Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Turning highway pursuits into daily viewing
Los Angeles stations routinely aired live car chases, sometimes for hours, turning dangerous pursuits into afternoon viewing.
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Discarded prayer requests became a televangelism scandal
In 1991, ABC's PrimeTime Live reported finding prayer requests sent to Robert Tilton's ministry in a dumpster. His side disputed the allegations, and his…
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Mahler's Eighth premiered with more than a thousand performers
The 1910 Munich premiere brought together 171 instrumentalists and 858 singers. Its promoter turned that scale into the nickname Symphony of a Thousand. The…
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Backstage, a whistle comes with centuries of baggage
Theater tradition treats whistling backstage as bad luck. One long-repeated explanation connects it to sailors working stage machinery and using whistles as…
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Why Hitchcock refused to meet the director of Jaws
Hitchcock reportedly dismissed Spielberg as “the boy who made the fish movie” and refused to meet him, even though Spielberg waited at the set of Family Plot.
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A soap-opera coma can keep a character present while the actor is absent
A motionless patient can be shown briefly, filmed in advance, or represented in selected shots without requiring new dialogue from the actor. Meanwhile, other…
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Digital bios use vertical bars to list personality traits
Users squeeze a complicated personality into five short traits, with vertical bars making the result look like a tidy list rather than a full portrait.
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Emergency lighting requires ninety minutes of power
The backup supply must keep lights on for at least 90 minutes after a power failure, giving people time to evacuate.
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Why daytime TV sets feel like boxing rings
Producers put rivals in oversized chairs just inches apart, with the audience surrounding them, creating a confrontational setup that can make an interview…
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Why game masters sometimes fudge the dice
A game master may quietly ignore a monster’s critical hit to spare a character from an early, frustrating death. It can keep the game fun without derailing…
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How a tiny trading card can cost as much as a house
Some rare cards command such high prices on the secondary market that dropping one in a puddle could mean losing the value of a car.
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The manic pixie dream girl was invented to fix men
The trope gives a quirky woman no goals of her own: she exists to draw a brooding man out of his emotional rut, then recedes from the story.
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Why Diablo II got its famous cow level
A rumor that clicking a cow in the first Diablo unlocked a secret level was false, but Blizzard got so many questions that it put a cow level in the…
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A Greek theater mask could change what its wearer heard
Experiments with reconstructed masks found changes in voice direction and a strong increase in the sound reaching the actor's own ears. A mask was therefore…
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Mjolnir decides who can lift it by moral standards
In Marvel stories, the hammer's enchantment makes it impossible for the unworthy to lift, no matter how strong they are.
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Before Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston voiced Power Rangers monsters
Before Breaking Bad, Cranston supplied voices for early Mighty Morphin Power Rangers monsters including Twin Man and Snizzard. The work paired his English…
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A glass of water can supply a movie's underwater atmosphere
Blowing bubbles through a straw creates a sound that can be recorded, slowed, layered or filtered for an underwater scene. The recording doesn't have to come…
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A smell can be a trademark—even the scent of Play-Doh
The United States registered Play-Doh's distinctive scent as a trademark in 2018. A scent must identify a product's source rather than merely perform a useful…
Discover moreBowie sang an invented language in Warszawa
For the vocal section, David Bowie used made-up syllables rather than Polish lyrics. The sounds supplied atmosphere and emotion without a literal translation.…
Discover moreThe dark bathroom where Paul Simon wrote ‘The Sound of Silence’
Paul Simon would sit in a dark bathroom, run the faucet for white noise, and strum his guitar—the setting in which he wrote “The Sound of Silence.”
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Healing viewers through the television glass
He told viewers to place their hands on the screen, claiming healing could come through the broadcast signal.
Discover moreA movie suit of armor has to let its wearer do boring things too
An impressive silhouette is only part of a costume's job. The performer still needs to bend, sit, see, and move between takes, which is why practical armor…
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Why RPG characters need moral boundaries
Alignment charts give players a moral framework, so a bored paladin can't suddenly rob a tavern without breaking character.
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Why bowling bumpers make every throw count
The bumpers keep the ball out of the gutters, bouncing a wayward roll back toward the pins instead.
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