random facts

WTF Fun Fact 12788 – Monopoly, The Landlord’s Game

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Charles Darrow is credited with inventing the board game Monopoly, but even he wasn’t aware of the real inventor of the game. Lizzie Magie invented Monopoly, only she called it “The Landlord’s Game.”

The Landlord’s Game becomes Monopoly

In 1932, Charles Darrow was playing a real-estate board game with friends. It wasn’t a game you could buy in a box, but one that was passed between friends who made their own boards. Darrow presumably had no clue it had been invented by a progressive feminist writer named Lizzie Magie nearly three decades earlier. She had called it The Landlord’s Game, but it was colloquially known as “the monopoly game.”

Darrow was so taken with it that he asked for a set of rules and took the idea to Parker Brothers. Then he seems to have taken credit for inventing it altogether, which helped him make millions in royalties.

According to The Guardian (cited below), “one journalist after another asked him how he had managed to invent Monopoly out of thin air – a seeming sleight of hand that had brought joy into so many households. ‘It’s a freak,’ Darrow told the Germantown Bulletin, a Philadelphia paper. ‘Entirely unexpected and illogical.'”

The Real “Monopoly”

Magie wrote about her game in a political magazine in the early 20th century, noting: “It is a practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences. It might well have been called the ‘Game of Life’, as it contains all the elements of success and failure in the real world, and the object is the same as the human race in general seem to have, ie, the accumulation of wealth.”

She created two sets of rules – “an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents,” according to The Guardian’s story about a book on the history of the game titled, The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game by Mary Pilon.

Magie had even patented the game and published a version through the Economic Game Company. It was popular among progressive intellectuals, but interestingly enough, the monopolist’s rules became far more popular.

The real Monopoly

Magie wasn’t sure what to think when Parker Brothers approached her about buying the rights to the game for $500 after they were approached by Darrow, but she did sell them. Only later did she find out why they wanted to buy them. And she never received any of the millions in royalties that Darrow did. Nor did she receive any of the credit until recently.

According to The Guardian, “She died in 1948, a widow with no children, whose obituary and headstone made no mention of her game invention. One of her last jobs was at the US Office of Education, where her colleagues knew her only as an elderly typist who talked about inventing games.”

Today, Parker Brothers is owned by Hasbro, which still credits Darrow with inventing the game in 1935. – WTF fun facts

Source: “The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game’s leftwing origins” — The Guardian

WTF Fun Fact 12787 – Debbie Stevens’ Kidney Chaos

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Debbie Stevens’ kidney donation didn’t end in the most heartwarming way. However, many of the memes about her story you may see online don’t tell the whole story.

Stevens offers a kidney

Snopes (cited below) scoped out the whole story and found that shortened versions of the story are “mostly true,” however. She did donate a kidney to save her boss, and she was fired afterward.

It all started when the Long Island Atlantic Automotive Group employee heard her boss, Jacqueline Brucia, was unwell in October 2010. The two had a conversation about it and Stevens offered Brucia her kidney, to which she allegedly replied “you never know, I may have to take you up on that offer one day.”

In January 2011, Brucia followed up on the offer. However, the pair was not a match. Stevens didn’t donate her kidney directly to her boss, but she is the reason her boss found a match. As Snopes explains: “she agreed to donate it to a stranger in St. Louis, Missouri, setting up a transplant chain that enabled Brucia to receive a better-matched kidney from a donor in San Francisco.”

Debbie Stevens’ kidney complications

Stevens’ surgery took place on Aug. 10, 2011, and resulted in complications that made it difficult for her to return to her old job and perform all of the tasks she once did, such as lifting heavy objects.

According to Snopes’ investigation of the lawsuit and settlement: “When she returned to work in September (under pressure from Brucia, she alleged) she was treated curtly by Brucia, who allegedly refused to provide accommodations for these and other medical issues. Brucia is alleged to have ignored, for example, a doctor’s order that she not lift heavy objects, and she required Stevens to get permission before using the restroom. Allegedly in response to complaints Stevens made regarding harassment from Brucia, the company’s management transferred her to another dealership, where she was, her lawyer argued, similarly denied accommodations and put in a position for which she was less qualified. Atlantic Automotive Group fired Stevens for ‘performance issues’ just a few weeks after her lawyer sent a complaint to the company in March 2012. Following several depositions and rounds of discovery, both parties agreed to settle on Sept. 30, 2014.”

