It is my birthday! This is the vanity post as promised. On the recent update, bassbait suggested a list of my favorite things, which appealed to me as it would hopefully also partly be a list of things people don’t know about me (another suggested list by witcharachne). So, aside from the obvious things that I love such as raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens (just kidding – I hate whiskers on kittens) here are ten of my favorite things.

The Winner: Top 10 Places You Don’t Want to Visit
The Runners Up: Everything on this list, Top 10 Clowns you don’t want to Mess With

It was tough picking between the clowns list and the places list, but the places list wins because it caused a bit of controversy. Shortly after it was published I got a call from a Canadian paper, based in one of the towns on the list (the one with the Asbestos Mine) – they seemed a little pissed that I had said you don’t want to visit their town. My favorite entry on the list is the Alnwick Poison Gardens, as it combines the bizarre and the forbidden – two of my favorite topics.

The Winner: Alfred Schnittke
The Runners Up: Charles Ives, Bach, Verdi

Alfred Schnittke was a Russian-German composer whose music I discovered when I was in Music school, as a teen. I first saw his Concerto Gross 2, and was blown away by the power and the unusual style. Interestingly, he has some similarities to Charles Ives with his use of pastiche and polytonality. The clip above is typical of his style. Schnittke died in 1998. I love Ives because his music is so unique and groundbreaking in its time. I especially love his Concorde Sonata, which I try (dismally) to play on the piano – I only have some success with one of the movements. And Bach I like because when he was writing there were no real rules to music, and, despite this, he managed to make music that will be remembered forever.

The Winner: Rorate Caeli
The Runners Up: Basenotes, eGullet, BBC News

I actually spend very little time on the web for entertainment – most of my web use is on Listverse (which I have not counted for this item as it is most obviously my favorite), with the rest of it being sites dealing with our accounts (marketing and advertising). So, for the runners up, I have listed the sites that I spend most time on when I do use the web for entertainment. As for the winning site, Rorate Caeli, I visit that every morning once – I skim the articles and read a few of the comments, if the article is of interest. It is a news website for traditionally minded Catholics, and, often, is first to come out with interesting or new articles from around the world. The writers are all very honest and they always seem to pick stories I find interesting. Incidentally, the Latin words “Rorate Caeli (or coeli)” are the first words of the Book of Isaias: “Rorate coeli desuper et nubes pluant justum” which means: “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just”. The clip above is a Gregorian chant version of it.

The Winner: Marlon Brando
The Runners Up: Jared Leto, Christian Bale, Edward Norton, Leonardo DiCaprio, James Dean

Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time – he was so good that James Dean chased him about trying to get him to give him some training. Brando is absolutely amazing in a Streetcar Named Desire, and went from strength to strength throughout his career – no one will dispute his role in the Godfather was one of the best ever on film. As for my runners up, Jared Leto is good in everything – even the slightly boring film about the guy that killed John Lennon, Christian Bale has been amazing even as a kid in Empire of the Sun, DiCaprio is really an excellent actor even if you don’t like his personality or choice of films (namely, Titanic), James Dean is hard not to like, and Edward Norton is quirky but great.

The Winner: Bentley Mulsanne
The Runners Up: Chrysler 300C

It takes more than two months to make a Bentley Mulsanne, of which 50% is handcrafted. The Mulsanne was released this year and it replaces my previous favorite, the discontinued Bentley Arnage. Customers who can afford the $350,000 price tag have a choice of 114 paint colors, 21 carpet colors, nine wood veneers and 24 interior leather hides, and are able to specify a custom color scheme. I have always loved Bentley’s (the new models, not the old) and would love to own one one day. In the meantime, I am content with the runner up car, the Chrysler 300C, which is what I currently own.

The Winner: Lonestar Memories by Tauer
The Runners Up: Millesime Imperial By Creed, Attar Homage by Amouage

A website I really like reading is Basenotes – it is an online community of men and women who rate aftershaves and perfumes. Since I was a kid, I followed in my big brother’s footsteps by loving lots of different aftershaves – so this is a good way for me to learn about new ones. All three of the ones listed above are my favorites, and all three I discovered through Basenotes. Lonestar Memories is a love/hate aftershave – it is very strong and very masculine, but over the day it softens a lot. Millesime Imperial was the first one I bought on the list (which is why it is only a runner up) and it is a much fresher smell – more suited for going to the gym. Homage is the most expensive (at $350 for a tiny bottle) but it takes a field of roses to make. It is very possibly the nicest smelling aftershave in the world – but only my third favorite because it really takes a special occasion to wear it. It is typical of the new French-style perfumes coming from the Middle East with exotic ingredients.

The Winner: Anything by Michael Haneke
The Runners Up: All entries on this list

At present I am watching the films of Michael Haneke – an Austrian Director. I bought a box set of his DVDs recently because I saw the US remake (also by Haneke) of his original, Funny Games. As I go through the box set, I have not been disappointed at all by any of the movies. Code Unknown (starring Juliette Binoche) is my favorite, so far (it tells the story of several characters whose lives intertwine – a common theme for movies) though his most famous film is probably The Piano Teacher. If you haven’t seen anything by him, you definitely should. Here is the box set I bought if you want to buy it, and here is Code Unknown.

The Winner: X-Factor (UK)
The Runners Up: Great British Menu, Masterchef (UK), Glee, The Sarah Silverman Show

Wow – did I just confess that Glee is one of my favorite shows? The X-Factor is Simon Cowell’s British version of American Idol, and it has been running since 2004. It was the show that launched the career of Leona Lewis. I prefer the X-Factor to American Idol because the judges (and voting public) allow a much greater number of quirky people to get through the audition process, and when the contestants are chosen they all go to the judge’s houses for a bootcamp – so we get to see how Cowell and the other judges live. The selection of TV shows above is really about all I ever watch – I record what I want to see (or download it) and that is the only time I have the TV on. So this entry is not just my favorite TV shows, but my entire TV viewing at present. The clip above is my favorite auditionee this year – she is absolutely crazy! Note: in the X Factor the contestants audition in front of the judges and a huge audience.

The Winner: MGMTThe Runners Up: The Script, The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, Muse

I can’t remember when I first heard MGMT but, the moment I did, I loved their sound. The music is so easy to sing along with, and very quirky and upbeat. If you haven’t heard them before be sure to listen to the clip above – they really are very good. I heard Arctic Monkeys and Muse on the UK show Top of the Pops, and liked them immediately, so I downloaded their albums. I tend to listen to the Muse more than Arctic Monkeys now, and think the last AM album was not very good, so I haven’t bothered to buy it. And for the record, I buy all my music at the iTunes store – I don’t download it free

The Winner: French Cheese
The Runners Up: Roast

I really surprised myself when I realized that there are only two foods that I go crazy for – the two listed above. I have always been a fan of French cheeses (my favorites being Roquefort – a salty blue vein – and Pont L’Eveque – a strong smelling, brie-like cheese). When I am dieting I can happily avoid anything (I haven’t eaten takeaways in six months) but the one thing I can’t resist is cheese and crackers. I always have some when I see it. As for roasts, when I have a day off my diet I always have a roast – usually chicken, beef, lamb, pork or veal, with all the usual trimmings of gravy, roast potatoes, pumpkin (or carrots), and a green vegetable (at present often Brussels Sprouts as they are in season). I have been known to have a roast every day of the week (perhaps the reason for my original need to diet!)

Would you believe it if a random person told you that Samsung manufactured machine guns? Or that Volkswagen makes sausages, Toyota sells prefabricated homes and Apple once sold clothes? We did not make any of that up. They are all true.

See Also: Top 10 Famous Companies With Unexpected Origins

You see, while we often associate established brands with certain products, like Lamborghini with sports cars and Sony with electronics, these conglomerates often have other businesses they do. Oftentimes, they just veered off into some other market that is totally unrelated to their core business. At other times, they just happened to be part of a larger multinational that is into things we would not expect.

10 Volkswagen—Ketchup And Sausage

Volkswagen has been making and selling sausages for over 43 years. The sausages are so popular and successful that Volkswagen calls them its “most popular product without wheels”. We think Volkswagen should have actually called it cars its “most popular product ‘with’ wheels” since it actually sells more sausages than cars. In 2015, it sold 5.8 million cars and 7.2 million sausages.

That got us thinking. Does that make Volkswagen a carmaker that sells sausages by the side or a sausage company that sells cars by the side?

The sausage, which the company calls currywurst and brands with the German phrase “Volkswagen Originalteil” (“Volkswagen original parts” in English), is made at the company’s main factory in Wolfburg, Germany. Cars are also made at the facility in case you are wondering. The sausages are made of pork and offered in two different lengths. There is also a vegetarian version.

Volkswagen entered the ketchup business in 1997. Its ketchup is thicker than regular ketchup and flavored with spice and curry. The sausages and ketchup are wildly popular and sold at Volkswagen factories and partner supermarkets in Germany. German dealerships also present a pack to customers who buy new Volkswagens from them.^[1]

9 Apple—Clothes

Apple is renowned for its computers, phones, iPods and lately, financial services. However, if things had gone according to plan, we would have added clothes to the previous sentence. Yes, Apple sold clothes and even launched a clothing line way back in 1986.

What do you think they called it? iShirt? Maccap? No, they called it The Apple Collection. The Apple Collection included t-shirts, sweatshirts, caps and hats. The merchandise either had the former colorful Apple logo or the word “Apple” imprinted on them in some funny looking, old school font.
The clothing line was not Steve Jobs idea. He had left Apple a year earlier. John Sculley was the CEO of Apple at the time. So, we think he came up with the idea. Apple stores did not exist at the time, so Apple sold the clothes exclusively through mail order. The clothing line was later discontinued due to what we think was poor sales.^[2]

8 Samsung—Machine Guns

When we think Samsung, we think televisions, home appliances, semiconductors, anti-Apple lawsuits and maybe exploding phones. Machine guns are one thing we definitely do not think of. This is even though Samsung actually manufactures machinegun systems for the South Korean military.

While most people do not realize, Samsung is actually an international conglomerate with interest in construction, vehicle manufacturing, theme parks, helicopter engines, hospitals, real estate, luxury hotels, textiles, chemicals, weapons and lots more. These machineguns are not your regular human-operated machineguns but artificial intelligence powered weapons capable of independently engaging enemies without a human operator.

The aptly named Samsung SGR-A1 sentry gun is the product of a joint venture between Samsung Techwin (one of Samsung’s sister companies) and Korea University. It is equipped with cameras, rangefinders, illuminators, voice recognition and a machine gun and multiple grenade launcher that allows it to automatically track, identify and engage enemies.

However, Samsung denies that the weapon will engage targets on its own. Rather, it passes information about any intruder to an operator, who determines whether it should fire or not. The weapon is currently deployed at the 250-kilometers-long Korean Demilitarized zone, which despite its name, is one of the most militarized regions of the world. There are no reports that the weapon has killed anyone yet.^[3]

7 Porsche—Honey

Porsche is renowned for its sports cars, luxury sport utility vehicles, sedans and honey. You probably did not see that last part coming. Porsche keeps bees and sells their honey. Porsche entered the beekeeping business in May 2017 when it set up a bee farm in Saxony, Germany. The farm launched with 1.5 million bees split into 25 colonies.

