Robert Frost is one of the most critically acclaimed American poets of the 20th century, which is a roundabout way of saying you almost certainly studied one of his poems in school. Most likely, it was a short piece called The Road Not Taken- a poem famous for being one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted poems ever written, and […]
Read more
Meri K. asks: Who invented pole vaulting? Although it’s difficult to find written accounts, it appears that people have been propelling themselves through the air with poles since ancient times. In fact, depictions of people leaping with poles can be found as far back as 400 BC. A practical and inexpensive way to traverse swampy marshy areas, propelling over wet […]
Read more
At the close of the 19th century, a young immigrant arrived in New York’s Chinatown. Within a year, Sai Wing Mock, better known as Mock Duck, had taken control of one of the neighborhood’s principal criminal syndicates, the Hip Sing Tong. Immediately challenging the power of rival On Leong Tong, in 1900, Mock Duck started a war between the gangs […]
Read more
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is an institution known and respected the world over for its relative impartiality and objectivity compared to many other news sources, with numerous surveys showing that the BBC is one of the most trusted sources of news in both the UK and the US. But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about […]
Read more
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Sherlock Holmes, Jean Valjean, and the FBI can all trace their roots back to one Frenchman who turned a life of crime into a life of fighting crime. SPLIT PERSONALITY In 1809 a 34-year-old petty criminal named Eugène François Vidocq (pronounced vee-DOCK) was doing yet another stint in a French […]
Read more
In 1744 at the age of 18, François-André Danican Philidor (1726-1795) enthralled Parisian society after playing two simultaneous games of chess in a public demonstration, all while blindfolded. And even though he lost one game and only drew the other, the display established Philidor as a chess master par excellence, and blew new life into the ancient practice of blindfold […]
Read more
In November of 1557, the Mapuche warrior, Galvarino, led a division of his fellow soldiers in a desperate battle against Spanish colonial forces in the Araucania in central Chile. Remarkably, since he no longer had hands, Galvarino rushed headlong into the fray armed only with his teeth and a knife strapped to each wrist. The Spanish campaign to conquer Chile […]
Read more
Our very good friends over at Neatorama are currently running a big sale offering their ridiculous number of awesome T-shirts for up to 20% off with free worldwide shipping on orders of $75 and up. The sale ends soon (this Monday), so if you’re looking to stock up on some great T-shirts for the school year at a great price, […]
Read more
Alex P. asks: Why are baseball dugouts built below ground? Imagine attending a game with no stadium seating where you have great tickets right near the action on the infield. The pitcher winds up, releases the ball, and as it speeds toward the batter, the runner on third makes an attempt to steal home. When the ball and the runner […]
Read more
The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader If you have kids, there’s a good chance that the very first time you laid eyes on them was via a “sonogram” image taken before they were even born. The grainy images are so common that they’ve become a rite of passage for parents all over the world. Here’s the […]
Read more
With irony equal to that of the unsinkable Titanic drowning on her maiden voyage, the Swedish warship, Mars, called “the Matchless,” was set afire, her armament exploded, and she sank during her first major sea battle. Lost for nearly 450 years, Mars has recently been found in the Baltic Sea, and archaeologists are giddy with the discovery. In the 1560s, […]
Read more
On June 26, 1975, professional gambler Barney Curley pulled off one of the most famous betting coups in all of sports. With careful planning and skillful execution, Curley and his compatriots won just over IR£300,000 (or about $2.6 million today) on the “slow but steady” mostly unknown horse named Yellow Sam. Curley’s father, Charlie, had been a grocer before sinking […]
Read more
One of only two highwaymen sufficiently dashing to have earned a place in Lord Macaulay’s famous History of England, in the summer of 1676, John “Swift Nick” Nevison famously galloped from Kent to York, a journey of about 200 miles, in a single, very long day- all to create an alibi. Like much of his life, little is definitively known […]
Read more
Today, Casual Friday is a day when the conventional dress codes of most offices are cast aside in favour of denim jeans, comfortable t-shirts with movie slogans on them and shirts with the sleeves rolled up. But few people realise that this time-honored tradition of “sticking it to the man” forcing you to wear a noose around your neck four […]
Read more
Zack D asks: Is it true that the terracotta army soldiers are all unique? More than two thousand years ago, the man who unified China, established a single system of writing and currency, and began construction of the Great Wall, ordered that a 20 square mile underground city, to be later filled with the finest treasures and protected by thousands […]
Read more
Over a 20-year career in post-Civil War New York, Fredericka “Marm” Mandelbaum is estimated to have fenced as much as $10 million in stolen property (around a quarter of a billion dollars when adjusted for inflation). Sitting at the center of a vast crime web the spanned large areas of the United States, Ma Mandelbaum was then known as “the […]
Read more
During World War II, Nazi engineers designed and built a number of revolutionary super or “wonder weapons” (wunderwaffe), including a wide array of aircraft, guns and ships. Among these weapons is a mysterious small, round tank named the Kugelpanzer (literally meaning “spherical tank”). This odd little tank was never seen in the European theater, and very little is definitively known […]
Read more
In the fall of 1885, poet, essayist, travel writer and novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson, had a nightmare so terrifying that his tossing about impelled his wife to wake him up. Rather than being grateful, however, Stevenson chastised his bride, barking: “Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.” A longtime sufferer of consumption (see: Why Tuberculosis […]
Read more