Cool Weird Awesome with Brady Carlson

We're replaying some of our favorite shows about (mostly) live performances. In this episode from December 2022, the story of a woman who, in 1660, became the first female stage actor in England, playing a role in a production of Shakespeare’s Othello. We know she was a trailblazer, even if we don't know her name. Plus: in 2013, Metallica became the first band to play live on all seven continents.

Who was the first Shakespearean actress? (British Library)

Samuel Pepys and the First Actresses (Royal Museums Greenwich)

Metallica Rocks ‘Freeze ‘Em All’ Show in Antarctica (Billboard)

Whoever you are, you could be a trailblazer too as one of our backers on Patreon

At this time of year the sentence "it was a dark and stormy night" often comes to mind. Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote that notorious line and it's what he's remembered for today, though he once had a lot more going for him than that. Plus: starting today in Nevada, it’s Beatty Days. 

The Strange History of the Worst Sentence in English Literature (Mental Floss)  

Beatty Days 

Our Patreon page is a bright and shiny spot, back our show there today

Turkey is one of the only countries in the world with territory in two continents, so of course there have long been people who start their mornings off by swimming from one continent to the other. Plus: a town in Poland put itself on the map with an unusual tourist attraction: a chonky tuxedo cat.

I Joined the Turkish Commuters Who Swim Between Europe and Asia Every Day (Thrillist)

Chunky Tuxedo Cat Is a 5-Star Tourist Attraction in a Medieval Polish City (My Modern Met)

Back our show on Patreon so we can keep podcasting from continent to continent

The Statue of Liberty has been looking out on New York Harbor for over a century. But behind her, there have been a few neighbors. Plus: you may already know that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, but the statue also has roots in the Middle East.

The Little Girl Who Lived Next Door to the Statue of Liberty (Untapped New York) 

The Statue of Liberty Was Originally a Muslim Woman (Smithsonian)

Raise a torch for this show as a backer on Patreon

In late October 1974, an area of southwestern Kentucky had a big and loud problem on its hands, when, somehow, the region became a roosting spot for several million blackbirds. Plus: today in 2017, a report an explosive new development in fast food known as Firecracker Burritos. 

Holy cow! History: When the blackbirds called on Kentucky (Jacksonville Journal-Courier)

Taco Bell's New Burrito Is Loaded With Spicy Popping Candy (Delish via Archive.org)  

Visit our Patreon page to back this show, even if its host is a birdbrain

Today in 1987, the opening in Kolomyia, Ukraine of the Pysanka Museum, sometimes called the Museum of Easter Egg Painting. For obvious reasons you might not be able to get there today, so we'll make a virtual visit. Plus: a group of fast-sewing quilters comes to the rescue of a marching band in Minnesota.

Kolomyia. "Easter Egg" (Castles.com) 

Uniform emergency: MN quilters sew 110 uniforms in two days for high school marching band (KARE 11)

Egg yourself on until you support our show on Patreon

This month in 1921, the first proposal for what we know today as the Appalachian Trail. It runs nearly 2,200 miles near 14 states, long enough that there are regional differences in how people say its name. Plus: today in 2015, a big misunderstanding involving janitors and an installation at a modern art museum in Italy.

There's no right or wrong way to say 'Appalachia' (Virginia Tech University)

Janitors Mistakenly Throw Out Champagne Bottle Art Installation (Artnet)

However you pronounce the word, make sure you back our show on Patreon today

Today in 2020, a wildlife expert in Oakland, California went undercover to stop an aggressive turkey from terrorizing its human neighbors (!) Plus: today in 2016, a woman in Leicester, North Carolina, tried to show her husband that the lottery was a waste of money, only to have her plan backfire in the best way.

Oakland's notoriously aggressive turkey captured by wildlife expert posing as frail woman (ABC 7 News)

Leicester woman tries to teach husband lesson, wins $1 million on scratch-off (WLOS)

We hope you’ll all flock like turkeys over to our Patreon page and back the show

This month in 2021, Merriam-Webster announced that one of the 455 words it was adding to its dictionary was fluffernutter, a sweet and gooey sandwich that's won over New Englanders for something like a century. Plus: Dopamine Shop is an online store with all the fun of shopping, except that you can't order anything or spend any money.

Fluffernutter is added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary (WBUR)

Dopamine Shop

This show and its Patreon backers go together like peanut butter and fluff

Some big and tasty news out of the Tiangong space station, where astronauts from China have been taking rice growing in space to a new level. Plus: all month long in Virginia City, Nevada, it’s Hauntober.

China’s space rice experiment could help astronauts grow their own food (Interesting Engineering)

Hauntober  

Help this show grow, in space and on Earth, as a backer on Patreon