Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein published a best-selling romance novel that spawned a twenty-episode TV series and a stage musical. The book was called “Zabibah and the King.” It was a love tale set in medieval Iraq, set around the 7th or 8th century in Tikrit, Saddam’s home town. It was written in 2000, but the author remained anonymous. It was only after Hussein showed interest in his literary ventures and the heavy influence of Hussein’s life in the book that it was believed to be written by their leader. This rumor prompted sales of the cheap book, making it a bestseller. Even the Central Intelligence Agency thought that the book was written by Hussein himself, perhaps with the help of some ghostwriters. They went through the book with a fine-tooth comb, using the text to analyze and gain insight into Saddam’s mind and thought process.

Stephen King’s “Misery,” a story about a writer kidnapped by a crazed fan named Annie, Annie represents cocaine, as the story was written at the height of King’s cocaine addiction

To lose 63 pounds for his role in The Machinist, Christian Bale’s daily diet consisted of one can of tuna fish, and/or one apple per day, black coffee, and water.

China’s one child policy led to an imbalance of males to females and in turn it has created a kidnapping industry where girls are abducted from neighboring Vietnam for Chinese boys to marry or forced into prostitution

Research on DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) has largely shown it to be ineffective, and in many cases has increased teen drug use

The pilot episode of “Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia” was made with only $200. And that was just for the 2 cameras and some tape

F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing he was a failure. Two years later 155,000 copies of ‘The Great Gatsby’ were shipped to WWII soldiers overseas, making it a widespread success. As of 1945 it’s believed to be a classic, selling 500,000 copies annually "And as I sat there, brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning — So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

The world record for eating a 72 ounce steak was obliterated by a 120lb woman in less than 3 minutes

Yoda, the world’s oldest mouse, was just over 4 years old, the equivalent of about 136 in human years, and lived in quiet seclusion with his cage mate, Princess Leia, in a pathogen-free rest home for geriatric mice.

When a Pacific tribe watched the US military perform drills to prepare for supply planes, the tribe believed it to be a religious ritual and built their own runways, coconut headphones, wooden radio towers, and marched around like the soldiers, in hopes of having a plane drop supplies off

Nikola Tesla once paid an overdue hotel bill with a ‘working model’ of his ‘death beam’. He warned the management never to open it without taking proper precautions to avoid detonation. After his death in 1943, the box was pried open & they found nothing but a bunch of old lab components

There are Shabbat elevator. These elevators stop at every floor so that Jews won’t have to press buttons on the Sabbath since pressing buttons is considered ‘doing work’.

Hummer sales fell 95% between 2006 and 2010