Mental Floss: Instant Knowledge (43 page)

(for success)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, classical performances, and making small talk at drag shows and divorce procedures

KEYWORDS:
jealousy, cross-dressing, or Berlioz

THE FACT:
Luckily for the world, French composer Hector Berlioz was fished out of the Mediterranean. Unluckily for Berlioz, he was wearing women’s clothing at the time.

The renowned musician Hector Berlioz was, among other things, wacky. While away in Rome studying on a scholarship, he heard that his beloved girlfriend, Camille, back in Paris, had started seeing another guy. Furious, he resolved to kill his rival. But he needed to disguise himself. So he bought a gun, put on a dress, and boarded a train for Paris. Halfway home, however, Berlioz chickened out and threw himself into the Mediterranean. Thankfully for the world, and for music, he was fished out (minus the gun).

(where to sell your soul for the blues)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, barroom banter, and jazz club discussions

KEYWORDS:
Robert Johnson, the devil, or how the hell can someone be that good

THE FACT:
According to some folk, there’s only one way to get as good as Robert Johnson did—by making a pact with the devil.

Considered the most influential bluesman of all time, Robert Johnson is also one of the most turbulent. And few musicians have achieved Johnson’s mythical status, whether the devil had a hand in it or not. As the story goes, one night Johnson happened upon a large black man walking near the crossroads of Highways 61 and 49 outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi. The man offered to tune Johnson’s guitar, and claimed Johnson’s soul in return. Within a year, Johnson was in demand throughout the region. Actually, the story may have started when Johnson sat in on a gig with Sun House and Willie Brown. House and Brown were so impressed with Johnson’s playing they thought the only explanation was that he’d sold his soul. Of course, mythic lives require mythic endings. Known for his womanizing, Johnson was fatally poisoned when he sipped some whiskey laced with strychnine—the act of a jealous husband.

(currency for a rockier time)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, chatting up a world traveler, and joking with your teller

KEYWORDS:
too much change, bulky wallet, or hernia

THE FACT:
If you’re frustrated by the market, and you’re looking for a currency that can stand the test of time, look no further.

In the Caroline Islands in the South Pacific, there’s an island named Yap (or Uap). In 1903, an American anthropologist named Henry Furness III visited the islanders and found they had an unusual system of currency. It consisted of carved stone wheels called
fei
, ranging in diameter from a foot to 12 feet. Because the stones were heavy, the islanders didn’t normally carry their money around with them. After a transaction, the
fei
might remain on a previous owner’s premises, but it was understood who owned what. One family’s
fei
, Furness was told, had been lost at sea many years earlier while being transported from a nearby island during a storm. But that stone was still used as currency, even though it was unseen and irretrievable beneath hundreds of feet of water.

USEFUL FOR:
barroom banter, impressing locals wherever finer nicotine and drug paraphernalia are sold

KEYWORDS:
dip, chewing tobacco, or national pastime

THE FACT:
Believe it or not, the national obsession of Yemen is basically chewing a mild stimulant known as qat.

Every afternoon, much of Yemen simply shuts down as men gather together to chew great wads of qat and convivially discuss events. A few writers have gone so far as to blame Yemen’s persistent poverty on the drug, largely because chewing it simply eats up so much time. A more reasonable concern is that qat cultivation is undermining Yemen’s agriculture, because other crops are being abandoned in favor of the much more profitable drug. Yemen was once the world’s major supplier of coffee, but those days are long gone. The Yemenis evidently think that they have found a better stimulant, even if most of the rest of the world begs to differ.

(and its best hood ornament)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, dates at the aquarium, and stirring up conversation at a sushi dinner

KEYWORDS:
octopus, Red Wings, or pimp my ride

THE FACT:
Everyone knows that octopi can really touch up a Zamboni at the center of an ice rink or add just a hint of pizzazz when fashionably draped from the rafters. At least anyone who’s ever been to a Detroit hockey game.

If you’re looking for more tips in mollusk décor, though, you’ll actually need to head out to one of the Red Wings’ games for yourself, where you’ll be sure to find 20 to 30 octopi displayed on the ice. Why, exactly? It’s a tradition that started in 1952 during the Red Wings’ Stanley Cup run. During the game, fans Jerry and Pete Cusimano tossed a boiled octopus onto the ice—its eight legs symbolic of the Red Wings’ eight straight wins (at the time, only eight wins were needed to win the playoffs). The crowd went wild (instead of being confused), and a sports tradition was born. Since then, the largest octopus to land on the ice weighed in at 50 pounds. Later in the game, it was displayed on the hood of the Zamboni while the ice was being cleaned between periods, definitely a hood ornament worth emulating.