Tuesday, May 21

The Debunker: When You're Arrested, Are You Entitled to One Phone Call?

by Ken Jennings a day ago

Unless you’ve dedicated a lot of time to breaking the law, most of what you know about the cops comes from movies and TV, and those may or may not be just the facts, ma’am. All month, Ken Jennings will be exploring the “thin blue line” between police fact and police fiction. If you actually thought this stuff was true—well, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the comments section.

Police Myth #3: When You’re Arrested, You Get One Phone Call.

Police arrests in movies and TV shows are always followed by a phone call—for dramatic purposes, I assume. We need to see the ne’er-do-well tearily confessing his downfall to a parent or spouse or co-conspirator. (Or lawyer, I guess, but that seems to happen less often in the movies than it does in real life.) This cliché has become so deeply engrained in the popular imagination that arrestees—in movies and in real life as well—now know to ask for “my phone call,” as if they are entitled to exactly one.

Tuesday, May 14

The Debunker: Do Police Outline Dead Bodies in Chalk?

by Ken Jennings 8 days ago

Unless you’ve dedicated a lot of time to breaking the law, most of what you know about the cops comes from movies and TV, and those may or may not be just the facts, ma’am. All month, Ken Jennings will be exploring the “thin blue line” between police fact and police fiction. If you actually thought this stuff was true—well, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the comments section.

Police Myth #2: Police Mark Murder Sites with Chalk Outlines.

If you’re ever murdered, don’t worry about trying to strike some hilarious pose. The old cliché of the tape or chalk silhouette might be a nice visual crutch for a cop movie or TV show, but the police aren’t supposed to outline murder victims anymore, if they ever were.

Wednesday, May 08

The Trivial Eye: Chairs of the 20th Century

by Jason Toon 14 days ago

If you wanted to be a truly legendary designer during the 20th century, you had to make at least one great chair. The world we live in - offices, especially - is adorned with countless knockoffs of the innovative chair designs of the masters. You'll doubtless recognize the shapes and angles of these chairs - but can you name them and their designers?

Tuesday, May 07

The Debunker: Do Undercover Cops Have To Identify Themselves?

by Ken Jennings 15 days ago

In 1962, a joint resolution of Congress made the third week of May “National Police Week,” a time to recognize the sacrifices made by the nation’s law enforcement officers. But let’s face it: unless you’ve dedicated a lot of time to breaking the law, most of what you know about the cops comes from movies and TV, and those may or may not be just the facts, ma’am. All month, Ken Jennings will be exploring the “thin blue line” between police fact and police fiction. If you actually thought this stuff was true—well, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the comments section.

Police Myth #1: Undercover Cops Have to Identify Themselves When Asked.

If everything you know about police procedure comes from an elite social circle of hookers, pot dealers, and paranoid college activists, then you probably agree wholeheartedly with this rule of thumb: any time you suspect someone of being a plainclothes cop, you can unmask them by this clever ruse of asking them! Presumably, at that point, the unconvincing john/buyer/whatever will shake his fist impotently at you, rip off his fake mustache, and stalk off into the night, his arrest thwarted.

Tuesday, April 30

The Debunker: Was the Civil War Fought Over States' Rights?

by Ken Jennings 22 days ago

Even though the Civil War hasn’t receded all that far into the past—the Associated Press reported last month that two children-of-Civil-War-vets are still alive and well and receiving government veterans’ benefits!—we may not remember very much about it. This month, Ken “Burns” Jennings will reveal that a lot of what you think you know about the Civil War is a bunch of Bull Run.

Civil War Myth #4: The War Wasn’t Really About Slavery.

A 2011 poll by the Pew Research Center commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War produced this shocking finding: only 38% of respondents said they believed that slavery was the war’s main cause. Nearly half—48%—opined that “states’ rights” was the real issue, while a wishy-washy 9% blamed both equally. Even more remarkably, younger people were more likely to be slavery skeptics than older ones!

