At the time of writing, there are 3,585,232 articles in English on Wikipedia. Too many, I’m sure you’ll agree, to browse during a weekend. Even if you skip all the vowels.
Let us give thanks, then, to the fine folk at Best of Wikipedia and their contributors. They curate weird and wonderful articles from the dense, vast thicket of the hive mind so you don’t have to. A recent sampling of subjects includes:
- An unexplained physical phenomenon known as the “Shower-curtain effect“,
- An anarchist group in 1960s New York called “Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers,” and
- A grammatical brainteaser that my dad introduced me to, years ago: “James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher“.
Is this post mainly a way to get the word “motherfuckers” on my blog? Of course it is. But Best of Wikipedia really is a terrific complement to your morning coffee. After a couple of weeks of reading it you’ll be astounding your friends with your command of esoterica. Well, the ones that haven’t seen you coming and leapt into a hedge, that is.