All stories — Page 8

Every story in the Unbubly reading feed.

• The railway tested its baboon assistantIn 1881, South African railwayman James Wide bought Jack, a baboon, and trained him to operate signals under…
• The glowing sea tube is a crowd of animalsA pyrosome’s gelatinous tube is a colony of tiny tunicates, typically just millimetres long. Each filters sea…
• The proposed telegraph used snailsIn France in 1850, Benoit claimed that previously mated snails could communicate at a distance. His apparatus…
• Skedaddle means to leave in a hurrySkedaddle is an informal verb for moving or running away quickly. The lively sound accompanies a rapid depart…
• A shaded town sent sunshine down with mirrorsMountains block direct sunlight from Rjukan, Norway, during the darker part of the year. A project installed…
• The explorer also wrote about his catTrim was born aboard ship in 1799 and accompanied Matthew Flinders on voyages mapping Australia’s coast in 18…
• The lizard runs across water, brieflyBasilisks of Central and South America can run across water for short distances. Flaps between their toes enl…
• London had an underground railway for postLondon’s Post Office Railway opened in 1927, using small driverless trains to move mail between sorting offic…
• Koharubiyori is not a spring-weather termJapanese koharubiyori describes a mild, warm day in late autumn or winter. Koharu originally referred to the…
• The crater lakes change independentlyKelimutu in Indonesia has three crater lakes of differing colours. Their colours can change with volcanic gas…
• He made some of the mess he was rewarded for clearingBritish assistance dog Endal helped Allen Parton with shopping, laundry and handling ATM cards. Parton also r…
• The little mantis lookalike is not a mantisMantisflies have prey-catching forelegs resembling those of praying mantises. They belong to Neuroptera, the…
• The claimant could not speak the heir’s childhood languageIn 1866, an Australian butcher claimed to be Roger Tichborne, a missing British heir. Roger’s mother accepted…
• Callipygian describes beautifully shaped buttocksThe English adjective callipygian describes beautifully shaped buttocks. Its Greek roots refer to beauty and…
• Many residents share one high-rise in this Alaskan townMany residents of Whittier, Alaska, live in the 14-storey Begich Towers, completed in 1957. A tunnel connects…
• The distillery cat had a record near 29,000 miceTowser caught mice at Scotland’s Glenturret distillery from 1963 to 1987. Her Guinness-recognised total was 2…
• The gold-coloured beetle can turn reddish-brownCharidotella sexpunctata, native to the Americas, measures about 5–7 millimetres as an adult. Its mirror-like…
• A nineteenth-century machine sent signatures over wiresCaselli’s pantelegraph was an early facsimile device for sending handwriting and drawings over telegraph line…
• Omohayui means feeling bashful or awkwardJapanese omohayui means feeling bashful or awkward. It is written 面映ゆい, with characters associated with a fac…
• The last pupils left doll self-portraits in NagoroLife-size dolls populate fields and bus shelters in Nagoro, Tokushima, following a project begun by Tsukimi A…
• His captors doubted the parachute-free escapeIn March 1944, RAF airman Nicholas Alkemade jumped from a burning bomber without a usable parachute. Trees an…
• Dragon millipedes have colour, spines and chemical defencesSoutheast Asian Desmoxytes millipedes include brightly coloured, spiny species, reaching roughly three centim…
• The Egg War involved gunfire, not thrown eggsIn 1863, competing collectors fought over seabird eggs on California’s Farallon Islands. On 4 June, an attemp…
• Misprision has more than one route to its meaningsEnglish misprision can mean misunderstanding or misinterpretation. It can also mean contempt or failure to re…
• Rooms surround excavated pits in MatmataSome traditional homes in Matmata, Tunisia, begin with a large pit. Rooms are excavated sideways around its p…
• The mail-train dog needed a jacket for his souvenirsIn the late nineteenth century, Owney travelled with mail bags and became a favourite of American postal work…
• The octopus hides six arms to resemble a sea snakeThe mimic octopus alters shape and behaviour as well as colour. To resemble a sea snake, it hides six arms an…
• A Sunday dust storm darkened the plainsOn 14 April 1935, a severe dust storm swept the American plains. Known as Black Sunday, it forced people to s…
