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Mental Floss: Scatterbrained
The bathroom read to end all bathroom reads!
What does Greece (the country) have to do with Grease (the movie)? And what does Grease (the movie) have to do with greasy food? Plenty, if you ask the folks at mental_floss.
Based on the magazine's "Scatterbrained" section, the mental_floss gang has taken on the Mount Everest of trivia challenges: connecting the entire world through the juiciest facts they could find. How do you get from Puppies to Stalin; from Humpty Dumpty to Elizabeth Taylor; from the Hundred Years' War to 8 Minute Abs; or even from Schoolhouse Rock to Abstract Expressionism? You'll just have to open up the book to find out.
What does Greece (the country) have to do with Grease (the movie)? And what does Grease (the movie) have to do with greasy food? Plenty, if you ask the folks at mental_floss.
Based on the magazine's "Scatterbrained" section, the mental_floss gang has taken on the Mount Everest of trivia challenges: connecting the entire world through the juiciest facts they could find. How do you get from Puppies to Stalin; from Humpty Dumpty to Elizabeth Taylor; from the Hundred Years' War to 8 Minute Abs; or even from Schoolhouse Rock to Abstract Expressionism? You'll just have to open up the book to find out.
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2006
13 people are currently reading
317 people want to read
About the author
Mental Floss
36 books29 followersMental Floss (also credited as mental_floss) is a trivia and humor magazine.
mental_floss is a bi-monthly American magazine, launched in 2001 in Birmingham, Alabama, that presents facts and trivia in a humorous way. MentalFloss.com is also host to a popular blog, which contains additional trivia, features, and interesting news articles.
mental_floss is a bi-monthly American magazine, launched in 2001 in Birmingham, Alabama, that presents facts and trivia in a humorous way. MentalFloss.com is also host to a popular blog, which contains additional trivia, features, and interesting news articles.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 5, 2013
Rating: 3* of five
The Publisher Says: The bathroom read to end all bathroom reads!
What does Greece (the country) have to do with Grease (the movie)? And what does Grease (the movie) have to do with greasy food? Plenty, if you ask the folks at mental_floss.
Based on the magazine's "Scatterbrained" section, the mental_floss gang has taken on the Mount Everest of trivia challenges: connecting the entire world through the juiciest facts they could find. How do you get from Puppies to Stalin; from Humpty Dumpty to Elizabeth Taylor; from the Hundred Years' War to 8 Minute Abs; or even from Schoolhouse Rock to Abstract Expressionism? You'll just have to open up the book to find out.
My Review: This was the perfect book to read while in the throes of this bloody cold. Perfect amounts of information, useless, and ideal amounts of stupid humor.
For example, St. Fiacre (an Irish dude) is the patron saint of de-hemorrhoiding one's self. Did you ever, even one time in your entire life, stop to ponder the existence of, or need for, such a saintly specialty? Apparently Fiacre (how on earth does one say this collection of letters?) healed the sick (men only!) by laying on of hands. Give that a minute to sink in.
The old perv.
I'd vaguely heard tell of the existence of a shadowy Dowager Empress with a lot of power in Chinese history. Didn't know she was called Cixi (suppose that rhymes with Trixie?) and didn't realize that, within months of her death in 1908, the Imperial part of Chinese history was history. She dies, the Emperor loses the throne, and China starts on the path to being our banker via a horrible stint under Mao (an engineered population-reducing famine, his INSANE edict to kill all dogs! The Rotten Shitheel!) (BTW these facts came from this weird little book, too).
Bite-sized morsels of interesting factlets (does anyone besides me remember a rice-paper-wrapped candy called Aplets, or Cotlets? I loved those things), many of which make me curious to go in search of context and depth (Cixi being a good example) for the stories. Perfect for a restless-brain day.
On the other hand, really not much use in the thing. I got it as a sale book. I wouldn't pay $12.95 for it!
The Publisher Says: The bathroom read to end all bathroom reads!
