All stories — Page 5

Every story in the Unbubly reading feed.

The wanted man was his own sonBass Reeves escaped slavery and became a deputy U.S. marshal in 1875. His career eventually brought a painful…
That statue-like bird is watching for fishThe shoebill lives in African swamps and often stands almost motionless while hunting. It finds prey by sight…
Funeral biscuits came with a black sealA British magazine in 1790 described sweet biscuits given to funeral guests. The biscuits were wrapped in pap…
Even @#$% has a nameA jumble of symbols replacing profanity in a comic is called a grawlix. The characters need not form a pronou…
A naked festival usually still has a loinclothJapan’s hadaka matsuri are festivals in which participants wear very little clothing. A fundoshi loincloth is…
Soldier Robert was DeborahIn 1782 Deborah Sampson enlisted under a male name during the American Revolution. A doctor discovered her id…
A bird that spends the day as a branchPotoos hunt insects at night in tropical America. By day they perch upright, using their patterned plumage to…
That bracelet may be made from hairMourning jewellery became especially popular in the nineteenth century. Some pieces incorporated a deceased p…
A punctuation mark for “that was sarcasm”In 1899 French poet Alcanter de Brahm proposed a mark to signal irony. Its shape resembled a small backward-f…
The ammunition at this carnival is orangesAt the Carnival of Ivrea in northern Italy, organized teams throw oranges at one another. People on foot face…
A battlefield hotel built around foodJamaican-born Mary Seacole established the British Hotel in Crimea in 1855. Despite its name, the business ce…
A mammal colony with a queen and workersNaked mole-rats live underground in East Africa. A queen and a few males reproduce, while other colony member…
The iron cage was keeping thieves outMortsafes were heavy iron protections used over graves in nineteenth-century Britain. They guarded against pe…
Three little stars make this mark: ⁂An asterism is a triangle of three asterisks. In typography it has served as a separator between passages, am…
A mud festival began with cosmetics marketingSouth Korea’s Boryeong Mud Festival began in 1998. It was conceived partly to promote cosmetics made with loc…
He bought a ship to become a pirateIn 1717 wealthy Barbadian landowner Stede Bonnet turned to piracy with little sailing experience. He bought h…
A shark whose jaws reach out from its faceThe goblin shark usually holds its jaws beneath its head. During feeding, they can extend dramatically toward…
A meal believed to take on someone else’s sinsSin-eating is a reported funeral ritual associated especially with Wales and nearby areas. A person was belie…
The insertion mark is named for what is lackingA proofreader’s caret shows where extra text should be inserted. Its name comes from a Latin word meaning tha…
A village procession with masks and huge bellsBulgarian kukeri traditions feature costumed figures walking and dancing through villages. Elaborate masks an…
The pirate leader negotiated retirementAfter her husband died, Zheng Yi Sao led a pirate confederation off China’s coast. In 1810 she negotiated sur…
A giant frog prepares pools for its youngGoliath frogs from Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea have been observed preparing pools beside rivers for breedi…
The ancient tear bottle probably held perfumeSmall vessels from ancient tombs were once interpreted as containers for mourners’ tears. The name lacrymator…
Change the font, and a letter becomes scissorsDingbats are typographic ornaments and symbols. Older symbol fonts placed shapes at positions normally used f…
A bun tower race uses plastic bunsHong Kong’s Cheung Chau Bun Festival includes a tower-climbing contest to collect buns. The modern race retur…
His baseball uniform had a question markFormer player Max Patkin became a comic performer at baseball grounds across North America. His baggy uniform…
A tree trunk that looks splashed with paintRainbow eucalyptus is native to the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its bark peels in strips, ex…
The old intercom began with a whistleSpeaking tubes carried voices through pipes. In versions with a removable whistle, blowing into one end summo…
An old text can survive beneath a newer oneA palimpsest is a manuscript page whose earlier writing was removed so the material could be reused. Expensiv…
