Author: Ms. R.

Opened in 1820, Passy Cemetery is named after what was then a local village, and covers a little more than four acres. While it may be small, Passy has some of the city’s finest funerary sculptures and is also the final resting place of several of the city’s more well-known and interesting characters. In fact, besides the Big Three of Montparnasse, Montmartre, and Pere-Lachaise, Passy is arguably the most interesting cemetery in Paris and within a short distance from……

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This rare example of an Aboriginal scarred tree is one of the most accessible in eastern Australia. On the trunk of the redgum tree is an oval-shaped scar, left when an enormous sheet of bark was removed to make a canoe. There are indications that the bark was cut using a stone ax. The height of the cutting shows that one man stood on the shoulders of another to take the bark from the best position. Believed to be around……

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Lincoln, Massachusetts, has a long history with horses. By the last quarter of the 19th century, the community, roughly 20 miles northwest of Boston, was home to 94 farms. Growers cultivated more than 2,540 acres of crops, according to the local historical society, and into the 20th century, horses and ponies helped them to do it. Dolly enabled Nicholas Cotoni and his quartet of brothers to coax vegetables from 12 acres they had planted. Chubb, regal and white, helped……

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In the early 1960s, biologists Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer began a decades-long study of army ant colonies in Central America. One major focus of their work was the abundance of mites, lice, beetles, and other invertebrates that live symbiotically with the ants, either in their nests or on the bodies of the insects themselves. The Rettenmeyers discovered many new and fascinating species, such as a mite that takes the place of an ant’s foot and feeds on its blood,……

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In the panhandle of Texas, on what was once Comanche land, a museum dedicated to Bob Wills draws intrepid tourists in modest numbers. The king of Western swing claimed Turkey as his hometown, although it wasn’t. It just sounded down-home to him, an image he and his Texas Playboys cultivated. Turkey was probably the third closest town to where Bob grew up, but Kosse and Lakeview certainly didn’t roll off the tongue quite as well. In Texas, Bob Wills……

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Thousands of years ago, the gods Poseidon and Athena battled for the favor of Athens. According to legend, Poseidon smashed his trident upon the land to create a salt spring, while the wise Athena offered a more productive gift: She planted an olive tree atop the Acropolis. The city’s denizens chose Athena, and you can still find an olive tree in the same spot today. Regardless of how the olive tree originated, one has grown there since ancient times,……

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If volcanos are anything, they are surprising. In 2018 Hawai’i’s Kilauea volcano, one of the world’s most active, suddenly and unexpectedly shifted gears. Crevices in the earth appeared throughout residential neighborhoods in the Puna district in the southeast corner of the Big Island and over the course of days, lava emerged from the magma chambers below and consumed hundreds of homes as it flowed downhill in many directions. While it was traumatic for residents, who had little warning to……

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This walking trail in Parr Park contains thousands of painted rocks to view. Visitors are also welcomed to add to the collection.  In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown began, Ron Olsen and his family painted a few rocks and scattered them along a favorite walking trail in Parr Park. Another family, the Penny’s, spotted them and became inspired. Mr. Penny sent out a missive on Facebook asking readers to mail painted rocks to them to add to……

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This recipe is adapted from a special edition of the June 12, 2021 Gastro Obscura newsletter. On a summer day in 1951, thousands of chicken aficionados filled a stadium in Arkansas to watch a bird be crowned “the Chicken of Tomorrow.” This was no beauty contest. Backed by the Department of Agriculture, the competition had one goal: to find a chicken so ample, so blessed with meaty breasts and thighs, that poultry, which was still associated with wealth and……

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Founded by Dr. Alfred Wiener in 1933, The Wiener Holocaust Library is one of the world’s leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era. Dedicated to supporting research, learning, teaching, and advocacy about the Holocaust and genocide, their causes and consequences. Alfred Wiener was a German Jew who worked for the Jewish civil rights group known as the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith. He spent years documenting the rise of antisemitism by collecting books,……

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In the back of Onondaga Cave State Park next to Ozark Outdoors Resort is a replica of Stonehenge made entirely out of canoes. The strategically stacked vessels surround a center campfire making for a quiet and fun roadside attraction. Each canoe is repurposed from use in the nearby Meramec River making this a sustainable adventure surrounded by nature and endless trails….

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