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
Empress Sissi (Elisabeth of Austria)
The Empress and the File
What does a 19th-century empress do in a room called the Toilette- und Turnzimmer?
She walked ten hours a day, fenced twice some days, and kept gymnastic rings rigged in her bedroom doorway. At fifty-six she weighed 96 pounds and had been diagnosed with edema of hunger. Empress Elisabeth of Austria, the Hofburg's hungriest athlete.
Read this oddlet →
The Man Who Drank the Plague
He built a small closet, filled it with the vomit of the dying, and sat inside breathing deeply — all to prove yellow fever wasn't contagious.
The Postman Who Built a Palace
He tripped on a stone in 1879 and spent the next thirty-three years building a palace out of the ones he found on the way home.
The Old Man Mad About Painting
The most quintessentially Japanese artwork ever made was painted with a color Japan had banned.
