Blues guitarist Robert Johnson recorded only 29 songs in his life, then died in 1938 at the age of 27. His legend has only grown over time. The most famous story about Johnson is that he sold his soul to the devil at a crossroad in Mississippi, which gained him the talent to play guitar like no one else. That tale only arose years after he died, linked to the song “Cross Road Blues,” because a black man from Mississippi couldn't possibly have the talent or practiced enough to play like Johnson did. But that's not the only myth that persists about him.

Some decades later, a new yarn was spun—not about Johnson’s life, but his afterlife. No one seemed to know exactly where his mortal remains were buried, and the idea took hold that there were at least three possible gravesites. Though the actual mystery has been cleared up over the years, the myth rolls on. The New York Times boosted it in September 2019, the National Park Service still provides an outdated account, and the rumor continues to travel easily among tourists and blues pilgrims. It just seems to fit: Robert Johnson, that perfectly unknowable spirit of the blues, can’t find eternal rest.

However, plenty of people who knew Johnson knew the real story, and all it took was connecting the dots to locate his actual burial spot. Read about the myth and the reality of Robert Johnson's grave at Atlas Obscura.

Ten-year-old Anthony Alfano has a reputation to uphold. Anthony has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. His parents, Tony and Deanna Alfano, use their imaginations to make him shine on Halloween by coming up with amazing costumes that incorporate his wheels. For Halloween 2018, they made this elaborate wheelchair costume perfectly reproducing a scene from the movie Beetlejuice. It was another in a long line of clever costumes.

Continue reading for more of Anthony's Halloween wheelchair costumes, including this year's.

Carl Wilhelm Scheele was a German chemist born in 1742. He achieved a long string of scientific breakthroughs in his life, but rarely received any credit for his discoveries. Whether this was because of bad luck or some form of incompetence is a matter of opinion. There is no doubt that Scheele was brilliant, but each of his projects seemed to suffer from one grave misstep that prevented him from benefitting.

Scheele’s discovery of oxygen came three years before Joseph Priestley did, but he took six years to publish his findings. By then, Joseph Priestley had already published his experimental data and conclusions concerning oxygen. Before the gas was named “oxygen”, Scheele called it “fire air” because it seemed to support combustion. Scheele also found that air was a mixture of “fire air” and “foul air”, one of which was breathable and the other not.

Scheele went on to discover at least six more elements—barium, chlorine, molybdenum, manganese, nitrogen, and tungsten— for which he received no recognition. In the case of chlorine, Scheele thought it was an oxide obtained from hydrochloric acid, and called it ‘muriaticum’. It was some four decades later that Sir Humphrey Davy ascertained that muriaticum didn’t contain any oxygen and was in fact an element. Davy gave it the name chlorine. As for barium, Scheele knew it was an element but he was not able to isolate it. It was again Humphrey Davy who isolated the metal. The same with molybdenum. Scheele stated firmly that the mineral molybdena was unique and not an ore of lead. He proposed, correctly, that it contained a distinct new element and suggested the name molybdenum. However, it was Peter Jacob Hjelm who successfully isolated molybdenum and got the credit. Scheele’s run of poor luck continued with manganese, an element he identified but was not able to extract.

The one discovery that Scheele went down in history for was one that ended up inadvertently killing many people. Read the story of Carl Wilhelm Scheele and his many discoveries at Amusing Planet.  -via Strange Company

Quick, how many horror TV series can you think of? Probably not that many off the top of your head, but in today's lineup of hundreds of cable channels and streaming services, there are plenty running right now. There are also a few dating back as far as the mid-20th century that had decent runs on the Big Three networks and still haunt viewers' dreams, even if you need to be reminded of their existence first. And horror often has less to do with state-of-the-art effects than with its storytelling. In a ranked list at Rolling Stone, there's plenty of both old and new horror TV, a lot of it available for re-viewing or streaming if you choose, from The Outer Limits to The Walking Dead. You might argue with the ranking, but you'll also be tempted by something you haven't seen before.

(Image credit: Ryan Casey)

Manly men eat steak, barbecue, and bacon -just ask Ron Swanson. Women eat yogurt and salads to keep their weight down, but they have a weakness for chocolate. Stereotypes, for sure, but it hasn't always been that way. Up until at least the Civil War, there was no notion of gender-specific foods. Families or other groups ate the same dishes, even when men got first pick. Yale history professor Paul Freedman puts the beginning of the shift around 1870.

