Author: Erin

From Krampus to Santa Claus, the holiday season is filled with all sorts of memorable characters. On December 26, 1973, the studio executives at Warner Bros. added a new kind of yuletide tot into the mix: Regan MacNeil, a demonic tween famous for her distaste for pea soup and unholy attitude toward religious relics. Here are 20 fascinating facts about William Friedkin’s groundbreaking horror film.

1. THE EXORCIST IS BASED ON A TRUE STORY.

William Peter Blatty’s novel is based on the real-life 1949 exorcism of a young boy, known by the pseudonym Roland Doe. The story became national news, and caught the interest of Blatty, who was a student at Georgetown University at the time (hence the change in location).

2. WILLIAM PETER BLATTY WROTE THE NOVEL IN A CABIN IN CALIFORNIA.

In Beyond Comprehension: William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, one of the new featurettes on the 40^th edition Blu-ray, Blatty returns to the scene of The Exorcist’s beginning: the cabin in the hills of Encino, California where he wrote the novel more than four decades ago.

3. THE NAME OF THE DEMON IS PAZUZU.

Though it’s never stated in the film, the demon that takes possession of Regan MacNeil has a name: Pazuzu, which is taken from the name of the king of the demons in Assyrian and Babylonian mythology. 

4. MERCEDES MCCAMBRIDGE PROVIDED THE VOICE OF THE DEMON.

The woman Orson Welles once dubbed “the world’s greatest living radio actress” was hired to provide the voice for Linda Blair’s most demonic moments, a decision that became the source of much controversy when McCambridge was not credited for her performance. Some say that this decision was solely McCambridge’s, who claimed that she didn’t want to take away from Blair’s performance, then later changed her mind. Under the threat of legal action, her name was quickly added to the credits.

5. MCCAMBRIDGE ADOPTED A VERY SPECIFIC DIET TO ACHIEVE THAT RASPINESS.

Sounding like a demon has its downsides. In the case of McCambridge, she believed that chain smoking and a diet of raw eggs and whiskey were the key to a great vocal performance.

6. PIG SQUEALS WERE A KEY PART OF THE SOUND DESIGN.

Much of Regan’s moaning and grunting were created by remixing pig squeals. When the demon is finally exorcised from her body, the sound you hear is a group of pigs being led to slaughter.

7. IT WAS THE FIRST HORROR FILM TO BE NOMINATED FOR A BEST PICTURE OSCAR.

The horror genre has never gotten much love from the Academy. Though there still seems to be a bias against scary movies during awards season, The Exorcist earned 10 Oscar nominations in 1974, including a Best Supporting Actress nod for Linda Blair, who was just 15 years old at the time. Unfortunately, the teenager’s nomination was met with much controversy as word about McCambridge’s contribution to the role spread. 

8. VIOLET BEAUREGARDE WAS CONSIDERED FOR THE ROLE OF REGAN.

Denise Nickerson, who most famously played Violet Beauregarde in Mel Stuart’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, was in contention for the role of Regan. But then her parents got a hold of the script and, troubled by what they read, pulled her from the production’s shortlist.

9. LINDA BLAIR’S MOTHER LOVED THE SCRIPT.

Ironically, Linda Blair’s agents never even considered her for the role, though they did send the producers more than two dozen other young actresses to consider. It was Blair’s mother who brought her to the attention of the studio’s casting department and Friedkin.

10. BLATTY INSISTED THAT WILLIAM FRIEDKIN DIRECT THE FILM.

Blatty made a smart decision when he sold the rights to his novel, but stayed on as one of The Exorcist’s producers. That way, his opinion would have to matter. And while the studio had its own short list of directors to approach for the gig—Arthur Penn, Peter Bogdanovich, Mike Nichols, and Stanley Kubrick among them—Blatty only had eyes for Friedkin, believing that the film would benefit from a grittier style, similar to what Friedkin had done on The French Connection. When the studio told Blatty that they had hired Mark Rydell for the film, Blatty stood his ground—and won! 

11. MARLON BRANDO WAS THE STUDIO’S FIRST CHOICE FOR FATHER MERRIN.

It was Friedkin who vetoed this decision, believing that any movie starring Marlon Brando would immediately become a “Brando movie,” which would detract from the story at hand. The role eventually went to Max von Sydow.

12. MAX VON SYDOW WAS ONLY 44 AT THE TIME OF SHOOTING.

It took many hours in the chair with makeup artist Dick Smith to age the actor the 30 or so years the role required. Some have even joked that there are scenes in which von Sydow is wearing more makeup than the demonic Regan. Von Sydow’s three-hour daily aging process was achieved with a mix of stipple and liquid latex.

13. JASON MILLER WAS A LAST-MINUTE—ALBEIT INTENTIONAL—SUBSTITION.

There were a few big names being bandied about for the role of Father Karras, with Jack Nicholson in the early mix before Blatty settled on Stacy Keach. But then Friedkin happened to see a performance of That Championship Season, which was written by and starred Jason Miller. Friedkin knew they had found their man and, as he recounts in his new memoir, The Friedkin Connection (part of which is excerpted in the new 40^th edition Blu-ray from Warner Bros.), they purchased Keach out and in stepped Miller, in his feature acting debut.

14. THE MOVIE’S MOST FAMOUS IMAGE IS BASED ON A MAGRITTE PAINTING.

The Exorcist’s most iconic image—the one that would eventually serve as its poster and movie box art—is of the moment that Father Merrin arrives at the MacNeil residence and, illuminated by a street lamp, looks up at the home. This image was inspired by René Magritte’s 1954 painting, Empire of Light.

15. “THE EXORCIST STEPS” HAVE REMAINED A POPULAR TOURIST ATTRACTION.

At the end of M Street in Washington, D.C. is where you’ll find one of the film’s location landmarks: a set of stone stairs onto (and down) which Regan “throws” Father Karras from her window, which have come to be known as “The Exorcist Steps.” Rumor has it that on the day of filming the scene in which a stuntman rolled down the steps, Georgetown students who lived nearby rented out their rooftops to the tune of $5 per person so that interested onlookers could get a better view. 

16. THROWING ANYONE DOWN THOSE STAIRS FROM THE WINDOW WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE.

Yes, even for a kid with demonic strength, because, in reality, Regan’s window was located about 40 feet from the top of the stairs. It was a bit of Hollywood magic-making—a.k.a. the addition of a wing built by the production’s set decorators—that made the trajectory of Karras’ untimely tumble seem possible. 

17. MANY OF THE CAST AND CREW MEMBERS BELIEVED THE SET WAS CURSED.

Filming in the U.S. took place in both New York City and Washington, D.C. After a number of eerie incidents on the New York City set, including a studio fire that forced the team to rebuild the sets of the house interiors, Blatty and Friedkin regularly brought in a priest, Father King, to bless the cast, crew, and set when production moved to D.C. By the end of the film’s production, nine people associated with its making had passed away.

18. REGAN PREFERS ANDERSEN’S PEA SOUP.

By now it is well known that the substance Regan projectile vomits onto Father Karras in one of the film’s most famous—and disgusting—scenes is pea soup. But more specifically, it’s Andersen’s pea soup, mixed with a little oatmeal. Campbell’s soup was tried, but the crew apparently didn’t like the effect as much. 

19. JASON MILLER’S REACTION TO BEING COVERED IN SAID PEA SOUP IS AUTHENTIC.

Friedkin was known for sometimes using manipulative tactics in order to elicit the most authentic reactions possible from his actors. Miller was told that the substance would hit him in the chest only; whether that was a lie or the equipment misfired is debated. But Miller’s disgusted reaction is absolutely real. Unsurprisingly, the scene only required one take. 

20. THE EXORCIST MADE A FEW AUDIENCE MEMBERS NAUSEOUS, TOO. 

So many, in fact, that some theaters began handing out The Exorcist barf bags with every ticket. 