A chicken inside a duck inside a turkeyTurducken puts a deboned chicken inside a deboned duck, then inside a deboned turkey. Its name combines the n…
Woodstock had a “Please Force”At the original Woodstock festival in 1969, Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm collective helped with preparations a…
A butterfly you can see throughGreta oto, the glasswing butterfly, occurs in Central and South America. Much of each wing is transparent, wi…
Butter began with a lot of movementA butter churn turns cream into butter through mechanical agitation. Historical designs used plunging poles o…
The next page’s first word was already hereA catchword at the foot of a page anticipates the first word on the following page. In manuscripts and early…
A chocolate bar went into the fryerThe deep-fried Mars bar coats a chocolate bar in batter before frying it. Associated with Scottish chip shops…
He performs with cards and tests how they feelCard expert Richard Turner developed his performance skills despite losing his sight. A playing-card company…
Those waving leaves are not its engineThe leafy seadragon lives off southern and western Australia. Its leaf-like body extensions provide camouflag…
Butter could wear a cow or a flowerButter stamps pressed designs into warm blocks of butter. Often made of wood, they featured cows, flowers or…
After the story, a note about paper and typeA colophon records details of a book’s publication or manufacture. Some include the paper, ink, typefaces and…
Potato chips can be the sandwich fillingA crisp sandwich puts potato chips between slices of bread, often with butter. It is familiar in Britain and…
The upper half chased the escaping legsIn a 1937 stage illusion, Johnny Eck and his twin brother helped add a twist to the familiar sawing act. Subs…
A fish that floats with a jelly-like bodyPsychrolutes marcidus lives in deep water under intense pressure. Much of its body is gelatinous tissue sligh…
A silver grater for your next drinkIn the eighteenth century, men carried pocket-sized silver containers fitted with nutmeg graters. They could…
A and V may need to get closerKerning adjusts spacing for particular pairs of letters. Shapes such as A and V can leave an awkward-looking…
French fries take the middle of the sandwichA chip butty is a British sandwich filled with chips, meaning French fries here. Butter and various sauces ma…
The show continued after her husband diedAdelaide Herrmann had played many roles in her husband’s magic shows. When he died in 1896, she decided to co…
Some snakes glide while wriggling in the airFlying snakes of the genus Chrysopelea can glide between trees. They flatten their bodies and make side-to-si…
A letter could finish with a dusting of powderPounce was a fine powder used to dry ink and prepare writing surfaces. Some nineteenth-century pots had a sha…
That single ﬁ shape contains two lettersA ligature combines two or more letters into one glyph. In the familiar ﬁ example, f and i share a shape. Suc…
The sandwich filling was a piece of toastA toast sandwich places a thin slice of toasted bread between two other slices of bread. A recipe appeared in…
The billionaire gave money away in secretChuck Feeney built a fortune through duty-free retail and spent years giving anonymously. His lifetime donati…
Eel can arrive surrounded by jellyJellied eels are a traditional London dish in which cooked pieces of eel are cooled in their liquid. Componen…
Michigan gave up Toledo and gained more peninsulaIn the 1830s Ohio and Michigan disputed land around Toledo. A compromise tied Michigan’s statehood to surrend…
Everyone agrees, yet nobody really wants itThe Abilene paradox describes a group choosing an action that its members do not actually prefer. Each person…
A museum for Spam, not unwanted emailAustin, Minnesota has a museum devoted to the canned meat Spam. Exhibits cover the changing cans and the prod…
A karaoke pioneer did not patent the machineDaisuke Inoue developed a machine that let customers sing without live accompaniment. He did not patent that…
A Norwegian dish is literally sheep’s headSmalahove is a traditional dish from western Norway made from a sheep’s head. The head is prepared through pr…
A 335-year war may not have been a war at allA story holds that the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly remained at war for 335 years without a peace trea…
A task can grow to fill its deadlineParkinson’s Law is the observation that work can expand to occupy the time available for it. A generous deadl…
