World’s Strangest

In case you haven’t already heard, Punxsutawney Phil predicted another six weeks of winter this morning. Stupid groundhog. But there’s good news – if you don’t like what he had to say, there are plenty of other groundhogs you can consult instead. Here they are, complete with what they predicted today: 1. Punxsutawney Phil. We’ll start [...]

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…and chances are he’s evil. Hollywood has tried to explain away the cheeriness and unending generosity of Santa to meet all sorts of sordid and disturbing plotlines with varying degrees of success and failure—but mostly failure. These are the Santa Clauses who never knew the meaning of the word [...]

I’m going to have to watch this on the sly at some point in the next week, because every time my husband walks in the room and sees it on T.V., he starts making fun of me. And he likes Jimmy Stewart. But I digress. For those of you who love this classic as much [...]

I told Jason English the other day that my husband may be sending him flowers (or a six-pack; I guess that’s probably more likely). Because of Jason’s brilliant idea to have a mental_floss Fantasy Football league, I’ve been willing – nay, I’ve been wanting – to watch football lately. And not just for the touchdown [...]

(YouTube Link) Dan Ros rigged his Big Mouth Billy Bass so that it quotes Homer Simpson, Bill Clinton, and characters from Monty Python’s The Holy Grail: The star of the show is the mbed chipset, and in fact that’s Dan Ros’ real motivation. Priced at $60 (for a limited, introductory period; normal price $100), the mbed has [...]

You know him as the top-hat-wearing lead guitarist for Guns N’Roses, Slash’s Snakepit, and Velvet Revolver. Do you know where he got his signature hat and the name “Slash,” though? Let’s take a look at the man who’s darn near unbeatable in Guitar Hero. 1. He Grew Up With Rock Slash was born Saul Hudson in [...]

09.09.09: It’s Beatlemania all over again. At least, it is at my house. And to some degree, here on the _floss – we’ve covered Nine Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Beatles and Nine Women Who Inspired Beatles Songs. And now we bring you 10 people who have some sort of claim to the [...]

Floss editor extraordinaire Jason English recently found an interesting fact: Reggie Jackson’s famous “Mr. October” nickname was originally a derisive jab from teammate Thurman Munson when Jackson was struggling his way through the 1977 playoffs. Soon after Munson coined the mocking nickname, Jackson started hitting like his normal awesome self, and the name stuck as [...]