Raffles and lotteries are by no means new. Legend has it that funds raised by a traditional lottery, known as keno, were used to partly finance construction of the Great Wall of China. The widow of the great painter Jan van Eyck dispensed with many of his remaining artworks in a fundraising raffle after her husband’s death. The sale of more than £600,000 worth of lottery tickets partly funded the construction of the original Westminster Bridge in the mid-18th century. And almost 450 years ago, even Queen Elizabeth I got in on the act by organizing the very first national lottery in English history—and perhaps the first state-sanctioned lottery in the English-speaking world.

The early years of Elizabeth’s reign were overshadowed by her need to not only pay off the colossal debt her father had lumbered the nation with on his deathbed, but to build on Britain’s foreign trade and colonial enterprises. But both international trade and overseas exploration—not to mention the construction of the new ships, docks and harbors that they require—are far from cheap. Keen not to increase taxes or enter into potentially ruinous money-lending deals with other countries, Elizabeth and her court looked elsewhere to find a fundraising idea to finance the nation’s overseas endeavors. And in 1567, she struck upon the perfect idea.

In a letter that came up for auction in 2010, on August 31, 1567 Elizabeth wrote to Sir John Spencer (a High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, and a distant ancestor of both Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales) explaining that he was to help organize England’s very first national lottery. Similar letters were likely sent out to high-ranking officials in all the English regions, but Spencer’s is the only one to have survived, and it is ultimately thanks to him that we know just how Elizabeth planned the lottery to run.

Four hundred thousand tickets, or “lots,” were to be put up for sale nationwide, at a cost of 10 shillings each. The tickets themselves were not merely numbered tokens, but specially printed slips on which anyone wishing to enter the draw would be asked to write their name and a short written “device” (typically a brief biographical note or a favorite Bible verse) that was unique to them and so could be used to identify them if they won. Essentially, it was a Tudor English equivalent of a password reset security question. “God send a good lot for my children and me,” wrote one entrant on his ticket, “which have had 20 by one wife truly.”

The lottery itself was to be played “without any blanckes”, meaning that all ticket holders whose tickets were picked from the hat were guaranteed a prize. Unlike today, prize draws at the time tended to employ two separate draws, one from a tub or “lot-pot” containing the players’ tickets, and the other from a tub containing the names of all the prizes. This second tub also typically contained a large number of blank tickets alongside all the prize tokens, meaning that a winning player could have their number come up, only to go on to be awarded nothing at all; it’s the reason we talk of “drawing a blank” when we’re utterly nonplussed or defeated today. But in this unique national lottery, Elizabeth decreed that somewhat unfair system was to be ignored.

Out of every pound raised, Elizabeth explained, sixpence was to be set aside to pay a salary to the ticket-sellers and revenue collectors, described in the letter as “somme persons appointed of good trust,” who were to be specially chosen for the task. For his trouble, out of every £500 raised and sent to London, Spencer was to be paid 50 shillings (the equivalent of almost £600/$750 today). Corruption and any attempts to cheat the system were to be severely punished, Elizabeth warned, as the entire enterprise was for the good of the country—or, as she explained, “anything advantagious is ordered to be employed to good and publique acts and beneficially for our realme and our subjects.”

The 10 shilling ticket price (equivalent in value to almost £120 today) sadly put entry into the lottery far outside the reach of most ordinary citizens of the time—but the prizes and incentives on offer were tempting for many. First prize was a staggering £5,000 (equivalent to more than £1.1 million today), which was to be paid partly in £3,000 cash (“ready money”) and partly in an extravagant prize package containing fine tapestries and wall hangings, gold and silver plate, and a quantity of “good linen cloth.” Second prize was £2000 cash and a further £1500 worth of luxury items; third prize £1500 cash and the same amount of luxury goods, with similar prizes of diminishing value awarded for any player drawn in fourth to 11th place. And as if that weren’t enough, anyone wealthy enough to purchase a ticket was even granted a temporary immunity from arrest for all crimes except felonies, piracy, and treason.

Unsurprisingly, the logistics involved in running a fair, corruption-free, high-stakes national lottery in Elizabethan England—not least one that awarded anyone holding a ticket near total criminal immunity—proved challenging. Not only that, but the hefty entry cost meant only a fraction of the 400,000 tickets on sale (possibly as little as 10 percent) were actually purchased. As a result, the draw itself did not take place until almost two years later: On January 11, 1569, an eager crowd standing in a square outside the old St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London watched as a blindfolded child steadily picked tickets and prizes from two large urns. And although they didn’t sell as many as hoped, according to one 19th century history, “the drawing [continued] without intermission till the 6th of May, day and night.”

So who won Elizabeth’s national lottery? Sadly, the names of all the winners, including that of the grand prize winner, are unknown. But it’s fair to say a £5000 prize more than four centuries ago would have been a life-changing amount of cash—especially for someone with 20 children.

You’ve probably seen A Christmas Story enough times that you never really need to watch it again. But watch it you will. And enjoy it, too. Even though you know every twist and turn it will take for our young hero Ralphie to finally get his hands on his much-desired Red Ryder Carbine-Action 200-Shot Range Model Air Rifle. (An item he repeats 28 times throughout the film’s 94-minute running time; you could make an eggnog drinking game out of that.) 

This Christmas, when you inevitably tune into catch at least one airing of Bob Clark’s holiday classic during TBS’ 24-hour marathon, we’ve got a way for you to watch A Christmas Story in a whole new light: by keeping your eyes—and ears—peeled for these 25 blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em gaffes, anachronisms, and other fun facts that make watching the classic film an entirely new experience. 

1. RALPHIE DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL “CHRISTMAS.”

At least it doesn’t appear that way when he gets his Christmas theme—or shall we call it a Chistmas theme—back from Mrs. Shields, who also didn’t notice that the “R” is missing from the word.

2. JEAN SHEPHERD MAKES AN ON-SCREEN APPEARANCE.

If the voice of the man who brusquely informs Ralphie and Randy that the line to sit on Santa’s lap begins about two miles further back than they had anticipated sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the voice of the narrator, a.k.a. Adult Ralphie, who also happens to be Jean Shepherd, the man upon whose short stories the film itself is based. The woman behind Shepherd is his wife, Leigh Brown.

3. BOB CLARK JOINS IN THE CAMEO FUN.

Not to be outdone, director Bob Clark pops up in front of the camera, too, as Ralphie’s neighbor, Swede. He’s the guy who seems awfully curious about how Ralphie’s dad managed to snag himself a leg lamp. When The Old Man Parker informs him that it’s a Major Award, Swede responds: “Shucks, I wouldn’t know that. It looks like a lamp.”

4. RALPHIE’S DAD IS NEVER GIVEN A NAME.

Over the years, a gaggle of sharp-eared A Christmas Story fans have pointed out that in Bob Clark’s scene, Ralphie’s dad is given a name: Hal. This is because they believed that in the brief exchange between the two neighbors, Swede asks of the leg lamp, “Damn Hal, you say you won it?” But a quick confer with the film’s original screenplay confirms that Swede’s actual query is, “Damn, hell, you say you won it?”

5. SPEAKING OF THE LEG LAMP…

The continuity folks must have been taking a coffee break during the unveiling of the leg lamp. Watch closely as the amount of packing debris covering The Old Man’s back and head changes from shot to shot. In one shot, his back is covered in the stuff; cut back and there’s nothing there.

6. IS THE LEG LAMP REALLY A LAMP?

In addition to being stumped by the word “fragile,” The Old Man—and the rest of the family—is initially confused as to what the leg’s purpose is. Is it a statue? (“Yeah, statue!”) One can’t blame them, as there’s no electrical cord to be seen. It’s just a leg. Yet, once the lampshade is discovered, the Parker clan is magically able to plug that titillating little fixture right in. 

