Katie McBride Newman of Newman, Georgia, tells the story of the Christmas owl. Her family bought a cut Christmas tree, brought it home, set it up, and began putting ornaments on it. Coincidentally, they were hanging owl ornaments when they found a real owl had come with the tree! The owl did not show any desire to leave.  

In the days that followed, Newman and her husband, Billy, posted videos, shared details of trying to feed the bird, and added a bit of mystery by noting it would vanish and reappear in the tree.

“Last night we shut all the interior doors, turned off all the lights and came to initiate owl removal – and he was NO WHERE to be found. Gulp,” the family posted Dec. 13. “At 1:30 am, Billy came out to check, and was roosting on the tip top of the star.”

On Dec. 14, the couple sought professional help from the Chattahoochee Nature Center, which sent a wildlife tech to examine the bird for injuries (it was unhurt) and get it into a crate.

Read the story of the owl in the Christmas tree at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. -via Boing Boing

Long before December 25th was designated as the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, northern civilizations celebrated the winter solstice. While the solstice doesn't mean much in the tropics, it is a big deal in colder places, because it means daylight will stop shrinking and begin to grow again. Watch a traditional solstice song and dance from Latvia celebrating the solstice the way their ancestors did. A machine translation from the description at YouTube says,

Everything is as it used to be.
Just like in fairy tales, it is the eve of the Winter Solstice and Goddess is standing by the door, a camomile.
Just as in the past, the night alternates with the day and the Sun gives his daughter the Velas to this land.
And just like in the past, we masquerade to pull up the feast on the hill and re-create the world.

Kaladoo!

-via Nag on the Lake

In October, Nick Noland took off on a solo hike that was only nine miles, round trip. But after watching the sunset from the mountain summit, he had to find his way back in the freezing dark. He lost feeling in his feet, and therefore did not realize when he lost his shoes.

I tucked myself under the roots of a large, fallen pine and scraped in as many leaves and branches as I could to cover myself. I settled into a fetal position, and planned to wait for daylight.

But lying under that downed tree, I began to wonder if I had dug my own grave. I started thinking I might never get home. I thought about the sparkle in my oldest kid’s eye, the way my one-year-old says “Daddy,” and of my wife.

Noland make it back to his truck, but there was still plenty of trouble ahead. Read his story at Outside Online. -via Digg

(Image credit: Nick Noland)

The Japanese theme park called Western Village in Tochigi prefecture, filled with animatronic cowboys, came and went long before the TV series Westworld debuted, but could it have been inspired by the 1973 movie Westworld?

In 1975, Kenichi Ominami transformed his family ranch into a cowboy town called Western Village (鬼怒川 ウェスタン村).  He hired performers and hosted cowboy shows.

The Old West theme park continued to grow and add attractions in the 80's and 90's.  In 1995, construction began on a 1/3 scale replica of Mount Rushmore.  Ominami decided to build "Mexico Land" across a stream from Western Village.  A bridge was constructed to connect the two areas, and the stream was dubbed "The Rio Grande."

Years after the crowds faded away, Western Village officially closed in 2007.

Western Village has fallen into disrepair in the 12 years since. While the performers are gone, many of the animatronic characters still remain as if to haunt the place. Take a tour of the abandoned park through video. -via Laughing Squid

You will be forgiven for being confused by the title. Crisco is not the generic term for shortening, which is solid fat used to make pie crusts another pastries. However, Crisco may be the only brand of shortening you've seen. When it first launched in 1911, it was one of several brands of shortening, a product developed to replace lard for baking and frying. The reason Crisco became the dominant brand is a story of marketing.    

For decades, Crisco had only one ingredient, cottonseed oil. But most consumers never knew that. That ignorance was no accident.

A century ago, Crisco’s marketers pioneered revolutionary advertising techniques that encouraged consumers not to worry about ingredients and instead to put their trust in reliable brands. It was a successful strategy that other companies would eventually copy.

Read the story of Crisco, and of shortening itself, at The Conversation. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Science History Institute)

If you were to plan the ultimate vacation to Disney World's new Star Wars theme park Galaxy's Edge, you may as well stay in the ultimate accommodations. The house called Twelve Parsecs by Loma Homes in Orlando is available to rent through Airbnb. It has nine bedrooms with 17 beds, each with a different Star Wars theme. You can sleep in Cloud City, Alderaan, Hoth, Tatooine, Mustafar, Dagobah, Endor, or in one of the spaceships.

