12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/6/938486_320x180.jpg)
Life’s not easy for you, we get that. Everyone’s always telling you what to do, and when to do it. We were in your shoes once! That’s why we’re going to let you have those delicious little trivia tidbits you’ve had your eye on all day. They’re not going to “spoil your appetite” — your mother’s tofu casserole already took care of that, duh!
I’m joking. Mom works hard. Don’t tell her I said that, okay?
Anyway, these tidbits are all yours. The emotional support clown, the terrorist cat, Sony’s accidental x-ray camcorder… have at ‘em!
Just don’t tell your mother, or the jig is up. Capeesh?
Click right here to get the best of Cracked sent to your inbox.
A New Zealand Man Had an Emotional Support Clown
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/9/938499.jpg)
New Zealand employers are required to offer employees the opportunity to bring an emotional support companion to particularly ominous HR meetings. In 2019, a guy got an email that he suspected — correctly — was a harbinger of a layoff. He utilized his right to a companion, and hired a clown for $200 to sit in on the meeting.
Appalachia’s Confederate Fireflies
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/8/938498.jpg)
There’s an extremely rare type of firefly that emits a sustained blue glow, instead of the familiar yellow flash, that’s only found in some parts of the Appalachian mountains. Locals call them ghost fireflies, because according to legend, they’re the ghosts of Confederate soldiers.
Belgium Went a Year and a Half Without a Government
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/7/938497.jpg)
In 2010, following a four-year political meltdown, Belgium elected 11 different parties to their Chamber of Representatives — and obviously, none of them could agree on who should be in charge. It took 589 days and several interventions from the King (never a great sign) before they finally installed a working government, making it the longest a country has ever gone (in peacetime) without a government.
There’s a Butterfly That Can Fly Almost As Fast As a Horse Can Run
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/4/938494.jpg)
The skipper can fly up to 37 miles per hour. One of these could absolutely beat a horse in a race — depending on the size, age and sticktoitiveness of the horse, obviously — as thoroughbreds tend to max out around 44 miles per hour.
Canadian Law Says Math Nullifies Gambling
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/5/938495.jpg)
The average sweepstakes can break Canada’s laws against for-profit betting. But if you require entrants to solve a simple math problem? Buddy, that constitutes a skill-testing question, and it’s no longer gambling (as far as the law is concerned).
The U.S. Navy Let a 12-Year-Old Fight in World War II
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/1/938491.jpg)
Calvin Graham enlisted at the age of 12, was involved in active combat for a year and was even awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, before his mother told on him. He was then sent to a military prison, but they let him out after his sister threatened to go to the press with a story about the Navy sending a pre-teen to war.
A Terrorist Cat Infiltrated a Cockpit in 2004
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/2/938492.jpg)
A flight from Brussels to Vienna was grounded because a “very aggressive” cat escaped its bag, ran into the cockpit when the pilots were being served lunch and started doing cat stuff to all the important switches and contraptions that keep the plane from plummeting out of the sky.
Sony Accidentally Made an X-Ray Camcorder
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/3/938493.jpg)
In 2001, people figured out that using a new Sony Nightvision camera during the day, along with a special filter, created an effect that appeared to be straight-up X-ray vision. A Good Morning America segment purported to read a guy’s tattoo under his clothes (it said “Sosa”).
Mr. T’s “Personalized Cancer”
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/6/938496.jpg)
About his 1995 diagnosis of a rare cancer called T-cell lymphoma, he said, “Can you imagine that? Cancer with my name on it — personalized cancer.” He got a lot more insightful about it, too: “My gold, my money couldn’t stop cancer from appearing on my body. If they can’t save me, then I don’t need them.”
Michigan’s Five-Mile Bridge Is So Scary, the Government Will Drive Across It for You
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/9/0/938490.jpg)
The Mackinac Bridge, which connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, offers a free service where a staff member will drive your car for you, if you feel like you can’t handle the snow, the wind or the sheer size of this bad boy.
Stacey King’s (and Michael Jordan’s) Big Night
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/9/938489.jpg)
Rookie forward Stacey King, who scored 1 point the night Jordan scored his career-high 69 points against the Cavs, said, “I’ll always remember this as the night that Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points.”
A Woman Who Was Presumed Dead Was Actually Just an Elite Gamer
![12 Bits of Trivia You Can Sneak Before Dinner If You Promise Not to Tell Mom](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/8/8/938488.jpg)
A Chinese woman who had been estranged from her family for 10 years, since she was 14, was ultimately found living — and working — in cyber cafes. Her specialty was the game Crossfire, which other gamers would pay her to play for them.