Pulling back the curtain isn't always a great idea. Just ask the curious cat. Oh wait you can't... they're dead. Sometimes secrets are the integral part in making the magic. Many professions withhold truth from the public. Now somethings we might be better off knowing, but then the status quo will never be the same. Do we really want to know how the donuts are made?
Redditor u/CircleBox2 was wondering who felt like shedding some light on a few things we as the people are in the dark about by asking.... What's a dark secret/questionable practice in your profession which we regular folks would know nothing about?
Jeweled.
heating up hot stuff GIF by Bunim/Murray ProductionsGiphyPretty much ALL the high-end handmade in Australia jewelry in Australia is made at a secret factory in Bali. All the clients have to show an established business and sign confidentiality agreements.
"body brokers"
There is a problem in substance abuse treatment in the United States called body brokering. Substance abuse treatment can be very expensive and insurance companies pay A LOT of money for a patient to be there. Treatment centers will hire "body brokers" to find addicts with the best, highest paying insurance and entice them to check in to the specific center, the treatment center then gives the broker a commission from the insurance money.
This can go as far as body brokers literally putting more drugs in to the hands of some addicts before they come in, bc the higher level of drugs in your system upon admit, the more and longer the insurance company will pay to the treatment center.
Brokers will also hire other addicts in a pyramid scheme type way to check in to the treatment center, make friends with the other patients, and upon discharge encourage relapse so they come back to treatment.
Submission.
Have you ever started filling out a form for a quote on something (insurance website, or literally anything) and then changed your mind and said "nah, I don't want to give them my personal information", and then abandoned the form before pressing "submit"?
If you think that stopped them from getting your personal information, it didn't. Most companies looking to capture leads will capture your info in real time as you enter it into a form. The submit button is just there to move you to the next step, not to actually send your information to the company.
The Honor System.
Role Playing Reaction GIF by Hyper RPGGiphyCustoms broker here. Every day hundreds of thousands of containers and air shipments arrive into United States territory. The volume of customs entries entered every day is staggering. When we get licensed to be a customs broker we are trained and tested not just on knowledge, but ethics. We even take a pledge to partner with CBP to uphold the law, and cooperate with them should we come across anything suspicious. Why so much emphasis on this?
Customs can't actually screen everything coming in. I'm oversimplifying but CBP basically works on the honor system. You file an entry saying what the shipment is, and they just take your word for it and release it. This happens hundreds of thousands of times a day. Maybe at best customs can screen 3-7% of what's coming in, the rest of just waived through.
They're Guessing.
You know the people who write instruction manuals or user guides in things you buy?
Half the time, they've never even seen or touched the product. Some dude just sends us pictures, a rough description of how it's supposed to work, and that's it.
ETA: Wow this took off. To all the IT dudes of reddit. I actually browse the brand specific subreddits to figure out what to add to my user guides because that's how little info my company provides me. Thanks for making my life easier!
Actor Issues.
I work on on a popular teen TV show. All the lead actors do cocaine regularly and they often come to set high or show up to set late because they chose to party on a Monday night.
People always complain that Disney (in example) always hires old as hell people for their roles, I mean would you hire a teenager for a show that might either have a pilot and one season or maybe run for years if it's successful? I mean, would you really? You don't remember when you were a teenager all the stupid crap you did? Now add fame and income.
Mama Mia!
At a very large pizza chain restaurant that remains widely popular, we had these perforated pans for thin crust and stuffed crust pizzas. They'd get washed in the dish washer by the hundreds per day and at least half would still have burnt cheese on them. Well they were just stacked to dry.
When making new pizzas in those pans, sometimes the pans that were left to "dry" overnight grew bits of mold around the burnt cheese. We were told just to put the dough on top because otherwise we'd never keep up with the orders if we rewashed everything. The manager said, "don't worry, it gets cooked."
Buttless....
all star baseball GIF by Lansing LugnutsGiphyMinor League Baseball (all minor league sports?): the attendances figures are bullcrap.
And I don't just mean "they announce tickets sold instead of butts in seats." No, they just make it up. Teams purposely inflate attendance figures to attract sponsors. ThatUncertainFeeling
Be Announced.
If it has to be accessed regularly in an IT setting? It's not secure. Not unless you're in an industry that actually polices it.
Yes, people are dumb enough to pick up USB thumb drives they find on the ground. The nicer and newer it is, the more likely it'll get plugged in.
Also, if you're looking to verify the security of your vendors, don't announce your visit.
