Look at an old menu or family dinner photo and you’ll probably notice some ghosts of dinners past: food that used to be everywhere but that’s not at all common today. Some choices are obvious retro relics (you don’t see too many gelatin molds anymore), while others have slipped into obscurity relatively quietly. Of course, none of these foods have dropped off the face of the planet, and they’re all still enjoyed by some people — just fewer of them.
From highly controversial holiday sweets to the meat and potatoes of yesteryear, these 10 dishes aren’t nearly as popular as they used to be.
Sweetbreads sound like dessert, but they’re actually a kind of offal, or organ meat — specifically the thymus and pancreas glands, usually from a lamb or calf. The meat is soaked in milk, buttermilk, or water before cooking. Sweetbreads reduce waste from a butchered animal, and many still enjoy the dish, but it’s not as common as it used to be. (Consumption of organ meats in general declined in the U.S. after World War II, although they’re making a bit of a comeback.)
Another highly controversial holiday dish is the much-maligned fruitcake, a cake with candied fruits and nuts that’s usually soaked in a spirit like brandy. Fruitcake has ancient roots, but fell into deep disfavor in the U.S. around the 1980s and eventually became a sort of joke, emblematic of the worst holiday gift. Without any fans to give or receive it, the fruitcake has faded into relative obscurity stateside, though it’s still common in some other countries.
Ambrosia, or Five-Cup Salad
Named for the preferred food of the Greek gods, the most divisive dish of the holiday season used to be ambrosia, sometimes called five-cup salad or, simply, fruit salad with marshmallows. It’s a mixture of mini marshmallows, canned (sometimes fresh) fruit, mayonnaise or Cool Whip or sour cream, and coconut. It tastes about how you’d expect it to, for better or for worse.
Nothing screams retro dinner party quite like a centerpiece savory gelatin salad, molded into an elaborate shape and often with showy colors. It wasn’t just sturdy vegetables that appeared in these concoctions — everything from lettuce to ham to ranch dressing could be made into jiggly edible art. Jell-O salads hit their peak in the 1950s and 1960s, although they stayed on the table in many households, especially in the South, for decades after.
Fondue
Fondue, a shared, heated cheese dip served in a special warming pot, was all the rage at parties in the 1970s. While you can sometimes find fondue in restaurants, it’s a pretty niche item now — and since single-function items like fondue pots take up valuable cabinet space in one’s home, it’s an extremely rare sight at parties.
Liver and onions are a classic, hearty combination, pairing beef or veal liver with soft-cooked or caramelized onions, often with a side of mashed potatoes. It’s now considered a little old-school, and many people in younger generations associate it more with a Simpsons joke than their dinner tables.
Salisbury Steak
Salisbury steak — named for its inventor, 19th-century doctor James Henry Salisbury, who advocated a meat-heavy diet — is not so much a steak as a cross between a burger patty and a meatloaf. It eventually became a mainstay of cafeterias and TV dinners, which didn’t do it any favors, flavor-wise. You can still find it at a classic diner here and there, but it’s not nearly as ubiquitous as it once was.
The history of this recipe and its name are a little murky, but this milky chicken dish with green bell peppers, pimento, and mushrooms was pretty popular in American kitchens for much of the 20th century. Its popularity started to wane in the 1980s, although some still consider it a comfort food (or just a good way to use up leftover chicken).
Crescent Rings
Canned crescent rolls are super easy to throw in the oven for a quick dinner or side — but what if you made them more complicated? For a crescent ring, you lay out the raw triangles of dough in a sunburst shape, add savory or sweet fillings, and tuck in the edges so the fillings peek through on top. The tidy wreath shape made it ideal for parties and potlucks.
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Chicken Cordon Bleu — that’s “blue ribbon” in French — is an over-the-top Swiss dish with thinly pounded chicken, ham, and cheese rolled together, breaded, and deep fried, then often topped with a cream sauce. That extreme level of richness is perhaps one of the reasons it’s not so popular anymore.
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The world is wide and wonderful — and pretty weird. Take a break from your day and prepare to smile over this assortment of random facts, from the pseudo-medical roots of tomato ketchup to Antarctic matchmaking. What was Uranus called before Uranus? Why do giant pandas do handstands? These 15 facts may just give you a chuckle.
If we’re talking imperial measurements, a “butt” is a cask of liquid. And while this form of “butt” is obsolete for most people, it’s still used in wine and brewing contexts. In the wine world, a butt is around 108 imperial gallons (just under 500 liters, or around 126 U.S. gallons), so it turns out that a buttload is… a buttload.
Despite the fact that Uranus is four times the size of Earth, it took astronomers a while to realize it was a planet rather than a star, even after telescopes came along. English astronomer William Herschel made the first recorded discovery of Uranus as a planet in 1781, during the reign of King George III. He named the planet Georgium Sidus, or George’s Star, in honor of the king. The international astronomy community was less than thrilled about a planet being named after an unpopular British monarch rather than a deity, and in 1850 settled on naming the planet Uranus, after the Greek god of the sky.
A lot of dangerous things were sold as “patent medicine” in unregulated 1800s America, including mercury, lead, and arsenic. Meanwhile, tomatoes, which are in the same family as deadly nightshade, were considered unsafe by much of the population until they were sold as a cure-all. Dr. John Cook Bennett was one of the tomato’s biggest boosters, and claimed the fruit would protect migrants heading west “from the danger attendant upon those violent bilious attacks to which all unacclimated citizens are liable.” He provided several tomato recipes to be taken as medicine, including catsup, which, at the time, typically contained mushrooms and/or walnuts.
Eventually, Americans figured out that tomato ketchup worked much better as a tasty condiment than medicine — but to be fair to Dr. Bennett, he did suggest using it as a replacement for mercury, so he may have helped some folks out.
Antarctica is the most sparsely populated continent on the Earth, with only about 1,000 people over the winter (none of them permanent residents) in more than 5 million square miles. So when an American scientist opened the Tinder app at a research station in 2014, it was mostly out of curiosity. To his surprise, he matched with another researcher camping a 45-minute helicopter ride away. They didn’t meet until a few weeks after swiping right, just as his match was leaving town, but considering the population only grows to about 5,000 people in the summer, the chances that their paths crossed again seems high.
For a term that seems so cutesy, the literal use of “jiffy” is extremely scientific. Physicists use the term to describe how long it takes for light to travel a millionth of a millionth of a millimeter, which is less than a billion-billionth of a second. A jiffy is a little longer in electrical contexts; it’s the length of a single cycle of alternating current, or about one-fiftieth of a second. So next time you say you’ll be “back in a jiffy,” consider what you’re promising!
No, it’s not a human-taught trick: Wild giant pandas have been known to do handstands while relieving themselves, especially during mating season. Because, unfortunately, there aren’t too many giant pandas around — and they don’t have a ton of energy to spare — they want to broadcast their scent as widely and efficiently as possible to potential mates. This means finding trees with rough bark for greater absorption, choosing wide trees to increase the target area, and aiming as high as possible. The handstand gives male pandas a much-needed leg up (literally).
