Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Before Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter studied mushrooms
The woman famous for drawing a rabbit in a blue jacket was secretly a pioneering mycologist. Beatrix Potter studied mushrooms obsessively, discovering how…
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Ian Fleming wrote Bond facing a wall
When you invent the ultimate globetrotting spy, you clearly need a swanky tropical hideaway to do it. Ian Fleming built a lavish estate in Jamaica called…
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Snow White’s mother was once the wicked one
The original fairy tales were somehow even more psychologically scarring than you thought. In the first 1812 edition of the Brothers Grimm collections,…
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James Joyce was terrified of dogs
The man who pioneered confusing modernist literature with 'Ulysses' was essentially brought to his knees by a passing golden retriever. James Joyce had a…
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Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women out of spite
The ultimate heartwarming tale of sisterhood was forged in pure annoyance. Louisa May Alcott thought writing a book for girls was boring and stupid. She only…
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Agatha Christie couldn't stand Poirot
Creating the most famous Belgian detective in history was evidently a massive trap for his creator. Agatha Christie quickly grew to completely despise Hercule…
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William Faulkner penned his novels during night shifts
Before he won the Nobel Prize, William Faulkner was just a guy trying to stay awake at a blue-collar job. In the late 1920s, he worked the graveyard shift at…
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America’s first newspaper lasted one issue
The birth of American journalism was essentially a very rapid abortion. In 1690, a man named Benjamin Harris published 'Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and…
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The Great Gatsby was once a commercial flop
The novel you were forced to read in high school was actually a colossal failure during its author's lifetime. F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' sold…
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The first English dictionary was a cheat sheet for novices
The first major attempt to catalog the English language wasn't for academics; it was for people who didn't know what they were doing. In 1604, a schoolmaster…
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Nabokov wrote Lolita on index cards
Why use a normal notebook when you can turn your masterpiece into a disorganized game of 52 pickup? Vladimir Nabokov wrote 'Lolita' entirely on small index…
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L. Frank Baum supposedly named Oz after a filing cabinet
You might expect a whimsical wonderland to be named through deep mythological research, but bureaucracy provides the best inspiration. L. Frank Baum was…
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The Very Hungry Caterpillar was almost a worm
Eric Carle's iconic children's book almost featured the most unlovable protagonist imaginable. His original draft was called 'A Week with Willi the Worm,'…
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Oscar Wilde’s famous final joke involved wallpaper
A true aesthete never drops his standards, even when completely succumbing to meningitis. Lying destitute in a cheap Parisian hotel room in 1900, Oscar Wilde…
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Peter Pan helped create the name Wendy
Before 1904, handing a baby girl the name Wendy was completely impossible. J.M. Barrie created the name out of thin air for his play and subsequent novel…
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First crossword puzzle was shaped like a hollow diamond
Before they became perfectly symmetrical squares, word puzzles were wild experiments in geometric chaos. Arthur Wynne published the world's first 'Word-Cross'…
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The dictionary maker who banned words he disliked
If you write the dictionary, you hold the ultimate power of censorship. When Samuel Johnson compiled his legendary 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, he…
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Elwyn Brooks White dreamed up Stuart Little on a fast train
Sometimes the greatest literary inspiration is just sleep deprivation and a rattling train car. E.B. White was asleep on a railway journey in the 1920s when…
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A nine-year-old inherited the Goodnight Moon fortune
The author of 'Goodnight Moon' was apparently not interested in keeping her fortune in the family. When she died suddenly at age 42, her will revealed she had…
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Why Gutenberg’s printed Bibles still needed artists
You would think the inventor of the printing press would embrace full automation, but old habits die hard. While Johannes Gutenberg masterfully printed the…
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The Twilight Zone theme wasn't written for the show
You can thank a couple of pretentious mid-century Frenchmen for your childhood paranoia. The iconic, skin-crawling 'doo-doo-doo-doo' wasn't actually written…
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Film crews sometimes have camera operators walk backward while filming actors
Capturing an intense, forward-marching conversation requires a dedicated individual to physically retreat at the exact same pace. These heavy equipment…
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Movie blood is mostly corn syrup
Ah, the glamorous secret behind every grisly cinematic crime scene is basically pancake sweetener. To get that thick, sluggish flow of human plasma,…
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What actors are really drinking when they order a beer
Intoxicated performers are remarkably bad at remembering their blocking, so actual alcohol is strictly forbidden. When characters throw back a cold one at the…
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