WEIRD

From Celine Dion’s “erotic motorcycle” to the crafty female platypus who faked a pregnancy in order to bust out of the Bronx Zoo, 2023 was full of some pretty great stories.

Exolangs are constructed languages that imagine how the languages of extraterrestrial beings might look and sound—and linguists have come up with some pretty mind-bending options.

Once again, Mental Floss readers proved to be curious about all sorts of niche topics—and our editors and writers were happy to oblige their interests.

From a profane parrot to an exploding corpse to swapped (and dropped) bodies, the funerals on this list went terribly awry.

Snail mating involves “love darts.”

The battery-powdered purr machines are part of the library's collection of unusual items available for lending.

The world's longest saxophone note is too risky to attempt. So is the world's longest kiss.

The Explorers Club keeps some odd artifacts in its collection, including a stuffed whale penis.

Only three bat species, out of some 1100 in the world, actually have a taste for blood.

The ancient art of sword swallowing may seem like some sort of elaborate trick—but it’s very, very real (and very, very dangerous).

Being rich, famous, or influential has plenty of perks—but escaping the spirit world’s torments isn’t necessarily one of them.

Some, like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Victor Hugo, believed they had communicated with spirits directly; others, like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Hardy, had ghostly encounters they couldn’t explain.