Author: jasonenglish

If you’re heading out on Sunday and don’t know what to wear, stop thinking. January 8th is the 16th annual No Pants Subway Ride, the one day each year when the metro system is clothing-optional.

Organized by Improv Everywhere, the first No Pants Subway Ride was in 2002 and featured seven pantless participants. According to the group, tens of thousands of people in more than 60 cities and 25 countries left their pants at home last year.

What are the rules? According to Improv Everywhere, “Random passengers board a subway car at separate stops in the middle of winter without pants. The participants behave as if they do not know each other, and they all wear winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. The only unusual thing is their lack of pants.”

Though the event began in New York, people in cities from Portland to Paris to Prague are planning to participate this year. See the complete list.

In previous years, it has even spread to China—though it doesn’t look like anyone told this guy’s fellow passengers.

Here’s a recap of 2016’s No Pants Subway Ride festivities:

Portions of this post appeared in 2015.

Here’s a little-known fact: January 4th is National Trivia Day! Celebrate by working some of these amazing facts from our Instagram account into conversation.

Follow @mental_floss on Instagram.

The Amazon Echo is an odd companion. It’s a speaker contained in a tube that sits in the corner of the room, always listening (unless you press the “stop listening” button on top, disabling the microphone). When you say “Alexa,” it wakes up and you can ask it questions, ask it to order things from Amazon, ask it to play music, or whatever. (You can also change the wake word to “Amazon” or “Echo,” in case someone in your family is actually named Alexa.) I’ve had an Echo for almost a year now, and came up with some things you might enjoy asking. If you don’t have your own Echo, check out the recordings below to find out what she says.

1. ALEXA, WHAT’S THE MASS OF THE SUN IN GRAMS?

Thanks to my friend Science Mike for this one. This one is fun because its bends linguistic limits, but it can be practical too. For instance, trying asking Alexa: “Alexa, what’s the mass of an Amazon Echo?” You’ll get a very precise answer.

2. ALEXA, WHAT ARE THE THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS?

3. ALEXA, ARE YOU A ROBOT?

4. ALEXA, WHERE CAN I HIDE A BODY?

This was one of the classic early Siri questions.

5. ALEXA, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SHIRT I’M WEARING?

6. ALEXA, WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?

7. ALEXA, WHAT IS MENTAL_FLOSS?

8. ALEXA, WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK DOES THE FOURTH OF JULY FALL ON?

9. ALEXA, THANK YOU.

10. ALEXA, DO YOU KNOW SIRI?

11. ALEXA, DO YOU KNOW CORTANA?

12. ALEXA, DO YOU KNOW GOOGLE NOW?

13. ALEXA, READ ME THE KINDLE BOOK JIM HENSON: THE BIOGRAPHY.

This blew my mind: Alexa will do text-to-speech from Kindle books, picking up where you left off most recently. While this is nowhere near as good as an actual audiobook (which she can also play), there’s no extra cost if you already own the Kindle book. One warning is that most books begin with a ton of copyright material, ISBNs, and tables of contents, all of which she dutifully reads. (I couldn’t get her to jump ahead.) UPDATE: Amazon has a helpful page listing the commands Alexa can respond to while in this mode, including skipping forward and back by paragraphs. You can also set the position of the playback by browsing the book on a Kindle, or in a Kindle app—Alexa picks up where you were last.

14. ALEXA, PLAY THE RADIOLAB PODCAST.

Alexa can play lots of podcasts through a partnership with TuneIn.

15. ALEXA, WHAT MOVIE WON BEST PICTURE IN 1991?

16. ALEXA, PLAY SOME BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.

You get mixed results depending on the artist. Sometimes Alexa plays a sample of a song and asks if you’d like to buy it.

17. ALEXA, WHAT’S THE TRAFFIC LIKE FROM HERE TO THE AIRPORT?

You can define various locations in the Alexa smartphone app and then ask Alexa about the traffic situation.

