It lifted Evelyn Cronnister’s heart to watch an octopus soar gracefully through the air. She was the fifth generation of the Boreal Bay Cronnisters, competitive show jumping octopus breeders who had been breeding so long that the mild neurotoxins absorbed through the skin when handling octopi had addled her brain into believing competitive octopus show jumping was an actual thing.

Few people knew about the small but thriving pod of ichthyosaurs living at the bottom of Pyramid Lake outside of Fernley, Nevada. Fewer still knew about the black ops government program to train the extremely intelligent Paleolithic fish to infiltrate and sabotage foreign black ops dolphin-training programs. Chester, the greatest black ops ichthyosaur agent of them all, single-finnedly averted nuclear catastrophe in 1986 when he intercepted a rogue Russian black ops dolphin agent, Mishka, that had been mindwiped and programmed as a sleeper agent by a terrorist cell of octopi inexplicably operating out of landlocked Kazakhstan. Chester sacrificed himself to detonate the bomb that had been meant for the United Dolphin Nations meeting in New York Harbor. The tale of his heroic deeds, secret to all but a few, will not be forgotten by those few, but will most likely be greeted by skepticism or outright mockery by everyone else,

Though Caroline was betrothed to the Duke of Winstrop, she loved the stableboy William. And so when her father had him executed on a contrived charge of treason, she secretly had his heart removed from his body and stitched into it every one of the love notes he had written her. On her deathbed years later, the Duchess of Winstrop told her daughter she would learn the true identity of her father if she searched her heart.

Following an earthquake in Takayama, Japan, fisherman and amateur cryptozoologist Shingo Shoritabe discovered several unusually large catfish swimming in a nearby lake. Based on strange, tattoo-like markings on their back, he suspected they were the offspring of the legendary Namazu.

Elementary school music teacher Alana Alceron of Winnipeg, Manitoba had picked a place as far away from the sea as she could find because she couldn't bear to smell the salt air. Her father thought it proposterous that Alana would give up her Atlantean heritage'the seahorse sigil of her family was synonymous with the finest musicianship in the kingdom'to teach music to the spawn of landwalkers. And it was true, the instruments on land never resonated as richly to her ear, but she found the surface dwellers' musical scales to be beautifully delicate and so much more free than the heavy, enveloping tones underwater.

Research and/or verification in process for this curiosity - check back soon!

Famed butterfly researcher Earl Mason Wingert had planned to present his discovery of a new species, Heliconius culltelus, to the International Lepidopterists Society, but his specimens escaped and he quickly learned how appropriate the “Amazonian Razorwing” nomenclature was.

Research and/or verification in process for this curiosity - check back soon!

This decorative pitcher was thought to have been inspired by the proverb, “little pitchers have big ears,” entreating adults to mind their language around children. In fact, it was actually inspired by the designer’s uncle, who had unusually large ears. The success of “Big Ears” prompted the design of a sugar bowl entitled “Long, Gangly Fingers,” and a teapot, “That Weird Thing On The Back Of My Neck That’s Been There A While But I Should Probably Get Looked At.”

The bear rug was obviously too big for the bathroom, but this would be just perfect. Ezra put it in there after Arleen went to bed, so she’d be surprised when she went in to take a shower in the morning. He knew she was going to love it.