Ever tried to re-gift a present you didn't need? Two brothers-in-law kept giving each other the same pair of pants for decades - and in increasingly complicated wrappings. Plus: ever hear about the time Alex Trebek walked onto the Jeopardy! set without pants? 

Brothers Traded Moleskin Pants as an Annual Christmas Gift (Snopes)

Jeopardy! Flashback: Alex Trebek Without Pants (Jeopardy!)

Why does NORAD watch Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, while watching for missiles and bombers the rest of the time? It all started when an ad for a Santa Claus hotline accidentally published a military hotline number during the Cold War. Plus: a gag gift known as the "Nothing Box" was maybe one present that wasn't supposed to travel through the skies at Christmastime. 

NORAD Santa Tracker: 64-year-old tradition started with wrong number (KKTV)

The Nothing Box (Weird Universe)

Hope you have a Christmas Eve that's as great as our Patreon backers! 

In 1843, British civil servant Henry Cole wanted a way to send holiday greetings to friends, colleagues and loved ones without having to write letter after letter. And that's where commercial Christmas cards began. Plus: did you know that chili pepper plants were once considered just as festive as poinsettias?

Dear (Whoever You Are), Here’s the First Christmas Card (Library of Congress)

Intriguing stories served fresh daily When the Christmas Plant Was a Pepper, Not a Poinsettia (Atlas Obscura)

Our Patreon backers are definitely holiday card-worthy

For centuries, mistletoe has been a symbol of holiday love, renewal and fertility. Even though it's actually a parasite that steals nutrients from trees. Plus: a poinsettia in the suburbs of Montreal has gone from half-dead to entirely huge! 

This Is Why We Kiss Under the Mistletoe (Readers Digest)

'Crappy half-dead' poinsettia from grocery store just won't stop growing (CBC)

Our backers on Patreon are the ones who make this show grow!

It was today in 1913 that the first modern crossword puzzle was published in the New York World newspaper, eventually leading to a craze that cruciverbalists all over the world have been enjoying ever since. Plus: an invention that didn’t last as long as the crossword - though it was designed to. 

100 years of crosswords: the first appeared in New York on 21.12.1913 (The Guardian)

Crossword Puzzles (Quartz Obsession)

The Doomsday Diet (Eater)

The seven-letter word that makes this show possible: Backers

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from October 2020, scientists at Purdue University have a way to help keep us cool to the point that  we might not even need air conditioning, and all it takes is a fresh coat of a special paint. Plus: the town of Asbestos, Quebec has finally chosen a new name!

New 'Super-White' Paint Can Cool Down Buildings and Cars (Interesting Engineering)

Goodbye Asbestos, hello Val-des-Sources: Que. town changing infamous name (CBC)

Our backers on Patreon are really, really bright

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from October 2020, we look at the days when auto workers spray painted new vehicles, and excess paint would harden and accumulate into a substance that looked like colorful gemstones. Jewelers have been making works of art out of "fordite" ever  since. Plus: ever wanted to make a bread bowl that looks like your own face? Now you can!

Your Earrings Remind Me of Grandma’s Gran Torino (New York Times)

How To Make A Bread Mold Of Your Own Face (Make)

Together, Cool Weird Awesome and our backers on Patreon can make great art - join us!

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from August 2020, chemists at Indiana University and the University of Copenhagen have found a way to make the brightest fluorescent materials ever made. Plus: for World Elephant Day, meet Lucy, the elephant-shaped hotel on the Jersey Shore.

Chemists create the brightest-ever fluorescent materials (Phys.org)

World Elephant Day

Stay Overnight in Lucy, an Elephant-Shaped Hotel on the New Jersey Shore (Untapped Cities)

Bright idea: join us as a Cool Weird Awesome backer on Patreon

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from July 2020, we're talking about Vantablack, a color that’s so black it absorbs almost all of the  light nearby. There’s new research out about a “vantafish” that does  almost the same thing to avoid its hungry bioluminescent neighbors.  Plus: you’ve heard of drive-in theaters; Paris is going to have a  “float-in” theater featuring “socially distanced boats” on the Seine.

Vantablack? Meh. Meet the Ultra-Black Vantafish (Wired)

Floating Movie Theater With Socially Distant Boats Set for Paris (Interesting Engineering)

Back the only podcast that can make a Spinal Tap reference AND a Rebecca Black reference in its first 30 seconds!

It's Full Color Week, where we’re replaying some of our favorite episodes about color. In this episode from September 2019, we look at how paintings made with Day Glo paint are losing their glow over time. Conservationists don’t yet  know how to solve this puzzle, but we do at least know how Day Glo got started. Plus: meet a color that absorbs 99.995 percent of incoming  light. Even Nigel Tufnel would say that’s pretty black.

Day-Glo masterpieces are fading. A conservator and her team are racing to save them (Los Angeles Times)

How DayGlo Went From Utility Pigment to Design World Darling (AIGA Eye on Design)

Engineers Just Unveiled a New Blackest-Ever Material, Even Darker Than Vantablack (Science Alert)

Make life more colorful when you back Cool Weird Awesome on Patreon