A toothbrush with a picturesque swirl of toothpaste, called a “nurdle” in the industry, is a mainstay of advertisements, and became especially popular as brands started releasing more colorful products in the 1970s. It’s a goofy factoid for most of us, but toothpaste manufacturers take nurdles very, very seriously.
In 2010, GlaxoSmithCline, the maker of Aquafresh, applied to trademark the nurdle design in any color. Colgate-Palmolive, which also used a nurdle to advertise its products, took it as a legal threat — the company’s lawyer called it “a blatant shot across Colgate’s bow” — and sued to protect their imagery and get the trademark petition canceled. GlaxoSmithCline countersued, alleging that Colgate’s nurdle caused “irreparable harm.”
The two companies eventually came to a confidential settlement, but still: Who knew the toothpaste industry was so wacky… and so litigious?
Humans Could Frame Koalas for a Crime (or Vice Versa)
Strangely enough, koala fingerprints strongly resemble those of humans — the pattern of ridges and whorls looks even more similar to our own than chimpanzee fingerprints. Though distant on the evolutionary tree from us primates, koalas likely developed fingerprints to help them grasp eucalyptus trees while climbing them and munching on their leaves. In the ’90s, a forensic scientist at the University of Adelaide in Australia warned that koala prints are so similar to human prints, it’s possible police in Australia could mistake one for another. “Although it is extremely unlikely that koala prints would be found at the scene of a crime, police should at least be aware of the possibility,” Maciej Henneberg noted.
Most humans can at least tap their toes to the beat of some music, but aside from a few primates, the majority of mammals can’t — or at least haven’t shown us that they can. Sea lions are an exception. In 2013, a pair of scientists taught a “particularly bright sea lion” named Ronan to bob her head to simple rhythmic sounds. It took her a few months to master those, but once she had those rhythms down, she could keep the beat to songs she hadn’t heard before, including “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys (a nod to a previous case of a parrot keeping a beat) and “Boogie Wonderland” by Earth, Wind & Fire, even when the songs were adjusted to various tempos.
Next time you’re in Wales, you might have the opportunity to visit Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch — or, as it’s often simplified on maps, Llanfair PG — a fishing village on the Isle of Anglesey in the northern part of the country. The name translates to “the church of Mary in the hollow of the white hazel near the fierce whirlpool and the Church of Tysilio by the red cave,” and it replaced the town’s shorter name, Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, in the 1860s in hopes of drumming up tourism from a new railroad line. It worked, and visitors still pop through for souvenirs and passport stamps.
Bear in mind that in the Welsh alphabet, many pairs of letters function more like single ones, so while it’s still comically long in Welsh, to English speakers it’s even more dizzying. The place name is sometimes referred to as “the Englishman’s Cure for Lockjaw.” It still stops short of being the longest place name in the world, though; Bangkok’s full name is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.
People Used to Mail Their Children Via the Postal Service
When the United States Postal Service launched their parcel service in 1913, Americans immediately began testing its boundaries. People started mailing coffins, eggs, and even dogs, and a few decided to mail the ultimate precious cargo: human children.
The first known case of baby-shipping happened that same year, when an Ohio couple mailed their 10-pound infant to his grandmother a mile away, which cost them about 15 cents. Some kids traveled farther, like 6-year-old Edna Neff, who was mailed 720 miles from Pensacola, Florida, to her father’s home in Christiansburg, Virginia.
There was only a brief window for mailing kids, though; the postmaster general instituted a strict no-humans rule in 1914. At least two more children managed to slip through: Charlotte May Pierstorff was mailed via rail to her grandparents’ house with the appropriate postage stuck to her coat in 1914, but a postal worker relative escorted her (her story was later turned into a children’s book). The last recorded case was in 1915, when 3-year-old Maud Smith’s grandparents mailed her 40 miles across Kentucky to visit her sick mother. In 1920, the Postal Service declined two applications to mail children who had been listed as “harmless live animals,” a classification for creatures that don’t require food or water on their journey.
Carrots and other similarly colored vegetables like yams get their color from a pigment called beta carotene, which converts to vitamin A in the small intestine. When humans eat too much beta carotene, our small intestines can’t process it all, and the excess pigment hits our bloodstreams instead. If someone eats enough carrots to overload their body with beta carotene consistently over a long period of time, their skin can start to look a little orange, particularly on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and nose. This syndrome is called carotenemia, and it usually only affects babies and toddlers who chow down on a little too much puree. It’s weird, but it’s generally harmless.
It’s impossible to know what the first joke in history was, but we have a few ancient written examples. The oldest known written joke, circa 1900 BCE, came from ancient Sumeria, in what’s now southern Iraq.
This is the joke: “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” It doesn’t really translate to today’s humor — like many jokes, maybe you just had to be there.
German chocolate cake, which alternates layers of buttermilk-and-chocolate cake with a pecan and coconut topping, sounds like it must come from Germany — but neither coconut nor pecans are part of traditional German cuisine. The recipe actually originated in Dallas, Texas, and the “German” part refers to a person named Samuel German, an employee of Baker’s Chocolate. The product Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate was his own formula of presweetened chocolate, and the recipe, which first appeared in the Dallas Morning News in 1957, used it as a main ingredient.
When the Norwegian King’s Guard visited Edinburgh, Scotland, for a drill display in 1961, Major Nils Egelien paid a visit to the Edinburgh Zoo, and became absolutely enamored with the king penguins that reside there. (Apparently, the march of the king penguins reminded him of the march of his own King’s Guard.) When he returned to Scotland in 1972, he insisted that his regiment adopt a penguin — although the penguin stayed at the zoo — as their mascot. The penguin, named Nils Olav after both his No. 1 fan and the king of Norway at the time (King Olav V), eventually climbed the Norwegian military ranks. He was made corporal in 1982, and was officially knighted in 2008. As of 2023, his official title in the Norwegian King’s Guard is Major General Sir Nils Olav III, Baron of the Bouvet Islands. Major general is the third-highest rank in the Norwegian Army — and he officially outranks the original (human) Nils.
Before you Google “how long do king penguins live”: They’re on the third penguin.
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Who can resist the smell of freshly baked cookies or a basket of warmed bread brought out before your entree? Not many, though it’s no surprise considering humans have made baked goods a dietary staple for thousands of years. The love doesn’t stop at just consumption, either — whether you enjoy mixing up a bowl of cake batter or watching a group of contestants sweat through the task, there’s something about baking that’s entirely alluring.
If life has you in a sour mood, baking a loaf of sourdough (or your favorite treat) may just be the answer. Some psychology research has shown that small-scale creative projects — such as baking — actually benefit human brains, and contribute to a sense of flourishing. Baking and cooking may help people feel more relaxed and satisfied with life, and focusing on kitchen tasks may have benefits similar to those offered by meditation.
Tiny crumbs are the last remnants of the world’s oldest bread, which researchers believe is at least 14,000 years old. Discovered in an ancient fireplace in Jordan, the small bits of bread likely belonged to the Natufians, hunter-gatherers who lived during the Epipaleolithic era. The bread crumb discovery, made public in 2018, has shifted scientific understanding about how early humans ate — the archaic food scraps are 4,000 years older than when researchers believe the first bread was baked. They indicate that humans learned to bake even before the advent of agriculture.