Those bees produced 400 kilograms of pure honey by December. Porsche put the honey in jars, slammed the name Turbienchen on them and sold them at its customer care shop in Leipzig, Germany. The honey sold out within days, prompting Porsche to add another 1.5 million bees as it attempted to double its output the following year.

Porsche did not go into the beekeeping business for money but for preservation purposes. Bees are crucial to German agriculture and are protected by law. Despite this, Germany still loses massive amounts of bees to disease and pesticide every year. In fact, Germany currently has a shortage of bees. Porsche’s is only trying to increase Germany’s bee population.^[4]

6 Cosmopolitan Magazine—Yogurt

Cosmopolitan is famed for its colorful fashion, entertainment and lifestyle magazine. However, at the turn of the century, it got famous for selling yogurt, cheese, clothes, watches, sunglasses and cafés, which it called lifestyle centers. The so-called lifestyle centers helped women keep fit and offered advice on their emotional issues.

The first pack of the aptly named Cosmopolitan yogurt (or Cosmo yogurt for short) appeared in supermarkets in 1999. Like the magazine, the yogurt and cheese were targeted at women between the ages of 15 and 44. It was low-fat and was made in partnership with MD Foods. However, the yogurt barely survived for two years before it was discontinued over poor sales.^[5]

5 Lamborghini—Off Road Vehicles

Lamborghini is world famous for its powerful and aesthetically pleasing sports cars. But did you know that Lamborghini originally made tractors? Lamborghini only started building sports cars after its founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, got into a spat with Enzo Ferrari, the founder of Lamborghini’s major competitor, Ferrari.

While Lamborghini still makes tractors, they are not the weirdest thing to have rolled out of their factories. That title should go to the odd-looking off-road vehicle called the Lamborghini LM 002. Lamborghini actually made three off-road vehicles. The first two were the Cheetah and the LM 001. Both were prototype vehicles and never made it to the market.

However, the plans of the Cheetah and the LM 001 were merged to create the LM 002, which was exhibited at the Geneva Auto Show in 1982. The LM 002 went into production four years later. In terms of power, the LM 002 was the sort of thing you would expect from Lamborghini. It was an all-wheel drive with a powerful V12 engine that went from zero to 100 km/h in just 7.8 seconds.

However, we wish we could say the same thing about the design. For one, the car looks very odd. Some standard Lamborghini features like leather seats and air conditioning were also optional. Did we also mention that it had a cargo bed?^[6]

4 Virgin Group—Virgin Cola

Sir Richard Branson has many businesses operating under his multinational conglomerate, Virgin Group. His businesses are as diverse as you can imagine. He has airlines, gyms and hotels amongst others. He also offers communications, healthcare, financial services and so on. But Sir Branson has also ventured into more unexpected terrains in the past. Like when he launched Virgin Cola in 1994.

Curiously, Virgin Cola was almost successful—until Coca-Cola ran it out of business. To be fair to Coca-Cola, Sir Branson fired the first shots when he drove an armored tank over cans of Coke to advertise his new drink. Coca-Cola executives got the message. Sir Branson wanted to displace them to become the dominant cola brand in the market.

Coca-Cola retaliated by offering mouthwatering deals to stores that stocked on Virgin Cola. In exchange, the stores stopped buying Virgin Cola and bought Coke instead. Virgin Cola sales declined everywhere except in Bangladesh where it remained popular. However, the Bangladeshi cola market was not profitable enough for Sir Branson who promptly discontinued the drink.^[7]

3Toyota—Prefabricated Homes

Toyota has been making prefabricated homes since 1975. It manufactured the homes under its Toyota Motor Corporation brand until 2004 when it was spun off to create the Toyota Housing Corporation. Like its cars, Toyota homes are very sturdy and can even withstand earthquakes. However, it is unlikely we will ever live in one since they are exclusive to Japan.

The homes do not come cheap though. They cost between $200,000 and $800,000 depending on what the buyer is getting. This made Toyota Housing Corporation set up a side business offering loans and other financial services to people interested in buying its homes. There are speculations that Toyota has sold over 250,000 homes since it got into the business.^[8]

2 Peugeot—Peppermill

Peugeot is one carmaker that has always managed to escape our attention. The French automaker rarely makes the news. When they do, it is always about their cars and never about their peppermills. That is even though Peugeot has been making peppermills long before it started building cars.

The original Peugeot was a flourmill until 1810 when it divested into the manufacture of tools, clock parts, sewing machines and other steel products. The coffee mill and peppermill followed in the 1840s. The first car came much later.

Peugeot still makes peppermills today. Its peppermills are considered one of the best in the world and are said to last for a lifetime. Interestingly, many buyers do not realize their peppermill is the product of the Peugeot motor company. This is despite the fact that the peppermills and cars share the same name and logo.^[9]

1 Sony—Insurance

Despite what you think, Sony is not an electronics company. Sony is an insurance company that makes electronics by the side. Ok! In truth, Sony is a conglomerate with interests in several businesses including music, entertainment, insurance, banking and advertising. However, Sony makes most of its profits from insurance. 63% of its profits the last time we checked.

Sony’s electronics division, which is what made Sony a household name here in the west, is currently unprofitable. Yet, the multinational would rather lose hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars yearly than sell or shut down its electronics division. As its former CEO Kazuo Hirai once said “Electronics has a future. And it is in Sony’s DNA”. Sony electronics division hopes to make a comeback someday.^[10]

TV, they say, reflects society, but sometimes, what it really reflects is the ideas of TV execs.

Some TV execs are obsessed with diversity, equality and the future of the planet.

Which is a very good thing. Sometimes, however, TV execs are just aware that these ideas are trendy, and think they can use them to boost ratings. That’s sort of OK too, we guess.

Top 10 TV Shows That Predicted The Future And Got It Right

But, instead of creating new shows to explore these important themes, they try to make their current TV shows reflect them instead, even when they’re not a comfortable fit. And the screen writers, who have to do as they’re told, don’t seem to put much effort into it, either. It’s almost as if they don’t really care.

Here are 10 ways in which popular TV shows were ruined by someone’s bright idea.

10 Hey, Transgenderism is Trendy, Let’s Do That

Transgenderism is a hot issue. Everyone seems to have an opinion on it. So why not introduce a transgender character in every show? We can show that transgender people are just the same as us, and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Great.

Oh, but wait. What if we have a show where none of the characters treat anyone with dignity and respect? Like Shameless, for example. The story of an alcoholic father, and his dirt-poor family, Shameless was famous for being unwoke. Even the show’s gay characters find ‘way-out-there’ concepts like bisexuality difficult to deal with.

Never mind, press on. We can make the transgender character explain transgenderism to the gay guy, in a nightclub, while he fondles a prosthetic penis. That will get the dignity and respect message across.

And if you’re confused about gender pronouns and want to know more, check out the video above and all will be clear . . . or not.

9 Diversity is good, Here’s a Lesbian

When TV characters abruptly change their sexuality, viewers are apt to find it a little bit disconcerting. Sure Ellen Degeneres did it on her show, but then that was a sit-com based on her life and personality, and Ellen came out in real-life at the same time, which is understandable (although her show was cancelled a season later).

But Veep’s motives seem harder to fathom. Sure, its tough being the daughter of a Vice-President. Makes dating difficult. Maybe it was that.

Or then, again, there aren’t too many laughs to be got from a heterosexual relationship.

I know, let’s make her a lesbian.

Sarah Sutherland’s character swerves from being engaged to a man to dating her mother’s female security guard without any character development in-between, and barely pauses for breath before the affair is spun to benefit her mother’s political career.

It’s almost as if the writers had some really funny gay jokes and just needed a gay character to hang them on.

Surely not?

8 If stupid is funny, stupider must be funnier, right?

You create a character with an idiosyncrasy, and its funny. Ned Flanders is a nice but slightly holier than thou neighbor – let’s make him a rabid bible-thumper. But it isn’t just The Simpsons who have been guilty of flanderizing their characters.

Take Kramer in Seinfeld for instance. Kramer is eccentric. You can tell that by his funny hair. In fact, each year his hair gets funnier. Or at least higher. And his behavior moves from the merely eccentric to the downright bizarre.

Does that make it funnier? Maybe. Maybe not. But it’s more likely that some lazy writers mistook a personality trait for a personality and exploited it for all it was worth.

7 I know, Let’s Do Politics, We All Agree on That

Some programmes are born political, and some have politics thrust upon them. When your program is a buddy sitcom with a straight, and vapid, Jewish interior designer and her WASPy gay, and obsessive, lawyer roommate, the politics aren’t always obvious. A life-style comedy, about living in ’90s New York, Will and Grace was smart and funny and successful for 8 seasons.

And then they brought it back. For one night only, Will and Grace did politics. Up until then the show was, if anything, anti-political. The characters were too self-centered to be politically active, though they occasionally pretended to be.

The awkward 10-minute Will and Grace special made the assumption that their audience were all progressive Democrats, and the show was proudly anti-Trump. Which is a bit of a leap. While previous shows had dropped in the occasional joke about conservative attitudes and politics, this reboot was a flat-out party-political broadcast.

While the reboot was a special, and not a regular episode, no one looked comfortable. The humor, where there was any, was forced, and even the canned laughter seemed strained. Which was unfortunate, because the special was the beginning of a Will and Grace reboot which tried very hard to tone down the politics but couldn’t quite manage it for two whole seasons (with a third coming up). Not surprisingly the total audience for the politicized series’ was less than one third what it had been for the original ’90s series’.

6 Hooray, We Reached Our Goal, Now Let’s Pretend We Didn’t

Some TV shows have concepts which are open-ended. Others have a clearly defined goal. Take Prison Break for example. Series 1 is all about 2 brothers trying to break out of prison. The concept is in the title, for goodness sake. So when, at the end of season 1, they manage to break out of the prison, it’s job done.

Switch off the lights and go home.

But the series was a success, and a successful series cannot stop at season 1. So, what do the writers do then?

They have a season of Lincoln and Michael being on the run, and then for season 3 they stick them right back in prison again.

At which point, the audience switched off in droves.

Prison Break is not the only show to fall for this. The premise of The Mentalist was that Patrick Jane, as played by Simon Baker, is helping the police with their cases, whilst also using them to help him catch the man who brutally murdered his wife and child. Every few episodes, he reminds the team that that is the only reason he is there.

Half-way through season 6, they catch him.

Well done.

Then Jane takes a holiday, and comes back to work for another 27 episodes.

Why?

10 Episodes That Were Banned From Television [Videos—Seizure Warning]

5 I am Woman Hear Me Roar

Feminism. It’s been around for a while, but it still seems to confuse screenwriters.

