Commonplace Fun Facts loves Canada. We have written about its enlightened policies that have created the only rat-free territory in the world, the establishment of the Global Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve, and […]
Baptism is a sacrament of the Christian faith that is associated with the public declaration that an individual has renounced his or her old ways and has entered into a new life […]
Thanks to Lesser Mutterings for pointing us to this wonderful science-based limerick. The primary equation that describes how a pendulum works is: T is the period of time it takes for a […]
The Unexpected Hanging Paradox — also known by various names such as the Surprise Examination and the Surprise Drill — has stumped the most brilliant of thinkers. It has been debated in […]
The greatest battlefield commander of the modern age was, by most accounts, General George S. Patton. His understanding of military history, instinctive grasp of technological innovation, and dogged determination rightly cemented his […]
It wasn’t that long ago that people believed mental illness behaved like the common cold. One of the reasons for the establishment of mental asylums was to quarantine the insane, thus protecting […]
Frequent readers of Commonplace Fun Facts know that we like languages. They also know that we probably need to spend more time learning the nuances of English before we delve into others. […]
When it comes to queens, there are all sorts. There are bees, playing cards, rock-and-roll bands, and men who wear women’s clothing. And, of course, there is “The Queen,” the one person […]
For those of us who have yet to memorize our multiplication tables, the concept of someone doing math for fun is as paradoxical as putting pineapple on pizza. Even so, Leigh Mercer […]
If you have spent any amount of time learning about World War II, you were probably taught that the lands of North America were blessedly exempt from combat. If so, you may […]
Governments can be famous for making regulations that put more emphasis on form than substance. No better example can be found than the highly-bureaucratic Vogons in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: […]
Happy #PiDay
This is an article about colors, written by a person who is colorblind. Impossible, you say? So did this writer. In the course of protesting this assignment, however, it was pointed out […]
Just when we thought we had thoroughly combed the historical record and reported all interesting tidbits on a subject, we are reminded that there is no limit to strange stories from the […]
If you were born before 1970 or so, you undoubtedly remember that the responsibilities of the clerk at a grocery store were different than they are today. Back in the murky past, […]
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