Protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks attend an anti-government demonstration in Hong Kong, China, November 5, 2019. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/ Reuters )

November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, when God preserved us from the “secret contrivance and hellish malice of Popish Conspirators”.

How Breakfast Became a Thing — the “most important meal of the day” line was an ad campaign to sell more cereal.

An 18th-century guide to hunting vampires inspired the first works of vampire fiction.


This Chart Explains the Chemicals That Give Autumn Leaves Their Color.

Why is ice so slippery?


A Cultural Historian Explores an Old Mental Hospital.

ICYMI, most recent links are here, and include awkward fashion ads from the 1970s, when George Soros broke the British pound, why pigeons bob their heads, and the Swiss town where residents spent a lifetime aging a wheel of cheese for their own funeral.