Yeast gives raised baked goods their lift by creating air bubbles — as the organisms feed off sugars, they produce carbon dioxide that inflates the dough. Humans have used some strains of yeast — like today’s popular Saccharomyces cerevisiae — for thousands of years, slowly domesticating it over time to create consistent results. In comparison, wild yeasts (like those that can be found on fruit skins or floating around in the air) behave unpredictably, which can change the scent and flavor of breads and fermented beverages.
Historians attribute the first mechanical dough mixer to Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces, a formerly enslaved Greek man who became wealthy from baking bread in first-century Rome. Eurysaces’ mixer kneaded dough inside a stone basin outfitted with wooden paddles; the setup was attached to a horse or donkey that walked in circles to keep the paddles moving.
Heating an oven to bake a loaf of bread is much easier today than it was for 18th-century bakers. Cooks of the time relied on dome-shaped ovens, often called “beehive ovens,” to bake pies, breads, cakes, and other foods. The wood-fired ovens were made from brick and often covered with clay, and cooking in them took skill, especially because they took up to five hours to properly heat. That’s why many colonial cooks crafted breads and baked goods just once per week.
The instructions for many baked goods often suggest you preheat the oven to 350 degrees — but why? The reason is simple: 350 degrees is a middle-of-the-road temperature that’s sufficient for cooking foods without causing them to burn. Also, 350 degrees is the temperature at which the Maillard reaction occurs; that’s the browning reaction that gives food its toasty color and complex flavor profile. However, including a temperature in cooking instructions is something of a modern notation; before 1940, most ovens didn’t have a temperature gauge and required cooks to measure temperature by setting pans of flour or paper inside, or testing heat with their hands.
There’s a Major Difference Between Baking Powder and Baking Soda
If you’ve ever run out of baking powder and reached for baking soda, chances are the results weren’t quite right. While these two pantry necessities look nearly identical and do the work of helping cookies and cakes become light and fluffy, they work somewhat differently. Baking soda, the stronger of the two ingredients, is made from 100% sodium bicarbonate, which creates carbon dioxide when mixed with an acid like vinegar or lemon juice. Baking powder is a less potent blend of sodium bicarbonate and acidic cream of tartar that activates with moisture and heat, and removes the step of adding another astringent ingredient.
Most of the cooking astronauts do in space is limited to boiling water, used to rehydrate freeze-dried, shelf-stable meals. However, in 2019, astronauts Christina Koch and Luca Parmitano became Earth’s first zero-gravity bakers. They used a special “space oven” sent to the International Space Station just for the experiment, which tested how well raw foods cook in space. The cookies apparently took far longer to bake in space — about 120 to 130 minutes. However, the ISS crew didn’t get to taste their culinary creation; the baked cookies were returned to Earth for examination by NASA researchers. (Fortunately, the astronauts were provided with prebaked cookies to eat after the experiment, so they got a treat anyway.)
Nicole Garner Meeker
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Nicole Garner Meeker is a writer and editor based in St. Louis. Her history, nature, and food stories have also appeared at Mental Floss and Better Report.
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Few things are more central to human civilization than water. That’s why most ancient civilizations (Egypt, Indus, Sumer, etc.) flourished along rivers, and why many major cities today have followed suit. Around the world, 165 rivers are considered “major rivers” whose length and width tower over the competition.
But there’s more to rivers than just size. While some of the world’s most important rivers are long, winding natural wonders, others have outsized historical impact, represent an amazing moment of human engineering, or are simply beautiful to look at. These six facts concern some of the six most amazing rivers in the world, from the backwoods of Colombia to major metropolises around the globe.
Finding the source of the Nile, arguably the most famous and important river in human history, was one of the great adventures of the 19th century. Explorers including David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley, and Richard Francis Burton searched the White Nile, the river’s longest tributary (the other major tributary being the Blue Nile), to no avail. Today, scientists still aren’t sure where the furthest headwaters of the White Nile are, although one leading contender is the Ruvyironza River in Burundi.
The Yangtze River Watershed Takes Up 20% of China’s Total Landmass
The Yangtze is central to Chinese culture and civilization, and is the longest river to be contained inside only one country. Rising on the Tibetan plateau, the river travels east as it eventually empties into the East China Sea. The river ranks among the longest in the world, but its drainage basin is truly gargantuan. At 700,000 square miles, it takes up 20% of China’s total landmass. Some 250 million people live on or near the river, and the Yangtze provides the country with 35% of its fresh water. There is no China without the Yangtze.
The Danube Flows Through 10 Countries, More Than Any Other River in the World
While the Yangtze flows in only one country, the Danube passes through more countries than any other river. Those countries are Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine. In those countries, the Danube also passes through four capital cities, including Vienna, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; and Belgrade, Serbia (an additional five capitals lie in the river basin). The Danube’s central location in Europe, along with its proximity to so many cities, easily makes it one of the most important rivers in the world.
Caño Cristales Has the Nickname “Rainbow River” Because of Its Multi-Hued Waters
Caño Cristales isn’t one of the world’s longest or deepest rivers, and it doesn’t really feature prominently in Colombia’s history, but it does have one dazzling attribute that’s hard to ignore — it’s as colorful as a rainbow. Caño Cristales gets the nickname “Rainbow River” because it’s colored yellow, green, blue, black, and most especially red, hues that can be seen from May until November. This panoply of colors is derived from the reproductive process of aquatic plants (Macarenia clavigera) living on the riverbed. Because the river’s depth fluctuates between the wet and dry seasons, it’s only dazzlingly brilliant a few months out of the year.
Although the Amazon is the second-longest river in the world and a vital artery of the Amazon rainforest, not a single bridge crosses its expanse. That’s surprising considering there are more than a hundred bridges crossing the similarly-sized Yangtze, and nine bridges crossing the Nile in Cairo.
The simple answer for the Amazon’s lack of bridges is the lack of need for them. The cities and towns bordering the Amazon have ferries and boats; the river basin’s extensive marshes also make building a bridge a costly affair. Floating bridges, or pontoons, are also impractical as the width of the river can vary between 2 miles and 30 miles between the dry and wet seasons.
Credit: Fraser Hall/ The Image Bank via Getty Images
The Chicago River Is the Only River That Flows Backward
As Chicago changed from a Great Lakes-adjacent village to a booming metropolis toward the end of the 19th century, city planners were faced with a conundrum. The Chicago River, which carried much of the city’s waste, emptied directly into Lake Michigan, which was also the source of the city’s drinking water. To fix the problem, engineer Ellis S. Chesbrough put forward an idea to reverse the river’s flow by building a ditch lower than both Lake Michigan and the river itself. When the project was finally completed in 1900, the Chicago River became the only river in the world that had reversed its flow.
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Putting away groceries, cooking dinner, washing up — there’s a lot that goes on in our kitchens, so it makes sense that many of the items inside them go more or less unnoticed, at least when it comes to asking the deeper questions. If you’ve never stopped to wonder who invented the whisk or how long humans have used cheese graters, you’re not alone. But the backstories on these 10 kitchen items may just give you something to think about while you’re waiting for the water to boil.