A museum for mistakes too interesting to ignoreThe Museum of Bad Art began after a painting was recovered from the trash. It looks for seriously intended or…
A shipboard spring suggested a toyIn 1943 Richard T. James worked on springs for supporting sensitive instruments aboard ships. Watching a drop…
The mopane worm is a moth caterpillarThe edible mopane worm of southern Africa is the caterpillar of the moth Gonimbrasia belina. It feeds mainly…
The territorial rivals left each other drinksCanada and Denmark disputed Arctic Hans Island, sometimes planting flags and leaving bottles of alcohol. The…
Success at one job does not guarantee success at the nextThe Peter principle describes promotion based on success in a previous role until a person reaches work they…
A toilet museum even has poetry about toiletsNew Delhi’s Sulabh International Museum of Toilets presents the history of sanitation. Alongside toilet-relat…
She did not describe her cookie as an accidentRuth Graves Wakefield’s Toll House cookie is sometimes explained as a mistake involving chocolate that failed…
A corn disease can become a fillingCorn smut is a fungal disease that produces swollen growths on maize. In Mexico these are eaten as huitlacoch…
The Football War was not simply about footballThe 1969 war between Honduras and El Salvador became known as the Football War. Tension around matches matter…
The bike shed can get more discussion than the big projectThe law of triviality describes disproportionate attention to minor, understandable issues. Its fictional com…
One kind of anatomical specimen became a museumIceland’s Phallological Museum specializes in specimens of animal penises. Its founder was a teacher, and gif…
The childhood ice-pop story has a complicationFrank Epperson is associated with a story about a childhood drink freezing around a stirring stick. Later rep…
Mexican caviar can mean ant larvaeEscamoles are the edible larvae and pupae of particular ants, eaten in Mexico. They are sometimes nicknamed M…
A lobster’s movement entered a diplomatic disputeIn the early 1960s Brazil and France disputed lobster fishing off Brazil’s coast. Brazil argued that lobsters…
Your own folded paper can look more valuableThe IKEA effect describes people valuing things more after helping make them. Experiments included origami, w…
The leftovers of relationships became a museumZagreb’s Museum of Broken Relationships grew from an idea shared by two artists after their relationship ende…
Eight days after winning, she lost the titleRosie Ruiz was initially declared the women’s winner of the 1980 Boston Marathon. Eight days later, she was s…
A spider builds a room full of air below the surfaceThe diving bell spider constructs an underwater web chamber and carries air to it using water-repellent hairs…
Ten-cent beer ended with a forfeited baseball gameOn June 4, 1974, Cleveland’s stadium offered ten-cent beer during a game against Texas. Late in the game, spe…
A scale can seem to climb without getting anywhereA sequence of Shepard tones can seem to rise endlessly. Tones an octave apart are combined, with their relati…
A building can be designed to annoy the neighborA spite house is built or altered to irritate someone, for example by blocking light or access. Its shape can…
The Japanese keepsake turned out to be a customs formDuring the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, Shizo Kanakuri received help from a local family. An account of his 1967…
The fuzz on this deep-sea worm is a colony of bacteriaThe Pompeii worm, Alvinella pompejana, lives near deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Its hairy-looking back is cove…
One side of the tennis court was grass, the other clayIn a 2007 exhibition on Mallorca, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played on a court split between grass and cl…
Listeners can disagree about the same two tonesThe tritone paradox uses two specially constructed tones a half-octave apart. One listener may hear an ascent…
An earthquake helps explain some of the odd architectureCalifornia’s Winchester Mystery House is known for dead-end stairs and unusual doors. The 1906 earthquake dam…
Four leaders fell, and the trailing skater took goldIn the men’s 1,000-metre short-track final at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Steven Bradbury was behind the other…
It hovers at flowers, but it is not a hummingbirdThe hummingbird hawk-moth hovers while drinking nectar through its long proboscis. Found across Eurasia, it f…