Ghosted
take notes GIFGiphyNot currently my profession but ghost writers in fiction. John Grisham, Danielle Steele, James Patterson, Janet Evanovich etc., all those big names with an NYT bestseller every year use ghostwriters who are are never credited or mentioned. It's barely even a secret.
"There's a big difference..."
Whether it be due to being extremely busy, not caring, not knowing, or the "correct" way just being so damn impractical....you'd be shocked how many corners are cut in every part of the healthcare system. There's a big difference between how nursing/medicine is taught vs how it's practiced.
"Only a few..."
As an exotic dancer; we talk about you in the back. And we laugh and make fun of you. Only a few customers get any kind of praise. Those are the ones who listen to our rules and tip well.
"In the auto industry..."
In the auto industry, mechanics are paid for how long it takes to complete a repair. Makes sense, right? Except that at dealerships, the auto brand has determined how much time can be charged for a given job; so if the tech does it in less, they get paid for the full time and the customer gets charged for the full time - no matter how much time it actually took.
Let's say a simple headlight bulb change. Pop the access cover, take the old bulb out, throw the new one in, turn it on and off to make sure it works. Takes two minutes. But the customer gets charged for thirty, because apparently that job is worth 0.5 hours.
It seems pretty insidious to me.
"Obviously..."
It's possible that this is commonly known, but in America pet food that has expired is legally required to be thrown out. Dry and canned pet food of course can last for months after expiration and be perfectly safe. So not only is it not donated to animal shelters, most pet stores actually tear open the bags and open the cans so that dumpster divers can't use the food for their animals. When I was homeless and had a dog I tried to find stores that didn't open the containers they threw out. I was usually not successful.
Obviously the same thing is done with human food, but I've heard in some places the laws are changing for that and they are allowing stores to donate semi expired food to food pantries. I go to food pantries myself often and I'm grateful for this slow but hopefully steady change and how we handle food "waste". The USDA says approximately 12% of all Americans are food insecure, which means they may not know where their next meal is coming from. About a third of all food produced in America goes uneaten which is something like a hundred and sixty billion dollars. Sometimes it all just makes me want to cry.
"No wonder..."
The insurance industry, at the corporate level, is all about wining and dining the consultants of huge companies that do nothing but act as a middle man between companies looking for insurance and the companies selling insurance. I've seen THOUSANDS spent on getting the opportunity to bid on a contract. No wonder health insurance is so expensive. The money spent is enough to stock a soup kitchen for years.
"I give the worst deals..."
I give the worst deals/worst service to rude guests, and upgrades/vouchers for free food/special discounts to nice people who don't yell at me when something goes wrong with their rooms.
"I've been working..."
I've been working at a Safeway grocery store for a while now and I am on the "sanitation team" because of the coronavirus. This consists of me holding a rag and a spray bottle and mindlessly spraying and wiping the entire store for 8 hours a day. And because of an apparent cleaning supplies shortage, we had to use the same rag all day for everything. Cleaning toilets, sinks, and then the conveyor belts, self check out stations, and everywhere you touch and set your groceries in the front!
"Most general duty officers..."
Police officer in Canada.
Most general duty officers despise doing traffic, and they will not write tickets if they can avoid it. They love warnings because you can't dispute a warning, and there's no chance of court. Many don't know the elements of mundane-seeming offences, and would have a hard time giving evidence in court. If they're going to write tickets, they'll write for administrative violations that can't readily be disputed (no insurance, expired drivers licence, etc) and give you a "break" on the actual driving offences.
But god help you if a traffic unit gets you.
"As much as it's discouraged..."
As much as it's discouraged, most teachers talk/complain/laugh about their students and their families in the staff room.
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"People die everyday..."
People die everyday because of doctors' handwriting and wrongly prescribed drugs. And yet I rarely hear any doctor go to jail because of it.
Also, if doctors make mistakes, they would devise a narrative that removes the blame from themselves, and pin the blame instead on nurses, residents, etc. And usually, patients wouldn't even realize this because doctors are so good at hiding their mistakes.
"Ethically..."
I'm not sure how dark it really is but as a network admin, if your company has an email server, we read them. Ethically it's a gray area without a good reason but legally we are 100% allowed to do it and a lot of us probably do, just for fun. So just never send anything personal from your work email.
"I've learned this practice..."
The Netherlands. But this counts for a lot of the EU.
For us it is common practice that the grave diggers are also the people escorting the casket. Many gravesites here use sand with a top layer of about 30cm of dirt as it helps the rotting process and the gravesites are mostly constructed artificially with a big layer of sand with dirt in top.
We don't add extra sand, we use the sand that already was there, the entire graveyard is build on a big layer of sand. Again this is common practice to help the natural process.
