Manhattan's Underground Cow Tunnels (of Death)

(Above: Art by Kaisu Koivisto)

More evidence of New York's vast underground world has recently come to light! According to experts, numerous tunnels were constructed here in the 19th century after the city made it illegal to herd cattle through the streets. The underground passages made it possible for cows to be driven from farms north of the city to slaughter houses in lower Manhattan without blocking street traffic.

Over time, the tunnels fell out of use, but GUESS WHAT! They may still be there!

The website Gothamist quotes an article written by author Brian Wiprud in 1997. Wiprud describes:

. . . watching a crew install a drainage basin on Greenwich Street when they came upon a wall of wood about ten feet down. A laborer went into the hole with a torch and came out saying it was an oak-vaulted tunnel ten feet wide by eight feet high that trailed off an undetermined distance in either direction. It was then that an old man from the neighborhood stepped up to the trench and said, 'Why, I see you found the cattle tunnel.'

So where are the tunnels? Gothamist thinks it's discovered the location of two of them.

[An official] document lists two historical underground cattle passages from the 1870s that are listed as still being in existence, one at West 34th Street and another at West 38th Street, both along 12th Avenue.

Awesome! Now let's go find them!

Sold: Unicorns, Yetis, and Flying Kittens

The Brading Experience, an unusual museum on England's Isle of Wight, recently closed for good, and the contents of the building were auctioned off yesterday. Which means that anyone in the market for a yeti or a flying kitten should have been in the UK. (Darn!)

According to legend, the unusual beasts were collected by a mysterious Professor Copperthwaite who traveled the world in the 19th century, searching for curious creatures. (My ideal job!)

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Mother Nature Is One Cool Lady

(Photo by mdid. Looks good to me!)

Lightening makes mushrooms multiply.

The South American jabuticaba tree grows fruit on its trunk.

Looks like a strawberry, tastes like a pineapple.

Fifteen fingers, sixteen toes. If this kid doesn't grow up to be a superhero, I'll be really disappointed.

The mystery monkey of Tampa Bay.

The five-centimeter high ghost orchid is Britain's rarest flower.

The Little Mermaid Deboned

A statue of Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid (below) has long been one of the biggest tourist attractions in Copenhagen, Denmark. But for the next six months, she'll be visiting China, and her rock will be empty for the first time in almost a century.

So on April Fool's Day, some crafty pranksters decided to fill the void. Tourists who came looking for the Little Mermaid instead found her skeleton. I wish I could have seen their faces.

More here.

There's a Lesson Here Somewhere . . .

When nineteen-year-old Kevin O. went shopping for an animal companion, he refused to settle for the usual pets. No puppies or hamsters or capybaras for Kevin. Oh no. He needed a cobra.

He brought his cobra home earlier this month and placed it in a special terrarium. When Kevin returned to see how his snake was settling in, he found the terrarium . . . EMPTY.

Now the snake in question is quite venomous, perhaps even deadly. And Kevin lives in an apartment building with two other families. The authorities were called, and a massive snake hunt began. Floors were ripped up and walls were demolished. (See below. And see more pictures here.) The search lasted a week and cost more than $50,000, but the snake was never found.

So what happens now? Everyone in the building has been forced to leave. The house will be sealed off for eight weeks, which is as long as experts figure the snake might survive.

If I were Kevin, I don't think I'd go back. The cobra might be dead, but I have a feeling the neighbors are now far more dangerous than the snake ever was.

Happy April Fools Day, Everyone!

(Above: From the new Charles Addams exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. I'm DYING to see it!)

Any good pranks to share?

So You Pull Up the Submersible Robot You've Sent to Survey the Ocean Floor

And you find THIS attached to it . . .







Apparently they're considered a delicacy in Taiwan.

Things Adults Would Already Know If They'd Bother to Read Kiki Strike

(Above: The nicest ladies in the world.)

A recent study published in Psychological Science offers evidence that clean, pleasant smells can make you a better person. According to the Boston Globe, "The authors even suggested that clean smells could be employed as a tool to influence how people act." Oh really? You don't say!

The article is pretty interesting (if long). Here are a few of the highlights . . .

People playing a trust game in a citrus-smelling room treated their opponents more fairly.

The smell of some cleansers made people more likely to volunteer for a charity.

People walking through a mall were more likely to help fellow shoppers (by retrieving dropped items) if the smells of cinnamon buns and coffee were in the air.

A French study showed that people were more likely to help a female stranger if she was wearing perfume. (And even more likely to help if she was wearing Fille Fiable.)

The moral of this story? Take a bath every day. (And add a small bottle of fragrance to your spy-girl toolbox!)

Big News!

As you may recall, a while back I posted three potential covers for my new book, The Eternal Ones. Over one hundred of you wrote in to vote for a favorite. Well, here's the final cover! (Sitting on my cluttered desk.) I love it! What do you think?

Now my amazing publisher, Razorbill, has done something so unbelievably cool that I can barely contain myself. They've had ouroboros rings made!!!! I just wish my photos did them justice. Their little red eyes sparkle with evil.







