This fascinating photograph from Retronaut is from a stilt race that took place in France in 1892. Sports Illustrated published an account of the race in 1971. It seems that stilt-walking was commonplace among shepherds in Les Landes, an area in the southwest of France where the terrain made it difficult to watch sheep on foot or horseback. The race was organized as a newspaper promotion. The route was from Bordeaux to Biarritz and back -490 kilometers, or 309 miles! On May 26, 69 men took off, while 18 women on stilts ran a shorter route so they could be home in time to fix dinner. The race organizers thought the stilt-walkers would stop at night to sleep, but the competitors had other ideas. There were many bets placed, and the race was won by one of the favorites: Pierre Deycard, a woodcutter from Salles.

It was a weary and long-drawn-out procession indeed that dragged into Bordeaux on the next day, May 30. Deycard, almost dozing on his long legs, was completing the 309-mile trip in just over 100 hours at an average speed of three miles an hour. The organizers had estimated eight days for the race: Deycard needed less than five. Sixty cyclists, hundreds of pedestrians and a brass band traveled to the suburbs of Bordeaux to meet him. Jean Lafont, the paper-mill worker from St.-Eulalie, came a close second. Four hours behind followed the stocky, 4'11" Antoine Dugrand, to gain third place, resplendent in a scarlet waistcoat, a wet handkerchief over his head and a scarlet beret on top of that.   

Read more about this unusual competition at SI. Link -via John Walkenbach

Every week, I use this wrap-up post as an excuse to sort through the stats we have. They can be kind of humbling. Often, the posts that a blogger puts the most work into, or gets the most excited about, ends up with a "meh" response. And just as often, something really easy that we throw on at the last minute turns out to be a barnburner, sparks a lively comment discussion, or gets linked at a lot of other sites. But that's all a learning experience. We need to know what you like and don't like, so we can bring you more of what Neatoramanauts most want to see. If you've got something to say about a post, leave us a comment. If you just like it, click and give it a ♥ -and a comment, too, if you've got the time. If you see something that Aunt Harriet would love, you can email it to her. If it's really interesting, you can tell your Twitter followers or Facebook friends. And if you see something interesting on another site that we should know about, you can email tips@neatorama.com to tell us about it. Every one of those things helps us improve the site and give you what you want. Thanks! Now let's recap what we offered in the past week, in case you need to catch up.  

Jill Harness attended Comic Con and brought back the biggest collection of photos yet! See them in the post 65 Cosplay Pictures From San Diego Comic Con 2013.

Edddie Deezen pondered the question of What's in the Briefcase in Pulp Fiction?

Uncle John's Bathroom Reader gave us Public-Access Cable: Anyone's A Star.

Stock Market Behavior Predicted by Rat Neurons was from the Annals of Improbable Research.

Mental_floss magazine contributed 10 Missing Treasures You Should Really Be Looking For!

David Israel posed more Questions In Need of Answers, which has spawned great conversations on organic produce and rats -thank goodness those are two different questions!

Hy Conrad brought us another Whodunit, this one called The Pointing Corpse.

In this week's What Is It? game, the pictured tool is a buffing wheel rake, for removing excess buffing compound from a cloth buffing wheel, a photo of one in use can be seen here. Steve Pauk guessed that right, and as promised, wins a virtual pat on the back. We have t-shirts for the two funniest answers this week, one for Trish Schroeder, who declared it to be the hairbrush that Kid's stylist (from Kid n' Play) used to create his hair in the 90's. The other shirt goes to Sam Bacon, who said it's a corn remover for the Hulk's feet! See the answers to all this week's mystery objects at the What Is It? blog.

The non-giveaway post with the most comments was Questions In Need of Answers. In second place was Keep Calm and Just Name The Royal Baby Already, and Rolling Clay with Keith was third.

The comment of the week came from Ian Garatt, who responded to the post High-End Stores Use Facial Recognition Software to Detect Celebrities When They Walk In, saying "But mostly, they're checking for Winona Ryder." Ha!

I also need to mention a great one by Kevin George, who responded to the trousers found embedded in the tree by saying, "Back then, swimwear was full length. I say these are trunks."

The most popular post was Star Wars vs. Game of Thrones, followed by 10 Missing Treasures You Should Really Be Looking For! and 65 Cosplay Pictures From San Diego Comic Con 2013 came in third.
 
The post with the most ♥s was Digitally Restoring an Old Photograph. Coming in second was That's Not An Iceberg, Silly Walrus, followed by You Can Finally Formally Introduce Yourself to an Otter.

The most emailed post was Mama Cat and Ducklings, with The World's Largest Canine-Friendly Cake coming in second. Star Wars vs. Game of Thrones and Sharkini tied for third place.

When you're shopping for back to school supplies, be sure to put something special from the NeatoShop in there amongst the generic paper and pencils to make your kids feel special and excited about school! Pictured here is my new favorite t-shirt. Imagine showing up for your new chemistry class wearing this -the teacher will be impressed!

And when you've caught up on everything here, be sure to take a look at the Neatoramanauts Facebook page, where you'll find neat stuff like a cute little owl with lots of caption suggestions and surprising vintage photos. Have a great week!

