15 Trivia Tidbits for Saturday, May 10, 2025
Boulder, Colorado, had one fire truck and one police car in 1920. On the police car’s second day of operations, it managed to crash into the fire truck, killing the police chief as well as two others in the car.
Sometimes, stuff just collides. The following facts are about to collide within your brain, sending your mind reeling over info about stray bullets, salamander mind control and a money-saving alternative to buying meat from stores.
The Battle of Versailles
This article not your thing? Try these...
In 1973, Paris held a fashion show to raise money to renovate the Paris of Versailles. They invited five American designers, who surprisingly were deemed to have won the event, along with their controversial innovation of “ready-to-wear” clothing, an alternative to deg clothes individually for each buyer.
I Don’t Want a Lot
Mariah Carey makes about $3 million every Christmas from “All I Want for Christmas Is You” royalties. It takes around a billion streams for a song to earn that much, which is something only the most popular songs manage over the entire year.
Baby Logic
Marvin Thomas Richardson changed his name to “Pro-Life” in hopes that this would help his political prospects with Idaho voters. He is now 83 years old and has never won an election even once.
Not-So-Special Effects
Cannibal Holocaust was so gory that director Ruggero Deodato was charged with making a snuff film and had to prove in court that the movie wasn’t real — at least, according to a popular urban legend. In reality, no court thought it was real, and Deodato was instead charged with obscenity.
Vampire Lizards
A type of salamander will use pheromones to get a female ready for mating. Except, he won’t just let her smell the pheromones. He will bite her, then he’ll inject the chemicals into her bloodstream from an organ called the mental gland.
Pitch Adjustment
People used to make a lot of jokes about T-Pain using Auto-Tune. But when artists rely on digital manipulation, you don’t even notice. If you do notice it, that’s an artistic choice, not a crutch. T-Pain sings perfectly well without Auto-Tune.
The Thrifty German
A German serial killer named Joachim Kroll offered a very relatable excuse for killing eight people during the 1960s and 1970s. He said that he found groceries expensive, and he could save money by eating people’s flesh.
And Then Everyone Clapped
At the end of 2020’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, a defendant reads out the names of Americans killed in the Vietnam War, and everyone claps. That didn’t quite happen in the real-life trial that inspired the movie. A defendant did read out names of the dead, but it wasn’t at a climactic moment, and people didn’t clap — because he read out the names of dead Vietnamese soldiers as well.
Your Right to Party
“For What It’s Worth” is a 1960s protest song, so many listeners assume it’s saying something about the war. It’s really a protest against a rule in Los Angeles that said teens couldn’t say out after 10 p.m.
Tough Act to Precede
Alois Alzheimer first presented his research on the disease that bears his name at a 1906 conference. The audience had the chance to ask him questions, but none did. They were too keen on moving on to the next presenter, who was going to speak about compulsive masturbation.
Enfant Terrible
Céline Dion wrote her first hit when she was 12. If you didn’t know that, it’s only because the song was in French and she wouldn’t know enough English to record English songs until she was an adult.
Mortality Bites
“Blue Zones” are parts of the world where people have been observed to have a high chance of reaching age 100. But investigations prove that the vast majority of these centenarians lack birth certificates or any other proof that they’re that old. In fact, such places are uniformly poorer than neighboring regions. It seems people lie about their age early on to receive old age benefits.
Ah, Shoot
Things didn’t go great one Saturday in 1992 when Tupac Shakur was g autographs. Some sort of fight started, various people pulled out guns and one bullet hit a six-year-old kid in the head. No one was charged over this mishap.
Divided by a Common Language
The title 13 Going on 30 translates into various other phrases in other countries, including English-speaking Australia, where it’s called Suddenly 30. Apparently, that idiom from the original title isn’t universal, especially in countries where The Sound of Music wasn’t so big.
Steamboat Willy
Writer Harlan Ellison worked at Walt Disney Studios for one single day. He cracked a joke about sticking Disney characters into a porn movie, and that was the end of his time with the company.