Calypso queen
From 1939 until 1977, the winner of the annual Trinidad calypso competition was crowned the Calypso King. In 1978 Calypso Rose won the title, so they had to change the name.
Category: Arts
Statue graveyards
When politicians’ historical crimes catch up with them, what happens to their statues?
The blob from the stars
The 1958 horror film The Blob was inspired by a real event in 1950: a close encounter between four police officers and a star jelly.
Animal helmets
The Vikings may not have worn horned helmets, but the ancient Greeks had helmets covered in boar tusks and the Dayak of Borneo had helmets covered in fish or pangolin scales.
Who was the real Betty Boop?
A 1932 lawsuit attempted to answer the question “who was the real Betty Boop?”
Siberian monstrators
When is a protest not a protest? In Russia, when it’s a performance art parody of a protest. But that still didn’t stop the Russian government from overreacting.
Da Vinci’s fractal trees
Leonardo da Vinci observed that tree branches together are always as thick as the trunk beneath them. This is true, and there are some good ideas why.
Big remade
Naani is a 2004 Telugu remake of the Tom Hanks film Big. I gotta tell you, though… it gets weird.
The Salt Cathedral
The Salt Cathedral lies 200 metres below the surface of Zipaquirá, Colombia.
November 22, 1963
John F. Kennedy, Aldous Huxley, and C. S. Lewis all died the same day. The following day, Doctor Who premiered.
Fart battle
The He-Gassen scroll of Edo period Japan depicts an epic battle… of farts.
Death Valley swindler
Walter E. Scott performed in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, scammed thousands of dollars with a fake gold mine, set a cross-country train speed record, and claimed to be building a castle in the midst of Death Valley.
Goddess of the sewers
The Cloaca Maxima in Rome is one of the world’s first sewer systems. It still works today, and with good reason: it has its own goddess.
The pictures of Pictures at an Exhibition
Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky composed Pictures at an Exhibition based on a journey through his late friend’s art exhibit – but what happened to the pictures?
Endless elevator
Imagine an elevator with no doors that never stops: this is the paternoster lift.
Burning a million pounds
In 1994 the art duo K Foundation burned a million pounds in cash. They did it on purpose.