• Clinomania names an excessive wish to remain in bedThe English noun clinomania describes an excessive desire to remain in bed. The definition concerns wanting t…
• Wooden boats connect Ganvie’s lake settlementGanvie lies on Lake Nokoué in Benin. Wooden boats provide transport to and from the village, while fishing an…
• The returning dog appeared as himself on screenBobbie disappeared during his owners’ visit to Indiana in August 1923. He returned to their Oregon home in Fe…
• These salamanders breathe through skin and mouth tissuesHydromantes salamanders live in California’s mountains and belong to a lungless family. They breathe through…
• The shipment arrived with more camels than it began withIn 1855, Congress funded an experiment using camels for US military transport. A team acquired 33 animals aro…
• Classical tsutomete can mean early morningModern Japanese tsutomete can mean deliberately or as much as possible. In classical Japanese, the same sound…
• The blue town does not have one agreed explanationChefchaouen’s old town in Morocco is known for blue-and-white walls and houses. Explanations offered for the…
• Entering a country’s waters did not count as visiting itGraham Hughes travelled to every country using public surface transport. Under the record’s rules, entering t…
• Eight legs do not mean eight walking legsAmblypygids are arachnids distinct from true spiders. Their elongated first pair of legs serves as sensory fe…
• The gold boxes reached Paris with lead insideOn 15 May 1855, gold bound for France was stolen from a train in England and replaced with lead. The boxes co…
• Shinonome describes daybreak, not a type of cloudJapanese shinonome refers to daybreak, when the eastern sky begins to brighten. Its written form, 東雲, contain…
• Demolished buildings contributed to a new villageClough Williams-Ellis built Portmeirion in Wales between 1925 and 1975. Its Mediterranean-inspired setting in…
• The bedroom intrusion happened; the long conversation is disputedMichael Fagan entered the Queen’s bedroom at Buckingham Palace on 9 July 1982. Early reports described a prol…
• A camel spider may be following your shadowSolifuges are arachnids distinct from true spiders and scorpions. Stories describe them pursuing people, but…
• Fuel for a 1907 motoring race travelled by camelThe 1907 Peking-to-Paris race relied on fuel stations arranged along its route. Camels carried supplies ahead…
• Namaji can be written with the single character 憖Japanese namaji can describe doing something despite poor prospects, or being incomplete and half-hearted. Th…
• A canal village later added a cycle pathThe old part of Giethoorn in the Netherlands originally had no roads, with transport using canals. A cycle pa…
• Around thirty thousand fans followed a dressed-up squirrelTommy Tucker became an American celebrity in the 1940s, appearing before children and at war-bond events in s…
• A male babirusa’s upper tusks grow through its snoutMale babirusas from Indonesian islands have upper canine tusks that penetrate the skin of the snout and curve…
• The sunken battleship stood bow-down in the seabedHMS Victoria sank after colliding with another British ship during manoeuvres off Lebanon in 1893, with heavy…
• Cacoethes can name a compulsion or maniaThe English noun cacoethes means a compulsion or mania. It gives an unfamiliar name to an overpowering urge o…
• Tokyo includes an island with a volcano inside its volcanic basinAogashima, a volcanic island in the Izu chain, belongs to Tokyo. Inside its caldera stands a smaller volcanic…
• Alfa and Beto carried a travelling libraryIn the late 1990s, Colombian teacher Luis Soriano began visiting rural communities with a library of seventy…
• A Toba Aquarium isopod became famous for refusing foodGiant isopods are adapted to food scarcity in the deep sea. A captive animal known as No. 1 at Japan’s Toba A…
• Planted gems made an American diamond field look genuineIn 1872, two men persuaded investors that they had found a rich American gem deposit. They had actually plant…
• Serein names light rain from a clear sky after sunsetThe English noun serein refers to light rainfall from a cloudless sky after sunset. The dictionary lists it a…
• The precarious-looking rock is covered with gold leafAt Kyaiktiyo in Myanmar, a small pagoda stands on a large boulder perched at a cliff’s edge. Gold leaf gives…
• The owner built an underground hall but never hosted a dance thereThe fifth Duke of Portland had rooms and tunnels built beneath his English estate in the nineteenth century.…
• Phronima turns another animal into a moving home for its youngFemale Phronima amphipods hollow out gelatinous salps and lay eggs inside the remaining barrel. They propel i…
• Disaster relief led to a Christmas gift across the borderBoston sent relief after the 1917 Halifax harbour explosion in Canada. Halifax sent a Christmas tree in thank…
• Kataharaitai can also express embarrassment or discomfortJapanese kataharaitai can dismiss someone’s behaviour as ridiculous. The dictionary also gives senses of feel…
• The rounded boulders began inside seafloor mudNew Zealand’s Moeraki Boulders are large, rounded concretions. Minerals cemented marine mud into these masses…
• The cat toured town while his owner was at workIn 2009, Casper’s owner in Plymouth, England, discovered that her cat was riding buses. Drivers described him…
• The skeleton flower’s white petals turn transparent when wetDiphylleia grayi, found in Japan and other mountain habitats, has white flowers whose petals become transpare…
• Edo’s recovery changed the streets as well as replacing homesThe Great Fire of Meireki in 1657 destroyed much of Edo and the castle’s main keep. Reconstruction widened st…
• Classical akugaru can mean more than admirationClassical Japanese akugaru can mean wandering about, becoming absent-minded or having one’s heart move away.…
• Red-and-white threads mark the arrival of springMărțișor is a spring tradition in Romania and Moldova involving intertwined red-and-white threads and a small…
• Fido was present when his monument was unveiledFido became known in Italy for continuing to wait at a bus stop after his owner died during the war. In 1957,…
• Hairlike structures on this marine worm show shifting coloursAphrodita aculeata, called the sea mouse, is a polychaete worm of the North Atlantic and nearby seas. Its hai…
• The forces landing on Kiska found no Japanese garrisonAmerican and Canadian forces landed on Kiska in the Aleutians in August 1943, after the Japanese garrison had…
• Snickersnee is an old word for a swordlike knifeThe dated English noun snickersnee refers to a large, swordlike knife, particularly one used as a weapon. An…
• Land diving is a Vanuatu ritual tied to the yam harvestIn southern Pentecost Island, Vanuatu, men perform land diving from wooden towers with vines attached to thei…
• Old comrades confirmed the veteran’s identity during a pension inquiryAlbert Cashier served in the American Civil War and continued living as a man after leaving the army. When hi…
• River ice can turn like an enormous round recordIn January 2019, an ice disc roughly 91 metres wide appeared on a river in Westbrook, Maine. Slowly rotating…
• A false report of Napoleon’s death moved London’s marketIn February 1814, a man claiming to be an officer arrived in Dover with news that Napoleon had died. As the s…
• 無聊 describes boredom, not a price of zeroThe Japanese word 無聊 is read buryō and means boredom. It is a different word from 無料, muryō, meaning free of…
• Small candlelit floats mark a Thai full-moon festivalDuring Thailand’s Loy Krathong, decorated little floats are launched on rivers, canals or ponds. Traditional…
• A survivor described Titanic’s sinking on Titanic-headed paperAfter surviving Titanic in 1912, Japanese passenger Masabumi Hosono wrote an account in Japanese aboard the r…
• A supposedly extinct stick insect survived on an offshore rockThe Lord Howe Island stick insect was thought extinct by around 1920. In 2001, living insects were found on n…
• Men protesting tolls adopted the name Rebecca’s DaughtersBetween 1839 and 1843, farmers and agricultural workers in Wales protested burdens including road tolls. Some…
• An amanuensis takes dictation or copies manuscriptsAn amanuensis is a person employed to take dictation or copy manuscripts. The English word can also refer to…
• Junkanoo rhythms include drums and cowbellsJunkanoo is a Caribbean festival involving masking, costumes, drumming, dance and parades. It is practiced in…
• The navy enlisted a dog to solve his train-fare problemJust Nuisance, a Great Dane in Simon’s Town, South Africa, followed sailors onto trains. When the railway obj…
• The Andes’ green mounds are flowering plants, not mossYareta forms low, rounded green cushions in the high Andes. It may resemble a mound of moss, but it is a flow…
