All stories — Page 9

Every story in the Unbubly reading feed.

• She went for a walk—and covered nearly 3,500 kmIn 1955, 67-year-old Emma Gatewood told her grown children she was going for a walk. She completed the Appala…
• A flash may bring in a larger predatorThe deep-sea jellyfish Atolla wyvillei flashes when attacked. This display is thought to work like a burglar…
• Their utopia still needed farming lessonsIn 1794, British poets Coleridge and Southey planned an egalitarian community in America. They imagined only…
• Someone who never laughs can be an agelastAgelast is a rare English noun for a person who never laughs, especially at jokes. It comes from a Greek term…
• Bali marks a new year with silenceNyepi is Bali’s day of silence for the new year. For a day from morning until the following morning, people r…
• Paintings in a drugstore led to a solo exhibitionIn 1938, collector Louis Caldor spotted paintings in a drugstore window in Hoosick Falls, New York. Their mak…
• Bright red lips on a fish that walksThe red-lipped batfish lives around the Galápagos Islands. Its red lips are striking, but so is its movement:…
• About 55 km of pipes carried the city’s documentsPrague’s pneumatic post opened to the public in 1889. Its underground network extended to roughly 55 km, carr…
• Adashi can mean other or differentThe classical Japanese adjective adashi means other or different and can be written 他し or 異し. An unusual gram…
• The rider’s horse is a wooden costumeIn Kraków, Poland, Lajkonik parades through the city with a wooden hobby horse fastened around his waist. Wea…
• It cost 25 cents to look at her paintingsLouisiana artist Clementine Hunter displayed a sign outside her cabin asking 25 cents to view her work. She p…
• That apparent dead leaf may be a mothUropyia meticulodina occurs in Japan, Taiwan and parts of China. Its adult form mimics a dead leaf, with a wi…
• Before railway mania came canal maniaIn Britain in the 1790s, canal building attracted a rush of investment and new proposals. Successful waterway…
• A quarrel over words can be logomachyLogomachy can mean a dispute about the meanings of words, or a conflict fought entirely with words.
• A masked carnival welcomes the season’s changeBusójárás is a carnival tradition in Mohács, Hungary. Masked participants join music, dancing and parades. On…
• Family outings had to fit the videotapeMarion Stokes recorded television news for decades in the United States. Family outings were arranged around…
• A giraffe weevil puts its neck to workMadagascar’s giraffe weevil, Trachelophorus giraffa, has a black body, red wing covers and an elongated neck.…
• Even barbers set up on the frozen ThamesAt London’s 1608 frost fair, stalls and tents occupied the frozen River Thames. Barbers, pubs, fruit sellers…
• Collywobbles can trouble the stomach or the nervesIn informal, chiefly humorous British English, the collywobbles can mean an upset stomach. By extension, it c…
• A memorial festival also makes room for satireGai Jatra is a Newar festival in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley honouring relatives who died during the previous ye…
• His room held a novel of more than 15,000 pagesHenry Darger worked in hospitals in Chicago and kept his creative work private for decades. When he moved to…
• A moth larva takes on a snake-like faceThe moth Hemeroplanes triptolemus occurs in Central America and beyond. Its caterpillar can expand the front…
• Gin was encouraged, then repeatedly restrictedIn early eighteenth-century Britain, especially London, gin consumption rose rapidly. Policies encouraging do…
• An older word could also mean spitefulClassical Japanese ayaniku could describe inconvenient circumstances, spitefulness, or something happening co…
• A river ceremony concludes the great processionKandy’s Esala Perahera in Sri Lanka honours the Sacred Tooth Relic. Its processions include drummers, dancers…
• He teaches mobility using echoesAmerican Daniel Kish is a blind expert in human echolocation. He founded an organization in 2000 and has taug…
• A blue colony drifts with its own little sailVelella floats at the ocean surface with a small rigid sail that catches the wind. What looks like one blue a…
• A machine for stockings dates to 1589William Lee invented the stocking frame in England in 1589. It imitated hand-knitting movements. Early versio…
• An argument can be an argle-bargleArgle-bargle is English slang for a verbal argument and can also be used as a verb meaning to argue. The expr…
• To pass, they lifted a vehicle off the railsCambodia’s norry was a simple rail vehicle, often fitted with bamboo decking. When two met on a single track,…
