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| Displaying Bad Predictions Anecdotes: 335 Found |
Dewey Morning
On election eve, 1948, Thomas Dewey (who, according to polls, was poised to defe...
The Eagles: Like Hell
Shortly after the Eagles split up in 1981, Glenn Frey was asked when the band mi...
Fishy Forecast
During a weather forecast in October 1987, British meteorologist Michael Fish to...
Mad Ladie
Because her prophecies were deemed a danger during the troubled religious climat...
Tom Cruise: How Now?
"You're too intense and you're not pretty enough for television," Tom Cruise was...
Sly Prediction
A firm believer in the astrological 'sciences,' Louis XI was hardly surprised wh...
Baldwin's History?
Winston Churchill once pilloried one of prime minister Stanley Baldwin's policie...
Oil Baron?
Thales was often dismissed as little more than a flighty philosopher; his suppos...
Fat Man
In 1975, George Plimpton, a longtime pyrotechnics enthusiast, unveiled a 720 pou...
Triers
As the Allies advanced into Germany at the end of World War II, General Patton r...
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Body...
Arnold Schwarzenegger biographer George Butler once recalled a conversation he h...
John Edward: Bogus Psychic
"Crossing Over" host John Edward was often accused of employing ruses to create ...
Conan O'Brien: Poor Kid
Conan O'Brien: "I remember very clearly when Mike Myers showed up [at 'Saturday ...
Carrey On
Jane Leeves (best known for her role as Daphne Moon on "Frasier") first met Jim ...
Street Wisdom?
When Sinclair Lewis's Main Street became a worldwide bestseller, Jack War...
Say Watt?
According to the traditional account, James Watt one day happened to observe a k...
Titanic Coincidence
In 1898, Morgan Robertson published a novel, entitled Futility, about a g...
Moon Shot?
In 1963, New York Yankees pitcher Gaylord Perry jokingly remarked that "they'll ...
George Gallup & the Telepho...
Like many polls conducted before the presidential election of 1948, George Gallu...
Central Misperception
Leon Trotsky, who spent much of his time during World War I playing chess in Vie...
Great Hoax
According to a widely circulated internet bulletin, Nostradamus predicted the te...
Drapeau's Baby
"The Olympic Games can no more lose money," legendary Montreal mayor Jean Drapea...
Johnny Depp: Winona Forever
Soon after co-starring in Edward Scissorhands, Winona Ryder and Johnny De...
Frank Knox: Caught Napping?
"No matter what happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping," U.S. ...
Prophet of Doom?
As a youngster in Kansas City, Dennis Hopper once took classes taught by the leg...
Bishop Wrong?
"A bishop [in the late 19th Century] pronounced from his pulpit and in the perio...
Loretta Lynn: On the Road
"Doo told me I could sing," Loretta Lynn once recalled. "Well, I knew better. I ...
Future Prospects
One day shortly after assuming the management of the New York Mets, Casey Stenge...
Lead Zeppelin?
One day the Who's late drummer Keith Moon told Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and the ...
Jerome Irving Rodale
One day in 1971, Jerome Irving Rodale - the founding father of the organic food ...
Nutty Newton
Though best known as a physicist, Sir Isaac Newton also developed an acute fasci...
Arnold Schoenberg: Triskaid...
The composer Arnold Schoenberg suffered from triskaidekaphobia (the fear of the ...
Jerusalem
After Richard II had appropriated his inheritance and banished him from England,...
Magic Moment? (long)
"Almost thirty years ago now [in the early 1970s], two young actors were in thei...
The Terminator
O. J. Simpson was among the actors considered for the title role in James Camero...
Astrological Bull
In 1934, Picturegoer magazine published an astrological article entitled ...
Jamaican Eclipse
While anchored off Jamaica in 1504, Christopher Columbus found himself in dire s...
Cosmic Foresight
There exist five Platonic solids of perfect symmetry. Three (the tetrahedron, oc...
J. K. Rowling: Real Job
After purchasing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (for $1,910) in...
Joaquin Phoenix: Actor
"I was driving up Laurel Canyon the other day," Ladder 49 star Joaquin Ph...
William Blake, Psychic?
"When William Blake was fourteen years old, his father planned to apprentice him...
Moronic Acid?
One day during World War I, a group of American chemists called upon Secretary o...
