1

The doctor said so

Image: Vinicius Amano

It's not news that alcohol was completely banned across the country from 1920 to 1933. But, you know, every law has its loophole. It's said that during Prohibition, some doctors took advantage of their authority to prescribe a peculiar medicine: whiskey! Well, if the doctor prescribed it, what could the cops possibly argue?

2

The queen

Image: Daniel Vogel

Women also played an important role during Prohibition on both sides of the law! One of the most notorious was Cleo Lythgoe, a.k.a. the "Queen of the Bootleggers." As her nickname suggests, she was one of the most successful bootleggers of those years. That's right! She built an empire, running a major underground operation that supplied alcohol to secret bars.

3

Clever marketing

Image: April Klein

Although they feel like something recent, marketing strategies have been around for a long time. In fact, even during Prohibition, clever sales tactics flourished by exploiting the nation's circumstances. This was the case with the so‑called "grape bricks," blocks of concentrated grape juice that came with some rather peculiar warnings, such as "NOT to dissolve in water, add yeast and store in a cool place for 21 days, or it may ferment and turn into wine."

4

NASCAR

Image: Simon Hurry

Although it may seem like nonsense, NASCAR's origins are closely related to bootlegging during the Prohibition era. The "moonshiners" were those who transported illegal alcohol. These drivers were skilled, relying on speed and sharp maneuvers to outrun the law. Those same driving techniques later helped give rise to stock car racing.

5

Sacramental

Image: Rey Proenza

Prohibition was full of loopholes. But undoubtedly, one of the most obvious ones was the allowance for sacramental wine. Since wine used in church masses was permitted, it led to more people attending certain services, and even the rise of some pseudo-religions!

6

A payment issue

Image: Mackenzie Marco

Prohibition agents were in charge of enforcing the dry law. However, there was one big problem the authorities overlooked: these agents were poorly paid. That small detail helped the illegal liquor trade thrive. Since agents weren't well paid, bootleggers found them easy to bribe.

7

Risky times

Image: Nick Fewings

The fight against alcohol sales was far from easy, and historical records suggest that, as a result, the authorities took some drastic measures. One of them was the decision to add highly toxic chemicals to the alcoholic beverages circulating at the time! But here's the most surprising part: many people knew -or at least suspected- and still drank their gin and tonic anyway!

8

A lot

Image: Sérgio Alves Santos

We know that Prohibition gave rise to the famous speakeasies, and we know there were a lot of them, but how many? Well, because they operated in secret, it's hard to know exactly how many speakeasies existed across the country. Still, one fact gives us a clear picture of that time: Speakeasies actually outnumbered the bars that existed before Prohibition.

9

The man in the green hat

Image: JOSHUA COLEMAN

Bootleggers were everywhere, even where you'd least expect them. During the Prohibition years, there was one man who operated as the main bootlegger of Congress. He was nicknamed "The man in the green hat" as a reference to his trademark green fedora.

10

After sunset

Image: Anna Asryan

In Detroit, the Police Department grew tired of constantly chasing smugglers down the Detroit River. As these chases were extremely risky and often ended in accidents, the Detroit Police Department adopted an unofficial policy: "No active chases after sunset." As you can imagine, this gave smugglers a lapse of time each night to move without worry.

1

Let’s start with a grammar mistake

Image: Shotkitimages

2

Even the nation’s most important document wasn’t immune to typos! Article I, Section 10 writes "it’s" instead of "its," mistakenly using the contraction instead of the possessive form.

The funny part? The correct spelling of "its" appears properly in other parts of the document. This suggests it was just a careless transcription mistake rather than a misunderstanding of grammar. Since rewriting historical documents isn’t exactly encouraged, the mistake remains to this day. Even the Founding Fathers weren’t perfect proofreaders, you know?

3

A republic, not a democracy

Image: Joshua Sukoff

One of the biggest misconceptions about the Constitution is that it established an American democracy. However, the US was founded as a republic , which differs in that it relies on elected representatives and a system of checks and balances.

When asked whether the Convention had created a monarchy or a republic, Benjamin Franklin famously replied: "A republic, if you can keep it." It was a warning that democracy requires active participation to survive.

4

The Constitution’s British roots

Image: Romain Vignes

Even though the U.S. had declared independence from Britain, the Constitution still used British spellings. Words like "defence," "labour," and "controul" (instead of defense, labor, and control) can be found in the original text.

These spellings were still common in American English at the time, though they would eventually fade away in favor of more distinctly American versions.

5

A comma that shouldn't be there

Image: Anemone123

Grammar nerds, brace yourselves: the Constitution contains a strange comma mistake. In Article III, Section 1, the sentence reads: "The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court." That comma between "United States" and "shall" separates the subject from the verb, making it grammatically incorrect. While punctuation rules were more flexible back then, this particular comma sticks out as a clear mistake.

6

Who signed the Constitution? Not Jefferson or Adams!

Image: WikiImages

You might assume that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams signed the Constitution, but they didn’t. But that’s not because they didn’t stand by it, it was because they weren’t even in the country at the time!

In 1787, Jefferson was in France serving as the US Minister, while Adams was in Great Britain as the first US. Ambassador. Despite their absence, both men played major roles in shaping the early American government.

7

Not everyone signed both the Declaration and the Constitution

Image: sarina gr

Let’s focus on the ones who did sign both documents. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed by key American figures, but only six men signed both .

Those names? Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, Robert Morris, George Read, James Wilson, and Roger Sherman. While many Founding Fathers contributed to both documents, the actual signatures overlap far less than one might expect. How surprising is this?

8

Rhode Island wanted no part in it

Image: Michael Denning

When the Founding Fathers met in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft the Constitution, all 13 states were invited, but Rhode Island refused to show up . The state feared that a strong federal government would overpower them, so they boycotted the entire process.

They even rejected the Constitution’s ratification in 1788 before finally agreeing two years later, by just two votes!

9

They "chuse" some interesting spellings

Image: Brett Jordan

If you were told our Constitution reads " The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment," would you believe it?

You better do because this spelling mistake doesn’t happen only once, it appears multiple times throughout the document.

While it may seem like an error, "chuse" was actually a perfectly acceptable spelling at the time. Language evolves, and by the 19th century, "choose" had won out as the standard spelling.

10

The President cannot veto Constitutional Amendments

Image: David Everett Strickler

Presidents may have veto power over laws, but they have zero say when it comes to Constitutional amendments. Congress or a constitutional convention must propose and ratify them without requiring presidential approval.

While presidents can support or lobby for amendments, they can’t introduce or block them directly. Not many people knew this, what about you?

11

The Supreme Court’s most famous power isn’t in the Constitution

Image: Adam Michael Szuscik

Many people assume the Constitution explicitly gives the Supreme Court the power of judicial review, that is, the ability to declare laws unconstitutional. But guess what? It doesn’t.

Actually, judicial review became a standard practice after the famous Marbury v. Madison case in 1803. The Founding Fathers expected the courts to play this role, but the power isn’t actually written in the document itself. Even the Constitution has its unwritten rules!

1

Sam and Ella’s

Image: Jason Leung

We get it—you and your significant other built a restaurant and decided to name it after yourselves. Good for you. But if, by any chance, your combined names sound like a food poisoning illness , that might not be the best choice for a restaurant.

The restaurant could have easily been named Ella and Sam’s, to avoid this issue. But maybe, and just maybe, the couple had a twisted sense of humor and decided to go with it and see how it would turn out.

2

ChubbyBrain

Image: Jakub Żerdzicki

What does this name bring to mind? The image of a chubby brain is probably not an appealing one, and it certainly doesn’t convey the idea of a venture capitalist database. Yet, that’s exactly what ChubbyBrain is.

If your business needs funding, this company will analyze its database of venture capitalists, grant providers, and investors and match you up with those who would be most sympathetic to your cause , thus maximizing your chance of successful fundraising. A valuable service, hidden behind a weird name, indeed.

3

Wesabe

Image: Andre Taissin

A word that sounds similar to a Japanese sushi condiment was chosen as the name for this company, founded in 2005 to help users track their spending habits. The idea was a noble one: assist people in getting out of debt and learning how to make wise financial decisions.

But, alas, the company was not able to attract an audience. The name Wesabe was likely intended as a play on "We Save," but it didn’t translate that easily and it ended up being a nonsensical name for a good idea.

4

Cuil

Image: Growtika

There was a time when search engines were more diverse and prevalent than they are today, at least for the general public. Before Google became the giant it is now, Altavista, AskJeeves, Lycos, Yahoo!, and others were the go-to sites for browsing the web.

Cuil was one of those search engines, it boasted the largest search index and the fastest queries . But, for some reason, it shut down in 2010. The name might have played a part in that, as it had no connection to searching and its pronunciation was unclear. Granted, many search engines had equally odd names and still made it. But it certainly didn’t help in Cuil’s case.

5

Boring Business Systems

Image: Rodeo Project Management Software

If your name is also a word, with a meaning attached to it, then it would be wise to consider if associating it with a product or service is a good idea, or not. Named after one of its original executives, Allan D. Boring, this network services and IT support company is unashamed of its namesake. In fact, it embraces it, assuring outsiders that there is "nothing boring" about its features and services.

6

Xobni

Image: Solen Feyissa

One would be hard-pressed to link this name to a product or service, that is, unless you were looking at it reflected in a mirror because Xobni is "Inbox" spelled backward. Yes, this company made email-related products , until it shut down in 2014.

Besides the unoriginal idea of simply spelling your product name backward, it doesn’t help if the resulting word sounds odd and unrelatable.

7

Lawdingo

Image: Tingey Injury Law Firm

The idea of having a Saul Goodman-type lawyer might be appealing to some, but for the most part, people believe that the law is serious business and should be treated as such. Lawdingo is a web service that provides affordable legal advice for both individuals and businesses.

While the idea behind it seems great, the word "dingo" can hardly be associated with the kind of characteristics one searches for in a law firm, like quality and professionalism.

8

Qwikster

Image: Phil Hearing

When choosing a literal brand name, it’s generally a good practice to select one that clearly associates with the product or service offered. Qwikster was a company launched by Netflix in 2011 to focus on the DVD-by-mail service branch of the business.

According to the people in charge, the name Qwikster was chosen because it referred to quick delivery. Or at least that is what they thought. While the name does have a rhythmic quality, it doesn’t really connect to the service it was meant to represent.

9

AmericInn Hotel

Image: Marten Bjork

Some brands thrive despite having less-than-ideal names. AmericInn Hotel is a mid-priced hotel franchise consisting of 240 locations across the U.S. While AmericInn has done arguably well for itself, one can only wonder how much better it might have performed with a different name.

The problem isn't the name itself, but its awkward spelling. Any brand thinking about purposefully misspelling common words, should proceed with extreme caution and only use this resource if it truly makes business sense.

10

Backrub

Image: Greg Bulla

As strange as Google might have sounded at first, BackRub would have sounded even weirder had it gained the same level of recognition. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin named their first search engine BackRub in 1996. A year later, BackRub became too large to operate on the Stanford University servers that hosted the website, prompting them to register the now-familiar domain name Google.com.

While using the expression "rub it" in the same way we use "google it" today might have been a possibility, it certainly does not have the same ring to it.