Legal jeopardy

While we will never know the real reason Stevens was fired, she did have enough of a case to sue her employer under the federal American Disabilities Act (ADA).

But, in the end, they settled, and Atlantic Automotive Group did not have to publicly address the reasons behind the termination. They did, however, have to pay up. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Did a Woman Get Fired After Donating a Kidney on Her Boss’ Behalf?” — Snopes

WTF Fun Fact 12786 – Endless Albatross Flying

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It seems impossible, but albatrosses can go years without ever landing on the ground.

Albatrosses get a bad rap. They’ve long been a metaphor for a psychological burden that’s difficult to escape. This originated not in any real story but in a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge called The Rime of the Ancient Mariner published in 1798.

In the poem, an albatross flies out with a ship heading to sea. But the mariner shoots it with a crossbow. Since the albatross is normally a sign of good luck, the action curses him and his crew, who tie a dead albatross around his neck.

But what’s so great about an albatross

Albatrosses are large seabirds whose wingspans can reach over 10 feet. The “great albatrosses,” the wandering and royal albatrosses, have the widest wingspans—ten feet or more—of any living bird.

The albatross’ flying forte

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “Albatrosses are masters of soaring flight, able to glide over vast tracts of ocean without flapping their wings. So fully have they adapted to their oceanic existence that they spend the first six or more years of their long lives (which last upwards of 50 years) without ever touching land.”

Who knew an animal could fly, move, or even glide that long?!

The albatross’ future

Sadly, albatrosses are endangered – in fact, Smithsonian Magazine reports that they’re “one of the most threatened families of birds on earth. All but 2 of the 21 albatross species recognized by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature are described as vulnerable, endangered or, in the case of the Amsterdam and Chatham albatrosses, critically endangered. The scientists hope that the data they gather may save some species from extinction.”

The birds mate for life, but reproduction is a two-step process that requires the right conditions and a long time to produce an egg. Once it hatches, predators abound.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “The Amazing Albatrosses” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Facts 12785 – Dogs Are Family

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A 2017 survey from Rover.com found that Americans are really fond of their dogs. In fact, “dog people” tend to prefer their pets over people at times.

People think of dogs as family

Aside from the finding that 54% of dog owners said they would consider ending a romantic relationship if their dog didn’t like their partner, the report also noted that:

24% of dog owners make up songs to sing to their dogs
29% share more pictures online of their dogs than of friends and family
47% of those with a significant other admit they’d find it harder to leave their dog for a week than their human partner

Other furry findings

According to Rover.com’s report on their findings, there are 54 million households in the U.S. wth dogs.

  • 94% of dog owners consider their dog a part of the family
  • 56% greet their dog first when they return home before greeting the rest of the family.
  • 78% would include their dog in family moments like marriage proposals, holiday cards, and even vacations
  • 56 percent% have celebrated their dog’s birthday

Being a dog owner is even good for our health. “Dog ownership increases leisure time and physical activity by nearly 70 percent.”

According to Rover pet lifestyle expert Brandie Gonzales, “Young Americans are less likely to be homeowners or parents than previous generations, but one category they lead in is pet ownership. They shower their dogs with attention and splurge on expensive gifts because their dog is their best friend, and they want to be their dog’s best friend too.”

Millennials may have killed department stores and traditional marriage, but they sure were a boon for the animal rescue industry! At least one thing has remained stable over time – dogs are still man’s best friend.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Rover.com Reveals New Research on ‘Dog People'” — Rover.com

WTF Fun Fact 12784 – Steve Jobs’ First iPhone Call

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When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone, he made a historic phone call. We’re not sure what he was thinking at the time, but he got a bit cheeky when making his decision about who to call and what to say.

And it turns out the first iPhone call was a prank call to Starbucks.

The first iPhone call

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to a crowd in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. He opened up Google Maps on the phone and located the nearest Starbucks.

On the other end was Ying Hang “Hannah” Zhang. “How may I help you?” she asked.

“Yes, I’d like to order 4,000 lattes to go, please,” Jobs replied.

It was a potentially momentous occasion, had the order been filled. But I think we all know that no Starbucks can make that many lattes at a moment’s notice.

And it turns out Jobs was just yanking her chain.

“No, just kidding. Wrong number. Goodbye!” he said as he hung up.