Take Supergirl, for instance. Already on dangerous ground, for calling her Supergirl rather than Superwoman (OK, that’s down to the comic book creators, so we’ll give them a pass) portraying Kara Zor-El, Superman’s cousin, as a strong independent woman, should be easy.

After all she’s superwoman (sorry, girl).

So why does everyone on the show need to keep making speeches about how strong and independent she is? Strange.

But it’s not just the superhero shows that feel the need to portray their female characters as badass. Being a feminist always seems to mean being Strong. Male characters can be strong, too, of course, but they can be other things too.

Women just get to be strong.

And talk about it. A lot.

4 Just Say No, No, No.

Remember The Fresh Prince of Bel Air? That streetwise kid from Philly who goes to live with his rich relations in Bel Air? Will Smith knows the ways of the world. He has been brought up on the Mean Streets. He knows what’s what.

And then, 3 seasons in, he is tempted to take drugs. Not so that he can party, but so he can study. Of course, he doesn’t actually take them, because he is Too Smart, but his cousin accidentally swallows some, thinking that they are vitamins, and ‘almost dies’.

The episode is even called Just Say Yo, clearly referencing Nancy Reagan’s ridiculously simplistic Just Say No campaign, and the episode feels as if it has been written by the same people who wrote her slogans.

The Fresh Prince is not alone. Programs aimed at teenagers often have characters considering taking drugs but ultimately thinking better of it, while those aimed at adults have characters who let their hair down. But only once. They smoke a little weed, and they giggle a lot, before, ultimately being sick/paranoid/locked-up, whereupon they give themselves, each other and us a little lecture about the dangers of drugs.

None of which is entertaining. Although Carlton dancing on amphetamines is.

3 They’re Bound to Cancel the Show Before We Have to Explain What’s Going On

Ah, Lost. That great writing experiment, when the writers hit on the wheeze that they didn’t have to tie up loose ends, at all. Someone noticed that TV shows get cancelled, and when they’re cancelled, no-one tells you how it ends.

Why not make the most of that?

Keep throwing in weird stuff, polar bears, for example, time-travelling conundrums, or a vague and ill-defined Sickness. Don’t worry. You won’t have to explain it.

What about some random numbers? Chuck those in too. That will keep them guessing.

Lost was not the only series where the writers pulled this trick, but they were certainly the most blatant. For 5 seasons, they allowed fans to believe that all this weirdness would actually add up to something, while they counted their money. Unfortunately for them, instead of cancelling the show outright, the network announced that there would be one final season, so that the writers could tie all those loose ends into a nice neat bow and gift them to their fans.

Oh dear.

2 I’m not racist, I know an Indian/Asian/Middle Eastern guy

Diversity in TV is good. But the Token Asian Friend, not so good.

The Token ethnic Friend is always smart – usually a computer programmer/math genius/astro-physicist. He is always shy, retiring, and ridiculously deferential to people who are in no way his superior. And, most importantly, he never gets the girl.

Take The Big Bang Theory, for instance. Raj Koothrappali, as played by Kunal Nayyar, can’t even speak to women for 6 whole seasons. He is reduced to doing a dumb mime whenever one appears in the room. He is the last character to find a mate. Even Sheldon, the human robot, gets coupled long before Koothrappali sees any action.

Or how about Community, a sitcom based in a community college. Abed Nadir (played by Danny Pudi) is a middle-eastern film student. Which means he makes film references instead of talking to people. Because, of course, he can’t speak to people. He’s too shy.

The Token non-white Friend is never the Best Friend, just a friend. Sometimes they disappear for episodes at a time, and no one wonders where they’ve gone. They are not the main character, nor the main character’s best friend. They are not the protagonist, nor the antagonist. But they do tick that diversity box.

Here’s a radical idea. Why not have an Asian/Indian/Middle Eastern character who is a bit crap at math, but has great people skills, huge amounts of charisma, and always gets the girls?

1 I May Be Dead, But Boy Am I Woke

Even zombie shows can’t get away from Hollywood’s insatiable need to be on message. Take The Walking Dead, for instance. The post-apocalyptic zombie horror franchise seems to tick all the boxes.

It’s got badass (sorry Strong and Independent) women.
It’s got a militant anti-capitalist agenda
It’s got a rainbow nation of characters, both alive and undead.
It’s got a gay man and a lesbian
Even if you don’t count the zombies, the show has a high number of disabled characters
It even has an Asian friend who is more than a token.

Finally, a show that manages to put the story before message, right?

Well, maybe not. A careful analysis of the deaths in TWD have shown that as the series has developed the number of white middle-aged men being killed, has risen out of all proportion to their numbers in the post-apocalyptic society.

Is this a cynical agenda-pushing narrative? Probably.

Or, maybe it’s that the communist, feminist, homosexual, ethnic minorities are finally getting their own back?

Let’s hope so.

10 Times Virtue Signalling Ended In Disaster

Celebrity endorsements can make a product. For a famous person in need of a little cash endorsements can be a life, or at least bank balance, saver. Sometimes the endorsements make absolutely no sense – Ozzy Osbourne’s advert for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter was hardly rock and roll. But if the item being sold matches up with a celebrity’s brand then there can be big bucks made all round. If celebrity sells and sex sells then would could be bigger than mashing the two together? Here are ten times musicians got down and dirty with the sex industry.

SEE ALSO: 10 Sex Toys With Ridiculously Ancient Origins

10 Rammstein Penises

The German hard rock band Rammstein is not one to shy away from sensitive areas. Their 2009 video for the song Pussy featured rather more flesh and sexual intercourse than American music videos would be allowed to put on display. Coming from the album ‘Liebe ist fur alle da’ – Love is for everyone – the song was a sign of where the band would be going next. They decided to release a special box set for the album, not an unusual merchandising strategy, but they included non-stand items in the hand-crafted case. Like handcuffs, lubricant, and six pink plastic dildos in various shapes and sizes. “Size does matter, after all,” as they sang in Pussy.

The boxset could be bought with either the censored or uncensored version of the album, for those perhaps not expecting rude words from a box of sex toys. In Germany the album could not be displayed in shops after a court ruled it was damaging to youths.^[1]

Despite rumors that the six dildos in the special edition were modeled on the band members’ members it appears this is just an urban legend – unless someone with more intimate knowledge knows better.

9 JLS Condoms

The boy band JLS emerged from the UK version of the X-factor in 2008 after coming second to Alexandra Burke. Of the two however it was JLS who proved to have the staying power racking up several number ones. Being socially responsible the band decided to partner with the condom maker Durex to release their own range of branded condoms.^[2]

As the boys said at the time “it’s important to put your love in a glove.” They decided to repurpose the JLS of their name to make it stand for Just Love Safe.

Each box featured the face of one of the four stars which led to an impromptu popularity contest. Ashton is apparently the one people pick when it comes to safe sex. Those looking to colour code their loving were please to know that each of the pop stars’ condoms came in a different color.

8 Safaree Samuels’ Anaconda

Safaree Samuels is a rapper and songwriter perhaps best known for dating Nicki Minaj for over a decade. Or at least he was most famous for that until his name started trending on Twitter in 2018. Safaree’s nudes had leaked and the internet was going wild. Some suggested that the rapper had been behind the leak of the explicit photos. If he was looking for publicity then it worked.^[3]

This year however he sought to use his internet fame, as well as other of his attributes, to make some hard cash. A replica of the much seen penis can now be bought. Called Safaree’s Anaconda the object comes in at 12 inches long so buyers will be getting plenty of bang for their buck. While some people might be cautious about their purchase Safaree’s current girlfriend said “I’m so excited for you ladies!”

7 Daft Punk condoms

When musician Diplo posted a picture of an empty box of condoms on his Instagram he did what everyone does after sex – he thanked Daft Punk. This was around the time of the release of Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ but Diplo was not just talking about the aphrodisiac powers of the bands tune. The condoms he was so ostentatiously showing off were branded with an image of the band and the name of their hit. Someone had got lucky indeed.^[4]

But it soon turned out that rumours of Daft Punk getting into the condom business were premature. Durex denied going into partnership with the band. The condoms were just a promotional item being given away by their record company’s PR. Daft Punk have never spoken about how they feel about being linked in the public imagination to Diplo’s penis but Durex were thrilled. “We do hope that by using Durex condoms, music-lovers will continue to make sweet music together and have great sex!”

6 Dave Stewart’s vibrator

The Eurythmics has some huge hits in the 80s and have reunited several times since their first split to put out new albums. But it does seem as if there have been things other than music on Dave Stewart’s mind. In 2008 it was announced that his song Let’s Do It Again would be available free of charge to those who bought a vibrator inscribed with lyrics from the song – probably for those who get excited by reading.^[5]

This was to be no ordinary sex toy however. For a start it would cost £1000, making the free song seem like less of a bargain. To account for the high price it should be noted that it comes tipped with 28 round-cut black diamonds. Since there is not much light in its intended using spot the diamonds don’t really need to sparkly anyway. For those worried that they don’t get enough use from their toys the vibrator came with a leather cord that meant you could wear it around your neck. It also came with a pick in case you wanted to strum your guitar. Or anything else.

5 Mötley Crüe’s motley crew

Mötley Crüe have always had girls, girls, girls on their mind so it is no wonder that they are always looking for ways to please them. Alongside Lovehoney – “The sexual happiness people ” – the band created a set of eight “powerful” vibrators. Coming in a range of sizes, colors, and with either 7 or 10 functions, the vibrators have names paying tribute to the band’s classic songs. Some, like like Dr Feelgood, hint at the pleasures that await while others, “Too fast for love,” perhaps hint at thwarted passion.

While the makers say that the “eye-catching vibes capture the style and sex appeal of the band perfectly,” some might quibble at the verisimilitude of the wares on offer. If these capture the appearance of the members then there may be many anatomical questions to answer.^[6]

4 The Vibrators’ Vibrator

Sometimes an endorsement is just too perfect to pass up. When persona and product overlap completely you would be a fool not to take the money. When Lovehoney started working with the punk-rock group The Vibrators there was only one product they could possibly make – a Buzzin Bullet Vibrator. And being a punk group it of course had to come in a box shaped like a Union Jack draped coffin.^[7]

The Buzzin Bullet was touted as the first official mash up of musician and sex toy. For years the band had been told they should make money off their name by releasing their own vibrators and when the Buzzin Bullet finally did make its way onto their merchandise stands at concerts they flew off the shelves and into buyers’ hands. And other places. The band thanked Lovehoney, calling them “a company who know so much about the band and who have the right, fun attitude to the product—a good coming together you could say.”

3 Motorhead’s motorised head

Motorhead have been toying with sex toys for a long time. On their 1977 debut album they released their song Vibrator that had such catchy lyrics as:

“I’m really starting to buzz,
Your feeling comes, I’m starting to hum,
I can do it like nothing else does.”