7. ONE FINAL THING ABOUT THE LEG LAMP…

After witnessing the moment that Ralphie explains would become “a family controversy for years”—the breaking of the leg lamp—Mrs. Parker balks at her husband’s accusation that she would be jealous of a plastic lamp. But just moments before the “accident” in question, we hear the sound of breaking glass. And lots of it. Plastic doesn’t sound (or break) like that.

8. IS IT TORONTO OR IS IT INDIANA?

Though the film is set in Hohman, Indiana—a fictionalized town based on Shepherd’s hometown of Hammond, Indiana—parts of the film were shot in Toronto. This becomes apparent in some of the outdoor scenes, such as when the family is shopping for a Christmas tree, as one of the Toronto Transit Commission’s signature red trolley cars zooms by.

9. BOLTS VERSUS NUTS.

We all remember Ralphie’s reaction when his attempt to help his father fix a flat tire goes terribly awry. But here’s a fun fact that only true motorheads would pick up on: In the scene, Ralphie’s dad implores him to hold the hubcap horizontally so that he can put the “nuts” in it. But the 1938 Oldsmobile that he’s driving actually uses removable bolts. A fact that Shepherd confirms in his narration of the scene when he recalls that, “For one brief moment I saw all the bolts silhouetted against the lights of the traffic—and then they were gone.” Oh, fudge!

10. SCOTT SCHWARTZ IS NOT SCHWARTZ. BUT HE IS.

Ralphie’s two best friends are Schwartz, played by R.D. Robb, and Flick, played by Scott Schwartz. As if this tale of two Schwartzes weren’t confusing enough, when Ralphie tells his mom that it’s Schwartz who taught him how to drop the F-bomb, Mrs. Parker immediately calls the boy’s mother. But the voice we hear of fictional Schwartz taking a whooping is actually the voice of Scott Schwartz. Got it?

11. SCHWARTZ’S WHEREABOUTS.

Immediately following his unceremonious (and totally false) ratting out of his buddy, Ralphie remembers how “three blocks away, Schwartz was getting his.” In the original story, that may have very well been the case. But the film’s production called for Schwartz’s home to be just a few doors down from Ralphie’s, as we see as the kids walk to school together. Not three blocks away.

12. RALPHIE’S NOT A VERY GOOD LISTENER.

Ralphie felt understandably ripped off when, after weeks of waiting for his Little Orphan Annie decoder ring, the first message he decoded was simply an advertisement for Ovaltine. But he’s lucky he could decipher the message at all, because a few of the numbers that he wrote down don’t match the numbers that announcer Pierre Andre broadcast, most notably the last one; Pierre said 25, Ralphie wrote 11.

13. UPPERCASE OR LOWERCASE?

Perhaps it’s that very error above that made it necessary for Ralphie to decode Annie’s message on at least two pieces of paper. How do we know that? Check out the difference in the “E” in the word “Be.” In the earlier shot, it’s an uppercase E; in the final message, the letter is lowercase. We’re on to you, Ralphie. 

14. FOR A SPORTS FAN, OLD MAN PARKER DOESN’T KNOW SPORTS.

Though the exact year of A Christmas Story’s setting is never stated, many of its context clues—including the makes and models of the cars we see and the popularity of The Wizard of Oz and Little Orphan Annie—put its year around 1939 or 1940. Yet in the beginning of the film, Mr. Parker becomes irate after reading in the paper that the White Sox “traded Bullfrog.” But the White Sox never traded Bill “Bullfrog” Dietrich, though they did release him on September 18, 1946, which would make this comment six years premature. He also refers to the Chicago Bears as the “Terror of the Midway,” when in fact their nickname is “Monsters of the Midway.”

15. THE CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS LEVERS.

Old Man Parker seems to have a lot of non-human enemies—his car, the Bumpus hounds, and a seemingly possessed furnace among them. In one scene, The Old Man yells upstairs for someone to open the damper, which Mom does rather reluctantly. But watch closely when the camera cuts back to the levers, which are in the opposite position as Mom set them just seconds earlier.

16. DIVERSITY AS AN ANACHRONISM.

By the time A Christmas Story was released in 1983, racial segregation in Indiana public schools was a thing 34 years in the past. But if Ralphie’s story takes place any time before 1949, he would not have had any African American classmates, as he does in the film.

17. THE ROTATING BANANA.

Hoping to score some extra points with his teacher, Ralphie presents Mrs. Shields with the world’s largest fruit basket. It’s so large, in fact, that its individual pieces of fruit seem to have a mind of their own. Watch the way the banana shifts position each time the camera cuts back to Ralphie.

18. A DRAWER FULL OF UNIMAGINABLE MISCHIEF.

Ralphie and his classmates are a troublemaking lot. And when they decide to launch a classroom-wide prank in which they’re all wearing a set of false teeth, Mrs. Shields is well-prepared. She’s got a drawer full of pranks past, including a pair of chattering teeth … a gag gift that wasn’t actually invented until 1949.

19. SPEAKING OF TOOTHY ANACHRONISMS…

In his attempts to make Ralphie’s life a living hell, we get an up-close view of the braces worn by Scut the bully. They’re the kind that are directly bonded to the front of his teeth, a process that wasn’t invented until the 1970s. Until then, metal braces were wrapped around the teeth.

20. THREE-BARREL HINGED GLASSES WEREN’T A THING EITHER.

After nearly shooting his eye out on Christmas morning, Ralphie steps on his own glasses, revealing them to use a three-barrel hinge connector, which would not have been possible until the 1980s.

21. RALPHIE SHOOTS THREE TIMES, HITS FOUR.

When Ralphie is forced to defend his family against the rascally Black Bart (in his own imagination), he shoots three bad guys before his nemesis Bart escapes. But when the pile of bad guys is shown with their eyes X’ed out, there are four of them.

22. A VERY BING CHRISTMAS.

On Christmas morning, the Parkers kick back with that most classic of Christmas albums—Bing Crosby’s Merry Christmas—in the background. As cherished a tradition as that may be, the album wasn’t released until 1945.

23. A BOWLING BALL FOR CHRISTMAS.

Old Man Parker is thrilled when his wife gifts him with a shiny new blue bowling ball for Christmas. There’s just one problem: colored bowling balls weren’t introduced until the 1960s. 

24. MELINDA DILLION GETS TOP BILLING.

Getting top billing must have been quite a thrill for actress Melinda Dillon… until the actual credits rolled and her name was spelled incorrectly!

25. FLASH GORDON GETS CREDIT, TOO.

Keep watching the end credits roll and you’ll see Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless among the names that scroll by. Though it never made the final cut, the credits for an additional fantasy sequence in which Ralphie and his trusty firearm help Flash Gordon face off against Ming remain.

Cat and dog lovers will want to put these items on their wish lists (or buy them themselves).

1. ZUS PUPPY-PROOF SUPER-DUTY CHARGING CABLE; $20

When I adopted my cat Pearl three years ago, I was horrified to discover that she was a cord chewer—and that she loved my phone charging cord most of all. If one was dangling and I wasn’t paying close enough attention, she’d get her little teeth into it, and bye-bye, cord. I could have used this 4-foot-long cable. It’s wrapped in Kevlar—the same super-strong material that’s used to make bulletproof vests—which means cats, dogs, and toddlers are no match for this cord. It comes in three versions (Lightning, MicroUSB, and USB-C) and has a lifetime warranty.

Find it: ThinkGeek

2. PETCUBE PLAY; $199

We included the Petcube Play on our gifts for cats list, but it’s also a great gadget for helicopter pet parents like me. Setup was easy, and by logging on to the app, I can check in on my cats no matter where I am, at any time of day, to make sure that they’re fine (and that our apartment isn’t burning down). The camera streams in 1080p HD video, is equipped with night vision, and has a 138-degree wide angle view and a 300x zoom; the app is compatible with iOS and Android phones. You can set up sound and motion alerts and record video to the cloud.

