Futility Closet

ob�nu�bi�late v. to cloud or obscure

In 1810, Theodore Hook, a writer of comic operas, bet his friend Samuel Beazley that he could turn any house in London into the most talked-...

In 1726, 25-year-old English maidservant Mary Tofts began giving birth to rabbits. Despite a miscarriage earlier that year, she apparently...

"With the prospect of coal becoming as rare as the dodo itself, the world, we are told by scientists, may still regard with complacency...

Victims of Belgian " entarteur " No�l Godin, who flings cream pies at the self-important: Microsoft CEO Bill Gates French ...

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then give up. No use being a damned fool about it." -- W.C. Fields

A mother is 21 years older than her son. Six years from now, she will be five times his age. Where's the father? I won't give the ...

For an imaginary creature, the Popo Bawa of Zanzibar seems pretty eager for publicity. According to legend, the creature -- described as a o...

The U.S. Senate used the same gavel for 165 years, from its inception until 1954, when the vice president splintered it during a heated de...

In a 1632 version of the King James Bible, the printers omitted a "not" from Exodus 20:14, so the seventh commandment read "T...

Last year Sharon Tendler married a bottle-nosed dolphin. Tendler, 41, first became captivated with the animal during a dolphinarium show i...

Admire it while you can -- this is the most frequently stolen street sign in Austria.

"Fancy being remembered around the world for the invention of a mouse!" -- Walt Disney, during his last illness

In 2004, French writer Michel Dansel published The Train from Nowhere , a 233-page novel written entirely without verbs. He even organized...

Mammoths generally died out with the last ice age, but some survived on Russia's Wrangel Island until 1500 B.C., around the same time ...

What's the difference between a psychologist and a magician? A psychologist pulls habits out of rats.

I had often, cowled in the slumbrous heavy air, Closed my inanimate lids to find it real, As I knew it would be, the colourful spires An...

George Lucas originally wanted Orson Welles to provide the voice of Darth Vader. Finally he opted for James Earl Jones, whose voice was ...

hip�po�pot�o�mon�stro�ses�qui�pe�da�li�o�pho�bi�a n. fear of long words

On Oct. 16, 1906, small-time criminal Wilhelm Voigt became a big-time criminal ... for one day. Wearing a secondhand captain's uniform...