Mythology 101
Wednesday is named after this Norse god.
Odin (Wodin)
This pungent kitchen staple has been used for centuries as an antimicrobial remedy and was even hung around necks during medieval plagues.
Garlic
This flightless bird from Australia can run up to 30 mph and has a terrifying “dinosaur-like” call, but can’t fly at all.
Emu
“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”
Braveheart
This U.S. president tried to move Thanksgiving in 1939 to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, a move critics mockingly called “Franksgiving.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
This month of the year is named after the Roman god of war.
March (Mars)
This bright yellow spice, common in curries, has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years for inflammation—thanks to its compound curcumin.
Turmeric
This is the only mammal that can truly fly (not glide like others)
Bat
“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
Back to the Future
This first U.S. president to informally pardon a turkey.
Abraham Lincoln
Describing someone as self-obsessed with their own appearance and egotistical can be easily captured by one term, named after this Greek mythological character.
Narcissus
This herb contains compounds that were historically used as a natural anesthetic during surgeries, pupil dilator, and pain reliever despite its high toxicity.
Belladonna (Nightshade)
This ocean creature has three hearts and blue blood due to a copper-based molecule called hemocyanin.
“I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
This 1953 mistake at a frozen-food company, involving 260 tons of leftover turkey, accidentally created this now-classic American convenience meal.
TV Dinner
The word “hysterical,” meaning overly emotional or out of control, stems from an ancient Greek belief that this organ could wander around the body and cause illness.
The uterus.
This traditional Chinese fungus, often found growing on dead caterpillars, became famous as a performance-enhancing tonic due to claims it boosts stamina.
Cordyceps
This tiny animal, famous for surviving extreme environments, can endure freezing, radiation, and even space exposure by entering a state called cryptobiosis.
Tardigrade (Water Bear)
“I want you to hit me as hard as you can.”
Fight Club
This U.S. state consumes more turkey per capita on Thanksgiving than any other—despite not being one of the biggest turkey producers.
California
Calling something a “Sisyphean task” means it is endless and futile—just like the punishment of Sisyphus, which was this.
Pushing a boulder uphill.
This herb—now better known for flavoring absinthe—was historically used to expel parasites and was considered so potent it was called “the Plant of Immortality” by the ancient Egyptians.
Wormwood
This lizard can squirt blood from its eyes as a defense mechanism, confusing predators and giving it a chance to flee.
Horned Lizard
"I drink your milkshake! I drink it up!"
There Will Be Blood
(spoken by Daniel Day Lewis, the greatest actor who ever lived)
A brutal winter in 1609 (12 years before the first Thanksgiving) left Jamestown, Virginia pilgrims in a catastrophic famine--they resorted to eating dogs, horses and even each other. The name for this event is known as this.
The Starving Time.