In theory, we could play with the cats using the Petcube’s laser, which you move by dragging your finger across your phone screen, but my cats were only mildly interested in it (you can watch me trying unsuccessfully to engage Pearl with the laser here while Olly watches). They’re more interested when we fire up the two-way speaker, which allows us to talk to them. Dog owners should consider pre-ordering the Petcube Bites, which dispenses treats to waiting puppers when you’re checking in on them or when you schedule it.

Find it: Amazon

3. DIRT DEVIL QUICK FLIP PRO; $59

Keeping an apartment tidy when you have a pet or two feels like a near Sisyphean task: I’ve no sooner swept up stray cat litter than Olly and Pearl are in and out of the box, tracking litter all over the place again. Fur builds up in corners. Pulling out the big vacuum to deal with it every single day is annoying.

Enter the Quick Flip Pro. This cordless, lightweight handheld vac easily sucked stray litter up off of hardwood floors and rugs alike. Its Quick-Flip Crevice Tool allowed us to get stray cat hair out of every nook and cranny, and the upholstery attachment restored the cats’ tower to its previous unfurry glory:

The vacuum has a 16-volt lithium-ion battery, so it charges fast and runs long, and features like XL easy empty dirt cup and a rinsable filter make it a cinch to clean. I’ve never loved a vacuum so much.

Find it: Amazon

4. TURDLEBAG; $18

There’s nothing more awkward than carrying a plastic bag filled with stinky dog poop while you search for a trashcan to toss it in. The Turdlebag helps you keep it classy: It attaches to your leash and holds poop-filled plastic bags in a sealed pouch until you can throw it away. It also has a pouch for storing cash, credit cards, and your phone. You can bet I’ll be sending this to all the people whose dogs I pet-sit.

Find it: UncommonGoods

5. NITE IZE DOOHICKEY HAIR & LINT REMOVER; $9

It’s an inevitable truth of being a pet owner then you’ll be covered with your animal’s fur all the time, no matter what you do, even when you’ve lint-rolled yourself before leaving the house. This Nite Ize device is made of rubber—which attracts fur and lint—and has a comb on one side (for use on heavy fabrics) and grooves on the other (for lighter fabrics). It attaches to your keychain, making on-the-go fur removal easy.

Find it: Amazon

6. WHISTLE GPS PET TRACKER; $56

Many pet owners harbor anxiety that their pet will get out of their home or away from them at the park and disappear. The Humane Society estimates that 10 million pets are lost or stolen every year. And while microchips are great (they increase the odds of your dog making it back to you by 238 percent, and your cat by 2000 percent), they’re passive—your pet first has to be found, and then taken to a vet or shelter, to make its way back to you. But with the Whistle GPS collar, you can track your animal’s location in real time via an app (compatible with iOS and Android). Set up a safe zone for your animal, and when your pet leaves that area, you’ll get a notification on the app or via text. The rechargeable, waterproof device attaches to collars and harnesses up to an inch wide and requires a monthly membership, which costs between $7 and $10.

Find it: Brookstone

7. PETSAFE SMART DOOR; $90 TO $235

Pet doors are great, provided it’s only your pet that comes through and not, say, a raccoon. Keep wild animals and strays out of your pad with the Smart Door. The system includes a door and a SmartKey (both battery operated). The key goes on your pet’s collar, and the door and the key communicate using radio frequencies. Set the door to automatic, and it will swing open when it detects your pet’s key (and swing shut when the key is out of range). The doors come in two sizes and are programmable for up to five pets.

Find it: Amazon

8. CURIO LITTER BOX; $199 TO $299

Litter boxes are the bane of a cat owner’s existence. They’re big, ugly eyesores that we try to hide away. (I’ve spent more time than I care to admit looking at hacks of IKEA furniture that conceal litter boxes.) This is not the case with the CURIO, a handcrafted litter box designed by Heather and Damian Fagan. “When we adopted our two cats … we were surprised by the lack of design-minded litter box options on the market,” Damian told mental_floss earlier this year. “Many were just decorative litter box covers that didn’t improve upon the litter management aspect and many were very expensive. We felt there was a real need for a functional and stylish litter box that was more affordable.”

CURIOs come in three designs—Maple, Walnut, and Walnut+Pattern—and have an opening on the side to allow cats to discreetly jump in and out. Inside is a custom-designed litter liner (sold separately) with high sides and handles to make it easy to lift out for cleaning.

I loved the box so much, I bought one—and it’s so well designed that when a friend visiting from out of town saw it, she exclaimed, “this is a nice new piece of furniture! What is this?” Imagine her surprise when I told her it was a litter box. Until you train your cats to use the toilet, this is the most subtle and elegant way for them to use the restroom. (And it’s not a bad hideaway for small pups, either.)

Find it: Etsy

By Lauren Hansen

Since its debut in 1990, Home Alone has become as much a part of the Christmas cinematic ritual as It’s a Wonderful Life. But unlike that uplifting tale about the good of mankind, Home Alone tells a rather unsettling Christmas story of a precocious 8-year-old who, accidentally abandoned by his family, is forced to defend his home from two dimwitted burglars. Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) turns his family’s home into a veritable funhouse of torturous booby traps that so-called Wet Bandits Marv (Daniel Stern) and Harry (Joe Pesci) hilariously stumble through, and the transformation of a suburban Chicago home into a relentless injury machine is nothing short of spectacular. But it does require quite a suspension of disbelief. Can a man really be hit square in the face with a steam iron and walk away unfazed? What kind of permanent physical damage would a blow torch to the head really do? To answer these questions and officially dissolve Home Alone‘s Hollywood magic, I spoke with my friend Dr. Ryan St. Clair of the Weill Cornell Medical College. Enjoy.

THE INJURY: BB GUN TO THE FOREHEAD

The Set-Up: Marv and Harry try to sneak into the McCallister home by sweet talking Kevin from the back door. Kevin, meanwhile, points his BB gun through the doggie door and directly at Harry’s groin—and shoots. When Marv goes to investigate the source of Harry’s pain, he is met by the same BB gun, which is fired at extremely close range to his forehead.

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: “Classic air-powered projectile weapons typically have muzzle velocities of 350 feet per second or less. A BB fired at close range from such a weapon could break the skin, but will not penetrate the skull, and is unlikely to penetrate Harry’s scrotum, especially through fabric.”

THE INJURY: IRON TO THE FACE

The Set-Up: Thwarted by the BB gun at the back door, Marv runs around to the basement stairwell—which Kevin has deliberately iced. Once he has stumbled his way down into the dark basement, Marv grabs for what he thinks is the light bulb cord. It’s actually a rope attached to a steam iron that is propped up on the laundry chute door. The heavy iron comes plummeting down and smacks Marv in the face.

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: “Let’s estimate the distance from the first floor to the basement at 15 feet, and assume the steam iron weighs 4 pounds. And note that the iron strikes Marv squarely in the mid-face. This is a serious impact, with enough force to fracture the bones surrounding the eyes. This is also known as a ‘blowout fracture,’ and can lead to serious disfigurement and debilitating double vision if not repaired properly.”

THE INJURY: HANDLING A BURNING-HOT DOORKNOB

The Set-Up: While Marv is getting an iron to the face, Harry tries to enter the home through the front door. The first attempt doesn’t go well, as the stocky burglar slips on the icy steps and falls to the ground, landing with a thud on his back. Easing up a second time with the help of the railing, Harry makes it to the front door, reaches for the doorknob—which we see is literally burning red—and grasps the searing handle, the pain of which forces him once again down the icy steps.

