World’s Strangest

If you’re doing any air travel this winter, chances are you’ll end up spending quite a bit of time sitting in airports. During those layovers, your mind may wander. Who is this O’Hare fellow? What made LaGuardia worthy of an airport? How about Hartsfield and Jackson? Here’s a look at some namesake airports whose origins [...]

Last month, Scott Allen wrote about the origins of the nicknames of the 10 schools in BCS bowls. In honor of tonight’s championship game between Alabama and Texas, here’s the scoop on where they got “Crimson Tide” and “Longhorns.” Alabama Crimson Tide Hugh Roberts, sports editor for the Birmingham Age-Herald, is widely credited as being the first [...]

With the holidays here, I bet lots of you are planning on traveling (we are). I love nothing more than to break up a road trip with ridiculous little stops, much to the chagrin of my car companions. They grumble, but they secretly love me for it (I hope). If you’re looking to break up [...]

Saturday night, running back Mark Ingram became the first University of Alabama student-athlete to win the Heisman Trophy. Winning the Heisman guarantees that people will always remember your name, right? Let’s test that theory. Can you name the last ten Heisman winners before Ingram (1999-2008)? Last names only. You’ve got three minutes. Take the Quiz: Name [...]

Birmingham, Alabama-based artist Walt Creel creates illustrations by firing guns at aluminum sheets. He calls his collection “Deweaponizing the Gun”, and sees it as an exploration of guns in U.S., and in particular, Southern culture: The terms gun and weapon are practically interchangeable. From hunting to war, self defense to target practice, the gun has been [...]

We’re all hunkering down here in the Midwest since a blizzard is supposed to be hitting us pretty much all day Tuesday and Wednesday. As blizzards go, it’s probably not a big one… just enough to close the Interstates, schools, and some businesses. There have definitely been far worse – here are 10 of them. 1. [...]

Perhaps a dozen of these specialized guns were made in Nazi Germany. They fired either a .32 caliber or .22 rimfire cartridge and had a four-round magazine. At the link, you’ll find a copy of a short article from a 1954 issue of American Rifleman about two such guns that had come into the possession [...]

We’ve all seen it: that one lonely bag on the baggage claim track at the airport that just goes around and around with no owner in sight. What happens to it if no one ever shows up? There must be things in that bag that someone loved. Well, lots of times they end up at [...]

If the BCS rankings factored a school’s nickname into its formula—and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy’s final pass of Saturday’s Big 12 Championship Game had fluttered in the air for one second longer—Alabama would probably be playing the TCU Horned Frogs in the national championship game. As it is, the Crimson Tide will square off against [...]

Maersk Alabama, the cargo vessel that was hijacked by Somali pirates back in April 2009, was attacked again. This time, however, the ship was prepared: An on-board security team repelled the attack by using evasive maneuvers, small-arms fire and a Long Range Acoustic Device, which can beam earsplitting alarm tones, the fleet said. [...] The owners of [...]