Do Elevator ‘Close Door’ Buttons Work? A popular February 2023 post to Reddit's r/todayilearned asserted 80 percent of elevator "close door" buttons are not functional.
Greece, Turkey, and ‘Earthquake Diplomacy’ After a devastating earthquake in early February 2023, a post about "earthquake diplomacy" in Turkey and Greece was popular across platforms.
Is Paprika ‘Just Dried Bell Pepper’? In January 2023, a tweet about paprika being "just dried red bell pepper" spread virally.
‘Picasso Died in 1973, Surprising the Internet Every Year’ Tens of thousands of social media users seemed surprised that prolific artist Pablo Picasso was notable in a relatively modern era of art history.
‘Students Today Depend on Paper Too Much, Don’t Know How to Write on a Slate’ 1815 Quote A purported lament from a "principal's publication" in 1815 addressed students' over-reliance on paper and their inability to manage writing on slates without getting chalk dust everywhere.
Is Lucy Liu an Acclaimed Artist Known for Her Lesbian Paintings Under the Pseudonym Yu Ling? A wildly popular social media post wove a narrative about the actor and her secret life as an accomplished painter of homoerotic art.
Did ‘Upper Case’ and ‘Lower Case’ Originally Refer to Where Printers Kept Their Letters? Twitter commentary about technology across generations hinted at little-known etymological origins for the terms.
Is Doc from ‘Fraggle Rock’ Also Doc from ‘Boondock Saints’? A popular "today years old" meme noted that "Doc" from the wholesome "Fraggle Rock" was also "Doc" in the rather less wholesome action-thriller film, "The Boondock Saints."
‘Doing it Wrong’ Glade Air Freshener Meme On June 29 2019, the Facebook page “Be My Guest” shared a meme about the purportedly widespread, incorrect use of Glade brand air fresheners (archived here): https://www.facebook.com/BeMyGuesttv/photos/a.1549647135150678/2213520595429992/?type=3&theater Under text reading “I’ve been doing it wrong all my life,” two Glade air fresheners were displayed. On the left, with a red X, was what is likely […]
Did Rod Serling’s ‘Twilight Zone’ Use Sci-Fi to Push Politics Past Network Censors? The beginning of April 2019 also marked the premiere of the third television iteration of The Twilight Zone. This time, Rod Serling’s mid-century television classic series was rebooted with producer Jordan Peele at the helm. On the day the first two episodes were released — “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet,” a remake of the classic William Shatner episode, […]
