Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 30

Random Facts About This Year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

These are the singers and bands recently nominated for enshrinement into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame…and some bizarre and interesting trivia about them. Rock on! Def Leppard The ‘80s heavy metal / hair metal band (“Photograph,” “Rock of Ages”) misspelled its name on purpose. The name was originally Deaf Leopard, but they got […]

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Words Invented By Commercials

Not everybody watches the same TV shows or reads the same books, but we are all subject to the same ads. That makes marketing a universal language, and as such, marketers and advertisers have introduced several now common words and phrases into the vernacular. MANSCAPING Netflix just rebooted the early 2000s makeover show Queer Eye […]

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All About the Tooth Fairy

Here’s your first Tooth Fairy fact: She (or he, at the BRI, we’re woke) isn’t real. We hate to be the ones to tell you but it was your parent who put money under your pillow when you lost a tooth. Here’s some more trivia about this beloved, dental-obsessed mythological magical creature. Origin story The […]

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How to Make Soy Sauce (The Old-Fashioned Way)

Need a bottle of soy sauce? You could drive five minutes to the nearest grocery store and pick up a bottle for three bucks…or you could make some from scratch with the same method that soy sauce makers in Asia have been using for centuries. (Warning: Choose the latter option, and it’s going to take […]

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The Weirdest Ever Sports Contracts

Professional sports are big business, with millions of dollars regularly changing hands between players and management. But a giant fortune isn’t everything, it would seem. No dogs allowed From 2011 to 2013, Steve Novak played at forward for the New York Knicks. In that same time, he was contractually forbidden from owning a dog. Reason: […]

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The Birth and Almost Near-Death of the Independent Baseball League

Back in the ‘80s, there was almost a second huge pro baseball league. It fell apart before a single pitch was thrown. Trying to buy a team In addition to acquiring properties and developing real estate in New York, Donald Trump spent a good deal of time in the 1980s trying to buy a Major […]

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“And the…” Bands Played On

If you think music today is weird, think of how many bands and singing groups in pop music history that had names where, after the name of the lead singer was given, the rest didn’t make any sense without a primer. Well, here’s that long lost primer, because what even is a “Shondell,” anyway? Gladys […]

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So Long, Mr. President

President George H.W. Bush, who served from 1989 to 1993, passed away at the edge of 94. Here’s a look back at the long and interesting life of the Commander-in-Chief. Near death experience As a teenager, he contracted such a serious staph infection — which nearly killed him — that he missed so much school […]

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Do You Know Your Christmas Capitals?

People all over the world celebrate the holidays in different ways, but there are some standards of the holiday that are nearly universal. Here are the cities and towns that can make a claim as the birthplace, chief production area, or “capital” of different aspects of Christmas. Candy Canes If you’re sucking on a red-and-white, […]

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Ask Uncle John Anything: When Tongue Met Metal Pole

It’s one of the most famous scenes in one of the most popular holiday movies of all time. In A Christmas Story, the 1983 big-screen retelling of the embellished Midwestern Christmas recollections of humorist Jean Shepherd, a kid named Flick (Scott Schwartz), best friend of main character Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) has no choice but to accept a winter-time, schoolyard “triple dog dare” and places his tongue against a metal pole in the freezing cold.

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