Japan’s Favourite Museum Is Dedicated to the Cup Noodle

If (noodle) Heaven is a place on Earth, we’re pretty certain it’d be at the CupNoodles Museum in Yokohama, Japan. Since opening its doors in 2011, the museum has become a veritable mecca for lovers of the instant noodles. CupNoodles, for those left scratching their heads, are the simple snack that have saved many a…

Legend of the Button King

The secret life of Dalton Stevens was born in the quiet of 2:00 am, in the even quieter town of Bishopville, South Carolina. (Population = more or less 3,000.) Stevens, then 53, had recently developed insomnia. “I didn’t have nothin’ to do,” he said. Then he picked up a button. He started bedazzling an old jumpsuit…

7 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Mark Twain

All of American Literature, declared Hemingway, owes its lifeblood to Mark Twain. The author’s stories of life on the Mississippi river, as seen through the mischievous eyes of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, have become national treasures. And Twain himself was quite a character, but far from the quiet, cob-pipe smoking cliché you might think. From…

A Pilgrimage to the Ancient Penis Monastery

Deep in the Himalayas you’ll find Bhutan, an ancient kingdom with an equally ancient Buddhist monastery that is bound to make you blush. It’s called Chimi Lhakhang, and it’s a temple dedicated to fertility and the “sacred phallus.” Emphasis on the phallus. A carved “welcome” sign invites Western visitors to explore the monastery and its surrounding village,…

Manhattan’s Last Farmhouse

In the midst of towering apartments and neon-lit bodegas, you’ll find the Dyckman Farmhouse, Manhattan’s oldest abode and only farmhouse. The white clapboard cottage has been perched on a hilltop on present-day Broadway for 234 years, slipping under the radar of tourists and New Yorkers alike and looking like a bit of a mirage in its…

How Did Einstein’s Brain go Missing for 23 Years in Some Guy’s Basement?

Albert Einstein’s family didn’t think he had a future. He was born in 1879 “with a head shaped like a lopsided medicine ball,” explained journalist Michael Paterniti to Harper’s Magazine over 20 years ago. As we all know, that head became one of the 21st century’s most genius devices. Lesser-known is the fact that it was stolen…

She Ruled Paris From Her Bed

The only place more frequented than the Eiffel Tower, according to 19th century Parisians, was the exalted mattress of the Valtesse de la Bigne. Her story is the quintessential rags-to-riches tale, albeit one that’ll make you blush, and clues to her influence over the era’s most powerful figures are still visible in Paris to this…

Like Picasso, But on Acid

Picasso, is that you? You have to admit, Jean Lurçat (above) is almost a dead ringer for Pablo. Same stocky build, same receding hairline. Just swap the cable-knit sweater for a Breton-striped shirt, and boom. We did a bit of digging to find out who this mysterious dopplegänger was, and realised that Lurçat and Picasso…

Heartbreak Hides in the Walls of This Paris Mansion

Museums are usually a feast for the eyes, but rarely are they this much of a treat for the heart. Cozied up beside Paris’ Parc Monceau you’ll find just that: the opulent Musée Nissim de Camondo, a perfectly preserved mansion from 1911 that belonged to the affluent Camondo family. As stunning as the interiors and antiques are, it’s the…

That Time a Wheat Field Grew in Downtown New York

The 1980s was a weird time to be in New York. Punk was flourishing, but so was crime. There was Basquiat and Keith Haring. The creative energy was non-stop, but tumultuous, and living conditions were gritty and hard for many. But in 1982, one artist’s knee-jerk reaction to that reality was breathtakingly simple: in the face of…