Here are 25 kickass random facts. For part 351, click here.
1-5 Kickass Random Facts
1. After marathoning Breaking Bad, Anthony Hopkins wrote Bryan Cranston a fan letter, saying (among other things) “Your performance as Walter White was the best acting I have seen ever.” – Source
2. Silas Soule was an abolitionist who, among other accomplishments, was present at the Sand Creek Massacre where he refused to order his men to fire. He testified at Congress against his commanding officer and was murdered soon after, likely as a result of his testimony. – Source
3. In 2014, an Australian physics professor submitted a paper titled “Get Me Off Your F*cking Mailing List” to a scientific journal that sent him unsolicited emails. The paper was accepted for publication, but the journal kept emailing him. – Source
4. William Shatner sold his kidney stone for US$25,000, which paid for the building of a house by Habitat for Humanity. – Source
5. John Barrowman, who is gay, auditioned to play Will on “Will & Grace” but was turned down for being too straight. The role went instead to Eric McCormack, who actually is straight. – Source
6-10 Kickass Random Facts
6. Chef Boyardee of canned Ravioli fame was awarded both the Gold Star order of excellence from the US War Dept. and the Order of Lenin from Russia for supplying rations to allied troops during WWII. – Source
7. There is a monument to honor the almost one million (often forgotten) Allied horses who died during the WWI. Out of one million drafted horses, only 62,000 returned 1918. – Source
8. South Korean bootleggers made a plan to balloon drop Sony’s “The Interview” to North Koreans, en masse. They had to cancel plans when North Korea learned of this and labeled such an action as a declaration of war. – Source
9. A suicide bomber was foiled when he forgot to set adjust his clock for daylight savings time and the device went off early in his car. – Source
10. De Beers has spent millions trying to detect the difference between real diamonds and modern lab-grown diamonds, so far to no avail as the diamond supply floods with cheap Chinese lab-grown gems. – Source
11-15 Kickass Random Facts
11. In 2006, Michael Vick started a charity for at-risk youth. The charity spent $20,000 of its budget on programs for kids, paid $97,000 to a friend of Vick’s who acted as the foundation’s fundraiser and gave the remaining $50,000 in its bank account to Vick’s financial adviser. – Source
12. J. Paul Getty, with a net worth of 1.2 billion in the 50s, scolded his wife for spending money freely on the treatment of their six-year-old son after he went blind from a brain tumor. When his son died six years later, Getty didn’t attend the funeral. – Source
13. There are 5 temples in Kyoto, Japan that have blood stained ceilings. The ceilings are made from the floorboards of a castle where warriors killed themselves after a long hold-off against an army. – Source
14. Sony sold its waterproof Walkman in a bottle of water to prove it was really waterproof. – Source
15. When chess player Bobby Fischer beat soviet grandmaster Taimanov, Taimanov was thrown off the USSR team, forbidden to travel, banned from writing articles, and deprived of his monthly stipend. It virtually ended his career. – Source
#25, I want to make a Roy Moore joke so bad, but I wont.