Humans have long consumed perishable foods that require refrigeration, even without modern cold storage — though it’s never been an easy feat. In more recent history, Americans in the 1800s relied on ice houses: underground chambers lined with stone that stayed cool thanks to ice collected from rivers and lakes. By the end of the 1800s, much smaller indoor ice boxes became popular, which kept foods cool by using an actual block of ice inside a wooden or tin cabinet. The modern refrigerator slowly emerged thanks to decades of innovations that introduced electric appliances and chemicals such as Freon. General Electric introduced its “Monitor Top” refrigerator in 1927, which became the first widely popular model thanks to a cookbook campaign that promoted tricks, tips, and reusing leftovers. Still, most American households wouldn’t own an electric fridge until after World War II.
Eating with your hands is often considered bad etiquette, but at one time in history, it was preferred. Prior to the 10th century, forks typically had just two to three tines and were used to skewer food for serving or hold it during cutting. That changed in the later 900s, when Byzantine royal Theophanu, who became Holy Roman empress, introduced the practice of eating with forks, though using the utensils was typically an upper-class practice. Fork usage slowly spread through Europe over the following centuries, though the implements were often lambasted as being too delicate or “feminine” in some cases, and the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church saw them as an excessive display of wealth that insulted higher powers. (In some cases, they were even seen as tools of the devil.) Fork usage eventually caught on more widely by the 1700s, and the utensils have claimed their space in cutlery drawers ever since.
Hobart Manufacturing Company, an Ohio-based kitchen equipment brand, got its start with stand mixers around 1908. Company engineer Herbert Johnson was inspired by watching bakers knead bread, and by 1914 the brand released a line of commercial dough mixers that became so popular that even the U.S. Navy made them standard issue on its ships. Within a few years, Hobart Manufacturing expanded into home kitchens with its H-5 model, which could slice, strain, and more with a handful of attachments. Model K — the predecessor to KitchenAid-branded models — hit kitchen countertops in 1937, though the punchy pastel paint colors (like “petal pink” and “island green”) would come two decades later in 1955.
Credit: Leemage/ Corbis Historical via Getty Images
Cheese Graters
Historians believe humans began experimenting with cheesemaking between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago. Grating and shredding, however, may have come much later; some of the oldest known cheese graters date back to the ninth century BCE in Greece. Archaeologists working in modern-day Tuscany have unearthed bronze graters from tombs belonging to the ancient Etruscans. Some researchers think the kitchen pieces were used by warriors who blended wine and cheese to make a ceremonial beverage.
Potholders protect our hands from blistering burns, though textile historians believe they’re a more recent kitchen addition. Most potholders in museums are no more than 250 years old, and those that survive are typically thinner, unpadded versions meant to cover teapot handles. According to Merriam-Webster, the word “potholder” didn’t even emerge until 1888. That doesn’t mean our ancestral cooks grabbed dishes barehanded; hooked metal pot grabbers and lid lifters were commonly used tools, along with less-decorative towels and rags. As for quilted and embellished options, researchers believe potholders picked up popularity in the mid-1700s to early 1800s, when they were sometimes decorated with anti-slavery messages and sold at fairs and bazaars hosted by abolitionists.
Microwaves are electromagnetic waves capable of being bounced off distant objects for radar detection, and microwave ovens actually descended from radar technology developed during WWII. (The first microwave oven was developed after an engineer working on a radar apparatus accidentally melted a chocolate bar in his pocket.) When shot at food, microwave radiation makes water molecules inside the food vibrate, which creates the heat that cooks your dinner.
According to food historian Andrew F. Smith, the earliest microwave oven was bought by a Cleveland restaurant in 1947; the $3,000 price tag made the new tool more or less unattainable for home use. Smaller, more affordable units were developed by the 1960s, but these were found to leak harmful levels of radiation. By the 1970s, designs had improved and microwave ovens were deemed safe. But it took the partnership of the convenience food industry — who created microwave-safe packaging designs — and a slew of instructive newspaper articles, pamphlets, and cookbooks to teach the home cook how to use this new tool. As of 2001, over 90% of U.S. homes had a microwave.
Up until the 19th century, most women made their own whisks out of bundles of birch sticks. This type of whisk is still used by some chefs for delicate sauces and whipping meringue, and can be a great alternative for whisking on easily damaged non-stick surfaces. Wire whisks, with the classic hot air balloon shape, came into use in the early 19th century, and the first rotary beaters were patented in the 1860s. Featuring one or two interlocking whisks powered by a hand crank, they cut down on the bicep-building work of whisking. These rotary beaters still have their place in the kitchen: They can whisk meringue in half the time of an upright, electrified mixer without leaving dregs of unbeaten egg at the bottom of the bowl.
Before the 20th century, outdoor meat cooking was done on massive grills, spits, or in barbecue pits lined with hot coals. Hot, heavy, and time-consuming, this was labor usually performed by groups of men, and in the South, enslaved men. But in 1897, the charcoal briquette was patented, cutting down on time and labor, and in the 1950s, the classic and compact Weber kettle grill was developed. Developed from a Lake Michigan buoy, its lightweight design and stylish shape opened grilling to all.
When retailers began marketing home grills, they targeted men because there was a tradition of men cooking barbecue, but also because men were usually the breadwinners. The thought was that women wouldn’t be interested in buying another cooking appliance when they could just use their stoves. By targeting men, advertisers were finding a new market for cooking, and men were being motivated to feel that cooking outdoors over a fire was a very masculine thing to do. To this day, professional grill masters and pit masters are typically male.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the ice industry was rapidly expanding. New England was the world’s leader in ice production; ice cutters used new horse-drawn blades to cut ice off of frozen lakes. The ice was insulated in ice houses, and could stay frozen until the following October. According to food historian Jeri Quinzio in her book Of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making, by 1800 ice was being shipped to the West Indies, and in 1833, a Boston ice merchant began making regular shipments to Calcutta.
Ice became cheap and readily available by the mid-19th century, which spurred an abundance of iced drinks. The ice would have been brought into bars, soda fountains, or ice cream parlors in large blocks and skillfully chopped into different shapes by the resident bartender.
The first mechanical ice-maker was patented in 1851, and was designed “to convert water into ice artificially by absorbing its heat of liquefaction with expanding air.” Initially, the machine was meant to help treat yellow fever patients. Ice makers were first added to consumer refrigerators and freezers in 1953, and the fridge-door ice dispenser we’re familiar with today was introduced in 1965 by Frigidaire.
The earliest depiction of a straw is on a seal found in a Sumerian tomb dated to 3,000 BCE. It shows two men using what appear to be straws taking beer from a jar. Beer brewed in Ancient Mesopotamia and Sumeria was unfiltered, so it was full of grain and chaff that floated on the surface. The straw allowed drinkers to access the beer underneath. While most of these ancient straws were made from reeds, museums have examples of extraordinary early straws, including a pure gold straw and a gold and lapis lazuli “drinking tube,” both from the ancient city of Ur in what is now Iraq.
Straws didn’t become popular again until mid-19th-century America. Cocktail culture was thriving and rye straws (made from rye grain) were used to sip spirits from drinks that were packed with ice, fruit, and mint. The sherry cobbler, one of the most popular cocktails of the mid-19th century — made from sherry, sugar, and citrus — became famous in part because a straw was needed to drink it.
