Mental Floss

WORDS

Ain't no shame in the boxed mix game.

Whoever started 'from scratch’ didn’t actually do it in the kitchen—and ‘scratch’ has nothing to do with clawing ingredients together with your bare hands.

Ellen Gutoskey
















A promising young restaurateur, ready to be called a restauranteur for the rest of her career.

If you’ve been spelling ‘restaurateur’ with an ‘n’ for your entire life, don't feel bad. But here’s why you’re wrong.

Ellen Gutoskey




Charlie Chaplin in The Circus (1928).

“Cut to the chase” is a slightly friendlier way of telling someone to get to the point, but old Hollywood filmmakers meant it literally.

Ellen Gutoskey




fcafotodigital/iStock via Getty Images

The viral 'if I had four eggs' riddle may seem like a straightforward problem, but you'll need more than math skills to solve it.

Michele Debczak
Cloaca just ... sounds better.

Sometimes the dreadful things we must suffer can seem a little less grim when they have the sweet ring, nay—the dulcet tones of euphonious polysyllabic Latin appellations.

Keith Johnston