Wayne Gretzky: Pipe Cleaner
By the time Wayne Gretzky was six years old he was already skating with 10-year-...
Partridge's Almanac
On his way to a distant town one day, John Partridge, a charlatan famed for his ...
Biggest Fool?
Shortly after assuming office in 1945, president Harry Truman attended a series ...
Thumped (long)
In 1912, Harold Anson Bruce, coach of the undefeated Lafayette College track tea...
The Birth of Television
On January 27th, 1926, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public ...
Dennis Wilson: Tuned-In Dude
In the late 1960s, the Beach Boys recorded a song called "Never Learn Not To Lov...
Buckey O'Neill
The lawyer, miner, cowboy, sheriff, and congressman Buckey O'Neill was one of Te...
Marshal Petain
In June 1940, Charles de Gaulle brought Marshal Petain an offer from Winston Chu...
Rich Reply
Wary of invading the Persian empire, king Croesus one day consulted the oracle a...
Nuthin’ a’tall
The following snippet of conversation is recorded on a plaque marking Abraham Li...
Sylvester Stallone: Young Sly
Sylvester Stallone made a distinct impression at an early age. "When I was in ju...
Amazin'
In 1961, Casey Stengel was hired as the New York Mets' first manager. "The Mets,...
Naked Incompetence
In August 2003, Romanian Agriculture Minister (and head of the Romanian Meteorol...
Battle of the Sexes
In September 1973, Bobby Riggs (once the world's top-ranked tennis player) chall...
Black Tuesday
On October 20th, 1929, the noted Yale University economist Irving Fisher declare...
World Series Forecast
In 1992, Dan Shaughnessy of The Boston Globe announced that statistical r...
California Angels
Despite a talented roster, the California Angels failed to win a single World Se...
Kevin Spacey: Psychic Visit
One day when he was 17, Kevin Spacey went to a psychic, and was told that he wou...
Suspended Disbelief
In the 1930s Joseph Strauss, the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, watch...
Cardano
Girolamo Cardano, whose addiction to gambling led to his pioneering studies of p...
Rhymes with Petard?
In 1919 Lincoln Steffens (then an admirer of socialism) and William Bullitt visi...
General Custer: Famous Last...
During the Civil War, George Armstrong Custer was famed for his good luck. Thoug...
Denzel Washington: Prophecy
One day in 1973, Denzel Washington (then a 20-year-old student at Fordham Univer...
Missive Missiles?
Arthur Summerfield, America's Postmaster General under Eisenhower, made a curiou...
Or Not...
In 1995, Ethernet inventor and 3Com founder Bob Metcalfe made a curious predicti...
Purple Shamrock
In 1946, James Curley ("The Purple Shamrock") won his bid for reelection as Bost...
Patton in Pinstripes
In the late 1970s, the New York Yankees were often called the "Bronx Zoo Yankees...
Young Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire, who disguised his large hands by curling his middle fingers while ...
Moonshine
"The energy produced by the atom is a very poor kind of thing," Ernst Rutherford...
Star Wars
George Lucas's script for Star Wars was turned down by every major Hollyw...
Trafalgar
While preparing for the battle of Trafalgar, Admiral Nelson, aboard HMS ...
Quadrophenia
The Who's rock opera Quadrophenia (released in October 1973) was named af...
Great Plague
In 1664, Czar Dmitri was allegedly told that a comet seen over Russia portended ...
Sound Advice?
Mary Pickford, the first international film star and the first to have her name ...
White Elephant?
"Don't be a damn fool," David O. Selznick was advised one day. "This picture is ...
Isaac Bickerstaff
"In 1707 Jonathan Swift decided to laugh the fraudulent John Partridge [the noto...
Planck
At the age of seventeen, Max Planck sought out the head of his university physic...
Old Farmer's Almanac
In the 18th century, Robert Thomas's Old Farmer's Almanac was just one of...
Kentucky Derby Blooper
On May 4, 1957, legendary jockey Willie Shoemaker rode Gallant Man in that year'...
Likely Wrong
"In all likelihood," International Monetary Fund Managing Director Per Jacobsson...
Governor's Mother
Barbara Bush was once asked whether she gave President George W. Bush advice. "I...
Make Way for Roland Hancock
At the 1928 US Open at Olympia Fields, Roland Hancock, an unknown 21-year-old pr...