Paper straws were first developed at the turn of the 20th century as a “cheap, durable, and unobjectionable alternative to natural straws,” in the words of inventor Martin Stone, for use in soda fountains. They were originally made with waxed manila paper to replicate the color of rye straws. Today, paper straws masquerade in the bright colors of mid-20th-century plastic straws, and some businesses are returning to using straw straws as an environmentally conscious option.
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From flower boxes in apartment windows to vast apple orchards, gardens take all kinds of forms. Plants look pretty, sure, but they also feed us, shelter us, and clean the air around us. Gardening isn’t just about the end result, either — getting your hands dirty can seriously boost your mood.
What’s actually living in your soil? Are you eating a rose right now? Did you neglect your lawn and accidentally grow a vegetable garden? These seven facts about gardening cover a lot of ground.
The rose family, Rosaceae, includes many, many cousins, including a lot of common fruit. Apples, pears, peaches, cherries, nectarines, plums, and even almonds are Rosaceae, but in a different genus than the plants we generally think of as roses. Brambleberries, such as raspberries and blackberries, are more closely related. (Roses, by the way, are also edible.)
Botanists reclassified apples and plums as roses in the early 1900s, which inspired a Robert Frost poem in 1927, including the lines: “The dear only knows/what will next prove a rose.”
These heads may look like single giant flowers, but they’re actually thousands of tiny florets clustered together. What appear to be petals are actually various types of flowers. Daisies are in the same family, and have a really similar structure: a cluster of many disk florets at the center with a burst of ray florets along the perimeter.
There Can Be More Microbes in a Teaspoon of Soil Than There Are People on Earth
Planet Earth has a surface area of 197 million square miles, with 8 billion human beings living on it — but just a teaspoon of garden soil can have up to 10 billion microbes. Bacteria form the largest population of these microbes, but there are also plenty of fungi, algae, one-celled animals called protozoa, and small worms called nematodes. Bigger creatures such as earthworms and arthropods are part of the soil, too. This biome generates nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, that plants need to survive and grow.
Many home gardeners turn to bamboo because it thrives easily and makes a great privacy screen, but it can be quick to get you in over your head. Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants in the world, and some varieties, once established, can grow 45 inches — taller than most human toddlers — in a single day.
Bamboo shoots are connected underground by a rhizome, a growing underground stem, so they don’t need to grow their own leaves for a while; they get their nutrients from the other shoots in the chain. They also don’t get thicker, so they can use all their energy getting taller.
Because bamboo grows and proliferates so quickly, it can be wildly invasive in the United States. Be careful where and how you plant it; some gardeners opt to grow it in pots.
What counts as a “weed” is in the eye of the beholder, and many plants that some view as unwelcome are actually healthy and tasty snacks. Dandelions are one of the most common weeds in American gardens, but they’re incredibly nutrient-dense. The leaves can be sauteed or used in a salad, and the roots can be made into tea or even roasted and eaten. Even stinging nettles are edible (and nutritious) once they’re cooked.
Other edible weeds include lamb’s quarters, shepherd’s purse, and chickweed. If you want to bring these plants into your kitchen, though, first make sure they haven’t been sprayed with any herbicide.
You may have heard that talking to plants or playing music nearby helps them grow. While there’s no specific evidence to show that plants love having conversations with you (sorry), plants do respond to sound. In one study, sound as low as 70 decibels (about as loud as a dishwasher or a moderately loud conversation) affected two genes involved in how plants respond to light, although it’s not clear exactly how that influences the plant. Another study found that sound waves could increase the yield of certain crops, such as cotton and cucumbers. There are theories that sound could promote germination and growth by regulating certain plant hormones, that it might induce defense responses against pathogens (again via hormones), that it could trigger higher stress tolerance for plants, and more.
The plants could be responding to sound vibration because they evolved to respond to vibrations caused by wind — which can signal a plant to grow shorter and thicker to better respond to growing conditions.
Carrots are perhaps the most iconic of the orange vegetables, but orange carrots are a relatively recent phenomenon. Early carrots were almost all purple and yellow — like you see in a bag of rainbow carrots — according to records dating back to around 900 CE. Orange carrots started showing up in European art in the early 16th century, and were probably naturally cultivated, despite a persistent rumor that Dutch farmers deliberately bred them.
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On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant designated Yellowstone National Park the country’s first national park. In the 150 years following, 62 more national parks have joined the fold, in addition to the hundreds of other sites under the purview of the U.S. National Park Service today, including national historic sites, battlefields, lakeshores, monuments, preserves, and trails.
Once called “America’s Best Idea,” national parks have preserved wide swaths of the country’s most magnificent scenery and geological history for millions to enjoy every year — from open prairie to mountain ranges, unique rock formations, deserted island beaches, and Arctic forests. But as popular as these parks are, many visitors are unaware of the surprising features they contain within their borders.
Great Smoky Mountains Is the Most Visited National Park in the U.S.
Straddling the border between North Carolina and Tennessee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park attracted 14.1 million visitors in 2021. For comparison, that is nearly three times the number of people who visited the second-most popular park, Utah’s Zion National Park, which drew a still-respectable 5 million visitors. Park officials estimate that since Great Smoky Mountains National Park opened in 1934, more than 560 million people have enjoyed all that it has to offer. Part of the reason may be that there is no entry fee to the park, and it never closes (although some roads may be closed during severe weather). In addition to countless opportunities for hiking and nature viewing, the park now allows fishing in all of its approximately 2,900 miles of waterways.
Death Valley National Park Is the Hottest Place on Earth
It might not come as much of a surprise given its name, but Death Valley gets hot — extremely hot. The national park is the home to the hottest ever recorded temperature on Earth, a 134.1-degree-Fahrenheit reading taken in Furnace Creek Ranch, California. But it doesn’t always get that hot. The average temperature during summer is a still-sweltering 115 degrees, but temperatures regularly exceed 120 degrees. According to the National Park Service, the hot weather can be attributed to the valley’s low depths, high walls, and lack of shade cover. Since there is little plant life to absorb the heat, the sun rays radiate throughout the valley floor and are absorbed by rocks. When night falls, the warm air rises but is trapped by the high mountain walls. If you want to visit Death Valley in the cooler months, December and January are a safe bet, with daily averages maxing out in the mid-60s.
Yellowstone National Park Is Home to a Supervolcano
Crowds flock to Yellowstone National Park (located mostly in Wyoming, but with parts in Idaho and Montana) to see the famous eruptions of Old Faithful. However, the park is home to a whopping 10,000-plus hydrothermal features, including 500 geysers — which scientists estimate is about half of the world’s geysers. But perhaps the park’s most impressive geological feature is a supervolcano, a type of volcano that’s thousands of times more powerful than a regular volcano. Approximately 2 million years ago, a massive volcanic eruption triggered a push of magma to Earth’s surface through a thin spot in the crust at the present-day location of Yellowstone. Much of the continent was left covered in ash. Hot lava still ripples below the ground throughout the park today, its heat causing the constant bubbling of springs and mud. But worry not: The last time the supervolcano erupted was 664,000 years ago, and some scientists think it may never happen again.
