Kanita Bajrami
Kanita is a wanderlust-fueled traveler with an inclination for unraveling the mysteries of history, the paranormal, and the bizarre world of medicine. As a true crime buff, Kanita's nights are often spent delving into the depths of chilling mysteries. Yet, it's not just the paranormal that captivates her—her background in medicine fuels a fascination with the weird and wonderful world of medical oddities, from twisted historical practices to the myths and legends that shroud the field. From exploring haunted locales to uncovering the strange and morbid tales of medical history, Kanita is your guide to the unconventional, the unexplained, and the downright eerie.
The Berners Street Hoax Buried One London Address in Unwanted Deliveries
At five in the morning on 27 November 1810, chimney sweeps started arriving at 54 Berners Street in London. Not one sweep. Twelve of them, one after another, all told to report to the same quiet house. The widow who lived there sent them away confused, and then the coal wagons turned up. By midday…
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Nils Olav, the Penguin the Norwegian Army Keeps Promoting
In August 2023, more than 160 uniformed soldiers of the Norwegian King’s Guard stood at attention inside Edinburgh Zoo. They were waiting for an inspection. The inspecting officer was a king penguin. He walked the line at his own pace, because nobody rushes a penguin. At the end of it, he made Major General. That’s…
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The Mount Washington Cog Railway Has Been Climbing New Hampshire’s Tallest Peak Since 1869
Sylvester Marsh asked the New Hampshire legislature for permission to build a railway up Mount Washington. They didn’t say no. They did something better. They granted the charter. Then they reportedly suggested he might as well extend the thing to the moon while he was at it. Nobody thought it would work. A train cannot…
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Le Pétomane Made a Fortune Farting on Stage at the Moulin Rouge
In the 1890s, the highest-paid performer in France was not Sarah Bernhardt. It was a former baker from Marseille who did impressions with his backside. His name was Joseph Pujol. He went by Le Pétomane, which translates to something like “fartomaniac.” At his peak he pulled in around 20,000 francs a week. Bernhardt, the most…
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The Coolest, Weirdest Things to Actually Go See in Portugal
Portugal has a reputation for being pleasant. Tiles, custard tarts, beaches, elderly men playing cards in the shade. All accurate, all lovely. It also has a chapel decorated with five thousand skeletons. And a village where the houses wear boulders as roofs. And a lake with a giant hole in the middle that looks like…
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Viking Misconceptions That Still Won’t Go Away, According to People Who Study Vikings
In 1876, a designer named Carl Emil Doepler put horns on the helmets for the first Bayreuth production of Wagner’s Ring cycle. They looked appropriately mythic under stage lighting. The image escaped the opera house, got picked up by illustrators, and never left. A hundred and fifty years later it’s on a professional football team’s…
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