We have to stand on the coffin to get in the grave to remove the chains and remove the iron sheds preventing the grave to collapse. There simply is no other way. But when we fill a grave the family is never present.
Our cemetery doesn't have a crematorium so I wouldn't know about that.
I've learned this practice with our national education for grave yard employees and spoke to many grave diggers from all around the Netherlands. The practice is mostly the same everywhere I describe with the biggest difference being that some sites use the krane to remove the Sheds from the grave.
"I work in a distribution plant..."
I work in a distribution plant for the U.S. Postal Service. Putting "FRAGILE" on your package won't actually make us treat it any better; it's all going on one of the sorting machines anyway. While we do our best to prevent it from being crushed by other, heavier, packages, it's nowhere near guaranteed.
What should you do? Pack it FULL of soft things like bubble wrap or packing peanuts.
"I'm a low paid junior tech..."
Your internet service provider knows what kind of porn you watch.
I'm a low paid junior tech, and if you're not using a VPN, I can pretty much pull up the complete web browsing history of anyone in my service area.
"We'd go to power plants..."
Past profession. Environmental engineer. We'd go to power plants and such and make sure their emissions fall within epa standards. Well guess what happens if they fail an emissions test? They keep us on site while they change the settings and have us run tests until they pass. Not illegal apparently.
Gee, I wonder what happens as soon as we step off the property. Not like they'd change the settings back to what it was before, certainly not.
"I work in IT security..."
I work in IT Security and I gge paid to advise men how to hide their porn and side chicks. I also advise how to protect companies when their employees use porn or hire sex workers using company assets.
"As an example..."
The auto industry has a bunch of them. Find a shop that you trust. Dealerships tend to be a little less shady than independent shops, but they're not immune.
As an example, one of my friends works at a dealership and he said if they find an electrical issue that's likely caused by a battery they'll attach a bad battery's test results to sell a new battery.
"It required more training..."
It required more training for me to get my food handler's permit to make pizzas as a teenager than it did to be able to drive an ambulance. How much training (beyond proving I had a normal driver's license) did the latter require you may ask? Hint: it starts with a Z and ends with an ero.
"The most common of which..."
Most people would be amazed at the amount of health code violations that take place in restaurants. The most common of which is in fast food where items that are supposed to be labeled with hold times are just given new labels when they expire. As long as an inspector didn't see it never happened.
"I used to work..."
I used to work with a nonprofit organization that cleans up plastic bags and other litter and turns it into art or other items. Specifically, plastic bags would be washed, sanitized, and crocheted into different items like bags, coasters, etc.
Well, turns out that is how they marketed it. But in reality the artisans that made the crocheted pieces would buy the plastic bags in bulk, and crochet from those.
"That being said..."
I work as a welder/fitter, mostly on structural steel, and for the most part we do everything right because lives are literally on the line.
That being said, sometimes, by chance, and totally not because we know the beams will only be primed and then covered with concrete/more steel/walls/ceilings, there might be a slight chance of dicks being drawn on in oil markers designed to bleed through the paint. Oh, and that handrail almost definitely was not made with "schedule 80 posts" because the engineer is a dumbass and the rail is blocking you from falling into a wall on a stairway with 3 steps.
Also, its almost a guarantee that every time something isn't done by when the customer wants it, the foreman will blame it on the detailer or engineer not getting us prints soon enough, but it's almost definitely caused by the foreman forgetting when the job was due and not requesting prints, or forgetting we had prints until about a week before the job is supposed to be installed, especially if theres 40 tons of steel that hasn't even been ordered yet, and has to be galvanized.
"When meat falls on the ground..."
I'm a butcher.
When meat falls on the ground we pick it back up dust it off and put it back on a tray. The older butchers joke about it being "seasoned" before putting it back on a tray. Also flys are usually an issue in warming meat coolers, two of the places I've worked in the past had massive maggot infestations and fly's constantly landing on meat before it gets wrapped.
"It's very easy..."
I cut hair for a living as a Cosmetologist. It's very easy to harvest blood and hair (obviously) from clients and I know of one or two who make/have made voodoo dolls of clients.
Schools
Teachers heavily influence your child's future when they're in elementary school via a practice called tracking.
It's technically illegal, but it happens anyway. Basically, a student establishes their behavior and intelligence within the first few years of school. Teachers notice who has "promise" and talk about them with each other (not as a conspiracy, but just as interesting lunch conversation). Then, when students progress to the next grade, and the administration is putting together class lists, they group those smart students together. But teachers also pick out the troublemakers, and they get grouped together too. Have you ever wondered why your teacher had that one class they hated to teach?? That's why. It was the low tracking class, and it was packed full of the kids that were estimated to amount to little.
