few months away, we're sifting through 6 years of print archives and give you a smattering of the best of the _floss. If you dig what you see, subscribe here. Today, we're presenting Chris Connolly's piece on a how to be a superhe

50 Reasons to Subscribe to mental_floss (#48, Feminism and equality in terrorist recruiting?)

With the holidays just a few months away, we're introducing a new feature where we sift through 6 years of print archives and give you a smattering of the best of the _floss. If you dig what you see, subscribe here. Today, we're presenting Eric Furman's p

50 Reasons to Subscribe to mental_floss (Reason #49, Werner Heisenberg)

With the holidays just a few months away, we're introducing a new feature where we sift through 6 years of print archives and give you a smattering of the best of the _floss. If you dig what you see, subscribe here. Today's piece is on the unpredictable l

4 Terrifying Theories in Astronomy

This article was written by Jay M. Pasachoff, Professor of Astronomy at Williams College, and originally appeared in mental_floss magazine. Galileo may have been threatened with the rack during the Inquisition almost 400 years ago, but—relatively sp