King beat the former champion in three straight setsIn Houston in 1973, 55-year-old Bobby Riggs faced 29-year-old Billie Jean King in a heavily publicized tennis…
The mouth you see can change the syllable you hearIn the McGurk effect, a mismatch between spoken audio and visible mouth movements can produce a different per…
A room projects roughly 66 metres with no columns beneath itAt Wisconsin’s House on the Rock, the Infinity Room projects about 66 metres from the main structure without…
He won his Olympic heat with nobody beside himAt Sydney 2000, Equatorial Guinea’s Eric Moussambani swam his 100-metre freestyle heat alone after the other…
A furry-looking crustacean acquired a mountain monster’s nameKiwa hirsuta was discovered in the deep South Pacific in 2005. Numerous silky setae cover its legs and claws,…
Melbourne’s equestrian events took place in StockholmThe 1956 Summer Olympics were hosted by Melbourne, but the equestrian competitions took place months earlier…
Repeating a spoken phrase can make it sound musicalRepeated playback of a short spoken phrase can make it seem sung, even though the recording itself has not ch…
Broken bottles and shells decorate a thirty-metre towerSimon Rodia spent 33 years building the Watts Towers in Los Angeles. Steel and concrete structures are decora…
An Olympic halfpipe run without the big tricksRepresenting Hungary in 2018, Elizabeth Swaney completed women’s halfpipe runs without the tricks spectators…
A popcorn-like smell has an unexpected sourceBinturongs are associated with a popcorn-like odor. Their urine contains 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, a compound als…
One country could send several Olympic tug-of-war teamsTug of war appeared at the Summer Olympics held between 1900 and 1920. Club teams competed, and a country cou…
A missing low component can still shape what you hearA set of overtones can produce the perception of a fundamental pitch even when that frequency is absent from…
Newspapers became walls and furniture in this houseMassachusetts’ Paper House was built in the 1920s. Newspaper panels filled a wooden frame and were left visib…
He left a failing aircraft and entered a thundercloudIn 1959, US pilot William Rankin ejected after his aircraft’s engine failed. His parachute opened inside a th…
The larva throws sand at prey trying to climb outSome antlion larvae wait at the bottom of funnel-shaped sand pits. When prey tries to climb out, the larva th…
Some people feared that their bodies were made of glassEuropean records from the late medieval and early modern periods describe people convinced that their bodies…
Chocolate carries the letters of cocoa inside itA kangaroo word contains a synonym or closely related word whose letters appear in the same order. Chocolate,…
Polo and lacrosse meet in one team sportPolocrosse combines elements of polo and lacrosse. Riders carry and pass a ball with a net-headed stick and s…
Rain arrived, but his promised payment did notSan Diego approached self-described rainmaker Charles Hatfield in 1915 about filling a reservoir. Heavy rain…
A larva carries a little shelter of stones and leavesMany caddisfly larvae construct silk tubes reinforced with material such as sand, stones or leaf pieces. The…
Ships set their clocks when a raised ball began to fallNineteenth-century ports used time balls: raised balls dropped at a predetermined time so navigators could sy…
English is itself an English wordAn autological word has the property it names: English is English, and word is a word. By contrast, monosylla…
The players aim for a goal while riding bicyclesCycle ball resembles football played on bicycles. Teams of two control the ball with the bicycle or the head,…
Another game on the mound bought him a fishing breakAfter winning a seventeen-inning game for Milwaukee in 1900, Rube Waddell was offered a three-day fishing vac…
A spider raises its colorful abdomen to court a mateMale peacock spiders in the Australian genus Maratus can raise a colorful abdomen and move their legs in cour…
Some old books contained rotating paper calculatorsA volvelle uses rotating paper components to align information. Early examples appeared in astronomy books, h…
A word invented for one occasion has its own labelA nonce word is created for a particular occasion or utterance. Such words appear in jokes, poetry and langua…
Chess can begin with a randomized back rankChess960 randomizes the back-rank pieces subject to rules: bishops occupy opposite-colored squares, and the k…