And it continues on through the grade levels. The smart kids who were identified in elementary school continue to get smarter because they're put in the best classes, typically with each other. They're pushed by guidance counselors toward AP courses and college credits. Meanwhile, lower tracked students, who weren't in the best classes, are pushed toward vocational and technical schools.
There's a correlation between socioeconomic status and a student's likelihood of being low tracked, but that's a much deeper and complex problem.
"When the butchers were grinding beef..."
I used to work at a butcher shop in a grocery store. When the butchers were grinding beef, they would add fat to the grinder if they needed a less lean product. One day I watched a butcher take pork fat out of the garbage and add it to ground beef.
I hope nobody with dietary restrictions buys food there. All I could think was "that's not kosher."
"To be fair..."
Pressure from higher-ups, on quality control, to sign off on welds that do not pass, at a nuclear power plant. To be fair, it isn't widespread, and is very illegal. But it does happen.
"All tenders are decided..."
I'm a distributor of a famous laboratory equipment brand made in NL in a South East Asia country. Everybody is corrupt here. All tenders are decided before they're even launched. We bribe the potential buyers to buy our product. And most of our salesperson markup that money to take some for themselves too. It's effed up. We buy from NL around 50k euro and sell it here for more than 200k.
"Their field teams..."
I used to work multiple jobs- from a babysitter, assistant in a long range telecommunications company, to a cashier at a gas station.
As a babysittern - some kids I used to babysit were about 10-12, but they always knew about all the s*** I didn´t want to show them. Sometimes, these kids talked about serious topic (like alcoholism and drugs), or in one instance, gore. Some of them didn´t have a problem in Cuphead COOP, Fortnite, or some other games, and were able to play these games pretty well, so when I was babysitting two siblings, we used to play a lot of Portal 2 and COOP games.
As an assistant in the LR telecomm company – we used to work along large telecomm companies. Their field teams had no clue about what they were doing - most of their experienced staff (that was out of the company) had already set up most of the stuff. We were usually contracted to do their stuff for large teams, even if there were only about 7 people on our staff traveling all across Slovakia (including me). We had a lot of disputes with Telekom, Orange, and the third largest internet provider in our country.
As a cashier at a gas station - expired food wasn't usually disposed off in the recommended way- sometimes we ate the food after the date of expiration where cameras and people couldn't see us. The only thing we've always got rid of were baguettes. I ate a ton of expired expensive yoghurts, hams, salamis and other stuff while on a lunch break. Also, when our bosses weren't present in the place, we used to make "illegal hotdogs", which were crazy combinations of stuff we had (vegetables & sauces that we had too much of, or all ingredients combined).
My coworker also usually gave me 4-5 overcooked sausages to take home, since their expiration period was only few hours long. One coworker took the expired food home with her to feed her chickens. Also, when the customers left the special points behind, we kept them to ourselves, and put them into the point collection cards. So, after each shift, I left with at least one six pack of beer, or a bottle of sparkling wine (special promotion for buying a cleaning program).
We can't learn everything in school, and maybe that's a good thing—because these bizarre historical facts are too weird for a textbook. Like Abraham Lincoln's other assassination, Thomas Edison's little-known dark side, or Mozart's obsession with butts...and that's just naming a few. Strap in for this VERY strange ride.
1. Queen Elizabeth Had A Nasty Mouth
Although dental hygiene was not necessarily at its peak in Tudor England, Queen Elizabeth I’s fondness for sweets gave her pearly whites an even darker tone...in fact, her chompers were probably very black. More than that, since sugar was a luxury, some women then blackened their teeth both to emulate their queen and show off their wealth.
2. Thomas Edison Was Evil
The famous inventor Thomas Edison had a huge dark side not many people know about. For example, he used electricity to publicly kill animals. He wanted to show how alternating current was more dangerous than the "direct" current that he used. On one occasion, he used A/C to execute a rogue circus elephant named "Topsy" in front of thousands of people.
3. Alexander The Great's Mother Was Scary
File:Cassandre et Olympia-Jean Joseph Taillasson mg 8223.jpg ...commons.wikimedia.org
Queen Olympias was Alexander the Great's mother, and she was even more ruthless than her son. On one occasion, she sent a captive enemy queen a cup of poison, a noose, and a sword...then told her to choose how she would die. According to history, the woman chose to hang herself, though she cursed Olympias to the very end of her life.
