Category Archives: Quick Facts

The Horrifying Origin of the Term “Stool Pigeon”

American gangster films of the 1920s, 30s and 40s have contributed a wealth of colourful slang to the English language, much of which is still floating around popular culture to this day: “sleeping with the fishes”, “concrete overshoes”, “G-man”, “Chicago typewriter”, “goon”, “big house”, “private dick”, “speakeasy”, “Chicago overcoat”, “ride the lightning”, “fuzz”, and many others. But while many of […]

Read more

26 Fascinating Football Facts

With the Super Bowl this weekend, we thought we’d do a “Football facts” roundup to help you impress your buddies with amazingly interesting Football knowledge. 891) Buffalo wings were invented sometime around the 1960s by either John Young or Frank and Teressa Bellissimo in Buffalo, New York. The spreading of this tasty appetizer was relatively slow until Football stepped in. […]

Read more

Stabbing Bed Bugs, Lloyd Christmas, Cliff from CliffsNotes and More in Yet Another 10 Quick Facts

1026:  Bed bugs reproduce via the male bed bug literally stabbing the female in the abdomen with his hypodermic genitalia rather than using the female’s reproductive tract.  Once he’s stabbed the female, he then releases his sperm insider her body cavity. The sperm ultimately travel via the female’s blood to sperm storage structures in her body.  The males also are […]

Read more

Tinkle Bells, the Parasitic Poop Twig, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Marketing Stunt and more, in a Special Christmas Quick Fact List

1016: Mistletoe tends to spring from bird droppings that have fallen on trees, with the seeds having passed through the digestive tract of birds. From this, it should come as no surprise that the name “mistle” or “missel” meant “dung” and “toe,” which came from the Anglo-Saxon “tan,” meant “twig.” Thus, mistletoe is another way to essentially say “poop twig.” […]

Read more

The Truth About the Road Not Taken, The Rose / Star Trek connection, What “Trump” Means in the UK, and more in Yet Another 10 Quick Facts

1006) While Amanda McBroom is probably best known for her role as Judge Advocate General Captain Philippa Louvois in what is generally considered one of the best Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, The Measure of a Man, it might also surprise you to learn that she wrote the song, The Rose, first made famous by Bette Midler in the […]

Read more

How Blind People Tell When They’ve Wiped Enough, and More in Yet Another 9 Quick Facts

997) Ever wonder how blind people tell when they’ve wiped enough after going to the bathroom?  Well, wonder no more. To begin with, the vast majority of the world’s population uses water to clean, rather than starting with toilet paper. With something like a bidet with reasonable pressure, you just spray for a bit and use toilet paper to dry- […]

Read more

The First Thing Eaten on the Moon, What Armstrong Said Directly After His Historic “Small Step” Line, What It Would Take to Stop the Earth Orbiting the Sun and More in Yet Another 14 Quick Facts

983) On July 21, 1969 at 02:56 UTC, Neil Armstrong forever stamped his name in the history books by putting his foot on the Moon. Armstrong getting to do this almost never happened due to the fact that he turned his application in to NASA about a week after the June 1, 1962 deadline, making him ineligible for that historic […]

Read more

Liam Neeson the Boxing Champion, Double Nosed Dogs, Pregnant for 61 Years and More in Yet Another 9 Amazing Quick Facts

974) At the age of nine years old, actor Liam Neeson joined the All Saints Boxing Club put together by his parish priest, Father Darragh. He continued boxing until 17, according to Neeson becoming “juvenile champion of Northern Ireland three times and Irish runner-up a couple times in my weight division.” However, after one of his final fights, when he […]

Read more

Mailing Children, The 24 Hour Puppy Channel, the Bizarre Origins of Sleeping Beauty and More in Yet Another 10 Amazing Quick Facts

  964) When Parcel Post Service first launched in America on January 1, 1913, there were few guidelines on what could be mailed.  As a result, a handful of parents, spotting a bargain, began mailing their children. The first known case of this was the child of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Beauge of Ohio only a few weeks after the […]

Read more

Our Mega List of Fascinating Star Wars Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

If you’ve noticed the fewer number of articles being published the last couple weeks on TIFO, this post is the cause. 🙂 It now holds the record for the longest time spent researching and writing any single article on TIFO by a very good margin. It turns out there are an awful lot of Star Wars “facts” commonly repeated all […]

Read more

26 Fascinating Football Facts

With the Super Bowl this weekend, we thought we’d do a “Football facts” roundup to help you impress your buddies with amazingly interesting Football knowledge. 891) Buffalo wings were invented sometime around the 1960s by either John Young or Frank and Teressa Bellissimo in Buffalo, New York. The spreading of this tasty appetizer was relatively slow until Football stepped in. […]

Read more

The Sacred Band of Thebes, What Monkees Do With Money and More, in Yet Another 10 Quick Facts

Quick Fact 881: On February 10, 1355 in Oxford, England, Walter Spryngeheuse and Roger de Chesterfield, two students at Oxford University, got in an argument with tavern owner John Croidon over the quality of the drinks he was serving.  In the end, drinks were thrown in the face of Croidon, after which the two students attacked him.  Soon the fight […]

Read more

’69 in Canada, Cincinnatus, Who Built the Pyramids and More, in Yet Another 10 Quick Facts

Quick Fact 871: John F. Kennedy’s sister, Rosemary Kennedy, was ultimately found to have an IQ of only 60-70, something the family went to elaborate lengths to hide.  Finally, at the age of 23 as she began to become “rebellious,” with Joseph Kennedy Sr. worrying she might embarrass the family, Kennedy Sr. learned of a relatively new medical procedure that […]

Read more

The Vice President Who Wrote a Hit Song, the Odd Use Bubble Wrap was Originally Intended for, and More in Yet Another 10 Quick Facts

Quick Fact 861: Play-Doh was originally used as a wallpaper cleaner, with the compound debuting 22 years before Play-Doh hit the shelves, in a last ditch effort to save a dying company, the Cincinnati based soap company, Kutol. (Wallpaper cleaner wasn’t really used much anymore as people transitioned away from coal heat.) The woman who suggested the idea to use […]

Read more

How Capone Got His Scars, the Joint Chiefs’ Treasonous Plan Rejected by Kennedy, and More, in Yet Another 10 Fascinating Quick Facts

Quick Fact 851: On March 13, 1962, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Lyman Lemnitzer, submitted a proposal to the Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, developed by the Joint Chiefs and the Department of Defense outlining plans to, among other things, commit various acts of terrorism on U.S. soil and then frame the Cubans for it […]

Read more

The Connection Between Saddam’s and Hitler’s Bunkers, Why Your Friends are Likely to Have More Friends Than You, and More, in Yet Another 10 Quick Facts

Quick Fact 841: If you’ve ever felt like your friends are more popular, happier, and wealthier than you… well, on average, you’re probably right.  This all comes down to something known as the Generalized Friendship Paradox.  The Friendship Paradox was first proposed in 1991 by sociologist Scott L. Feld, who demonstrated that your friends, on average, will have more friends […]

Read more

10 Fascinating Quick Facts

Quick Fact 831: A few years ago a man from Singapore became an Internet sensation thanks to his unique name, “Batman bin Suparman” which in English would translate as “Batman son of Suparman.” So what happened after? He was arrested in 2013 for robbing a store. He also had previously stolen his brother’s (Nurazman Suparman) ATM card, using it to […]

Read more
1 2 3 28