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 Chemist Who Tasted Everything
He described hydrogen cyanide as having a 'pleasantly sharp acidulous flavor,' the way someone else might describe a good Riesling.
The Man Who Boiled His Own Urine and Found Light
He boiled 1,500 gallons of urine looking for gold and accidentally discovered the first new element since antiquity.
The Woman Who Practiced Madness in a Mirror
Nellie Bly spent one night practicing insanity in a mirror, then fooled every doctor who examined her.
The Man No One Could Stop
Burton pulled a javelin through his own face and kept fighting, but his wife burned forty years of his writing to save his soul.
The Woman Who Warmed the World
She discovered that carbon dioxide traps heat in 1856, and then history erased her name for 154 years.
The Woman Who Calculated Everything
She funded her physics research by calculating card game odds and winning.
The Girl Who Was Struck by Lightning
Her neighbors believed she became a genius because lightning killed three women standing next to her when she was fifteen months old.
The Woman Who Discovered Climate Change from Her Seat
She discovered the greenhouse effect in 1856, then sat in the audience while a man read her paper aloud because women weren't allowed to present their own work.
The Mathematician Who Dreamed in Equations
A goddess wrote equations on his tongue in dreams, and when mathematicians finally checked his work, he was right.
The Doctor Who Was Right
He died of the same infection, in the same place on his body, that he'd spent his life trying to prevent.
The Movie Star Who Invented Your Wi-Fi
The Navy told Hedy Lamarr she'd be more useful selling kisses than inventing torpedo guidance systems.
The Man Who Ate Everything Else
The French army once used a man who could swallow live puppies whole as a courier, hiding documents in his stomach.