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Here's more proof that a little child can learn anything her parents are interested in teaching her: a two-year-old Russian girl recognizes all kinds of vehicles from their logos. They are pronounced a little differently in Russian, but I'm impressed. I was in my twenties before I could recognize any car brand besides Volkswagen, and in my forties before I could reliably recognize American cars. -via Tastefullly Offensive

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Nick Bertke celebrated his birthday yesterday by posting his latest remix, made completely from the sounds found in the 1964 Disney movie Mary Poppins. It's not the first time he's remixed that particular movie. -via Viral Viral Videos

Now that's the art of recycling! Redditor jorimoo made this dress from pages of an old thesaurus. It is lined with fabric, for comfort. See more pictures at imgur. Link -via Laughing Squid

Peter Jackson posted a series of updates on Facebook about the very last day of filming The Hobbit movies. He spent 15 years doing the six Tolkien films, with a total of 771 days of shooting that ended today in New Zealand. You can check out the activities on his Facebook page or see a recap at Buzzfeed. Link

(Image credit: Peter Jackson)

Here's a great game for proud grammar nazis and everyone else, too. How fast can you spot improper word usage and spelling? Really fast? Here's a game to test whether your opinion matches your skills. All you have to do is decide whether the sentence is typed correctly. Link  -via b3ta

The coastal island of Assateague is partly in the state of Virginia and partly in Maryland. The island is home to a herd of feral ponies, with a fence dividing the ponies into each state. On the Maryland side, they belong to the National Park Service. On the Virginia side, they belong to the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, which thins the herd in July every year with a fundraising auction. But first they have to get the ponies off the island.

Every year the department's "saltwater cowboys" round up the island's feral equines for a low-tide swim from Assateague to Chincoteague, where the ponies are herded down Main Street and corralled for a later auction. The first foal to make it to shore is crowned King or Queen Neptune and made the prize of the festival's raffle drawing. The remaining ponies are later auctioned, either for personal ownership or as "buybacks," in which case the pony will be returned to its island home for another year of feral roaming.

But how did the ponies get on the island in the first place? No one knows for sure, but you can read about the legend behind them at Atlas Obscura. Link

(Image credit: Bonnie U. Gruenberg)

A 100-year-old old tree in Shelbyville, Indiana, held a secret inside for years. Brent Montgomery noticed the locally-famous Old Linden Tree had a leaning branch that was causing damage to a brick wall, so he trimmed it off.

"About halfway up the tree, there was about an eight-foot hollow patch," Montgomery said. "I was standing underneath it looking up and I said, ‘Well what's that?'"

He said it looked like a brown bag from the ground, but when he got a closer look, he realized it was actually a pair of pants. Very old pants.

"It's not like there's a knot where someone might have stuck them in there," Montgomery said. "They grew in it."

After work Friday, Miller rushed to the tire shop to see the pants, which she described as "very coarse."

The bottoms, which the local history authority claims were probably sewn during the 1800s, have a button but no zipper. The letters "HCRAFT" can be made out on the small, rusted button, but the rest is faded. The pants, which are still connected to the tree, are stained with what looks to be white paint.

Grover Museum Director Candy Miller is researching what is known of the pants to see if they can be reliably dated. Link -via Arbroath

(Image credit: James Vaughn)

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College Humor staged a prank in which a live human voices a taxi cab's GPS. The service goes from believable to slightly incompetent to downright goofy. This compilation of passengers only contains those who were paying attention. Paying attention can turn out to be fun! -via Viral Viral Videos

Placing Literature is a project in which the locations in your favorite novels are mapped onto the exact places from the books. There are 1,500 data points already mapped, and book lovers are invited to add more.

For example, above you see a bit of Geneva, Switzerland, labeled with the events of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that took place there. Zoom in to find the exact addresses. In some major cities, you'll have to zoom in to separate the many stories that are set in those urban areas. Link -via HuffPo Books

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Pinky, a flamingo at Busch Gardens, shows off her fancy footwork. She was not trained to do this, but unlike other flamingos, does not mind doing the natural flamingo dance for visitors. See flamingoes perform in a group in this video.  -via Tastefully Offensive

Check out this picture of 28 men with no hair. One, two-year-old Patrick in the front, lost his because of chemotherapy for cancer. The rest, his father, his father's co-workers in the Secret Service, and former president George H.W. Bush (front and center) all shaved their heads in support of the little guy. Bush and his wife Barbara lost their four-year-old daughter to leukemia 60 years ago. Link

(Image credit: Jim McGrath)

No actual children were killed in the making of this comic from lunarbaboon. Link -via Daily of the Day

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.

1994's Pulp Fiction is one of the best and most original films in recent movie history. It has always been my favorite Quentin Tarantino movie. It's one of those films that when you first see it, it bowls you over, with both its originality and its interesting, engrossing storyline.

Now, because the film has been widely imitated and "borrowed from" (after Pulp Fiction came out, it seems like there were dozens of mystery/thriller/crime capers with a host of quirky characters), a bit of its originality may seem to have worn off. Nonetheless, Pulp Fiction remains a classic, an extremely watchable, enjoyable film.

Pulp Fiction also has another interesting distinction: it was John Travolta's comeback film. Because John is known the world over as a hugely successful movie star (incredibly, Travolta has been making movies longer now than Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, or Clark Gable ever did), many movie fans forget that before Pulp Fiction, John's career had sunk to a fairly low degree. Before Pulp Fiction came out, John was mainly looked upon as a bit of a washed up "former" superstar.

But with his Oscar-nominated comeback performance in Pulp Fiction, John was back again, reclaiming his well-deserved superstar status. John's comeback is one of the greatest in show business history.

In the plot of Pulp Fiction, there's a briefcase filled with an orange light. Apparently, many movie fans have theories about what exactly is contained in the briefcase and what is the meaning of the orange light.