Tag Archives: FactSlap

Chew on This

In honor of National Bubblegum Day, a FactSlap column (Bazooka Joe remix):

  • Children in North America spend approximately half a billion dollars on bubblegum every year.
  • The largest piece of gum ever was equivalent to 10,000 pieces of chewing gum.
  • 100,000 tons of bubblegum is chewed every year all around the world.
  • Sixty to 70 percent of bubble gum is sugar.
  • One of the most famous, but false facts, is that swallowed gum will remain in your gastrointestinal tract for seven years. It is not so. Swallowed bubble gum will not get stuck to your intestines, but will pass through your system, because gum base cannot be digested, as it has fiber that is indigestible.
  • Scientists found a 9,000-year- old wad of chewing gum in Sweden.
  • The average American chews around 300 sticks of gum in one year.
  • The first bubble gum ever marketed was done so under the name “Blibber-Blubber”.
  •  According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest bubble ever blown measured 23 inches in diameter.

Do Not Pass Go

monopoly board game

In honor of National Play Monopoly Day, we offer this FactSlap column, Top Hat edition:

  • Charles Darrow developed Monopoly in 1933, using materials from his own home for the first game. The cards were handwritten and a piece of oilcloth covered the board.
Charles Darrow
  • The original houses and hotels were made from wooden molden scraps. The pieces themselves were recommended by Darrow’s nieces.
monopoly houses
  • Parker Brothers originally rejected Monopoly because they had issues with the game’s length, theme, and complexity. They reconsidered their decision to purchase rights to market the game after its success in local Philadelphia stores.
Signed Monopoly Popular Edition Game 1938
  • The original Monopoly game sold for $2. Today, the average price for the classic version of the game is $18.
Monopoly Popular Edition Game 1936
  • After less than a year of the game’s release, Parker Brothers was making 35,000 copies of the board game per week.
  • The standard amount of money in a Monopoly game is $20,580.
  • The longest game of Monopoly lasted 70 straight days.
  • Escape maps, compasses, and files were inserted into Monopoly game boards smuggled into POW camps inside Germany during World War II. Real money for escapees was slipped into the packs of Monopoly money.
WWII Waddington's Monopoly Game
  • Tokens from the US Monopoly: Here & Now edition were flown into space aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in 2007.
  • Monopoly is published in 47 languages and sold in 114 countries.
During one part of the book they play monopoly every night and the games would get very heated and the pieces would g… | Monopoly pieces, Game pieces, Monopoly game

I’m Not a Vegetarian, but the Cows I Eat Are

National Burger Day 2019: Free burgers and specials Tuesday

Friday officially marked National Cheeseburger Day, so lettuce give thanks for the mighty meat this weekend with a FactSlap column, served medium well:

  • Each year, Americans eat 50 billion burgers, or three burgers a week. 
What's Really in Fast Food Burgers? | Eat This, Not That!
  • Hamburgers and cheeseburgers account for 71 percent of beef served in commercial hotels in the United States.
The 101 Best Burgers in America
  • McDonalds sells 75 hamburgers a second.
Around 75 McDonald's burgers are sold every second - DrinksFeed
  • Louis Ballast of Humpty Dumpty Drive was awarded the hamburger trademark in 1935.
Louis Ballast, owner of the Humpty Dumpty Barrel Drive Inn in Denver, Colorado, poses in front of his restaurant during the 1940s with "curb girls." Ballast acquired a trademark for "The Cheeseburger"
  • The Jimmy Buffet song Cheeseburger in Paradise was first inspired by a boat trip that he took. The trip was hampered by bad weather and he was forced to eat nothing but canned food and peanut butter that was aboard the boat, leaving him dreaming of a cheeseburger.
Jimmy Buffett Discography Germany - Gallery - 45cat
  • The most expensive burger sold in America is sold from the New York City food truck 666 Burger. The $666 burger is wrapped in a gold leaf, topped with lobster, caviar, truffles, foie gras, and aged gruyere cheese melted with steam from champagne poured on a hot griddle. The good thing is you get $300 back, as the burger comes wrapped in three greasy $100 bills.
666 Burger - Home | Facebook
  • The biggest cheeseburger ever was cooked by a Minnesota casino in 2012 and weighed 2,014 pounds. It required a special oven, a crane, and a special bun that had to be baked for seven hours.
One-ton bacon cheeseburger sets record - CBS News
  • During the First World War the U.S. government tried to rename burgers as “Liberty Sandwiches” in order to promote patriotism and avoid using its original Germanic name.
world war II – What's Cookin' @ Special Collections?!