What does Greece (the country) have to do with Grease (the movie)? And what does Grease (the movie) have to do with greasy food? Plenty, if you ask the folks at mental_floss.
Based on the magazine's "Scatterbrained" section, the mental_floss gang has taken on the Mount Everest of trivia challenges: connecting the entire world through the juiciest facts they could find. How do you get from Puppies to Stalin; from Humpty Dumpty to Elizabeth Taylor; from the Hundred Years' War to 8 Minute Abs; or even from Schoolhouse Rock to Abstract Expressionism? You'll just have to open up the book to find out.
My Review: This was the perfect book to read while in the throes of this bloody cold. Perfect amounts of information, useless, and ideal amounts of stupid humor.
For example, St. Fiacre (an Irish dude) is the patron saint of de-hemorrhoiding one's self. Did you ever, even one time in your entire life, stop to ponder the existence of, or need for, such a saintly specialty? Apparently Fiacre (how on earth does one say this collection of letters?) healed the sick (men only!) by laying on of hands. Give that a minute to sink in.
The old perv.
I'd vaguely heard tell of the existence of a shadowy Dowager Empress with a lot of power in Chinese history. Didn't know she was called Cixi (suppose that rhymes with Trixie?) and didn't realize that, within months of her death in 1908, the Imperial part of Chinese history was history. She dies, the Emperor loses the throne, and China starts on the path to being our banker via a horrible stint under Mao (an engineered population-reducing famine, his INSANE edict to kill all dogs! The Rotten Shitheel!) (BTW these facts came from this weird little book, too).
Bite-sized morsels of interesting factlets (does anyone besides me remember a rice-paper-wrapped candy called Aplets, or Cotlets? I loved those things), many of which make me curious to go in search of context and depth (Cixi being a good example) for the stories. Perfect for a restless-brain day.
On the other hand, really not much use in the thing. I got it as a sale book. I wouldn't pay $12.95 for it!
February 26, 2016
I love mental_floss because they have such fun information. Full of fun facts about relationships, ancient history, world wars, Roman emporers, American presidents, food, pop culture...it never gets dull. They way this one is structured is that there each article has a way of blending into the next one which can be pretty clever. The sections are broken up into means of connecting things like the chapter that connects Puppies to Stalin. Definitely worth the read.
January 9, 2009
After having read three mental_floss books in a row (as well as being a subscriber to the magazine) it's now clear to me that they recycle a lot of their information. It's a bit lazy, no doubt, but this is still a great trivia book.
June 2, 2020
So I love Mental Floss, the Green brothers, and Ransom Riggs, and their names on this book were the primary reason I picked it up. There was a LOT of fun trivia and a few things I had legit learned wrong, so I found this to be a generally really enjoyable light read. That said, you can tell that it is a fourteen year old book. For a work that covers literal millennia of trivia, it felt REALLY dated in it's pop culture references, and a few sections that felt like they were unnecessarily light on female representation (the equation for success of mascots stood out to me the most, but there were a few more). They make at least one mention of being a family friendly book, and several of avoiding printing profanity and the like, but their references to sex and innuendo was abundant. I did not mind personally, but I'm wondering what age they envisioned someone picking up this "family friendly" book, as I felt like the not so veiled references might give me pause to pass on to my almost 13yo, especially because now Riggs especially is associated with a very solidly popular YA series.
November 13, 2021
A fun little bathroom reader, which is exactly what I used it for, lol. Fun little tidbits of trivia supposedly linked throughout the book, if not a bit tenuously at times, combined with humor, also strained at times. All in all it was fun and killed some time, maybe even learned a few things…
December 16, 2012
So, off the bat, to be completely honest, I only read this book because it had Hank and John Green's names attached to it. It was really cool to hear so many things that have been referenced in vlogbrothers videos, like famous last words, Hodel the serial killer, child prodigies, using math textbooks as bully defense mechanisms, and most egregiously of all to me, "some infinities are bigger than others", which we now see come full circle in John's 2012 publication of The Fault in Our Stars. These little tidbits made the book a cool read (a friend also brought up the idea that this book may have been the one referenced in John's wedding toast to Hank) for any fan of the vlogbrothers, but beyond the references, it did have its instances where it dragged. Then again, there is something in this book for everyone, so there will be parts where you couldn't care less, but other parts where you'll be completely engrossed in the bits of trivia. But ultimately, I read it because of Hank and John, and they are the ones who I'd like to hear more from in regards to this book. I want to know who was responsible for which parts and what it was like for them to collaborate in this medium and all of the backstory! After learning so much, there's still so much story behind the story that I want to learn.
