The Zulu krewe's coconuts are highly coveted 'throws'

New Orleans' Mardi Gras celebration is driven by autonomous 'krewes'

A city ordinance prohibits commercial advertising, and the parade has no central coordinator. Instead, its many activities are organized by individual "krewes"—private clubs of dues-paying members who construct and ride the parades' many colorful floats. The spelling is a faux Old English form of the word "crew," taken from the Mistick Krewe of Comus, who used the stylized language ironically.

Beads are social currency during Mardi Gras

Historians believe krewes started tossing small items, colloquially called "throws," to onlookers sometime in the 1870s or 1880s. Eventually, shiny beads became the norm and were usually given to those offering something in return. (At times, that meant free booze or the flashing of breasts.) The early strings of beads were glass, though by the 1960s most were plastic.

The Zulu krewe dons black face paint, but says it's not blackface

The majority Black organization was founded in the early 1900s, when Mardi Gras was still segregated. They painted their faces black, both to comply with the Mardi Gras rule requiring masks and to reenact a vaudeville sketch. In recent years, their facepaint has been criticized by some as a form of Jim Crow minstrelsy.

UC Santa Cruz's nontraditional mascot was selected by its students

After becoming an NCAA Division III school, UC Santa Cruz ditched its informal mascot, the banana slug, for a sea lion. Students protested and eventually held a straw vote to reinstate the old name, which they saw as an antidote to the hypercompetitive nature of college athletics.

One NHL team tosses salmon to its fans

Detroit Red Wings fans have thrown octopuses on the ice since 1952, and fans of other teams have tried their own hand at tossing things in the rink ever since. It's now become a calling card for the Seattle Kraken, whose fans nod to the city's Pike Place Market by tossing salmon onto the ice.

That time British slavers killed enslaved people and filed for insurance reimbursement

In 1781, a British slave ship tossed 132 enslaved Africans overboard, leaving them to drown. This 52-minute podcast explores the context behind the massacre and its implications. The slavers of the ship named Zong sought insurance reimbursement for...

The Pop-Tarts Bowl ends with its mascot being eaten by the winning team

In one of college football’s quirkiest traditions, the Pop-Tarts Bowl concludes with the victorious players taking bites out of the giant Pop-Tart mascot.

Florida: the invasive pythons capital of the world

As invasive pythons choke the life out of South Florida, it’s down to a loose-knit group of thrill-seeking bounty hunters to get rid of them.

A brief history of Cannes controversies

Cannes is one of the most prestigious festivals in the world, but that hasn’t shielded it from controversies, including inflammatory statements, political protests, and booing audiences.

What Costco does with its unsold baked items

Ever wonder what Costco does with its seemingly endless supply of muffins and other baked goods? Rather than mark down the items or toss them in the trash, the big-box retailer donates the perishable food to Feeding America, a network of food banks and other programs that help feed those in need.

The US Navy prohibited sailors from toasting with water

A 1986 manual stated that "Tradition is that the object of a toast with water will die by drowning." The superstition is rooted in ancient Greek mythology, where the dead in the underworld drank from the River Lethe to forget their previous lives. As such, the Greeks believed toasting someone with water to be a way of cursing them to the underworld.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

Cincinnati has its own Oktoberfest tradition: the running of the weiners

A unique aspect of Oktoberfest Zinzinnati, in Cincinnati, Ohio, is its dachshund race. Costumed wiener dogs race down a short track for Oktoberfest glory (and treats).

Inside the world's largest two-headed calf collection

The Two-Headed Calf MOOseum in San Francisco contains 50 taxidermied cow heads, all of which are paired with another one. They are the result of rare genetic mutations called polycephaly, that is, two-headedness. The museum is run by punk musician Henry Rosenthal, who first became captivated by the rare phenomenon in his 20s. Learn more about the exhibit here.

The Coca-Cola Company also owns Sprite, Smartwater, and many more brands

The parent company owns lots of beverage brands, from sodas to water, including Dasani, Minute Maid, Topo-Chico, and more. You can see all of the roughly 200 brands it owns on its website.

The common 'Three Sisters' mound-planting system used by natives

In the 17th century, Native Americans cultivated a three-plant combination of corn, beans, and squash—a symbiotic tradition dating back hundreds of years. The corn allowed the beans to climb, the beans fertilized the plants by extracting nitrogen from the air, and the squash leaves protected the soil and preserved moisture. Learn more about the tradition here.

How women ascended the ranks in the highstakes world of Maya politics

Two bloodlines attained near total supremacy of the Maya civilization in contemporary central America: the lords of Tikal and the Kaanul Dynasty. The Kaanul, or snake, dynasty often used marriage to expand their empire, wedding their sorcerer queens to low-ranking rulers of desired lands. Read this Archaeology Magazine article to learn more about these Maya snake queens.

Every tropical storm is named from one of six predetermined lists

The lists of names are reused every six years and are maintained by the World Meteorological Organization. If a named storm becomes significant, its name is retired and replaced on the list.

Coral reefs get their colors from zooxanthellae—microorganisms that line corals' digestive tracts and provide them with sugars in exchange for a home within this protective tissue.

The CIA tried to poison Castro’s milkshake

During the Cold War, the CIA engaged in a series of "creative" attempts to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro—including poisoning his daily chocolate milkshake with botulinum toxins. It was not successful.

Following the NFL's concussion settlement, numerous victims were denied payouts

In 2015, the NFL finalized a landmark settlement with former players alleging concussions suffered in games were causing brain diseases. The settlement promised to pay every former player who developed dementia or diseases linked to concussions. This Washington Post investigation interviewed former players who filed claims under the agreement, but said they were rejected based on definitions in the settlement.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw unprocessed state, and chewing mango skin can produce blister rashes

Poison ivy only seems to lead to allergic responses in humans, other primates, and guinea pigs. Other animals can both interact with the plant and eat it without becoming sickened.

The Punch: Tomjanovich and Washington both still feel the pain from that terrible moment

In the NBA of the 1970s, cocaine use was prevalent and fights were a regular occurrence. On one early December in 1977, a fight broke out between the Lakers and the Rockets. Read this gripping LA Times story from 1985 that recounts a near-fatal punch thrown by Laker forward Kermit Washington and the devastating consequences paid by Houston Rocket forward Rudy Tomjanovich.

How Los Angeles got its palm trees

Los Angeles is known for its warm weather and palm trees, but the latter haven't always been part of the landscape. As Hollywood's movie industry grew, so did the number of palm trees. As this article points out, most of the city's palm trees were planted in the 1930s through an unemployment relief program.

Grieving primate mothers will carry dead infant for long after death—and others will comfort her

An examination of infant corpse carrying practices among non-human primate mothers found that 40 species of primate mothers will carry around their dead infant for days, weeks, or even months. In some cases, a grieving primate's group members would provide grieving support—hugging or staying close to mothers who experienced a loss.

The anatomy of coral polyps, whose mouths consume food and expel waste

The mouth is surrounded by tentacles that help clear away debris and defend the organism, using stinging cells called nematocysts that resemble those of jellyfish. Connective tissue called coenosarc connects individual polyps within colonies and allows them to share nutrients.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

The story of Dollree Mapp, whose legal challenge over her 1957 conviction for possessing "obscene material" led to a major strengthening of the Fourth Amendment

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

A pickleball's loud 'pop' sound can reach 120 decibels, which is equivalent to a hammer hitting a nail

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.