Author: Steve DiMatteo

Garth Brooks has released a new album called Time Traveler, which is great news for all fans of Garth Brooks and, well, country music lovers (so long as you don’t believe that tongue-in-cheek internet rumor about him being a serial killer). But there are a couple catches if you want to hear Brooks’ new music. First of all, it’ll only be available as part of a CD box set called The Limited Series, similar to what the artist did in 1998 and 2005. Secondly, if you want to get your hands on the CD box set – which includes Time…

Charles Dickens visited the United States in 1842, partly to see the young nation for himself but also to push for the implementation of international copyright, as Americans were pirating his works at will without paying him a cent. Though he was initially excited to get a glimpse of the new republic, the immensely popular author came away disappointed by what he found. Dickens was repulsed by the institution of slavery and “attacked the American press whom he blamed for the American’s lack of general information.” The American dream being nothing more than a fantasy? Americans in general being ignorant…

It was an honest mistake, but it’s still pretty jarring to see a picture of Dracula wearing a Star of David – the symbol of Judaism – medallion necklace on a box of children’s cereal. It might sound unbelievable, but it really happened in 1987, as General Mills put Bela Lugosi’s famous vampire visage on the box of Count Chocula cereal for the Halloween season. Four million boxes hit supermarket shelves in early October of that year and were quickly met with protests from consumers and Jewish newspapers. How Did the Dracula Count Chocula Box Go So Wrong? Since we’re…

The U.S. defense budget is inching ever closer to the $900 billion mark, and yet, the most powerful military in the world is having trouble locating one stealth fighter jet. Maybe U.S. military technology is too good (except when trying to shoot down unidentified objects over the Great Lakes, apparently). The military lost the F-35B Lightning II jet Sunday afternoon after the pilot was forced to eject from the advanced stealth aircraft over South Carolina. And now, Americans in the state – specifically north, around Lake Moultrie and Lake Marion where the jet was last known to be flying -…

I love baseball more than pretty much any other sport for the infinite possibilities of weird stories the game can produce – the story of Phil Ozersky, the baseball field at Area 51, Bobby Bonilla Day, and Ken Griffey Kr. napping in the clubhouse during a game are just a few we’ve recently covered here – and another fun one has to do with Chicago Cubs prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong. The Cubs rookie is the team’s top prospect, recently called up to the big-league team as Chicago makes its playoff push. But his skill set and exciting future in Major League…

There are plenty of valid guesses for the most called-off day of the year by American workers – anytime around Christmas, the day after the Super Bowl, St. Patrick’s Day, the Friday before a long weekend. And no doubt, millions of people are calling those days off, but the actual most called-off day in the United States is… kind of baffling. Want to know what it is? August 24th. That’s right, a seemingly random day that could fall at any time; this is the point where most American workers collectively say, “You know what? I could use a day.” According…

Lahaina is a town of about 12,000 people on the western coast of Maui, the second-largest Hawaiian island and a major tourist destination. Much like the rest of the island, Lahaina attracts tens of thousands of tourists each year, and many are captivated by the 60-foot banyan tree that rests off Lahaina Harbor. That particular tree, located within the courthouse square of Lahaina, is 150 years old and is believed to be the largest of its kind in the United States – a truly one-of-a-kind specimen – and it has unfortunately been scorched by the wildfires raging across the island.…

In sports, the goal is to always find that edge, to take advantage of any opportunity other teams might be missing. In the case of the Jacksonville Jaguars, they are getting a leg up on their opponents through their fancy new high-tech urinals. At the team’s new $120 million practice facility, the Jaguars have installed urinals that will measure a player’s hydration levels, giving the team the distinction of now owning “the most advanced urinals in all of professional sports.” Book your Super Bowl tickets now, folks. How Do the Jaguars’ High-Tech Urinals Work? It’s all pretty simple. A green…

The doomsday clock has inched closer to midnight for Kmart, once a retail behemoth. Now, with the closure of New Jersey’s last Kmart location, there are only two Kmarts left in the continental United States. So if you’re looking to take advantage of any blue-light specials that might be left, or perhaps ship your pants, the only Kmarts you can visit are now located in Miami, Florida and Bridgehampton, New York. Now, if you look beyond the continental U.S., you’ll find a few more Kmart locations. There are currently four Kmarts in the U.S. Virgin Islands, three in Puerto Rico,…

Groom Lake, Nevada is a salt flat in the Southern Nevada desert that is more commonly known as the spot next to the airfield of Area 51, an area of legendary UFO and alien-related conspiracies and investigations. Officially, at least, Area 51 is simply a highly classified United States Air Force facility, with operations that are not made public whatsoever, which only intensifies the rumors of what’s really going on there. Allegedly, the USAF and CIA purchased the remote land for flight testing the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance rocket back in 1955. As for today’s operations at the base, well, that’s…