I used to love digging around on places like Wikipedia and other encyclopedic-type resources to learn about whatever strange things I could find. Here are some weird/interesting things that I've found in the past few years and bookmarked because I think they're cool or intriguing in some way. Maybe you'll find something here that catches your eye, and fall down a rabbit hole to find something even more neat?
If you find something you want to share with the class, by all means let me know and I'll add it in here!
Some of this stuff might be NSFW or otherwise more likely to be upsetting than others, so I'll put them towards the bottom of each list and label them as such.
Animals (Named)
- Grape-kun (a penguin situated in a Japanese zoo that, in the last year of his life, became exceedingly attached to a cut-out standee of an anthropomorphic anime girl gijinka of his own species. he's just like me fr)
- Hanako (a Japanese koi fish that was reported to have lived as long as 225 or 226 years. they usually don't live much longer than 40-50 years, if even that long. crazy)
- Jimmy the Crow (a raven that appeared in over 1000 films from the 1930s-50s. he was in The Wizard of Oz and had over a dozen understudies)
- Martha (the last passenger pigeon, a migratory North American species driven from a population in the billions to nothing in a matter of centuries)
- Oscar (a therapy cat that became well-known for predicting the impending death of patients that he would nap next to)
- Potoooooooo (a race horse with a funny name. sometimes spelled "Pot-8-Os" and pronounced like "Potatoes")
- Stubbs (a cat that served as honorary mayor of the unincorporated town of Talkeetna, Alaska for twenty years)
- Tama (a cat that was officially awarded the title of station master. lot of cute pics in this article)
- Tama-chan (a bearded seal (an arctic species) that suddenly appeared in Japan in the summer of 2002. a doomsday cult tried to capture it in 2003? i dunno there were a few chapters of Cromartie High School that poked fun at hte whole thing because he thought the media circus surrounding him was annoying)
- Wojtek (a Syrian brown bear that rose to the rank of corporal in the Polish II Corps and retired to a peaceful life at the Edinburgh Zoo following the end of World War II)
- Travis (a chimp that appeared on television and lived with a human family for most of his life, until a violent incident occurred in which he attacked a family friend. A VIOLENT CHIMP ATTACK AND ITS AFTERMATH IS DETAILED IN THIS ARTICLE)
Architecture
- Baroque (exceedingly ornate style of architecture that can be seen in old churches/cathedrals and Castlevania levels. also the name of a Sega Saturn roguelike and the gimmick in the best Capcom Versus series game for some reason
- Belfry (a structure that holds a bell. towers, shrines, et al.)
- Garret (a living space in an attic; the traditional sloped, cramped bedroom that nobody wanted)
- Panopticon (a hypothetical prison design, in which the building is built in the shape of a circle and a single guard watches over all cells from their position in the center. literally 1984)
- Parapet (the upward extension of walls at the edge of a roof. yeah there's a word for those)
- Tuned mass damper (a mechanism inserted into structures such as skyscrapers in order to reduce any potential vibrations that they may suffer from. fascinating stuff that's kinda beyond me lol)
- Viaduct (bridges constructed with a series of arches/columns, like ancient Roman aqeuducts)
- Witch window (a style of hanging a house's windows at a 45 degree angle, parallel to the slope of the roof. found primarily in Vermont)
- Ossuary (a site meant to house human remains, particularly the skeleton. like the Skull Chapel, DON'T LOOK AT THIS ONE IF YOU DON'T LIKE LOOKING AT REAL HUMAN SKELETONS i think it's really metal though)
Clothes/Fashion
- Bolo tie (a style of necktie where an extended cord with metal tips is clasped together by a decorative broach. like the cowboys wear. yeehaw)
- Hachimaki (a Japanese headband, often colored white with inspirational phrases and the red rising sun decorating the front)
- Hitaikakushi (the triangular-shaped cloth worn on the heads of Japanese ghosts. there's no definite answer on the origin of this depiction of ghosts)
- Opera cloak (a low-hanging cloak worn over fancy attire to the opera. often multi-layered and cool and mysterious looking)
- Pince-nez (style of glasses that doesn't use earpieces, instead pinching the bridge of the nose to support themselves. mostly antiquated and rarely seen much within the last century)