As more women spent time outside of the home, however, they were still expected to congregate in gender-specific places.

Chain restaurants geared toward women, such as Schrafft’s, proliferated. They created alcohol-free safe spaces for women to lunch without experiencing the rowdiness of workingmen’s cafés or free-lunch bars, where patrons could get a free midday meal as long as they bought a beer (or two or three).

It was during this period that the notion that some foods were more appropriate for women started to emerge. Magazines and newspaper advice columns identified fish and white meat with minimal sauce, as well as new products like packaged cottage cheese, as “female foods.” And of course, there were desserts and sweets, which women, supposedly, couldn’t resist.

You could see this shift reflected in old Schrafft’s menus: a list of light main courses, accompanied by elaborate desserts with ice cream, cake or whipped cream. Many menus featured more desserts than entrees.

The divide only accelerated as advertisers got involved. Over time, the clash between eating light to maintain her appearance and the obligation to satisfy a man's hearty appetite became a guilt-inducing conundrum for women that advertisers exploited mercilessly. Read up on the history of gendered food at The Conversation. -via Damn Interesting  

Data is Beautiful gives us a moving timeline of the most popular websites based on monthly visitors, starting in 1996. That was not long after I started regular internet use, after a disastrous flirtation with CompuServe in the '80s. It starts out with AOL and Yahoo! dominating everything else, and you might be surprised at how recently today's online giants made their move up the ladder. -via Digg

Elvis Presley had quite a few relationships with famous women in his life. Two of them may have had something to do with each other, or else it's just a coincidence that Elvis took a shine to two different women who both played a spooky character in black who hosted horror movies on TV. In 1956, Elvis ran into Maila Nurmi, who had already established herself as the Morticia Addams-like character Vampira. She sought him out behind the building after he was booed offstage in Las Vegas.

“He looked confusedly into the darkness,” she continues, “so I said, ‘I’m over here.’ We walked towards each other, sat down and talked. I told him that I was a performer and that what happened was absolutely awful. He said, ‘Every night before I go on, I talk to God and he always answers me. But tonight he didn’t answer. When them curtains opened and I saw all those white heads and them glasses, I knew why.’ I told him I admired his courage and they only did that because they’re sheep; one person booed and so then they all did. They’ve never, ever seen anything like you and it frightened them. But, Life Magazine are going to discover you and they will kiss your shoes.”

They were words of comfort, certainly, but also very valuable sincere bits of career advice. Elvis felt seen by Maila, and took an instant interest in her. “I know you’re getting old and all,” he told the 33-year-old, “but if you’d like to come back after the show, I’d be proud to take you back to my bungalow.”

While Nurmi denied dating Elvis, there are pictures of them holding hands. Years later, again in Las Vegas, Elvis was in a position to lend encouragement to another young performer named Cassandra Peterson. And they went on one date. Peterson later replaced Nurmi as the hostess of horror movies on KHJ-TV. She adopted the name Elvira, which sound suspiciously like an amalgamation of Elvis and Vampira. Read about Elvis and his mistresses of the dark at Messy Nessy Chic.  

The picture above is from the morgue of the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Why does a hotel have a morgue? It's a sort-of museum, because this haunted hotel has quite a history.

Since its construction in 1886, the Crescent Hotel has served several purposes: luxury resort, conservatory for young women, junior college. But the strangest mark on its history came in 1937 when it got a new owner, Norman G. Baker. Baker was a millionaire inventor who decided to pose as a doctor (despite having no medical training) and turn the hotel into a hospital that could "cure" cancer. He was eventually found out and run out of town, although reports say that his spirit found its way back to the site—and found some otherworldly company, too. The now-operating Crescent Hotel is said to be haunted by at least eight ghosts, ranging from a five-year-old girl to a bearded man wearing Victorian clothing.

Other haunted places in America include an Alaskan brothel where men used dolls to select a woman, theaters where actors refuse to leave the stage after death, a clearing where nothing grows because the devil dances there, and even a huge forest in new Jersey.

The heavily forested Pine Barrens spans over one million acres and seven counties in New Jersey. The area thrived during the Colonial period, host to sawmills, paper mills, and other industries. People eventually abandoned the mills and surrounding villages when coal was discovered to the west in Pennsylvania, leaving behind ghost towns—and, some say, a few supernatural wanderers. The most popular Pine Barrens resident is without a doubt the Jersey Devil. According to legend, the creature was born in 1735 to Deborah Leeds (her thirteenth child) with leathery wings, a goat's head, and hooves. It flew up the Leeds' chimney and into the Barrens, where it has reportedly been killing livestock—and creeping out South Jersey residents—ever since.

