Wacky Wikipedia

Other articles investigate the comedic theory that some words are inherently funny (candidates include umlaut, hornswoggle, and rutabaga), and the surprisingly common, and let's face it, slightly pathetic, use of the umlaut in an attempt to bestow credibility on Heavy Metal bands (as in Mötley Crüe, Motörhead, and maybe someday, Rütabaga). Perhaps these bands didn't realize - as Spinal Tap and Wikipedia did - that the umlaut is inherently funny.

Science and Medicine ranges from Apollo Moon Landing Hoax theories to Perpetual Motion Machines, the Infinite Monkey Theorem, and a scientific study of Navel Lint (winner of an Ig Nobel prize in 2002), while visitors unhappy with both Imperial and Metric methods of measurement can investigate the advantages of the Smoot.

Additional categories cover such subjects as Elvis Sightings and Extreme Ironing, television dramas' propensity to, at some point in the series, have an Amish Episode, the Scottish delicacy of the Deep Fried Mars Bar, and The Wilhelm Scream. (Whether or not you've heard of The Wilhelm Scream, you've heard The Wilhelm Scream.)

Finally, an assortment of Unusual Lists includes collections of Fictional US Presidents (not including GW Bush, as declared by Michael Moore at the Oscars), Unusual Place Names (such as Unalaska, Alaska; Satan's Kingdom, Vermont; Woon Gumpus Common, Cornwall; and the Big Ugly Wilderness Area in West Virginia), famous eccentrics (William MacGonagall, arguably history's worst poet), and 39 scandals with the gate-suffix. (Which probably says more about a lack of originality in the naming of scandals than their excessive quantity.)

For fans of immoderate civic pride, there is a list of self-appointed "Capital of the World" titles. Beaver, Oklahoma appears undisputed as the Cow Chip Throwing Capital of the World, but there are at least three claimants to the title of Horseradish Capital. And as we get over the shock that there are any claimants to the title of Horseradish Capital of the World, we can only hope that the dispute is settled through diplomacy and not condiment-based combat.

As is standard for Wikipedia content, these articles are light on images but peppered with hyperlinks to related entries, and frequently accompanied by links to offsite resources at the bottom of the page. Some subjects will be of limited demographic appeal but you're almost certain to find a few pieces that will end up being emailed to a friend with a "you won't believe this" in the subject line. After all, it's not every day you have a February 30th.

Wikipedia: Unusual Articles can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:UA.

(If you're sufficiently curious about the collaborative wiki concept to want to see it in action, InfoWorld has an animated, 8.5 minute <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/umlaut.html" TARGET="_new">screencast</a> reviewing the changes that have occurred on Wikipedia's "Heavy metal umlaut" page since it first appeared in April of 2003.)

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