Whittle It a Little, It’ll Fit

Odds and sods I look at regularly, just because they amuse me. I hope they do the same for you. Incidentally, I found this page’s title on Greg Ross’s Futility Closet (it’s somewhere on this page) in a mini-article which also includes the delightful sentence in Icelandic: Barbara Ara bar Ara araba bara rabbabara. Ross points out that this, “besides being fun to say, is spelled with only three letters. It means “Barbara, daughter of Ari, brought only rhubarb to Ari the Arab.”

Weird Universe » Environments 3

Monday 4 March 21:14:05 UTC 2024

Join the Be-In with the embedded player below. Then experience bucolic raptures.

[Link]

Futility Closet » All’s Fair

Monday 4 March 19:18:53 UTC 2024

The Feuer Buech, a 1584 treatise on munitions by Franz Helm, contains a startling illustration: a cat and a bird approaching a town, each bearing a lighted explosive. The image accompanies a section titled “To set fire to a castle or city which you can’t get at otherwise”; Penn curator Mitch Fraas translates the relevant section: Create a small sack … [Link]

Weird Universe » Death in Nutty Putty Cave

Monday 4 March 12:46:00 UTC 2024

Until I saw it posted on the TYWKIWDBI blog a few days ago, I had never heard of John Jones's Nov 2009 death in Nutty Putty Cave. Since then I've learned that it's well known in many corners of the Internet. Still, if it was new to me, it'll probably be new to a lot of WUvies as well. And … [Link]

Futility Closet » In a Word

Monday 4 March 7:21:45 UTC 2024

Image: OpenStreetMap rarachose
adj. rare, unusual selcouth
adj. extraordinary in appearance cordate
adj. heart-shaped trothplight
n. engagement to be married The Croatian islet Galešnjak, in the Pašman Canal of the Adriatic Sea, is one of the few naturally occurring heart-shaped objects in the world. It’s uninhabited, but the family that owns it provides facilities for engagements and weddings. [Link]