25 04, 2023

Kids In Canada Went On Strike Over The Price Of Candy Bars (Cool Weird Awesome 995)

By |2023-04-25T07:56:00-04:00April 25, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Today in 1947, the start of a big moment in the history of sweets: kids in Canada protested a hike in chocolate bar prices with what would eventually become known as the Candy Strike.

13 05, 2022

Every Year The Netherlands Sends Thousands Of Tulips To Canada (Cool Weird Awesome 771)

By |2022-05-13T05:49:03-04:00May 13, 2022|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , , |

The Canadian Tulip Festival is getting underway in Ottawa. Here's the history of the annual event, which (pun intended) has its roots in the history of World War II.

11 10, 2021

Edmonia Lewis, A Sculptor Who Brought Her Subjects To Life (Cool Weird Awesome 631)

By |2021-10-11T06:44:23-04:00October 11, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , , |

On Indigenous Peoples Day, here's the story of sculptor Edmonia Lewis. She was born in the 1840s to a Black father and a Chippewa mother, and became the first Native American and Black woman to become an acclaimed sculptor. Plus: Happy Thanksgiving to our listeners in Canada. It’s a big country, except for the exhibit known as Little Canada, which features miniature versions of some of the country’s most famous cities, landmarks and attractions.

1 07, 2021

How Ethel Merman Helped Get America To Use ZIP Codes (Cool Weird Awesome 564)

By |2021-07-01T09:19:29-04:00July 1, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

Today in 1963, the US Postal Service officially started using ZIP codes as a way to quickly sort huge amounts of mail and get it to where it needed to go. How did they get Americans to adopt ZIP codes? A mascot named Mr. Zip and a jingle sung by Broadway legend Ethel Merman. Plus: for Canada Day, the story of a runner in Ontario who ran a moose-shaped route through downtown Toronto.

1 06, 2021

Why People Watch For The Ogopogo When They’re In Canada (Cool Weird Awesome 547)

By |2021-06-01T08:08:57-04:00June 1, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

If you know the story of the Loch Ness Monster, the story of the Ogopogo in Canada's British Columbia might sound familiar. But there's a whole other side to this story that comes from the Okanagan/syilx people, who first lived in the area. Plus: a town in Lithuania built a real-time video "portal" to a town in Poland, so they could see each other even when they couldn't travel. 

1 07, 2020

Canada Was Almost Named “Borealia” (Cool Weird Awesome 332)

By |2021-06-28T11:53:46-04:00July 1, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , |

Today is Canada Day, marking the 1867 confederation of three provinces then known as Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. But Canada was only one name out of many that were suggested for the new country. Plus: this week got weird at several Canadian Tire stores, thanks to a computer glitch that made every item show up in the scanner as a Mr. Potato Head.

3 06, 2020

The Canadian Town That Built A Landing Pad For UFOs (Cool Weird Awesome 312)

By |2021-09-22T07:38:27-04:00June 3, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

Today in 1967, the town of St. Paul, Alberta officially opened the world’s first UFO landing pad. So why is there a UFO landing pad in east central Alberta? Plus: on this date in 1941, a man called Richard Burgess received a patent for exercise wings - but don't worry, they weren't intended to get their users to fly.

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