The World’s Longest Known Cave System Is in Mammoth Cave National Park
The world’s longest cave system winds its way beneath much of western Kentucky, and, fortunately, a portion of it is open to visitors. To date, more than 412 miles of Mammoth Cave have been mapped, but experts say it may well extend more than 1,000 miles in total. Several new miles of the cave system are discovered each year. The cave structure is particularly stable thanks to a layer of sandstone that caps the limestone beneath. There are numerous impressive cave structures on display, including stalactites, stalagmites, and a type of gypsum formation called “gypsum flowers.” The dry, cool environment of Mammoth Cave also makes it an ideal habitat for several endangered forms of bat and cave shrimp.
Denali National Park Contains the Highest Elevation Point in North America
Previously known as Mount McKinley, the namesake of Alaska’s Denali National Park soars 20,320 feet above sea level, making it the highest point in North America. Upwards of 600,000 people visit Denali annually to see the majestic mountain views. In fact, the three highest points in U.S. national parks are all located in Alaska: In addition to Denali, Mount Saint Elias reaches 18,008 feet, and Mount Fairweather stands at 15,325 feet. Outside of Alaska, the highest point in a national park is California’s Mount Whitney, which towers 14,498 feet above sea level in Sequoia National Park.
Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park Is Home to the World’s Most Active Volcano
The Hawaiian archipelago, made up of 137 islands, is a hotbed of volcanic activity. The islands formed as the result of eruptions due to the constant motion of the Pacific plate beneath the ocean. Located on the Big Island in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, Mount Kilauea is the world’s most active volcano mass — it has been erupting continuously since 1983. Molten lava from the eruption pours down the sides, eventually cooling to add to the landmass of the island. But some lava streams flow directly into the sea, creating impressive vapor clouds when the two meet. Kilauea is also known as the home of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes.
Arches National Park Has More Natural Arches Than Any Other Place on Earth
Vibrant red-tinged rocks frame a brilliant blue sky in many an Instagram photo taken by visitors to Utah’s Arches National Park, home to more than 2,000 natural sandstone arches — more than in any other spot on Earth. Arches, bridges, and windows dot the desert, providing geologists with a fascinating view of millennia gone by. Over a period of about 65 million years, the area’s geologic plates shifted, and wind and rain also played a hand in shaping the rock into nature’s own sculpture garden. Arches grow and widen until they eventually collapse, leaving columns in their stead. As with many of these park features, in another million years, the landscape may be completely different than what we see today.
Gateway Arch National Park Is the Country’s Smallest National Park
Named after a human-made arch rather than a natural one, Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis is the smallest of the country’s 63 national parks, covering just over 90 acres. It’s also one of the country’s few urban national parks and includes green forestland, riverfront access, and five miles of recreational trails that are home to diverse native plant species. Of course, the centerpiece of the park is the 630-foot-high (and 630-foot-wide) Gateway Arch — the tallest human-made monument in the U.S. — which stands against the St. Louis skyline.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park Is the Only National Park Named After a Person
The 26th President’s namesake park is located in the North Dakota badlands, and got its name because Roosevelt had a residence there. When Roosevelt served as President from 1901 to 1909, he established more than 200 national parks, forests, wildlife reserves, and monuments across 230 million acres of public land, earning him the nickname the “conservationist President.” Visited by 600,000 people each year, Theodore Roosevelt National Park covers more than 70,000 acres with the Little Missouri River flowing through it. It is filled with wildlife and scenic vistas, including the famous Painted Canyon, where the former President’s cabin is located.
North Cascades National Park Has More Glaciers Than Anywhere in the Continental U.S.
Located about 100 miles north of Seattle, Washington’s North Cascades National Park is home to a mountain range that’s often referred to as “the American Alps” for its rugged, glacier-capped peaks. In fact, the area is home to more than 300 glaciers — more than any other U.S. national park outside of Alaska. It’s one of the snowiest places on the planet, and all that snow accumulates and compacts into glacial ice. Overall, however, the U.S. national park that has the most glaciers is Alaska’s Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Covering 13.2 million acres, it’s also the largest national park in the country and home to some of the biggest glaciers in the world.
Mesa Verde National Park Was One of the World’s First UNESCO Sites
With 5,000 known archaeological sites, 600 of which are cliff dwellings made of sandstone and mud mortar, Mesa Verde National Park offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people, who lived in the southwestern Colorado area from around 550 to 1300. Among the most impressive structures are the Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and Square Tower House, plus various relics like farming terraces, field houses, shrines, and rock art. The area was designated a national park in 1906, and in 1978, it earned a spot among an elite group of only 12 places around the world named the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Mesa Verde was one of two sites in the U.S. — the other was another national park, Yellowstone.
There’s Only One U.S. National Park in the Southern Hemisphere
Spanning rainforests, volcanoes, beaches, and coral reefs on three islands in the South Pacific, the National Park of American Samoa is the southernmost park of any U.S. territory — and the only national park south of the equator. The park was established in 1988 after environmentalists proposed a bill to preserve the hundreds of plant species in the rainforest and to save the habitat of the endangered Flying fox (a fruit bat). Covering 13,500 acres on the islands of Ofu, Tutuila, and Ta’ū, the park is a spectacular preserve for hikers and snorkelers. And its very existence is a reflection of Polynesia’s oldest culture and its deep-rooted respect for the island environment — the name Samoa translates to “sacred earth.”
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The Wild West — sometimes called by the more subdued name of the Old West — is the star of many romanticized American stories. Tales of rebellious bands of outlaws, small-town sheriffs, and brave cowboys have made indelible marks on the cultural landscape, from spaghetti Western films to country music ballads. A well-made cowboy hat is an instantly recognizable symbol of ruggedness. One of the most popular video games of all time is about the Oregon Trail. Old-timey celebrities of the era are still household names — among them Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Annie Oakley, and Billy the Kid.
The stories below go deeper, from unsung heroes to forgotten tragedies. Which famous mail delivery service was a flash in the pan? What iconic American animal was almost driven to complete extinction? What stomach-churning flavors could you expect to find in an Old West saloon?
Here are six interesting facts you may not know about the Wild West.
The Pony Express mail service — which used horses and riders in a continuous relay to deliver mail — is one of the most iconic operations of the era, but it wasn’t part of everyday life for most people in the Old West. The service was expensive (around $130 in today’s dollars for just a half ounce of mail), and there were cheaper alternatives, like mail sent by stagecoach or ship. Most of the clientele were big businesses, newspapers, and government entities, who all regularly dealt with time-sensitive documents. Even those dispatches were printed on tissue-thin paper to save money, though.
The Pony Express also wasn’t around for that long. It lasted just a year and a half, between April 1860 and October 1861, when the Western Union Transcontinental Telegraph Line introduced a safer, much faster, more reliable way to deliver urgent messages. Still, for its brief existence, the Express bridged an important communications gap, delivering around 35,000 pieces of mail overall.
