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Meg Van Huygen
Joined: Sep 22, 2015
A native (and current) Seattleite, Meg van Huygen studied classical piano performance at Cornish College of the Arts with a sort-of minor in cartooning. She daylights as a copy editor, and her work has appeared in The Stranger, Seattle Weekly, and Atlas Obscura among many other publications. She hosts a spelling bee in a bar, lectures on geography at various venues, plays the accordion in a few bands, karaokes competitively, and is on a mission to visit every U.S. state capitol.
The Great Seal bug took American diplomats unawares back when the Russians were supposed to be our allies.
Claude des Armoises earned cash and gifts while fooling the King of France himself—until it all came crashing down.
If the Thanksgiving side dish involved mixing mayo and cranberries with gelatin, it should stay in the past. The same goes for pork cake.
She was known on the streets as Moll Cutpurse, for the purse strings she slashed.
The German capital's eight centuries of history show up in the names of its districts.
Beware the Snallygaster!
From water companies to Spanish fortresses to made-up Native American words.
"The Twomps" arose from a slang word for "20."
Most of its neighborhood names aren’t in English—and they all have colorful stories.
The fantastically-shaped radish sculptures of La Noche de los Rabanos are the centerpiece of a major cultural event.
Some of these ancient etymologies might not be quite what you expect.
She cracked some of the biggest espionage cases of the 20th century, but the press preferred to write about her husband.