• A cook survived 60 hours inside a sunken boatIn 2013, a tugboat sank off Nigeria. Cook Harrison Okene survived for about 60 hours in an air pocket inside…
• Its round fruit turns blue insideNative to Central and South America, the cannonball tree bears round fruit with woody shells, reaching about…
• An exhausted farm became a “desert” attractionA Maine farm lost its topsoil through nineteenth-century farming and sheep overgrazing, exposing sand underne…
• Even scribal mistakes had a demon’s nameIn Christian tradition, Titivillus was said to collect scribes’ mistakes and words omitted during worship. He…
• Red and blue bull associations compete in spectacleAt Brazil’s Parintins Folklore Festival, Garantido in red and white and Caprichoso in blue and white compete…
• An artist fills damaged walls with LegoJan Vormann’s Dispatchwork uses colourful Lego bricks to fill gaps in urban walls. A dull damaged patch becom…
• Those shining drops are sticky trapsSundews capture and digest insects with sticky secretions from glands on their leaves. The glistening drops r…
• An explosion flattened a vast Siberian forestOn 30 June 1908, the Tunguska explosion struck Siberia, flattening roughly 2,150 square kilometres of forest.…
• Usobuku once also meant slipping out unseenJapanese usobuku can mean boasting or pretending not to know. Older uses include whistling, reciting poetry,…
• At Holi, people splash colour on one anotherHoli is a Hindu festival celebrated in India and Nepal, associated with spring, love and the victory of good…
• A farmer restored land with improved traditional pitsBurkinabé farmer Yacouba Sawadogo improved traditional zaï planting pits to restore damaged soils. Manure add…
• The rainbow grasshopper cannot flyNorth America’s rainbow grasshopper has striking red, yellow and pale-green markings against a largely black…
• Some schools marked children for speaking WelshMainly in the nineteenth century, some Welsh schools used a token, often wooden, to mark children heard speak…
• A little lie can have a rather long nameTarradiddle means a small fib, or silly talk and writing. It can also be spelled taradiddle. Its four-syllabl…
• Priests carry a wrapped sacred object on their headsTimkat celebrates Jesus’ baptism in Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox traditions. A sacred tabot is wrapped in…
• They escaped slavery posing as owner and servantIn 1848, Ellen and William Craft escaped slavery in the United States by train and boat. Ellen posed as a whi…
• A rocky-looking exterior hides a filter feederPiure, Pyura chilensis, is a tunicate found along Chilean and Peruvian shores. It resembles a mass of organs…
• Even fire and furs could not stop her shiveringEurope suffered an exceptionally cold winter in 1708–1709. The Duchess of Orléans described shivering and bar…
• The same kanji can be read hinemosuJapanese 終日 can be read hinemosu as well as shūjitsu. Hinemosu means throughout the day, from morning to even…
• An offer and refusal can be part of a longer exchangeIranian taarof is a form of etiquette expressing deference. In hospitality, offers and polite refusals can be…
• Underwater observations travelled up a telephone lineIn the 1930s, William Beebe and Otis Barton descended in a steel Bathysphere off Bermuda. A cable lowered the…
• Silky ice strands can grow from rotting woodFine hairlike ice can form on damp decaying wood in humid conditions just below freezing. The strands are ice…
• An experimental railway used tunnel air in 1864An experimental railway operated in London’s Crystal Palace Park in 1864. A large bristle collar around the c…
• Kettai can sound strange—or mean forming a unitIn Japan’s Kinki dialect, kettai describes something odd. A separate word with the same sound, written 結隊, me…
• A feast can demonstrate wealth through giftsPotlatches among Indigenous peoples of North America’s Pacific Northwest Coast involve hosts distributing gif…
• A family carer became a collector of fishMary Kingsley cared for her family and read books in her father’s library. After her parents died, she travel…
• Dry weather changes this plant’s shapeSelaginella lepidophylla grows in the Chihuahuan Desert of the United States and Mexico. As it dries, its ste…
• A fleet bound for the Far East fired on British fishermenDuring the Russo-Japanese War in October 1904, a Russian fleet heading east mistook British fishing trawlers…
• There is a word for the learned talker at dinnerA deipnosophist is skilled in conversation at the dinner table, especially learned conversation. The word doe…