Dead in the Water
"The regretful verdict here," Time film critic Richard Corliss announced ...
Angelina Jolie & Billy Bob ...
Shortly after breaking up with Billy Bob Thornton, Rolling Stone's Chris ...
Wayne Gretzky: Pipe Cleaner
By the time Wayne Gretzky was six years old he was already skating with 10-year-...
Tom Peters: In Search of Ex...
In 1982, management gurus Tom Peters and Robert Waterman transformed the market ...
Jackie Stallone & the Maryl...
Jackie Stallone (Sylvester Stallone's mother) earned a measure of fame for using...
Pete Sampras: Curse of the ...
In October 2002, GQ published an article entitled "In the Zone," whose au...
Nelly Furtado: Bird Brains
Nelly Furtado's debut album, Whoa, Nelly!, was released in 2000 and, prop...
Carolyn Murphy: Sixth Sense
"I would be out surfing in Costa Rica and I would have these panic attacks to ge...
Ozzy Osbourne: No More Tours
In 1992, Ozzy Osbourne announced that he planned to spend more time with his fam...
Chris McDonnell: Bananas
In 2004, British physiotherapist Chris McDonnell conducted extensive research on...
Wright Brothers: Hard to Be...
"Flight was generally looked upon as an impossibility and scarcely anyone believ...
George Parker: Monopoly
"Monopoly was not invented by [Parker Brothers co-founder] George Parker. When h...
Meg Tilly in Hollywood
After injuring her back while ballet dancing, Meg Tilly (an aspiring ballerina) ...
John Belushi & Neil Levy
"I was at Catch a Rising Star trying to pick up a girl one night," comedy writer...
Clint Eastwood: Bumpy Start
Ben Chapman: "Clint's first role ['with big pompadour hair'] was ...
Clint Eastwood: Never Say N...
In 1985, Rolling Stone magazine asked Clint Eastwood if he would ever run...
Jerry Ferrara: Boston Market
Jerry Ferrara (best known for his role as Turtle on "Entourage") once worked at ...
Jeannette Walls: Elie Tahar...
MSNBC.com gossip columnist Jeannette Walls grew up scavenging for food in school...
Bognor Regis
One day in 1936, George V's doctor assured him that, notwithstanding his unfortu...
Way Out
In 1962, the Decca Recording Company rejected an opportunity to sign the Beatles...
Arthur Conan Dole?
During a rehearsal for one of his plays one day, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle began jo...
Hank Luisetti: Bee Stung
Stanford University basketball star Hank Luisetti was famed for his (then unusua...
Profitless Locality
Lt. Joseph Ives visited the Grand Canyon in 1861. "Ours has been the first, and ...
Russell Crowe: Rocky Horror
While touring Australia and New Zealand with a theater company (in his mid-twent...
Pure Ignorance?
For Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, building a personal computer in...
Werner von Braun: Life on t...
Years before Apollo XI landed on the moon, the legendary rocket scientist Werner...
DODOS?
While working on the original version of Microsoft's Disk Operating System (DOS)...
Happy Days
The classic song "Happy Days Are Here Again" was first played by George Olsen at...
Likely Story?
One year two students at the Pasadena Playhouse acting school were jointly voted...
Robert Millikan: Gigantic B...
"In 1930, the American physicist and Nobel Prize-winner Robert Millikan (1868-19...
Richard Branson: Class Male...
When Virgin Records founder Richard Branson dropped out of Stowe (a large Englis...
Fermi
As early as March 1939, Enrico Fermi tried to explain to Admiral Hooper (the Chi...
Bad Computer Predictions
"I think there is a world market," IBM chief Thomas Watson famously declared one...
Old Hickory
While preparing to attack New Orleans, the British admiral Sir Alexander Cochran...
Halle Berry: Hollywood Prem...
One day in November 2003, Halle Berry arrived at a Los Angeles cinema for the gl...
Halley's Comet
Mark Twain's birth in November 1835 was heralded by the return of Halley's comet...
Turing Test
In 1950, the brilliant mathematician Alan Turing published an article in the Bri...
Lights Out?
In 1878, Sir Eramus Wilson made a curious prediction: "When the Paris Exhibition...
Good Harvest
Cyrus McCormick went bankrupt after the panic of 1837. He lost his farm and ever...