There are even Star Wars appliances in the kitchen! See what you could be getting into at Airbnb. Twelve Parsecs will run you $564 a night, but but if you take 17 people, it works out to a manageable fee per person. -via Geeks Are Sexy

When you think of "Soviet camp," you probably envision the Gulag system, where Stalin sentenced millions of political prisoners to work camps as punishment. But there were also summer camps for kids, called Pioneer camps. Between 1922 and 1991, all children in the Soviet Union were required to join the Young Pioneers organization, and Pioneer summer camp meant weeks spent with other youth, playing sports and learning wilderness skills. It also included indoctrination and basic military training.

I eventually came across the story of Pavlik Morozov, a 13 year-old boy who became the literal poster-child for the Young Pioneers in the 1930s. He was just a kid when he turned his parents in to the police for hiding grain, and actively participated in their assassination. He was then killed by his grandfather for betraying his family. Pavlik was celebrated as a martyr by the Soviets. Statues of him were built, and numerous schools and youth groups were named in his honour. His former school became a shrine and children from all over the Soviet Union went on school excursions to visit it.

The Young Pioneers organisation, which claimed Pavlik as one of their own for the perfect propaganda story, had a huge impact on the moral norms of generations of children, who were actively encouraged by the Soviets to inform on their parents.

Many former camp attendees remember those days with fondness. Read about Pioneer camps and see plenty of pictures at Messy Nessy Chic.

Gary Larson’s The Far Side comic finally has an official website #TheFarSide #GaryLarson https://t.co/HKtwfaEJwO pic.twitter.com/QRBSSsWcgH

— GEEKSPIN (@geekspinco) December 18, 2019

Gary Larson's comic The Far Side was syndicated in newspapers from 1980 to 1995, when Larson suddenly retired at age 44. Larson is famously protective of his cartoons, and objects to people sharing them online. He has maintained a website, but it hadn't been updated since 2000  ...until now. As of Tuesday, the website The Far Side is live once again, and is the official home of Larson's comics, both new and classic. He explained his reasoning in a letter detailing his relationship with the internet from its beginning.    

So fast-forward to today, and hey, look! I’m writing another letter! This time, though, I’m writing to say something I never thought I would: Welcome to The Far Side website! Guess I’ve got some ’splainin’ to do.

Truthfully, I still have some ambivalence about officially entering the online world — I previously equated it to a rabbit hole, although “black hole” sometimes seems more apropos — but my change of heart on this has been due not only to some evolution in my own thinking, but also in two areas I’ve always cared about when it comes to this computer/Internet “stuff”: security and graphics.

Personally, I am looking forward to more absurdity from the man who brought us Thagomizers, Anatidaephobia, and that Jane Goodall tramp. And cows, of course.

-via Metafilter

Everyone remembers their favorite Christmas episode from their favorite TV series, but you haven't seen all the best ones. Check out Mental Floss's picks for the 40 best Christmas episodes ever. As you can guess, there's a lot going on in the Friends episode entitled "The One With the Holiday Armadillo."  

Whatever your feelings may be about Ross Geller’s questionable behavior as a parent, boyfriend, professor, doctor (of paleontology), or person in general, you must admit his histrionics as the holiday armadillo have earned him a place in the Christmas television hall of fame. In the absence of any available Santa Claus costumes, Ross dons a terrifying armadillo suit to teach his half-Jewish son about Hanukkah—but when Chandler appears dressed as Santa Claus, and Joey bursts in dressed as Superman, it turns into the weirdest Christmas pageant of all time. —EG

Yeah, there's a lot going on in that one, but even more in this entry:



The 40 episodes featured range from 1955 to series that are still running, alphabetically from Alfred Hitchcock Presents to The X-Files. Read the synopses of each at Mental Floss, many with video clips, and you might want to seek some of them out on home video or your streaming service.  

Imgur member KneeAppallingTanIceCream was just passing by a veterinary clinic and noticed this series of signs. Who wouldn't be curious after seeing that? Unfortunately, the clinic was closed at the time. However, Fred was there, behind the glass and KneeAppallingTanIceCream managed to get a picture through the window. The post went viral and everyone wants to see more of Fred. You can see Fred and read the story at Bored Panda. Let's hope we learn more about Fred in the future.