Thursday, April 25

The Debunker: Did the Emancipation Proclamation End Slavery?

by Ken Jennings a month ago

Even though the Civil War hasn’t receded all that far into the past—the Associated Press reported last month that two children-of-Civil-War-vets are still alive and well and receiving government veterans’ benefits!—we may not remember very much about it. This month, Ken “Burns” Jennings will reveal that a lot of what you think you know about the Civil War is a bunch of Bull Run.

Civil War Myth #3: The Emancipation Proclamation Freed the Slaves.

Say what you will about the recent work of Steven Spielberg, at least it’s helped to shoot down a lot of historical myths about Abraham Lincoln. For example, most Americans dimly remembering their tenth-grade history class probably assume that slavery in the Republic was ended by the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863. But as the movie Lincoln makes clear, abolition didn’t actually happen for almost three more years, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified in December 1865.

Tuesday, April 09

The Debunker: Did the Monitor Fight the Merrimack?

by Ken Jennings a month ago

Even though the Civil War hasn’t receded all that far into the past—the Associated Press reported last month that two children-of-Civil-War-vets are still alive and well and receiving government veterans’ benefits!—we may not remember very much about it. This month, Ken “Burns” Jennings will reveal that a lot of what you think you know about the Civil War is a bunch of Bull Run.

Civil War Myth #2: The Ironclad Warships Monitor and Merrimack Faced Off in 1862.

Perhaps the most important naval engagement of the Civil War was fought on March 9, 1862, off Hampton Roads, Virginia. But the Battle of Hampton Roads is rarely known by its proper geographic name, since schools tend to teach it as “the battle of the Monitor and Merrimack.” These two ironclad ships fired on each other at close range for over three hours, but neither was able to sink (or even do much damage to) the other. The repercussions of the game-changing battle were felt as far away as Europe, where naval powers like Britain and France immediately abandoned the construction of wooden-hulled ships in favor of the ironclad warships that still plow the seas today.

Thursday, April 04

The Trivial Eye: Retired Sports Mascots

by Jason Toon 2 months ago

From football, baseball, and basketball to mothballs: some of these sports team mascots were discontinued because they disturbed our changing social sensibilities - others because they were simply disturbing. Can you name these much-loved, much-hated icons of simpler, in some cases stupider times?

Wednesday, April 03

The Debunker: When Were the First Shots of the Civil War Fired?

by Ken Jennings 2 months ago

The month of April is inseparably connected with the American Civil War. The traditional bookends for the war—the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861, and Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865—both took place in early April. But even though the Civil War hasn’t receded all that far into the past—the Associated Press reported last month that two children-of-Civil-War-vets are still alive and well and receiving government veterans’ benefits!—we may not remember very much about it. This month, Ken “Burns” Jennings will reveal that a lot of what you think you know about the Civil War is a bunch of Bull Run.

Civil War Myth #1: The First Shots of the War Were Fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.

Since the north never recognized the Confederacy as a foreign government, but only as a “belligerent foreign power,” there was no formal declaration of war in 1861. As a result, historians tend to date the beginning of hostilities to April 12, 1861, when Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard ordered his batteries in Charleston harbor to fire on the besieged Union garrison of Fort Sumter. The fort surrendered before any casualties resulted, but the exchange led to a massive military build-up in the north and more secessions from the south. The war had clearly begun.

Tuesday, March 26

The Debunker: Is It Wrong To Ever Split An Infinitive?

by Ken Jennings 2 months ago

If you had a gun to your head, could you tell me the difference between “farther” or “further,” or spell “minuscule” correctly? In honor of National Grammar Day (March 4!) we’ll be debunking dialectical deceit all month on Woot. Was your ninth-grade English teacher’s classroom a house of lies? Find out from 74-time Jeopardy! champion (and self-proclaimed grammar Nazi) Ken Jennings.

Language Myth #4: It’s Bad Grammar to Ever Split an Infinitive.

An infinitive is a verb that hasn’t been conjugated to indicate who’s doing it or when. To go, for example, is an English infinitive. But if you were to put a third word between to and go—like Captain Kirk does when he promises “to boldly go where no man has gone before”—you have split the infinitive, a construction at which many self-appointed grammarians like to tsk-tsk.