A major-league uniform carried the number one-eighthEddie Gaedel appeared for the St. Louis Browns on August 19, 1951, wearing number 1/8. Four consecutive balls…
Worker ants use their larvae’s silk to join leavesWeaver-ant workers pull leaf edges together, sometimes linking their bodies into chains to span a gap. Other…
An early use of the name did not mean automatic fireThe Puckle gun was a manually operated revolving firearm patented in 1718. A later shipping record called it…
How are you can be a greeting rather than an inquiryIn English, How are you can sincerely ask about someone’s condition or simply open a conversation. Phatic exp…
In this throwing game, overshooting sends the score to zeroIn South African jukskei, players throw wooden implements at a peg in a sandpit. Knocking it over scores thre…
Four zebras pulled his carriage to Buckingham PalaceWalter Rothschild, a keen zoologist, drove a carriage harnessed to four zebras to Buckingham Palace. The demo…
Two streams of slime cross into a trapping netVelvet worms eject adhesive slime from openings on either side of the head. Oscillating streams cross in the…
Few major battles did not mean little sufferingThe War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778–79 became known as the Potato War. Large armies maneuvered, with r…
I mean can help organize speech, not just define meaningExpressions such as I mean and well can manage the flow of English conversation. These discourse markers may…
The score comes after the ball bounces backIn tchoukball, an attacker throws at a rebound frame and scores when the returning ball lands on the court wi…
Her drawings helped establish who designed the machineMargaret Knight developed a machine to make flat-bottomed paper bags automatically. After someone else patent…
A gelatin dish can contain meat rather than dessertAspic is a savory gelatin made with stock or broth, often molded around meat, seafood, vegetables or eggs. It…
A boot jack is for removing boots, not putting them onA boot jack grips a boot’s heel while the other foot holds the device down. It lets the wearer withdraw a foo…
Cwtch carries a sense of warmth and safetyThe Welsh and Welsh-English word cwtch describes an embrace with warmth and safety, and also has a hiding-pla…
An Irish fair crowns a goat as its kingAt Killorglin’s Puck Fair in Ireland, a goat is crowned King Puck. The animal becomes a symbol of the festivi…
A windshield-wiper patent did not quickly find a buyerMary Anderson patented a window-cleaning device in 1903, operated from inside a vehicle by a lever. In 1905,…
Boza brings a sweet-sour taste and a dense textureBoza is a fermented grain beverage found in Turkey and parts of the Balkans, among other places. It has a thi…
Sugar once needed a sturdy cutting toolBefore granulated and cube sugar became widespread, households bought sugarloaves or parts of them. Sugar nip…
A Finnish word for determination has a guts connectionSisu is a Finnish term associated with resolve and persistence under adversity. It is connected to sisus, mea…
Two church communities exchange fireworks across the townIn Vrontados on the Greek island of Chios, an Easter tradition has two church communities firing rockets towa…
A skating problem became an ear-protector businessAccounts of Chester Greenwood describe him wanting to protect his ears while skating at fifteen. His grandmot…
Rye bread can become an ingredient in kvassKvass is a sweet-sour fermented cereal beverage. Traditional versions use rye bread or rye flour and malt, an…
A small bouquet’s name points to its scentA nosegay is a small bouquet carried or worn. Its Middle English name combines nose with gay in the older sen…
Lagom is about enough without excessSwedish lagom expresses an amount that is neither too much nor too little, with a sense of appropriateness. A…
The costumes also carry a review of the past yearLa Vijanera in Silió, Spain, features many costumed characters, including figures wearing skins and bells. Al…
A damaged instrument helped reveal an adhesiveA material examined by Harry Coover’s team was rejected as too sticky for another purpose. In 1951, a chemist…
Vegemite tried a punning name against its rivalVegemite was temporarily renamed Parwill to compete with Marmite. The campaign played on Ma might and Pa will…
Growth in a sealed bottle suggested a shipping caseNathaniel Ward noticed ferns and grass growing in soil inside a sealed bottle used for insects. He developed…