There are so many places in the US where you can go for a haunted getaway that you're sure to find one within driving distance. Read the stories behind the 30 most haunted places in America at Conde Nast Traveler. -via Bits and Pieces

Shoji Ushiyama is a Japanese artist from Hong Kong who lived in the UK before moving to Toronto to study industrial design. He recently posted a long list of observations on his Canadian experience at Twitter.

As an expat living in Canada, the more I live here, the more I'm convinced I'm actually stuck in some kind of cryptic horror nightmare country that's subtly and slowly eating away at me.

— 将司 (@Kavaeric) October 22, 2019

You want to move in. You ask someone about what the electricity bills are like. They ask you if you mean "hydro". You say you weren't talking about water, but electricity. They insist it's called "hydro". You accept this.

People praise the coffee shop. They joke about the coffee shop. They say the coffee shop is central to their collective identity. You mention that you have been to the coffee shop before, and you liked it. The people are horrified. You decide not to visit the coffee shop again.

Everyone says the other language everyone speaks is French. When you walk down the street, though, you notice all the signs are in Chinese. You ask them again. They still tell you it's French.

Someone invites you somewhere. You ask if it is far and inconvenient, but they assure you it is only a short trip away. They give you the address to check. You learn that it is very, very, very far, and ask them again. They insist, please, let me. It is closer than you think.

You speak to someone. They make a sound at the end. You nod your head and agree. You never disagree when they make the sound at the end.

Dude idk if you're finished yet, but this whole thread was more unsettling than most horror stories I've read in a while

— Autumn Taco (@its_tacotime) October 22, 2019

Oh, there's a lot more, which you may or may not relate to, depending on how well you know Canada and the experience of having to shift cultures. The more you read, the more it feels like a classic episode of The Twilight Zone. Check it out at Threadreader, or the original Twitter thread with replies.  -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Flickr user Alex Indigo)

That's one large black cat! But this is no ordinary house cat; it's a serval. A rare melanistic serval, with a recessive gene that makes him as black as any panther. British wildlife photographer George Turner was excited to see this serval on the Namiri Plains of Tanzania. He told the story at reddit.

Can't describe how mind blowing this was... and still is.

For context, even seeing a “normal” serval is tough. They’re shy, secretive cats that tend to live in tall grasses — the perfect combination for staying unnoticed.

Melanism in servals is rare. Super rare. Sightings across Africa can be counted on two hands, with each being incredibly brief cos well, you know, they’re a serval after all.

Three weeks ago, I heard rumours of a black serval in the remote eastern sector of Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Fast-forward to last Monday and there I was, flying into the “endless plains” ready to try my luck.

Well, what followed will stay with me forever.

As a wildlife photographer, I’m well used to disappointment. There’s been countless assignments where weeks and weeks pass, with zero sightings of the main subject. With the black serval, I was fully prepared for the same.

How wrong I was.

I met my legendary guide, Tony of Asilia Africa, at the dirt airstrip. He was the first to spot the black serval (now named “Manja”) around a month ago now. He [Tony] is a ridiculously talented naturalist, able to pick out - and correctly identify - the tiniest birds at crazy distances. Just what I needed as this was, practically, needle in a haystack.

As we drove towards the eastern sector of the Serengeti (Namiri Plains), we were catching up and generally putting the world to rites, as two old friends do. Our plan was to reach camp, unpack, prep camera gear, then begin our search. In all honesty, we were barely even scanning the plains…. and then:

“Tony, please tell me that I’m not going insane here.”

The tops of a black shape moving through the long grasses. I pulled up the binos, fully expecting to see a termite mound/log/anything but a serval. It continued to move.

There it was, the black serval. Just 1 hour into the drive. We spent a couple hours - at distance - with him until the sun went down. We returned the following day, gone.

Just recounting the story now gives me goosebumps all over again. Truly one of the most special moments in my career.