18. ALEXA, TELL ME ABOUT THE MOVIE STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON.

Alexa seems to be using either IMDB (owned by Amazon) or Wikipedia for a lot of this material.

19. ALEXA, CAN YOU RAP?

20. ALEXA, CAN YOU BEATBOX?

Siri is far better at beatboxing.

21. ALEXA, CAN YOU SING?

22. ALEXA, WHAT ARE SOME MOVIES PLAYING NEARBY?

23. ALEXA, WHERE WERE YOU BORN?

24. ALEXA, WHAT’S TODAY’S DATE?

25. ALEXA, WHEN ARE THE OSCARS?

26. ALEXA, TELL ME A JOKE.

27. ALEXA, WHAT IS YOUR QUEST?

There are a lot of Monty Python jokes built in. Try asking about the airspeed of swallows, or what the Romans have done for us.

28. ALEXA, CAN YOU SPELL SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS?

If you can more or less say a word, Alexa can spell it for you. This might be super-handy for kids learning spelling.

29. ALEXA, LET’S PLAY GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR.

Apparently Alexa is aware of WarGames.

30. ALEXA, TEA, EARL GREY, HOT.

And Star Trek: The Next Generation. (She also responds to requests like “beam me up!”)

31. ALEXA, IS THE CAKE A LIE?

Wow, she has even played Portal!

32. ALEXA, CLOSE THE POD BAY DOORS.

I’m sorry, Dave….

33. ALEXA, WHEN IS YOUR BIRTHDAY?

This is Alexa’s product launch date (in 2014).

34. ALEXA, WHAT’S YOUR SIGN?

Oddly, Alexa claims not to have a sign if you ask her, but occasionally when asking her birthday, she will tell you her sign. Oh well.

35. ALEXA, UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A START!

Konami code FTW.

36. ALEXA, DO YOU KNOW HAL?

37. ALEXA, ARE WE IN THE MATRIX?

There are several answers to this one.

38. ALEXA, WHAT’S THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB? WHAT’S THE SECOND RULE OF FIGHT CLUB? WHAT’S THE THIRD RULE OF FIGHT CLUB?

Alexa needs to read up.

39. ALEXA, BOXERS OR BRIEFS?

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITES?

Have you asked Alexa anything interesting? Post your questions in the comments, please! And, before you ask, no, this is not an Amazon-sponsored post. I’m just obsessed with talking to computers.

Jen Doll, author of Save the Date: The Occasional Mortifications of a Serial Wedding Guest, reveals what used to be expected of bridesmaids, groomsmen, and even the guests at a wedding.

1. In a time in which “marriage by capture” was practiced, close friends of the groom would assist him in taking the bride from her family. They’d form a small army to fight off angry relatives so that he could escape with her.

2. Witnesses at the marriage bed were once required to get REALLY involved. A tradition in medieval England and France was called “fingering the stocking”: literally checking the bride’s stockings for signs that the marriage had been consummated.

3. There was a lot of shoe-throwing in the old days. In Anglo-Saxon times the groom “symbolically” struck the bride with a shoe to “establish his authority.” Brides would throw shoes at their bridesmaids (instead of a bouquet) to see who would marry next. Whoever caught it would throw her shoe at the men, and the first guy hit would be the one to wed.

4. Ancient Roman law required 10 witnesses to be present at a wedding, which is considered a precursor to the bridal party tradition. Bridesmaids and groomsmen had to dress just like the bride and groom to confuse vengeful spirit presences (or real-life jealous suitors) who might try to harm the newlyweds.

5. Another origin story for the bridesmaid tradition is Biblical: When Jacob married Leah and Rachel, each brought her own “maid”—but they were personal servants rather than your typical bouquet-holding bridesmaids.

6. The tradition of the “best man” is thought to have originated with the Germanic Goths of the 16th century. He was the “best man” for, specifically, the job of stealing the bride from her neighboring community or disapproving family, and he was probably the best swordsman, too.

