Interesting Thing of the Day

Highway 101 in northern California features many wacky roadside attractions, including a house carved out of a single, huge redwood log. But it's famous mostly just for claiming to be famous.

Hitler's government tried repeatedly to outlaw jazz, and especially swing, seen as symbolizing the enemy's values. But they also secretly created their own swing band as a vehicle for spreading propaganda.

The Jewish holiday of Sukkot (or Feast of Tabernacles) is a harvest festival that features numerous stuffed foods. Several possible explanations have been advanced for that symbolism.

One of the world's ickiest creatures is a parasite that attaches itself to the tongue of a fish and eventually replaces the entire tongue with itself. All together now: Ewwwwwwww.

One of the world's oddest plants looks like an ugly mass of leaves, but it can survive on the moisture from desert fog for thousands of years.

Catholicism and Protestantism are not the only two forms of Christianity. A third category started with an emphasis on adult baptism and later focused on issues of peace, justice, and simple living.

English has some clever ways to turn statements into questions, doesn't it? Tag questions serve useful social functions too, don't they?

San Francisco has its very own pirate supply store, which serves as a front for a nonprofit organization that teaches writing skills to kids. Other local chapters have stores that sell supplies for superheroes, secret agents, time travelers, and magicians.

The little beanies with plastic propellers on top have become iconic (in America, at least) of science fiction fans and techie nerds of all kinds. But the cap's inventor never got the credit he deserved.

Some tropical birds are known primarily for their colorful plumage. The Oropendola gets its name from its odd behavior: swinging around on tree branches like a gymnast. It's proof that birds just want to have fun.

That bright red color in your food, drink, or lipstick no longer comes from that scary old Red #2 dye, but very possibly from ground-up bugs. Seriously.

A mask allegedly made from the face of a woman who drowned in Paris near the beginning of the 20th century created intrigue, sparked fashion trends, and influenced the design of first aid training equipment.

Residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (and its surrounding area) have their own distinctive dialect of English called Pittsburghese.

The bones of one of the largest dinosaurs, and in fact one of the largest land creatures period, were unearthed in Patagonia in 1993. You can see them if you don't mind hearing a thing or two about, you know, evolution.

In the mid-1800s, long before lasers, digital computers, or atomic clocks, a French scientist devised a brilliant method for measuring the speed of light using rotating mirrors, some clever geometry, and a bit of math.