Weird Disasters
"The Great Smog" in London, 1952, was caused by a combination of anomalous wind patterns and heavy use of this fossil fuel.
Coal
Portrayer of Ron Swanson
Nick Offerman
Starting in the 1880s, this now illegal party drug was touted as a cure-all of everything from toothaches to impotence until it was outlawed in 1914.
Cocaine
This guy can't catch a break: first his wife turns into a pillar of salt, then his own daughters drug and molest him.
Lot
The story goes that Helen of Troy hatched from an egg laid by her mother Leda after an encounter with this god, who had taken the shape of a swan.
Zeus
This is the misnomer given to tornado-like columns of wind that form over large bodies of water.
Water spout
The last emperor of Russia.
Czar Nicholas II
Victorian doctors invented and used this device to administer "pelvic massages" to bring about "hysterical paroxysms" in women complaining of hysteria.
vibrator
This Biblical hero is credited with brutally slaying "thousands of infidels," including 1,000 at once armed only with a donkey's jawbone.
Samson
In the Iliad, Achilles refuses to fight for the greedy and corrupt Agamemnon until driven to vengeance by the slaying of this close companion/lover.
Patroclus
The "Carrington Event," of 1859 wherein the sky shone bright as day in the middle of the night, was caused by the biggest ever recorded these irregularities expelled from the sun.
Solar Flares
Serbian-American genius credited with the invention of alternating current (AC).
Nikola Tesla
Walter Freeman, a literal hack doctor, invented and performed this ineffective and dangerous procedure on over 3500 people, including JFK's little sister, Rosemary.
lobotomy
In order to prove his worthiness to marry the daughter of King Saul, David was commanded to bring 100 of these cut from slain Philistines. He brought 200 for good measure.
foreskins
This iconic mythical beast was born from the blood of the gorgon Medusa along with his brother Chrysaor.
Pegasus
The terrifying and sudden eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE claimed the lives of many, including this famous author of an encyclopedia of "Natural History."
Pliny the Elder
The best-selling female rapper of all time.
Nicki Minaj
The path of Lewis and Clark's expedition is riddled with "Rush's Thunderbolts," pills handed out to the men for everything from stomachache to venereal disease which contained this toxic metal.
Mercury
The King James Version says that, as punishment for stealing the ark of the covenant, God struck the Philistines with "emerods," an archaic term for this painful condition.
hemorrhoids
Friedrich Nietzche popularized the use of these two Greek gods to illustrate the duality of order and chaos in his book The Birth of Tragedy.
Apollo and Dionysus
In 1919, a bizarre, two-story-high flood of this sticky substance oozed through the streets of Boston after a huge cast-iron tank ruptured, leading to 21 deaths and 150 injuries.
Molasses
This Nick has hosted almost half as many shows (5) as he has fathered children (12).
Nick Cannon.
In the past, physicians attributed illness to an "imbalance in the humours," often motivating the use of this animal in bloodletting.
leech
When this left-handed judge of Israel stabbed the obese tyrant King Eglon in the belly, the dagger was fully swallowed by his fat, and "the dirt came out," i.e., his bowels discharged.
Ehud
According to one ancient source, Hecuba, queen of Troy, after attempting suicide by jumping into the sea was instead transformed into a dog and rescued by this goddess of magic and witchcraft.
Hecate
This famously extinct beast still roamed the earth at the time of the construction of Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza.
Wooly Mammoth