It was 1941 and the war was not going well for the Allies. The Nazis were advancing on multiple fronts, including deep into the unprepared Soviet Union. Britain was now locked into an uneasy but necessary friendship with that Communist power.

HMS Trident, a Royal Navy submarine, docked at Polyarny on the Arctic Ocean coast of the Soviet Union. While his boat was undergoing repairs, Commander Geoffrey Sladen dines with the Soviet post admiral. He comments that his wife sometimes struggled to push their infant's stroller through snow. The Admiral suggests having a reindeer pull the stroller and promptly has a reindeer delivered to Trident as a gift to Commander Sladen's wife.

This was a diplomatically uneasy time, so Commander Sladen knew that it would be unwise to refuse the gift, even though transporting a reindeer by submarine back to Britain would be difficult. The crew names the reindeer Polyanna after the port and takes on a barrel of moss for her to eat during the voyage back home.

On the way to Britain, Trident recieves new orders: stay on patrol in the area on the hunt for German warships. The supply of moss runs out, so Polyanna eats condensed milk instead. She hangs out in the torpedo room and sleeps beneath the captain's rack. But she is not exactly toilet trained and gets rather stinky. Submarines are called "pigboats" for a reason, but Trident gets unusually smelly due to Polyanna's contributions.

Despite spending six weeks on a submarine, Polyanna arrives in the UK healthy and has, in fact, gained weight, making removing her from the boat an added challenge. She lives for five more years at a the Regents Park Zoo in London.

-via Nag on the Lake

The Chernobyl nuclear reactor and the nearby town of Pripyat have been pretty much a no man's land since the nuclear meltdown in 1986. In those 36 years, entropy has damaged structures, trees and plants have taken over, wildlife has moved in, yet you can see that it was abandoned so suddenly that evidence of the former residents are still everywhere.    

Joerg Daiber visited Ukraine last year, before the Russian invasion, and got the spend a couple of days in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. He filmed a lot of the landscape by drone, and used the tilt-shift filtering method to give it a miniature toy look, but it's all too real. Eerily real. -via Laughing Squid

The Calgary Stampede is arguably the biggest Western festival there is. This year's stampede will take place July 8-17 in Calgary,  Alberta, in full force after being canceled in 2020 and scaled back to a partially virtual event in 2021. In addition to the rodeos, parade, concerts, and other activities, food vendors are bringing out some experimental fusion fair foods this year.

Some of the new recipes are just cute, like the Duck Pond Lemonade, which comes with a rubber duck. Others are combinations of two or even three cultures, like the Korean Squid Ink Corn Dog. Some are just wild, like Honey Habanero Ice Pops. Would you try out some Pop Rocks Popcorn Chicken? How about savory noodles topped with cotton candy? Kraft Dinner soft serve ice cream? There will be hot dogs made with two kinds of insects, and a dozen new ways to dress up donuts. Check out 45 new fair food creations for this year's Calgary Stampede. Remember, it's not in the US, so not everything is deep fried on a stick. -via Everlasting Blort

The science of color preference among people tells us that the most often cited favorite color among adults is blue, although people often describe different shades of blue. Why is that?  Experiments show that "favorite" colors are anything but innate. They are influenced by association. In other words, we like blue because we like blue things, and we are also exposed to a lot of blue things. Blue is the color of the sky and the ocean, and our planet as a whole. Blue clothing rarely clashes with any skin color, and our jeans are dyed blue, so clothing choices are often dominated by blue. Our least favorite color, as a species, is yellowish-brown, the color of rot or excrement. One experiment showed that a color preference can change in over a rather short period of time when the choices are presented in context, as in people will cite a love for red when shown pictures of strawberries, but not when shown pictures of blood. They will like green when shown a garden, but not when shown pond scum.

Color preferences will change with time, too. Girls like pink between toddlerhood and middle school, because their favorite objects tend to be colored pink, but then other colors take precedence. Young boys as a whole avoid pink because it associated with girl's things, but those preferences are not universal. And even adults will adjust color preference with the seasons of the year. The only time yellowish-brown evokes good feelings is in autumn, for reasons you can read about at BBC Future. -via Metafilter

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Instagram member @nrml_mbter describes himself as an abnormal dude on a bike, but I don't see anything abnormal about him, aside from exceptional cleverness. This inventive gentleman records his off-road bicycling adventures which often take him far away from civilization.

