It’s not always easy to stay on top of the newest trends. Whether it’s an exclusive pop-up shop or just raiding thrift stores, everyone wants to have the latest looks and express themselves. Some fashion choices have been spoiled by a single person or event, while others became taboo due to political associations.

Here are 10 fashion trends ruined by one person or event.

Related: Top 10 Dangerous Fashion Choices for Women

10 Hats

Would you believe the first American president to not wear a hat at his inauguration came as late as 1961?

Well, believe it. John F. Kennedy sported a bare head that morning, almost instantly plummeting the popularity of fedora and dress hats. JFK was, and still is, one of the most popular and “cool” presidents in American history. So, if the good-looking leader of the country didn’t wear a hat, neither did anyone else.

According to the JFK Library, the president received letters from scores of hat makers begging him to wear one just so they would become popular again. While he was known to occasionally wear one, it seems Kennedy simply didn’t like having his head covered, as throughout his time in office, he was rarely seen with a hat, even that most American of headwear—the cowboy hat.^[1]

9 Black Satin

In 1849, Marie Manning and her husband George were arrested in London for the murder of Marie’s former lover. The ensuing trial was extremely high profile, with both Charles Dickens and Herman Melville present for the couple’s hanging that same year. Dickens would even go on to base a character on her in his novel Bleak House.

While London society was taken with the killer couple, the women of good stature apparently took no chances in being associated with a murderess. For her execution, Marie Manning wore a black satin dress, which, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, “caused that material to become unpopular for many years.” The premier history book about the case is even toiled The Woman Who Murdered Black Satin.^[2]

8 Bruno Magli Shoes

According to a survey by Nielson and Sony, the O.J. Simpson case has been declared the most “universally impactful” televised event of the last 50 years. In a pop culture event with that much clout, it should be no surprise that some fashion choices were influenced by it. Though, surprisingly, not gloves.

When Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were found dead, it was immediately assumed that Brown’s husband Orenthal James “O.J.” had done it. A harrowing trial ensued, one where Americans around the country continually tuned in to find out if O.J. would be found guilty or not.

The primary piece of evidence left behind at the scene of the crime was a size 12 shoe print stamped in blood from a Bruno Magli “Lorenzo model” shoe. At the time, only 299 pairs of the exclusive Italian designer’s shoes had been sold in the United States—and O.J. was a size 12.

The previously obscure brand had been catapulted into the spotlight, but not in a positive way. After all, being the shoes of a (probable) murderer wasn’t exactly good press. It didn’t help that when asked if he had ever purchased a pair of Bruno Magli shoes, O.J. replied that he thought they were ugly and would never have bought them.^[3]

7 Pointed Hoods

To be fair, it’s not like pointed hoods were ever the season’s hottest new look. But when the Ku Klux Klan adopted white pointed hoods as part of their uniforms, it became pretty much impossible to wear them without the association of extreme racism.

The KKK was created during the American Civil War but experienced a revival in the 1920s. This extremist hate group is known for committing acts of violence against Black people, Jews, and Catholics, all while wearing white robes with pointed white hats.

The origin of the pointed hood is unknown, though some think it may have come from the Spanish capirote, while others believe it is derived from old Southern Mardi Gras celebration outfits. It’s also unknown who exactly was the designer of the KKK’s uniforms, but whoever did it almost single-handled ruined anything similar.

As the Anti-Defamation League’s website notes, “the hood and robes of Ku Klux Klan members are the most visible Klan symbol of all,” and the image of the KKK hood has become a popular hate symbol in and of itself.^[4]

6 Bob Naircut

The name “Karen” has plummeted in popularity thanks to the Gen Z slang term, which refers to a “Karen” as an entitled upper-middle-class (usually white) woman. From jokes about “speaking to the manager” to being racist, “Okay, Karen” has become a biting insult from a young person.

Besides being unfortunate for all people actually named Karen, there’s one more demographic that is hit hard by this joke: Women with bobs. The choppy bob haircut, particularly with blond highlights, has been referred to as the “can-I-speak-to-the-manager haircut” and the “Karen haircut.”

It all started with Kate Gosselin, the star of the reality TV show John & Kate + 8, who sported an iconic bob with extreme length differences in the front and back. As she became known as an entitled and demanding woman, her hair started to become the stereotype for the “Karen.”^[5]

5 Tesla

Besides just being a mode of transportation, a car is a way to express yourself and (sometimes) show off your dough. So, for all intents and purposes, it’s a form of fashion and will be included on this list.

No car has made more of a splash in recent years than Tesla, the electric car brand that has been sweeping the world since 2008. Though they’re better for the environment than the average gas-powered car, many refuse to purchase one because of opposition to the company’s CEO, Elon Musk.

Musk is a controversial figure for many reasons, not least of which include purchasing and renaming Twitter, as well as supporting hate speech on social media. Because of this, driving a Tesla may mean that its owners are assumed to support Musk and his antics.^[6]

4 Skinheads

The term “skinhead” has an interesting history. It started as a 1960s movement in London primarily comprised of working-class youth rejecting conservative values. They were defined by their closely shaved heads and grunge clothing, emphasizing a punk look. This version of “skinheads” reached its peak in the 1980s, when political tensions were at an all-time high in Britain. As a result, the culture split in two, with some skinheads aligning themselves with far-right groups such as the National Front while others went in the opposite direction.

By the 1990s, the skinhead fashion became popular in America among neo-Nazis. Despite efforts from groups such as Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP) to assure others not all skinheads were Nazis, the term (and fashion associated with it) has unfortunately been tainted by the association with white power and racism.^[7]

3 Red Hats

Perhaps the most controversial U.S. president in history, Donald Trump’s followers are noted for their bright red baseball caps that read “Make America Great Again.” For many, wearing them is a way to proudly show support for the 45th (and 47th) leader of the free world.

But for others, the hats are annoying or even hateful. A New York Times article titled “Does This Red Cap Make Me Look MAGA?” followed a Cincinnati Reds fan who no longer felt comfortable wearing his favorite team’s red hat, as he didn’t want “someone assuming I’m something that I’m not, or that I represent something that I think has become pretty ugly.” The article also reported that many Americans stopped wearing and purchasing red caps for fear of being mistaken for a Trump supporter.

One Trump supporter confessed that even though he voted for Trump, he had to stop wearing his MAGA hat because of the negative responses, as “it always gets a look and a sneer.”

When Trump is out of office in 2029, the red hat may become just a red hat once again, but until then, it carries some political weight that is hard to ignore.^[8]

2 Trench Coats

American schools changed forever in 1999 after two twelfth graders in Columbine, Colorado, killed fourteen students and one teacher. “Columbine” became synonymous with “school shootings,” and so did one unlikely object of clothing—the trench coat.

Both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wore black trench coats on that fateful day, as the long jackets and bulky nature allowed them to conceal their bombs and guns. They were also known to wear trench coats frequently at school and were even thought to be part of a school clique known as the “Trench Coat Mafia.” This group proudly wore different clothing in an effort to separate themselves from the “jocks” and popular kids that bullied them.

After Columbine, trench coats became a suspicious piece of clothing, with many American schools going so far as to ban them. In 1999, CNN reported that parents around the country were lobbying to ban trench coats and all-black clothing in schools, as they considered these to be “gang related.” There was also concern that Klebold and Harris had been bullied partially because of their odd sense of style, which contributed to the reasoning for their violent act.^[9]

1 Toothbrush Mustache

Better known as the Hitler mustache, this short stache went out of fashion for an obvious reason.

Before the Fuhrer so rudely appropriated it, comedians like Charlie Chaplin and Oliver Hardy popularized the toothbrush mustache in the United States. Many men liked how easy it was to maintain compared to the older styles, such as handlebar and walrus mustaches, and the toothbrush mustache became known as the newer, sleeker style of facial hair in America.

The style grew in Germany throughout the early 1900s as Americans visited the country, overtaking the Kaiser mustache, which was longer and featured curled ends such as Wilhelm II sported. It’s likely that Adolf Hitler simply adopted the look because it was fashionable when he was a young man.

However, there is one other popular theory. Author Alexander Moritz Frey served in the same regiment as Hitler in World War I. He claimed Hitler shaved his mustache shorter so he could put on his gas mask without any interference. While there’s no proof that this is the case, Hitler was hospitalized due to a poison gas attack during the war.

By the 1940s, the toothbrush mustache was no longer the look of modern Americans or English silent film stars. It was the mustache of perhaps the most evil man in history. Though some have tried to disassociate the small square of hair with Hitler, his influence remains a key reason you probably won’t meet many men with this old style.^[10]

We tend to think of history as important people making important decisions, but far too often, we forget the human part of “human history.” Humans get sick, and humans make history. Every once in a while, those two overlap.

10 Gone With The Wind Was Written To Kill Time While Healing An Ankle Injury

Now considered one of the greatest books and movies of all time, Gone with the Wind is an American classic. Historians believe that it has literally changed how we view antebellum history.

However, it would not exist if Margaret Mitchell had never developed arthritis in her ankle. Unable to move, she became an insatiable reader. Her husband had to drag all of her library requests home every day.

He eventually got sick of continually bringing her books, so he brought her a typewriter. He wanted her to entertain herself by writing a book. Jokingly, he said, “Peggy, if you want another book, why don’t you write your own?” That manuscript became Gone with the Wind.

Margaret Mitchell had never wanted to write a book. When friends came by, she would hide the manuscript as pillows or put it under the rug. By 1929, her ankle had healed and the book was finished. She had no intention of publishing it.

In fact, it wasn’t until 10 years later that the book was published. She got the push after a friend laughed at the idea of Margaret Mitchell ever writing a book, saying “Imagine, anyone as silly as Peggy writing a book!”

9 Farts Drove Hitler Crazy

Adolf Hitler suffered from meteorism, a fancy way of saying that he farted a lot. To solve it, Hitler saw a lot of doctors who tried different diets, but none worked. In 1936, Theodor Morell successfully cured his farting. His prescriptions were helpful but led to Hitler’s demise.

To treat his flatulence, Dr. Morell prescribed “Dr. Koester’s Anti-Gas Pills” and weekly injections of amphetamines. These did help to make Hitler’s farts less stinky, but the pills contained extracts of strychnine and atropine.

The key ingredients of those pills were belladonna and strychnine. Belladonna is a poison that causes excitement, confusion, and hallucinations. Strychnine causes agitation, apprehension, fear, and restlessness.

Starting in 1940, Hitler took 20 of those pills every day. He also took daily injections of amphetamines and cocaine. The effects on his nervous system are incalculable. Common symptoms include delirium, violent outburst, paranoia, and hallucinations.

While high on meth, Hitler berated Mussolini at their last meeting in 1943. This meeting severed an already strained alliance. As the war progressed, Hitler became increasingly insane and aggravated.

By April 1945, Hitler was trapped in the bunker and was a raving meth head. In his last few hours, he took another dose of meth. Aggravation, paranoia, and violent tendencies came to a boil with his suicide.

8 Hong Xiuquan Got Sick, Thought He Was Jesus’s Brother, And 20 Million People Died

Hong Xiuquan is not well-known in the US, but he started a civil war that killed more people than the American version. In fact, both of them happened at the same time—except the Chinese version lasted three times as long and took 20 times as many lives. It also was important in bringing down the Qin dynasty.

All of this started because a disgruntled civil servant had a fever. Hong Xiuquan was fascinated by the Protestant missionaries in China. While reading their teachings, he was suddenly struck by sickness and was unconscious for about four days.

While in a coma, he had a vision that he was the younger brother of Jesus and had been taken up to Heaven to see Him. Hong also saw a bearded man who told him to slay all the demons.

As the other son of God, his cult gained a lot of traction. The teachings of the “Heavenly Kingdom” were also inspired by the fever to kill demons. In fact, the word “demon” became someone who doubted Hong’s teachings. This crazy man got a hot head, and the Taiping Rebellion tore apart an empire.

7 Communism Started As A Skin Rash

Karl Marx’s Das Kapital is one of the most important collection of words in human history. This book directly outlined how communism could work and be implemented. Karl Marx believed that there was a mass conspiracy among the wealthy to suppress the poor.

According to a theory by Professor Sam Shuster in the British Journal of Dermatology, this paranoia was caused by a rare skin condition called hidradenitis suppurativa. Besides boils and pus, hidradenitis suppurativa produces feelings of exploitation and alienation.

Marx associated his physical suffering with the suffering of the poor. The personal turmoil, physical and mental, helped foster a state of mind that conceived of communism.

6 A White Woman Lost Her Voice, And Thousands Of Black People Gained Theirs

As a genre, the blues was influenced by the suffering of the Jim Crow–era South. To best capture this, record companies hired white women to cover the songs. But all of that changed when Mamie Smith recorded “Crazy Blues.”

Mamie Smith holds the distinction of being the first African American to be recorded singing the blues. She was only allowed to do this when white singer Sophie Tucker became ill and backed out of a recording session.

Songwriter Perry Bradford convinced the recording studio that audiences could handle hearing a black person sing a genre that they had created. The song has become a classic, but its real legacy was the boom in African-American recording artists.

For the first time, African-American blues and jazz musicians recorded in mass numbers. This launched an era of music known as classic female blues. Legendary acts like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey were heard for the first time.

In a decade that saw the rise of Louis Armstrong, Robert Johnson, and Duke Ellington, it is wonderful that Sophie Tucker got sick when she did. Who knows how many wonderful songs and artists we were denied before Sophie became ill and how many more we would have missed if this racist policy had continued much longer?

5 A Torn Groin Killed JFK

In September 1963, President John F. Kennedy’s womanizing proved to be excessive. After a particularly thorough session, he tore his groin muscle. To prevent further damage, he was ordered by his doctors to wear a stiff canvas shoulder-to-groin back brace.

This locked his body in an upright position. With the combination of an old back brace that he always wore, Kennedy was unable to bend over. For any other person, that would cause an awkward gait. But for Kennedy, it proved to be deadly.

When Kennedy was struck by the first bullet in his assassination, he did not lean forward like Governor John Connally. Instead, he remained upright. His rigid posture allowed Lee Harvey Oswald to get three shots in before Kennedy could duck. Both doctors on duty at Parkland Hospital, Dr. Charles Carrico and Dr. Malcolm Perry, testified at the Warren Commission that Kennedy could have survived the wounds from the first bullet if he had not been wearing his brace.

4 Martin Luther Pooped Out A New Religion

The Protestant Reformation began with the writings of Martin Luther. But he actually started this international movement because he was having trouble starting a movement in the bathroom.

Suffering from chronic constipation, Martin Luther spent many hours in solitary contemplation on the toilet. That alone time was where he came up with many of his theological thoughts. It was upon the throne that he first wrote down his “95 Theses,” the document that instigated the reformation.

More importantly, his interpretation of Sola fide was also written on the toilet. The idea of “faith alone” was the first theological difference between Catholicism and Lutheranism.

There are many fecal references throughout his writings, including “shitting on the Devil” and “breaking wind at the Pope.” Aware of the role that poop had played in his life, Luther credits his insights to the “knowledge the Holy Spirit gave [him] on the privy in the tower.”

3 Napoleon Got Hemorrhoids And Lost His Empire

Tragically remembered for the massive death toll that also inspired an ABBA song, Waterloo is one of the most iconic losses in history. The battle becomes even more tragic when you learn that it could have been a victory for Napoleon if he had not had hemorrhoids.

Due to a particularly painful bout, Napoleon could not lead his soldiers on horseback. Even when he was able to communicate with his troops, he gave illogical directions. No longer able to lead, he delegated to the inept Marshal Michel Ney.

A few days before the battle, Napoleon had tried to treat his hemorrhoids. But his doctors had accidentally prescribed an overdose of laudanum, and he was still feeling the effects. He was drowsy and actually fell asleep during the battle.

This forced him to reschedule the battle from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM and then to 12:00 noon. The delay allowed the Prussians to join the British forces. Wellington himself credits the new army with turning the tide.

2 The First Time That A Door Defeated Nixon

You may already know that a piece of duct tape on a door at the Watergate Hotel brought down Nixon in 1972. Twelve years earlier, another door cost Nixon his first election. Begging the question, what do doors know?

During the first televised debate in presidential history, Nixon’s sweatiness made him look untrustworthy and is generally considered an important factor in the outcome of the election. But the reason for Nixon’s haggard look was a bang on the knee.

Before the debate, Nixon had just been released from the hospital. There, he had spent 12 days on his back after hitting his knee on a car door as he got out of his car. He developed an infection from which it took weeks to recover.

Nixon was still drained of energy when he took the stage. He had lost weight and looked gaunt. Running a fever of 102 during the debate, Nixon sweated in one of the most iconic moments of political imagery. In those beads of sweat, Nixon’s chances of becoming president were wiped away.

1 The Throat That Caused A World War

Under Frederick III’s leadership, the politically volatile German Empire was improving. As many European states were becoming more nationalistic, tense, and imperialistic, Frederick favored constitutional reform, accountability, a more democratic Germany with a strong parliament, and the reluctance to use military force.

However, all of that ended after 99 days. Unfortunately for Frederick and the rest of the world, Frederick died from a treatable cancer of the larynx. The disease was misdiagnosed by Frederick’s doctor three times. Each time, he believed that the lump was benign. If the doctor had treated Frederick correctly, the path to World War I would have been quite different or maybe nonexistent.

When the bombastic Wilhelm took over, he pushed for aggressive diplomacy and territorial expansion through strengthening the navy. He also antagonized Britain by supporting rebels throughout their empire and calling their king “Satan.”

The tense situation in Europe could have been resolved if Frederick had lived just a little bit longer. France and Germany were mending their relationship. Frederick III was one of the few Germans who was respected in France. If Germany had become a constitutional monarchy, Parliament would have restrained Wilhelm and his plans for domination.

When Nate is not licking flagpoles to try to change history, he is a freelance writer. You can send your comments or any chicken noodle soup recipes to his email at [email protected] or other websites he writes for.

Recently, there was a GoFundMe scam, which raised $400,000 to assist a homeless man who had allegedly given his last $20 to a damsel in distress on the side of the highway to refill her gas tank. This story was completely made up. Then there’s the Manchester attack’s homeless “hero,” who may have pulled nails from the arms and faces of children after a terrorist bomb killed 22 people, but then he robbed the victims. Judge David Hernandez, who sentenced him to four years and three months in prison, even said, “You presented yourself as a hero. Sadly you were not the hero that you pretended to be. You were just a common thief.”^[1]

Society seems to eat up these stories that fuel their distaste for the homeless, but there are plenty of cases of true heroism that should be remembered and honored. The purpose of this list is to highlight the moments when those who have lost everything in life act as heroes despite societal expectations. In the wake of these “homeless heroes turned rotten” stories, we need to be reminded of some real heroes. There are so many cases when homeless individuals have thrown themselves into a situation, even putting their own life on the line, to help another in need.

10 No Pulse, No Hope

In 2017, a Boston man named George Dakin was strolling down the sidewalk to meet his wife when a heart attack hit him, and he fell to his knees. It was called a “widowmaker” heart attack because 100 percent of his LAD artery was blocked. He lost his pulse for a full 28 minutes. Luckily, he happened to be in front of a group home for people seeking transitional housing. Most people pull out the picket signs when a group home tries to move into their neighborhood, but it saved Dakin’s life.

Austin Davis was staying at the group home at the time, and he raced to Dakin’s side. He performed CPR that kept Dakin alive until the ambulance arrived. It turns out that Davis had performed CPR four times in the past. Each time, he saved a person’s life. Davis said, “All I did was pump and pray, you know. I just hoped he’d make it.”^[2]

Dakin’s family was so grateful that they set up a GoFundMe for Davis. They bought him a used car and set him up in an apartment with the funds. They even helped to secure him a full-time position working at a Holiday Inn. Dakin’s daughter, Jodi, said, “Odds of escaping homelessness are about as bleak as walking away from a heart attack.” As of February 2018, $13,000 had been raised for Davis to help him transition into a new life.

9 A Chilling Splash

At around 2:00 AM on July 28, 2018, Shane Drossard (left above) was resting on the bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis when he heard a splash. A woman had jumped off a bridge to kill herself but survived the fall. Now, she was struggling against the current. Drossard reached his hand toward her from the riverbank, but the woman lost the strength (or the will) to hold on. She let go of his hand. Drossard said, “Help’s coming!” and jumped into the dark water.

He struggled to hold onto her against the current. She wanted to give up. Still, he fought to keep their heads above water while reassuring her that she was beautiful and had a full life ahead of her. Someone else heard her screams and called 911. Finally, both were pulled from the river and saved. Can someone please give this guy a medal? And why not a roof over his head while we’re at it?

In November 2010, another damsel in distress needed a knight in shining armor, but again, it probably wasn’t what she expected. Adan Abobaker (right above) was beside the River Thames when a woman attempted to plunge to her death from Blackfriars Bridge. Not only did he get hypothermia from the freezing water, but all of his precious possessions left onshore were stolen. Afterward, he said, “I took a long time to get over it . . . I still dream about it. I remember the waves coming over my head and swimming down towards her.” At least this guy did receive a medal.^[3]

8 Move Over, Flames

Anival Angulo is a young man with a hardened face and neck tattoos who lives in Las Vegas. He may not be what you imagine a hero looks like or even someone you want lurking in your neighborhood. He was doing just that, however, when he noticed smoke billowing from an apartment in 2017. Then, Angulo heard children screaming.

The gate was locked, so he jumped over it into the yard. He went to the door and saw a three-year-old girl. A 10-month-old infant was also inside. There was a steel deadbolt security bar on the door. He pulled until it bent upward and unlatched. Seriously, this is the kind of guy you want on your team when the apocalypse breaks out.

Las Vegas Fire and Rescue wrote on their Facebook page that the three-year-old “ran to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He could see through the smoke the leg of an infant on the floor. He reached down and pulled the infant out.”^[4] So, it turns out that neck tattoos aren’t something to be afraid of, after all.

7 Baby Abduction

They say abuse happens closest to home. That was the case in Minden, Louisiana, in August 2017, when a family friend stole a two-month-old baby boy when the parent left the room to get a bottle from the fridge. He walked for miles with the infant before abandoning the boy under an overpass on Interstate 20. He then hitched a ride to a casino, where he confessed his crime to a complete stranger.

The kidnapper may have seemed a nutjob to some (especially since he claimed, “God made me do it,”) but the stranger who he confessed to wasn’t willing to take that risk. Even though the police have never endeared themselves to the homeless, this homeless man called them immediately. Police arrested the kidnapper and found the baby wrapped in a blanket, fast asleep. Chief Steve Cropper said, “The scariest thing about it—if [the baby] were able to roll off that ledge, he would have hit that concrete retaining ledge and probably would have rolled right out into the interstate.”^[5] So, another homeless gentleman acts fast and saves the day. Not all heroes wear capes!

6 ‘Trolley Man’ Fights Terrorist

What do you do when you see a knife-wielding man attempting to stab police officers? Run in the opposite direction, perhaps? Well, one man, lovingly dubbed “Trolley Man” online, had a different guttural reaction that was pure awesome sauce. At this point, mind you, the attacker, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, had already killed a cafe owner and injured two others in his rampage on November 9, 2018, in Melbourne. Also, he had just set fire to a car full of gas cylinders near a busy street. So, the scene was literally red-hot. The terrorist was attempting to stab two policemen when Trolley Man lunged the shopping cart he was holding straight into Ali several times, helping to fend him off. (Ali was ultimately shot dead by police.)

Well, it turns out that living on the street leads to acts of desperation. Go figure. Sadly, the day before his heroic act, Trolley Man had broke into a CBD cafe and stole $500 from the register. He had also reportedly stolen a bicycle. So naturally, police wanted to have a chat about the burglaries after he had made his YouTube debut. Despite years of avoiding police at every turn, Trolley Man had an incentive to turn himself in. He was so beloved in the public eye that $155,000 had been raised on his behalf to get him off the streets. The community wanted to give him a second chance when they raised that life-changing sum of money for him. Now, Trolley Man, or Michael Rogers, is in a closely monitored support program where he can get the help and counseling he needs.^[6] Hopefully, harmless acts of burglary don’t disqualify hero status? There’s always redemption.

5 Defender Of The Elderly

Early during the morning of Mother’s Day 2018 in Brooklyn, an elderly woman in her seventies pulls her shopping cart while the woman beside her walks on a cane. They are minding their own business when a peculiar man approaches, mumbling to himself. He violently attacks them out of the blue, but another man quickly appears from the shadows to save the day. People stop and stare from the sidelines as the situation escalates. One of the women is bleeding profusely from her head. Both women are in a daze. The assailant tries to run away, but the Good Samaritan wrestles him to the ground and holds him down until police show up.^[7]

Perhaps this anonymous, homeless hero still wanders the city streets, Batman-style, keeping his eyes peeled for any funny business.

4 Accident Leaves Mother And Son Helpless

One moment, a mother and son are safely inside their car, and in the next instant, the car loses traction and slides off the highway. It was completely submerged underwater when the paramedics arrived. It January 2016 in Salinas, California, and a mother and her eight-year-old son had landed in a creek that was flooded from a recent downpour. It quickly swept them away. They traveled the length of five football fields as they battled the raging current. They were even sucked under the highway at one point and spit out on the other side.

A man named Rick Biddle was camping along the embankment when he heard his dog start barking. The dog alerted the man to the flailing woman in the murky water below. It was a close call, but Biddle managed to rescue both mother and son, who were utterly exhausted. It’s a good thing that the drainage ditch ran through Biddle’s camp, or they may not have been so lucky.^[8]

3 Puppy Love

It takes a real lowlife scumbag to hit-and-run in any situation, but somehow it’s even worse when the victim is a dog that can’t even call for help. There’s no excuse not to stop for a defenseless animal except, oh yeah, heartlessness. Thankfully, a homeless gentleman in Jackson, Mississippi, saw a dog get hit in November 2018 and scooped him up in his arms. He walked for miles with the wounded pooch until he found a vet. Despite some injuries, the dog (pictured above) was saved.

In another instance of puppy love, a Salt Lake City man named Ron Howell was panhandling on the side of the highway in 2018 when a woman dropped off a baby chihuahua in his lap. He knew he couldn’t take care of the tiny puppy, but now he didn’t have a choice. He met a woman who offered him a cigarette one day, and she listened to his story about the abandoned pup. She took some cutesy pictures, posted them on Facebook, and voila! The puppy found an owner, and $500 was raised for the chivalrous man who took the puppy in when no one else would.^[9]

2 Burglary Bungled

Jesse Green lived in a tent by a Shell gas station in San Franciso. He would often walk down there to wash windshields for some spare change. One day in January 2018, he happened to glance inside the mini-mart, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man trying to rob the clerk. The attacker had the young woman pinned to the floor in a choke hold. Jesse yelled for help as he rushed inside and leaped onto the attacker to pry off his strangling grasp. Two other men followed suit, and they all worked to pull the robber off the clerk.

The attacker made a run for it, but police found him lingering in a stairwell close by, where they arrested him for aggravated assault and burglary. When told that he was a hero, Green said casually, “Aren’t we all, naturally, I mean we got to help each other when we see stuff like that, right? I mean, it made me start crying. It’s not something to get happy on, you know?”^[10] Spoken like a true hero.

1 A Bag Containing $17,000

What would you do if you found a plastic grocery bag stuffed with $20 bills? Okay, now be honest. By the way, the money totals $17,000. Well, Kevin Booth of Sumner, Washington, is a man who’s about as honest as they come. As an adult with special needs who had a brain tumor removed in high school, Booth was at a severe disadvantage in life straight out of the gate. After living on the streets for over seven years, he remains drug-free despite daily struggles.

A surveillance video shows Booth discovering the money at the door of the Sumner Food Bank in 2018. “I kind of looked at the bag a little bit, put it on the trash can here . . . that’s when I pulled out a twenty, sniffed it to make sure it was real, which it was real.” Kevin said. “It is a lot of money. It was hard to turn it in, at first. I’m going, ‘Do I do this? Do I turn it in?’ ” He waited for the first person to arrive at the food bank and turned it in.

After 90 days without anybody claiming the money, the food bank claimed it. Booth said, “This story here . . . this has been, I’d say, the most terrific story ever in my life. This is a story to talk about for years to come.” The pride that he feels in doing the right thing is priceless. It props him to “hero” status for sure.^[11]

+ Rags To Riches: A Hollywood Story

Rock bottom has to be sleeping with your toddler in your arms on the floor of a public toilet at a railway station because you have run out of options. This happened to Chris Gardner when he was 27 years old. The odds were stacked against him from the very beginning. He was raised in poverty. His stepfather was an abusive alcoholic who eventually pushed his mother to attempt murder. Then Gardner was placed in the foster system, where so many children flounder. It didn’t seem that his life would work out so well, and it didn’t right away. He was homeless for a year in San Francisco before he eventually became a multimillionaire and had Will Smith star in the Hollywood movie of his life: The Pursuit of Happyness.

You may be wondering if this qualifies him as a hero. Well, some may argue that having unshakable hope in the face of despair is the quality of a true hero, not to mention his steely perseverance to not only survive but thrive for the sake of his son. However, I see your point. Gardner doesn’t just bask in his estimated worth of $60 million by buying private islands, a golden toilet, or $10,000 pajamas, as you may imagine millionaires do. Instead, he continues to be a champion for the homeless. He travels the globe 200 days of the year, giving motivational speeches. He also sponsors countless homeless charities and domestic abuse organizations.^[12] He’s still not giving up the fight.

This is a list of famous sayings that we all know and people love to quote to show off their knowledge. But… most of the time people attribute them to the wrong person. In order to put the record straight, here are the top 16 sayings attributed to the wrong person.

1. W C Fields

Anybody who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad.

Actually said by: Leo Rosten: at a dinner introducing Fields

2. Horace Greeley

Go west, young man!

Actually said by: John Soule (Article, Terre Haute Express, 1851)

3. Mark Twain

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it!

Actually said by: Charles Dudley Warner (Editorial, Hartford Courant, August 24, 1897)

4. Charles Darwin

Survival of the fittest.

Actually said by: Herbert Spencer (Principles of Biology and earlier works)

5. Thomas Jefferson

That government is best which governs least.

Actually said by: Henry David Thoreau (who put it in quotation marks in ‘Civil Disobedience’ and called it a motto)

6. The Bible

Cleanliness is next to godliness.

Actually said by: John Wesley (Sermons, no 93, ‘On Dress’)

7. Confucius

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Actually said by: Lao-Tzu (To Te Ching)

8. The Bible

God helps those who helps themselves.

Actually said by: Aesop (“The gods help them that help themselves”)

9. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

God is in the details.

Actually said by: Francois Rabelais (“The good God is in the details”)

10. Harry S Truman

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Actually said by: Harry Vaughn (Truman’s friend, whom Truman was quoting)

11. V I Lenin

Promises are like pie crust, made to be broken.

Actually said by: Jonathan Swift (Polite conversation: “promises are like pie crust, leaven to be broken”)

12. Mark Twain

Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.

Actually said by: Edgar Wilson Nye

13. Hermann Goring

When I hear the word “culture”, I reach for my gun.

Actually said by: Hanns Johst (1933 play Schlageter: “Whenever I hear the word ‘culture’, I reach for my Browning”)

14. Vince Lombardi

Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.

Actually said by: Red Sanders (UCLA football coach; quoted in Sports Illustrated, 1955)

15. The Bible

Spare the rod and spoil the child.

Actually said by: Samuel Butler (Hudibras, 1664)

16. Muhammad Ali

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see.

Actually said by: Drew ‘Bundini’ Brown (Ali’s good friend)

17. Queen Marie Antoinette

Let them eat cake!

Actually said by: Jean-Jacques Rousseau (In his ‘Confessions’, 1767)

Source: The Book of Lists

Not much surprises us nowadays, but some things do happen to carry a significant shock value. One of these things is “stuff” found in the human body that isn’t supposed to be there. Documented accounts of notable cases usually involve medical malpractice and bugs that laid eggs under the skin (shivers), but there’s so much more to this category.

From bugs to surgical instruments and everything in between, here are the ten craziest—and some quite disturbing—objects ever removed from someone.

Related: 10 Bizarre Objects Found In Porta Potties

10 Cysts

Sometimes, the things that get “trapped” in our bodies are not by choice, like cysts. Besides all the pus and goo that can come out of larger cysts, when one is in you for so long, it can turn into a strange human pearl, brain-like and bizarre.

The clip above shows Dr. Sandra Lee, aka Dr. Pimple Popper, removing 35-year-old cysts from a woman’s head. If you have a weak stomach, you may not want to watch. However, this is not the first instance of someone having an antique cyst (not an official medical term) removed from them.

In another instance, one of her patients—Roger, for those who follow the show—had a cyst in his nose that developed its own blood vessel. Once a cyst finds a blood supply, it grows, much like tumors do. Roger’s cyst grew so large that it hung over his mouth. He eventually underwent surgery to have the cyst removed and reconstruct his nostril. After 10 to 12 years of dealing with rhinophyma, it was gone.

Dr. Pimple Popper is a great series to watch if you’re into cyst removal or are popaholics. It really does show you that some of the craziest things removed from our bodies are not because we stick them in there; it’s because our bodies are actually oysters in disguise.

9 Larvae

Yes, we are including bugs in this list. It’s not a mystery at this point that flies will lay their eggs under your skin, the eggs hatch, and then the larvae have a field day in there like it’s a Chuck E. Cheese. We’re looking at you, botfly.

Botflies are parasitic bugs that will burrow under the skin of mammals. They are fuzzy like bumblebees but are hellish nightmare insects that need to be destroyed with fire. The fly lays its eggs under your skin, or the larvae will travel to a host and burrow into the skin (very “Parasyte” for those familiar with the manga). The larvae leave a painful wound-like mark on the skin, sometimes with a pustule. You may even feel something wriggling underneath the spot.

To remove them, you should absolutely see a dermatologist; don’t try to do it yourself. If you keep the larvae in you for too long, which I don’t know why you would want to keep them in you at all, the infection they cause can become even more severe. If the doctor finds that the larvae are still alive, they will essentially suffocate the bugs by placing tape or Vaseline over the wound. This makes them easier to remove.

Fortunately, if you live in colder, drier areas of the world, you’re less likely to encounter botflies. However, if you live in or travel to Brazil, you may want to pay extra attention to what crawls on your skin.

8 It’s People

It’s not soylent green; it’s people. Every now and then, you hear about people getting pieces of a twin removed from them, usually hair, teeth, etc. This results from a twin forming inside the other fetus (fetus in fetu), but incompletely. Though these twins rarely develop fully, there was one instance in Malaysia in 2016 in which the twin was quite developed.

A 15-year old boy was rushed to the hospital after complaining of stomach pains. Doctors discovered that a parasitic twin was living inside his stomach. It had fully formed legs, hands, and genitals. The mouth and nose were not completely developed, though.

Unfortunately, removing the twin resulted in its death. Parasitic twins rely on the host for survival, and most die before birth. But sometimes, they live and continue to grow, only to be removed from the host when the host’s health begins to deteriorate.

7 Moths

You know when you have a porch light on at night, and you have to walk to your front door, but there are several inconveniently placed moths all over the place? You aren’t crazy for covering your face and ears as you barrel through.

Moths are just another kind of insect that like ending up inside of you. More often than you think, moths will crawl into your ears. Though you can remove the bug yourself, it’s better to go to a doctor. The doctor will then use warm water or oil to help get the bug out. With larger insects, like the moth, you may just need a good old pair of tweezers.

6 Roundworm

I thought tapeworms would end up on this list because the lengths these parasites can reach are insane, but I could barely get through the extraction videos. One came out of a nose, one from the mouth; I wasn’t even going to touch ones coming out the rear.

Anyway, I couldn’t get through it long enough to justify writing about it. So I decided to switch gears and go for a roundworm, still awful but more tolerable. People get infected with roundworms if they come into contact with infected fecal matter or parasite-ridden food. They operate similarly to tapeworms and are just as messed up to look at.

For one woman, doctors found a 6-inch roundworm in her lip. I can only imagine the relief she felt when she had it removed, but also the terror of knowing something like that was feeding off of her face.

5 Retractor

Welcome to the medical malpractice portion of this article, where doctors leave equipment in their patients and sew them up, unaware that they’ve caused a whole new problem. We start with a surgical retractor.

A retractor is what surgeons use to keep tissue and organs out of the way during surgery. One man by the name of Donald Church ended up with a forgotten 12″ retractor in his chest. After complaining of piercing pain, his surgeon brushed it off as standard recovery pain. However, after 30 days of no improvement, Church’s doctor ordered an x-ray and discovered the abandoned object.

Oops, doc. Oops.

4 Forceps

It took Mr. Church a little over 30 days to discover the doctor had left something in him. But can you imagine waiting 18 years?

In 2017, a man from Vietnam named Va Man Nhat underwent treatment for a road accident when surgeons discovered surgical scissors (forceps), broken in two and lodged in the side of his abdomen.

Nhat said that he had received surgery in 1998 and believed that surgeons had forgotten the scissors in him then. He also noted that he was left with lasting pain after that surgery, but doctors told him he had an ulcer.

Yeah, no. It was scissors.

3 Cell Phone

A guy from Kosovo once swallowed a Nokia phone. Yes, you read that correctly. He swallowed an entire cell phone. He was 33 years old and probably knew better, but he did it anyway. The cell phone was in his stomach for four days before surgeons removed it.

Fortunately, they were able to extract the phone in three parts without cutting him open. Unfortunately, they couldn’t figure out why he thought that swallowing a phone was a good idea to begin with.

If you’re a parent, you know that batteries are a huge health and safety hazard, especially since babies and toddlers discover the world by putting things in their mouths. The batteries contain toxic and corrosive chemicals that can be lethal to small kids, and Nokia’s battery is no different. Our very adult patient is very lucky.

2 Forks and Spoons

In 2009, Margaret Daalman went to the hospital complaining of stomach pain. An x-ray revealed that the 52-year-old woman had about 78 pieces of cutlery in her stomach. Obviously, they didn’t just appear there for no reason; she ate the forks and spoons. Daalman successfully underwent surgery to remove the cutlery.

About the incident, Daalman states that she felt compelled to eat the cutlery and ignore the food on her plate. Doctors also reported that she suffers from borderline personality disorder, which contributed to her obsessive desire to eat her silverware.

1 Butt Bottle

Time to end with an embarrassing and incredibly painful case.

A 73-year-old farmer, who happened to have a wooden limb (important detail), was out in the field one day when nature called. There was no modern plumbing where he lived, so he decided to defecate in an empty glass jar, formerly used for maraschino cherries.

Well, his wooden limb broke, and he fell on top of the jar. The jar effectively got lodged in his rectum. The neck of the bottle broke inside of him, which understandably caused a lot of bleeding. He was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Surgeons removed the bottle using obstetric forceps (what they’ll sometimes use to help babies through the birth canal), and the man lived.

Moral of the story: don’t poop in a jar.