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An 8-inch snowfall on the eve of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961 left hundreds of cars marooned and thousands more abandoned. An army of men worked all night to clear Pennsylvania Avenue, using flame-throwers.
In 1967, Harold Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach. He never came back. The sitting Prime Minister of Australia, just gone. They declared him dead two days later. His body has never been recovered. The ocean keeps what it takes. Australia named a swimming pool after him. Dark humor or tribute, you decide.
When you're worth over $100 billion, you've presumably done most things. Seen places. Bought islands. Eradicated diseases for fun. What's left? According to Gates himself: staying alive. That's the whole list. One item. The most relatable billionaire moment in history.
There's a pedestrian tunnel in Arlington, Virginia, that was used in the 1950s to protect children from traffic. Sensible enough. Except there are no records of who built it, when, or why. It just exists. A concrete gift from the bureaucratic void. You're welcome, children of the past.
In the US, ISPs have been legally allowed to sell customer browsing history since 2017. Every search, every site, every 3am Wikipedia spiral. Someone's monetizing your insomnia. A VPN encrypts that traffic into meaningless noise. Your existential crises remain your own.
Stop the sale with 70% off NordVPN! →One for film. One for music. One for television. Most people struggle to be mediocre at one thing. Sinatra was apparently excellent at three. The Walk of Fame has over 2,700 stars. He took three of them. Greedy, really.
In Sri Lanka, it is traditional for children to throw their lost baby teeth onto the roof of their house while a squirrel is present. The act is meant to encourage the new tooth to grow strong and healthy, with the squirrel serving as a symbolic witness rather than an active participant. Unlike tooth fairy traditions elsewhere, there is no exchange of gifts or rewards and no particular emphasis on sentimentality. The tooth is simply thrown away, the squirrel is acknowledged, and life continues. Cultural rituals do not always explain themselves, and this one is content to leave it at that.
In Cuba in 2025 the average monthly wage was roughly equivalent to US $16, even at the relatively higher official exchange rate, placing ordinary incomes far below what most people elsewhere consider a living salary. This figure doesn’t include foreign currency earnings or remittances that some workers supplement their income with, and it varies by sector and region, but it remains a stark indicator of how low state-set wages are compared with basic costs of food, services, and housing. Most Cubans earn in Cuban pesos under a planned economy that sets wages centrally, and those wages struggle to cover necessities without help from alternate income sources. People work. They get paid. The number doesn’t aim to be inspiring.
During Operation Mongoose, the CIA explored a plan to sabotage Fidel Castro’s public image by slipping thallium salts into his shoes. The chemical would have caused his beard, eyebrows, and even pubic hair to fall out, undermining the iconic appearance that formed part of his political persona. The idea never moved beyond planning stages, but it sits among the many unconventional schemes devised to discredit or destabilise Castro during the Cold War. The goal was not assassination, just humiliation, which somehow made the proposal even stranger.
In 1995, launching an online store required developers, servers, merchant accounts, and roughly $50,000. In 2026, it requires an email address and mild delusion. Print-on-demand, dropshipping, and free trial periods have eliminated every financial excuse. The only remaining barrier is you. Which, admittedly, is often the biggest one.
No excuses, start free →In the 1980s and 1990s, Domino’s promise to deliver pizza within 30 minutes led to a sharp rise in traffic accidents as drivers rushed to meet the guarantee. The pressure to arrive on time became intense enough that the company saw fatal crash rates among delivery workers comparable to those in mining and construction, industries not known for gentle working conditions. Multiple lawsuits followed, including high profile cases involving serious injuries and deaths, eventually pushing the company to abandon the guarantee in the United States. Fast delivery was achieved, just not in a way anyone should repeat.
The claim that nothing rhymes with “orange” is incorrect. It does have legitimate rhymes, including Blorenge, a mountain in Wales, and sporange, a rare botanical term referring to a spore sac. The same rumour follows the word “silver,” which also isn’t alone. It rhymes with wilver, an old nickname, and chilver, the term for a female lamb. These words are obscure enough that most people never encounter them, which is how the myth survives. The rhymes exist. They’re just not trying very hard.
In 1900, roughly 38 percent of all cars in the United States were powered by electricity, a proportion that often surprises people who assume the automotive industry has only recently rediscovered the concept. Early electric cars were popular because they were clean, quiet, and easier to operate than gasoline engines, which at the time were noisy, unreliable, and required hand cranking. Electric vehicles eventually lost ground due to limited range, heavy batteries, and the rise of mass produced petrol cars, but for a brief period they held a genuine foothold in the market. The future arrived early, people got bored of it, and then we spent a century reinventing it.
In 2008, a stage actor in Vienna seriously injured himself during a live performance when his prop knife was mistakenly swapped for a real one. The scene required him to simulate cutting his throat as part of a staged suicide, a routine he had rehearsed safely with a dulled blade. Instead, the genuine knife caused an actual wound before anyone realised the mistake, bringing the production to an immediate halt. The actor survived after being taken to hospital, and the incident was later traced to a mix-up in the props department rather than anything dramatic or symbolic. Theatre has always relied on illusion, and it works best when the props stay fake.
Composer Ludwig van Beethoven was famously precise about his coffee, reportedly using exactly 60 beans per cup and counting each one by hand.
More coffee knowledge on Nescafe.com →