4. Napoleon Used His Wife As A "Womb"
Napoleon Bonaparte famously adored his wife Josephine, but few people remember the dark end of their love affair. Tragically, Josephine couldn't have children, so Napoleon made a hard choice: He divorced Josephine and took up with Marie-Louise of Austria. Napoleon reportedly told his blushing bride straight off, “It is a womb that I am marrying.”
5. Ernest Hemingway Almost Died In Back-To-Back Plane Crashes
In 1954, the macho writer Ernest Hemingway got into a plane crash. He miraculously survived, but that was just the start of the nightmare. When he tried to take another plane to get medical help, that plane exploded upon taking off. Hemingway managed to survive again. Talk about bad luck. Or wait a minute...actually, is that good luck?
6. King Edward VIII Was A Colossal Jerk
King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson on holiday in Yugoslavia,… | Flickrwww.flickr.com
King Edward VIII lost his brother Prince John at a young age from a severe seizure. The boy had suffered from epilepsy and other ailments for years, but Edward’s response was so disturbing, it’s impossible to forget. He referred to John’s passing as “little more than a regrettable nuisance.”
7. The FBI Knew About Pearl Harbor
The FBI ignored compelling evidence about the attack on Pearl Harbor because they didn’t trust the Serbian double agent Dusan Popov, who was apparently a gambling, lustful lush. Dusan's nickname around town was "tricycle" because of his infamous love of threesomes. Unsurprisingly, he was one of the inspirations for Ian Fleming’s James Bond.
8. There Were Original "Siamese Twins"
Two Siam natives, Chang and Eng Bunker, were American twins joined at the sternum. During the American Civil War in 1865, Eng’s name was drawn in a draft lottery, but not Chang's. There was little the conscription officials could do: The brothers were not only joined at the sternum, but their livers were also fused. Neither twin served in the conflict.
9. Ben Franklin Had Bodies In His Basement
File:Joseph Siffrein Duplessis - Benjamin Franklin - Google Art ...en.wikipedia.org
While renovating his home into a museum, researchers made a horrific discovery at Ben Franklin's house. They found 10 bodies in the founding father's basement. This led to speculation he may have been a serial killer. However, the bodies were more likely cadavers used for the anatomical studies of one of Franklin’s friends.
10. You Can Use Honey For Some Messed-Up Activities
King Herod, the tyrant king of Judea, had his wife, Mariamne I, preserved in honey after her death. Herod ordered her execution, but found her too beautiful to bury and so kept and preserved her body for seven years. Herod suffered from paranoid delusions, rage, and arteriosclerosis, but his death in 4 BCE came at the hands of a mysterious and agonizing illness that modern doctors are still not able to identify.
At one point, the pain was so excruciating, the king attempted to take his own life. The illness came to be known, among the Judean people, as “Herod’s Evil.”
11. Abraham Lincoln Cheated Death Once
Abraham Lincoln was almost killed two years before he was assassinated. Late one August evening in 1863, Lincoln rode alone by horse to his family’s summer residence. A private at the gate heard a shot ring out and, moments later, a bareheaded Lincoln clinging to his steed galloped into the yard. Lincoln explained that gunfire at the foot of the hill had sent his horse into a frenzied gallop, running so fast that it knocked his hat off.
The two men retrieved Lincoln’s hat, which had a bullet hole in it. Lincoln asked the guards to keep the incident quiet because he didn’t want to worry his wife...
12. Public Beddings Were A Thing
File:Catherine de Médicis - entourage de François Clouet.jpg ...commons.wikimedia.org
Catherine de Medici was only 14 when she married Henri, the son of King Francis. And although she was young, the King and other older men insisted on watching the consummation of the marriage.
13. The Most Ruthless French Queen
The Tour de Nesle affair was a scandal in the French royal family in 1314. In it, Queen Isabella of England accused her sisters-in-law of adultery. The scandal led to the imprisonment of the women and the execution of their lovers. The lovers were then executed. Most histories agree that they were first castrated and then drawn and quartered.
14. Marie Curie Slowly Killed Herself
Marie Curie, the chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, was completely in the dark when it came to the dangers of radioactive materials. Though she and her husband both suffered from chronic pain, neither considered that it was their radioactive substance-handling that was the cause. It was. Some of their original lab equipment is still so radioactive that we cannot safely view or study them.
15. George Bush Coined An Unfortunate Word
File:George H. W. Bush presidential portrait (cropped 2) (a).jpg ...commons.wikimedia.org
After George Bush Sr. vomited on the Japanese Prime Minister, the Japanese invented a new word: Bushusuru. This means to “do the Bush thing” or to “publicly vomit.”