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: “If this doorknob is glowing visibly red in the dark, it has been heated to about 751 degrees Fahrenheit, and Harry gives it a nice, strong, one- to two-second grip. By comparison, one second of contact with 155 degree water is enough to cause third degree burns. The temperature of that doorknob is not quite hot enough to cause Harry’s hand to burst into flames, but it is not that far off … Assuming Harry doesn’t lose the hand completely, he will almost certainly have other serious complications, including a high risk for infection and ‘contracture’ in which resulting scar tissue seriously limits the flexibility and movement of the hand, rendering it less than 100 percent useful. Kevin has moved from ‘defending his house’ into sheer malice, in my opinion.”

THE INJURY: A BLOWTORCH TO THE SCALP

The Set-Up: Unable to get through the front door, Harry returns to the back. He kicks his foot through the doggy door to disarm a potential BB gun threat, delicately taps at the doorknob to test its temperature, and, finding it cool, opens the back door—only to unknowingly arm a blowtorch that fires at the top of his head.

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: “Harry has an interesting reaction to having a lit blowtorch aimed directly at his scalp. Rather than remove himself from danger, he keeps the top of his skull directly in the line of fire for about seven seconds. What was likely a simple second-degree skin burn is now a full thickness burn likely to cause necrosis of the calavarium (skull bone).” That means the skin and bone tissue on Harry’s skull will be so damaged and rotted that his skull bone is essentially dying and will likely require a transplant.

THE INJURY: WALKING BAREFOOT ON CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS

The Set-Up: After surviving the iron to the face, getting his shoes and socks peeled off by tar, and stepping onto a 3-inch nail, Marv abandons the basement entrance and enters the home through a conveniently opened window. Without looking down, however, and still barefoot, Marv jumps in, putting his full weight on a dozen pointy ornaments littered on the wood floor.

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: “Walking on ornaments seems pretty insignificant compared to everything else we’ve seen so far. If I was Marv, I’d be more concerned about my facial fractures.”

THE INJURY: PAINT CAN TO THE FACE

The Set-Up: Although severely injured, both the burglars are finally inside the house, and have forgone their looting plan for one of revenge. Hearing the taunts of Kevin’s pre-pubescent voice, they scamper into the foyer only to slip dramatically on scores of Micro Machines, landing, once again, on their backs. Kevin cruelly mocks them from the top step: “You guys give up yet? Or are you thirsty for more?” Marv and Harry scramble up the staircase, where they are met by a speeding paint can attached to a rope. Harry manages to duck and evade the first hit, but Marv gets a paint can square in the face. Harry continues up the stairs but is hit by a second paint can. Both burglars end up back on the ground floor.

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: “Assuming the paint can is full (roughly 10 pounds) and the rope is 10 feet long, Marv and Harry each take a roughly 2 kilo-newton hit to the face. That is easily enough to fracture multiple facial bones, and is probably going to knock you out cold. Also, I wouldn’t expect either of the Wet Bandits to walk away from this with all of their teeth.”

THE INJURY: SHOVEL TO THE BACK OF THE HEAD

The Set-Up: Kevin eventually lures the Wet Bandits through his house of injurious horrors, across the street, and into a neighbor’s house. But Marv and Harry have clued into the fact that following the little tyke has provided them nothing but pain. They enter the neighbor’s house their own way and meet little Kevin at the top of the basement steps. They hang him by his sweater from a hook on the back of a door and outline all the ways in which they will pay him back for the pain he caused, beginning with biting “every one of these little fingers, one at a time.” Just before Harry can take the first bite, Kevin’s elderly neighbor saves the day, coming up behind the burglars and hitting each one over head with his shovel, knocking them out cold.

The Doctor’s Diagnosis: “Seriously? At this point, Marv and Harry have both suffered potentially crippling hand and foot injuries. Harry has proved to be nearly impervious to burns, and both managed to retain consciousness after taking a flying paint can straight to the face. Suddenly, a frail elderly man appears and weakly slaps them in turn with a flimsy aluminum Home Depot snow shovel. And, somehow, this is too much for them, and they collapse. This movie was way more believable when I was 8.”

MORE FROM THE WEEK …

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Growing up, Alton DuLaney received many beautifully-wrapped presents. “My dad was a great gift wrapper,” he tells mental_floss. “He always made the holidays and birthdays really special.” Those wraps clearly stuck with DuLaney, who grew up to become creative director at Kate’s Paperie and, in 2008, took home the top prize in the Scotch Most Gifted Wrapper Contest (he wrapped, among other things, a Baby Grand piano).

These days, the artist and University of Houston teacher is helping novices nail their gift wraps via tutorials on Craftsy.com. DuLaney’s motto? Put the present in presentation. “Gift giving should not be stressful,” he says. “It should be something fun. When you gift wrap something, it shows that you put some individual time and attention to make it something special. If you have fun with it, your gift recipient is probably going to have fun with it, too.”

1. PREP YOUR WORKSPACE …

“Create your workspace before you create,” DuLaney advises. Because he prefers to stand, he makes a sturdy, waist-high table or countertop his base. Whatever you choose to work on, make sure the surface is clean. Ditto your hands: “You don’t want to get lotion or anything that might be on your hands onto the beautiful paper or ribbon,” DuLaney says.

2. … AND HAVE THE RIGHT TOOLS ON HAND.

No workspace is complete without the proper tools. DuLaney always has a ruler and two pairs of scissors—one for paper and one for ribbon. “Sometimes your paper will have glitter or other things on it that will dull your scissors,” he says. “When you cut your ribbon, you want to have a very super-sharp pair of scissors to get a nice, clean cut.” To tell the difference, he ties a tiny bit of ribbon around the handle of the ribbon scissors.

DuLaney also has two kinds of Scotch tape at the ready: Double-sided for complicated areas, and gift wrap tape with a matte finish “so even when it’s on the outside of the paper, it virtually disappears—you don’t see it.” He also keeps embellishments on hand to decorate the outside of the gift (more on that in a bit). “I like to gather all of those things before I start, and that way, once the creative juices are flowing, you don’t have to stop and say, ‘Where are my scissors? Where’s my tape?’” he says.

3. USE A MEDIUM GRADE PAPER.

If your paper is too thin, it will tear easily, allowing package corners to poke through; too-thick paper, on the other hand, leads to a bulky wrap. DuLaney prefers a medium-grade paper with a bit of a metallic finish, which creates nice, sharp creases.

4. CONSIDER DOING A PRACTICE RUN.

“This is going to sound crazy, but I always tell people to practice,” DuLaney says. “At the end of the season, I’ll go buy gift wrap on sale, and [next year], I’ll practice my wrapping before I start wrapping.” DuLaney advises practicing with ribbon, too.

If he has a special paper—something hand-painted or hand-stamped—DuLaney will do a dry run with regular paper to see how it will work. “Then I’ll unwrap [the gift] and use that paper as a pattern, just like if you were working with a piece of fabric—you would use a paper pattern to make your fabric pattern,” he says.

5. CAREFULLY MEASURE YOUR PAPER.

To get the most use from your roll, wrap packages with the longest side of the box facing the cut edge of the paper whenever possible. Then, before making your cut, pull the paper up over the sides of the box to measure: You want just enough paper on either side so they slightly overlap in the middle—meaning, each side will be a smidge longer than half the width of your box. “If [the package is] big, I’ll actually break out a ruler, to make sure I have more than half,” DuLaney says. He always errs on the side of too much paper—you can always trim later.

6. PLACE YOUR PACKAGE TOP DOWN—AND NEVER PUT TAPE ON IT.

When it’s finally time to wrap your gift, place it top down on the paper. Next, pull one edge of the paper just beyond the edge of your gift; fold it to hide the cut edge—the white part, which DuLaney calls “the meat” of the paper. Most people would tape that to the package, but DuLaney advises against that. “When you take that paper off, you want both the ribbon and the paper to just fall away and reveal what’s inside it,” he says. Instead, grab the other side of the paper and pull it under the side with the folded edge. Align the folded edge with the end of the package and tape.