Court Astrologers
According to Marco Polo, Kublai Khan maintained some 5,000 court astrologers, wh...
Swedish Broad
George Raft was once offered the role of Rick in Casablanca. He turned it...
Florence Nightingale: Hypoc...
Florence Nightingale's tireless battle against death and disease during the Crim...
Medes
One night Astyages, king of the Medes, dreamt that his grandson (Cyrus) had usur...
Famous Last Words
When filming wrapped on Giant, James Dean and a stuntman jumped into his ...
Harry Benson
For photographer Harry Benson, the road to success was not exactly paved with go...
George Martin: Err Studio
When former Beatles producer George Martin built Air Studio on the Caribbean isl...
Prescience
The official inventor of the periscope was not granted a patent on his device. W...
Cracker Jack Flash?
While covering a Rolling Stones concert at New York's Madison Square Garden for ...
Dempsey & Firpo
"On the evening of September 14, 1923," Vancouver Sun publisher Stuart Ke...
I Ching
In the early 1960s, E. L. Doctorow was offered a writing job in California. Hesi...
Kristen Johnson: Destined f...
"3rd Rock from the Sun" star Kristen Johnson seemed destined for stardom from an...
Star-Crossed Astrologer
In the space of a few weeks shortly before the onset of World War II, the outsta...
Dark Continent?
Thomas Edison's invention of the light bulb was not universally well-received. I...
Ethelred the Unready
Following a bad omen at the baptism of Ethelred the Unready, St. Dunstan predict...
USCrewed?
Why did the most commercially successful director in the history of cinema atten...
Cantor Fitzgerald Risk Asse...
In the late 1990s, Thomas Barnett, a Harvard-educated professor of military stra...
Rebel Yell
During his college years in England, Billy Idol worked nights as a postal worker...
Atomic Blooper
The Manhattan Project (to build an atomic bomb during World War II) was not with...
Good Vibe
In 1993, publisher John Rollins and editor Alan Light launched a hip-hop magazin...
Cheer Up, Children
"Cheer up, children," Franz Haydn declared from his deathbed one day. ...
Classic Haldane
In the middle of a conversation with J. B. S. Haldane one day, a friend of the e...
Enormous Moron?
One day in 1829, during his tenure as governor of New York, Martin Van Buren wro...
Shiner?
Casey Stengel once offered Phil Rizzuto (who would later play shortstop under St...
Waylon Jennings & Willie Ne...
"Waylon Jennings once asked me for some friendly advice on moving to Nashville,"...
Young Marilyn Monroe
When she was eighteen years old, Marilyn Monroe received some advice from Emmeli...
Satisfaction?
One day in 1970, Mick Jagger made a remarkable assertion: "I'd rather be dead," ...
Village Idiot
According to a widely circulated internet bulletin, Nostradamus once composed a ...
Predictable Blooper
Perhaps surprisingly, Yogi Berra, though famous for his verbal bloopers, rarely ...
Rickety Advice
Brooklyn Dodgers manager Branch Rickey once offered a word of advice to an aspir...
Technically Stupid?
In 1898, young Albert Einstein applied for admission to the Munich Technical
I...
Guess Who
In 1880 a house master at Harrow wrote of one of his pupils: "He is forgetful, c...
Surgeon-Extraordinary?
19th Century surgeons hardly envisioned the progress which would be made by thei...
Jazz Mimer?
In the eyes of many Hollywood observers, the success of the 'talkies' was hardly...
One Week
"To be honest, we have no idea what writing a hit is," Barenaked Ladies frontman...
Avant Garde
A reviewer once described the vivacity and brio which made Peggy Guggenheim's ga...
Ides of March
Early in March of 44 BC, Julius Caesar was warned by an augur (named Spurinna) t...
Screaming Mad
"One of the wrongs I did in my life," Ike Turner once declared, "was that I fire...
Truth Herz?
In 1964 computer pioneer Arthur L. Samuel made a curious prediction (in a paper ...
Fanciful Idea
In 1932, noted American astronomer Forest Ray Moulton made a curious prediction:...
Dilli Doorasth
In the 14th Century, Ghiyas-uddin Tughlaq began to build the third city of Delhi...
Way Out
In 1962, the Decca Recording Company famously rejected John Lennon and his Beatl...
