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The Fart That Killed 10,000 People, and Other Weird Moments From History

Khalid Elhassan July 18, 2020 34 min

Wheel - Panjandrum — The Great Panjandrum. War History Online

23. The Spinach Strength Myth

Because of Popeye the Sailor Man, many kids have dreamt at some point in their early years that they could gain superpowers by overcoming their distaste for spinach. Popeye’s love of spinach was popularized to a receptive public, primed by what seems like a weird widespread belief that spinach was an extraordinarily great food item.

Unfortunately, kids who mastered their gag reflexes long enough to swallow the green stuff were not rewarded by an explosive increase in strength, prowess, or any other abilities and talents. However, there was at least a silver lining, as the kids learned one of life’s early lessons: don’t believe everything you see on TV.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.