Page 72 - Other Facts

A small part of Milwaukee, WI considers itself to be an independent nation.

Talossa, or rather, “The Kingdom of Talossa” is the name of the oldest existing micro-nation, founded by 14-year-old Robert Ben Madison in 1979. Apparently, it seceded peacefully from the United States (someone should probably tell the United States), and is located on the western shore of La Mar Talossan (the Talossan term for ‘Lake Michigan’). 

Talossa is a constitutional monarchy headed by an apolitical King and governed by a democratically elected Government. It has its own language, political parties, registered Coat of Arms, and official website! According to the site, total membership (citizens are called “members”) of the nation reached between 100-200 people at its peak. To learn more about this free-spirited and quirky place, visit the source! 

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A man drunkenly paid $1.2m to eat a BEAR!

In 2010, a man in Azerbaijan drunkenly ordered that a restaurant's dancing bear be killed so that he could eat it. He woke up the next morning to a bill for the agreed-upon fee of $1.2 million. 

The guys from The Hangover have nothing on this guy’s post-drinking wake up. Back in May 2010, a man named Anar Mammadov ordered that the restaurant he was eating at slaughter a dancing bear attraction and cook it for him and his friends. Anar is a playboy son of Ziya Mammadov, the Minister of Transportation. Anar was drunk at the time, and so he didn’t pay much attention to the $1.2 million bill. 

Initially, the restaurant’s employees didn’t want to kill their bear to satisfy a rich drunk, saying he wasn’t available for slaughter. Eventually they relented when the Minister for Emergency Situations told them to let him eat it. Anar wasn’t too happy when he woke up hungover with the bill. Fortunately for him, he had so much money that it wasn’t too much to bear. 

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After making 1.4 billion crayons, the senior crayon maker for Crayola admitted he was color blind.

Since 1903 Crayola has been famous for their wide color spectrum of art devices. You’d think the ability to see the full color spectrum would be a prerequisite for the job. But just like that English teacher who never learned how to read, there was a man who in his 37 year career at Crayola, spanning 1.4 billion crayons, had been colorblind the whole time. 

His name is Emerson Moser, and he made the announcement when he retired. But if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you know that colorblindness isn’t uncommon. Up to 8 percent of men have it in some form, and over 10 million American males have it. Of course as you also likely know, this doesn’t mean seeing everything in black and white. 

That condition is called monochromacy and is exceedingly rare. The colorblind just have fewer photoreceptors in their eyes. The unfortunate thing is that colorblindness can restrict some career choices. Air Force pilots can’t be colorblind, and neither can electricians or firefighters. The strange this is that apparently Crayola workers, people whose entire working lives are devoted to creating colors, don’t need to be able to see the full spectrum. 

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Ever wondered where Sriracha hot sauce came from?

Most people, when they refer to Sriracha, just say something on the lines of, “That one Asian red color hot stuff,” but have you ever wondered just what it is? The name comes from Si Racha, which is a coastal city in the Chonburi Province of central Thailand. It is believed that the original sauce developed in the area as an accompaniment to local seafood dishes and was so delicious it quickly spread throughout Thailand and East Asia. 

The recipe itself is actually quite simple consisting of chili peppers, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt. The brand most people recognize in America is Huy Fong Foods, with the rooster on the front and is actually not an Asian product. Actual Sriracha sauce is much runnier and less spicy. So where did our version come from?

The rooster was the astrological sign of the brand’s creator, David Tran. Tran grew up in Vietnam and slightly altered his sauce before bringing it to the United States. He wanted to make, “a hot sauce that would satisfy the cravings of nostalgic Vietnamese immigrants,” eventually making it so successful it now dominates hot sauce shelves and even rivals traditional condiments such as mustard and ketchup!

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In the 1960s, a group of journalists conspired to write a terrible book and it became a bestseller!

Mike McGrady was a “Newsday” columnist who felt the American literary standards were plummeting and that there was entirely too much media sensationalism that catered to a lack of real journalism or intelligence. So, he decided to write a book with other journalists that lacked any plot, no character development, no social insight, and definitely no verbal skill. The only real standard or drive in the book was to put a lot of kinky sex scenes, no less than two per chapter! 

McGrady figured that if it was a hit, then it’d show how pathetic the literary standards had become in the U.S. Each writer wrote one chapter and they named the book “Naked Came The Stranger.” In 1969 the book went on sale and the other was fictitiously named Penelope Ashe. McGrady pulled his beautiful sister-in-law to play the part of the author. 

The woman played Penelope perfectly, wearing low cut dresses to interviews and constantly speaking about the joys of sexual liberation. McGrady’s experiment backfired. Americans didn’t care that their literary standards were low and they called out for more racy books. “Naked Came the Stranger” became a bestseller and many books followed it. In 1975 the book actually became an x-rated movie! 

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