Watching TV can be lifesaving: A Long Island 12-year-old saved her best friend's life when she performed the Heimlich maneuver—which she recalled from an episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Miriam Starobin told the Post, "It was like a flash right in my eyes. I saw in my head Squidward with his clarinet lodged in his throat and then SpongeBob does the Heimlich maneuver and the clarinet comes flying out of his mouth." FWIW, that's the Squidtastic Voyage episode. more ›

Staten Island may have to take a lot of heat for being, well, Staten Island, but did you know that chewing gum was invented there? (The modern gum, not the Greek mastiche.) The Wrigley Building, built in 1917, is on the island and currently abandoned (aside from some squatters possibly residing there); it may soon become a 92-unit luxury condo. Nathan Kensinger notes on his blog that prior to Wrigley taking residence on the island, modern chewing gum was invented there "with the help of General Santa Ana, the former eleven-time President of Mexico. In 1869, while living in exile on the island, he sold a ton of Mexican chicle to local inventor Thomas Adams. Adams hoped to make rubber tires from the substance. Instead, he created chewing gum. By 1884, he had introduced the world's first flavored stick of gum - Black Jack." Yum? more ›