November 2, 2014
found a couple errors that make me wonder about the rest of the book. dna didn't prove thomas jefferson fathered w/sally hemmings children. dna did prove that thomas or his brother did. there's little doubt that thomas did through the hemings family's interviews, but dna only added some proof.
and the book repeats h.l. mencken's deadline induced story that a president got stuck in a bath tub. great story.
one thing worth giving the editors credit for is knowing harry truman's middle name and not his middle initial.
i didn't know that it was well known that nixon had many affairs.
and the book repeats h.l. mencken's deadline induced story that a president got stuck in a bath tub. great story.
one thing worth giving the editors credit for is knowing harry truman's middle name and not his middle initial.
i didn't know that it was well known that nixon had many affairs.
March 18, 2012
from the book:
Jack Benny setup with a local florist to deliever a rose every day to his wife, after his death.
James Bond titles lose something when they were being translated into other languages. From Russia with Love = Good Kisses from Russia[French]. License to Kill = The Cancelled License[Japanese]. Octopussy = 007 Averted the Blast Point [Chinese]
Many former US Presidents are not buried in US soil. Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Bush are not dead, hence not buried. Adams, Quincey Adams, Garfield, Wilson, and others were interred above ground
Jack Benny setup with a local florist to deliever a rose every day to his wife, after his death.
James Bond titles lose something when they were being translated into other languages. From Russia with Love = Good Kisses from Russia[French]. License to Kill = The Cancelled License[Japanese]. Octopussy = 007 Averted the Blast Point [Chinese]
Many former US Presidents are not buried in US soil. Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Bush are not dead, hence not buried. Adams, Quincey Adams, Garfield, Wilson, and others were interred above ground
July 20, 2008
If you know me, you know I love books of trivia. This is one of the best I've come across. It's fun, it had lots of facts I hadn't read before, it was long enough to be satisfying and short enough not to feel like a textbook. The trivia is arranged in little blurbs that are (sometimes very) tangentially connected to each other, so there's kind of a flow to it.
I'd say it was worth every penny except I didn't pay for it ;)
I'd say it was worth every penny except I didn't pay for it ;)
August 8, 2007
Good stuff. Lots of random trivia.
April 4, 2008
Good stuff! Feel smarter in just a few minutes a day!
August 24, 2009
Mental Floss: Scatterbrained (Mental_floss) by Editors Of Mental Floss (2006)
March 5, 2010
the best bathroom reader ever.
February 8, 2012
This one is just plain fun to read. I read it all the way through once, a few years ago, and just started reading it again. It'll be a nice gauge of my memory.
June 27, 2011
it was like if every vlogbrothers video was set to print; informative and funny. as i'm reading, i'm hearing hank talk.
June 19, 2011
I LEARNED SO MANY THINGS FROM THIS BOOK! And I got it signed by John Green (who helped edit it) when I met him. Yay!
December 25, 2013
The Mental Floss books are always interesting, this one has (as per usual) a good mix of trivia from various subjects.
August 22, 2013
I love trivia, and Mental Floss makes it extra fun. They're so funny! I sometimes wonder if they have all their information correct. I need a Mental Floss fact checker.
July 10, 2015
Absolutely fun summer reading. Easy to read, great things to learn, and an insane comedy of connections. Great job Mental Floss team!
December 19, 2011
full of little facts put together in a fun way.
90% interesting, 10% dull.
good read nonetheless.
90% interesting, 10% dull.
good read nonetheless.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews