Fun Facts That Are

A timber beetle larva was gnawing through a tree stump. Its jaws curled left, then right, in alternating C-shaped bites. Oregon logger Joe Cox stopped to watch it in 1946. He spent that summer in his basement copying the shape into steel. The first Cox Chipper Chain sold in 1947. That idea became the basis of modern saw chain, still widely used today. Look at your own chain: the cutters still alternate left, right, left.

Creed Bratton played a character on The Office named after himself. Off screen, he was the real lead guitarist of The Grass Roots. He toured with the band from 1967 to 1969. The band had two gold records. "Let's Live for Today" hit No. 8. "Midnight Confessions" was their biggest hit, at No. 5. His character's real name was later revealed as William Schneider, his actual birth name. He's still touring today, at 83.

The Mackinac Bridge is Michigan's five-mile 'Mighty Mac.' Every day, only cars are allowed on it. Except one: every Labor Day, Michigan closes it to cars and opens it to walkers. The first walk, in 1958, drew just 68 people. For decades, two lanes stayed open to cars during the walk. Since 2017, all of them close, and walkers get the whole bridge to themselves. Now 40,000 to 65,000 show up every year, with a record 85,000 in one morning.

The Pony Express lasted only 18 months before the telegraph replaced it in 1861. But volunteers never let it end. Every June, more than 750 riders saddle up for the Pony Express Re-Ride, carrying real, postmarked mail 1,966 miles across eight states from Missouri to California in ten days, day and night. Riders still gallop the trail, passing the mail pouch horse to horse, just like 1860.

NASA lost Snoopy in space for 50 years. The Apollo 10 lunar module was named after the cartoon beagle. In 1969 astronaut Tom Stafford flew it within 9 miles of the Moon to scout Apollo 11's landing site. Then NASA fired its engine, sent it into orbit around the Sun and lost track of it. In 2019 amateur astronomers said they were 98 percent sure they had found it. Snoopy is still out there, circling the Sun.

The underdog gym from the movie Hoosiers is real. Knightstown, Indiana raised $14,400 to build it in 1921. It closed in 1966 and nearly got torn down in 1988. The 1986 film had already made it famous. Two preservation groups stepped in and saved it. Real high school teams still play real games there. More than 80 a year. It never stopped being a real gym.

Sears Tower's Ledge lets tourists step onto glass floors 1,353 feet above Chicago's sidewalks. Each box weighs 1,500 pounds, built from three layers of half-inch glass. It's engineered to hold 10,000 pounds. No one leans out a window to clean it. A motor pulls the whole box back on rails, straight into the building, then slides back out over the drop. The boxes are still open every day, right now.

Blood Falls in Antarctica looks like a glacier is bleeding. A five-story red stain pours from Taylor Glacier - not blood. Iron-rich brine seeps from a reservoir sealed under 400 metres of ice for two million years - and the moment it hits air, it rusts red.

Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge doesn't tilt or swing. Its whole 386-foot span shoots 126 feet straight up in a minute, opening 141 feet of clearance for 1,000-foot ships. Built as a transporter ferry in 1905, it became a lift bridge in 1929. Ships blast a long-short-short Captain's Salute; the bridge answers back. It still does this for almost 900 ships a year, carrying 35 million tons of cargo.

Rita Wilson is best known as an actress, and as Tom Hanks's wife. She is also a real singer-songwriter, and released her sixth studio album this year. Sound of a Woman was recorded in Nashville with producer Dave Cobb. Her first record came out fourteen years ago. She played small clubs like City Winery this summer, and plays Napa in December. She is still the one singing every note of it.

The football huddle is credited to one deaf quarterback hiding his hands. In 1894, Gallaudet played a game against another deaf team. Quarterback Paul Hubbard called plays in sign language, open for anyone to read. So he had his teammates circle up tight before every snap. That circle became the huddle, copied by teams everywhere. Teams still huddle up today, from Friday night lights to the NFL, 132 years later.

Built in 1914, the Belle of Louisville was two days from the scrapyard in 1962. A Cincinnati reporter talked a judge into an auction. Jefferson County bought her and rebuilt her from the hull up. She is now the oldest operating Mississippi River-style steamboat on Earth. This April, at 112 years old, she out-distanced the Belle of Cincinnati to win the Great Steamboat Race. She still churns down the Ohio every week.