Vibrators were an obvious collaboration choice then for the rockers. They began by releasing four fairly dull looking tubes emblazoned with names from their hit-list like “Ace of Spades” and “Born to lose” as well as just their name. But the band must have been doing something right with their merchandise as they soon came out with three new toys for their range.^[8]

The additions to the range included a vibrating glass wand, two solid glass dildos shaped like bombs and a War-Pig topped with a model of their Snaggletooth mascot. One member of the band cautioned users “Just like the band, our products are EXTREME! Enjoy with care.”

2 Ghost B.C.

The Swedish band Ghost, also known as Ghost B.C. in the USA for legal reasons, is a hard rock group that does not mess around when it comes to sex play. Why merely be deviant when you can also be blasphemous at the same time? The band’s Phallos Mortuus Ritual box set comes with everything you might need to get a party started.^[9]

Inside a book-shaped box lined with red velvet you get one bronze-effect butt-plug with the band’s Grucifix symbol on the base, one dildo finished with the head of one of the band member’s dressed as a bishop, and divorce certificate – just in case things go wrong probably.

The box set comes in a range of sizes to suit all needs from Men’s Small to Men’s Extra, Extra Large.

1 Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson lives to shock people out of their tired assumptions and passivity. Certainly one way to shock someone would be to yank out Manson’s own product – a dildo with his face on it.^[10]

Called the Double Cross dildo it features the singer’s name embossed on the shaft but you probably won’t notice that as long as his face is peering into your soul. Described on Manson’s website as “soft, lifelike,” it does make you wonder which part of the singer it most resembles. It does come with a black velvet bag so when you are done with it you do not have to face Manson looking back at you for long.

Helpfully the product is described as “wipe clean” and the paint used to create Manson’s face is environmentally safe. Unfortunately the face itself “May fade with multiple uses.”

Everyone has a favorite candy. Some people like the powdery sugar in Pixy Sticks. Others prefer classics like lemon drops and root beer barrels. Some like chewy candy like licorice, and some like to suck on candy like jawbreakers.

Anyone who has a sweet tooth knows that candy is the best way to sate it. However, you may not know everything about your favorite candy—like where it got its name, how it was first made, or even why.

10 Saltwater Taffy Was Probably Named As A Joke

Although nobody knows who made it first, saltwater taffy got its start either on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, or at Midwestern county fairs in the 19th century.

Taffy is made with sugar, salt, flavorings, corn syrup, and other ingredients that vary between recipes. It is then pulled and molded to aerate the mixture so that it becomes soft and chewy. Regardless of its name, this soft taffy does not have saltwater in it, although some brands do add extra salt.

According to rumor, saltwater taffy got its name from candymaker David Bradley. During an 1883 storm, his taffy stock became soaked with saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean. But even though his store was flooded, customers still came in to ask for his taffy. He jokingly called it “saltwater taffy,” and the name stuck.

In 1923, John Edmiston trademarked the name and tried to get a cut of the profits from anyone selling “saltwater taffy.” But the Supreme Court decided that the name had already been used too often for candy and ruled against him. As a result, Edmiston did not receive any royalties. The term became common again and is now the accepted way to market nearly any taffy, salty or not.

9 Cotton Candy Was Promoted By Dentists

Originally called fairy floss, cotton candy has gone by many monikers, such as candy floss or spun sugar. John C. Wharton and William J. Morrison patented their version of a cotton candy machine in 1899. Then they introduced the machine and their new candy concoction at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. They sold nearly 70,000 boxes of candy at that fair.

As cotton candy is made entirely from caramelized sugar, most people realize that such a sweet overload will probably send you to a dentist sooner rather than later. Interestingly, Morrison was a dentist. To be fair, he was also a lawyer, an author, and a civic leader. But still, a dentist creating cotton candy has to raise some eyebrows.

In 1900, cotton candy was introduced to the Ringling Brothers by Thomas Patton, who had invented a more modern version of the cotton candy machine. Even later, Josef Lascaux, another dentist, created another version of the machine that he never officially patented. He did, however, coin the name “cotton candy.”

As to why more than one dentist had a hand in the rise of cotton candy’s popularity, we can only guess that it has to do with the consequential rise of cavities.

8 Pop Rocks Caused Urban Legend And Widespread Panic

The fizzing candies Pop Rocks were developed in 1956 by General Foods research scientist William A. Mitchell. Originally sold for 15 cents a packet in the early 1970s, they came in orange, cherry, and grape flavors. Pop Rocks are small, crystallized pieces of sugar with air pockets of carbonation that “pop” and “crackle” when the candy melts in your mouth or in water.

This popping sound led to an urban legend. As early as 1979, there were rumors about a child who had exploded after eating Pop Rocks with soda. At one point, the Food and Drug Administration even set up a hotline to field any questions from parents concerned about their children eating the candy.

After a large marketing effort to combat the rumors that were gripping the imagination of the public, Pop Rocks eventually disappeared from market shelves in 1983. They have since popped back up and had a resurgence in popularity.

But the crazy rumors still linger and were even featured on MythBusters. Don’t worry about busting your gut, though. The most that Pop Rocks and soda will do to your stomach is to make it upset.

7 Lollipops Have Strange Name Origins

Since ancient times, candies and sugary sweets have often been put on the ends of sticks for easy eating. It became popular in the 17th century to enjoy boiled sugar treats that were pressed onto sticks to eat. This treat was soft candy rather than hard, but it was one of the forerunners of the modern lollipop.

In the 20th century, the owner of McAviney Candy Company often brought home for his children the leftover sticks used to stir batches of candy. He began selling these sticks in 1908, which coincided with the invention of the first automated machine that put sticks in hard candy. Samuel Born, the inventor of the candy machine, was even awarded a key to the city of San Francisco for his invention.

In 1908, George Smith began marketing the modern version of a lollipop through his confection company, Bradley Smith Company. He coined the term “lollipop” in 1931 after a famous racehorse of the time called Lolly Pop.

When lollipops stopped being produced during the Great Depression, the name fell into the public domain. The name also meant something like “tongue slapper” because “lolly” was Old English slang for “tongue” and “pop” meant “to slap.”

Some linguists have even linked the name to the Roman phrase loli phaba (“red apple”), supposedly referring to the traditional Roman toffee apple treat. So the famous name originates from a horse, Old English slang, or ancient Rome. Or it could be made-up. Whatever the truth, it’s a unique way of looking at lollipops.

6 Snickers Also Has Strange Name Origins

The Snickers bar has an interesting story behind its name as well. Although the Snickers bar was not the first peanut, caramel, and nougat candy bar, it was one of the most popular and most enduring of its time.

Frank and Ethel Mars, founders of Mars, Inc., had great success with the Milky Way bar and were open to developing new candies. After three years of development, the Snickers bar was released in 1930.

Just months before the release of their new candy bar, Ethel’s favorite horse, Snickers, died. This was a hard loss for her as she adored her horse. So she and her husband named the new candy bar “Snickers” in the horse’s honor.

Interestingly, the farm where Snickers had lived was called the Milky Way Farm, just like their other famous candy bar. Regardless of this name theme, Snickers candy bars live on as one of the best-selling candies in the world.

5 Circus Peanuts Inspired Lucky Charms

Fondly remembered as one of the original penny candies, Circus Peanuts have been around since the 1800s. The banana-flavored marshmallows are notorious for their love-it-or-hate-it reputation.

Maybe that’s why no one has admitted to inventing them, much less tried to brand them. Since we don’t know who the creator is, we also have no idea why these peanut-shaped candies have a banana flavor.

Either way, these little gum stickers are the reason why we have marshmallow cereals. General Mills product developer John Holahan found that the mixture of Cheerios and cut bits of Circus Peanuts was good enough to sell, which led to the development of the ever-popular Lucky Charms cereal.

So maybe, even if you’re not fond of Circus Peanuts, you might want to thank whoever made them if you love marshmallows in cereal.

4 M&M’S Lost A Color In Cancer Panic

Forrest Mars Sr., son of Frank and Ethel Mars of Mars, Inc., was inspired by the candy-shelled chocolates in military rations to make the famous M&M’S candies. Named for Forrest Mars Sr. and Hershey executive William Murrie, these candies were patented and put into production in 1941.

Eventually, they were sold only to the military. But when the war ended, their popularity continued with civilians. The candies were sold in cardboard tubes, and the original colors were brown, red, violet, yellow, and green. However, in 1979, one of these colors faded from the mix due to FDA test results.

The dye called FD&C Red No. 2 was linked to tumors in female rats in a 1971 Russian test. However, this test was later found to have been incorrectly performed. The tested dye wasn’t the food coloring that was used in M&M’S anyway.

But the damage had already been done. Mars had to deal with a public that was panicked over the possible effects of FD&C Red No. 2. Used to color several popular foods like soda, hot dogs, ice cream, and candy, the public demanded that the controversial dye be removed.

Although M&M’S were colored with Red No. 40, Mars replaced red M&M’S with orange M&M’S to ease public anxiety. In 1987, the red color was reintroduced for M&M’S and has been popular ever since.

3 Necco Wafers Were Brought To The South Pole By The Ton

These chalklike candies were invented in 1847 when Oliver Chase made the first lozenge cutter. It became the machine that launched the candy industry, and it wasn’t long before its first creation, Necco Wafers, made it big.

The military commissioned a major portion of Necco Wafers’ production during World War II because the candies were easy to transport without melting. They were also cheap enough during the Great Depression to become a popular civilian treat.

Famous Arctic explorer Donald MacMillan gave out these candies to native Canadians on his journeys, but that was nothing in comparison to Admiral Richard Byrd. For a two-year journey to the South Pole, Byrd packed 2.5 tons of Necco Wafers. That was about 0.5 kilograms (1 lb) of candy per week for every man on the crew for the entire trip.

There is no record as to whether the entire amount was consumed. Still, the eight original flavors that Admiral Byrd carried with him can be enjoyed today. Except for the price, not much about Necco Wafers has changed since they were invented.

2 Dubble Bubble Gum Was An Accident

Ancient people chewed on bits of tree bark tar. The Maya and Aztecs also chewed on chicle from sapodilla trees. Then, in the 1840s, John Curtis used spruce tree resin to make gum to chew on and later created the first chewing gum factory.

It wasn’t until 1928, however, that our modern idea of chewing gum was created. Accountant Walter E. Diemer created it by accident. He liked to experiment in his spare time. After expanding on a failed recipe, he found a way to make chewing gum that was easier to chew and more resistant to breakage in packaging.

Interestingly, the iconic pink color was chosen simply because that was the only color available. After a successful trial run, the new gum was packaged and marketed as Dubble Bubble Gum. Eventually, the packages included comics that featured Dub, Bub, and the iconic Pud.

This only helped the popularity of the new chewing gum. At the beginning of World War II, it was even shipped to the military before the scarcity of products forced the factories to stop production. These factories reopened soon after the war ended and still cater to our bubble-blowing, cud-chewing needs today.

1 PEZ Dispensers Were Created To Attract Smokers

The famous PEZ candies were created in Vienna, Austria, in 1927. Originally, they didn’t have the sweet, fruity flavors that we know today. They used to be peppermint flavored. In fact, their name comes from pfefferminz, the German word for “peppermint.”