Rocket Science
In 1921, a curious editorial appeared in the New York Times critiquing th...
Idiot Berle
Sarah Berlinger was a quintessential stage mother, hovering over Milton Berle's ...
Medicine Man
During the production of Fort Apache, director John Ford was given daily ...
Practiced Politician
Winston Churchill was once asked to name the chief qualifications of a politicia...
News Flash
"After a few more flashes in the pan, we shall hear very little more of Edison o...
Peace For Our Time
On September 30th, 1938, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain returned fro...
Young Wellington
Like many noteworthy generals, Wellington was a mediocre student. Indeed, his mo...
Myers Boys
Incredibly, Mike Myers, the youngest of three boys, was considered the least com...
Corporate Transformation
When AOL CEO Steve Case orchestrated the merger of AOL and Time Warner (in 2001)...
Hsi and Ho
The first report of a solar eclipse appeared in Chinese records. The eclipse cam...
Nose For Discovery
While visiting Madagascar during his legendary voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, Cha...
Cosmic Blooper
Shortly after the publication of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity ...
Kipling's Nurse
One day Rudyard Kipling thanked the nurse who had cared for his firstborn child....
Clever Chap
"It's all very well drawing funny pictures," Sir Osbert Lancaster was once told ...
Joyce & Barnacle
Though educated by Jesuits, James Joyce rejected his Catholicism, family, and ho...
Mousetrap
"Richard Attenborough, who played Detective Sergeant Trotter in the first 700 pe...
Gone With The Wind?
One day Gary Cooper was offered the role of Rhett Butler in the film adaptation ...
Little Bastard
"The thing about these cars is that they're fail-safe," James Dean once declared...
Lord Kelvin's Bad Predictions
"Radio has no future," Lord Kelvin once declared. As bad as this prediction was,...
Gallumph
Claudia Schiffer began modeling shortly after her "discovery" in a German discot...
Ford Stock
While contemplating an investment in his client's new company, Henry Ford's lawy...
The Big Trail (long)
One day in the late 1920s, director Raoul Walsh spotted an athletic-looking youn...
Hart Family
Shortly after Stu Hart set out on his WWF career, he was asked by his wife how l...
Nostradamus & Henry II
Despite their patent ambiguity, the quatrains of the famous prophet Nostradamus ...
Dick Clark: Young Hustler
While studying advertising and radio at Syracuse University, Dick Clark worked a...
What the Foch?
Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Commander in Chief of the Allied armies at the end of Wo...
Young Pele
"Nicknamed Dico by his family, he was called Pelé by soccer friends, a word whos...
Rosemary Goudreau: Wrong Ed...
"Dear Readers," Tampa Bay Tribune editorial page editor Rosemary Goudreau...
Congratulations Gooden
In 1987 Dwight Gooden entered rehab after testing positive for cocaine use. He w...
Krazy King
One day in 1947, Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King
noted in ...
Five Year Reunion
Eliza Dushku once told the producers of "True Calling" that their idea for a fiv...
Blooming Mad?
"When I was at Harvard Business School in 1949, just after the war," Marvin Trau...
Bebe Neuwirth: It's a Girl!
When Bebe Neuwirth was born, the doctor who delivered her announced, "It's a gir...
Young Bikram Choudhury: Min...
At thirteen, Bikram Choudhury - inventor of Bikram yoga - won the National India...
Ben Affleck: J.Lo Tattoo
One day in October 2002, Matt Damon strongly advised his buddy Ben Affleck not t...
Michael Eisner: Finding Nemo
In his first 13 years in charge of Disney (beginning in 1984), Michael Eisner ra...
Donald Rumsfeld: WMDoh
By April 2004, Democratic congressman Henry Waxman had assembled a list containi...
Katie Couric & Reese Schonfeld
Katie Couric's career was nearly derailed at early age on account of her irritat...
Dean Kamen: Horse and Buggy
"When Dean Kamen, an American inventor, unveiled the ultra-secret Segway human t...
Wesley Clark: Smart Enough
"You're not big enough or smart enough to go to West Point," a Senator once told...
Mohamed ElBumblingidiot?
"The International Atomic Energy Agency," I.A.E.A. director Mohamed ElBaradei de...
William Ralph Inge: Praying...
For many years, William Ralph Inge was a regular contributor to the ...
Dustin Hoffman: Home for Pa...