• A whaling celebration includes a blanket tossNalukataq is an Iñupiat spring-whaling celebration in northern Alaska. Alongside sharing food, participants h…
• A rhinoceros inspired wigs in eighteenth-century ParisClara, an Indian rhinoceros, arrived in Rotterdam in 1741 and was exhibited across Europe. In Paris in 1749 s…
• A rat king is a group with tangled tailsA rat king is a group of rodents whose tails are tangled together. A German museum holds a 32-rat specimen re…
• Defoe reported windmills catching fire in fierce windA major storm struck England and nearby areas in 1703. Daniel Defoe published an account the following year.…
• Subekaraku traditionally expresses what ought to be doneThe Japanese word subekaraku traditionally accompanies an obligation or recommendation, expressing that somet…
• A festival’s name also evokes exchanging helpAt Oaxaca’s Guelaguetza in Mexico, Indigenous communities present regional dress, dance and music. Its name c…
• A street crossing became news of successIn 1928, Morris Frank trained with guide dog Buddy in Switzerland and returned to New York. He crossed busy s…
• This burrowing frog also eats below the surfaceThe purple frog of India’s Western Ghats has a rounded body and pointed snout. It spends much of its life und…
• Onion speculation left the contents worth less than their containerIn 1950s Chicago, two traders bought large quantities of onions and onion futures, then flooded the market. P…
• Aramashi also has a sense concerned with the futureThe Japanese word aramashi commonly suggests an outline or summary. A dictionary also records the sense of th…
• A departure can be marked by a thread around the wristBaci ceremonies in Laos and nearby regions mark occasions such as births, marriages, departures and returns.…
• A dressmaker built containers for studying sea lifeJeanne Villepreux-Power worked in sewing and embroidery in Paris, including a royal wedding gown. After movin…
• A leaflike turtle draws fish into its mouthThe mata mata is a South American freshwater turtle with a flattened triangular head and skin flaps. Its shel…
• A harbour celebration ended in a disturbanceIn 1809, a feast marked completion of Bristol’s harbour works, with about a thousand workers invited. Roast o…
• Katajikenai can also express shameThe Japanese word katajikenai may sound like an expression of gratitude. A dictionary also records senses of…
• A masked dance can also offer social commentaryGule Wamkulu is a Chewa masked-dance tradition in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique. Dancers portray animals, peo…
• After a forgery conviction, he sold openly labelled imitationsIn 1985, John Myatt advertised paintings that imitated famous artists while openly describing them as copies.…
• This giant hermit-crab relative gives up its borrowed shellCoconut crabs inhabit islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans. Young ones use empty gastropod shells, like o…
• A rivalry between actors became a deadly theatre riotIn May 1849, rivalry involving American actor Edwin Forrest and British actor William Charles Macready helped…
• One word covers a boastful person and a leaping gameCockalorum can mean a self-important person of little standing who makes empty boasts. A dictionary also reco…
• Songkran also includes gently pouring water over elders’ handsThailand’s traditional New Year festival, Songkran, is celebrated in April and is known for water fights. Cus…
• He hired people to demonstrate shopping cartsSylvan Goldman introduced shopping carts at his Oklahoma City supermarkets in 1937. Working with a mechanic,…
• Its back spines were once mistaken for walking legsHallucigenia was a Cambrian animal with legs and spines on its back. A 1977 reconstruction treated the spines…
• Young newspaper sellers won a buyback agreementIn 1899, young newspaper sellers in New York stopped selling two publishers’ papers in protest at wholesale p…
• Choosing side roads has its own English verbShunpike is a noun for a side road or route. As a verb, it means travelling by side roads to avoid toll roads…
• A burning snowman is used to foretell summer weatherAt Zurich’s spring festival Sechseläuten, an effigy called the Böögg represents winter and is burned. Its hea…
• A dyer’s knowledge helped him make identity papersAs a young man in France, Adolfo Kaminsky worked in a dye shop and became interested in colour chemistry. Dur…
• The apparent spider is part of a snakeThis viper from western Iran and neighbouring areas has a swollen tail tip fringed by elongated scales that r…
• Bicycle popularity drew in too many manufacturersIn the 1890s, safety bicycles and pneumatic tyres helped drive a cycling craze. In the United States, sales g…