Packaged in tins, the candies were popular for a time. They were supposed to be used as an alternative to smoking because their creator, Eduard Haas III, disliked smoking.

In 1949, new PEZ dispensers designed by Oscar Uxa were introduced as a way to hygienically share the candies without touching all of them. The dispensers were also designed to draw in smokers. Flicking open the top of a PEZ dispenser was meant to be like flicking a lighter. For a time, Haas even used the slogan “No Smoking, PEZing Allowed.”

In the transition to American markets, PEZ changed to their iconic fruity flavors, and the dispensers acquired their character tops. Whether PEZ have actually discouraged smoking is debatable. But PEZ still exist today as beloved combinations of candies and toys.

+ US Senate Candy Desk

The US Senate candy desk is an aisle desk on the Republican side of the Senate that is stocked with various candies. However, it is open to Democrats as well.

The senator assigned to the seat is in charge of keeping it stocked, traditionally with sweets from his own state. This is the only seat that is not assigned by seniority. Instead, it is usually offered to those who love candy and sweets.

The tradition started in 1965 with Senator George Murphy, who had a legendary sweet tooth. He stocked his desk drawer full of candies and offered them to senators who were passing by. When he lost his seat in 1970, the next senator to occupy the desk continued the tradition.

It becomes an interesting tidbit when the desk changes owners and even caused an uproar in the Senate when Senator Craig Thomas took over in 2007. There was concern that his home state of Wyoming didn’t have any well-known candy companies such as Hershey’s, which supplied 180 kilograms (400 lb) of candy per year when Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum occupied the desk.

But the fear that Thomas would be unable to keep the desk stocked was overblown. Several Wyoming artisan companies stepped forward to supply the candy desk, and the candy tradition continued without a hitch.

Erin S. Miller is a woman working her way through school and her own ambitions. She enjoys the strange and unknown as much as writing about them.

Drinking has always been one of America’s favorite pastimes. Bars, taverns, pubs, and the like have been around since the earliest parts of history. The intersection of various cultures throughout time has led to the exchange of various liquors and recipes all over the world.

This sharing of liquors has led to a cornucopia of craft cocktails and pieces of modern alcoholic artwork. Have you ever stopped to wonder just where your favorite drink comes from? If you are a history buff who loves alcohol, this list is for you.

10 Old Fashioned

For whiskey connoisseurs, this is the ultimate cocktail. A great-tasting, well-balanced cocktail that is essentially a celebration of whiskey on your palate. However, you may not know that this cocktail is not only rich in flavor but also rich in history.

The invention of this alcoholic masterpiece is credited to a barkeep named James E. Pepper in 1880. An article written in 2005 in the Louisville Courier-Journal indicates that Pepper invented the drink in Louisville. Then he took the concoction to New York City, specifically the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bar, where it blossomed in popularity. This is credited as the birthplace of the old fashioned.

However, some detractors of this story point to a book written in 1862 by Jerry Thomas as proof that the recipe existed prior to 1880. Although Thomas’s Bartenders Guide: How To Mix Drinks does mention a similar cocktail, it uses gin in lieu of whiskey, thus changing the complexion of the drink.^[1]

While the origins of this craft cocktail can be debated, there is no question that it is one of the most popular bar drinks served to this day.

9 Daiquiri

Despite being widely considered “a chick drink,” the daiquiri surprisingly has a manly origin story. Cut to the 17th century when the British and the Spanish aggressively patrolled the seas, hunting pirates and trying desperately to expand their rule.

The sailors of the naval ships battled long journeys with bad weather and seasickness. To help cope with this, the sailors were allotted 3.8 liters (1 gal) of beer per day per man by law.

The problem was that many of these ships were patrolling the Caribbean (with Nassau being a known pirate hot spot) some 7,200 kilometers (4,500 mi) away. Stocking enough beer for a journey that long—let alone restocking it from so far away—posed a great logistical problem.

The solution came in the form of rum. It was decided that 473 milliliters (1 pt) of rum (which was widely available in the Caribbean) was a fair substitute. Unfortunately, the rum was much more potent and the soldiers’ productivity declined drastically because they were really drunk.

In 1740, Naval Admiral Edward “Old Grog” Vernon began diluting the liquor with water in lime juice to help his crew stay more sober. Those ingredients are the base of what became known as the daiquiri.^[2]

Technically, Jennings Cox is credited with the invention of the daiquiri. He ran out of gin while hosting guests and used rum as a substitute, calling it the daiquiri after the name of a beach on the island of Cuba. However, that’s far less cool than drunken pirate hunters.

8 Manhattan

Would you believe that this cocktail was invented at a party for Winston Churchill’s mother? Even though this was a popular rumor about the origin of the Manhattan, this theory holds little weight. Lady Randolph Churchill was back in England and already pregnant with Winston at the time this drink rose to prominence.^[3]

The Manhattan Club in New York still claims ownership of the original recipe (hence the name). But there are whispers of a man, simply called “Black,” who invented the drink while working at the Hoffman House in New York. While the exact details are up for debate, all experts agree that the Manhattan originated in New York.

7 Martini

The origins of this drink have more theories and plot twists than a James Bond movie. With multiple, unverifiable, competing origin stories, the rule of writing is that the coolest theory always wins out.

So here goes. A gold miner in Martinez, California, struck it rich in the early 1800s and naturally decided to hit the local bar to celebrate. He ordered champagne, but the bar didn’t have anything.

So he said, “Make me the fanciest concoction you can think of.” The bartender threw a few ingredients together in a glass, and the miner loved it. He asked the bartender to tell him what was in it. Then the miner traveled to San Francisco, asked for this drink at another bar, and taught the bartender there how to make it.

Originally known as the “Martinez Special,” the martini was born. Still around today, this alcoholic artistry has become a golden classic.^[4]

6 Margarita

The margarita is one popular drink that has three competing theories about its invention.

Margarita Sames was a rich girl from Dallas, Texas. She claimed that she invented the drink while vacationing in Acapulco with her friends in 1948. One of her friends, Tommy Hilton (of the same family that owns the Hilton Hotel chain), was so impressed by the drink that he put it on the hotel bar drink menus.

However, as Jose Cuervo was already an established tequila brand that actively endorsed the margarita starting in 1945, it is highly unlikely that Margarita invented her namesake drink. There are some who swear by this story, though. (Because rich people with power and influence would never lie, of course.)

Another claim is held by Danny Negrete. He supposedly made this cocktail as a wedding gift for his sister-in-law, who also happened to be named Margarita.

Finally, we have Mexican bartender Don Carlos Orozco who reportedly made this drink for the daughter of a German ambassador. She was also named Margarita. It is worth pointing out that there was a similar drink that became highly popular during Prohibition called the Daisy. Coincidentally, margarita is Spanish for “daisy.”^[5]

5 Moscow Mule

Just like the Manhattan is from Manhattan, the Moscow mule must be from Moscow, right?

Wrong.^[6]

Although the exact origin of the drink is unknown, the owners of the Los Angeles pub Cock ‘n’ Bull brought the drink to popularity in the 1940s. However, in an article published in 2007 in The Wall Street Journal, Wes Price, the head bartender for the Cock ‘n’ Bull, claims that he invented the recipe. Whatever the case, the Moscow mule jump-started the popularity of vodka within the US.

4 Sex On The Beach

The origins of this drink are ironclad. Its terrible name—along with alligators and hurricanes—can be tracked to one place: Florida. A bar called Confetti’s is credited with the invention.^[7]

Apparently, one of their bartenders made the fruity drink and thought, “What’s the most ridiculous, basic, noncreative name I can think of for this? Oh, hey look! There’s a couple having sex on the beach! I’ve got it! Sex on the Beach!”

Admittedly, we can’t be sure that’s exactly how it went down, but we are talking about Florida here. So it seems pretty accurate.

3 Cosmopolitan

The cosmo was actually a symbolic drink in the gay community in the 1970s when it was first introduced. The drink is credited to bartender Cheryl Cook, who worked in South Beach. As the story goes, a customer asked her to craft a drink that made him look sophisticated but was sweeter and less harsh than the traditional martini.^[8]

The cocktail crafted by Cook became known as the cosmopolitan. At the same time, John Caine, a bartender in Provincetown, had created a similar drink. Caine took the drink with him to San Francisco where it exploded in popularity in the gay social scene.

2 Whiskey Sour

Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders Guide: How To Mix Drinks contained a recipe for this legendary whiskey drink back in 1862. Unlike other cocktails that took a long time to rise to popularity, the whiskey sour has been popular from its birth all the way until . . . well . . . now.^[9]

Wisconsin newspaper Waukesha Plaindealer once published an article which referred to the whiskey sour as “a cardinal point in American drinking.” Sometimes, when you make a perfect drink, it stays perfect for over 100 years.

1 Mint Julep

Originally, the mint julep was rumored to be consumed for its medicinal properties. Farmers would drink them in the morning, much like people now drink coffee, for the extra boost to get them going. The mint julep also became the official drink of the Kentucky Derby in 1938.

The word “julep” is of Persian heritage. It is derived from the word gulab, which is a Persian sweetened rose water much like the syrup used to make the minty fresh beverage we know today. In Arabic, gulab is known as julab, which became julapium when translated into Latin.^[10]

Since julapium syrup was used to make the drink, it worked its way into the name to form what we know today as the “mint julep.” The fact that the liquor of choice for these drinks is bourbon explains the Southern popularity and the prominence that the mint julep has in connection with the world-famous Kentucky Derby.

Eric is a 29-year=old restaurant consultant residing in Maine.

Question: Did you eat today? The answer is probably yes. Now, do you know where your food came from? We don’t think much about the food we eat every day, but many of the delicious treats we shove down our throats have fascinating histories.

From a Michelin Star-worthy Mesolithic caviar, to Caucasian wine that warmed Neolithic people after the Ice Age, to an acquired taste that shaped evolution, these global favorites share amazing origins.

10 Mesolithic People Ate Fancy Steamed Caviar

Ancient dishes could be sophisticated, too, like a 6,000-year-old caviar soup from a site near Berlin. The soup, found in a ceramic bowl dating to 4300 BC, was like an ancient version of Korean or Thai and could probably be served up at tablecloth restaurants today.

The freshwater carp roe was cooked in a fish broth that was covered with leaves to hold in all the fishy goodness while also imparting some fresh green flavors from the plants. Pork rib remains uncovered in another bowl suggest that Mesolithic people were eating fancier, daintier portions instead of Flintstones-like chunks of charred meat.^[1]

9 Vanilla Was An Offering For Dead Royal Canaanites

Vanilla use supposedly started in South America. But newer (as in, older) evidence recovered from a 3,600-year-old tomb in Israel fixes vanilla’s origin several thousand years prior and 21,000 kilometers (13,000 mi) away. Vanillin compounds were found in three small jugs at a Bronze Age burial chamber at Megiddo, an afterlife offering for the three gold-and-silver-adorned skeletons interred in the tomb.

