| Title | Description |
| Pastrami / Cure for the common deli |
The world’s first delicatessen came into existence in the late 1800s thanks to a new kind of cured meat known as pastrami. But the exact nature of pastrami is open to interpretation. |
| Piñatas / History of a breakthrough |
The piñata may be a staple of children's birthday parties in North America, but it apparently originated in China. Or maybe Africa. Ask Marco Polo. |
| Modern Mummies / Resurrecting the art of arrested decay |
Mummification may have gone out with the pharaohs, but a new, modern mummification process aims to restore its popularity. You can even have your pet mummified for eternity. |
| Demosthenes' Stones / Improving your diction, Athenian style |
The Greek orator Demosthenes overcame a severe speech impediment by forcing himself to speak with stones in his mouth. |
| The S Curve / What is wrong with success? |
After someone acquires a certain level of expertise, further development of a skill seems to drop off dramatically. Can this phenomenon, known as the S Curve, be overcome? |
| Perpetual Motion Machines / The endless quest for free energy |
Over the centuries, countless people have tried to create perpetual motion (or over-unity) machines, in defiance of the Laws of Thermodynamics. So far, physics is holding its own. |
| Propeller Beanies / The story of the geek's icon |
The little beanies with plastic propellers on top have become iconic (in America, at least) of science fiction fans and techie nerds of all kinds. But the cap's inventor never got the credit he deserved. |
| The Hurdy-Gurdy / Violin, bagpipes, and kazoo combined |
A musical instrument that's quite odd by today's standards, the hurdy-gurdy was quite popular for accompanying dancing in the medieval period. And it's making a bit of a comeback. |
| The Story of Doughnuts / The truth, the hole truth . . . |
When and how doughnuts were invented (and how they got their name) is the subject of some disagreement. People also disagree about where to get the best doughnuts in San Francisco, but I'm doing my best to answer that question. |
| Sedona's Energy Vortexes / The world's most popular invisible tourist attraction |
The town of Sedona, Arizona is best known for several so-called energy vortexes that are supposedly sites of increased energy. They may or may not promote health and spiritual development, but they certainly promote tourism. |
| The Globe Theatre / Shakespeare's ideal venue, then and now |
Shakespeare's famous Globe Theatre, originally built in 1599, bares little resemblance to what most people think of as a theater today. A replica, made as historically accurate as possible, was built in London in 1996. |
| Walloon / Green Bay and the French connection |
What's the connection between Belgium and Green Bay, Wisconsin? It's not cheese, but a little-known language called Walloon. |
| Bahasa Indonesia / The complex story of a simple language |
The official language of Indonesia has been called an artificial language, but that's not quite correct. Nevertheless, it has undergone several significant transformations, some of which were artificially guided. |
| Linguistic Categories / Women, fire, and dangerous things |
Most languages have one or more mechanisms of dividing nouns into groups that express meaningful categories for the language's speakers. Some of these groupings yield insights into subtle cultural and mental processes. |
| Pittsburghese / America's most underappreciated dialect |
Residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (and its surrounding area) have their own distinctive dialect of English called Pittsburghese. |
