The Cocaine-Laced Dental Care Product That Might Rot Your Teeth
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Was He Thinking? John Pemberton is an Atlanta pharmacist. What he's not is a savvy product marketer -- or a particularly smart businessman. So his kooky blend of a dark, sticky, sugary syrup spiced with a pinch of cocaine, specially formulated to help patients with everything from migraines to upset stomachs to toothaches to impotence, alas, goes nowhere. So he sells his rather unique syrup recipe to a fellow pharmacist across town. What happens next leaves both pharmacists astounded -- and leaves worldthristy for more. Listen and learn all about it in this episode. More Blundering...
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Memorial Day Special: The Double Agent Double Cross That Fooled Hitler and Beat the Nazis
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Was He Thinking? German military intelligence learns that an Allied invasion of Europe is imminent. What they don’t know is where or when they will attack. So Nazi leader Adolf Hitler turns to his most trusted intelligence advisor, Juan Pujol García. But there’s one measly little problem with good old Juan: Unbeknownst to Hitler, García is actually a double agent working for the British, code-named “Garbo.” What follows is a double-cross that changes the course of WWII -- and of world history. Listen and learn all about it in this episode. More Blundering Brainstorms to...
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The Pubic Hairpiece: The Strangest Coverup in Fashion History (parental advisory)
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Were They Thinking? Seventeenth-century hookers have a pubic problem that’s gone public. Doing the nasty with numerous lice-ridden sailors, farmers, vagrants, and sundry dirty scoundrels has left parasites o’plenty in the working girls’ privates. And that’s proving to be bad for business. Yet this old-world invention is still in use today. Listen and learn all about it in this episode. More Blundering Brainstorms to Come The next episode of "100 of the Worst Ideas in History, the Podcast" is in production and on its way to you. Watch for it wherever you get your podcasts. And...
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The Federal Investigation of the Hit Song That Advocates Deviant Teen Sex -- But Does It?
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Were They Thinking? This hit song produced for a mere $36 by a bunch of drunken hipsters is the traget of a multimillion-dollar FBI investigation. Does it encorage American teens to have perverse sexual relations? Religious groups say: Yes! Parents say: "Gosh-darn-it, we hope not." The Feds say: "We'll, ah, get back to you on that." Listen, laugh and learn all about this tough-to-discern fight for artitistic freedom in today's episode. More Blundering Brainstorms to Come The next episode of "100 of the Worst Ideas in History, the Podcast" is in production and on its way to you. Watch...
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Is Balloon Boy Trapped Inside an Inflatable 7,000 ft. Aloft -- Or is This Story Full of Hot Air?
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What was He Thinking? National Guard choppers race to the scene in breakneck aerial pursuit. Local Fort Collins, Colorado, police give frenzied chase on the ground below. Denver airport is hurriedly closed. All while the eyes of a nation are riveted to the strange, saucer-shaped object floating aimlessly overhead. Is a six-year-old Colorado boy precariously trapped inside, as his distraught father claims? And, if so, what will be the kid's fate when the craft inevitably deflates and hurtles toward earth? Listen and learn the truth -- and the fiction -- behind the media-dubbed "Balloon...
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Superhero Breaks into a Home for a Drug-Induced Kiddie-Bed Sleepover
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Was He Thinking? He's the superhero actor who does comething super-strange: Under the influence of heroin and cocaine, he speeds down Sunset Boulevard naked while packing a .357 magnum. He’s soon arrested—all the while claiming to officers that his car is filled with rats. Not long after, wearing nothing more than a pair of briefs and a smile, stumbles drunkenly into an unoccupied Malibu home, falls asleep on a child’s bed and is arrested again. Who is this Oscar-nominated thespian? Listen and learn all about it in this episode. More Blundering Brainstorms to Come The next episode...
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The U.S. Army's Best General Loses a Slap Fight
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Was He Thinking? Acknowledged by the Nazis as the most formidable commander in America’s military, this U.S. Army general is a brilliant tactician known for his shrewd WWII tank maneuvers—until one decidedly stupid maneuver nearly tanks his career. In this episode, learn how he takes a swing at his own troops, is slapped down by his superiors and lives to regret it the rest of his relatively short life. More Blundering Brainstorms to Come The next episode of "100 of the Worst Ideas in History, the Podcast" is in production and on its way to you. Watch for it wherever you...
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Britney Spears' Bald-Headed Bare-Crotched Adventure
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Was She Thinking? Springboarding to fame on the Disney Channel’s New Mickey Mouse Club at age eight, Britney Spears explodes into America’s biggest-ever teen pop music sensation with the 25-million-selling “Baby One More Time” in 1999. Yet just as Spears’s cumulative album sales top 52 million by 2002, she stumbles through a series of bizarre escapades that have her music-buying public pleading “Baby, One Less Time.” Hear all about her head-shaving, crotch-shooting escapades in this episode. More Blundering Brainstorms to Come The next episode of "100 of the Worst...
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Sarah Palin's $398,000,000, Golden-Gate-Sized Bridge to Nowhere
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Were they Thinking? Hundreds of thousands of wind-whipped, rain-drenched, homeless and hungry Louisiana residents plead for federal assistance in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Meanwhile, Washington power brokers are busy focusing on what is, at the moment, the U.S. government’s top priority: Providing about fifty Alaska residents an enormous, multi-hundred-million-dollar bridge connecting their remote island town to the state's mainland. Money is appropriated. Eyebrows are raised. Outrage erupts. Alaska politicos then dig in their mukluks. A vice-presidential campaign...
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It's Hard to Stomach The Restaurant Chain with a Racist Name
100 of the Worst Ideas in History
What Were They Thinking? OK, so maybe they were naive. Or maybe they were out of touch? Or maybe Santa Barbara, California restaurateurs Sam Battistone and Newell Bohnett were, well, secretly rascists. But when they mashed up their names to form the trademark of what would become a mega-national chain of diners, that's when the pancakes hit the fan. Outrage, condemnation and boycots followed. Hear the now-famous culinary cautionary tale in this episode. More Blundering Brainstorms to Come The next episode of "100 of the Worst Ideas in History, the Podcast" is in production and on...
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Long before ecru, maize, or topaz, automobiles come in your color choice of black, black, or (if you ask nicely and place your order early) black.
Why the lack of options? Well, according to Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford, the auto industry’s resident ubergod, black paint dries more quickly—allowing more efficient operation of his revolutionary assembly line. The American car buyers response? Well, that's a horseless carriage of a different color. Listen and learn all about it in this episode.
More Blundering Brainstorms to Come
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For 99 other examples of historical, hysterical stinkin’ thinkin’ from the past, get your copy of popular book "100 of the Worst Ideas in History," available at Amazon.com and better retailers everywhere. Audiobook now available at Audible.com and other platforms.