Sometimes you search for the word you want, and it's right there on the tip of your tongue, but you can't reach it for some reason. Sometimes you remember the word you want after the conversation has moved on, or maybe you put some other words together so someone will help you. When my daughter asked for a laundry rope, it took me a bit to figure out she wanted a clothesline. If you ask for a wet salad, someone else may step in and suggest soup. But what is the word for when you can't think of a word?

That is "lethologica." The word is made from two Greek terms that mean forget and word. Mental Floss goes over the history of lethologica and what scientists think may cause it. Another term is "lethonomia," which applies specifically to someone's name that you can't recall.

Then there's "loganamnosis," a somewhat related term that I strangely found in another article from a different source just minutes after reading the Mental Floss article. Loganamnosis is a term for when you experience lethologica or lethonomia, and then become so obsessed with remembering the word or name that you can no longer enjoy what you were doing when it happened. Has that ever happened to you?

It's nice to know that there are terms for such forgetting, but no one expects you to remember them all.    

(Image credit: OERDesign) 

Throughout human history, we have vented our anger and frustration over bad luck and injustices by destroying something or someone who has nothing to do with it. That is how the word "scapegoat" came about. The catharsis of heaping all sins on one or a few people figured in human sacrifice, witch burning, public hangings, and mob lynchings, not to mention fiction like The Wicker Man. However, this can be done in a less harmful way, with an effigy burned instead of a person, which could have easily been the case in The Wicker Man.

Every Labor Day weekend, the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico, holds that kind of ritual, when they put all their "glooms," meaning sorrows, anxieties, and negativity, inside a huge effigy called Zozobra. A play is performed to tell the legend of Zozobra, and the effigy is burned with great celebration. The ceremony kicks off the nine-day Fiesta de Santa Fe. You might assume that Zozobra is a figure from an ancient religion, and the burning is a long tradition. On the contrary, the ritual was made up by a Santa Fe artist in 1924, with a mythology to accompany it. It apparently works, as Santa Fe residents and those who travel to the festival see it as a renewal, a chance to destroy all their bad feelings and start afresh. Read how the burning of Zozobra came about, and how it's done every year, at Smithsonian. This year's 100th anniversary burning will be on August 30th, with a 50.5-foot Zozobra.    

(Image credit: Jweiss)

Someone once explained the old adage "starve a cold, feed a fever" to me as meaning that if a person with a cold doesn't feel like eating, don't make them eat. They need to rest. But if they have a fever, make them warmer if you can. They probably already have the chills despite their temperature, and they seek greater warmth. I've heard other interpretations of the adage that are so varied that it has become meaningless. But why would you stoke the fires of a fever, and how much is too much? It's a delicate balance between feeding a fever and fighting a fever, when your body just wants to kill an infection. Kurzgesagt, an organization that has explained the immune system to us a few times, explains what happens at the cellular level when your body produces a fever. This video ends at 9:40; the rest is advertising and promotional material. 

In 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593, a Russian Airlines flight from Moscow to Hong Kong crashed, resulting in the death of all 75 people aboard. There were three pilots aboard since it was such a long haul. When relief pilot Captain Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky took over, he brought his two children, ages 12 and 15, into the cockpit and let them each sit in the captain's seat. Kudrinsky led them to believe they were really controlling the plane, but one move led the plane to disengage the automatic pilot. An indicator light came on, but Kudrinsky was used to old Soviet planes that had an audio alarm. The sequence of events as reconstructed after the fact was complicated, but it all came down to plane crash due to showing off.

No matter how good you are at flying a plane, or how long you've been doing it, there are certain risks that you just can't take. There have been several incidents in which pilots pushed their luck by showing off, making a bet, or allowing someone unqualified to do their job, leading to death by plane crash. Read about Aeroflot Flight 593 and four other crashes due to tomfoolery at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: Anna Zvereva) 

There are some general rules in business, like 90% of new restaurants fail within a year, only invest where you have experience, and musicians can't get a loan unless they have a record contract. All those rules were upended when Zac Smith and Cheryl Roorda bought a building in Hot Springs, Arkansas, not sure what to do with it. She plays the accordion; he plays an E-flat helicon, an instrument that resembles a tuba. They raised two children by playing gigs wherever they could. The building they found was a wreck, and they spend ten years making it usable. Now it contains a pizza parlor, plus a microbrewery and a radio station, all successful. Their journey involves a lot of hard work, timing, and luck, as evidenced by their story of how they financed the project in 2007.

