Mental Floss: Instant Knowledge (7 page)

USEFUL FOR:
chatting with recent ex-smokers, four out of five dentists, and Violet “I Want It NOW” Beauregarde

KEYWORDS:
Chiclets, Wrigley’s, or Bazooka Joe

THE FACT:
While you could thank Thomas Adams for that wad of mush you’ve been chewing now for 11 hours straight, you should also probably thank Santa Ana.

While Thomas Adams was the guy who turned what was essentially rubber into a mass-marketed foodstuff, he couldn’t have done it without Texas villain Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana (yes,
that
Santa Ana). Exiled from Mexico in the late 1860s, Santa Ana moved to Staten Island, bringing with him some chicle, the gummy resin of the sapodilla tree. Chewing chicle was popular in Mexico, and Santa Ana introduced the pastime to some of his new American pals, including Thomas Adams. Adams wasn’t the first to patent chewing gum, but he was the first to popularize it on a grand scale. Thanks to brilliant ideas such as the gumball, the gumball machine, and flavored gum, he successfully turned chicle into a multimillion-dollar business and, as some janitors would have you believe, the scourge of the earth.

(as in the very happiest ones around)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, clam digs, and joking with psychiatrists

KEYWORDS:
clams, Prozac, and other antidepressants

THE FACT:
Everyone’s heard the expression, but what happens when you try to squeeze a few extra smiles out of bivalves via some drugs?

Believe it or not, Gettysburg College researcher Peter Fong decided to dope up his subjects, fingernail clams, by putting them on antidepressants. And while the phrase “happy as a clam” didn’t exactly originate with Fong’s research, his unique Prozac prescription has kick-started their social lives. Prozac decreases the uptake of serotonin, making more of the neurosecretion available to the nervous system. In the bivalves’ case, this led to an overwhelming urge for synchronous spawning—a boon both for clam farmers and gawky teenage clams alike.

(of a Nicaraguan sort)

USEFUL FOR:
planning your itinerary, chatting up Latin Americans, and spotting a Nicaraguan Studies major from a fake

KEYWORDS:
stereotypes, Nicaragua, or Mosquito Coast

THE FACT:
If you’re visiting Nicaragua and worried about having to brush up on all your high school Spanish, quit your worrying. Play your cards right and you can get by on English alone.

It’s true. Just visit the Caribbean shore of Nicaragua—the idyllically named “Mosquito Coast”—and you’ll find that English, Caribbean style, is the dominant tongue. And while it’s a legacy of the days of British imperialism, the Nicaraguans are really fond of it. (Even Colombia has an English-speaking zone in the nearby islands of San Andres and Providencia.) In the 1980s, for example, the nation’s leftist Sandinista rulers discovered to their chagrin just how deeply entrenched their country’s cultural divide was. When they tried to root out English as the “language of imperialism,” the people of the Caribbean coast quickly rose up in rebellion. We’re guessing they only love the language that much because no one’s ever forced them to diagram a sentence.

(and some serious animal magnetism)

USEFUL FOR:
cocktail parties, impressing your biology teacher, perhaps even dating said biology teacher

KEYWORDS:
too young, too old, too fat, or too bald

THE FACT:
Not unlike some of the divorcées in your neighborhood, female cockroaches actually lower their dating standards when they start feeling old.

It’s true. British scientists at the University of Manchester have determined that female cockroaches will lower their standards for a mate as their biological breeding clock begins to tick. By looking at the amount of wooing required of a cockroach male (similar to what’s observed on college campuses worldwide), the researchers documented that females became less selective as their reproductive potential decreased. Males, however, seemed to show no difference in mating practices related to the female cockroach’s age. Sound familiar?

USEFUL FOR:
after-dinner conversation, impressing lit majors, chatting up anyone who really loves their Joe

KEYWORDS:
Starbucks, Maxwell House, Taster’s Choice, etc.

THE FACT:
No matter how much you need your morning jolt of caffeine, Balzac needed his more.

“Coffee is a great power in my life,” the French writer said in his essay “The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee.” “I have observed its effects on an epic scale.” The thing is, he wasn’t kidding. Balzac consumed as many as 50 cups of strong Turkish coffee per day, and we’re talking about the days before indoor plumbing! Of course, he was no slouch at eating, either. At one meal old Balzac was reported to have eaten 100 oysters, 12 mutton cutlets, a duck, two partridges, and some fish, along with desserts, fruits, and wine. But coffee was clearly his passion, and he was faithful to the end. When Balzac couldn’t get it strong enough, the addict was known to down pulverized coffee beans to get the kick he needed. This produced two results: Balzac was an incredibly energetic and prolific writer, writing more than 100 novels. He also died of caffeine poisoning at the age of 51.