Some Gold Rush Prospectors Sailed Around South America to Get to the West
When you picture the pioneers and prospectors of the Old West, you probably imagine long journeys by stagecoach, horse, or wagon train. But at the beginning of the California Gold Rush, before major trails were established, travelers from the American East Coast actually had a harder time getting to California than those seeking their fortunes from China and Australia. While the latter enjoyed travel on well-worn trade routes to reach California, most early American Forty-Niners took an arduous 17,000-mile-long sea voyage all the way around Cape Horn, very near the southern edge of South America. It’s a dangerous patch of ocean to sail through, and was even more treacherous if the ship took a shortcut through the narrow Strait of Magellan. The full voyage often took five months to complete (and could take up to eight months). All told, around 40,000 travelers arrived in California by sea in 1849, most via what’s now known as San Francisco.
The image of the gunslinging, freewheeling cowboy — strictly, a man on horseback that drives cattle to and from pasture — is burned into the American cultural experience, but it’s missing a few historic truths. For example: As many as one out of four cowboys in the Wild West were Black.
When wealthy American enslavers moved to Texas (first part of Spain, then Mexico) in the early 1800s to start cattle ranches, they brought enslaved people with them in droves. Even in 1825, when Texas was still part of anti-slavery Mexico, enslaved folks made up around 25% of the settler population. These ranch owners, many of whom eventually fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, relied on slave labor to keep their cattle contained. After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 made slavery illegal (Texas had joined the U.S. in 1845), these ranchers started having a lot of trouble with runaway cattle.
Recently freed Black Americans who had been enslaved on cattle ranches were highly skilled in wrangling, and suddenly, paid cowboys were in extremely high demand — so many of them took up the cowboy trade. While they faced high levels of discrimination at the ranches, in towns, and on the plains alike, they forged tight bonds with their white and Mexican colleagues in cowboy crews.
High-end whiskey brands often use Old West imagery to sell their products, but if they were really selling what the cowboys drank, you’d definitely want to save your money. Absent copyright laws and regulation, the quality of “whiskey” varied wildly from saloon to saloon. Something labeled as an aged, straight Kentucky bourbon could actually just be neutral grain alcohol, often distilled from low-grade molasses, re-distilled with a variety of additives that could include burnt sugar, glycerine, prune juice, iodine, tobacco, or even sulfuric acid. Of course, good whiskey existed — but the Wild West is not known for being particularly refined.
In the late 19th century, whiskey producers that did not want their name slapped on bottles of boozy tobacco juice made some attempts to self-regulate, and separating real bourbon from the fake stuff led to the “bottled in bond” label that manufacturers still use today. More labeling laws came with the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act.
One “Gentleman Outlaw” Left Poetry After Robberies
In his ordinary life, Charles Boles was a well-dressed businessman, sporting a silky white mustache and living in luxury. But he didn’t earn his fortune in the mining business, as he claimed to his San Francisco social circles. In reality, he was robbing stagecoaches, which he took up in middle age. He may have ripped his moniker, Black Bart, from the pages of a thriller about, appropriately, a stagecoach robber, focusing exclusively on Wells Fargo routes — and covering up his well-groomed visage with flour sacks.
Keeping with the literary theme, he wrote poetry to leave behind at the scene, although he did so in only two of at least 28 suspected robberies. “I’ve labored long and hard for bread/For honor and for riches,” reads his best-known one, “But on my corns too long you’ve tred/You fine haired Sons of B****s.”
His gentlemanly life would ultimately be his undoing. During his last robbery in 1883, he was injured and attempted to flee the scene. In the process, he dropped a handkerchief marked with the number he was supposed to use to pick up his laundry, which Pinkerton detectives used to trace him. Ultimately, he was convicted of just one robbery, and served four years in San Quentin before slipping into obscurity.
In the mid-19th century, the wild bison — popularly known as buffalo — population was still in the tens of millions; by the end of the 19th century, it had dropped to only around 300. But it wasn’t just increased hunting that spelled the doom of this once-wild species.
During this era of rapid westward expansion, the American government ratified around 400 treaties with Plains Indians… only to break the vast majority of them during the fervor of the gold rush, the aggressive pursuit of Manifest Destiny, and railroad construction. These Indigenous tribes, including the Lakota and the Sioux, had become fiercely protective of their land, and the United States government began attempting to confine them to reservations through a storm of military conflicts. Some government officials started promotingmass destruction of buffalo as a way to leave tribes starving and desperate. The craze quickly spread from the military to private companies and citizens. Trappers and adventurers slaughtered the animals by the thousands. Trains would even stop to let passengers shoot bison from the windows. Some notorious buffalo hunters became celebrities — for example, Buffalo Bill, notorious for his anti-Native American sentiment at the time, got his name from his bison body count.
The damage had been done, both to Indigenous tribes and the wild buffalo population. However, those 300 buffalo were hiding out in Yellowstone National Park, and Congress voted to protect them on park lands. Today, the vast majority of bison are bred as livestock, but thousands of wild buffalo still make their home in Yellowstone.
Sarah Anne Lloyd
Writer
Sarah Anne Lloyd is a freelance writer whose work covers a bit of everything, including politics, design, the environment, and yoga. Her work has appeared in Curbed, the Seattle Times, the Stranger, the Verge, and others.
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Few entertainers have achieved greater acclaim than the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Elvis Aaron Presley. From his humble beginnings in Tupelo, Mississippi, to his lavish later years spent at Graceland, Elvis lived a fascinating life, and his performances and songs remain almost as beloved today as when they were first recorded. In honor of the King’s birthday on January 8, we’ve compiled six facts about one of the most renowned musicians of the 20th century.
Despite being a global sensation — an estimated 40% of his record sales occurred internationally — Elvis never performed outside of North America. In fact, the only time he ever held a show not on U.S. soil was during a series of three Canadian concerts, in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, all in 1957.
His tendency to stick stateside had little to do with his rumored fear of flying, however, as he still traveled by plane to perform in Hawaii in 1973. The most widely accepted (if still unconfirmed) reason for the lack of foreign gigs has to do with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Parker was born in the Netherlands, and reportedly feared that his status as an undocumented immigrant would make returning to the United States impossible. That may have been why he only booked Elvis on North American concerts.
Elvis Was a Natural Blond and Used Shoe Polish as Hair Dye
You’d be hard-pressed to find evidence of Elvis’ natural blond hairstyle, as only one known photo exists, hanging on the wall of Graceland. From a young age, Elvis dyed his hair jet black with shoe polish — which was cheaper than hair dye — in an effort to make his blue eyes stand out. Elvis also began applying eyeliner to further accentuate his eyes around 1960, a trick he learned from actor Tony Curtis. As Elvis rose to fame, he continued to dye his hair to maintain his image, though he eventually shifted from shoe polish to a patented hair dye combination of Miss Clairol 51D and Black Velvet/Mink Brown by Paramount. Elvis later enlisted the services of Larry Geller, a beloved stylist in West Hollywood who also worked with stars such as Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen.
Despite recording over 600 songs throughout his career, Elvis’ skills were lacking on the songwriting front. In a 1957 interview with Dig magazine, he explained, “I never wrote a song in my life… I’ve never even had an idea for a song.” In fact, Elvis never learned how to read or write music. That didn’t stop him from being credited as co-writer on many tracks, as his label demanded that certain songwriters give up 50% of authorship for any songs that Elvis recorded.
This isn’t to say Elvis went about the recording process lazily — quite the opposite. In the recording studio, he sometimes did 40 takes of a single track until it was perfect.
