In 1890, jealousy and envy destroyed two brothers. Isaac Sawtelle of Boston served time in prison for rape and assault. When he was paroled, he returned to his hometown to find that his younger brother, Hiram Sawtelle Jr. was running his late father's fruit store and managing his mother's inheritance. Hiram was a responsible man with a wife and children, while Isaac the older brother was an ex-con with nothing.
Isaac had a friend, though. He had met Charles Lewis Blood in prison. Blood had no official training, but he presented himself as a doctor to sell patent medicines. He even sold "oxygenized air" as a cure-all. One might feel a bit of trepidation for consulting "Dr. Blood," but that is neither here nor there. Blood knew about Isaac's predicament, and offered to arrange for the elderly Mrs. Sawtelle's business interests to be put into Isaac's hands for a mere $500. He had a grand scheme that involved kidnapping Hiram Sawtelle's seven-year-old daughter.
If you've seen a few movies, you know that the scheme did not go as planned, and soon police in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire were looking for the missing Hiram and the suspicious Isaac. Read the story of brotherly jealousy that led to murder at Geri Walton's blog. -via Strange Company
My Finances: pic.twitter.com/SasbwqAIRD
— Andrew Hilary but spooky 👻 (@AndrewHilaryUS) October 8, 2021
This is the cutest story you will see today. These kids and their cryptocurrencies!
Andrew Hilary drives an ice cream truck. When a little girl wanted to pay for an ice cream with a blue rock, he couldn't resist. He mentioned that no one should tell his boss, but the viral Tweet that resulted is worth its weight in gold. In the followup comments we find that the rock is plastic and glows in the dark! Speaking of being worth its weight in gold, Hilary has been offered $5 for the rock, and $500 for an NFT of the above picture. I don't think he's going to part with the rock.
Other commenters admired his shirt and noted he could enter a Seth Rogan lookalike contest. A day later, we learn the rest of the story.
The sun is shining, I’ve got one of my best shirts on, and thanks to a kind stranger who saw my tweet and venmoed me, I just got to give a bunch of kids free ice cream!
— Andrew Hilary but spooky 👻 (@AndrewHilaryUS) October 9, 2021
(Note: do not send me money, i am super irresponsible😅) pic.twitter.com/lJzwqgLgJh
-via Fark
Ze Frank is back with a True Facts video that we know he's been collecting facts and jokes about for a long time. This one is about the most horrible killer animal on the planet: the Moscow-ito, er, the mosquito. We hate them because they are both annoying and dangerous, but they have a rather unique physiology and lifestyle that we should know about. Even the larval stage gives us mosquitos that breath through their butts and cannibalize their neighbors. And then there's the jokes. Anyway, that's why this video is longer than a normal Ze Frank video, but well worth your time, even if you have to watch it in installments. The visual horror show starts after the four-minute mark, when the adults emerge to spread their misery. By the time it when gets to the biting part, you should be ready for it.
Stunning installations can be seen by visitors to the Art Preserve of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. There are currently 40 artist-built environments that are dedicated to showcasing how an artist embodies and expresses their history, place, culture, ideas, and imagination. The environments vary, from Emery Blagdon’s suspended kinetic assemblages made of sheet metal to Nek Chand’s troupe of more than 150 mosaic figures, so visitors can enjoy different spectacular sights to behold! A video tour of the preserve can be seen here!
Image credit: John Michael Kohler Arts Center
It's difficult to grow vegetables in the Himalayas. It's even difficult to grow feed for cattle. And it's also difficult to carry enough food for long treks through the mountains. But people adapt, and in Nepal, they found ways. A yak-cow hybrid called the chauri can live off the tougher grass available at higher elevations. The milk of the chauri is made into a cheese called chhurpi, which is so dry that it can be eaten for far longer than any other cheese. It is said that chhurpi can last for up to twenty years! Â
Chauri milk is boiled, fermented, smoked, and dried for preservation. The chhurpi that results is lightweight and full of protein, with very little fat. That makes it easy to transport and easy to store, but not all that easy to eat. An experienced chhurpi chewer can do it in a few minutes, while an intrepid reporter never got it soft enough to ingest. BBC Travel visited a Nepalese family who produces chhurpi from their own livestock and from those of their neighbors to see how they make it and use it. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Arijit Dasgupta)
Ever wondered if you could meet all your favourite wildlife biologists in a video game? pic.twitter.com/RALrkEB2w2
— Peter Cooper (@PeteMRCooper) October 6, 2021
Peter Cooper, a wildlife biologist, describes the different species of wildlife biologists that you may encounter. Be careful: they are wildlife biologists, not domesticated, and thus should be approached with caution. Do not feed them and, more importantly, do not attempt to touch them.
A safer approach is to play an immersive role-playing video game that lets you encounter highly realistic simulations of these creatures. You can practice safe handling practices, such as not accepting brownies offered by the mycologists. No matter what they tell you, the brownies will not enable you to make planar shifts.