After studying music for several years at Santa Monica City College and the Los ...
Sophia Loren: Screen Test
"Sophia Loren's screen test [for producer Carlo Ponti] was an unmitigated disast...
Jim Morrison: Fateful Predi...
"One night in London, as Jim [Morrison] and Ronay [Alain Ronay, a friend from UC...
Middle Fingers
The great Polish pianist, composer, and statesman Ignace Jan Paderewski was once...
Madonna: MTV Debut
In 1984, Madonna performed live on MTV for the very first time. The verdict of o...
Young Vin Diesel
After making his debut at the age of five (as Prince Charming in a youth product...
Ballsy Reply
In 1934, Dizzy Dean and his brother Paul both pitched for the St. Louis Cardinal...
Porcelain
In the event of a nuclear holocaust, cockroaches, it is often said, would be amo...
Patently Moronic
At the turn of the 19th Century, many were swept up in fin-de-siecle euph...
Sunset Studios
"If I could find a white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel," Sam Phill...
Martian Venice?
American astronomer Percival Lowell is chiefly remembered for two seemingly outl...
Minuit
On May 4th, 1626, the aptly-named Peter Minuit succeeded Willem Verhulst as the ...
Heavy Miscalculation
"Flight by machines heavier than air," Simon Newcomb declared one day in 1902, "...
Margaret Thatcher
In 1975, Margaret Thatcher challenged Edward Heath for the Tory leadership simpl...
Turgid?
Alfred Kinsey was a little-known zoologist when, in 1948, he published his class...
Business School Failure?
While studying business management at Yale University, Fred Smith nearly receive...
Chuv-v-valo
Even before embarking upon a boxing career, George Chuvalo frequently stuttered ...
Uncle Ho
In the mid-1960s, it became clear to Lyndon B. Johnson that the escalating war i...
Sure-Handed
Famously risk-averse, Universal Studios chief Lew Wasserman once balked at the s...
Nostradamus's Death
One evening in 1566, Nostradamus's assistant found the cryptic prophet writing a...
USC Film School
Michael Bay, the producer/director behind such blockbuster Hoolywood productions...
Eternal Optimist?
Douglas Fairbanks' final words? "I've never felt better!"...
Unreliable Engineers?
"[IBM chief Thomas Watson Jr], who shared his father's volcanic temper... promot...
Warren Crapp
In 2001, Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Warren Sapp, a five time all-star...
Stupid People
At the turn of the millennium, the legendary psychotherapist Albert Ellis began ...
Dionysius Lardner: The Prof...
"In the 1830s, Irish-born Dionysius Lardner, a professor of natural philosophy a...
Frank Black: Pixies Reunion
In 2001, Pixies frontman Frank Black told Rolling Stone magazine that the...
Young Courtney McCool
"On the day Courtney McCool was born, her family couldn't help but notice her fe...
Paris Hilton: Tinkerbell
One day in 2004, Paris Hilton's little dog Tinkerbell ran away. Paris called a p...
Allison Janney: Emmy Speech
In 2004, Allison Janney won an Emmy for her role as Claudia Jean "C. J." Cregg o...
Not So Cherwell
During World War II, the British government was advised by Lord Cherwell, Winsto...
Redhead
Angie Everhart, who started modeling at the age of 16, was once told by Eileen F...
Loony Notion?
In 1870, U.S. Senate chaplain Edward Everett Hale published a historic science f...
Damn Wrong
Although 7.5 million televisions were sold in 1950 (up from less than a million ...
Physics Professor?
"I can accept the theory of relativity," Ernst Mach once declared, "as little as...
Frequent Flyer
Because he did not want war to be a "backdrop for lighthearted high jinks," Alan...
Austerlitz
Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz (in December, 1805) over the combined forces of...
Phyllis George: Never
"The list of 'never's in my life is as long as a football field," Phyllis George...
Swift Decline?
At the age of fifty Jonathan Swift, gazing at the withered crown of a nearby tre...
Edgar Bronfman, Jr & the Fa...
"I'm not going down in history as the one Bronfman who pissed away the family fo...
Comet
As Mazarin lay dying, the sky was lit by a comet which fuckingstitious observers...
Bad Call
Jenny McCarthy was once told she would never be a model. "They said I was too sh...
Short Answer
James Dean was once told that he was too short to be an actor. Replied Dean: "Ho...