• In Britain, 2 September 1752 was followed by 14 SeptemberWhen Britain changed calendars in 1752, Wednesday 2 September was followed by Thursday 14 September. Eleven d…
• Afflatus links inspiration with the idea of breathingAfflatus names a sudden creative impulse or inspiration, often associated with divine influence. The English…
• Nepal’s Biska festival follows a solar calendarCelebrated in April around Bhaktapur and Thimi, Biska includes different local traditions. Bhaktapur has a de…
• The ship’s dog had a pass for Scottish busesDuring the Second World War, Bamse lived with a Norwegian ship’s crew stationed in Scotland. The sailors boug…
• An umbrella-shaped tree produces resin called dragon’s bloodDracaena cinnabari grows in Yemen’s Socotra archipelago and forms a dense, umbrella-shaped crown. Its red res…
• An attack on a harbour acquired a very personal nicknameIn 1587, Francis Drake’s fleet raided Cádiz in Spain, destroying or capturing ships and supplies. The expedit…
• Gobemouche describes a gullible person, with a fly in its ancestryIn English, a gobemouche is a naive or gullible person. The word was borrowed from French, with elements conn…
• A Philippine festival turns giant Christmas lanterns into competitorsSan Fernando in the Philippines hosts a competition of giant parol lanterns. Electricity was introduced to th…
• A wine-cellar excavation grew into decades of tunnellingWilliam Lyttle began digging a wine cellar beneath his London home. From the 1960s into the 2000s, the work e…
• Surinam toad young develop in pockets on their mother’s backThe South American frog Pipa pipa carries developing eggs within pockets in the female’s back skin. The young…
• Road improvements exposed an ancient Vancouver village siteMarpole Midden in Vancouver, Canada, occupies the site of an ancient Musqueam village and burial ground. Road…
• Apanthropy names a dislike of company and a love of solitudeApanthropy is an English noun for disliking human company and loving solitude. It describes a preference for…
• Kerala’s tiger dance puts the stripes on human performersPulikali, meaning tiger dance, is a folk performance from Kerala, India. During Onam and other celebrations,…
• An animal painter sought police permission to wear trousersNineteenth-century French painter Rosa Bonheur visited livestock markets to study animals. She preferred trou…
• A tiny spider’s abdomen can look like a spiny shieldGasteracantha cancriformis is an orb-weaving spider found in the Americas. Females have broad abdomens with s…
• Widespread sheep escapes were reported in England in 1888On the night of 3 November 1888, many sheep reportedly escaped enclosures across Oxfordshire, England. The ne…
• Classical Japanese yoshinashi can mean unrelated or trivialThe classical Japanese adjective yoshinashi is written 由無し. Its meanings include unrelated and trivial or uni…
• A Lao and Thai festival sends rockets into the skyBun Bang Fai is celebrated around the start of the wet season in Laos and northeastern Thailand. Music, dance…
• An unopened chute and a snowy slopeIn January 1942, Soviet airman Ivan Chisov bailed out of an attacked bomber. He lost consciousness before ope…
• Keeping the useful parts of lunchElysia chlorotica, a green sea slug found along North American coasts, retains chloroplasts from the algae it…
• The Battle of the ShirtsScottish clans fought near Loch Lochy in 1544. Tradition explains the name Battle of the Shirts by saying the…
• A name for learning laterThe rare noun opsimath describes someone who learns late in life. Its roots lead to Ancient Greek words conne…
• A jury, a marriage and some baconThe Dunmow flitch tradition in England rewards couples who swear they have not regretted their marriage for a…
• Rescued on a railway station floorIn January 1943, Alan Magee was thrown from a damaged American bomber over France with an unusable parachute.…
• Those ears belong to an octopusGrimpoteuthis octopuses are nicknamed dumbo octopuses. The conspicuous pair of flaps above their eyes are fin…
• War scares at home, a toast on the groundIn 1898, French and British-Egyptian forces met at Fashoda, in present-day South Sudan. Their colonial rivalr…
• Shiorashii has more than one shadeJapanese shiorashii can suggest modest or obedient behaviour. Its dictionary entry also includes elegance, lo…
• Frightening faces, welcomed guestsOn Japan’s Oga Peninsula, namahage visit homes wearing masks and straw clothing. They admonish idleness or mi…
