There is a “chicken church” in Indonesia. It was supposed to look like a dove…how’s that for a pullet surprise? It was intended for people of any religion or none at all…
I have been to Yogyakarta, now I feel I missed two important sites.
The other was Guning Merapi (Mount Merapi) which is a volcano; when I was there it was closed to the public due to it being actively erupting.
In 1922, a secret society aimed at countering the KKK formed. Were they victims of the Great Depression or the Klan?
The game of Ba’ is played in the town of Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands on Christmas Day and New Years Day each year. It is played on city streets, yards, or even potentially inside of homes or businesses that are not boarded up for the game.
The boys game starts at promptly at 10 am and the mens game promptly at 1 pm and continues until they have a winner no matter how long it takes.
There are two teams that are based on where the participant was born. It would be unusual for each team to have the same number of players as the other. There can be quite a difference.
The goal of one team is to dunk the ball into the sea and the goal of the other is get the ball in some portion of the town. I think that originally, the goal of the other was to touch it to a wall at the edge of town away from the sea. Once either is done, the game is over.
During the game, it may be difficult to tell who are spectators and who are players.
Also during the game, it is rare for the spectators to get more than a very brief glimpse of the ball from the time it is thrown into the players until one player wins for his team.
I’ve read that the winner of the men’s game then hosts an all night drinking party for all the members of both teams, but the beer is provided by a local grocery store these days.
The maximum age for the boys Ba’ is 15, but there is apparently no minimum age and boys as young as 5 are said to participate.
On 17 August, 1964 seven children were killed when the church bus they were riding in blew a tire and crossed over into oncoming traffic. Among those killed was Debbie Rogers, the daughter of Roy Rogers.
In the top left, Hobbes appears to be mauling Calvin.
I just learned that “Peabody’s Improbable History” was influenced by “Through Space and Time with Ferdinand Feghoot.”
Obviously.
Note also that the cartoon features a non-human who travels through time with a young companion…
Essentially the same game is played on Good Friday, Easter Tuesday and the Saturday following in my home town, Workington (head north 'til you reach the Scottish border, turn left, keep going 'til you reach the sea, and follow the coast round for twenty miles or so and you’re there.) The name is different, though:
I dispute the description of the “teams”: received wisdom was that Downies were originally fishermen and Uppies were miners (each with associated families, friends etc). Current teams are based on traditional allegiances.
For anyone wondering Cloffocks is a corruption of Cloth Works (the industry is long gone).
From memory there are maybe half a dozen similar games still played in the UK.
j
Takanakuy…a tradition of fist fighting on Christmas Eve.
Wikipedia says:
Locals claim to obtain several social benefits from the tradition. The public brawling offers an alternative method to resolve conflict and create a peaceful society.[5]
As a long time fan of the band Genesis, I was aware of the fact that the band name did not appear on their first album. The reason being that Decca, the label they were signed to, had discovered that there was an American band with the same name at the time.
However, I recently discovered that in the 70s there was an American band that started out with the name Genesis, but changed it when they discovered there was a British band with the same name. That band later became known as Van Halen.
Sounds like a bit out of Spinal Tap.
The phrase most commonly mistaken for “Pulitzer Prize,” right?
Reminds me how wombats will get into a burrow and then plug the opening with their essentially armored butts.
I know, right? They should have just gone with “The New Genesis”. 
The hard way.
ISWYDT
Swindon is an English town of remarkably little interest, about seventy miles west of London. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it is a road junction called The Magic Roundabout.
That box tells you basically everything you need to know.
This is not a fact that I just stumbled across - I have known of it for years, it’s part of the nation’s folklore. It is, however, a junction that I stumbled across, without any warning, on Thursday. The Wiki page says it was voted #4 scary junction in Britain; I would have placed it higher.
Here’s a 15 second YouTube video of it in action.
That is exactly what it feels like.
j
What are 1 through 3?!
An unexpected chicken…I couldn’t resist.
Another random fact:
Kleenex® Tissue was originally designed in 1924 as a cold cream remover; hence, the “Kleen” portion of the word was coined to convey the cleansing purpose.
I don’t know when people decided that blowing their nose into one was a good idea, but somebody’s got a centennial coming up!