Elvis began training in the shotokan style of karate in 1958 under a man named Juergen Seydel while he was stationed in Germany as a member of the U.S. Army. Upon returning to the United States in 1960, Elvis earned his first black belt in the style of chito-ryu from Hank Slemansky. Elvis later studied in a Memphis dojo under Kang Rhee, where he received a seventh degree black belt in 1973 and an eighth in 1974. Rhee wrote a book about his experiences training Elvis, noting that he “was the only person I ever saw wear boots into the dojo,” and that the musician “insisted on using real firearms” during training instead of wooden ones. Elvis was so passionate about karate that he later co-founded the Tennessee Karate Institute in 1974. Some have questioned whether his black belts had more to do with his celebrity status than his skills, but his love for martial arts was undeniable.
Elvis Appears on the Most Popular Commemorative U.S. Stamp of All Time
First issued by the United States Postal Service on January 8, 1993, a stamp featuring Elvis Presley went on to become the most popular commemorative stamp of all time. In 1992, two prospective designs were presented — one of a young Elvis from the 1950s and another of an older Elvis from his 1973 performance in Hawaii — with the former eventually selected by a whopping 75% of 1.2 million mail-in votes. Some 500 million copies of the stamp — three times the usual run — were printed by the USPS. Elvis would be honored with yet another commemorative stamp in 2015, making him the only musical artist with two USPS stamps featuring their likeness.
During his presidency, Franklin Delano Roosevelt recommissioned a 165-foot former Coast Guard cutter known as the USS Potomac as his official presidential yacht. Dubbed the “floating White House,” the yacht went largely unused after FDR passed away in 1945, though it was later purchased by Elvis Presley in 1964 for $55,000. Elvis didn’t purchase the yacht for personal use, however; instead, he donated it to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in 1964 so that they could resell it to raise money.
The yacht isn’t the only presidential connection that Elvis shares. Genealogists also discovered that Elvis is actually a sixth cousin once removed of President Jimmy Carter.
Bennett Kleinman
Staff Writer
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism Media, and previously contributed to television programs such as "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Impractical Jokers." Bennett is also a devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
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Few are immune to the lure of a hidden treasure, its location well-protected by natural fortifications and/or the obscure clues of an old map or legend. The intrigue has spawned an array of popular novels, such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1880s Treasure Island, and movies including 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, but there are also a few real-life stories of secret valuables and the explorers who sought them. Here are seven of history’s most famous treasures — some real and others possibly pure fantasy — that have kept fortune-seekers on the hunt for years.
Discovered in the mid-20th century, the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls represented the archaeological find of a lifetime, yet one of them points to hidden riches of even greater value. The lone manuscript written on a copper scroll, officially designated “3Q15,” reveals that around 160 tons of gold and silver are buried in 63 spots throughout modern-day Israel. Unfortunately, some of the wording in the ancient Hebrew text is a mystery to contemporary scholars, while other passages describe vague locations that are nearly impossible to pinpoint. It’s been speculated that the valuables have already been dug up by later generations of Jews or the Knights Templar (see below), though the more tantalizing possibility exists that the billions of dollars worth of gold and silver remain up for grabs.
The Knights Templar, founded as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, wasn’t so poor in its heyday, as it loaded up its coffers through the spoils of war, donations of royal benefactors, and oversight of an extensive banking network. Unsurprisingly, the medieval military order’s wealth and influence drew the scrutiny of other powerful figures, and in 1307, King Phillip IV of France set about disbanding the order and claiming its riches. Although many of its members were arrested and executed, the Knights Templar allegedly smuggled their valuables out of Paris via hay carts or vessels. As such, its artifacts could be almost anywhere in the world, although a few collectors in recent years have pieced together what looks to be an impressive assemblage of Templar keepsakes, including a sword, libation cup, helmet, and obsidian chalice.
If the idea of secret caves and boats overflowing with gold tickles your fancy, then how about an entire city? Legend points to one such place in the Peruvian Andes, rumored to be a refuge for the Incas who escaped Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Expeditions have been trying to find Paititi for decades, but the biggest obstacle is its alleged location, in the midst of dense Amazonian growth, treacherous cliffs, and unwelcoming native tribes. In recent years, French explorer Thierry Jamin has followed clues toward an unusual “square mountain” in the Megantoni National Sanctuary of southeastern Peru, though time will tell whether this locale holds the secret city he and legions of predecessors have sought.
While some treasures consist of sparkling gems, others, like the creations of 13th-century Japanese swordsmith Goro Nyudo Masamune, are one-of-kind works of craftsmanship. Masamune forged one particularly potent blade that took on the name of an early wielder, Honjo Shigenaga, and passed through generations of the Tokugawa Shogunate that ruled Japan into the 19th century. However, shortly after the Honjo Masamune was named a National Treasure in 1939, the loss of World War II led to an order for the Japanese to turn over their swords, including the Tokugawas’ 700-year-old katana, to American occupiers. Sleuths have since sought to recover the priceless artifact, with some following the dead-end trail of a “Sgt. Coldy Bimore” who supposedly took possession. Others are resigned to the idea that it sits in the dusty basement or attic of an unknown veteran’s surviving family.
While the Japanese surrendered their treasures at the close of World War II, the Nazis supposedly hid theirs by dumping millions of dollars of gold into the Austrian Alps’ Lake Toplitz. But while rumors of the lake being a Nazi repository gained steam when counterfeit Allied currency was found submerged there in the 1960s, divers haven’t uncovered any of its alleged crates of gold. This is partly due to the difficulty of accessing the densely forested region, as well as the characteristics of the lake; frozen for much of the year, it also lacks oxygen in its deeper reaches, allowing the giant trees that fall in to remain preserved and block the path of explorers.
Famed gangster Dutch Schultz met his demise in a hail of gunfire at a New Jersey restaurant in October 1935, but not before delivering a stream of deathbed ramblings that reportedly included clues to a stash of loot hidden in the Catskill Mountains near Phoenicia, New York. Of course, the details of just what was squirreled away and where have changed over the years; it’s either a load of cash, jewels, or bonds, and it’s located near a sycamore … or maybe a pair of pine trees. It’s also worth considering the reliability of the source, who uttered such nuggets as, “Oh, oh; dog biscuit, and when he is happy he doesn’t get snappy,” as his life slipped away. However, the uncertainty hasn’t stopped the treasure-seekers who regularly descend on Phoenicia with the hope of uncovering what could be upwards of $50 million in mob funds.
No list of missing treasures would be complete without mention of a long-lost pirate trove, and this infamous buccaneer reportedly left behind a haul worthy of his formidable reputation. After nearly two years of plundering vessels in the West Indies, Blackbeard’s ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, ran into a sandbar off North Carolina in June 1718. From there, it’s believed he transferred his valuables to other boats, leaving little sign of his haul when he was killed a few months later by a British Royal Navy force. Although Queen Anne’s Revenge was discovered in 1996, it seems the whereabouts of its captain’s big prize became a massive mystery to all except, as Blackbeard once eloquently put it, the legendary pirate himself and the devil.
Tim Ott
Writer
Tim Ott has written for sites including Biography.com, History.com, and MLB.com, and is known to delude himself into thinking he can craft a marketable screenplay.
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