Mental Floss

NEWS

Be prepared to bring your own.

Hotels readily give guests soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and even sewing kits. But why don’t we get tubes of toothpaste when we check into a room? The answer is kind of complicated.

Garin Pirnia












Make sure you know how to properly fly your flag.

Ingloriously crammed between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, Flag Day tends to get overlooked. Here’s a brief history of the patriotic day. 

Kate Erbland


Open up and say ...

Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’ isn’t just an enduring summer classic—it also includes plenty of fun slang terms that’ll make you feel like its Shark Week all year long.

Angela Tung


A mural titled ‘The Security of the People’ by Seymour Fogel, illustrating the values and programs put forth by the New Deal.

Nearly 100 years after the Great Depression, Americans are still benefiting from New Deal programs—and their protections and entitlements have become such a part of the social fabric that we often take them for granted. Here are just a few.

Colin Scanlon








Grab your magnifying glass.

We give you an obscure word with four definitions—one correct, three made up. Can you identify the correct one?

Ellen Gutoskey
Jayne Mansfield on the set of ‘The Girl Can’t Help It.’

The bottle-blonde bombshell studied five languages, played the violin and the piano, and reportedly had an IQ in the 160s. Here’s what else you need to know about actress Jayne Mansfield.

Rebecca Pahle