Author: Ms. R.

James Whitcomb Riley, the acclaimed “Hoosier Poet,” wrote approximately  1000 works of dialect and children’s poems over his lifetime—most famously creating the source material for the Little Orphan Annie media franchise. Riley was born in 1849 in the town of Greenfield, Indiana, the third child of state politician Reuben Riley and his wife Elizabeth. The earliest days of his childhood were spent at the nearby Brandywine Creek, later referenced in his poems “The Old Swimming Hole” and “A Barefoot……

Read More

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit what may be the last weather kiosk in the United States. Located in Knoxville, Tennessee, these kiosks once allowed people to check the latest weather forecasts—before the rise of the television weather forecast. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to an incredible……

Read More

A typical day in David Bird’s life begins with an idea for a story and then leads to scavenging through his backyard in Rhode Island for twigs, acorns, and pinecones. These foraged elements are the building blocks for his Becorns: woodland creatures that he brings to life with creativity, experience in toy design, and just the right amount of hot glue. Twigs become arms and legs, acorns pose as heads, petals decorate skirts, and mushrooms sit like hats. Then……

Read More

Outside, only a few crimson leaves cling to the gnarled branches of the Japanese maple trees. Inside the Portland Japanese Garden’s modern tea room, glass walls show the forest giving way to winter. The setting may feel like something out of the Japanese countryside, but this oasis is some 5,000 miles away, nestled in a lush hillside in northwestern Oregon. In the 1960s, the city of Portland converted an old zoo into a 12-acre garden as part of an……

Read More

Before being set free in the interior of the museum visitors are greeted with a cup of tea. The staff explains that the Lügenmuseum, or “lie museum,” is dedicated to telling lies in service of the truth. They tell a fictional origin story for the museum, namely that a little girl from a wealthy family decided to create the museum in the late 1800s and that her collection was rediscovered and put on display here. Inside visitors will find……

Read More

In the 15th century, a compelling new drink became the talk of the Near East. Called qahwa in Arabic, it was none other than coffee. But people in the region had been using coffee long before that. Only, not as a drink. Jeanette Fregulia, in her 2019 book A Rich and Tantalizing Brew: A History of How Coffee Connected the World, cites recent archaeological findings by an American-French team that establish “an ancient botanical origin” for Arabica coffee in……

Read More

THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED FROM THE DECEMBER 9, 2023, EDITION OF GASTRO OBSCURA’S FAVORITE THINGS NEWSLETTER. YOU CAN SIGN UP HERE. If there’s one thing about the holiday season that gets me down, it’s everything tasting like cinnamon. It’s not that I hate cinnamon, exactly; I just don’t like how it hogs the spotlight in fall and winter when there are so many interesting spices from around the world that are underutilized in sweets and beverages this time of……

Read More

This story was originally published on The Conversation. It appears here under a Creative Commons license. Imagine Lady Gaga or Elton John teaching at an orphanage or homeless shelter, offering daily music lessons. That’s what took place at Venice’s four Ospedali Grandi, which were charitable institutions that took in the needy—including orphaned and foundling girls—from the 16th century to the turn of the 19th century. Remarkably, all four Ospedali hired some of the greatest musicians and composers of the……

Read More

Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit a small memorial in the grasslands of Kenya. Ol Pejeta Rhino Cemetery is a way to honor one of the most endangered animals in the world—the rhinoceros—and draw attention to ongoing threats to their existence. Our podcast is an audio guide to the world’s wondrous, awe-inspiring, strange places. In under 15 minutes, we’ll take you to……

Read More