When heading out into the wild, it's important to carry supplies that make the adventure comfortable, or at least survivable. Don't ride beyond your resources. Stay fed and hydrated.

To assist with the latter task, he used a cavity in his bike's frame to create a cereal bowl. With milk in a bottle and a spoon in his pocket, he's prepared for the journey.

-via Ugly Design

You've heard how chef José Andrés simply started cooking for those affected by the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and founded World Central Kitchen. His organization rose to global prominence by feeding people in Puerto Rico after 2017's hurricane Maria. Now Andrés and his organization are in Ukraine, providing meals by the millions for displaced people and others who have been affected by the Russian invasion- 34 million meals so far. How is World Central Kitchen able to scale up so much?

The main method of doing that is to use use local chefs and local kitchens. There are plenty of cooks and restauranteurs in Ukraine who aren't getting much paying business these days, and they want to help the war effort. Funding them through the organization puts dollars into the local economy and props up suppliers as well as the restaurant workers. But making a meal for thousands of people at a time requires some specialized equipment, like cambros, combi ovens, and military water heaters. Read how these and other appliances help World Central Kitchen keep the meals coming. -via Damn Interesting

It's official! We have the 2022 Scripps National #SpellingBee Finalists. Their journey took determination, focus, and lots of hard work.#Speller1#Speller65#Speller76#Speller87#Speller104#Speller178#Speller189#Speller197#Speller205#Speller206#Speller231#Speller234 pic.twitter.com/n4B5MVakLT

— Scripps National Spelling Bee (@ScrippsBee) June 1, 2022

Yesterday wrapped up the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee. After preliminary rounds, 12 finalists faced each other in the final round last night. Most competitors were eliminated quickly, but two held on for several rounds. Twelve-year-old Vikram Raju and 14-year-old Harini Logan went head-to-head, but could not eliminate each other. Every time one would miss a word, the other would also. After several rounds, it was decided to use a spell-off to decide the winner for the first time in the competition's 94-year history. Raju and Logan were to each spell as many words as possible in 90 seconds. Watch them quickly spell a slew of words that I've never even heard of.



After both made their best attempt, it was announced that 8th-grader Harini Logan had spelled 21 words correctly in 90 seconds, and she was crowned the winner of the title and $50,000. Raju is eligible to return to competition next year, and vowed that he will be there. -via Digg

St. Joseph Catholic Church in Parks, Louisiana, has a painting of the Last Supper. It is not the da Vinci version, but an original that shows Jesus with four of his disciples. When Reverend Nicholas DuPré arrived at the parish in 2019, people told him there were rumors of a bottle of Tabasco sauce on the table in the painting! But he didn't think much about it until the folks at the McIlhenny Company, which produces Tabasco sauce, contacted him to ask if the rumor was true. DuPré did his due diligence, and carried a 12-foot ladder into the church and climbed up to check. Yes, right there on the table was a distinctive tiny Tabasco bottle!

For his efforts, DuPré was rewarded with an extra-large commemorative bottle of Tabasco sauce from the McIlhenny Company. He is thinking of displaying it in the church's vestibule.

An article at USA Today goes on to tell us the history of the painting, in which the artist was asked to "make it unique" to the area. In case you're wondering, yes, Tabasco sauce is kosher for Passover. -via Strange Company

(Images credit: Nicholas DuPré)

This lighthouse looks a bit dangerous, doesn't it? This is the Kiipsaare Lighthouse, built in 1933 near the coast of Saaremaa, Estonia. Back then, "near the coast" meant 150 meters inland. Since then, rising sea levels have moved the shoreline, and now the lighthouse stands more than 50 meters out in the sea. And the formerly-stable ground underneath it is no longer stable, so the lighthouse has leaned as much as 15 degrees off plumb.

The lighthouse has been decommissioned and the light removed. It was left abandoned to the sea. But what's really strange is that over time, it has started to stand straighter! But that doesn't mean there's any hope that the lighthouse will ever be useful again. Read more about the Kiipsaare Lighthouse at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: Flickr user Jordi Escuer)

There are some legal cases that should make Americans grateful for the separation of church and state. This one wasn't all that long ago. In the 1980s, the Sisters of the Order of Poor Clare lived in a convent in Bruges, Belgium. Most were elderly, and were counting on the Catholic church to care for them in their old age after a lifetime of devotion, isolation, and poverty. But they heard that their bishop was planning to liquidate the convent and separate the nuns. So they took matters into their own hands.