But this was before the collapse, when they were still going through cemeteries looking for bodies to loan money to. We were able to purchase our home as a tuba-accordion duo, and we were processing the loan, $32,000 on a foreclosure from Fannie Mae, and the strip-mall financier was all, “You know, this would be a lot easier if you took out a $100,000 loan,” and we were like, “What about tuba-accordion duo do you not understand?”

Strangely, the radio station came first, which built goodwill in the community. People will try a new locally-run restaurant, but they won't return unless it is good. Read the heartwarming story of how two musicians founded a quirky but flourishing business at Vox. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: SQZBX Brewery & Pizza Joint)

In some folklore, the Grim Reaper is a horrendous vision to be dreaded, while in others, he is only terrifying until you get to know him, and then you find out he's a kind and sympathetic escort for the journey we all must take (for example, in Jenny Jinya's comics). In the stop-motion mixed media animation Shuck, the avatar of death is based on the English legend of Black Shuck, a large and terrifying black hellhound with glowing red eyes, or sometimes just one eye in the middle of his head. There are also elements of the legendary church grim, a more benign canine spirit that guards a church.

Emerson New made this video as his graduate film in animation at Edinburgh College of Art in 2023. Shuck won the Best Animation award at the Zepstone International Film Awards in 2023. You can read an interview with New about Shuck here.

During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, our Founding Fathers hammered out the rules for running a democratic government, and it wasn't at all easy. A lot of stuff was a compromise between all the disagreeing factions. On the question of how long a president should serve, some thought it should be for life, while others suggested a six, seven, ten, or even 12-year term with no re-election. Since no one could agree, the question was sent to the “Committee on Postponed Matters,” which sounds like a good committee to be on, especially for procrastinators. However, they did come up with the four-year term with re-election possible.

As far as presidents serving two terms, that was not in the original constitution. It became a custom, though, set by Washington and Jefferson, because presidents get really tired of the job after eight years. The few who did not found that the voters got tired of them after eight years. So why do representatives and senators get to run for re-election as long as they want? Read up on what the US Founding Fathers had in mind for these offices and how our system came to be the way it is at Mental Floss.

What do you know about capybaras? They are the world's largest rodent, and I hear that they are calm, friendly, and delicious. Despite the fact that they never change their facial expressions, other animals -and humans- like being around them. The capybara will tolerate your attentions in a super-chill manner, without a thought of the possibility of being eaten for dinner. They are the very illustration of nonchalance. You might learn some more things about capybaras in this nonsense song from Jonti Picking (previously at Neatorama), like how their teeth grow all the time or how good they are at playing saxophone. But the main point is that you're going to be happy around a cappy. -via Everlasting Blort

Update on the wind turbine blade accident:

Initial investigations indicate the tractor trailer was not far enough into the left lane when navigating under the train trestle, resulting in the crash. The blade, mounted on large brackets, struck the trestle, causing the rollover.… pic.twitter.com/SCUS2ZXNsK

— Maine State Police (@MEStatePolice) August 9, 2024

Wind turbines are being installed all over the US, while the factories that make them are few. Transporting those enormous turbine blades is a real hassle. Taking them around curves and intersections required the invention of new machinery. But going under low bridges remains a challenge.

On Friday, a 240-foot blade was being taken to Columbia, Maine, when it hit a bridge over Route 1 in Stockton Springs. The collision overturned the truck and damaged the blade. No one was injured, but Route 1 was closed for the rest of the day. The blade will was returned Saturday to a cargo terminal in Searsport, Maine, where it was shipped in. The Boston Globe uses the term "storrowed," which is a unique Boston word for trucks hitting a bridge, explained in a previous post.

What do you do with a damaged turbine blade? They are made of fiberglass and resin, and were once considered impossible to recycle. But new technology is turning them into other building materials.  -via Metafilter   

The Smithsonian Institution is not only the world's largest museum, it is situated along the National Mall in our nation's capital, and admission is free. Almost everyone goes to see it sooner or later, although it's impossible to see it all in one trip. So it's no wonder that many urban legends have been attached to the institution in its 178 years. You may be familiar with some of them.

For instance, the Hope Diamond is supposed to be cursed. Sure, some bad things happened to some of the owners, but that's life among the rich and powerful. The story of the "curse" was made up by a jeweler in the early 20th century to entice a rich socialite to buy the diamond. It worked. But then what? The woman who bought the diamond experienced several tragedies, and after her death and the sale of her gems, the postal worker who delivered the Hope diamond to the Smithsonian also suffered several tragedies within the next year. He said, “If the hex is supposed to affect the owners, then the public should be having the bad luck.” I guess we know who to blame, then.