• A penguin and an unlikely favouriteIn 2017, Tobu Zoo in Japan displayed character cutouts from Kemono Friends. Humboldt penguin Grape-kun spent…
• The sea angel is a predatorClione limacina swims through cold Arctic and North Atlantic waters with winglike appendages. Adults mainly h…
• Social exclusion reached the CabinetBetween 1829 and 1831, John and Peggy Eaton faced exclusion from Washington social circles. Criticism of thei…
• Breakfast, dressed in a grand adjectiveJentacular means relating to breakfast, particularly an early meal just after rising. It derives from a Latin…
• A haircut before returning to the hillsIn Galicia, Spain, semi-feral horses living in the mountains are gathered into enclosures for Rapa das Bestas…
• Out of his enclosure, still at the zooIn 1985, San Diego Zoo orangutan Ken Allen repeatedly escaped from his enclosure. During escapes he strolled…
• A second pair of eyes on the wingsThe spiny flower mantis, Pseudocreobotra wahlbergi, comes from southern and eastern Africa. Adults may have g…
• The new city hall became a tentVancouver incorporated as a city in April 1886. On June 13, land-clearing fires spread and destroyed much of…
• Yukashi invites curiosityIn Classical Japanese, yukashi can mean that something arouses interest. The dictionary connects its origin w…
• Mud with a blessing behind itDuring Paantu on Japan’s Miyako Island, masked visitors spread sacred mud on people and houses. The practice…
• A rescued cat with a huge audienceSockington was found outside a Boston subway station in 2004. His owner later began posting from the cat’s im…
• A crab with living pom-pomsLybia tessellata is a small crab from the tropical Indo-Pacific. It carries a sea anemone in each claw, earni…
• A damaged home and a fleetA mob attacked British subject David Pacifico’s home in Athens in 1847. The unresolved compensation dispute b…
• A word for the winding routeAnfractuous is a rare adjective meaning winding or twisty. It can describe a literal shape or work figurative…
• An ox returns to life on stageBumba Meu Boi is a Brazilian performance tradition told through song and dance. Details vary by region, but a…
• The sergeant laid an eggFrancis Fagan acquired duck Siwash in a New Zealand raffle. In 1943 she became a US Marine unit’s mascot and…
• One squid, two very different eyesHistioteuthis heteropsis, the strawberry squid, starts life with similar eyes. Its left eye grows larger. Obs…
• Those cannonballs are decorationsMoscow’s bronze Tsar Cannon was cast in 1586. The large iron balls displayed in front of it were made in 1834…
• Susamaji need not sound impressiveModern susamajii can suggest intensity. Classical susamaji also carries meanings such as dreary, cold or lack…
• A noisy farewell to winterAt Kurentovanje in Ptuj, Slovenia, kurent figures appear in sheepskin costumes. Their noisy presence is tradi…
• Faith found her own way to moveFaith, a dog in the United States, was born with an impaired front limb and became known for walking on her t…
• A crustacean inside a sea starDendrogaster is a genus of crustaceans that parasitise the internal body cavity of sea stars. Members occur a…
• Salt taxation became a rebellionIn 1540, Perugia rebelled against a papal salt tax that challenged its existing exemption. Salt mattered for…
• A name for the unexpected rescueEucatastrophe is a term coined by J. R. R. Tolkien for a dramatic turn in a story that brings the protagonist…
• A burden with a purposeDuring Thaipusam, Tamil devotees carry kavadi burdens in devotion to Murugan. Offerings can include pots of m…
• Feet made for one particular catOscar, a cat from Jersey, lost both hind paws in a 2009 accident. Veterinary and engineering work produced pr…
• A skull shaped like a boomerangDiplocaulus was an amphibian genus that lived from the Late Carboniferous into the Permian. Its skull extende…
• A city fire interrupted the starsThe 1827 fire in Turku, Finland, interrupted astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander’s work at the hilltop ob…
• Aramahoshi is a complete wordThe Classical Japanese adjective aramahoshi means desirable or pleasing. The dictionary explains it as ari co…
• Fresh cloth and a renewed family gatheringIn Madagascar’s famadihana tradition, families bring ancestors’ remains from a family tomb, wrap them in fres…
• The promoted penguin has successorsNils Olav at Edinburgh Zoo is a mascot of Norway’s King’s Guard. The name and associated ranks have passed th…
