Films and TV shows can be fun and useful to watch. They often contain valuable tips for different situations that you can apply in real life. For instance, how to maintain a perm or how to avoid damaging a chef’s knife.
In The Help, Emma Stone’s character learns how to cut an onion without shedding tears. She just has to hold an unlit match in her mouth. Surprisingly, it works like a charm. The reason is that the match head can absorb the sulfur compounds that are released from the onion when chopped. These are the chemicals that make us cry.
Bree Van de Kamp from Desperate Housewives taught us how to quickly turn a dull dress into a stunning one. She simply put it on backward, and the back cutout became a gorgeous neckline. In just one minute, Bree had a new dress, which was all the time she needed to change.
In the movie Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts’ character reveals to her lover how she can buy shoes without trying them on. She says that the length of her foot is the same as the distance between her wrist and elbow.
Interestingly, this was also the opinion of Leonardo da Vinci. He wrote in his notebooks: “The whole length of the foot will lie between the elbow and the wrist”. However, this is only true for average human proportions, and it does not account for individual differences.
Elle Woods from Legally Blonde (2001) used her self-care knowledge to crack the case. But this information can be useful for all of us. Elle told the court that after getting a perm, we should not wet our hair for at least 24 hours, or we will ruin the result of the procedure. This advice is actually given to everyone who gets a perm.
Starting a fire without any tools is not easy. It can take hours for someone who only knows the theory. Tom Hanks’ character in the movie Cast Away (2000) learned this the hard way. He split a piece of wood, put some dry grass in the crack, and rubbed it with another stick. He kept trying until he saw some smoke, and then he gently blew on it to make a flame.
Monica Geller from Friends is obsessed with cleanliness. She has a secret system for sorting her towels. Yes, you heard that right. She labels some of them for different household purposes, and others for guests. Her friends have discovered that she has 11 categories of towels for every occasion.
In the movie Brooklyn (2015), the protagonist wanted to master the art of eating spaghetti. She twirled the pasta around her fork, using a spoon as a support. This way, she avoided dropping the noodles back into the plate or onto her clothes, and splashing sauce everywhere.
George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air (2009) is a frequent flyer who knows some tips to speed up his travel. One of them is to choose the right line at the check-in desk. He avoids families with children because they take longer to handle their luggage and strollers than solo travelers.
In the movie Cashback, the cashier who works at a clothing store has a trick to make her workday seem shorter. She covers the face of her watch with tape. She thinks that time goes slower when you keep checking your watch.
The chef in the animated movie Ratatouille slides the chopped vegetables from the cutting board to the pot with the back of his knife. This way, he preserves the sharpness of the blade for longer.
The Internet is full of brilliant life hacks that can make our lives easier. Some people have amazing ideas that are simple yet effective, and you can check them in this article.
The wrist-elbow-rule is astoninglishly accurate. There is a similar one for manhood: three times the length of a man's thumb. I haven't gathered enough evidence for that rule though. But it's funny to watch people after you uttered this hypothesis.
