Surely the most feeble fad ever invented? All will be revealed in today's weird Wikipedia article, presented by the Wikiworm. Hunkerin' (hunkering) is where a person sits in a squatting position. It briefly became an American fad in the late 1950s. Hunkerin' had been in use in many cultures, particularly in Asia, for centuries when it suddenly ... Read More...
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Prepare your brains for some seriously mind-mangling wordplay, with today's weird Wikipedia article, unearthed by the Wikiworm. "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatical sentence in American English, used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs. The sentence uses three meanings of the word buffalo: the city of Buffalo, New York, ... Read More...
Dubious student shenanigans from a simpler time in this week's Wikiworm, culled from the weirder recesses of Wikipedia. A panty raid was an American 1950s college prank in which large groups of male students attempted to invade the living quarters of female students and steal their panties (undergarments) as the trophies of a ... Read More...
Unusual deliveries to start off 2015 in today's Wikiworm, posted, as ever, from the weirder side of Wikipedia. Human mail is the transportation of a person through the postal system, usually as a stowaway. While rare, there have been some reported cases of people attempting to travel through the mail. This form of travel ... Read More...
Much ado about nothing as we bandy about some fossil words in today's Wikiworm, unearthed from the weirder side of Wikipedia. A fossil word is a word that is generally obsolete but remains in currency because it is contained within an idiom still in use. Fossil status can also occur for word senses and for phrases. An example for a word sense is ... Read More...
Christmas is coming, so carve yourself a dainty slice of Turducken (but go easy on the Ortolan Bunting), this week's weird Wikipedia article unearthed by the Wikiworm... Turducken is a dish consisting of a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, which is in turn stuffed into a deboned turkey. The word. turducken is a portmanteau of turkey, duck, and chicken. The ... Read More...
Google and Wikipedia have utterly transformed our relationship with knowledge, and now everything we need to know seems to be accessible within seconds. We have gained much - but what have we lost?... The novelist Jean Rhys, after a long period of inactivity, responded to her publisher’s gentle suggestion that she ... Read More...
Who had the most double-barrelled surname ever? The Wikiworm consults Wikipedia to find out... Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (10 June 1884 – 20 February 1917) was a captain in the British Army who died during the First World War. He has been stated to have had the longest English surname on ... Read More...
What if Africa had sent the first humans into space? To Infinity and beyond, as we head out into the weirder parts of the Wikipedia universe with the Wikiworm... Edward Festus Makuka Nkoloso was a resident of Zambia who joined the British forces in World War II, and served as a sergeant in the signal corps. ... Read More...
What kind of lunatic wears socks with sandals? The Wikiworm consults Wikipedia to see what it has to say on this important topic... Wearing socks with sandals is a controversial fashion combination and cultural phenomenon that is discussed in various countries and cultures. It is sometimes considered a fashion faux pas. The earliest evidence of wearing socks in sandals ... Read More...