16. Gandhi Liked To Tempt Himself With Young Women
Today we see Gandhi as a figure of peaceful protest and understanding. But there's a side of him no one knows. At the age of 36, while married, Gandhi became more and more obsessed with lust. In order to train and “perfect” his control over his desires, Gandhi would sleep undressed with young women. But one night, he committed an act so heinous that it made his own staff member quit on him forever.
Gandhi had performed this sleeping act with his own grand-niece named Manu. His stenographer left in disgust.
17. The Most Notorious Hollywood Eccentric
Howard Hughes was one of the most successful men of his time, producing many famous movies and dating Hollywood's most beautiful women. However, later in life, he became a complete hermit. Hughes spent his days in hotels, refusing to make eye contact with his aides. He also stopped bathing completely. Even more gross? He only cut his hair and nails cut once a year.
18. Nero Hated His Mother
File:15-07-05-Schloß-Caputh-RalfR-N3S 1528.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org
According to one ancient historian, the mad Emperor Nero tried and failed several times to kill his mother Agrippina the Younger, each time trying to up the ante. First, he tried to poison her on several occasions, but she always took an antidote each time. Then, he constructed a machine that would collapse her bedroom ceiling on her while she slept, but she caught wind of the plot and escaped.
Finally, he—seriously—invented a collapsible boat that would drown her while she was on a pleasure cruise. Reader, SHE STILL SURVIVED.
19. Grace Kelly Was A Homewrecker
Grace Kelly has a pristine, princess-like reputation in Hollywood, but nothing could be further from the truth. She had affairs with, and I quote, "everybody." She fell for so many of her older male co-stars that multiple biographers have wondered if Kelly had some daddy issues. There was Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, and Ray Milland, just to name a few. Milland's wife even called Kelly a "home-wrecker."
20. Victorians Had Impossible Beauty Standards
Although the hourglass figure has always held a special appeal across Western cultures, the Victorians took their obsession to a whole new level in their use of corsets. These waist-cinching devices, while successful in achieving a "wasp waist," had some major health repercussions. Besides causing fainting spells, which the era’s ladies unsurprisingly became famous for, the restriction on women’s lungs likely worsened potentially deadly ailments like pneumonia and tuberculosis.
21. Sweden Wasn't Always Peaceful
File:Verwilt - Erik XiV DSC6824.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org
Erik XIV of Sweden was super paranoid. It wasn’t unusual for people caught laughing, smiling, or whispering within Erik’s earshot to find themselves on trial for treason. Somewhat ironically, he passed in 1577 when someone poisoned his pea soup. We guess just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
22. Mary Shelley Kept Her Husband's Heart
Frankenstein author Mary Shelley had a pretty gross secret hidden away in her desk: her dead husband’s heart. When her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, drowned in a boating accident, he was cremated, but his heart remained intact. Mary eventually took possession of it, and researchers discovered it in her desk when she passed a few years later.
23. King Henry VIII Had Royal Bottom Wipers
The infamous King Henry VIII employed four Grooms of the Stool, men whose job it was to wipe the royal bottom and attend to his other private needs. It was a position of great honor, but also—as one Groom soon discovered—incredibly grave danger. Henry VIII executed one of his bathroom staff, Sir Henry Norris, on trumped-up charges that he was sleeping with Henry's second wife Anne Boleyn.
24. Versailles Wasn't As Glamorous As We Think
Château de Versailles (Yvelines) | Le château vue depuis le … | Flickrwww.flickr.com
The legendary Palace of Versailles had everything—except enough toilets for everybody. Despite the villa’s luxury, Versailles simply didn’t have enough public water closets to accommodate Louis XIV’s huge court. It wasn’t uncommon for courtiers to pay each other for access to those precious commodes…or else, they simply went in the corner.
25. Mozart Loved Poop
Mozart was surprisingly obsessed with bathroom humor. Two of his songs actually talk about analingus. He also wrote letters to his family where he described his bowel movements in great detail.
26. King George IV Got A Brutal Revenge
King George IV hated his wife Caroline of Brunswick. When their only daughter perished in childbirth, George didn't even tell Caroline. She had to find out by accident through a courier.
27. Joan Crawford Once Gave Her Crush A Disturbing "Gift"
File:Joan Crawford in Humoresque, 1946 (cropped).png - Wikimedia ...commons.wikimedia.org
Actress Joan Crawford once came on to her co-star Henry Fonda by making him a red sequined jockstrap.