• Futsutsuka also has a sense of being thick and sturdyThe Japanese word futsutsuka is associated with shortcomings or lack of refinement. A dictionary also records…
• Rice offerings can be made into the air or an empty fieldPchum Ben is a Cambodian religious festival honouring deceased relatives. Offerings to monks are understood t…
• She promoted an unfamiliar fruit with a kiwi-filled lunchFrieda Caplan began selling kiwifruit in the United States in 1962, when it was unfamiliar to many buyers. Sa…
• A small sea animal builds a house over a metre acrossGiant larvaceans in the genus Bathochordaeus are around 3–10 centimetres long, but their mucus houses can exc…
• The Forty Elephants were a women’s theft gangIn late nineteenth- and twentieth-century London, a women’s crime group was known as the Forty Elephants. It…
• Atara can be written with two unexpected kanjiThe Japanese word atara means regrettably or unfortunately and can be written 可惜. The dictionary also records…
• A Dragon King legend became a five-person danceKorea’s Cheoyongmu is a masked dance based on the legend of Cheoyong, described as a son of the Dragon King o…
• Her walls, doors and stove became part of a museum exhibitCanadian artist Maud Lewis worked in a small home and painted far beyond boards. She decorated walls, doors,…
• Five eyes and a claw-ended appendage made an unusual headOpabinia, known from Canada’s Burgess Shale, lived during the Cambrian period. Its head had five eyes and a f…
• A missing shipment put newspaper printers in charge of stampsIn 1856, an expected stamp shipment failed to reach British Guiana. The postmaster authorised local newspaper…
• An obsolete verb describes the appearance of workingFudgel is an English verb for giving the impression of working while getting nothing done. Wiktionary marks i…
• Some house decorations at this festival can be eaten laterAt Lucban’s Pahiyas festival in the Philippines on May 15, houses are decorated with fruit, vegetables, farm…
• His secret sculpture garden survived a threat of demolitionIn his spare time, Nek Chand gathered demolition waste and built a sculpture garden in woodland in Chandigarh…
• A female octopus spreads a membrane when threatenedBlanket octopuses live in tropical and subtropical oceans. Adult females have long transparent webs between s…
• Protest letters carried the name of a fictional leaderDuring the Swing Riots of 1830, agricultural workers in England protested low wages, harsh conditions and mac…
• An old slang word can mean a blow or a decisive argumentWiktionary marks sockdolager as dated American slang. It can describe a powerful or finishing blow, but also…
• A Mongolian New Year greeting places younger arms below older onesDuring Mongolia’s lunar New Year, Tsagaan Sar, relatives visit one another. In the zolgokh greeting, younger…
• Two neighbours began picking up a beach’s accumulated rubbishIn October 2015, Mumbai lawyer Afroz Shah and his neighbour Harbansh Mathur started clearing rubbish from Ver…
• This mushroom grows its own lace-like skirtPhallus indusiatus develops a net-like structure hanging below its cap. Often called a skirt, the net can ext…
• A meeting about high prices turned into a warehouse attackIn February 1837, New Yorkers gathered to protest rising prices, especially flour. Rumours accused merchants…
• A word for greed is linked to a coastal place nameThe Japanese word akogi, written 阿漕, describes shameless or unscrupulously greedy conduct. Wiktionary connect…
• Homes, cars and diplomas are given in tiny versionsAt Alasitas in La Paz, Bolivia, people buy miniatures of houses, cars, phones and even university diplomas. G…
• Burrs caught in fur inspired a reusable fastenerAfter an outing with his dog, Swiss engineer George de Mestral examined the burdock burrs stuck to his clothi…
• Following other ants can turn into an endless circleSome army ants separated from their main foraging group lose the pheromone trail and begin following one anot…
• News of an approaching revolutionary force was falseIn June 1817, an armed rising took place around Pentrich in England. A report that a revolutionary force was…
• One word can name a nonsense-talker or the nonsense itselfBlatherskite can mean someone who talks freely but produces nonsense. Wiktionary also records a sense meaning…
• Children visit homes singing during a winter festivalAt Lohri, a winter festival associated with Punjab, children go from house to house singing and receiving tre…
• A Victorian cook proposed freezing ice cream with liquid nitrogenBritish cookery entrepreneur Agnes Marshall was known for frozen desserts and ran a school, wrote books and p…
• This slender-necked beetle has no eyes or flying wingsLeptodirus hochenwartii lives in caves in Slovenia, Croatia and parts of Italy. It has long legs and antennae…
• Theatre protesters brought in a coffin for higher pricesWhen London’s rebuilt Covent Garden theatre raised some admission prices in 1809, patrons protested during pe…
• Okogamashii can be written with an unfamiliar pair of charactersThe Japanese adjective okogamashii can describe presumptuous behaviour. Spellings include 烏滸がましい and 痴がましい. W…
• A town ceremony includes an Orange Man in the processionAt Hocktide in Hungerford, England, ceremonial Tutti Men visit properties around town. They carry poles decor…
• A drive-in experiment began with sheets between treesIn the early 1930s, Richard Hollingshead experimented with watching films from a car at his New Jersey home,…
• Those barrel-like hoops are an animal’s musclesDoliolids are small marine animals with barrel-shaped bodies, openings at both ends and circular muscle bands…
• A border-defence fort turned out to be in CanadaIn 1816 the United States began building a fort at the northern end of Lake Champlain. A new survey placed th…
• Appare can be written with the single character 遖The Japanese expression appare praises something admirable. Besides 天晴れ, Wiktionary records the single-charac…
• Padstow’s festival horses wear masks and black capesAt Padstow’s May Day festival in Cornwall, costumed hobby horses dance through town to drums and accordions.…
• An unfinished notebook became a signalling system for shipsIn nineteenth-century America, Martha Coston found an unfinished marine-signalling idea in her late husband’s…
• A parasitic vine grows towards its host’s airborne chemicalsDodder vines attach to other plants to obtain water and nutrients. A study reported in 2006 found that seedli…
• A peace settlement triggered violent protests in TokyoIn September 1905, opposition to the treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War brought protesters to Hibiya in Tok…
• Akudoi can describe flavours and colours tooThe Japanese adjective akudoi can mean excessively bad or unscrupulous. Wiktionary also records a sense for f…
• At this festival, portable shrines enter water and fireAt the Abare Festival in Ushitsu, Noto, large kiriko lantern floats parade through town. Portable mikoshi shr…
• A ten-year-old recalled a classroom film on a Thai beachDuring a family holiday in Phuket in 2004, British schoolgirl Tilly Smith noticed unusual behaviour in the se…
• The location of this fossil’s tooth spiral was long debatedHelicoprion was a shark-like cartilaginous fish living roughly 290–270 million years ago. Its spiral tooth wh…
• Textile protesters signed letters with the name of Ned LuddThe Luddite movement spread in England from 1811. Textile workers protested pay, working conditions and the u…
• Inase has both a stylish sense and a classical homonymJapanese inase can describe stylish spirit and is written 鯔背. One proposed origin connects it to an Edo fish-…
• Power lines helped divide Hakata’s floats into two rolesHakata Gion Yamakasa has smaller kakiyama floats carried through the streets and tall, stationary kazariyama…
• The Tabasco business founder omitted the sauce from a life sketchEdmund McIlhenny began selling Tabasco-brand pepper sauce in nineteenth-century America. Yet the article repo…
• A kissing fish’s gesture can be a form of aggressionKissing gouramis, native to Southeast Asia, extend their mouths and press them together. The gesture supplied…
• A researcher compared a supposed new water with his sweatPolywater attracted attention in the 1960s as a proposed new form of water with unusual properties, including…
• Bumf covers unwanted paperwork and an older toilet-paper senseEnglish bumf is a derogatory term for unwanted papers, including official documents, forms and marketing mate…
• A Tenggerese ceremony sends offerings into Mount Bromo’s craterDuring Yadnya Kasada in East Java, Tenggerese devotees pray at Mount Bromo and throw offerings into its crate…
• A kitchen-table investigation became a mathematics association’s floorInspired by a magazine column, American amateur Marjorie Rice investigated pentagons that could tile a plane.…
• Antarctic icefish have colourless bloodCrocodile icefish inhabit seas around Antarctica. As adults they lack haemoglobin, the oxygen-binding protein…
• About a third of the authorised railways were never builtRailway shares became a British investment craze in the 1840s. In 1846 Parliament passed 263 acts to establis…