Leary
In 1965, legendary LSD pioneer Timothy Leary declared that the United States wou...
Patsy Cline
On March 5th, 1963, Patsy Cline hopped on a plane in terrible weather. "I'm real...
Pedigreed Patriot
Incredibly, Julianna Margulies' unusual pedigree (a mix of Austrian, Hungarian, ...
Young Jimmy Smits
When young Jimmy Smits announced his plans to become an actor, his parents were ...
Catherine Bell & the NFL
"Before the 2001 NFL season began, in a survey of 70 celebrities who had nothing...
Fannie Farmer
In order to get her first cookbook published (in 1896), Fannie Farmer had to pay...
Josef Pencilpusher?
In 2001, Esquire's Mary Rogan traveled to Austria to work on an article a...
Cookie Cutter?
Having developed what many regard as the perfect cookie, Debbi Fields began to s...
Naughtilus?
"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your m...
Long Live Rock and Roll
One day in the mid-1950s, Dean Martin told an interviewer that rock-n-roll was "...
Swift Prediction
1726 saw the appearance of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, a fiction...
Positively Absurd?
When mathematical equations are used to model physical reality, seemingly absurd...
Young Robin Williams
Robin Williams attended Redwood High School in Larkspur, California. Unsurprisin...
Gray Matter
Incredibly, G. K. Chesterton could not read until he was eight years old. "If we...
Flight of Fancy?
Shortly after their historic first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,...
Young Beethoven
Beethoven once expressed his wish to find a patron who would pay him an income f...
Young Missy Elliott
Early in her career Missy Elliott was given a word of advice by record company e...
Big Forehead Club
"I never really thought of myself as a beefcake kind of guy," Ben Affleck remark...
Chelsea Horror Hotel
In 2002, the body of punk legend (and novelist) Dee Dee Ramone was found in his ...
Tom Coyne: Welcome to Holly...
"The first agent to ever call me told me my book was never going to sell," Tom C...
Kid Rock: Cocky Producers
"Kid Rock's Cocky got off to what could politely be termed a slow start u...
John Landis: Dumb Producers
"With Blues Brothers, which focused on African American music," director ...
Goldie Hawn: Oscar Comedy
For her role as Toni Simmons in the Gene Saks comedy Cactus Flower (1969)...
Bjork: Vocal Album
In August 2004, Bjork released a vocal album entitled Medulla, along with...
Bobby Valentine: Chinese Cl...
While he was managing a baseball team in Japan in 2004, Bobby Valentine was give...
Blithe Prophecy
"Sir James Barrie once told me that he had been happy writing for the ...
Butterfly Effect
While working on a weather prediction problem one day in 1961, Edward Lorenz, us...
Young Sally Field
Sally Field was a natural. "When I was born," she once recalled, "the doctor loo...
Neglected Genius
Though Gregor Johann Mendel, the father of genetics, wanted to become a college ...
The Wiz
Following his appearance as the Scarecrow in The Wiz (Sidney Lumet's Afri...
Sally Field's Agent
One day Sally Field received some bad advice. "My agent said, 'You aren't good e...
Pier Paolo Pasolini's Murder
In 1975, Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini was murdered by a young hustler wh...
Dorothy Comingore
Though the set of Citizen Kane (1941) was imbued with a fraternal atmosph...
Young Cameron Diaz
"I didn't realize it was a fairly large film that I was a part of," Cameron Diaz...
Eavesdropper
Some time after he had lost his eyesight, James Thurber attended a party at a fr...
Telephone Game?
Alexander Graham Bell may have been thrilled to show Gardiner Green Hubbard (a f...
Schenck & Talkies
"People will not want talking pictures long," United Artists president Joseph Sc...
Riot Decoder
"In his essay 'The Electronic Revolution,' cynical libertarian William S. Burrou...
Radio Visionary
In the 1920s, David Sarnoff sought investment capital for the development of the...
John Belushi: Famous Last W...
In one classic "Saturday Night Live" sketch, John Belushi played the last surviv...
Salome
After hearing Richard Strauss's opera Salome, Kaiser Wilhelm II, no great...
Spoken Too Soon
"By the mid-1920s, the resistance of exhibitors to spending money on anything te...
Billy Bob Thornton: Evening...