Researchers say the vanilla orchid reached the Levant via trade routes with Southeast Asia. Vanilla, now the second-most-expensive spice behind saffron, was even more prized and valued during the Bronze Age. So the tomb belonged to a big shot, like a royal Canaanite.^[2]

8 A Yellow River Artifact Ends The Noodle Debate

The origin of noodles has been highly debated. Some say they’re a Chinese invention, but others contend Italian or even Arabic roots. Before 2005, the earliest known noodles belonged to the East Han Dynasty circa AD 25–220, but a much older find suggested that the noodle’s birthplace does indeed lie in China.

Archaeologists at the Lajia site on the Yellow River recovered a 4,000-year-old bowl of noodles, fortuitously (for science and noodle history purposes) preserved by a catastrophic flood. The pot contained a bunch of 50-centimeter-long (20 in) yellow strands which, unlike modern variants made of flour, were made of grains from millet grass.^[3]

7 Wine Is From Europe, But Not Italy

The world of 8,000 years ago was in the process of awakening from an ice age. And as temperatures warmed, the Neolithic people of Georgia figured out how to make wine. It might be the oldest wine-wine in the world, because while the Chinese did brew alcoholic grape-based drinks 1,000 years prior, it wasn’t a pure grape wine. But the Georgian stock, dated between 6000 and 5800 BC, is like the stuff enjoyed today.

And it was an excellent new invention to store in another great recent(ish) invention, jars from the pottery-making trade that began around 9,000 years ago. Unfortunately, the ancient vintners didn’t include tree resin, a known preservative that started showing up in wines several hundred years later.^[4]

6 People Made Bread Way Before Agriculture

A bunch of unassuming black specks, just a few millimeters across, from a Natufian hunter-gatherer camp in Jordan have revealed themselves as the world’s oldest bread.

They predate the second-oldest bread, as well as the Agricultural Revolution itself, by several millennia. The tiny, charred remains are the equivalent of the crisped bread residue on the bottom of your toaster. Only they’re 14,000 years old. Or about 4,000 years older than Levantine agriculture.

The Black Desert-roaming Natufians foraged for wild grains, tubers, and cereals like barley, wheat, oats, and einkorn. They turned these ingredients into unleavened flatbreads, cooked on stones or ashes.^[5] But it was a long, tedious process, so bread was probably reserved for feasts and events.

5 Thank Sicilians For Creating Italy’s Culinary Symbol

Italian wine was thought to have come about around 1200 BC, possibly as a tasty result of Greek colonization. But some late-Copper Age terra-cotta jars from a Sicilian limestone cave on Monte Kronio push that date all the way back to the fourth millennium BC.

Inside the storage jars, archaeologists found 6,000-year-old tartaric acid, the grapes’ main acid component, as well as its salt, also known as cream of tartar. It’s a result of fermentation and a sign of winemaking. This direct evidence trumps many previous ancient, potentially vinous discoveries, which involved only the circumstantial evidence that lots of grapes were being grown.^[6]

4 The First People To Use Chocolate (Were Not Central American)

The Central American Olmec and Aztec civilizations “invented chocolate” when they made spicy, bitter cacao-based beverages as early as 1900 BC.

Or so scientists thought, but some newly publicized 5,300-year-old pottery moves cocoa’s birthplace to Ecuador. It’s here that the first Theobroma cacao trees graced planet Earth and here that humans exploited their seeds for culinary and ceremonial purposes.

The discovery was chanced upon when researchers noted that vessels from the Amazon-dwelling Mayo-Chinchipe people looked suspiciously like Maya cocoa pots and then looked inside and realized that they were also used to store cocoa.^[7] These vessels were found both in homes and in tombs, so cocoa was utilized as a ritualistic offering for the dead as well as a powdered foodstuff, possibly to make a hot cacao drink.

3 Bone Marrow Made Us Who We Are

Most people regard bone marrow as garbage food, like offal. But this unjustly vilified food source helped humanity to the top of the food chain.

Our early Homo ancestors pried it from the bones of animals at least two million years ago. Homo habilis et al. used “Oldowan tools,” made by bashing rocks together to produce a sharp edge, to get at the prized marrow.^[8] The brain-boosting fats and protein therein helped early humans grow larger brains, with the capacity to craft better tools and eventually the Large Hadron Collider.

It’s also possible that the practice of extracting marrow helped human hands differentiate from ape hands because the forces and dexterity required to crack bones added an extra evolutionary variable.

2 Native Americans Had Huge Jerky-Making Camps

Native Americans ate a type of beef jerky-like thing called pemmican and devoted camps to its production, like a pemmican factory discovered at a bison-hunting site in Montana that was inhabited in the pre-European days circa 1410–1650. The site, Kutoyis, is composed of more than 3,500 stone features and served as a bison-processing center in the pre-European conquest centuries.

Making pemmican was a labor-intensive process that first involved cutting the meat into strips, drying it, and then smashing it into tiny pieces with stones.^[9] For consistency and a caloric boost, it was mixed with fat, acquired by breaking the bones into fragments, boiling them, then skimming off the bone grease floating to the top. The result was a calorically dense, portable foodstuff that didn’t quickly spoil.

1 Dogs Became Cuisine Thousands Of Years Ago

Dog has been on the menu for thousands of years in some cultures. And in an ancient Chinese tomb discovered in 2010, dog meat accompanied the departed to the underworld.

The tomb in Xian in Shaanxi province held a 20-centimeter-tall (8 in), 2,400-year-old sealed cooking vessel made of bronze. Inside, researchers found remnants of ancient bone soup, though oxidation had turned the contents and the container green and mysterious.

Analysis revealed 37 bones belonging to a male dog, younger than one year in age. Along with the puppy soup, an airtight bronze container held wine. It’s pretty luxurious for a death offering, suggesting that the deceased was a landowner or important military officer.^[10]

Ivan writes about things for the internet. You can contact him at [email protected].

Food is the one constant that binds us all. Every culture has its own style of cooking. We assume that staple items in our own cuisine have a deep history in our culture.

Shockingly, some of the foods we eat every day have wildly bizarre origin stories that you would never guess. From the almost “Belgian fry” to a recipe brought to life by a spirit-walking nun, this list will have you thinking about the food you eat in a whole new light.

10 Ketchup

Ketchup is perhaps the American standard in condiments. It is a highly popular topping for hot dogs and hamburgers and the dipping sauce of choice for most everything, especially for kids.

It is so popular that 97 percent of US households report having it in the fridge. Clearly an all-American product, right?

Surprisingly, the origin of ketchup is actually Chinese. The word “ketchup” comes from a Hokkien Chinese word ke-tsiap, which was a sauce derived from fermented fish that was wildly popular in southeastern China.

The British drew inspiration from this sauce and began attempting to replicate it at home. This was indicated by a recipe for “ketchup in paste” published in 1732 by Richard Bradley. It listed “Bencoulin in the East Indies” as its origin.

However, this was far from the ketchup that we know and love today. Eventually, a man named Henry J. Heinz got involved and started producing his own ketchup recipe in 1876. The rest, as they say, is history.^[1]

9 Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is another deeply rooted standard. In fact, if you told most people that fried chicken was invented anywhere but in the American South, you’d have a riot on your hands.

With all due apologies to Colonel Sanders and the 11 herbs and spices in his “Original Recipe,” fried chicken was actually invented in—yup, you guessed it—Scotland! Okay, so you probably didn’t guess that because Scotland isn’t exactly synonymous with fried chicken. But it’s the truth.

In medieval times, the Scots were among the only people who preferred to cook their chicken in hot fat in a method we now know as “frying.” In the 1800s, many Scottish immigrants came to the United States, widely populating the American South and bringing the dish to prominence.^[2]

Of course, they were helped by African slaves who turned the dish into the delight we know today and gave it life as a deeply rooted soul food staple.

8 Pancakes

No modern-day food could have been popular over 30,000 years ago, right? Well, researchers have actually found pancakes in the stomach of Otzi the Iceman, a corpse dating back 5,300 years.

In ancient Greece and Rome, pancakes were made from a mixture of honey, wheat flour, olive oil, and curdled milk. During the English Renaissance, the popular breakfast dish was flavored with apple, sherry, rosewater, or spices.^[3]

Thomas Jefferson loved pancakes so much that he sent a recipe for specialty pancakes to his hometown from the White House.

7 Bacon

Unsurprisingly, bacon has been bringing joy to people’s lives since 1500 BC. What is surprising is that it originated in ancient China. At that time, the Chinese were curing pork bellies with salt and giving birth to arguably the most important historical invention in the world: bacon.

Eventually, through their conquests, the Romans and the Greeks learned of the curing process and began manufacturing their own bacon. The ancient Romans’ early form of bacon was known as petaso, which was a pork shoulder boiled with dried figs, browned, and served with wine.

The word “bacon” is thought to have many possible origins—the French word bako, the Germanic word bakkon, and the old Teutonic word backe. All of them reference the back of a pig.

In the 17th century, they finally got it right. The word “bacon” evolved to mean the salted, smoked pork belly that we know and love today.^[4]

6 Mac And Cheese

Macaroni blended with a melty cheese sauce (sometimes topped with decadent lobster or, even better, bacon) is another guilty pleasure comfort food. As it’s pasta related, it’s no surprise that this dish has roots in Italy.

However, the dish served there is a far cry from the meal that Kraft released in a box in 1937. In fact, the mac and cheese that existed prior to the 1300s in southern Italy was more of a lasagna. That recipe called for pasta sheets boiled in water and layered with grated cheese and spices.^[5]

“American mac and cheese” has far more humble roots. Like most good origin stories, however, it is muddled with controversy. According to some, mac and cheese was invented as a casserole dish to bring to New England church suppers. This story gives credit to the fact that the dish was known for a long time as “macaroni pudding.”

According to others, Thomas Jefferson (apparently a food lover) brought a pasta machine back from Italy and his wife used it to create the dish with Parmesan, which Jefferson later substituted with cheddar. The one fact that can’t be disputed, however, is that macaroni and cheese is a delicious dinner that you can make on a budget.

5 The Hamburger

Common knowledge tells us that the hamburger was invented in Hamburg, Germany, in the 19th century, but that’s only partially true. Meat from the Hamburg cow was minced, combined with spices, and formed into a patty (which is traditionally known as a “Hamburg steak”).

This was considered an upscale meal in the early days as just a spiced meat patty with no bun was one of the more expensive items on high-end restaurant menus. However, real bun-covered hamburgers didn’t come around until quite a while later.

In fact, they didn’t really evolve into sandwich form until the Industrial Revolution. During that time, factory workers were served hamburger steaks from a food cart. One brilliant soul, whose name is lost in history, started putting the meat between two pieces of bread to make it easier to eat while working—and viola! The modern-day hamburger was born.^[6]

4 The Hot Dog

Ah yes, another iconic American food that isn’t even American. Hot dogs were invented in Germany. Of course, they were called “dachshund” or “little dog” sausages there. These terms referred to this sausage being smaller and thinner than traditional German sausages.

