World’s Strangest

19th-century map courtesy of Deb Gunther In 1837 an Irishman from New York named John Hustis bought a plot of land 50 miles north of Madison, Wisconsin, and founded the town of Hustisford. For a few years, the town spoke English, the language of the Irish and English families who got there first. Then came the [...]

You may have heard that I’m teaming up with mental_floss and TrivWorks to put on The Ultimate Halloween Pop Culture Trivia Night at the Bell House on October 29. But we couldn’t wait to start in on the fun, so we’re holding an online trivia contest on mental_floss, right here, right now. Here’s how it works: [...]

Television viewers of the late 1970s who craved a combination of amateur athletics plus celebrity skin (mixed together with more cheese than a Wisconsin souvenir shop) had to look no further than Battle of the Network Stars. Inspired somewhat by ABC’s popular Wide World of Sports Superstars—an annual competition of professional athletes competing in a [...]

Kevin Iris, an artist in Wisconsin, loved to grow bonsai trees. But he found shaping their growth with wire guides too challenging. Sometimes, he had as much wire as he did tree. This inspired him to begin wrapping and folding thousands of wires into metal alternatives. Link -via Colossal

Looking for a way to liven up your Saturday night? Here’s a complete idiot’s guide to throwing a 155th birthday bash for America’s largest-and-in-chargest commander-in-chief: the great William Howard Taft. 1. The Food Almonds, almonds, and more almonds. Smokehouse, cinnamon, vinegar, chocolate – any flavor under the sun. Big Lub, as he was fondly known, couldn’t get [...]

Judith Huf spotted this gigantic puffball fungus while photographing butterflies at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Wisconsin. She put her hat and glasses on it to give you a sense of its size. Link -via TYWKIWDBI | Photo: Judith Huf

You’ve surely heard the story of the Great Chicago Fire (which wasn’t really started by a cow). Strangely though, the fire really wasn’t that big—at least when compared to many of the others that broke out on that same terrible night of October 8, 1871. The story you probably haven’t heard is how that 24-hour period [...]

On this date in 1935, the Dust Bowl heat wave reached its peak, with temperatures reaching 109°F in Chicago, Illinois and 104°F in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As we sweat through another long, hot summer in America, here are six songs inspired by rising temps (or at least six songs that make us think of hot summer [...]

The rural equivalent of “speed dating,” this activity was developed to allow single people with at least a modicum of interest in gardening to meet others interested in outdoor activities. The women were given a crash course in how to identify a weed versus a vegetable or fruit, and then instructed to pass that information along [...]

ETHAN MILLER/Reuters The way this summer is going, you’ll soon run out of ways to say, “It’s ridiculously hot.” Lucky for us, we have a direct line to Joan H. Hall, editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English. Here are 11 phrases you can fall back on next time someone asks what the weather [...]