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Atlas Obscura readers share their most unforgettable encounters with strangers on airplanes.

It's a beautiful, if imperfect, antidote to crop-damaging cold.

Bertha Heyman lived a life in and out of jail and on and off the stage.

And scientists in Illinois have recreated it.

And a description of some very stoned canines.

It's also helping incarcerated women reconnect with nature.

Eventually, quilted, glittering pajamas gave way to parkas and moon boots.

Mary Baker, better known as Princess Caraboo, convinced an entire town she was eccentric royalty.

A newly available Library of Congress collection shows the lives of an oft-overlooked minority.

There's a benefit to being able to eat almost anything.

A new version of the humble teapot reintroduces features from the past.

Found in a sack made of fox snouts.

Thérèse Humbert played French bankers like fiddles to live in the lap of luxury.

A giant oak is staring down the leafy green beyond.

Atlas Obscura readers recommend their favorites.

It's all thanks to Big Boy No. 4014, the world's largest steam locomotive.

Computer scientists have studied these “pictorial prayers.”

Sarah Rachel Russell sold exotic makeup that turned out to be mostly arsenic.