Next, rotate the box to one of the open sides and fold the short sides down to create long flaps; repeat on the other side. “This keeps the package from sliding around inside the paper,” DuLaney says. Fold the flap closest to you downward; then, fold the one closest to your work surface toward you and tape. That way, “when you turn the gift over, and place the bow on top, the side flaps are going down, so you don’t see into the workings of the gift wrap.” Finally, using your finger and your thumb, crease the edges of your wrapped package. You can watch DuLaney walk Jimmy Kimmel through the process above.

7. IF YOU RUN OUT OF PAPER, MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOU MEANT TO DO IT.

If you mess up and don’t cut enough paper (or are at the end of your roll), it’s no big deal. There are solutions that make it look like that was part of your plan all along—like creating a belly band. “I cut a strip of paper, fold under each edge, and sometimes, I’ll pleat that into a tuxedo fold in the middle, and I’ll tape that to the other paper,” DuLaney says. When he does this, he wraps the gift top-side up. “I’ll have the gift right-side up and will construct the paper on top of the gift, so the belly band becomes the centerpiece.” Have a slice of exposed package on the ends? Use a wide ribbon or embellishments to disguise it.

8. WHEN WRAPPING CYLINDERS, PLEATING IS KEY.

There are two ways of dealing with a cylinder: What DuLaney calls the bon-bon method—“where you scrunch the paper on each end and tape the ribbon on it” so it looks like a candy—and pleating. Trust us when we say pleating is easier to do than it is to explain—check out this video for a tutorial.

9. ADD EMBELLISHMENTS.

Once you’re finished wrapping, put the present in presentation by adding embellishments to the outside of the package. This could be as simple as a ribbon, but DuLaney often kicks it up a notch. “I like to give a little gift on the outside that’s a hint of what’s on the inside,” he says. “If I’m giving a book, I might embellish the gift with bookmarks; if I’m giving a journal, I might embellish with a couple of writing instruments on the outside.” Sometimes, his embellishments follow gift wrapping trends. “There are a lot of wood grain papers on the market this season,” he says. “You can wrap with that and embellish with a sprig of rosemary from your garden or a bough of holly from your holiday tree.”

10. EMBRACE UNUSUAL SHAPES.

Wrapping boxes is easy, but what happens if what you need to wrap isn’t box-shaped? DuLaney has several methods for dealing with this. The first—and easiest—is to grab a gift bag. “When I do a gift bag, I gift wrap my gift bag,” he says. “I’ll add a ribbon or a bow around the handle, or I’ll replace the handle with a matching ribbon.” Other times, he might wrap something tangentially related to a gift to place under the tree before revealing the real deal. “If I’m giving someone a tennis racket, I’ll wrap a tennis ball, and when they open that, I’ll present them the racket with a bow on it,” he says.

Another method is to wrap your gift to look like exactly what it is. “Last year on Jimmy Kimmel, I wrapped a vacuum cleaner, and it looked exactly like a vacuum cleaner,” DuLaney says. “[The gift] is a gorgeous paper sculpture when you’re done, but of course there’s no mystery as to what’s inside it.”

If you prefer to camouflage a gift, prepare to get creative. “I’ve done a bicycle before where I wrapped it in all of this craft paper, created cardboard cutouts, and basically turned it into a deer with a scarf wrapped around its neck,” he says. “You’re so distracted by that—you’re like, ‘Oh, it’s a reindeer!’—that you don’t even think bicycle until you’re inside it.”

Of course, you could buy a box to put your unusually-shaped gift in, but what’s the fun in that?

11. USE DULL SCISSORS TO CURL RIBBON …

When using curling ribbon, sharp scissors are not your friend. They won’t just tear the ribbon—they could cut your finger, too. Dull scissors are the way to go. “When the ribbon comes off the spool, the outside of the ribbon is the finished side,” he says. “The part that goes to the inside of the spool is where you want to put your scissor or your curling tool. I put the scissor under the ribbon, put pressure on it from above with my thumb, and pull. The trick is to only do it once.”

12. … BUT DON’T THINK CURLING RIBBON IS YOUR ONLY OPTION.

Depending on what kind of look you’re going for, you might opt for a silk ribbon (to which you’d add angled or forked tails) over a curling ribbon. DuLaney likes to use a wire-edge ribbon, which can help those who aren’t used to tying perfect bows create prettier shapes. “The bow holds its shape really well,” he says. “You can hand-shape the tails that are coming off that bow, and they will hold that shape. A satin ribbon is really beautiful, but can be slippery, and curling ribbon has a limp finish to it, which can look sloppy in the end. With wire-edged ribbon, you can create the bow and then really shape it into something you love.”

13. DON’T CUT YOUR RIBBON OFF THE ROLL UNTIL YOUR BOW IS DONE.

Do you eyeball how much ribbon you think you’ll need, cut it off the spool, and hope for the best? Rookie mistake. When he’s tying a bow, DuLaney starts at the top of the gift and gives himself 12 inches of extra ribbon that stays attached to the spool. And, oh yeah, he does his criss-crossing and knotting of the ribbon on top of the gift. “People have a tendency to do that on the bottom of the gift, but then, when they’re done, there’s a bump under there,” he says. “Your gift rocks—it doesn’t sit flat.”

Here’s how DuLaney does it: “I hold the ribbon to the top of the gift with my thumb, wrap my ribbon around the bottom, and bring the ribbon back up to the top of the package, then criss-cross the top of the gift,” he says. “Then I wrap the ribbon lengthwise around the gift, around the bottom, back up to the top, and then I will do my first half knot with the ribbon. I will then tie the bow, and then—and only then—will I cut the ribbon from the spool.”

From the Hufflepuff scarf in Newt Scamander’s suitcase to mentions of the Lestrange family, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them has tons of easter eggs to satisfy Harry Potter fans—including one you may have missed. According to INSIDER, the design studio MinaLima has been hiding a recurring character in the pages of The Daily Prophet since the third Potter movie—and she also popped up in Fantastic Beasts‘s New York Ghost.

Meet the Ginger Witch, a career criminal who has been in and out of Azkaban for more than 70 years. She made her first appearance on the back page of The Daily Prophet in Prisoner of Azkaban, where she was responsible for a product recall of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans. In The Goblet of Fire, the Ginger Witch was described as a “Hooligan” who was arrested during a “Muggle Football Match”; she was later implicated for interfering with muggle air traffic with two flying pigs. In The Order of the Phoenix, she appeared in an article about surviving a henna explosion that was featured on the front page of The Daily Prophet. Finally, a series of stories in The Quibbler—a wizarding tabloid and “The Wizarding World’s Alternative Voice”—featured the Ginger Witch getting arrested with fake henna in Brazil. She was later sent to Azkaban for her role in a “fake henna scandal.”

Now we know that her criminal record stretches back until at least 1926, the year Fantastic Beasts takes place. A short article in The Daily Prophet notes that the “mysterious” Witch is under investigation. That investigation may have caused her to flee to the United States, where, according to The New York Ghost, she was prosecuted for stealing wigs in the Bronx.

MinaLima is responsible for all of the design work in the Potterverse, from Quidditch World Cup Posters to textbook covers and beyond. Though Rowling wanted certain headlines to appear in The Daily Prophet and The New York Ghost, MinaLima had the freedom to fill in the rest with their own headlines about characters like the Ginger Witch. (The character was inspired by a red-haired woman in the art department named Debbie.) “We know now that things do get seen,” MinaLima co-founder Miraphora Mina told INSIDER. “In the past, we didn’t realize how much these would be scrutinized by fans.”

