World’s Strangest

Now that college basketball season is in full swing, hoops fans are hearing a lot about teams’ home arenas during broadcasts. While it’s easy to figure out the origins of many of these namesake arenas—basketball fans surely know where Rupp Arena and the Dean Smith Center got their names—some aren’t as clear. Who was Cameron, [...]

Some scientists say that bowling has existed since Egyptian times and that one of the earliest Egyptian pharaohs was uncovered with primitive bowling pins and balls in his tomb. Others dismiss these findings, but historians agree the sport has existed in some form or another since at least 300 AD in Germany. Needless to say, [...]

High school seniors Kenny, Martina, Ray, and Carol Crouch, quadruplets from Danbury, Connecticut were all ecstatic when they found that all four were accepted into Yale University. The Crouches’ perfect batting average represents a first for Yale — the first time in anyone’s memory that it has offered admission to quadruplets. It is also, of course, [...]

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. [...]

Like the proverb says, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and parenting is no excuse. Nancy Gibbs of TIME Magazine wrote a very interesting article about the growing backlash against “helicopter parents”: The insanity crept up on us slowly; we just wanted what was best for our kids. We bought macrobiotic cupcakes and [...]

Turkey Tracker is a bold experiment in social networking and turkey-smoking technology. Turkey Tracker combines a live video stream of a turkey smoking (at an undisclosed location, but I might as well tell you it’s in Portland, Oregon), a live Q&A session and other events throughout the day (see the Broadcast Schedule at the bottom [...]

”Feel Art Again” has gotten a little off schedule due to the plethora of information available about Ernie Barnes and Maurice Sendak. We’ll be working this coming week to get back on track. In honor of last weekend’s big screen premiere of the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are, today’s “Feel Art Again” post [...]

The following is a Neatorama Shop Story, a narrative starring the products carried in this blog’s very own online store. 1932, Vieux Carré. The spirited jazz befit the life the old lady had lived. She had been known for curing illnesses, lifting curses and brewing love potions, all without charging. She had gotten along with everyone, [...]

Batman Airport (BAL), Turkey Served by Turkish Airlines, Batman Airport lies in the south-east corner of Turkey. Visitors to Batman could use the city as a launching point for exploring the fascinating Anatolia region, home to a number of ancient historical sites and the more modern Ataturk Dam Lake and watersports centre. Useless Loop (USL), Australia Useless Loop [...]

The following is a Neatorama Shop Story, a narrative starring the products carried in this blog’s very own online store. I Once Had a Chum from Nantucket Summer, 1975. Quint, Dreyfuss and I had just boarded the Queequeg, a bigger boat sailing out of Nantucket. As the lithe, long torsoed teen temptresses and the shoreline that was [...]