Café du Monde
The simple pleasures of beignets & café au lait
This New Orleans institution draws crowds year-round, day and night, for its little squares of fried dough covered with powdered sugar and its chicory-laced coffee.
One-Log House
Northern California’s famous redwood attraction
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.
Charlie and His Orchestra
Swing music as Nazi propaganda
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 Foods of Sukkot
Stuffing and symbolism
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.
The Tongue-Eating Louse
A revolting-but-true fish story
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.
Tree Tumbo
Mystery plant of the desert
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.
Anabaptism
The third way of Christianity
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.
Tag Questions
You know what this is about, don’t you?
English has some clever ways to turn statements into questions, doesn't it? Tag questions serve useful social functions too, don't they?
826 National
Pirates, spies, superheroes, and young authors
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.
Propeller Beanies
The story of the geek’s icon
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.