The Ginger Witch was released from Azkaban at the end of the Potter films, but it’s likely she’ll strike again in future installments of Fantastic Beasts. While you’re waiting, you can pick up a limited edition print of an issue of The Daily Prophet that mentions the Witch here.

[h/t INSIDER]

In chapter 7 of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice sits down for tea at the Mad Hatter’s tea party, flanked by the March Hare and the snoozing dormouse:

The table was a large one, but the three were all crowded together at one corner of it. “No room! No room!” they cried out when they saw Alice coming. “There’s plenty of room!” said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large arm-chair at one end of the table.

“Your hair wants cutting,” said the Hatter. He had been looking at Alice for quite some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech.

“You should learn not to make personal remarks,” Alice said with some severity: “It’s very rude.”

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?”

Thanks to its fast-paced exchange of jokes and nonsense—and thanks to the long-lasting popularity of both the book and the numerous adaptations of it—the Mad Hatter’s tea party is one of the most famous scenes in all of children’s literature. Meanwhile the Mad Hatter’s riddle remains one of Lewis Carroll’s most enduring, and most notoriously unsolvable, puzzles.

A lecturer in mathematics at Oxford University’s Christ Church College, Lewis Carroll (the pen name of author, academic, and Anglican minister Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) composed dozens of riddles and logic puzzles throughout his lifetime, including several acrostic poems and a later set of seven verse brainteasers, “Puzzles from Wonderland,” published in 1870. But for some reason the Mad Hatter’s riddle remains a firm favorite—so why exactly is a raven like a writing-desk?

In the original story, after much deliberation, Alice gives up and asks the Hatter for the answer. “I haven’t the slightest idea,” he replies. But the fact that the Mad Hatter himself left his riddle unsolved has led to fans of the book (and fans of word games and logic puzzles) proposing countless potential solutions over the years since Alice in Wonderland was published in 1865.

One suggestion is that both ravens and writing-desks have “bills” and “tails” (or “tales,” in the case of a writer’s desk). Another points out that they both “flap” up and down (an allusion to the wooden rolling tops fitted to some old-style desks and bureaus). And both of them were famously used by Edgar Allan Poe, whose poem “The Raven” had been published 20 years earlier. Explanations like these (and the countless more like them) are all perfectly workable, but none satisfied Carroll himself—who finally admitted in the preface to an 1896 Christmas edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland:

Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter’s riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to be a fairly appropriate answer, viz: ‘Because it can produce few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!’ This, however, is merely an afterthought; the riddle, as originally invented, had no answer at all.

While some researchers have claimed that Carroll originally spelled never “nevar,” (raven backwards) before the joke was “fixed” by a helpful editor, it appears Carroll’s riddle was not intended to have an answer at all—but that’s not to say that it’s entirely without explanation.

Despite holding a lectureship at Oxford for more than 25 years, Carroll had numerous ties to the north of England. At the age of 11, his father Charles was made rector of the local Anglican church in Croft-on-Tees in North Yorkshire, and the church house remained the family home for the next 25 years. Two of Carroll’s sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, lived in Sunderland on the northeast coast of England (along with several of his cousins, nieces, and nephews) where Mary’s husband Charles Collingwood was reverend of a local Anglican church. And one of Carroll’s closest friends at Oxford University, the Dean of Christ Church College, Henry George Liddell, was a member of an established family and cousin of the Baron of Ravensworth, who had family and property across the northeast of England.

As a result, Carroll reportedly liked to spend as much time as possible in the north of England during university semesters visiting friends and family in the region, and, as it happened, inventing stories to entertain Henry Liddell’s young daughter, Alice.

It’s well known that a young Alice Liddell was the inspiration for the title character in Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland stories; Carroll is often claimed to have made the story up during a boating trip down the river at Oxford not long after Alice and her sisters moved to the city with their father in 1856. But it’s possible that at least part of Alice in Wonderland—namely, the Mad Hatter’s fiendish riddle—was either written in the north of England, or written with Carroll’s ties to the northeast in mind. When visiting the Liddell family estate, Carroll would stay at an inn (now named the Ravensworth Arms) in Lamesley, close to the Liddells’ ancestral home at Ravensworth Castle in Gateshead. It’s believed that, at around this time, Carroll was working on the first draft of what would become Alice in Wonderland. If that’s the case, it may be that the “raven” in Carroll’s notoriously unsolvable Mad Hatter’s riddle is actually an allusion to the Liddells’ Ravensworth Estate, which essentially served as Carroll’s “writing-desk” while he worked on the book.

Carroll is known to have incorporated a number of people and places from his time in the north of England into his work: The beach at Whitburn, close to where his sisters Mary and Elizabeth lived in Sunderland, for instance, has long been presumed to have provided the inspiration for The Walrus and the Carpenter, while Carroll’s monstrous Jabberwock is believed to have been based on local legends like the Lambton Worm, a fierce dragon-like creature said to have once inhabited the hills and rivers around Durham. Could it be that the Ravensworth connection is just another example of Carroll taking inspiration from his time in the north, and that’s why a raven is like a writing-desk? It might not solve his most famous riddle, but it does at least provide a tantalizing explanation.

Like many people who grew up in the internet age, Nick Weaver was frequently on call to serve as tech support for his family, friends, and anyone who had his cell phone number. “For as long as I can remember,” he tells mental_floss, “I’ve been the guy who’s had to fix the internet.” The home networks he was constantly fixing were severely lacking—a single router couldn’t cover an entire home, leading to dead spots and long buffering times, not to mention that the routers always needed to be reset.

But there wasn’t a single product out there that could adequately fix those problems, so when he left his home in Chicago to attend Stanford University in California, leaving his parents without their tech support, Weaver set them up with a simple system they could use when the internet just wasn’t working: “I took all of their networking equipment and plugged it into a bright red surge protector,” he says. “When there was a problem, they’d go into the closet, hit the big red button, wait a minute or two, and turn it back on.” But the solution wasn’t exactly elegant, and that bugged him. “Today, internet connectivity is just as important as our running water and our power,” Weaver says. “There really needed to be a better option out there.”

And so, in 2014—eight years after he set up that rudimentary system for his parents—Weaver left the world of venture capital and co-founded eero with Nate Hardison and Amos Schallich. (The company is named after Eero Saarinen, the architect who designed Weaver’s elementary school.) Their goal was to create a Wi-Fi system that delivered a reliable signal across the home, was a cinch to set up (even for those who aren’t tech savvy), would auto-update and reset, and was nice to look at. “I wanted a product that was super simple that people could set up on their own and then not have to worry about it,” Weaver, now CEO of eero, says.

They were lofty goals, but Weaver and his team shipped their first systems in February 2016 to rave reviews—and his parents, who were part of eero’s beta program from the beginning, love it too. “It took [my parents] longer to download the eero app than it did to set up a bulletproof network for their house,” Weaver says.

HOW IT WORKS

Traditional Wi-Fi systems rely on a single router—and Wi-Fi, which consists of radio waves, gets weaker the farther you get from that router. Add walls and stairs into the mix, and the signal can be significantly degraded. Which means that, even if you’re paying for high speed internet, you’re not getting those speeds with a single router throughout your home.

That’s where eero comes in. By placing the units around your home and syncing them, you create a mesh network, “basically a really fast data highway between [the units],” Weaver says. Each unit—a 4.75-inch-square white box that contains a dual-core 1 GHz CPU, two 802.11ac Wi-Fi radios, and five antennas—is an access point to the network. “If you have more access points around your home, devices like phones and computers are going to be closer to an eero, which means you’re going to have a stronger signal strength and a higher fidelity signal—and therefore [your connection is] going to be faster and more reliable,” he says.

Eero’s software allows the units to pick the fastest route on that data highway so you always have a fast and reliable connection (the company beta-tested its system in hundreds of homes for six months before the launch to make sure it would perform the way it was supposed to).