The man behind the invention of these sausages was Johann Georghehner. He took his product to Frankfurt to market it, giving birth to the term “frankfurter.”^[7]

So, how did “frankfurter” become “hot dog”?

Well, in a shocking twist, the name was coined by drunken college kids, or so the theory goes. Frankfurters were incredibly popular because they were cheap and easy to eat. Somehow, one budding collegiate genius figured out the origin of the hot dog and that its initial name in German referred to a “little dog.”

That led him (or her) to start the rumor that hot dogs were made from dog meat. Somehow, this funny theory increased the popularity of the frankfurter, and the name “hot dog” stuck.

3 French Fries

They’re called “french fries,” so they must be French, right? Turns out, they may not be.

One competing theory suggests that the golden, fried, crispy potatoes were originally made in Belgium. Villagers near the Meuse River often ate fried fish as a staple dish. In the winter, the rivers would freeze, cutting off access to the fish, so they would fry potatoes for their meals instead.

It’s rumored that US soldiers stumbled upon this. As the predominant language in that part of Belgium was French, the soldiers dubbed the food “french fries.”

Like any good origin story, there is a third theory. Some believe that the “french fry” is really Spanish. The Spanish were the first-recorded people to encounter the South Americans as mentioned in The Chronicle of the Incas, or the Seventeen-Year Travel of Pedro Cieza de Leon Throughout the Mighty Kingdom of Peru. This was written by Pedro Cieza de Leon as a memoir.^[8]

No matter what the truth is, “french fry” sounds much better than “Belgian fry” or “Spanish fry.” So we’ll stick with it as is.

2 Chili

Are you ready for a creepy nun origin story?

According to a Native American legend, a nun is responsible for the first chili recipe recorded on paper. Apparently, Sister Mary of Agreda of Spain would go into a trance, leaving her lifeless body behind for days. Shadow-walking into different cultures, she used her soul to preach to “savages” and encouraged them to seek out Spanish Christian missions.

Although the corporeal Sister Mary never left the confines of Spain, it is believed that she spirit-walked across the globe. The Native Americans refer to her as la dama de azul (“the lady in blue”).^[9]

But we’re a bit skeptical here. A nun spirit-walks across the globe in an era when intercultural communication doesn’t yet exist and the most famous information she brings back is a recipe for chili? Must be one divine recipe.

1 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Always good to end with a dessert. The chocolate chip cookie is a classic offering in that category. Whoever conceptualized this must have been a visionary.

As it turns out, the chocolate chip cookie was the product of a happy accident. Ruth Graves Wakefield ran an inn in Massachusetts called the Toll House Inn. She and her husband were getting ready to bake some Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies, a colonial favorite, when Ruth realized that she was out of baking chocolate.

Earlier in the week, she had been given a block of Nestle semisweet chocolate from Andrew Nestle himself. She decided to chop that up and use it as a substitute. Instead of dissolving into the batter during the baking process, the chocolate chunks held their form, resulting in the most delicious accident in US history.^[10]

Eric Falvey is a US-born author. His comedy novel, The Book of Roderick Medieval Mayhem, is currently available on Amazon as a softcover, ebook, or audiobook.

We know that many classic American TV series were either adapted from recycled shows that originated in other countries, were spin-offs of existing series, or were based on films. However, the details surrounding the origins of some shows, especially situation comedies, are often surprising and can be insightful for fans. Here are the eye-opening stories of 10 classic sitcoms.

Related: Top 10 Things We’ve Learned From Watching Comedy Shows

10 Barney Miller (1975–1982)

In the 1970s, prime-time TV lineups were packed with police dramas. The creators of Barney Miller wanted to do a humorous cop show. Although it was a comedy, the show’s atmosphere and daily activity were much more authentic to a police station house than its dramatic counterparts, as noted by many real law enforcement officers. The pilot, called “The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller,” was as much about Barney’s home life as his work life and bore little resemblance to the series, in part because the original cast was almost completely replaced.

Two exceptions were Hal Linden, who reluctantly gave up a part in a Broadway play to star as the title character in this risky new series, and Abe Vigoda, who played the popular Detective Fish. Veteran director/producer John Rich, who was brought in to fix the initially flawed project, thought Barney Miller should be centered at the station house, and the show quickly became a workplace comedy with very little about the personal lives of Miller or the other characters. The revamped program went from being a rejected pilot aired on ABC’s Just for Laughs summer anthology series to the iconic, long-running show we remember.^[1]

9 I Love Lucy (1951–1957)

Considering how important visuals were to I Love Lucy, from slapstick comedy to the exceptionally expressive faces of the leading actors, it’s difficult to imagine the show limited to radio. However, the original version of the series, titled My Favorite Husband, was a radio comedy based on the novel Mr. and Mrs. Cugat. The show, starring Lucille Ball, was so successful that producers were anxious to adapt it to the exciting new medium of television. Originally, it was planned to cast Richard Denning, the same actor who played Ball’s bank vice president husband on the radio, in the TV version.

While Denning did go on to play the part in another adaptation of the series, Ball, who wanted to find a way to spend more time with her frequently on-the-road bandleader husband, insisted Desi Arnaz play opposite her in this proposed incarnation. Executives were against the idea of hiring the Cuban-American Arnaz because of the perception that viewers wouldn’t accept an ethnically mixed couple on screen.

After demonstrating what a great team they were by doing a Vaudeville tour together, Ball eventually got her way, and instead of hurting the sitcom, the cultural contrasts between Ball and Arnaz only made the show more entertaining. Produced by the couple’s Desilu Productions with My Favorite Husband radio show writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. on board and newly cast supporting actors William Frawley and Vivian Vance, I Love Lucy became a true television classic.^[2]

8 The Nanny (1993–1999)

It may have been good luck that Fran Drescher found herself on a transatlantic flight with the then-president of CBS Entertainment, Jeff Sagansky, in 1991, but it was what she did with the opportunity that made all the difference. She had already worked for Sagansky on two unsuccessful projects, including the failed series Princesses. Drescher told the exec that “everyone kept trying to use her as a side dish but that she was the main course,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Not only insisting that she should star in the show but offering to write and produce the show with her husband at the time, Peter Marc Jacobson, it’s no wonder that Sagansky thought she was being “unbelievably brazen.” But she convinced Sagansky to set up a meeting to listen to their pitches. The problem was that the couple didn’t have any yet. However, fate once again lent a hand when she got the idea to do a humorous take-off of The Sound of Music with herself in the lead after going on a shopping trip with the teenage daughter of her model/actress friend Twiggy while in London. The end result was the hit sitcom The Nanny, starring Drescher as Fran Fine, a saucy, wise-cracking but lovable caregiver to the children of Broadway producer and would-be love interest Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy).^[3]

7 The Flintstones (1960–1966)

Animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who had scored success with collaborations on the Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons and animated TV programs like The Huckleberry Hound Show, made history with the first prime-time animated series—prehistoric sitcom The Flintstones.

A lot of ideas were tossed around by Hanna and Barbera when they were trying to find a theme for their next series, including shows about pilgrims, Native Americans, and hillbillies. The Stone Age was so appealing because, as Joseph Barbera said, “You were able to take anything that was current and convert it to the Stone Age.”

Many people take for granted that The Flintstones was a parody of The Honeymooners. While there are clear similarities, Barbera would never confirm that the hit Jackie Gleason sitcom inspired The Flintstones. However, William Hanna said, “The characters, I thought, were terrific. Now, that influenced greatly what we did with The Flintstones… The Honeymooners was there, and we used that as a kind of basis for the concept.”^[4]

6 Welcome Back, Kotter (1975–1979)

There’s a long-established tradition of building sitcoms around the stand-up acts of popular comedians, but this was not nearly as common in the early 1970s when the Gabriel Kaplan-starring show Welcome Back, Kotter was being developed. The series revolved around Gabe Kotter, a Brooklyn teacher who had his hands full with a zany, undisciplined group of remedial high school students dubbed “The Sweathogs.”

As hard as it may be to believe, the leading Sweathogs were based on real guys Kaplan went to school with when he was a student at Brooklyn’s New Utrecht High School. Before they were immortalized on TV, his pals were featured in Kaplan’s stand-up routine, “Holes and Mello-Rolls.”^[5]

5 The Golden Girls (1985–1991)

Aww, who doesn’t love The Golden Girls—Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sofia. However, it was actually a spoof performed for potential advertisers to promote the upcoming TV drama Miami Vice that inspired executives to develop NBC’s irreverent hit sitcom. The Golden Girls was revolutionary for its fun, provocative depiction of mature women. Sassy character actresses Doris Roberts and Selma Diamond “ad-libbed a bit about the upcoming cop show Miami Vice, changing the concept to the idea of retirees playing cards together in a Florida retirement community in a show called, Miami Nice,” according to Biography.

Originally, Betty White, who had won two Emmys co-starring on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the lusty Sue Ann, was tapped to play Blanche. And Rue McClanahan was going to be Rose, a character similar to her air-headed Vivian character in the Bea Arthur sitcom Maude. However, director Jay Sandrich was not buying McClanahan as the innocent Rose, so he got the bright idea for them to switch parts, which turned out to be ideal.^[6]

4 Mork & Mindy (1978–1982)

It might be surprising to hear that an eight-year-old kid came up with the idea for one of the biggest hit sitcoms of the 1970s until you find out the show is Mork & Mindy. Then it totally makes sense. Producer/writer/director Garry Marshall knew a good concept when he heard it, even coming from the mouths of babes like his small son Scotty who wanted him to put an alien on Happy Days. However, according to Looper, “The writers were not enthused by this idea, and they drew straws to see who’d have to write it.”

Of course, the biggest attraction of this series about an extraterrestrial who moves in with an ordinary young woman is the outrageous, frequently ad-libbed humor of the show’s star Robin Williams. He was discovered by another member of Garry Marshall’s family, his sister, who encouraged Marshall to cast Williams after seeing him play an alien in his stand-up routine.

Mork and Mindy ended up being a spin-off. There was no real pilot. When Marshall pitched the show to ABC, he re-edited the Happy Days episode, adding dialogue for Mork in which he talked about traveling to the future. He then spliced footage of Robin Williams with footage of Pam Dawber, who would play Mindy.^[7]

3 I Dream of Jeannie (1965–1970)

In the wake of Bewitched’s colossal success, the prolific writer/producer Sidney Sheldon created a similarly themed show about the pairing of a mortal man and a supernatural woman. Sheldon’s series I Dream of Jeannie revolved around the misadventures of astronaut Major Anthony Nelson (Larry Hagman) and Jeannie, a beautiful 2,000-year-old genie (Barbara Eden). However, the premise was actually rooted in a novel by F. Anstey published in 1900 titled The Brass Bottle.

The story is about an architect who discovers a genie in an antique bottle. The book spawned two silent film adaptations and a 1964 version starring Tony Randall and, coincidentally, Barbara Eden as his mortal fiancée. It was the third movie that gave Sheldon the idea for this new show. However, unlike in the book and films, Sheldon’s genie was female, and the romantic chemistry between Hagman and Eden was a vital part of the series.