-via Rosemary Marco
It's that time of year again! It only makes sense to share excess seasonal fruits with any animal that will eat them. The Oregon Zoo not only wants to give their animals a variety of food for nutrition, but also uses pumpkins as an enrichment tool. Besides that, they know we are suckers for cute animals eating -or playing with- the symbol of the season. It's like killing two birds with one stone: the animals get a treat, and we get to revel in their cuteness with this video. Then again, the zoo staff probably wouldn't even think of killing birds with a stone. -via Laughing Squid
Remember, you can see more adorable animals and read their stories at Supa Fluffy.
You might know the word Samhain as the original Halloween, celebrated by ancient pagans in the British Isles. That's the short version. There are four Celtic festivals called Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain which fall halfway between the equinoxes and the solstices. For another example, Imbolc is when people looked for signs of spring and eventually became Groundhog Day. In that vein, Samhain was a harvest festival that had some spiritual overtones. Over thousands of years, that festival became split between a Christian holiday (All Saints Day) and a devil's holiday (Halloween). But neither of those have much to do with the original Samhain. Read about Samhain and how it changed so much at Mental Floss.
Remember when you were a kid, and thought the very idea of combining cheese and cake was ridiculous? Several fellows from a remote area in the province of Punjab, Pakistan, had never eaten a New York cheesecake before, but they were willing to try. While they aren't big on showing surprise in facial expressions, they have a wonderful way of conveying their delight by their word choice. Note- those who speak the language have pointed out that the one guy who wanted to eat a whole cheesecake on a riverbank also said there would be a campfire there (although the subtitles left that out). Such a simple description conveys the idea of "heaven" no matter what language you speak. -via reddit
And now you are craving a slice of cheesecake, aren't you? Sorry.
The hit 1956 movie musical The King and I was based on the 1951 Broadway musical of the same name, which was based on Margaret Landon's 1944 novel Anna and the King of Siam, which was based on the 1870 book The English Governess in Siamese Court by Anna Leonowens. There were also other movies based on the same story, one in 1946, two in 1999, and a TV series in 1972.
With so many iterations of the story over 150 years, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that it has historical inaccuracies. One would think that going back to the original 1870 memoir by Anna Leonowens, who really did work for King Mongkut of Siam (now Thailand), would give us the true story, but even that account was highly fictionalized for dramatic effect and to push Leonowens' feminist and abolitionist views.
Maybe it would be better to simply read about Leonowens life. That's where we find that Leonowens had begun fictionalizing details of her life long before she ever went to Siam! Read about the real Anna Leonowens and how she crafted her own life story at Historic Mysteries. -via Strange Company
Now this is a wholesome friendship!
Meet Buttons the deer and her best friend for eleven years, G-Bro the Golden Retriever. This unlikely duo met when G-Bro’s human Lorrie rescued the deer. After fostering Buttons, she was released into the wild. However, the two animals’ bond was deeper than expected, as Buttons kept coming back to meet up with her friend.
One day, the deer returned with her babies and seemed to ask for help in raising them. G-Bro, the bestest friend Buttons had, shared maternal duties with her without any hesitation at all.
Image credit: via Very Interesting
Do you have what it takes to face this horrifying hybrid monster?
Choo-Choo Charles is an open-world horror game that pits its players against a scary spider train named Charles. Developed by Two Star Games, the game provides an old train that players can upgrade as they traverse through an island as they try to avoid the evil horror that stalks them everywhere. The game, now listed on Steam will be available in the first quarter of 2022.
Image credit: Two Star Games / Steam
Oho!
Scientists have discovered the censored words in a series of letters Marie Antoinette exchange with Swedish count Axel von Fersen. It is heavily rumored that the French royal was in a relationship with von Fersen. The secret letters were purchased and handed over to historians from the Fersen family archive, but someone marked out certain words and phrases. Intriguing, right?
According to an analysis made by a group of French researchers, the Swedish count himself might have censored Antoinette’s letters.
Image credit: CRC
Untoward violence against animals, especially if unprovoked, should not be allowed. Regardless, it still happens, and there are animals that die too early. Some are lucky enough to pull through and survive. Maggie is one of those lucky dogs.
The dog was discovered in Lebanon after having her eyes shot out, her ear cut off, and having her jaw broken. The poor pupper! Rescuers found Maggie pregnant and tied to a box by herself. Fortunately, animal charity Wild at Heart Foundation took her to a home in Brighton, where she was able to recover. The dog now works as a therapy dog. Cheers to you, Maggie!
Image credit: Maggie The Wonder Dog / Instagram
We've been to Wild West amusement parks where a gunfight in the street was scheduled for every hour, on the hour. When Palisade, Nevada, did it, those gunfights were scheduled according to when passengers arrived on the railroad train -and those disembarking had no idea it was all staged. See, when the transcontinental railroad opened for business, travelers complained that the Wild West wasn't nearly as wild as it had been depicted in dime novels. In 1870, the tiny new railroad town of Palisade decided to do something about that, and maybe drum up some tourist business.
Their plan worked magnificently. Gunfights broke out in the street every time a train stopped. The town developed a reputation as a "must-see" among tourists, and journalists were eager to describe the carnage, albeit without too many facts about the perpetrators or victims. The town also staged bank robberies and Indian raids, which kept the people coming to town for a few years. Despite all the "killings," the population of Palisade peaked at about 300 people during this period, almost all involved in the performances. Read about the Palisade Wild West show at Messy Nessy Chic.