This is a huge improvement over the solutions that were available in the past, which involved multiple routers and tons of Ethernet wiring. Another oft-used option, range extenders, have a number of disadvantages, according to eero’s website, including the inability to connect multiple extenders in a row and the fact that they “often create an entirely separate network (SSID), so you find yourself having to continually switch from one network to the other as you move through your house.”

TESTING OUT EERO

Eero sent mental_floss a system so we could test it out for ourselves. Setup was relatively easy: We plugged the main eero unit into our modem using an Ethernet cable, downloaded the app, used Bluetooth to connect to the router, and let the app guide us through placement of the other two units. (We did have to call tech support to figure out why one unit wouldn’t sync with the others, but all it took was updating to the newest firmware and we were good to go.) Using an Apple Airport with our Time Warner router, we got 11 mbps; with eero, our speed jumped to 116 mbps, and we no longer got error screens when two people were trying to watch cat videos at once in the back bedrooms. (Gizmodo’s review notes that while eero “is not the fastest router you can buy … it might be the most convenient.”)

The key to this experience, Weaver says, is in the fact that the company designed both its hardware and its software. “It’s a finely tuned system,” he says. “When you look at [our competitors], they have so many different products that the software is never tuned for the hardware. They go to low-cost manufacturers and say, ‘What can you build us?’ We tune every little piece of hardware from the actual guts of the device to the software that runs it to the cloud and mobile app that help control it to keep things running smoothly.” Eero updates its software about once a week and adds new features all the time—earlier this month, the company introduced TrueMesh; eero customers, the company wrote in a blog post, “will see up to 2x the speed within their network, far greater intelligence in how their network adapts to their home, and flexibility to add even more eeros to their system” overnight.

Fast internet speed and easy setup aren’t where eero’s benefits end: The system has a number of awesome features. Using the app, customers can add guests to their network via text message. There are also robust controls that eero created using the feedback from parents. “They didn’t want to have to make settings for each device individually, so we came up with profiles,” Weaver says. “They also wanted to be able to access things both at home and on the go, and because we have our cloud, you can actually control your whole network everywhere. The biggest one was that kids were staying up really late playing games and there was no way to limit the internet without unplugging the router, and parents had work to do after they go to bed. So that’s where the time limit came from.” Eero has also partnered with Amazon to create an Alexa skill—if you have an Echo, you can ask it to find your phone based on which eero it’s nearest to or shut off the eero’s light when you’re ready to go to bed.

Currently, eero packages consist of between one and three units (though you can buy more depending on the size of your home). The systems aren’t cheap—three eeros will cost $499—but if you can’t afford that upfront, the company offers financing starting at $14 a month. “It doesn’t matter what income bracket you’re in—internet connectivity runs all the core experiences in our homes,” Weaver says. “You need it to relax, watch TV, listen to music, for homework, to do work, or to learn about new things. Great connectivity for homes is important for everyone.” And one could argue that in this age of cord cutting, when more people are streaming movies and television over the internet, the cost of eero might be worth never having to sit through buffering again.

You can pick up a unit at eero’s website or on Amazon.

On Thanksgiving and Black Friday, bargain hunters will camp outside stores, eagerly waiting for the doors to open—and camera phones and surveillance videos will capture any stampedes that might ensue. Surprisingly, this bad behavior isn’t a modern phenomenon; parents who pushed for Tickle-Me Elmo Dolls in 1996 or Cabbage Patch Dolls in 1983 weren’t even the first generation to attack in the aisles. For more than a century, shoppers have stampeded towards goods they really wanted, but didn’t quite need—sometimes with fatal results.

1. VICTORIA HALL TOY TRAMPLING

In 1883, the organizers of a variety show in Northern England promised the children attending the event that they would receive a toy upon exit (the organizers denied reports that the prizes were to go to the first children downstairs). The organizers had intended an orderly exit in which toys were handed out individually, but a surge of 1200 kids rushed to the stairwell, where, at the bottom of the stairs, a door had been propped open inwards about 20 inches and bolted in place. The bolted door stopped the stampeding children from exiting, and the crowd in the stairwell swelled. In the frenzy, children who fell were crushed or suffocated to death, while others were crushed by the mass of children still entering the stairwell. Almost 200 children were killed in the stampede; Queen Victoria’s private secretary wrote that the queen’s “heart bleeds for the suffering of the many bereaved parents.” The New York Times reported days later that the coveted box of toys was still positioned by the door.

2. CORONATION MUG CROWD CRUSH

In 1896, more than 500,000 people crowded onto a Moscow field early in the morning for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. The crowd anticipated gifts, including a pretzel and a commemorative cup—but when rumors swirled that not enough gifts were available, panic spread.

Witnesses reported a rage in which the stampeding crowd swore, shouted, and pushed toward the sheds where the gifts were held. Attendees who fell were trampled as the angry crowd pressed forward. Almost 1400 people were killed and 1300 were injured, but the celebration didn’t stop after the stampede. Casualties were moved from the site, and the festivities shifted elsewhere on the field. Many attendees were unaware that a tragedy had occurred just hours earlier.

3. CLEARANCE SALE STAMPEDE

In the 1930s, Eaton’s Department Store in Winnipeg, Canada held clearance sales every day in January and February. Depression era shoppers lined up to buy items on steep discount, and smaller store owners also lined up, hoping to resell goods at a markup. The competing consumers were highly aggressive; on one occasion, a man was knocked unconscious during the frenzy. One witness described how a floorwalker, “unperturbed by the sudden appearance of an injured man out cold … casually commandeered the nearest elevator [and] dragged the injured man by his feet into it.” The sales stampede persisted at the store for decades. In the 1950s, sales staff were known to throw products at crowds to allow shoppers to fight it out among themselves.

4. NYLON NASTINESS

By August 1945, World War II was almost over, and because nylon was no longer needed for the war effort, production of stockings was able to resume. The government was clear—they weren’t going to involve themselves with the distribution of stockings—and newspapers eagerly anticipated the mad rush women would make to the department stores that received early shipments.

As expected, over the next few months, eager shoppers gathered to snag one of the few available pairs. In New York, 30,000 women flooded a department store. In Pittsburgh, 40,000 women lined up for only 13,000 available pairs. Shoppers tore through the stores looking for the nylon display. Those who scored a pair had to fend off shoppers willing to rip the product from their hands. Some cities saw crowds, others saw chaos. In Augusta, Georgia, women fought physically over the nylons and knocked over display merchandise in their struggles.

The shortage was short-lived. The following March, production increased to 30 million pairs a month, and soon there was plenty for all.

5. TV TRAMPLE

In February 1954, the promise of discounted goods lured thousands of shoppers to the Hearn’s Department Store on 14th Street in New York City. More than 10,000 shoppers crammed the street, demanding the store be opened.

The Washington’s Birthday sale boasted $6.95 television sets and 29 cent umbrellas. Watches that were typically $19.95 were $5.22, and pearl necklaces that sold for $39 were $3.

The police intended to only allow 10 shoppers in at a time, but the mob grew impatient, and a flood of people stampeded into the store. In the chaos, dozens of people were injured. A policeman was shoved through a plate-glass door, windows were broken, and customers physically fought each other for goods.

The Washington’s Birthday stampede wasn’t unique to New York in the 1950s. Three years earlier, a price war between competing department stores sent consumers stampeding into stores.

6. COFFEE CROWD CRUSH

An aptly-named “Crazy Day” sale attracted more than 2000 shoppers to a Florida grocery store—which had advertised $75 power lawn mowers for only 99 cents, as well as one-pound packages of coffee for 29 cents—in 1954. The stampeding crowd sent several shoppers to the hospital and frightened store clerks. As the swarm grew, clerks began throwing packages of coffee at the crowd to prevent being attacked, and the police had to be called to restore order.