The Boll Weevil Monument

'Fear no weevil' is the motto of this Alabama town, a place that likes weevils so much they've even built a monument to them. Another strange Wikipedia article discovered by the Wikiworm... The Boll Weevil Monument in downtown Enterprise, Alabama, United States is a prominent landmark and tribute erected by the citizens of Enterprise in 1919 ... Read More...

Roy Sullivan – Human Lightning Rod

7 times unlucky (or is that 8?) for the star of this week's Wikiworm, as we bring you another strange story from the darker depths of Wikipedia Roy Cleveland Sullivan (February 7, 1912 – September 28, 1983) was a United States park ranger in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Between 1942 and 1977, Sullivan was hit by lightning on ... Read More...

Moptop Of Gath

Today's lesson comes from the book of Frank Key... 1. Now there dwelt in Gath an moptop whose name was Ringo. And one day the Lord appeared to Ringo and he was sore affrighted. Ringo tugged at the fringe of his moptop so it might cover his eyes that he could ... Read More...

The Sokal Affair

When scientists decide to troll each other, things can get messy. The Wikiworm trawls the weirdest Wikipedia articles on the web to find out more... The Sokal affair, also called the Sokal hoax, was a publishing hoax perpetrated by Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University. In 1996, Sokal submitted an article to Social Text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural ... Read More...

Prostitution Among Animals

The world's oldest profession might be even older than we previously thought, according to this strange Wikipedia article unearthed by the Wikiworm... A few studies have been used to promote the idea that prostitution exists within certain animal groups. Prostitution in animals was first reported in 1998 by Fiona Hunter, a researcher at the University of ... Read More...

Albany

An apartment block that only the most well connected are invited to live in? Another mysterious case for the Wikiworm, taken from the weirder side of Wikipedia The Albany, or simply Albany —(since the mid-20th century some have claimed that the definite article is not in use among the fashionable)— is an exclusive apartment complex ... Read More...

Sandy the Scrapper – a sweet tale for Edwardian children

Guest contributor Bill Atkinson shares a tale penned by an Edwardian lady about a little dog. It suggests that 100 years ago they had rather different ideas about what was deemed suitable for children's entertainment... Sandy was the favorite pet of Edith Monro Armstrong (b. 1874, d 1960), an Edwardian lady, Doctor's wife, chatelaine, accomplished ... Read More...