Razorbill has even put together a video that brings the snake to life. It's things like this that make sitting in front of a computer all day worthwhile. And there's so much more to come!




One more thing before I go. My Significant Objects dome doll (scroll down to see it) sold for $35 on ebay. Woohoo! Thanks for bidding!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pictures by Magdelena Bors. (They remind me of St. Patrick's Day for some reason. And they're awesome.)

Significant Objects

Significant Objects is a fascinating project that asks writers to pen "descriptions" of objects that are later sold on ebay. The proceeds go to charity, and the list of writers who've contributed is pretty amazing.

I was asked to contribute, and my "item" (the world's creepiest dome doll) went on sale earlier this week. Check it out! (And make sure you check out the other items on the Significant Objects site as well.)

The Earthquake Fish

Don't believe in sea monsters? Then you've never seen an oarfish. (Shown below and possibly above.) These long, silver, serpent-like fish can reach up to 56 feet in length, and they have a bright red dorsal fin that runs the entire length of their bodies.

Oarfish live in deep water and are seldom seen by humans. Which is why the Japanese are a little worried that nineteen of them have recently washed ashore. What's going on in the ocean's murky depths that might be sending them to the surface? Watch this video and find out.

(Thanks to an AD reader for the tip!!)

Ahh, The Glories of Nature

The Nepenthes rajah (shown above) is the largest carnivorous plant in the world. Its trap can hold up to two liters of water. Or your average tree shrew. Which is why most botanists assumed that the N. rajah ate tree shrews. (Pitcher plants usually lure unsuspecting insects or small mammals into their traps, where the creatures are slowly digested.)

But this plant has no interest in eating the shrews themselves. And the fact that it's shaped like a miniature toilet is no accident. As the photo below shows, the N. rajah and Borneo's tree shrews have a very special relationship.

That relationship was summed up by the BBC in a headline that deserves an award of some sort. Check it out here.




P.S. Those interested in carnivorous plants should definitely check out the photos here and here!

The Bleeding Iceberg

Eww. Read the true story behind Antarctica's Blood Falls here.

Congrats . . .

. . . Lucy & Claudia on your 7th friend anniversary!

New York Just Got a Little Less Scruffy

Artist Jan Vormann recently visited New York and decided to fix up the place. He and his crew of random kids and passersby filled the city's cracks, crevasses, and assorted holes with Legos. (See more pics here.

Thanks, Jan. You're welcome back any time.

Blackie the Mutant NINJA Penguin

(Photo by Andrew Evans.)

That is all.

I'm Baaaack

(Above: File under old but amusing.)

Hello everyone! I'm just back from some book business that took me all the way across the country. I had a great time, and I even managed to fit in some "real" work. By that I mean underground explorations of course!

I finally had the chance to see Seattle's own underground city up-close. I highly recommend Bill Speidel's Underground Tour. The tour guide was hilarious, the underground world was fascinating, and there were many mentions of exploding toilets (not sure if the one below ever exploded).




So now that the contest has a winner and my work is over, it's time to get back to some weirdness. Look out for some tomorrow!

(P.S.: The judges of the 1000 Contest were the judges of all the other contests!)

(P.P.S.: The t-shirt entry I'd like to have made into a shirt is below. I love it because only the "Irregulars" out there would know what it means!)

And Even More AWESOME Entries!!!!

And a few great ideas that didn't come with a visual . . .

IDEA #1
Gold lettering on a black shirt: WELCOME TO THE SHADOW CITY!! Warning please beware of delinquent girl scouts deaf rats and butt kicking super spies!
The warning part would be in red lettering on black.

IDEA #2:
Super bold print: WATCH OUT I'M DANGEROUS!!!! (In gold lettering.)

IDEA #3:
Do You Believe In Ghosts?



On the back of this shirt, it reads: "You have to be able to kick butt when you're short.

(Sorry it took me so long to scan it, AB!)

More, More, More!

MORE Entries!

For some reason I can't make this image rotate . . .

A Few Other Entries

I will be posting more throughout the day!

Drum Roll, Please . . .

Thanks for waiting! So, as you may have gathered from all the updates, we changed the rules a bit last night. In the end, the only votes that counted were votes from people who had entered the contest--or people who regularly visit this blog. If you tallied the votes yourself you might have come up with the wrong answer.

Soooo, who was the big winner? Well it was a very close race. Once we changed the rules, it became extremely close. The winner, by three whole votes is . . .

ENTRY #3!!!!!! Congrats, Rosemary.

BUT . . . because it was so close, and because I changed the rules, I think it's only fair to give a nice consolation prize to the first runner-up. And the first runner-up is . . .

ENTRY #2!!!!!! (Your knowledge of the world of Kiki Strike astounds me.)

Congrats to both of you!

P.S.: I will be posting other entries throughout the day. If you would like your entry posted, please send me a note at kikistrike@gmail.com