Technically, it was the second call

If you want to get technical, this was the first impromptu call on an iPhone. According to Fast Company (cited below): “His call to the Starbucks that day was the first real public phone call made from an iPhone in history. Sure, Jobs had held a conference chat earlier in his presentation with Apple executives Jony Ive and Phil Schiller–but that call was prearranged and heavily scripted, no different than the dozens if not hundreds of calls they would’ve made during rehearsals, or the likely thousands of calls performed while testing the device prior to its announcement.”

Funny enough, people who know this fact still call up their local Starbucks today and try to order 4000 lattes in honor of Jobs.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Because Of Steve Jobs’s First Public iPhone Call, Starbucks Still Gets Orders For 4,000 Lattes” — FastCompany

WTF Fun Fact 12783 – The Rotation of Venus

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The rotation of Venus on its axis is very slow.

For those who need a refresher in astronomy, the planets in our solar system rotate in two ways 1) on their axis (spinning in place, basically – which makes one day), and 2) around the sun (which makes a year).

What’s unique about the rotation of Venus?

Planets rotate around the sun with regularity, but when it comes to spinning on their own axis, that’s a different story. And astrophysicists have long wondered why Venus’ rotation is so slow.

According to Space.com (cited below): “Venus orbits the sun at about two-thirds of the distance between our planet and the star. Shrouded in a dense and toxic atmosphere of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, the planet suffers from a runaway greenhouse effect that pushes temperatures on its surface to life-preventing 900 degrees Fahrenheit (475 degrees Celsius). And something else is odd about this world: While Venus completes its orbit around the sun in 225 Earth days, it takes 243 Earth days for the planet to spin around its axis.”

Why Venus take so long?

But that still doesn’t answer the question about why Venus is so slow to rotate on its axis. However, a study in Nature Astronomy by astrophysicist Stephen Kane at the University of California gives us some new insight. Kane believes that the planet’s thick, stormy atmosphere interferes with axial rotation. Venus’ atmosphere blocks the sun’s energy from leaving the planet.

Kane said in a statement: “We think of the atmosphere as a thin, almost separate layer on top of a planet that has minimal interaction with the solid planet. Venus’ powerful atmosphere teaches us that it’s a much more integrated part of the planet that affects absolutely everything, even how fast the planet rotates.”

Rethinking the role the atmosphere plays on a planet may eventually help us rethink the way we look at the solar system. In other words, we’ll have to acknowledge that not all planets can be viewed from the perspective of the way things work on Earth. Go figure.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Why is a day on Venus longer than a year? The atmosphere may be to blame.” — Space.com

WTF Fun Fact 12782 – Bastille Day

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France’s national holiday is called Bastille Day, named after the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. In French, it’s called Le quatorze Juillet, so the first thing you ought to know is that a French person might look at you funny if you wish them a Happy Bastille Day (although they might look at your funny regardless, so maybe just say what you want).

Anyway, to Americans, Bastille Day looks a lot like the 4th of July. FIreworks, parades, food, the works.

But why celebrate the storming of a building which was, at the time, a prison? Democracy, of course!

Why is “Bastille Day” a big deal?

If you remember back to high school history class, you may remember that the French grew tired of their monarchy in the 18th century. The working class weren’t getting much for their labor while the royal and upperclasses lived in luxury. That might sound familiar, but in this case, a group of people organized enough to light the spark (literally – because the Bastille was also full of gunpowder) of the French Revolution.

Now, the Revolution wouldn’t take place right away. Those things really are hard to organize. But if you really didn’t excel in high school history, you may remember this revolution simply as the one where the royals (including Marie Antoinette) lost their heads at the guillotine. (Long story short, France got a had constitutional monarchy after the first Revolution. It would take more revolutions to get to an actual democracy.)

In the end, Bastille Day is a celebration of independence from what the French saw as the tyranny of monarchy. It was the tipping point towards democracy.

What happened on Bastille Day?

So, what exactly happened on July 14, 1789? What does a “storming of the Bastille” even mean? Well, it involved revolutionaries heading to Bastille to liberate people they saw as political prisoners.

Interestingly, most of the actual political prisoners were moved to a more fortified location a bit earlier, and all that remained in the Bastille that day were 7 people – 4 who were in for forgery, an Irish man labeled a “lunatic” and accused of spying, a guy who had tried to assassinate the King Louis XV, and an aristocrat suspected of murder. But they did escape!

