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Category / Conversation Starters

Holy Land USA (Before & After): The Abandoned Christian Theme Park

Because nothing says fun, amusement and good times for all the family like bible studies, there was Holy Land USA, a Christian tourist attraction filled with religious exhibits in Waterbury, Connecticut between 1958 and 1984. At its height, Holy Land attracted up to 40,000 visitors a year to the park. Lead photo by Paul Maiorana…

French Phrases Hidden in English Words (A Cartoon Crash Course)

I think one of my proudest moments in grade school was the time my teacher asked the class if anyone knew where denim came from. I over-excitedly raised my hand and blurted out, “Nîmes! The city in France!” My grandparents were from Nîmes and they had bestowed me with the rather obscure fact that the English word “denim” was a play on…

That time President George H. W. Bush Escaped Cannibals

In WW2 nine airmen escaped from their planes after being shot down during bombing raids on a tiny island 700 miles south of Tokyo. Eight of these men were captured, tortured, beheaded and eaten. The 9th man was George H. W. Bush, the only one who survived. I came across a particularly astounding insert on Wikipedia…

Where the Statues of Paris were sent to Die

The stony gaze of the statue upon his executor says it all. Most of the bronze “men” that once watched over Parisian streets and public squares of the French Third Republic met a most undignified end many years ago, snatched from their pedestals and erased from the history books. During the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, the…

A Groovy Fashion Show in 1960s Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan was once known as the Paris of Central Asia. During the late 1960s, goat-skin coats were Afghanistan’s biggest fashion export, gracing the pages of Vogue and copied by designers for the chicest hippies longing for adventure along the Silk Road. For a December 1969 Vogue issue, photographer Fred Maroon and a team of American stylists arrived in Kabul…

10 Reasons Why Archeology is the Coolest Job Ever

Indiana Jones may have exaggerated a little bit about the job, but you still get to dress like Alan Grant from Jurassic Park, travel all over the world and uncover some mind-blowing relics of the past. Here’s 10 reminders of why this is the coolest career going. 1. That time they discovered the Easter Island Statues have Bodies There…

Descend into the 400 Foot Deep Amusement Park

Usually you would hop on a ferris wheel to get a better view over a city or landscape. It’s not everyday that you’ll find one which takes you on a ride to check out the view hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface. Salina Turda is an ancient salt mine in Turda, Romania, which first began extracting…

Bowling in Antarctica

As blizzards rage on in the darkest of winters at McMurdo Station, the isolated home base for American researchers on the southernmost continent of the planet, surrounded by snow-covered ice fields and an active volcano smoking in the background, one might wonder, what do they get up to in their downtime? Well today I learned there is…

The Grandmothers Graffiti Gang

So you think your grandparents aren’t “street” enough? Too set in their ways to get down with the kids? Meet the granny graffiti gang of Lisbon, Portugal, pioneered by an unusual initiative giving graffiti workshops to senior citizens. LATA 65 (lata means “can” in Portuguese) is an urban art workshop that teaches the basics of street…

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Holy Land USA (Before & After): The Abandoned Christian Theme Park

The Seven Churches of Antarctica