• Tamayura can describe brief time or an orb in a photographJapanese tamayura, written 玉響, denotes a very brief interval. Wiktionary also records a sense for small orb-l…
• Meskel’s bonfire leaves charcoal for a cross on the foreheadMeskel is a Christian celebration observed in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Its large Demera bonfire uses flower-deco…
• Forced retirement led Maggie Kuhn to form a movementIn 1970, American Maggie Kuhn had to leave her job at age 65. She joined other retirees to start the movement…
• Black-and-white tapirs begin with stripes and spotsAdult Malayan tapirs in Southeast Asia have striking black-and-white colouring. Their calves instead have bro…
• London crowds once chased a captured stag on a holidayNineteenth-century London tradespeople and workers gathered in Epping Forest on Easter Monday. A previously c…
• Hornswoggle means to trick, though its origin is uncertainEnglish hornswoggle is a slang verb for deceiving or tricking someone. As a noun it can mean nonsense. Wiktio…
• Ngondo’s ritual links a festival to a spirit worldNgondo is a water-centred festival of Sawa coastal communities in Douala, Cameroon. A ritual participant ente…
• A popular actress’s studio would not reveal her nameCanadian-born Florence Lawrence became popular in early American films. Fans wrote asking who she was, but Bi…
• Ocean skaters use floating feathers as places for eggsSome Halobates sea skaters live on the open ocean’s surface. These wingless insects move with long legs rathe…
• Clipped silver coins helped prompt England’s recoinageBy the late seventeenth century, older English silver coins had lost metal through clipped edges. Machine-str…
• Pettifogger can mean a quibbler or an unscrupulous lawyerEnglish pettifogger describes someone who raises petty, irritating objections. It can also mean an unscrupulo…
• Māori New Year traditions do not all use the same starMatariki is associated with Māori New Year in Aotearoa New Zealand. Some regions and iwi instead use the risi…
• A solar-training programme does not require literacyBunker Roy’s initiative, founded in India in 1972, became known as Barefoot College. Its programmes teach rur…
• Some aphid young already contain developing embryosDuring asexual live-bearing phases, an adult aphid can carry developing daughters that already contain embryo…
• A crowd awaiting a balloon flight destroyed the balloonAt a public flight in Leicester on 11 July 1864, rumours challenged whether the balloon was the newest and la…
• Omedetai can be celebratory or unflatteringJapanese omedetai is a polite form of medetai, a celebratory word. It also has senses of being overly trustin…
• Korea’s seventh-evening festival also has a seasonal menuChilseok falls on the seventh day of the seventh month of Korea’s lunisolar calendar. Alongside the cowherd-a…
• Domino videos begun at ten led to film workAmerican domino artist Lily Hevesh started her video channel at age ten in 2009. She posted anonymously for y…
• A glowing fly larva catches prey in sticky websOrfelia fultoni larvae inhabit damp places in parts of the United States. They emit blue light and build stic…
• Opposing lawyers fought in court during the Anti-Rent trialsNew York’s Anti-Rent War of 1839–1845 involved tenants resisting the collection of rents. At a leaders’ retri…
• Utsutsu means waking reality or one’s sensesJapanese utsutsu appears in phrases such as yume-utsutsu. On its own, the noun denotes waking reality or bein…
• Eswatini’s Reed Dance includes materials for repairsDuring Umhlanga in Eswatini, participants gather at the Queen Mother’s royal village, cut tall reeds nearby a…
• A climber changed his prosthetic height for the rockAmerican climber Hugh Herr lost both legs below the knee after a 1982 mountaineering accident. Returning to c…
• Young spiders keep returning for a maternal mealToxeus magnus, a jumping spider found in Taiwan and elsewhere, feeds its young a white nutritional secretion.…
• A veteran organised Baltimore after its bank riotIn August 1835, anger over a bank failure led to attacks on homes in Baltimore. After the mayor resigned, 83-…
• Omomuro ni describes starting slowlyJapanese omomuro ni describes beginning an action slowly, and can also suggest a deliberate or affected manne…
• Chuseok rice cakes are steamed on pine needlesFor Korea’s harvest celebration Chuseok, families prepare songpyeon: rice cakes filled with ingredients such…
• A pencil sharpener returned a certificate with the pencilAmerican cartoonist David Rees launched a hand-sharpening service in 2010. For fifteen dollars at the time, h…
