Author: Ms. R.

Hachi, also known as Hachiko, is arguably one of the best-known dogs—or historical figures, even—in Japan. He famously waited for his master outside Shibuya Station for a decade after his death, becoming a symbol of loyalty. Now a statue of Hachiko stands on the spot, an iconic meet-up spot in Tokyo. Unbeknownst to most, there’s another Hachiko statue in the city of Ōdate in Akita Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region up north. The connection? This is his birthplace, the……

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Since 2021, Barry Enderwick has charmed the Internet with his unfiltered reviews of “olden tymee” sandwiches. There’s the 1936 banana, cheese, pickle sandwich (“I thought it was going to be weird, but it’s not bad actually”) and the 1926 Crisco sandwich, made with creamed vegetable shortening on white bread “like some evil frosting,” he says. “You could hork it down.” Sandwiches of History may have started on a whim, but Enderwick’s followers have mushroomed to well over 600,000 between……

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For the vast majority of Somali history, a massive body of cultural heritage was preserved only orally. It was not that Somali society had never developed writing; archeological work has uncovered ancient stone inscriptions spanning thousands of years. The written word was just not a popular invention, seemingly ill-suited for a historically nomadic people. Thus countless thousands of stories, songs, and poems were passed down orally across centuries, often verbatim, and never written down. Poetry was especially culturally important…….

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While Newgrange may be the most famous Neolithic passage tomb in Ireland, Loughcrew is one of the most fabled. Around 3300-2900 BC, rock cairns were piled high atop four hills that sit side-by-side in modern-day County Meath. These hills are known as Slieve na Calliagh, or “Mountains of the Witch.” Legend says that a giant witch hopped from hill to hill, dropping rocks from her apron as she went, thereby creating Loughcrew Cairns. On her last leap, she fell……

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This imposing 25-foot-tall statue is one of a number by the artist Seward Johnson. Originally displayed in Florida under the name Unconditional Surrender, it is now called Embracing Peace, a name that has been in use since around 2015. The statue depicts a kiss between a sailor (George Mendosa) and a dental assistant (Grete Zimmer Friedman) on the declaration of the end of the war with Japan in 1945. It’s based on photographic images, taken in Times Square and……

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Piccadilly Gardens is one of the relatively few green areas within Manchester’s city center. However, the area not only contains green lawns and trees but also a major bus interchange, tram tracks (including two nearby bus stops), multiple statues, a fountain (which is only sometimes operational), a varying number of food stalls, and a playground. Given that the area functions as a travel interchange, that many restaurants and other shops are located in the buildings adjacent to the gardens,……

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In the final scene of Crime and Punishment, the antihero Raskolnikov and his ostensible redeemer, Sonya, sit pensively reflecting on the vast Eurasian steppe and the freedom it had to offer.  The scene was no doubt influenced by the years that Fyodor Dostoevsky spent in Siberian exile (1854-1859), where he once wrote to a Kazakh friend (possibly on the very desk displayed in the Dostoevsky Museum), “Isn’t it a great challenge for you, isn’t it your sacred cause—to be the……

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Parched earth crunches under our boots as we walk across the eastern Colorado plains. It’s a late September day, and a vast expanse of cracked dirt—dappled with an occasional green spike of yucca and a scattering of yellow-flowering rabbitbrush—stretches out ahead of us. “Found one!” calls out entomologist Jackie Billotte, eagerly beckoning to her colleagues as she pokes at a quarter-sized hole in the dirt with a twig. She’s hoping to lure out the female Aphonopelma hentzi, commonly known……

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Since 1991, the Maine Troop Greeters at Bangor International Airport has hosted over 7,000 military flights and more than a million United States troops returning home from overseas deployments.  In the Troop Room and Greeter Museum, visitors will find more than 6,000 unique challenge coins donated by troops while passing through the airport. Challenge coins are not currency, they are large medallions and customized coins used by the military for special recognition of relationships, extraordinary service, or achievement.  Many military……

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In 1944, at the height of World War II, ditchdiggers working in a field known as Alken Enge, on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark, made a gruesome discovery: human bones. It was quickly determined that the bones were not evidence of a recent murder—they were actually thousands of years old. Alken Enge itself has long been used as a “water-meadow,” an area that’s regularly flooded for controlled irrigation, and 12 years later, in 1956, another crew of ditchdiggers maintaining……

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