Some people like to tell the story that the aristocrat in question was the Marquis de Sade, a revolutionary philosopher and writer of erotic fiction depicting unrestrained sexual activity, some of which was violent (Sadism/sadist is derived from these works). But he had actually been transferred to another facility a few days earlier. What he had in common with the aristocrat is that they had both been imprisoned by a letter from family involuntarily committing them. But that’s really besides the point and just a bit of trivia.

The interesting part is that the the liberation of prisoners didn’t really mean much. Also, the Bastille was going to be leveled and turned into an open space soon anyway. The reason it still stands today is because it’s the symbol of a movement (or the beginning of one, anyway).

Now, If that wasn’t a satisfying description of the storming of the Bastille (and if you’re truly interested in history, it shouldn’t be), then check out the Wikipedia page dedicated to that fateful day. We know, we know, Wikipedia has it’s issues. But professional historians are typically the ones editing those “major” pages, and we confirmed it’s one you can trust.

For proper book-length treatments of the French Revolution, try this list.

– WTF fun facts

Source: “What Actually Happened on the Original Bastille Day” — Time Magazine

WTF Fun Facts 12781 – The 100+ Duels of Andrew Jackson

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Andrew Jackson was a bit of a hothead. How else does one get into over 100 duels (103, by some counts)?

Andrew and Rachel Jackson

Prior to becoming president, Andrew Jackson had quite a career as a soldier and a lawyer. But he was also well-known for his quick temper and desire to defend his wife’s honor (who people took to calling a bigamist).

Jackson’s wife, Rachel, had been married when they met. And by most accounts, he rescued her from an abusive marriage. However, that relationship didn’t end with a legal divorce. Hence the bigamy accusations. (She was officially divorced two years after her wedding to Jackson.)

A fellow plantation owner named Charles Dickinson took a feud over a bet (and related name-calling) public, apparently leaving Jackson with no choice.

The famous pre-presidential duel

Jackson clearly didn’t learn much from the 1804 duel of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. He and Dickinson met for their duel in 1806, eighteen years before his presidential election.

Dickinson shot Jackson directly in the chest. He lived, but the bullet could not be removed, and he suffered from health issues for the rest of his life.

According to Dickinson’s men, Jackson shot back, but his pistol jammed. They claimed he shot a second time (which is a major breach of conduct), killing Dickinson.

The aftermath of the duel

What we know for sure is that even after being shot in the chest, he staunched his wound with a handkerchief before gathering his strength to shoot.

While dueling was illegal, it clearly didn’t hurt his chances of being elected. And he wasn’t charged with murder either. It seems his sense of honor was intact along with his reputation (at least at the time).

–WTF fun facts

Source: “The Nine Lives of Andrew Jackson” — Mental Floss

WTF Fun Fact 12780 – The Buck Moon

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Why is it called the buck moon? Because of bucks, of course.

The Super (Buck) Moon

On July 13, 2022, we’ll see our second supermoon of the year.

According to Science Focus (cited below):

“Supermoons are categorised when the Moon is at 360,000km (or less) away from Earth in its orbital path, and we’ll often see two or three full supermoons in a row. The June full Moon, the Strawberry Moon and the August full Moon, the Sturgeon Moon, are both supermoons.

A supermoon is around 7 per cent larger and 15 per cent brighter than a standard full Moon, or 14 per cent bigger and 30 per cent brighter than a micromoon. This effect is amplified further when the Moon is on the horizon, like it is this month, thanks to the Moon illusion.”

What is a buck moon?

Science Focus described the meaning behind the buck moon. And it really is all about bucks – as in male deer:

“Most species of male deer (bucks) shed and regrow their antlers every year. They shed their antlers in the early spring (or late winter), which then regrow and continue to develop during the summer months. As they grow, the antlers are protected by a thin, velvety layer which hardens, dries and falls away once they’re fully grown. This is why bucks’ antlers often look ‘tatty’ in the summer.

By July, it’s usual to see bucks with full-size antlers in preparation for the autumn breeding season. They’ll need to be in top fettle to compete with other bucks for the best females.

As such, the Algonquin tribe named it the Buck Moon.

Other names for the July full Moon include the Berry Moon, Raspberry Moon and Thunder Moon.”

– WTF fun facts

Source: “Buck Supermoon 2022: How to see July’s full Moon tonight” — Science Focus