• An age count revised to 507Ming was an ocean quahog collected off Iceland in 2006. Its shell growth lines initially suggested 405 years,…
• An old storm became an age questionA destructive storm struck Ireland on January 6, 1839. After old-age pensions were introduced, some applicant…
• A long adjective for the day before yesterdayNudiustertian means relating to the day before yesterday, or very recent. Wiktionary marks it as rare and obs…
• Venice’s symbolic marriageAt Venice’s Festa della Sensa, the mayor takes the historic role of the doge and throws a ring into the lagoo…
• A cat needed a mail officerSimon, the cat aboard HMS Amethyst, resumed catching rats after recovering from injuries in the 1949 Yangtze…
• A balloon-like sac from a nostrilAdult male hooded seals have an inflatable bladder on the head and can also inflate a balloon-like membrane f…
• Rowing to a governor’s inaugurationOn January 10, 1862, Leland Stanford travelled by rowboat to his inauguration building in Sacramento. Severe…
• Modokashi could express disapprovalThe Classical Japanese adjective modokashi means feeling inclined to criticise, or being displeased. Wiktiona…
• June means the winter season hereCusco’s Inti Raymi on June 24 presents a reconstruction of rituals associated with the Inca sun god. In the S…
• A wheatfield near Wall StreetIn 1982, artist Agnes Denes planted wheat on a landfill in lower Manhattan near Wall Street. The field needed…
• A frog with a see-through bellySome members of the glass-frog family have transparent or translucent abdominal skin. Internal organs, includ…
• Not riding, so others could workThe 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott challenged a policy excluding Black and South Asian workers from bus-crew jobs.…
• The place an animal cannot scratchAcnestis is a zoological term for a patch of an animal’s skin that it cannot reach to scratch, usually betwee…
• Last place still receives a wishNaadam in Mongolia features horse racing, wrestling and archery. In the race for two-year-old horses, the las…
• A swimsuit fitting at 56 led to bodybuildingErnestine Shepherd began exercising with her sister after a swimsuit fitting at age 56. She went on to compet…
• Eyes and teeth—or a caterpillar pattern?Mature Phyllodes imperialis caterpillars have large eyespots and white markings between and below them that r…
• The firefighting water froze againDuring New York’s fire of December 16, 1835, severe cold had frozen major water sources. Firefighters cut thr…
• Anagachi once described someone’s mannerModern Japanese anagachi appears with negatives to mean not necessarily. The Classical Japanese adjective ana…
• A dance named for its local stepsKalibo’s Ati-Atihan celebration honours the Santo Niño, with processions, costumed dancers and marching bands…
• A life recorded in five-minute intervalsRobert Shields recorded his everyday life in five-minute intervals from 1972 to 1997. Ordinary tasks such as…
• A turtle without a shell? It is a frogWestern Australia’s turtle frog has a small head, short limbs and a rounded body. Its name comes from its res…
• Old-looking paper did not make it genuineThe salamander letter sparked debate over early Latter Day Saint history in the 1980s. Some experts accepted…
• A rare word about raritySelcouth can mean strange, unfamiliar, marvellous or wondrous. Now rare, it comes from Old English elements a…
• A sweeping roof and a name about sittingTongkonan are ancestral houses of the Torajan people in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi. Their large upswept roofs…
• A throne from discarded materialsJames Hampton worked as a janitor while building a religious assemblage in a rented Washington garage. Over 1…
• Even the notches resemble a decaying leafMadagascar’s Uroplatus phantasticus gecko has a flattened, leaf-like tail. Some individuals have notches that…
• Opera by telephone in 1890Paris’s théâtrophone became a service in 1890, sending theatre and opera performances over telephone connecti…
• Asamashi could express astonishmentClassical Japanese asamashi can mean astonishing or unexpected, alongside meanings such as lamentable and uns…
• Dressed-up men dance before women judgesAt the Wodaabe Guérewol in Niger, young men wear elaborate adornments and face paint, then sing and dance in…
• The praised painter was a chimpanzeeIn 1964, a Swedish journalist exhibited four paintings by Peter, a zoo chimpanzee, under an invented French a…