28. A King Of Egypt Had A Disgusting Appetite
While many of Egypt’s citizens starved, King Farouk of Egypt reportedly ate 600 oysters a week. Not content with this, he also bought a candy red Bentley, then demanded that no one else paint their own cars red.
29. Jack The Ripper Might Have Been A Royal
For a long time, people thought Queen Victoria's grandson Prince Albert Victor was Jack the Ripper.
30. A Famous Comedian Hated One Color
File:Peter Sellers at home in Belgravia, London, 1973.jpg - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
Comedian Peter Sellers hated the color green. He claimed it gave him “strange vibrations.” He not only refused to wear the hue, but he also refused to act opposite of anyone who did.
31. Russian Tsarinas Had A Naughty Addiction
Foot tickling was used in the Muscovite palaces and courts for centuries as a means of arousal. Many of the Czarinas (Catherine the Great, Anna Ivanovna, and others) loved it. It was so popular that eunuchs and women were employed as full-time foot ticklers.
32. The Royal Mistress Who Was A Dominatrix
Dancer and royal mistress Lola Montez carried a whip around wherever she went and lashed it out on anyone who displeased her, including members of the public, bored theatre-goers, and critics who gave her bad reviews.
33. Dracula Had A Dirty Little Secret
File:Bela Lugosi as Dracula.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org
Dracula actor Bela Lugosi once had an affair with starlet Clara Bow, and commissioned an undressed portrait of the actress. He then displayed the large painting prominently in all of his homes from 1929 until his passing—including in the houses he shared with his last two wives.
34. Einstein Was Stupid In One Way
Albert Einstein's secretary once got an anonymous call asking where Einstein lived. The secretary declined to respond. The caller then admitted he was Einstein himself, and that he had forgotten his address.
35. Isaac Newton May Have Been A Virgin
Though Isaac Newton lived to be 84, he never married. Some even believe he never lost his virginity.
36. This Medieval Queen Was A Grave-Robber
File:Joanna of castile with her children.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org
Shortly after her beloved husband's passing, Queen Joanna of Castile ordered his body exhumed, had the casket opened, jumped to his side once again, and kissed his dearly departed feet. She then carried his casket everywhere with her.
37. Cleopatra Had Wild Parties
Cleopatra wasn’t just a powerful queen; she was also a party girl. She created a drinking club known as the “Inimitable Livers” with her husband Marc Antony. The club would feast and drink heavily and then go out to play pranks on unsuspecting citizens.
38. People Actually Slept In Coffins
Actress Sarah Bernhardt had a peculiar obsession with death, and from the tender age of 15 onward, she sometimes slept in a custom-made, satin-lined rosewood coffin.
39. Caligula Loved His Horse WAY Too Much
File:Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630) (after) - Caligula (AD 12–41 ...commons.wikimedia.org
The Roman Emperor Gaius Caligula made his horse a senator.
40. The Prince Who Was Raised Like A Girl
Philippe, Duke of Orleans was the brother of King Louis XIV. To prevent Philippe from threatening his famous brother, Philippe's mother Queen Anne of Austria raised him to be very feminine, calling him “my little girl” and even urging him to dress up in frilly, feminine clothing as a child.
41. History's Most Shocking Sideshow
Tarrare was an 18th-century French showman. His party trick? He obsessively ate everything, and lots of it. His circus act had him eating, among other things, whole live animals, a basket of apples, and even rocks.
42. A "Huge" Claim To Fame
File:Porfirio Rubirosa, circa 1954.jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org
1950s international playboy Porfirio Rubirosa had such an infamously large "package," Parisian waiters used to call their 16-inch pepper mills "Rubirosas."
43. Tsar Ivan Really Was Terrible
When Tsar Ivan the Terrible saw his pregnant daughter-in-law walking around in clothing that he didn't approve of, he absolutely snapped. He viciously attacked her, causing her to miscarry. When his son came into the room, Ivan also ended up killing him in a fit of rage.
44. But He Wasn't The Only Mad Russian
Anna, the "Mad Tsarina" of Russia, once tormented one of her hated courtiers by locking him up in an ice palace for the night. Before that, she made him pretend to be a chicken, sitting in her ante-chamber and "laying" eggs.
45. King Tut Was The Product Of The Siblings
File:King Tut Burial Mask (23785641449).jpg - Wikimedia Commonscommons.wikimedia.org
King Tutankhamun passed at the tender age of 18. Some researchers believe he died from genetic disease, due to the fact his parents were brother and sister.
Redditor fusillihair wanted to hear about the times people finally let go of a dying friendship, or six. So they asked:
"What was the final straw that made you end a friendship?"
I'm bad at accepting last straws.