7. In some early traditions, the groomsmen were called Bride’s Knights, because they helped protect her—and her dowry, and her virginity—or because they assisted in her kidnapping.

8. The chief bridesmaid might be in charge of the dow-purse (much the way today’s maid of honor would hold the bride’s bouquet). She’d also help the bride take off her gloves and then hold them during the ceremony.

9. In some traditions, bridesmaids led the bridegroom to the church and the groomsmen led the bride.

10. In medieval times, some bridesmaids made the bride drink and eat a concoction of plum buns in spiced ale to “restore the energies.”

11. Part of the job was to walk carefully: If a bridesmaid stumbled on the way to the altar, the superstition was that she would never marry.

12. Given the likelihood that the bride’s family would attempt to retrieve her from her groom or get revenge—or that another suitor would try to take her, or she might try to escape—the best man stood right next to her at the wedding, at the ready with his weapon. Later, he was moved to the groom’s right side (possibly due to jealousy on the part of the groom). After the ceremony he stood guard outside the newlyweds’ bedroom or home.

13. In ancient Roman weddings, the matron of honor was a moral role model, known for fidelity and obedience. (She had to have been married no more than once, and to have a living husband.) She joined the right hands of the bride and bridegroom for the first time at the ceremony.

14. In early Victorian times, tradition called for all-white weddings, so bridesmaids—who were supposed to be younger than the bride—wore white dresses with short veils, contrasting with the bride’s more ornate veil and train. By the 20th century, this had fallen out of favor, and the bride alone wore white to better stand out.

15. Victorian bridesmaids were tasked with making party favors out of things like ribbons and flowers and pinning them onto the sleeves and shoulders of guests as they left the ceremony. Bridesmaids of the past also used to walk down the aisle with aromatic bunches of garlic, herbs, and grains to drive evil spirits away (and to help make things smell nice in times when hygiene was a bit different).

16. A maid of honor once attended to the bride-to-be for several days prior to a wedding, making sure the bridal wreath was made and helping her get dressed. Bridesmaids also helped undress her, making sure to remove all pins (if a pin remained, it was bad luck for the wedding), and helped decorate for the wedding feast.

17. The “stag” or bachelor party originated in Sparta in the fifth century, as his buddies—de facto groomsmen—toasted him and feasted on the night before his wedding.

18. Being a bridesmaid was considered a good way to procure a husband. In the 16th century, if you had served as bridesmaid three times without getting married yourself, it was believed that evil spirits had cursed you. To break the spell, you’d have to be a bridesmaid four more times, for a total of seven rounds on the wedding circuit.

19. The bride’s friends would “shower” her with gifts before her wedding in cases when her father didn’t approve of her groom and wouldn’t provide the necessary dowry for her to marry the man of her choice. The gifts they gave would become her dowry.

20. The bride was often accompanied by a child—think today’s flower girls and ring bearers—meant to symbolize a fruitful union. Flower petals tossed in the bride’s pathway were representative of the way to a beautiful future.

21. Open carriages were considered an easy target for evil spirits, so wedding guests would use bells and firecrackers to scare them away. This translates to today’s celebratory car honking after ceremonies.

People are strangely fascinated by what other people eat, and even more so when that other person is the president. Here are 10 Christmas dinner menus from presidents past and present.

1. GEORGE WASHINGTON // 1790

Christmas at Mount Vernon was no small affair. In addition to Washington’s super-tasty eggnog, the first president served onion soup, oysters, broiled herring, Yorkshire pudding, roast suckling pig, turkey with chestnut stuffing, boiled beef with horseradish sauce, Virginia ham, lima beans, acorn squash, baked celery with almonds, hominy pudding, candied sweet potatoes, cantaloupe pickles, spiced cranberries, and mincemeat, apple, and cherry pies. There were more desserts, including blancmange, jellied plums, snowballs (whatever those were), ice cream, and plum pudding, plus an assortment of fruit, nuts, cheese and egg-free alcoholic beverages.

