




-

·
Reese Witherspoon Just Posted Her Own Set of 2016 Self-Portraits, and Her Caption ‘I Heard We’re Bringing Back 2016’ Is Now Genuinely Everywhere
Reese Witherspoon posted a set of her own decade-old self-portraits on Instagram this month…
-

·
NFL Games Once Aired Only on Weekend Afternoons, and ABC’s Risky Monday Night Experiment Back in 1970 Changed Prime-Time Television Forever
Professional football lived almost entirely on weekend afternoons before 1970, treated by network executives…
-

·
Television Advertisement in 1952 Turned a Simple Bag of Plastic Parts Into Mr. Potato Head, and It Didn’t Even Include an Actual Real Potato
On April 30, 1952, a bag of plastic facial parts with pushpins on the…
-

·
Losing at Their Own Game of Scrabble Gave Two Canadian Journalists an Entirely New Board Game Idea, and Trivial Pursuit Sold 100 Million Copies
Chris Haney and Scott Abbott were not trying to invent anything the afternoon their…
-

·
Navy Engineer Dropped a Tension Spring by Total Accident Back in 1943, and It Somehow Became One of the Best-Selling Toys of the 20th Century
Richard James was not trying to invent a toy in 1943. He was a…
-

·
Toy Makers Once Swore Boys Would Never Play With Anything Called a Doll, and G.I. Joe Proved Every Single One of Them Completely Wrong in 1964
Toy industry logic in the early 1960s held that boys simply would not play…
-

·
Britain Banned The Exorcist From Home Video Release for Years, and Two Real On-Set Injuries Only Fueled the Movie’s Growing Cultural Legend
The Exorcist played in British cinemas without much trouble when it opened in 1974,…
-

·
Trapper Keeper Turned Ordinary Homework Folders Into a Genuine Schoolyard Status Symbol, and Some Teachers Actually Wanted the Thing Banned
Before backpacks came loaded with laptop sleeves and insulated water bottle pockets, the real…
-

·
Critics Buried Hocus Pocus in 1993 After a Disappointing Theatrical Box Office Run, and Disney Channel Reruns Alone Resurrected It Years Later
Hocus Pocus opened in theaters on July 16, 1993, a strange midsummer release date…
-

·
Jason Voorhees Actually Spent Two Entire Friday the 13th Movies Without His Now-Signature Hockey Mask Before Anyone Ever Added It to the Costume
Jason Voorhees has become such a fixed piece of horror iconography that it is…






