Pages published by Jenny Birce

Fresh off the Press

When Your Skin Decides To Be A Tree

A tiny genetic glitch lets certain HPVs turn skin into bark-like growths and it is as tragically theatrical as it sounds.Read More

Running Out Of Gas On The Autobahn Can Get You Fined

In Germany an empty tank is treated like a traffic misdemeanor, which is funny until your rental car is silently judging you on the hard shoulder.Read More

They Hung Coffins Off Cliffs, For Real

People literally fixed coffins to cliff faces to hide, honor, and flex the dead-and it is as theatrical as it sounds.Read More

I Tried Counting On My Elbow and Then Oksapmin Schooled Me

In a Papua New Guinea valley people literally count on their bodies-27 points from fingertip to fingertip-and it turns math into a choreography of shoulders and temples.Read More

Deer Horns in My Cookies? Actually Yes

There was a time when bakers literally boiled stag antlers to make the leavener that gives old-school cookies their ghostly crispness.Read More

They Literally Blew Smoke Up People

Victorian rescuers had a toolkit that included bellows, a tobacco plug, and a plan to blow smoke into a drowning person's rectum - and yes, they absolutely meant business.Read More

The Ship That Ghosted Everyone

In March 1918 a US Navy collier went from 'on route' to full-on vanishing act with 306 people aboard and absolutely zero receipts.Read More

Bir Tawil, The Land Nobody Claims

There is a small patch of desert between Egypt and Sudan that both countries refuse to own, and yes I immediately imagined a tiny coronation.Read More

The Coastline That Cheats Your Ruler

I learned coastlines are dramatic geometry exes: measure them with a smaller ruler and they keep ghosting your number until you cry.Read More

When Verbs Argue About Who's Important

Ever had grammar choose a favourite person? Some tongues literally make verbs pick who matters more - and it is deliciously petty.Read More
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