By July of 1953, most of the fighting in the Korean War was over. Yet many thousands of US service members remained on duty in this explosive war zone.

The following February, Marilyn Monroe married the baseball giant Joe DiMaggio. The couple honeymooned in Japan and, while there, made a brief visit to South Korea. The patriotic Monroe visited about 100,000 troops at ten shows over four days in her official capacity of a United Service Organizations volunteer.

Pictured above is her official registration card with the Department of Defense, using her legal name of Norma Jean DiMaggio. It sold at auction several years ago for $31,250.

-via Book of Joe

How quickly could you type the alphabet with your nose (with spaces)? India's Vinod Kumar Chaudhary did it in 26.73 seconds ⌨️👃 pic.twitter.com/IBt7vghVai

— Guinness World Records (@GWR) May 30, 2024

In his biography of Alexander the Great, the First Century AD Roman author Quintus Curtius Rufus described the seemingly limitless physical courage of Alexander, who often led his armies from the forefront. Curtius praised his courage, but also leveled at Alexander:

[...] the charge of reckless daring, which he had in abundance, can have less force, because there was never an opportunity to decide whether he had acted rashly.

Great men of transcendent ambition, such as Alexander the Great and Vinod Kumar Chaudhary, are compelled to push themselves past ordinary limits--to accomplish the impossible again and again. Great striving brings great risks.

Chaudhary established a Guinness World Record last year when he typed the alphabet with his nose in 27.8 seconds. Yet, like Alexander after Issus, Chaudhary was only getting started. He insisted on breaking that record, setting a new one of 26.73 seconds. Now, he's broken that record, striking the keystrokes, with a space between each one, in a mere 25.66 seconds.

Will Chaudhary press forward again? Or will he face a mutiny as Alexander did and be forced to settle for the empire has has been able to conquer?

-via Dave Barry

In one of the holiest temples of America's civic religion there is a bullet hole. Search carefully in the frieze of the Lincoln Memorial and you may be able to spot it.

Here's a clearer image. How did this happen?

In September 1942, when the U.S. government worried about Axis attacks on the American homeland, anti-aircraft defenses stood guard over major cities and important sites. One soldier manning a .50-caliber machine gun in Washington, D.C., accidentally discharged his weapon, firing a burst. Three bullets struck the Lincoln Memorial. One of bullet holes could not be practically repaired, so it remains there to this day.

-via U.S. Naval Institute | Photos: U.S. Park Service

Luna Lee is a Korean musician who specializes in traditional Korean instruments. She's a world-acclaimed master of the gayageum, a stringed instrument somewhat similar to a large European zither. In the past, we've featured her version of Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" and AC/DC's "Thunderstruck."

Yesterday's Memorial Day commemorations may put my fellow Americans in a patriotic mood, so it is appropriate that Lee recorded a performance of our majestic national anthem.

あなたはどの寮に入りたい？🦁🦡🦅🐍
おみくじみたいな『組み分け帽子』のアイシングクッキー作りました🧙‍♂️🪄

Hogwarts House Reveal Cookies!🦁🦡🦅🐍
Which house would you want to be in?🏰#ハリーポッター #sortinghat pic.twitter.com/3s7lBbBOZF

— アイシングクッキー作家Fiocco (@Fiocco_cookies) July 28, 2023

Shiori, a Japanese chef who goes by the online name of Fiocco Cookies, makes extraordinary confections that look like perfectly-decorated sweets. And if you break them open, you'll also find even more sweets inside!

These cookies that serve in place of the Sorting Hat from the Harry Potter franchise is an especially ingenious application of the cookie design. I hope that you pick the right cookie lest you end up in the wrong house!

Two weeks ago, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, Illinois became famous on the internet for their viral video illustrating the 17-year life cycle of a cicada (Magicicada septendecim). The video features employees in simplistic costumes playing the roles of our insect friends in their quest to grow, thrive, and find mates.

Now the forestry workers are back with an updated video showing what the cicadas are up to lately. Tom Velat, the ecology supervisor, describes how the cicadas are trying to avoid predators. Velat also provides advice on how to live alongside the cicadas while preserving our pets and favorite plants.

CBC tells us about a pair of ingeniously-designed football games that were played in 1944. They took place between American and Canadian troops in Britain. The organizers called the games the Tea Bowl I and II in reference to the English national beverage and the winning team took home a silver teapot trophy.

The first half of each game was played according to American football rules and the second half according to Canadian football rules. The Canadians won the first game and the Americans won the second game. There was going to be a Tea Bowl III, but everyone involved became distracted by Operation Overlord.