Hygge is not restricted to blankets and cold weatherDanish and Norwegian hygge concerns pleasant, comfortable and familiar experiences. Although often associated…
A mock coup comes with flour and eggsIn Ibi, Spain, Els Enfarinats on December 28 involves participants in mock military clothing staging a preten…
An early zipper predecessor began with shoesWhitcomb Judson’s clasp-locker was a predecessor of the modern zipper, first intended for shoes and high boot…
Beer-making leftovers became something for toastMarmite is a yeast-extract spread made from beer-brewing by-products. Developed in Britain in 1902, it is tra…
The little ledge inside this cup protected a moustacheA moustache cup has an interior ledge with an opening for liquid. The guard keeps the moustache dry while the…
Fika is a social break, not just consuming coffeeSwedish fika is a coffee-break tradition, commonly involving pastries and social time. It appears in workplac…
At Haro’s festival, people splash wine on one anotherThe wine festival in Haro, La Rioja, includes a wine battle. Following a mass, participants splash each other…
She handed out wire to explain a nanosecondGrace Hopper distributed pieces of wire about thirty centimetres long to represent how far light travels in a…
Flowers appear on the surface of a pebble-like plantPseudolithos is a group of succulents named for a pebble-like appearance. Their stems have a tessellated surf…
An old wheel design added a ring of stepping padsBramah Joseph Diplock’s pedrail wheel carried a series of pivoting feet around its rim. The pads could adapt…
The ending can change how the beginning is understoodA paraprosdokian ends a sentence or passage in an unexpected way that makes the listener reinterpret its earl…
The festival guests receive fruit and vegetablesLopburi, Thailand has a Monkey Buffet Festival offering fruit and vegetables to local macaques. The unusual f…
The writer brought a gibbon in a little dinner jacketAccounts of writer Emily Hahn’s life in 1930s Shanghai describe her taking her pet gibbon, Mr. Mills, to dinn…
Buried leaves admit sunlight through translucent topsMuch of a Lithops leaf remains below ground. A translucent upper surface, called a leaf window, lets light en…
The experimental vehicle walked on four legsGeneral Electric created an experimental four-legged Walking Truck in 1965. An operator inside used hand and…
The same wording can return with a different meaningAntanaclasis repeats a word or phrase in two different senses. It is a kind of pun often used in slogans. The…
Another town’s claim helped inspire a garlic festivalGilroy’s Garlic Festival began in California in 1979. Its founder was inspired by a French town’s annual fest…
Her climbing trousers became a public talking pointAnnie Smith Peck climbed the Matterhorn in 1895 wearing a tunic, climbing boots and knickerbocker trousers. H…
A towering Andean plant flowers once, then diesPuya raimondii sends up a large flowering stalk in the Andes. It reproduces once and dies soon afterward. Tha…
This experimental railcar used an aircraft-like pushGermany’s Schienenzeppelin used a rear propeller for propulsion. In 1931 it reached roughly 230 kilometres pe…
A familiar line can keep its shape with new wordsA snowclone adapts a familiar phrase template by replacing selected words. X is the new Y is a common English…
The bellybutton dance puts an extra face on the bodyFurano’s Hokkai Heso Matsuri features dancers with faces painted on their stomachs. Established in 1969, the…
He went looking for a supposedly surviving giant slothA newspaper commissioned Hesketh Hesketh-Prichard to investigate reports of a hairy beast in Patagonia. It wa…
A giant water lily’s flower changes around its visiting beetlesVictoria amazonica attracts beetles with a white flower and a fruity scent. The flower closes around the visi…
Spinning machinery kept the vehicle uprightA gyro monorail used gyroscopic action from spinning wheels to balance a vehicle on a single rail. Full-scale…
Short headlines can point readers toward the wrong meaningEnglish headlines often omit small grammatical words, creating structural ambiguity. Such headlines are calle…
Wet fingers play the rims of rotating bowlsBenjamin Franklin’s glass harmonica mounted glass bowls horizontally on a rotating spindle. The player touche…
A dictionary and a typewriter went around the world with herAlma Karlin left on a world journey in 1919 carrying a typewriter and a multilingual dictionary. She financed…
