THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU NEEDED TO KNOW

  Let's say you're in Nuremberg, Germany on May 26th, 1828. Normal day, doing normal German stuff - eating pretzels, drinking beer, wearing Lederhosen - when suddenly a young man of about 16 approaches town square. Citizens say he looks "drunk or crazy." A shoemaker goes up to the boy who says "I want to be a soldier like my father," and repeats that phrase for days anytime he's spoken to. The boy hands over two letters addressed to a specific Calvary man. The boy is taken to him, but the soldier does not recognize the boy. The first letter, written by the boy's mother, says he is named  Kaspar Hauser  and he was born April 30, 1812. His father was a Calvary man who is now deceased. She could not take care of him and left him with a man. The second letter is from that man who says the boy knows basic reading and writing. The man can no longer care for the boy and says "keep him, or kill him." The handwriting on both letters looks strikingly

  Just a Little Weird June tells spooky and kooky tales like.... A German mystery man who came to a small village with two letters and a crazy story Swallowing a snack that does not smile back An Italian physicist defied the laws of physics by vanishing into thin air

  Many different things have been popular over the years of human existence, but in the 1950s one breed of dog inspired a trend.  Poodle haircuts and poodle skirts decorated fashionable ladies.  Above all other dogs was a poodle named Masterpiece. But Masterpiece, a celebrity in his own right, disappeared. Not from public esteem like other celebrities but actually disappeared, never to be heard from again. Masterpiece inspired a mini mania in the 1950s, but is largely forgotten today. Alexis Pulaski, born 1895 in Russia, fled to the U.S. post Russian Revolution. He began breeding dogs in 1925, but began focusing on poodles exclusively in 1939. He took one pup, silver gray, named him Pulaski's Masterpiece, and entered him in dog shows. Masterpiece won the American Kennel Club trifecta : obedience, utility, and championship. Suddenly Masterpiece was a celebrity. Reporters would ask Masterpiece if he was a communist - Masterpiece would shake his head no - a red-blooded American dog pa

  So you're sitting in the stands of an arena. You buy a snack from a vendor, check the bleachers for well-known faces, and watch a physical entity move around a track. Nascar, Indy car racing?  Nope. It's the 1870s and you are at a competitive walking event. Yep. People used to walk around oval tracks for a really long time while audiences placed bets. The sport of Pedestrianism was America's first national passtime. Pedestrianism has its roots in walking competitions started in England. A man named Foster Powell walked 400 miles from London to York, then back again. This inspired many challenges of walking long distances in a certain amount of time for money. In America a book publisher, Edward Payson Weston, lost a bet by asserting Abraham Lincoln would not be elected president.  Payson walked from Boston to Washington DC in 10 hours and 10 days to attend Lincoln's inaugural ball. Payson won a handshake   from Lincoln and a bag of peanuts. He fared better in his next

  You ain't nobody's baby Beiber.  Bye, Bye, Bye N*SYNC. Nobody wants to be wanted by you David Cassidy. Get back to where you once belonged Beatles. Music's first heartthrob was Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt. Liszt had the looks and the talent to whip audiences into a frenzy, without radio, records, television or the internet. That frenzy was called Lisztomania. Franz Liszt was arguably the world's first music star. He inspired Lisztomania, a heightened feeling of elation experienced by audiences when viewing Liszt perform. Liszt was a prolific composer any well-respected pianist amongst his peers. He lived a long life but gave up performing in his later years. But the phenomenon of a musical performer inciting ecstasy amongst audiences has never left human culture. Born in Hungary October 22, 1811, Liszt was a musical prodigy. His father worked as a land steward for a member of the Hungarian aristocracy. Liszt's father played multiple instruments and

Mania :  an excessive enthusiasm or desire; an obsession. For MAY-nia we learn : A piano playing Hungarian composer causes a frenzy among his fans Watching people walk around used to be America's favorite sport How much is that doggie in the window? Free, if you are an unscrupulous dog-napper