STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 3 MIN · 7 POINTS
Comeback Stories, Part 2: Sanders, Jordan, Disney, Beethoven and Jobs
Seven more famous comebacks, checked. Three hold up. Four are real stories carrying a detail that was added or changed.
SECTION · 12 ARTICLES
Stories, Film & Culture
Lessons from film and fiction, labelled as fiction; plus the meanings, memes and origins people search for.
- Articles
- 12
- Points looked into
- 21
BACKGROUND · EL GRECO, VIEW OF TOLEDO, C. 1599–1600 · THE MET, OPEN ACCESS
12 articles, newest first
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 5 MIN · 14 POINTS
Real or Myth? 14 Popular Claims, Checked
Fourteen popular claims, checked one at a time. Nine are myths, three are partly true, one cannot be settled, and one holds up.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 4 MIN
De Facto Meaning: Understanding Reality Beyond Formal Recognition
De facto is Latin, literally "in fact, in reality": how things really are, whether or not a law or rule says so.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 7 MIN
Mukbang: Beyond Mountains of Food - A Dive into the Global Eating Show Phenomenon
Mukbang (먹방) is short for the Korean 먹는 방송, eating broadcast. A 2025 research review dates the first ones to 2008 and their rise to 2010 on the South Korean platform AfreecaTV; Twitch launched a Social Eating category in June 2016.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 4 MIN
Epic Sax Guy Meme: The Enduring Legacy of Epic Sax Guy in Meme Culture
Epic Sax Guy is Sergey Stepanov, the saxophonist of Moldova's SunStroke Project.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 7 MIN
Fight Club: A Philosophical Brawl in a Consumerist Wasteland
Fight Club is Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 novel and David Fincher's 1999 film. The famous lines on this page are film dialogue, credited to the character who says them.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 4 MIN
Memory Reboot Meaning: Reclaiming Clarity and Freshness
"Memory Reboot" is a song by VØJ & Narvent, released on 13 January 2023, with official slowed versions out the same day.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 5 MIN
Toma Meaning
In Spanish and Portuguese, toma is a form of tomar: the command "take!" and "he/she takes". Tomar also means to eat or drink.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 4 MIN
The Ride of the Rohirrim: Theoden's Inspiring Speech and the Greatest Cavalry Charge Scene
This is fiction. Rohan and the Rohirrim come from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from its third volume, The Return of the King; the scene most people know is from Peter Jackson's 2003 film.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 6 MIN
Finding Meaning in Life's Suffering: Life Lessons and Life Hacks from The Last of Us
The Last of Us is fiction: a 2013 Naughty Dog video game and an HBO series that began in 2023. Every line of dialogue here is credited to the character and the medium.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 6 MIN
The Godfather Life Lessons and Quotes: A Guide to Living a Life of Power, Respect, and Leadership
Every line here is fiction: dialogue from Coppola's three films (1972, 1974, 1990) or from Mario Puzo's 1969 novel. The lessons drawn from them are our reading, not advice.
STORIES, FILM & CULTURE · 6 MIN
FRIDAY THE 13TH ∙ Origins and Superstitions
Friday the 13th is about two hundred years old. The earliest clear references are two French texts from 1834; by the middle of the 19th century the belief was common in France, and references begin to show up regularly in American newspapers in the late 1880s.