You Might Be Walking Around With A Secret Artery
Some folks keep an embryonic artery in their forearm like a private jewel-hand surgeons know, the rest of us discover it the rude way.Read More 
The Day Nobodies Beat the Royal Navy
In 1910 a gaggle of English pranksters dressed as Abyssinian royals, swaggered aboard HMS Dreadnought and made the Navy look like it was taking a very long nap.Read More 
Byron Kept A Bear At College, Naturally
Before Instagram, Lord Byron solved 'no dogs' rules by bringing a tame bear to Trinity and pretending it was perfectly normal.Read More 
Bennu Spits Back: The Little Asteroid That Throws Stones
That cute near-Earth pebble? Turns out Bennu coughs up rocks - NASA watched it do the cosmic equivalent of hocking a loogie.Read More 
Casu Marzu: Sardinia's Maggot Cheese
They let fly larvae liquefy a sheep cheese into a gooey spread and then Europe bans the poor thing; of course I tasted it once.Read More 
Don't Own One Guinea Pig in Switzerland, Darling
In Switzerland the law treats guinea pigs like needy roommates: keep at least two or face animal welfare trouble - and honestly, they know what's what.Read More 
Rue: The Smelly Herb That Bossed-Off Bad Luck
Folks from Naples to Nuevo Leon used bitter rue-ruda-to hang over cradles, sprinkle in doorways and bathe babies so jealous eyes and nasty luck would take a hike.Read More 
That Underground City With The Rolling Stone Doors
There is a cliff-town under Cappadocia that you can literally bolt shut from the inside with millstone doors and I adore the theatricality of it.Read More 
They Ground Up Mummies And Called It Medicine
Honey, for centuries Europeans bought powdered Egyptian mummies from apothecaries and swore they cured everything from headaches to bad manners.Read More 
When Paris Printers Went After the Cats
In 1730s Paris a crew of low-paid printing apprentices literally held mock funerals and massacred neighborhood cats as a dark, theatrical protest - and a historian smelled a story worth savoring.Read More 