• This wasp lays eggs in beetle grubs undergroundPelecinus polyturator occurs across the Americas. Females have a strikingly long, jointed abdomen and place e…
• Garibaldi biscuits acquired a less appetising aliasBritain’s Garibaldi biscuit is named for the Italian unification leader. Currants pressed between thin layers…
• Ingin alone describes sincere courtesyJapanese ingin means heartfelt politeness, and can also denote close relations. Add burei, meaning rudeness,…
• Davao’s festival once combined three local icons in its nameKadayawan in Davao, Philippines, celebrates harvest and local cultures. Its former name Apo Duwaling combined…
• Blinking inspired an intermittent wiper mechanismAmerican inventor Robert Kearns said continuous wipers bothered him while driving in light rain in 1963. He m…
• Whirligig beetles have divided compound eyesWhirligig beetles commonly swim in circles at the water’s surface. Each compound eye has upper and lower port…
• Rancid butter prompted a Harvard rebellion in 1766Harvard students protested over food in 1766. The university acknowledged that much of the butter served was…
• Ozanari and naozari look different in kanjiJapanese ozanari denotes a careless, makeshift response. Wiktionary connects its formation with goza, meaning…
• Obon turns cucumbers and eggplants into animalsSome Japanese Obon customs use a cucumber horse and an eggplant cow as symbolic vehicles for ancestors coming…
• This nineteenth-century service was more than hair washingIndian-born Dean Mahomed opened a vapour-bath and massage business in Brighton in 1814. Its shampooing involv…
• A small anemone can divide after forming two crownsStarlet sea anemones inhabit shallow brackish waters, often buried in sediment with their tentacles exposed.…
• Munich’s beer-price dispute became a riot in 1844In May 1844, beer-price increases prompted protests in Munich, Bavaria. Workers and artisans took part, and t…
• Shitataka can describe quantity or degreeJapanese shitataka is written 強か. Alongside substantial strength, the dictionary lists firmness and intensity…
• Sri Lanka’s Vesak includes stalls serving passersbyDuring Vesak in Sri Lanka, colourful lanterns decorate streets and homes. Stalls called dansalas, organised b…
• Peace Pilgrim walked beyond 25,000 milesMildred Lisette Norman began her American walking journey as Peace Pilgrim in 1953, speaking with people abou…
• A land crab investigates falling fruitCardisoma guanhumi lives along Atlantic coastal regions of the Americas and eats leaves, fruit and other food…
• Straw-hat policing erupted two days earlyNew York once had an unwritten convention against men wearing straw hats after September 15. In 1922, youths…
• Fizzle has an unexpected etymological connectionEnglish fizzle can mean to hiss or sputter, or to end less successfully than hoped. Wiktionary connects it wi…
• Gawai can close with a ceremonial matGawai Dayak celebrations in Malaysia include welcoming visitors into homes. Among Iban Dayaks, the closing pr…
• Cooking affordable meals became an experiment in 1890Ellen Swallow Richards and Mary Hinman Abel established Boston’s New England Kitchen in 1890 to experiment wi…
• Motmots do not deliberately carve their racket tailsSeveral motmot species have racket-shaped tails, with bare shafts beneath the tips. Earlier accounts claimed…
• Greek signalling synchronised two separate water vesselsAn ancient Greek system placed matching water vessels on separate hills, with coded rods floating inside. Tor…
• Balderdash once also denoted a worthless mixtureEnglish balderdash means nonsensical speech or writing. Wiktionary also lists an archaic sense for a worthles…
• Pushkar’s fair includes a long-moustache contestPushkar Fair in Rajasthan, India, combines livestock trading and pilgrimage to the lake. Alongside cultural p…
• Mujica kept his farm home instead of moving into the palaceDuring his presidency, Uruguay’s José Mujica lived on his wife’s farm, where they grew chrysanthemums for sal…
• This guinea fowl’s appearance disguises a ground-foraging lifeEast Africa’s vulturine guinea fowl has a bare head and long neck resembling a vulture. Below them sit a coba…
• Swedish surplus bikes became affordable everyday transportSweden had six bicycle infantry regiments in 1939. Its m/42 military bicycle offered an upright riding positi…
• An old meaning is far removed from idle rumoursEnglish gossip can refer to rumours or someone discussing other people’s private affairs. Wiktionary also rec…
• Cebu’s Sinulog has a practical side beyond its dancingSinulog in Cebu, Philippines, honours the Santo Niño. Devotee City, begun in 1996, used recycled shipping con…