Billy Bob Thornton's mother, a psychic, once declared that her son would work wi...
Old War-Horse
"When Lady Astor visited Russia in 1931 and talked to Stalin, he asked her opini...
Glenn Cunningham
When he was eight years old Glenn Cunningham was so badly burned that doctors to...
Einstein's Future
Albert Einstein was once asked about predictions for the future. "I never worry ...
Young Beethoven
As a child, Beethoven made such a poor impression on his music teachers that he ...
Negative Utopia
Stephen King was once dismayed to learn that Carrie had been rejected for...
Milk's Murder
Harvey Milk, the famously gay Supervisor of the city of San Francisco - and the ...
Rosalind Russell: Oscar Pre...
"When [Daily Variety's historic 1948 Oscar] predictions for the Supportin...
Salma Hayek: Leading Lady
Early in her career, Mexican-born Salma Hayek had more difficulty landing desira...
Shuji Nakamura: Rebellious ...
"Shuji Nakamura was just another rebellious inventor who had succeeded by trusti...
Weezer: Blue Album
After completing their debut Blue Album, Weezer, one of a thousand indie ...
Helen Mirren: Palm Reader
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Katherine Houghton: Another...
Shortly after graduating from college, Katherine Houghton (Katharine Hepburn's n...
Little Richard: Half the Be...
"We were touring Europe - me and the Everly Brothers and Bo Diddly," Little Rich...
Jeffrey Tambor: Premonition
After being nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 2004, Jeffrey Tambor had a pre...
Jay Leno: Neighbors
While working as a chauffeur, Jay Leno got an assignment to drive for Jack Lemmo...
Death of Jazz?
"In the nineteen-twenties, various composers, not a few of them French, set out ...
Constituty
In 2003, the futurist Jason Tester unveiled a curious prototype program designed...
Francis Aston
In his speech accepting the Nobel Prize in chemistry (for his development of the...
Madame Butterfly
In February 1904, Puccini's Madame Butterfly debuted at the La Scala oper...
World's Worst Critic
"Any critic can fail to spot a genius, but only James William Davison had the da...
Elixir of Life?
"Second Lieut. Bill Wilson didn't think twice when the first butler he had ever ...
Heidi Klum
During a photo shoot one day in 1993, Heidi Klum so impressed photographer Phili...
Marsh Prediction
The famous ecologist George Perkins Marsh once made a curious prediction: that t...
Miss Rocket
After winning the Miss Rocket Tower beauty contest in California in 1966, Cheryl...
SOL
"There's no chance of Sol Campbell leaving for Arsenal," Tottenham chairman Davi...
Chester Carlson & the Ball-...
Chester Carlson, the inventor of the xerographic process for copying documents, ...
Bulloch's Bollocks
Mogwai's Martin Bulloch once took a "dead test" on the Internet "where they ask ...
Rippingood Yarn
"Rembrandt is not to be compared in the painting of character," John Hunt once d...
Sexist Southey
In 1836, desperate to end her dreary life as a governess, Charlotte wrote to the...
Cynic?
While attending a dinner party one evening, H. G. Wells (who coined the term "at...
Mengenlehre
"Later generations," the French mathematician Jules Henri Poincaré once declared...
Talkies
Even with improvements in the quality of sound productions, many critics doubted...
Waiting for Godot
"We only printed something like a thousand copies, and the first year it sold ab...
Tristram Shandy
"Nothing odd will do long," Samuel Johnson declared one day in 1776. "Tristra...
Short History of the Future
"Democracy," John Langdon-Davies declared in his 'Short History of the Future' (...
Star Wars Preview
"I got a chance to see a preview of Star Wars," Viacom chairman Sumner Re...
Just Willett
In 2004, novelist Jincy Willett published a novel hopefully entitled ...
Beck: Loser
"My friend Steve made this movie about this stock car driver who always loses, a...
Young Clive Owen
"Clive Owen has often said that, for some unknown reason, he always wanted to ac...
Vanessa Redgrave: A Star is...
"Vanessa Redgrave's present status was prophesied on the day of her birth by no ...
Alicia Markova: Knock-Kneed...
As a child, Alicia Markova was so knock-kneed and flat-footed that doctors predi...
Alexandre Daigle: Alexandre...
In 1993, right winger Alexandre Daigle was drafted first overall by the Ottawa S...
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