Life could be lonely for lighthouse keepers along the New England coast. They lived on tiny islands or spits of land, sometimes with their families, and only got supply drops about once a month or so. How could one get Christmas gifts for the family in such a situation? They didn't have to, because they could rely on Flying Santa to come through.

Seamond Ponsart Roberts first learned about Flying Santa when she was 5 years old. In October 1945, her mother, Emma, told her the jolly old fellow would deliver a doll to her by airplane. For the next three months, every time an aircraft flew over the lighthouse they called home, the excited little girl would ask, “Is that him? Is that my Flying Santa?”

Her special delivery did arrive in December in the form of a package dropped from a plane by Edward Rowe Snow of Massachusetts, a veteran recently returned from World War II who would go on to author numerous books and articles about seafaring history and traditions. His classic Storms and Shipwrecks of New England was first published in 1943 and republished several times since then. Through his writing and weekly radio show, he cemented the legacy of Flying Santa, a 90-year-old holiday tradition that continues today.

Snow was neither the first nor the last Flying Santa, or even a pilot, but he filled the role for 40 years. The tradition of Flying Santa began in 1929, and continues today. Read about Snow and the Flying Santa program at Smithsonian. You'll also find out what happened to Seamond's doll.

(Image credit: Dolly Bicknell collection)

The 1999 movie Galaxy Quest combined comedy, action, and science fiction. Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Alan Rickman are actors starring in a sci-fi TV show similar to Star Trek, fandom and all. But the aliens don't realize that, and recruit the show's cast into an actual intergalactic war. It's a fun premise, and Galaxy Quest won several science fiction awards. Now Screen Junkies goes back twenty years to re-examine the movie for good and bad and meta. Mostly good.    

The unripe fruit of the jenipapo berry (Genipa americana) contains a substance that turns other things blue. Since 2017, chefs in Brazil have been using the tropical fruit to create startlingly blue foods.  

Jenipapo berries, which can grow anywhere from the size of a kiwi to a melon, are used by Brazilians to make compotes, syrups, and a famous liquor. But it’s the unripe and bitter fruit that has piqued the interest of cooks and chefs all around the country. When it’s unripe, jenipapo contains high amounts of genipin, a substance which reacts with proteins and amino acids in the presence of oxygen or heat, resulting in an edible blue pigment.

Brazilians have long used jenipapo for various purposes. During the colonization of South America, European conquerors reported curiosity about the use of the fruit’s juices as temporary tattoo ink by communities such as the Tupinambás and the Pataxós.

New techniques have been developed to take the bitterness from the unripened fruit, and the results are astonishing. These dishes aren't just faintly blue, they are vividly colored in a hue that will remind you of Pantone's Color of the Year for 2020. See more such creations, and read about the rise of Brazilian blue food at Atlas Obscura.

You've probably never heard of the malady called milk sickness. It was the scourge of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan in the early 19th century. The story of the condition is disturbing, not only from the number of people who died, but also by the lack of proper scientific investigation, at least by scientists and public health officials.

William Tompkins and Barnet Fowler, farmers in Kenton County, KY, were the first to be officially identified as having died of the mysterious ailment, in 1795. Nearly one fourth of the early settlers in Madison County, OH, fell victim to the pestilence, but the worst recorded incidence was the ‘epidemic’ of 1818 in which nearly all of the residents of Pigeon Creek, IN, were exterminated. The disease’s most famous victim was probably Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln, who died of it that same year, in Spencer County, IN.

Dr. Thomas Barbee of Bourbon County, KY, the first to diagnose the disorder, in 1809, understood that his patients became sick as a result of drinking milk or eating butter from cows who trembled, though it wasn’t at all clear to him what was causing the cattle themselves to become ill.

What to do? After decades of milk sickness ravaging the countryside, the research was crowdsourced. Really. The government of Kentucky offered a reward to anyone who could identify the source of the illness. While no one collected the reward, the source was identified. However, it took almost another hundred years for official recognition of the cause of milk disease. Read about the fight against milk disease in a two part post at Appalachian History.  -via Digg

Warning: the linked article is not for the squeamish. In 2019, as in every other year, some strange medical stories made national and international headlines. Did you hear about the man who injected himself with his own semen? An erection that lasted nine days before treatment? If those make you cringe, you'll really tense up when you read about certain parasites that caused extreme suffering one way or another. Read the synopses of five odd medical cases from the last year at Gizmodo, with links to the original reporting if you want to know more.