For context, here is what a serval usually looks like. You can see more of Turner's wildlife photography at Instagram. -via reddit

Monday was election day in Canada, and quite a few of the politicians who campaigned for office did so in multiple languages. This often includes rendering a name in Chinese characters for signs and literature. Journalist and Chinese translator Niko Bell gives us a deep dive into the complexities of a non-Chinese candidate selecting a Chinese name. Some try to make it sound like the candidate's name when spoken, some go with the meaning of the characters, and some try to combine the two methods. Some are more authentic than others, and some don't put much thought into it at all. Bell ranked thirteen such names and gives his reasons. For example:   

5. Jody Wilson-Raybould (Ind., Vancouver Granville) — “Wang Zhoudi” 王州迪

What makes a chosen Chinese name not only good but excellent? For Wilson-Raybould, the difference is a touch of boldness. Her Chinese given name, “Zhoudi”, is a practical transliteration of the English. But while her surname could have tried to vaguely mimic the initial sound of “Wilson-Raybould”, or even worse the whole thing, she instead chose the everyday, ubiquitous Chinese name “Wang,” meaning “King.” There is no way that “Wang” is the closest phonetic match to “Wilson,” and this deliberate step away from transliteration is refreshing and displays genuine thoughtfulness.  

Read the rest of the list at his website. While you won't come away with a deep understanding of Chinese names, you will get a glimpse into the importance of minute details in running an election campaign. -via Digg

In this Honest Trailer for the 1990 movie Total Recall, Screen Junkies indulges in some fanboy admiration for the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick, but they also notice how the movie owed a lot to previous movies, and in turn, inspired later movies. I suppose it also inspired the 2012 remake, but we don't even talk about that.

This may look like an entry in a Photoshop contest, but it's not. It's an example of vivipary, in which seeds germinate before their time. Vivipary is natural, but not normal in tomatoes. There are some plants that reproduce this way, but not ones you'd normally find in the produce section.

Fruits contain a hormone that prevents seeds from germinating. Once the fruit dies or the seeds are removed, the seeds are no longer exposed to these chemicals and can germinate freely. These hormones are necessary to allow the fruit to ripen and fall to the ground where conditions are more favorable for the young plant to survive. But sometimes that hormone runs out, and the seed starts germinating. You might have seen it in your tomatoes that are sitting around on the counter for far too long. This can also happen when the environment is warm and wet tricking the seeds into believing that they are in moist soil.

It certainly looks creepy. See examples of vivipary manifesting in more tomatoes, apples, squash, mangos, and more at Amusing Planet. -via TYWKIWDBI 

(Image credit: 420BlazeItBushDid911)

If you want to dance the Monster Mash or the Time Warp, here's the music for it! All these movie monsters are played by Peter Hollens, who also did the singing. The medley shifts into high gear toward the end, when the songs all blend together.

Here's a World War II story you haven't heard, but would make a great movie in the vein of The Monuments Men or Inglourious Basterds. American engineer and surveyor Major Floyd W. Hough was the leader of a highly-classified military intelligence team with the clout to move freely in the war zone, even though no one knew what they were up to. Each member of HOUGHTEAM was selected for their particular set of skills, which might remind you of a cinematic heist team. They spread across Europe, gathering the spoils of war. They weren't after treasure, but information: maps and important geodetic surveys that took the earth's curvature into account to precisely plot locations. This data was more crucial than ever in waging a war of long-distance air missions. HOUGHTEAM carried 1,800 pounds of cameras and equipment to record captured data in microfilm. In the early years of the war, they mostly stayed behind enemy lines.  

Hough remained busy. When the Belgians requested help microfilming some survey data and secret lists of artillery coordinates, he was happy to oblige—and saw to it that an extra copy was sent to Washington without the Belgians’ knowledge. When the French city of Strasbourg was recaptured by the Allies, his men removed a cache of top-quality German survey equipment before the French had a chance to claim the gear for themselves.

If an obstacle arose, Hough was willing to get creative. After several neutral countries balked at letting Espenshade and Shallenberger search their institutes and libraries, Hough procured letters from the Library of Congress certifying the men as its representatives engaged in bibliographic research. A similar ploy got Shallenberger into the pope’s private library at the Vatican, which was strictly off-limits to members of any military, owing to the Vatican’s status of neutrality.

Finally, by early March, the Allied forces resumed their eastward progress and were poised to cross the Rhine into the German heartland. HOUGHTEAM’s window of opportunity was opening.

It was when the Allied forces began taking German towns that HOUGHTEAM really went into high gear, particularly in areas that would be ceded to the Soviets after the war. Read the exploits of the super-secret intelligence unit in the November issue of Smithsonian.  

(Image source: Library of Congress)