• The red lips are not petalsPalicourea elata grows in Central and South American rainforests. Its conspicuous red, lip-shaped structures…
• A novelist’s revenge became an art hoaxIn 1924, American writer Paul Jordan-Smith devised a fake art movement after his wife’s paintings received a…
• Itadzura could describe being idleIn Classical Japanese, itadzura could mean useless, idle or empty. Modern Japanese itazura often suggests mis…
• Reindeer antlers on an all-day danceEach September, dancers in England’s Abbots Bromley carry reindeer antlers around the parish. Six carry horns…
• Firefighters topped up a duck’s puddleTrevor, a mallard, appeared on Niue in 2018. On an island without surface fresh water, he lived in a roadside…
• A sea cucumber with a jellyfish-like veilPelagothuria natatrix is a sea cucumber with an umbrella-like swimming structure. Its translucent body has pa…
• A town resisted easier through travelIn 1853, a plan to standardize railway gauges near Erie, Pennsylvania, triggered a conflict. Transfers brough…
• A grand-sounding name for empty braggingFanfaronade can mean empty, assertive boasting, or a loud and showy display or celebration. Borrowed from Fre…
• Olive oil before the wrestling beginsKırkpınar, held near Edirne in Turkey, is an oil-wrestling tournament. Competitors wear knee-length leather t…
• Winter ice for a summer drinkDorothy Molter made root beer for canoeists visiting her home on Minnesota’s Knife Lake. Without electricity,…
• Rainbow colours and emitted light are differentThe Arctic comb jelly Mertensia ovum shows rainbow colours when light interacts with its moving rows of cilia…
• A street called the fire’s endHamburg’s great fire began in May 1842. After three days and nights, a change in wind and the remaining old c…
• A commotion or a babbling streamBrabble has dated uses for making a clamorous noise or for a brawl or commotion. As a verb, it can also descr…
• Spoons and bowls announce a request for treatsIran’s Chaharshanbe Suri takes place before Nowruz. One custom involves wearing disguises, visiting neighbour…
• A nine-year-old’s spelling reached printDaisy Ashford wrote a novella about English upper-class society when she was nine. Published in 1919, it pres…
• Two tentacles on a snake’s snoutThe tentacled snake lives in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Its two snout tentacles have a demonstrated mech…
• A stone device selected jurorsAncient Athens used the kleroterion to select citizens for offices and juries. Identification tokens fitted i…
• There is a name for impractical ingenuityChindōgu describes ingenious everyday gadgets that appear to solve a problem but may create others. Kenji Kaw…
• Sixteen trees become shrine pillarsAt Nagano’s Suwa Grand Shrine, the Onbashira Festival brings sixteen selected trees down from the mountains a…
• An undertaker helped automate telephone callsAlmon Brown Strowger worked as an undertaker before developing an automatic telephone exchange, patented in 1…
• A marsupial without a nursery pouchAustralia’s numbat is a marsupial that eats mainly termites. Females have no pouch: newborns attach to the te…
• Brick buildings replaced a wooden commercial quarterBucharest’s 1847 fire destroyed much of its central commercial district. Small, crowded wooden buildings were…
• Sozoro is not only about distractionJapanese sozoro can describe an unsettled mind, but also a state without a clear reason. The expression sozor…
• Combat movements without an actual fightBolivia’s Tinku includes a ritual combat tradition and a festive dance inspired by it. Dancers use combat-lik…
• Road signs and drinks crates became artNew Zealand-born Australian artist Rosalie Gascoigne worked with found materials, including old road signs an…
• A lanternfly that does not glowFulgora laternaria lives in tropical forests of Mexico, Central America and South America. Its head has a pea…
• A successful penny service was taken overLondon’s Penny Post began in 1680, delivering within the city and nearby suburbs for a flat penny. Its succes…
• A stomach rumble or a wobbling walkIn dialectal English, wamble can name a stomach rumble or an unsteady walk. As a verb it can mean to wobble o…
• A towering structure is carried to the seaIn Pariaman, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Tabuik is a Muharram remembrance tradition. Tall ceremonial structures…