Frisbees are named after a pie company

Frisbee, Jet Ski, and Dumpster—explore a list of words you might not realize are trademarked

Many products that have become household names started out as first-of-a-kind items. As those products grew in popularity, the brand name became the default name for the product.

'Shoofly pie' was named after a molasses named after a mule named after a song

Although most people assumed the sweet dessert earned its name for its ability to attract flies, etymologists believe it can be traced back to a molasses brand named after a boxing mule (Shoofly the mule), who was named after a song ("Shoofly Don't Bother Me") that was a play on slang of the time.

Uncrustables' reinvention of the PB&J

In the 1990s, David Geske and Len Kretchman came up with the ingenious idea to package and mass-produce a crustless version of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This makeover to an American childhood staple resulted in a $1B business. Read this article in Mental Floss to learn more about the origins of the brand Uncrustables and its extraordinary success.

Pickleball was invented in 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington

Bill Bell and then-Washington State congressman Joel Pritchard created the game as a way to entertain their bored children. They grabbed items they had on hand, using ping pong paddles to hit a wiffle ball over a hip-height badminton net.

The Wrights were inspired by a toy helicopter as kids

The pair tinkered with toys and dreamed of building a flying machine at a young age. Founders Podcast host David Senra read David McCullough’s 2015 book on the duo and distilled key insights for leaders to take from their work and lives, focusing on their relentless resourcefulness.

Detroit-style pizza's recipe nods to the Motor City

Legend has it that the rectangular pies were originally baked in blue steel pans intended to hold nuts and bolts in auto factories. The sauce poured across the top of the pies, meanwhile, is done so in straight lines called "tire tracks."

How Scrabble got its name

Alfred Butts, a newly unemployed architect during the Great Depression, created Scrabble. But the game was named by James Brunot, who used the word to describe the most common action its players take part in: digging frantically.

Pop Mart is the company behind the viral Labubu toy craze

Labubus, the Chinese collectible toys, are being heralded as the next Beanie Babies. Pop Mart, the company behind the Labubus, is using a few psychological tools to keep the Labubu economy booming.

Henry Ford built a plastic car from soybeans in 1941

To pursue his goal of marrying industry with agriculture, among other reasons, the automobile giant oversaw the design and creation of a vehicle with 12 panels made from plastic. At 2,000 pounds, the car was much lighter than all-steel ones, but production stopped during World War II.

The Beatles sued Apple in 1978 to defend naming rights to their record label

The band created their own record label, Apple Corps, after their manager died in 1967, while the technology company chose the name "Apple" to appear before the video game company Atari in directories. Subsequent lawsuits were not settled until 2007.

The forgotten campaign to replace the Teddy Bear with 'Billy Possum'

After a 1909 pre-inauguration dinner for incoming President William Howard Taft featured possums and potatoes as the main course, Susie W. Allgood wanted to produce and market an alternative to the Teddy Roosevelt-inspired teddy bear: Billy Possum. Kids thought it looked too much like a rat.

Thingiverse is a massive free library of 3D-printable designs

The site—which was launched in 2008 by 3D-printer manufacturer MakerBot—hosts more than 2 million user-generated design files to build everything from prosthetic hands to replacement dishwasher parts (or the "Golden Snitch" from "Harry Potter). The community behind it rapidly designed and shared files for face shields and ventilator components amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Visualizing Ben & Jerry's legendary flavors

This delightful data visualization breaks down all the flavors of Ben & Jerry’s across the globe, exploring every possible combination of base flavors and mix-ins.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

This is not a chip

Pringles aren’t chips—legally speaking. In the US, the FDA said they’re not potato chips. In the UK, courts ruled they’re not even crisps. Turns out, being 42% potato creates a lot of legal confusion. So what are they, really?

A Monthy Python sketch inspired the internet term 'spam'

Although the canned meat product Spam has been around since 1937, it was a 1970 Monty Python comedy sketch—in which a diner is overwhelmed with unwanted Spam—that inspired early internet users to call unsolicited emails "spam."

The 'playing card' and 'blueberry' taxes are among the strangest around the world

In Canada, companies making children’s breakfast cereals are granted a tax exemption if their cereal boxes contain free toys. While the exemption is limited to toys that are not “beer, liquor, or wine,” the cereal tax is far from the world's most eccentric tax.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

How Faber-Castell makes pencils

One of the world's oldest industrial companies, Faber-Castell produces over 2 billion pencils a year, among many other staple products. In this quick video, watch the company's well-tried process for manufacturing the essential utensil, from mixing the graphite and clay to milling the wood of the pencils.

Fruit fly experiments show personality emerges, in part, from genetic factors

A 2025 study revealed that fruit flies exhibit unique behavioral preferences, akin to personalities, which could be artificially selected for when breeding to modify behavioral variability. This variability can be adaptive in unpredictable environments.

John Steinbeck often drew a pig with wings next to his signature, a character he affectionately called 'Pigasus.'

The Tonys got their name from Antoinette Perry

In 1946, trailblazing director Antoinette Perry died after decades of creative success. The following year, Perry's professional partner, Brock Pemberton, founded a series of awards to honor her. While handing out an award at the first ceremony, Pemberton referred to it using Antoinette's nickname of "Tony," and the name caught on.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote a satirical essay about passing gas

The Founding Father was asked to judge a contest for the Royal Academy of Brussels, but was incensed by one of the contest's questions, which he believed was highly impractical. In response, he wrote a piece suggesting that the most essential problem for scientists to solve was the "fetid Smell" that came with passing gas.

Bill France Sr. founded NASCAR after organizing stock car races

Bill France Sr. was the first person to organize stock car racing in America. By the 1940s, the company he created had changed the sport forever.

The rivalry trophy between Minnesota and Nebraska was born from a joke on Twitter

Created in 2014 from a playful exchange between a Nebraska parody account and Minnesota's mascot, the $5 Bits of Broken Chair Trophy became a beloved, fan-driven rivalry prize.

The Fair, Isaac and Company (FICO) was founded in 1956

When they created FICO, William Fair, an engineer, and his cofounder, Earl Isaac, reasoned that financial data could help a wide variety of companies improve business decisions. FICO created the first credit scoring system to help lenders be more objective.

See how Coca-Cola bottle designs have changed over the years

The shape of the Coca-Cola bottle has been given many nicknames over the years, including the "hobbleskirt" bottle, after a fashion trend in the 1910s when tapered skirts that were narrow below the knees were popular.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

'Saturday Night Fever,' the 1977 film that introduced disco to the mainstream, was based on a fabricated magazine story.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.