A cabinet of lovable weirdos
Tiny true stories,
lovingly odd.
Weird science, forgotten history, and human quirks — each one true, each under a minute, each a little stranger than you’d expect.
Latest
Grandma Moses
Ribbons for the Jam
At the Cambridge Country Fair, Anna Mary Robertson Moses entered her paintings alongside her preserves, and won ribbons for the jam.
At seventy-six, arthritis ended her embroidery, so she took up painting — house paint on Masonite, glitter for snow. She entered canvases beside her preserves at the county fair and won ribbons for the jam. Her name was Anna Mary Robertson Moses.
Read this oddlet →
The Queen Who Made Her Own Chair
She arrived to negotiate a peace treaty, noticed there was no chair for her, and solved the problem immediately.
The General Who Conquered an Empire and Then Had to Give It Back
He took the fortress that defeated Napoleon, routed the Ottoman army, and marched to within a hundred miles of Constantinople — and then his father told him to wait.
The Man Who Set Himself on Fire to Cure Hiccups
He inherited 132,000 acres at age two and died in a debtors' prison at thirty-seven, and those are not the strange parts.
The Poet Who Brought a Bear to College
When Trinity College banned dogs from student rooms, Byron checked the statutes, confirmed they said nothing about bears, and installed one.
The Queen Who Took the Art
She quit the throne, converted to the religion that was illegal for her to hold, and left Sweden in men's clothing — but she didn't leave empty-handed.
The Chemist Who Tasted Everything
He discovered oxygen two years before the man history credits with discovering oxygen.
The Man Who Stabbed a Bible
A century before the Civil War, a four-foot-seven cave-dweller in a military coat walked into a Quaker meeting and sprayed fake blood on every slaveholder in the room.
The Man Who Plucked the Chicken
Plato defined a human being as a featherless biped, and someone showed up with a chicken.
The Man Who Walked Into His Own Secret
He kept his route secret so no rival could reach the city first. More than a hundred people have since died trying to find him.
The Woman Who Walked to Lhasa
At fifty-five, she disguised herself as a beggar pilgrim and walked into the most forbidden city on earth.
The Man Who Couldn't Stop Walking
He left home for a sixteen-month pilgrimage and came back twenty-four years later.
The Woman Who Destroyed Her Own Discovery
She found exactly what she was looking for, then ordered it smashed and thrown into the sea.