Things I Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globster

A globster, or blob, is an unidentified organic mass that washes up on the shoreline of an ocean or other body of water. The term was coined by Ivan T. Sanderson in 1962 to describe the Tasmanian carcass of 1960, which was said to have “no visible eyes, no defined head, and no apparent bone structure”.

It’s too bad the definition is limited to things that wash up on the beach. I know plenty of people that I’d classified as globsters, if I didn’t know any better…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_and_Pollux

In the myth the twins shared the same mother but had different fathers which meant that Pollux was immortal and Castor was mortal. When Castor died, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together and they were transformed into the Gemini constellation. The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo’s fire.

Also the names Castor and Pollux were used for the characters that actors Nicolas Cage and Alessandro Nivola played in the 1997 John Woo film Face/Off. Cage plays terrorist Castor Troy and Nivola plays his brother Pollux.

In the thriller movie The Relic, two police search dogs are named Castor and Pollux. One of them surviving, and one of them being killed by the beast.

Also, Castor and Pollux is the name of a pet food company.

You’ve come a long way, baby!

Image by Ann R. Raia from The VRoma Project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will-o%27-the-wisp

A will-o’-the-wisp or ignis fatuus (Latin, from ignis, “fire” + fatuus, “foolish”), also called will-o’-wisp, corpse candle, jack-o’-lantern, friar’s lantern, gunderslislik, and wisp, is a Folklore depiction of ghostly light sometimes seen at night or twilight over bogs, swamps, and marshes.

“Ignis fatuus” is one of those wonderful phrases that sounds like it should be an insult, but isn’t.

Reminds me of the time one of my white trash cousins called the other an “oxymoron.” We all laughed…but I stopped when I realized he was serious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-eating_tree

In his 1955 book, Salamanders and other Wonders, science author Willy Ley determined that the Mkodo tribe, Carl Liche, and the Madagascar man-eating tree itself all appeared to be fabrications.

OM NOM NOM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BDla

A public decree was issued in 1746 prohibiting the use of Grýla and the Yule Lads to terrify children.

This Wikipedia entry does not do justice to the Icelandic legend that is Gryla. At Christmastime in U.S., Santa Claus delivers presents from a sack to good children and coal to the naughty ones. At Christmastime in Iceland, Gryla stuffs the naughty children in a sack and takes them home for dinner. To cook them in a stew.

Iceland FTW.

(Image and info thanks to The Engelson Files)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_cookie#Origin

“There is a common joke involving fortune cookies that involves appending “between the sheets” or “in bed” to the end of the fortune, usually creating a sexual innuendo or other bizarre messages (e.g., “Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall [in bed]”).”

Fortune cookies are about as Chinese as California rolls are Japanese (Hint: They’re not).

Blackberry User, for the record, already knew that. But then again, she’s repeatedly gotten cookies with no fortune whatsoever in them, so she’s not even really a person, right?

Authentic or not, though, they’re still fun for the whole family…

…in bed.

Wait. Never mind.

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What’s going on here?

Follow the rabbit trail!

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anasyrma

“used in connection with certain religious rituals, eroticism, and lewd jokes”

As are most of the finer things in life.

P.S. We’re stuck on a theme here, people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass

So it goes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_King