-via Raffi Melkonian

Tettyo Saito, 30, has spent many years as a hikikomori--a socially reclusive person. He failed college entrance exams and so stayed at home with his parents, rarely leaving. He watched a lot of movies during that time, including one from Romania that fascinated him.

Saito realized that he needed to learn some of the Romanian language to understand the movie better. So, with textbooks and online communities, he taught himself Romanian. Eventually, a 2023 article in The Asahi Shimbum reports, he began writing fiction in that language.

After sharing some of his work with Romanian online communities, a publisher in Romania picked it up. Saito has published a few novels that are actually read and respected in Romania.

He still has, though, yet to visit that nation.

-via Wrath of Gnon | Photo: Yuta Torio

We are at the point in the 17-year long life cycle of the cicada when our little winged friends are roaming the earth in search of mates. They're everywhere, including in our drinks.

Noon Whistle Brewery, a brewpub in Chicago, offers unique drinks that have a bit of extra protein in the form of a single cicada which, the company assures us, has been locally harvested. So you know that you're supporting local growers. 

The cicada is served in a measure of Jeppson's Malört, a liqueur closely identified with Chicago and described by comedian John Hodgman as flavored like "pencil shavings and heartbreak."

-via King Aelfred the Great

Twitter user Michael (@bovineflu) spotted this odd vending machine at a train station in the city of Freiburg in southwestern Germany.

This machine sells unclaimed delivery packages. The look like they've been resealed after opening, which is probably a good precaution lest some dangerous--or worse, valuable--items be accidentally sold. Michael describes it as "100% my kind of slot machine." Everyone is a winner!

-via Massimo

France continues to march forward in grandeur nationale, bearing the baguette as its symbol of collective pride. Last Thursday marked a special occasion for that leavened nationalism. It was the feast day of Saint Honoré, the patron saint of bakers. To celebrate, the national postal service released a scratch and sniff stamp that smells like a baguette.

France 24 reports that the stamp has a value of 1.96 Euros. The baguette is embraced with a ribbon showing the red, white, and blue colors of Revolutionary France--the proper order. The postal service is selling a total of 594,000 such stamps.

-via Marilyn Terrell | Image: Le Parisien

The waters between the Farallon Islands and the San Francisco mainland are extremely dangerous. They're cold, often populated by sharks, and are prone to brutal currents. Only six people have successfully swam the 30 mile stretch between them. Only one, the San Francisco Gate reports, have done so while starting from the mainland itself. That person is Amy Appelhans Gubser.

The 55-year old nurse and grandmother is already a noted world-class competitor in marathon swimming. She's planned this swim for five years. Gubser started her swim early in the morning last Saturday and arrived at the Farallon Islands seventeen hours later.

-via Conor Friedersdorf | Photo: Amy Appelhans Gubser

Are hot dogs sandwiches? Are Pop-Tarts sandwiches? These are questions that remain unadjudicated. But now we do know that tacos and burritos are sandwiches--at least in the State of Indiana.

WISH TV 8 News in Fort Wayne reports Judge Craig J. Bobay ruled that Famous Taco may open a restaurant in a strip mall under a zoning ordinance which prohibited the opening of fast food restaurants. The judge determined that sandwich shops are not fast food establishments and that tacos and burritos constitute sandwiches.

In his ruling, Judge Bobay describes tacos and burritos as "Mexican-style sandwiches." He also notes that the ruling document would also permit "Greek gyros, Indian naan wraps, or Vietnamese banh mi."

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Claudia_midori

"Pull my finger."

In Germany, this request usually has a different connotation. The Associated Press tells us that fingerhakeln is a traditional sport from southern Germany and the alpine region of Austria.

Two men face each other across a table and place their middle fingers through a leather loop. Then they try to pull each other across the table. Fingerhakeln requires a lot of strength--sometimes enough to dislocate an opponent's finger.

Last Sunday, 150 men gathered in a beer tent in Bernbeuren, Germany to compete. Approximately 1,000 spectators watched the athletes, who were dressed in traditional clothing, pull against each other in successive rounds until a champion prevailed.

-via Dave Barry

We don't know what this tiny ground spider calls itself. But we humans should refer to it by its official taxanomic identifier, which is Hotwheels sisyphus. It lives in southwestern China and is one of three recently classified ground spiders in that region of China.

ZooKeys informs us that it was named specifically for the Hot Wheels toys produced by Mattel bccause the coiled embolus (I think that's part of the legs) of the animal resembles a Hot Wheels track.

The Drive says that the Hotwheels sisyphus is noted for its "weird genitals," but I think that's getting a bit personal. I mean, how would you feel if people primarily thought of your genitalia when learning about you?

-via Super Punch