Notes

Overhead flat lay of a vinyl record in a blank sleeve, a tambourine, a candle stub and a coiled cable on a worn rug

Two Bands Turned Up With the Same Name

A Munich commune where anyone living in the house could be in the band. That principle held until the people who could actually play walked out.

Two Bands Turned Up With the Same Name

A Munich commune where anyone living in the house could be in the band. That principle held until the people who could actually play walked out.

Overhead flat lay of a pottery shard, an olive branch, a worn bronze coin and a clay oil lamp on a limestone slab

The Greeks Complained About Zeus Too

Around 500 BCE a poet wrote that Homer and Hesiod had given the gods every shameful thing men do. A century later Plato proposed banning the stories outright.

The Greeks Complained About Zeus Too

Around 500 BCE a poet wrote that Homer and Hesiod had given the gods every shameful thing men do. A century later Plato proposed banning the stories outright.

Overhead flat lay of a dented canteen, a leather pouch, a sheathed knife and a folded wool blanket on cracked desert earth

Geronimo Was Never a Chief

A paratrooper borrowed the name in 1940 for a joke about nerve. The man it belonged to had been dead thirty-one years, in military custody, after a promise that lasted...

Geronimo Was Never a Chief

A paratrooper borrowed the name in 1940 for a joke about nerve. The man it belonged to had been dead thirty-one years, in military custody, after a promise that lasted...

Overhead flat lay of lashed kite spars, a ball of twine, an iron key and a Leyden jar on weathered barn boards

The Kite Might Never Have Flown

Franklin's own account never says he flew the kite. By then the experiment he designed had already been proven in France, a month earlier, by someone else.

The Kite Might Never Have Flown

Franklin's own account never says he flew the kite. By then the experiment he designed had already been proven in France, a month earlier, by someone else.

Overhead flat lay of a stapler, an empty mug, a beetroot and a pair of wire rimmed glasses on a grey office desk

Rainn Wilson Auditioned to Play Michael Scott

He read for the lead as an impersonation of Ricky Gervais. He got the other part, and then the network passed him over for the promotion the writers had spent...

Rainn Wilson Auditioned to Play Michael Scott

He read for the lead as an impersonation of Ricky Gervais. He got the other part, and then the network passed him over for the promotion the writers had spent...

Overhead flat lay of a red lipstick, a strand of pearls, a black patent heel and an open powder compact on a dressing room counter

Tim Curry Found Frank-N-Furter's Voice on a Bus

He tried the character as a German, then as an American. Neither held. Then he overheard a woman on a bus asking about a house in town, and decided Frank...

Tim Curry Found Frank-N-Furter's Voice on a Bus

He tried the character as a German, then as an American. Neither held. Then he overheard a woman on a bus asking about a house in town, and decided Frank...

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