“I am convinced that the only people worthy of consideration in this world are the unusual ones”*…
There are over five million articles in the English Wikipedia. These are the ones that Wikipedians have identified as being a bit unusual. These articles are verifiable, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia, but are a bit odd, whimsical, or something you would not expect to find in Encyclopædia Britannica. We should take special care to meet the highest standards of an encyclopedia with these articles lest they make Wikipedia appear idiosyncratic…
Odd and amusing photos and text: Wikipedia’s article on “Unusual Articles.” Hours of fun!
* The Scarecrow (L. Frank Baum)
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As we wallow in the weird, we might recall that it was on this date in 1712 that the Bandbox Plot unfolded. An attempt on the life of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, the British Lord Treasurer, it was foiled by the perspicacity of Jonathan Swift (author of “Gulliver’s Travels”), who happened to be visiting the Earl.
A bandbox was a lightweight hat-box; this particular one– an ancestor of the parcel bomb– had been rigged to fire a number of loaded and cocked pistols on opening. Swift, spotting the thread to which the triggers were attached, seized the package, and cut the thread, thus disarming the device. The attack was laid at the door of the Lord Treasurer’s political rivals, the Whig party, and threw enormous popular sympathy behind Harley.
The Right Honorable Robert Harley, The Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer KG