Roundup: Mental floss articles, some history

mental_floss Blog » Why Does Bottled Water Have an Expiration Date?
- A 1987 NJ state law required all food products sold there to display an expiration date of two years or less from the date of manufacture.
- The plastic that water is packaged in — usually polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for retail bottles and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for water cooler jugs — is slightly porous, so the water can pick up smells and tastes from the outside world.

mental_floss Blog » 7 Civil War Stories You Didn’t Learn in High School
- Lincoln proposed voluntary emigration to Central America, seeing it as a more convenient destination than Liberia. This idea didn’t sit well with leaders like Frederick Douglass, who considered colonization to be “a safety valve…for white racism.”

mental_floss Blog » When Did Women Start Shaving Their Pits?
American women had no need to shave their underarms before about 1915 – after all, who ever saw them? Even the word “underarm” was considered scandalous, what with it being so near certain other interesting body parts. Then came the sleeveless dress. An ad in the fashion mag Harper’s Bazaar decreed that to wear it (and certainly to wear it while participating in “Modern Dancing”), women would need to first see to “the removal of objectionable hair.” They didn’t need much convincing, and by the early ’20s, hairy underarms were so last decade, at least in America.

Shaving the nether regions. . . .
Was it porn actresses who started this one? GIs concerned about disease? The Brazilians? Nah. For hundreds of years, the bikini wax has been a common practice among a group more often associated with extreme modesty: Muslim women. In much of the Middle East and North Africa, brides-to-be remove all their body hair before the wedding night. Yes, all of it. Frequently, they stick with the aesthetic
after marriage – and some men do likewise.

mental_floss Blog » 6 Presidential Siblings and the Headaches They Caused
- Neil Bush
- Roger Clinton
- Hugh and Tony Rodham

mental_floss Blog » 11 Notable Presidential Pardons

mental_floss Blog » 5 Famous Actors & The Roles They Turned Down
- Will Smith could have been Neo in The Matrix
- Cary Grant could have been James Bond in Dr. No
- Sean Connery could have been Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (He had never read the Tokien series and said he didn't understand the script.)

mental_floss Blog » How Ex-Presidents & Prime Ministers Make Their Money

About New Buicks. . .
Unless you're receiving mail from the AARP, chances are you've never looked at a Buick and said the words, "Oh, I gotta get me one of those!" There was a time when that wasn't the case, when Buick represented something other than your grandfather's car. Something a respected doctor might have. What's old is new again, and Buick's going to easily lure in new blood with this LaCrosse.