The nuns legally owned the convent, and they wanted any property and profits from it to go to their families when they died. However, the church takes a vow of poverty seriously, and considered any property of the nuns to be the church's property. In the wake of the dissolution rumors, the nuns skipped ahead of the bishop and sold the convent themselves, along with the priceless artworks it contained. With the proceeds, they bought a crumbling castle in the south of France, with a swimming pool and tennis courts, but no running water. They also bought cars and racehorses. By the time the bishop heard about the sale, it was a done deal. The eight nuns were very happy in their new retirement home, but that was far from the end of the story. The bishop wanted the convent, its artworks, and the nuns, back under his control. Read about the runaway nuns of Poor Clare at Mel magazine.

In Japan, a bow conveys a lot of messaging into a brief and sometimes slight movement. Using the wrong bow conveys the wrong message. For example, the eshaku, which is a 15º bow, is a casual greeting. The keirei, which is 30º, is a more formal bow used in the working environment. The saikeirei, which is 45º, expresses deep respect to a social superior.

The gentleman pictured above is demonstrating the dogeza, which is an abjectly apologetic bow used to beg for a great favor or forgiveness for a serious wrong.

Sora News 24 says the dogeza sometimes does not go far enough. That's when the more extreme dogeritsu is necessary. In addition to having committed a huge offense, the dogeritsu requires substantial athleticisim, especially if it is necessary to hold the position while waiting for the aggrieved party to consider the apology.

Photos: Sora News 24

In 1925, an American entrepreneur named Howard Johnson established a pharmacy and ice cream shop in a suburb of Boston. It thrived and by 1929, Johnson opened a restuarant. This was the first Howard Johnson's-brand restaurant, which became a thriving chain that swept across the United States from the 1930s through the 1970s. The company, which also built a chain of motels, was especially popular with road travelers who took part in the post-World War II travel boom.

The company sold off the motel chain and continued in restaurants, but it struggled with changing markets and gradually declined, especially in the early years of the 21st Century.

Now, CNN reports, the restaurant chain is completely dead. The last Howard Johnson's restaurant in Lake George, New York has shut down. The site is for sale with a current asking price of $10.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Boston Public Library

UPDATE 6/7/22: Commenter Unknown2 has helpfully explained why the price is so low. This refers to not the purchase price for the property, but the rental price per square foot. That makes a lot more sense.

One of the reasons white sliced bread became so ubiquitous was because of the expense of meeting rising food quality and safety standards- only large corporations could afford to scale up the process at the time, and white bread just seemed so clean and modern compared to the darker breads from one's own kitchen or a local bakery. The upshot was that all the nutrition was taken out of flour to make the bread white, and eventually those nutrients had to be re-added in processed form.

In the generation before mine, white sliced bread was a luxury. One family I knew only let the father eat store-bought bread (which they called "light bread"), while the rest of the family had fresh baked biscuits or cornbread, which now seems totally backwards for a patriarchy. When I was a kid, white bread was an everyday thing, although not Wonder bread because it was relatively expensive. Now even the thought of eating tasteless, gummy, white sliced bread makes me queasy.   

If you want to shorten this video's viewing time, the first two minutes are the history of bread itself, then we get into white bread. -via Boing Boing

This hound dog is Jack, a rescue pup owned by Brennan Gilmore, a guitarist with the bluegrass band Walker's Run. Jack often attended rehearsals and sang along with the music, but was not present at live performances until one special night in 2016.

Gilmore tells The Dodo that the band was playing at a theater in Little Washington, Virginia. Jack slept in the greenroom. But the door must have been left ajar when Walker's Run went to the stage to perform an encore because Jack followed them and began to howl.

Sadly, Jack passed on two years ago. But Gilmore thinks of him often, for one of his guitars is engraved with a portrait of Jack.

Weird Al Yankovic has been making funny parody versions of pop songs for about 40 years now. He famously always seeks permission from the original artists, even though he's not required to under fair use regulations. Some say no, but most are thrilled to have the honor of a Weird Al parody. Or at least they do before they hear the song. Some will work closely with Yankovic to produce something they would be proud of, and a few were publicly upset when they heard the final result. Prince never gave permission. Paul McCartney's vegetarianism is the reason we never heard the parody of "Live and Let Die," which was going to be named "Chicken Pot Pie." A few artists liked the parodies so much that they use Weird Al's lyrics instead of their own on occasion! Read the stories of how 15 artist reacted to Weird Al parodies of their songs at Cracked.