The towering bloom warms up to release a powerful odorThe titan arum’s central spadix heats as its inflorescence opens and releases a strong odor associated with r…
The giant-wheel vehicle had an awkward motion problemThe 1930s Dynasphere put its driver inside a giant rolling wheel. Steering and braking proved difficult, and…
Replacing your own word can strengthen the statementEpanorthosis is immediate, emphatic self-correction. A speaker might replace a quantity with a larger one to…
A hand-cranked wheel rubs the stringsA hurdy-gurdy uses a hand-cranked, rosined wheel to rub strings and produce sound. A keyboard changes the pit…
A household job led to a job classifying starsWilliamina Fleming worked as a maid in the home of Harvard’s observatory director. She began helping with obs…
Some historical ketchup was made from mushroomsBritish ketchup historically included versions made mainly from mushrooms. A mushroom ketchup recipe also app…
Some surviving platform shoes exceed fifty centimetresChopines were elevated shoes worn during the Renaissance, with surviving examples more than fifty centimetres…
Flour and flower share a pronunciationEnglish flour and flower have different spellings and meanings but the same pronunciation. They are homophone…
A wooden seesaw launches the ball for the batterIn the English game bat and trap, a ball rests on a seesaw mechanism in a wooden box. The batter strikes the…
He automated a skilled bottleneck in shoemakingSuriname-born Jan Matzeliger worked in the American shoe industry and developed an automatic lasting machine.…
Banana ketchup can borrow tomato ketchup’s colorPhilippine banana ketchup is made with bananas, sugar, vinegar and spices. Its natural color is brownish-yell…
Those broad folded collars needed help to stand outHistorical ruffs were stiffened with starch, which allowed wider collars to retain their shape. Later example…
A repeated word links one clause to the nextAnadiplosis repeats the final word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. The repetition can…
The cue moves discs instead of rolling ballsNovuss, associated with Latvia and Estonia, is played on a square board with corner pockets. Players use cues…
His toilet paper carried his own watermarkJoseph Gayetty marketed toilet paper in the United States in 1857. It came as separate sheets rather than a r…
Cullen skink is a fish soup, not a lizard soupCullen skink is a Scottish soup made with smoked haddock, potatoes and onions. Its name uses a Scots word tha…
A fashionable skirt made long steps difficultThe hobble skirt, whose popularity peaked around 1908–1914, had a hem narrow enough to impede the wearer’s st…
The next phrase can reverse the first phrase’s patternChiasmus reverses grammatical structures across successive phrases or clauses. Related meanings can form a cr…
Hands replace rackets and a shuttle replaces the ballIndiaca is played across a net using the hands to strike a large feathered shuttle. Its heavier base and feat…
A clockmaker used wooden mechanismsJohn Harrison brought a joiner’s skills to clockmaking. His early clocks used wooden movements made with mate…
This pudding belongs beside ham, not after dinnerPease pudding is a savory dish made from boiled legumes, typically split yellow peas. Common in northeast Eng…
A hidden frame shaped the back of a skirtA bustle was a padded support or wire frame worn behind the waist under a nineteenth-century dress. It suppor…
Not bad can mean considerably better than mediocreLitotes can affirm a positive point through a negative expression. English not bad may mean mediocre or excel…
Three teams share one very large ballKin-Ball originated in Canada and uses a ball about 1.2 metres across. Three teams participate in a match, an…
His waterproof fabric hid its useful layer insideCharles Macintosh’s waterproof fabric bonded two layers of cloth with natural rubber. The useful barrier lay…
Tomato preserves have a long printed historyTomato jam is a preserve made from tomatoes and sugar. An American recipe was published in 1840. Some sandwic…
Pointed shoes borrowed a seaside snack’s nameWinklepickers became associated with British rock-and-roll fans from the 1950s onward. Their sharply extended…
And can join parts of a single meaningHendiadys expresses one idea through two coordinated expressions joined by and, replacing a relationship such…
A shuttlecock game can rely on feet rather than handsIn Chinese jianzi, players keep a feathered shuttlecock from reaching the ground with body parts other than t…