22 08, 2023

A California Artist Once Helped Drivers By Adding His Own Road Sign To The Highway (Cool Weird Awesome 1070)

By |2023-08-22T06:59:37-04:00August 22, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , |

This month in 2001, a self-described “sign guy” decided to solve an issue on southern California highways by adding his own road sign. 

15 07, 2023

Getting A Thousand Bucks In Oily Pennies In Your Driveway Is One Way To Wrap Up A Job (Cruel Weird Awful 7)

By |2023-07-15T15:10:07-04:00July 15, 2023|Categories: Cruel Weird Awful, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

Leaving a job usually means wrapping things up with your soon to be ex-employer including getting a final paycheck. But here’s the story of a guy who got a pretty unpleasant sendoff. 

13 07, 2023

The Hollywood Sign Was A Big Ad That Turned Into a Landmark (Cool Weird Awesome 1047)

By |2023-07-13T09:22:46-04:00July 13, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

100 years ago today, a land developer in southern California spent $21,000 on a sign to advertise a new housing project. The HOLLYWOOD sign has come a long way from that moment, but it hasn't always been easy.

13 01, 2023

Sign Spinning Isn’t Just A Job, It’s A Sport (Cool Weird Awesome 927)

By |2023-01-13T06:58:21-05:00January 13, 2023|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

Tomorrow in Las Vegas, the 2023 AArrow Sign Spinners competition begins, with elite-level sign spinners showing off their best moves.

23 12, 2021

Salvador Dalí Used To Draw Christmas Cards For Hallmark (Cool Weird Awesome 678)

By |2021-12-23T07:29:31-05:00December 23, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , |

The history of Christmas cards has taken some strange turns over the years, but maybe none stranger than when Surrealist icon Salvador Dalí made Christmas cards for Hallmark.

29 10, 2021

An Email Mixup Led To A Very Strange Welsh Road Sign (Cool Weird Awesome 645)

By |2021-10-29T07:29:31-04:00October 29, 2021|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

This week in 2008, local officials in Swanzey tried to get English-to-Welsh translation for a road sign they wanted to put up. They got a Welsh sentence in response, but it wasn't what they thought. Plus: today in 1969, the first network message on ARPANET goes through, though without a few key letters. 

27 10, 2020

Can AI Bring Extinct Languages Back To Life? (Cool Weird Awesome 406)

By |2020-10-27T07:58:44-04:00October 27, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , |

A project out of MIT is using artificial intelligence to scan lost languages and find rules and conventions that may help us figure out what all those words from years ago might mean. Plus: historic signs in South Nyack, New York are using QR codes to tell us something timeless - a message that's never gonna give us up.

27 08, 2020

Why Does A Water Tower In Kentucky Say “Florence Y’All”? (Cool Weird Awesome 368)

By |2021-03-31T08:19:26-04:00August 27, 2020|Categories: Cool Weird Awesome, Podcasts|Tags: , , , , , , |

What's In A Name Week continues with the story of a water tower in northern Kentucky that was supposed to be an advertisement, but ended up becoming a local landmark. Plus: we'll explain one version of how Chicken Dinner Road in Idaho got its name.

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