So much so that I end up drawing the short straw.
In Yo Face
kim kardashian GIF by KUWTKGiphy"When he had everything going well for him in life and bought cool sh*t while I was living poorly, he'd rub it in my face. When I started being successful and finally made something for myself, he couldn't stand it."
RedSystemDroid
Saul Goodman
"When they 'Forgot' to meet up with you for the third time even though you planned those meet-ups days in advance."
Careful-Coconut-1366
"Same here had a friend that I loved like my little sister, considered her my protege in bartending, and got her job in a high-end restaurant as a bartender by doing a Saul Goodman pretending to be another bar owner. Now, Super Bowl is a very important event since they can meet my friends plus everyone has a good time in the sports and entertainment area."
"I invited her a month in advance, reminding her 3 days behind, and told her when the game kicked off, and she didn't show up, aww shucks maybe she got stuck on something, nope she just ghosted me and never offered an apology or explanation, and a month back from now, I sent a meme just to get a response and chat and ''Get my moment',' but ghosted me, since then I cut her off which is sad since I really liked her."
Comando396
6 Months Later
"Dude bought a new house a block from my job and I was over there after work every single day to help him paint or move stuff. Once he moved in I didn't hear from him for 6 months. When we did talk he claimed to not know the location of my work otherwise he'd visit. But before this, there were years of making plans knowing he wouldn't make it or already have other engagements."
GlassHeart09
Left Out
"Seeing my old friend group constantly post photos to social media of them out doing things and having fun while I’m sitting at home. I brushed it off at first. But after I made it clear when I was off a few times and still got no invites I just stopped contacting them."
Background_Income710
"Had a similar experience. Realized it was either me inviting everyone to go somewhere or them hanging out without me. I was depressed, for unrelated reasons, and nobody reached out (I wrote in a group chat that I feel really bad, borderline suicidal). Later found out they have a separate chat, without me. And we're all in our 30s, not in high school, so I was so perplexed by this behavior"
.aoi4eg
Follow Her
New Girl Facepalm GIF by HULUGiphy"She gave me crap for wanting to go back to school to complete my degree. She was lonely and she wanted me to move to her small town and rent the other half of the duplex she and her husband owned."
S**tForDownVotes
Never trust someone who doesn't want you to be better yourself.
Talk about a last straw!
Try Again
danger bully GIF by nogGiphy"I was getting cyber bullied by someone in our friend group, removed him from the GC, and they kept telling me I should be friends with him again because he probably 'learned his lesson.' Each time they added him back, it was worse. I cut all ties."
ZobiBakugou
All about... THEM!
"Him saying 'What have you done for me?' in an unprompted call-out. He was holding food I bought him, with a bag with drawings I made for him. The friendship was completely one-sided. Watch out for all-take-no-give people, guys."
Fake-And-Gay-Bot
"Had a 'best friend' like that. She always expected everyone to cover for her whenever we go out to eat and would always whine about being 'broke.' This one time I had a peak of her looking at her bank account and she had more than enough money to cover for herself. She just didn’t wanna spend any of her money."
minombrevanillamamba
On Snapchat
"I was friends with this girl in college. One semester, my friend group, decide to be in a group for a semester-long assignment. There were multiple parts to the assignment, one was going on a class trip, each person taking a section of a paper, and then the last was a display of some sort."
"On the day we were compiling the display for class, this girl says she had a doctor's appointment but she would hurry back. That would be fine because everyone didn't get out of classes to meet up until a certain time. She didn't show up because she went out on a date and then got her car washed. Which she posted on Snapchat."
"She showed up 20 minutes before the class started and our other friend who had been helping us, WHO DIDN'T EVEN TAKE THE CLASS, had to give her the what-for because we were all so furious. It was after that that I looked back and realized it wasn't the first project she jeopardized, and she did some other shady sh*t like putting another friend in a dangerous situation. After that, I cut her out of my life completely."
smith_716
The Final Final...
"They were an 'I can do to you, but you can’t do to me' person. They could talk about you all they wanted, but as soon as someone said something about them, they would blow up. The final final straw was they tried to break two friends up so they made a group chat to try and get other friends on their side. We told the two friends about it, and the two friends confronted the one friend. The one friend tried to pass the blame on someone else but, the two friends knew the truth. We all eventually phased them out."
CrownD3m0n
Then Dinner?
Black And White Illustration GIF by Denyse®Giphy"When I reach out to get together for lunch to catch up, and they say they’ll check their calendar and get back to me. And then they don’t get back to me."
I've gotten exhausted of the "I'll get back to you" crowd.
Three times and your OUT!