Other myths and legends about the Smithsonian are true stories that the institution had nothing to do with, or were viral hoaxes, or just plain historical misunderstandings. Yes, benefactor James Smithson's remains are at the Smithsonian Castle, just not in the rumored spot. Read the truth behind 13 Smithsonian legends at (where else?) Smithsonian. 

(Image source: Smithsonian Institution Archives)

The 1994 movie The Lion King was so successful it got two direct-to-video sequels, a Broadway musical, a "live-action" remake in 2019, various TV and video game adaptations, and now a prequel. Mufasa: The Lion King tells the story of Mufasa and Taka (who would later be known as Scar) as they grow up as inseparable brothers. We immediately learn that the two are not biologically related, which takes some of the sting out of the implied incestuous mating in the series. The movie is notable for the CGI lions that now have facial expressions, which were glaringly missing in the 2019 movie.    

Mufasa: The Lion King seems to fall into the same trope as Malificent, Joker, and the Star Wars prequels, in that since audiences loved the villain, let's go back and explain why it's not their fault that they are evil. In this case, Taka was originally the heir to the "king" position in the pride. Such antihero stories are a break from the rigid white hat/black hat dichotomy of earlier tales, but when it happens over and over again, you have to consider whether we've swung too far in the opposite direction. In this movie, the enemy is a group of white lions led by a king who is amusingly not named Kimba. Mufasa: The Lion King opens in theaters on December 20.  

"Wingnut" is mostly heard these days as a term for an unhinged political extremist. The slang term came about meaning someone who is odd or eccentric or otherwise deviates from the norm. But the real, literal wingnut is a very useful nut with wings that allows us to tighten bolts by hand. That's the kind of wingnut you'll find in the new Wingnut Museum that opened on July 13th in Berkeley, California. The origin of the museum is quite a story.

Urban Ore is a salvage yard in Berkeley that recycles building materials, furniture, housewares, and other things. An employee who goes by Neko was sorting through hardware and started lining wingnuts up on a shelf. Other employees set wingnuts alongside them until they became a collection. Customers began to donate wingnuts, too. When the shop decided to unionize, the organizers referred to the collection and chose a wingnut as their logo, as it represented both the employees and their customers. Since it was now a union symbol, the shop owners decided the collection had to go. Read how the Wingnut Museum came to be, and how you can visit and see wingnuts from all over the world at Berkeleyside.  -via Metafilter

For a large chunk of history, human mating was a matter of couple forming with family approval. In small communities, young people all knew each other growing up, as did their parents. As communities grew larger and people traveled, some cultures turned to professional matchmakers, and the upper classes and royalty arranged marriages for political or financial reasons. In America, young people got to know each other through "courting," which consisted of a young man visiting a young woman's family home, trying to impress her and her parents as well.

That changed in the 1920s, as more people had automobiles and places to go for amusement. "Dating" replaced "courting," although the origin of the word dating is more salacious than you ever knew. The custom of dating went through changes in both meaning and procedure through the rest of the 20th century, and is done quite differently in the internet age. Hey, it was easy to meet people in high school; not so much these days when careers are far from one's hometown and marriage is put off until years after graduation. Read up on how dating started and where it then went at Jstor Daily. -via Strange Company

We like to document the first of anything, and in the modern era we often over-celebrate the first time something happens, since it might not last long enough for anyone to care. It wasn't always so, like the first Air Force One, which no one though worth preserving until many years later. It's even more difficult to document the last of anything when it disappears. Who could know that this guy was the last smallpox patient until years afterward? In other cases it's obvious, like the last flight of the Concorde or the last Woolworth's lunch counter, which was preserved for nostalgia. Even the twelve stories of "the last" things in this video might prove to be wrong, if someone decides to bring an elephant to a war zone, for example.

This is actually the second compilation that Weird History has done on the last of things; check out another video from a few months ago on the same subject with 13 different items.

Look! Someone took a rock and etched a bunch of emojis on it! Well, that's certainly what it looks like, but this is a natural stone. The amazing shapes on its surface are crinoid fossils, plus some bivalve fossils. The rock is a floatstone, a type of limestone. The stone formed at the bottom of Lake Michigan, and was embossed with a hash of crinoids pieces that fell on it. The circles, and half-circles, were once parts of the tubular crinoid stem that fell to the lake floor in different states of decay and at different angles. My guess for the "teeth" shapes are a stem piece that partially split crosswise and then lengthwise as it made contact with the developing stone.

Redditor DrewHoov posted this image on the subreddit r/whatsthisrock. To my surprise, no one in the comments suggested this was Photoshopped. I guess only real rockhounds follow the subreddit. We have to remember, our emojis, and symbolism altogether, are based mostly on things that our natural world produces.