To avoid comparisons to Bewitched, Sheldon was firmly set against casting a blonde actress for the TV series. But after an extensive talent search, he reconsidered and hired Barbara Eden, who was so popular in the role that it has become her legacy.^[8]

2 The Love Boat (1977–1987)

Hour-long cruise ship romance dramedy The Love Boat had a certain advantage over typical sitcoms. Although the basic setting and cast remained the same from week to week, it was more like a series of vignettes featuring a new batch of celebrity guest stars on each episode. This helped to keep the show fresh, and since many of the guest stars were or had been Hollywood royalty, they could draw an audience regardless of the merits of the series itself. Instead of a traditional pilot, there were actually two Love Boat TV movies in the early 1970s, with a completely different cast than the subsequent TV series.

One of the most surprising things about the frothy show is that it was based on a book. Prolific 1970s TV producer Wilford Lloyd Baumes developed The Love Boat franchise from The Love Boats, a 1974 memoir by Jeraldine Saunders, who wrote of her years working as a cruise director on some very large ships.^[9]

1 Everybody Loves Raymond (1996–2005)

The popular sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which centered on a loving but humorously dysfunctional family, was to some extent another case of a comic basing a show on his stand-up act. But the family on this series was actually a composite between Ray Romano’s relatives and those of writer/producer Phil Rosenthal.

Ray Romano recalls that a week after doing a monologue on The Late Show with David Letterman, he got a call from Letterman’s producer Rob Burnett expressing “interest in trying to develop a show just based on what they saw, my stand-up, which was talking about my family. And we said fine.”

In the beginning, it wasn’t clear exactly what the premise of the show should be. Given Romano’s lack of acting experience, Rosenthal thought it best for him to play a role similar to himself. The two created a family-based sitcom that utilized material from Romano and Rosenthal’s real lives and sometimes events in the lives of other writers on the show. The sense of authenticity to family life resonated with audiences and largely contributed to the show’s success.^[10]

Most of us have a favorite candy or cookie. It can be easy to get excited about or buy into trending beliefs around them. But some of these tales are myths, and it’s time to shed light on the truth. Here are the top ten myths of famous treats you need to stop believing.

Top 10 Strangest Flavoured Foods And Drinks Ever

10 Oreos are 100% Vegan

In 2017, Oreos were the top-selling cookie brand in the United States with 710 million dollars in sales. Some vegans were excited to learn that the popular Oreo cookie is vegan. However, these rumors are not true. As explained on the U.K.’s official Oreo website, they are unsuitable for vegans because they have milk as cross-contact. Cross-contact means the cookies or equipment used to produce them may have small amounts of milk on them, making the cookies contain trace amounts of milk. If you want a 100% vegan version of the Oreo, you may have to bake some homemade ones.

It was also not until December 1997 that Oreos become vegetarian-friendly and declared Kosher by the Orthodox Union (O.U.). Nabisco, the company that produced Oreos, made this conversion because many major ice cream companies in America wanted to make products with real Oreos. The problem was, the crème filling contained lard, aka pork fat. Nabisco had to convert about 100 baking ovens that were nearly the length of a football field. It took almost three years.

9 Eating Cookie Dough Is Deadly

If your parents or grandparents have ever told you to stop eating the cookie dough or you’ll get sick, they may have deprived you of the fun part of baking. Despite popular belief, eating cookie dough with raw eggs in them will not kill you. Raw eggs can be just as nutritious as cooked eggs. Although there is a small risk of salmonella poisoning, the chances are very low. One study found only one out of every 30,000 eggs produced in the United States is contaminated with salmonella. Contamination has also been significantly lower since the 1990s due to improved technologies in egg processing. If you are one of the rare unlucky people, you may get diarrhea, but the cookie dough won’t kill you.

8 Gum Stays in Your Stomach for Seven Years

Despite what you may have heard from your parents or teachers, gum will not get stuck to your stomach for seven years. Your body may not break it down, but it will come out the other end. It’s flexible enough to pass through your digestive tract and unlikely to obstruct your intestine as large food items can. In rare instances, a kid swallowing a lot of gum and already suffering from constipation could experience obstruction.

Well-known companies like Wrigley have been manufacturing gum since the 1890s. To attract consumers in 1907, Wrigley advertised gum as more of a medicine than candy by saying it soothes nervous stomachs and stressed-out minds. It turns out, recent studies have shown that chewing sugar-free gum can increase teeth health, reduce cavities, relieve stress, and boost memory. In 1999, a study estimated the world market for gum at 560,000 tons per year. About 374 billion pieces of gum were sold globally every year. If someone chews each piece for 30 minutes, that’s 187 billion hours of gum-chewing. So not only will you pass gum if you swallow it, but it could also help you with other health issues.

7 Twinkies Last Forever

Despite the belief twinkies will outlast humans in an apocalypse or be our main food source as we attempt to survive one, they do expire. Hostess, the company that produces Twinkies, says their product remains fresh for 25 days in a cool location. Not only do Twinkies expire, but they almost became extinct when Hostess filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in November 2012. Luckily, the production of Twinkies started again after eight months.

So, how did the rumor start? The most likely source that Twinkie’s will survive an apocalypse is from an old Family Guy episode. Additionally, they contain no dairy or eggs and are sealed in cellophane, meaning they could last longer without looking rotten. Their freshness or edibility may still be compromised, though.

6 You will Explode Drinking Soda With Pop Rocks

Combine a fizzy drink with crackling Pop Rocks, and it does sound like you could explode. However, all you’ll get is a lot of gas. There’s a long-time rumor that “Little Mikey” in the Life cereal commercials from the 1970s and 1980s died from an exploding stomach. While there is uncertainty on how this rumor started, we know that Little Mikey survived his childhood and still enjoys Life cereal today. In 2012, John Gilchrist, who played Mikey, shared with Newsday: “The folklore is that I ate Pop Rocks, the exploding candies, and I drank a soda, and my stomach blew up.”

Pop Rocks get their popping sensation from pressurized carbon dioxide. When you mix them with carbonated soda, all their gas releases and creates even more carbon dioxide. To see this build-up in gas, try a simple science experience:

* Use a bottle of soda, Pop Rocks, and a balloon.
* Put the soda and candy in the balloon and see the gas inflate it as it builds up.

Imagine replacing your stomach with the balloon, and all you’ll get is a big burp. While you won’t die, a lot of gas can prove to be painful. In 2001, the Janze family from Alamo, California, filed a lawsuit against Baskin-Robbins’ Shrek Swirl ice cream that contained Pop Rocks after their 5-year-old daughter Fifi went to the hospital. The doctors had to remove gas from her stomach.

5 The Hole in Lifesavers Saves Lives

There is a myth around the origin of the candy Lifesavers and why their inventor, Clarence Crane, decided to put a hole in them. The story goes that his daughter died choking on a mint, so he created a mint with a hole in it that’s safer. The hole prevents you from choking. Not true.

While Crane did lose a son years after he invented Lifesavers, he created the mint with a hole to look unique. In 1912, Crane, from Cleveland, Ohio, was a chocolate maker who wanted a product that didn’t melt in the summer. A trip to the pharmacist inspired Crane to make a circular mint. He decided to punch a hole in them so the candies would stand out from the European mints at the time. Crane called them Lifesavers because they looked like mini life preservers.

4 White Chocolate Isn’t Chocolate

Someone may have told you that you aren’t eating “real” chocolate when you have white chocolate. While this could have some technical truths in it, there is a myth around the claim. White chocolate may not contain any cacao nibs like milk chocolate and dark chocolate, but it contains cocoa butter. A cocoa bean contains approximately equal amounts of cocoa butter and cacao nibs. According to European and American regulations, white chocolate must contain at least 20 percent of cocoa butter to qualify as chocolate. So, it is a product made from cocoa beans.

David Lebovitz, a pastry chef and cookbook author, has defended white chocolate by saying it’s pointless to bicker about the details. He states we call various things hamburgers, even when it isn’t made of ham, and milkshakes are mostly blended not shaked anymore. So, why not let cocoa butter qualify as chocolate?

3 Candy Canes Were a Christian Symbol

Candy Canes are shaped like a “J” to represent Jesus’s name and handed out during Christmas around his birthday, so it must be a Christian symbol, right? Unfortunately, this is not true. A common story that spreads this myth is that a candymaker in Indiana invented the candy cane to include the following Christian symbols:

* Pure white candy to represent the Virgin Birth.
* Hard candy symbolizing the solid, firm foundation of the Church and God’s promises.
* The J shape represents Jesus and the staff of the Good Shepherd.
* Red stripes for the bloodshed by Jesus on the cross.

According to the Smithsonian, the first inventions of hard candy sticks came during the 17th century, long before Indiana became America’s 19th state in 1816. For this reason, a candymaker in Indiana unlikely invented it. The introduction of the candy cane to Christmas in America is often associated with a German immigrant in Ohio, August Imgard.

2 Sugar-free Candy is Harmless to Teeth

Sugar-free means healthier, so healthier must mean harmless to your teeth. It’s not that simple. Sugar-free candy is still sweetened using artificial sweeteners, and some of these are harmful. Any fruit-flavored product, especially ones with citric acid, can cause tooth erosion. Additionally, chewy candies without sugar, such as caramels and lollipops, can leave residue between the teeth. Sugar doesn’t cause cavities. The bacteria feasting on residues left between your teeth are what erodes the enamel and creates cavities. So, despite popular belief, sugar-free candy can still be a culprit for your teeth.

1 Fortune Cookies Are From China

Since we get fortune cookies after eating at a Chinese restaurant, they must be from China, right? Not true. Fortune cookies aren’t part of Chinese culture at all. Japanese Americans invented this vanilla-flavored cookie in California. The concept of placing a fortune in a cookie originated in Kyoto, Japan. In the 1870s, confectionary shops in Kyoto had crackers called “tsujiura senbei,” or “fortune crackers” shaped similar to the fortune cookies we are familiar with today. However, these crackers were larger and made with sesame and miso. Fortune cookies most likely came to the United States with Japanese immigrants between the 1880s and early 1900s. Japanese bakers had shops in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where sources claim are the two cities that invented the vanilla and butter-flavored version of fortune cookies.

But how did they end up in Chinese restaurants? According to Jennifer Lee, author of the book “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food,” Japanese people started opening Chinese restaurants at the beginning of the 20th century because Americans didn’t like raw fish. Instead, Americans wanted chop suey, chow mein, egg foo young. When the U.S. sent Japanese Americans to internment camps, and their businesses closed during World War 2, Chinese Americans took over the production of fortune cookies. In 2014, the Boston Globe released an article on the Wonton Food’s fortune cookie factory in Queens, New York, and reported they make 4 million cookies every day. And this is only from one factory in the U.S.!

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About The Author: Sara enjoys research, art, and seeking a sustainably fun life, balancing physical and mental health. Read more on how she explores, learns, and balances all her interests here.