- Pompadour (the name for various hairstyles, where hair is generally swept upwards over the face and high over the forehead. 18th century royalty wore it, 40s models wore it, 50s greasers wore it, Japanese schoolkid punks wore it, everybody was wearing pompadours)
- Soap shoes (shoes made for grinding like you would on a skateboard. Heelys bought the brand later on and they mostly don't exist anymore. probably most famously known for being worn by Sonic in Sonic Adventure 2, which introduced grinding as a gameplay mechanic to the series)
- Sukajan (Japanese blouse jackets, kinda like letterman jackets, which feature intricate silk/satin patterns on the back. very badass, i would like to visit Japan someday and get one of these)
- Heroin chic (early-90s fashion style that emphasized generally unhealthy features: pale skin, eye circles, emaciation, stringy hair, basically whatever made you look like a drug addict i guess. real unhealthy stuff, and i don't really fw skinny women so i don't get it. interesting look at western pop culture of that time. NOT REALLY NSFW BUT YEAH)
- Playboy Bunny outfit (i usually forget that this outfit didn't just come from haha funny anime fanservice moments. like, some old American perverts actually came up with this one. not too into lingerie/this sort of thing too much honestly but the history and cultural exchange here is interesting. OBVIOUSLY NOT VERY SAFE FOR WORK)
Foodstuff
- Calpis (a Japanese milk-based soft drink. i haven't drank it but it sounds peculiar)
- the Capitol Hill mystery soda machine (a bizarre vending machine located in Capitol Hill, Seattle, that dispensed uncommon flavors of soda, some not being easily found in the United States or simply not being produced anywhere anymore. it's disappeared as of a few years ago...)
- Chanko (Japanese stew eaten by sumo as their primary means of supplementing their weight gain diet. one of many types of nabe)
- Conveyor belt sushi (a type of sushi restaurant, wherein a conveyor belt that loops around the entire restaurant carries sushi to each table and can be taken as desired. very funny concept that i am surprised continues to exist for as long as it has)
- Dilberito (a vegan health food burrito made by the wackjob behind the comic strip Dilbert. it even had a flash game!)
- Dishwasher salmon (salmon that is prepared by cooking it in your dishwashing machine. i don't know anymore)
- Limoncello (a lemon-flavored liqueur of Italian origin. i'm not into alcohol, but if i could try drinking anything, it'd probably be this. look how yellow it is!)
- Nonpareils (little round sprinkles. i just think the name is kinda cute)
- Okonomiyaki (a grilled pancake-esque dish that is covered in all sorts of savory toppings, making it kinda like pizza almost. Ukyo from Ranma 1/2 makes it)
- Pocari Sweat (funnily-named Japanese sports drink. i would like to drink this one day just to say that i did it)
- Ramune (a Japanese carbonated soft drink. it's pretty old and comes in a funky bottle)
- Saveloy (spiced, bright red sausages served in English fish and chip shops. i think they look funny and would like to try them because sausage links are usually pretty tasty)
- Cannibal sandwich (a sandwich local to the Midwestern United States (particularly Wisconsin) made with raw ground beef and served at Christmastime. yeah. VEGANS, LOOK AWAY!)
Linguistics
- Ampersand (that's what you call the "&" symbol. now you know!)
- Bathos (an anticlimax brought about as an (un)intentional shift in tone, from serious and grandioise to absurd and stupid. so bad, it's good? or actually just stupid? you decide with your big words)
- Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo (this is a grammatically-correct sentence)
- Ditto marks (the use of "quotation marks" to indicate that the information above it is to be repeated. very useful shorthand device)
- Double entendre (a phrase with a double meaning, the second meaning being subtle and less socially acceptable, if not outright offensive, to directly state. basically just a fancy word for puns)
- Endonym/Exonym (native and non-native names that refer to a group of people, respectively. now you know!)
- Kerning (the spacing between individual letters in typeface. now you know!)
- Paraprosdokian (when the last part of the sentence catches you off-guard, in a funny way. like now you know.)
- Retronym (when something old is given a new, different name so as to differentiate it from something entirely new. such examples include World War I only being referred to as such after the second war had occurred, and Star Wars being subtitled Episode IV: A New Hope as the later films were released)
- Spoonerism (intentionally or unintentionally swapping consonants or vowels (typically the first ones) in a set of words to humorous effect. yow! new yo?)