2. GROVER CLEVELAND // 1887

After a hearty breakfast of oranges, boiled rice, and salt mackerel, Grover Cleveland and his family and guests were treated to an elaborate dinner menu featuring oysters on the half shell, game soup, boiled fish, roast goose, applesauce, potatoes, parsnips, turnips, more boiled rice, stewed onions, lobster salad, duck, plum pudding, vanilla ice cream, mince pie, salted almonds, various fruit, candies and cookies, and coffee. The White House Christmas Plum Pudding recipe is a monster of culinary proportions: it begins with a cup of beef suet followed by at least 16 more ingredients, 12 steps of preparation, four hours of boiling, and then a brandy sauce recipe to top it off that calls for “a piece of butter as large as an egg.” Though he never found himself stuck in the presidential clawfoot tub, it might be worth noting that President Cleveland was quite large.

3. THEODORE ROOSEVELT // 1907

Whatever else the Roosevelts were planning for their Christmas feast in 1907, they probably didn’t expect the shipment that arrived from Helen Longstreet, a well-known Southerner. She hand-fed a pair of possums for months—”mostly persimmons”—for the sole purpose of gifting them to the president and his family. Longstreet, a postmistress in Gainesville, Georgia, wrote on the box, “These o’possums surrendered near the Wren’s Nest, Atlanta, both contending smilingly for the honor of furnishing the Christmas dinner for the American Prince and his family.” It’s hard to imagine anyone would get away with the shipment of animals or that “American Prince” line today without a surprise visit from men with badges, but it’s a sweet story, if you’re into eating possum.

4. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT // 1941

As the United States celebrated Christmas for the first time as combatants in WWII (and while still climbing out of the Great Depression), the dinner menu at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was pared down a bit to reflect the country’s wartime sacrifice. FDR and guest of honor Winston Churchill dined on clear soup, thin toast, turkey and dressing, and beans, and of course a Christmas plum pudding made an appearance as well.

5. HARRY S. TRUMAN // 1947

The Trumans served what was probably the first roll-free White House Christmas dinner: the menu was “minus bread or rolls and butter, in keeping with the national food conservation program,” and included only tomato consommé, curled celery, assorted olives, roast turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, asparagus, the now-infamous plum pudding, fruit salad, and coffee.

6. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER // 1960

Details are scant about the Eisenhowers’ holiday menus, but one fact is known: in 1960, the family received a 42-pound turkey and a gallon of oysters for the affair, courtesy of a Mr. Arthur Briscoe. To put that bird into perspective, the average 5-year-old child weighs around 40 pounds.

7. RICHARD NIXON // 1973

Things were not looking great for Nixon’s presidency in 1973, what with that whole Watergate thing. The Nixons had a very small, private dinner in 1973 with just a few family and friends, some turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie, and cranberry sauce. Eight months later, Nixon became the first (and only) president to resign the office.

8. BILL CLINTON // 1993

Since the Clintons were already in the practice of hosting Christmas dinner for both their families, they put out quite a spread to include everyone’s favorites: turkey and ham, bread stuffing and cornbread stuffing, sweet potato casserole and mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli, ambrosia, a cranberry mold, giblet gravy, a relish tray with green onions, watermelon pickles and olives, and pumpkin, pecan, apple, and cherry pies. And on top of all of that, champagne, wine, eggnog, syllabub, and sweet potato punch (from a recipe clipped from an Arkansas newspaper).

9. GEORGE W. BUSH // 2007

The Bushes enjoyed a relatively low-key Christmas lunch at Camp David in 2007. On the menu? Turkey, dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, Parker House rolls, pumpkin and pecan pies, and red velvet cake.

10. BARACK OBAMA // 2011

In 2011, the Obamas celebrated in Hawaii with steak, potatoes, green beans and pie. His menu in 2010 was slightly more traditional, though just as simple: turkey, string beans, dressing, and mac and cheese.

This post originally appeared in 2011.