To win a few thousand or millions, people can do all sorts of stupid things in an argument.
Pearl cocktail
Cleopatra bet Mark Antony that she could drink 10 million sesterces’ worth of wine vinegar at dinner. The queen won the bet as she first threw a large pearl into the glass. After the calcium carbonate reacted with the acid, a drinkable beverage was obtained.
Visiting the White House without an appointment
Shaquille O’Neal bet 1,000 push-ups with his trainer that he could just walk into the White House to visit Obama. Residence security recognized the basketball player, but he still lost the bet. After all, the first person of state is guarded especially carefully everywhere.
Honore de Balzac, a connoisseur of women’s nature
Balzac made a bet to pay for dinner at a nice restaurant with a friend that he could unmistakably identify by appearance who the two women he met in the park. He claimed that the beautiful blonde was a childless Parisian and the awkward brunette was an English housekeeper with one child. In fact, the blonde lady turned out to be a married German with two children and the woman with dark hair was a Frenchwoman who didn’t mind spending the evening with the gentlemen.
Moonlight betting
Englishman David Threlfall bet £10 at a betting shop in 1960 that a man would travel to the moon within 10 years. He was lucky as Americans landed on a satellite of the Earth in 1969. He received £10,000 with which he bought a luxury sports car. The Briton crashed it in his first year.
Man or woman?
In the second half of the eighteenth century, d’Eonne de Beaumont lived in London in the guise of a French aristocrat. He lacked stubble, but had rounded arms, legs and swellings around his chest. Despite the feminine appearance, the English did not know exactly what sex the man was. They placed a bet, which in 1774 was worth 120,000 pounds. The truth was not discovered until after D’Eon’s death. In 1810 there was a notice in the newspapers that he was a full-fledged man. After that, thousands of pounds changed hands.
Around the world in controversy
In 1888 a bet was made as to whether News of the World journalist Nellie Bly or Cosmopolitan correspondent would make the trip round the world faster. The girls moved in opposite directions, but along the route of Jules Verne’s character. Nellie Bly won the challenge, returning after 72 days to her starting point.
The butcher’s and aristocrat’s race
In the 18th century an English fat butcher, Bullock, bet an impressive sum to a young sportsman, Earl Barrymore, that he would beat him over the 100 metre distance. In doing so, the fat man chose the place of the contest and had a 35-metre head start. The Earl could not reach the finish line first because the race took place in the narrowest English street, which was completely blocked by a butcher of impressive size.
The 10-second movie
One of Tonino Guerra’s friends made a bet with him that he would not be able to write a full screenplay for a film lasting no more than 10 seconds. However, he did come up with the shortest movie about a space rocket launch and a countdown, in the last seconds of which a woman watching him on TV says into a telephone receiver, “He’s gone”.
A tailcoat without tails
In the early XIX century English Lord Spencer made a bet that he would appear at a ball in a tailsdress with the tails cut off. No one would consider his outfit indecent. The aristocrat won the bet and made shortened tails fashionable.
Black holes
Stephen Hawking made a bet with a colleague that a black hole was missing in the Swan X-1 source. His opponent won a year’s subscription to Penthouse magazine. Hawking failed once more and lost a baseball encyclopaedia when he bet that information disappears without a trace in a black hole.
