It was time for this ball of fur to go to the vet.

He disagreed.

Fox 4 News Kansas City reports that the cat in the suburb of Overland Park worked his way into the interior of a recliner and then became stuck. It became necessary for firefighters working with animal control to cut the chair apart to rescue him.

Thankfully, the cat was able to arrive at the veterinarian's office in time for his appointment.

Scooter the cat, the master of a home in Asheville, North Carolina, is completely unafraid of anyone or thing considering intruding into his territory. Human servant Will Jones recorded this video of Scooter standing his ground and driving the two black bears from his territory.

He is an inspiration to cats everywhere.

The UK division of Kentucky Fried Chicken is promoting pickles with a limited-time menu of pickle-infused foods, including Pepsi with pickle juice and French fries with pickles. KFC thinks that you love pickles (and you know that you do) and would do anything to have more pickles in your life.

FoodBeast reports that the company is now offering a puffer jacket that consists of pockets filled with pickles and pickle juice. There are siphons so that you can drink the pickle juice while on the go as well as refill the reservoir. Now if we can just hook in a pressure washer motor....

-via David Burge

Passover is the Jewish festival that celebrates the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. It begins at sunset on April 1st and continues through sunset on April 9th, and just in time we get the traditional song parody from the Jewish a cappella group Six 13 (previously at Neatorma). This year, it's a medley of Michael Jackson hits with new lyrics that explain the history that led to the holiday and the traditions of the Passover seder, from the wine to the bitter herbs, all created with nothing but the human voice. 

The songs included in this video are "Billie Jean," "Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’," "Beat It," "Smooth Criminal." and "Man in the Mirror." I would have included at least one song from The Jackson Five, but those songs are older than any member of the group. Maybe next year. Send this song to anyone you know who is celebrating Passover and wish them Chag Pesach Sameach! 

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, no one could find Luke Skywalker because the star map was missing the part that contained his planet in The Force Awakens. The Sith planet Exegol was hidden unless you had a specific compass in The Rise of Skywalker. Similar plot points were found in Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Ahsoka, and in Skeleton Crew. Fans got tired of plots revolving around missing planets no one could find, and it became a joke. 

But of all the Star Wars tropes, this one is the most scientifically accurate. Here on earth, astronomers make maps of the stars, but there is no one organization that is tasked with keeping them accurate. The latest are stored in bits and pieces on computers that are reliant on technology that goes obsolete quickly. And the facilities that make and store maps are dependent on funding, usually from governments that can change. Add on top of that the fact that objects in space move over time. Learn how the silliest trope in Star Wars is quite believable to folks who know stars at Inverse.  

The latest question in the What If series (previously at Neatorama) concerns digging a deep hole in the ground. Our parents told us if we dug deep enough, we would come out on the other side of the earth in China. However, if you started in the United States and dug straight down, you'd end up in the Indian Ocean, west of Australia. Be that as it may, you can't dig through the earth's core, because it's too hot. And it gets too hot way long before you get near the core.  

But in this scenario, heat isn't the only factor working against you. Randall Munroe also explains the difficulty of trying to dig such a hole, such as the logistocs and energy expenditure of removing the dirt once you get too deep to throw it, and the air pressure underground. That doesn't mean that people haven't tried it. You might recall this somewhat disturbing video of the deepest holes humans have dug. 

In the late 1980s, I became addicted to Taco Bell's Meximelts. It was a simple food, beef, tomatoes, and lots of cheese wrapped in a soft tortilla. You could eat them while driving, and best of all, they were only 79 cents. My family bought Meximelts in large numbers for about thirty years, but when the price reached $4 each, I quit buying them. Apparently, so did everyone else, and they fell off the menu in 2019. The chain figured no one wanted them, but it was the price that did the Meximelt in. Now I get soft tacos with no lettuce for $1.49 and pretend they are Meximelts.

The Meximelt is just one of the once-popular Taco Bell items that are no longer on the menu for one reason or another. Read about ten of these discontinued items at Mental Floss, and let us know which one you want to bring back.  

(Image credit: Michael Rivera) 

As always, Japan gets there first. Sora News 24 tells us that public restrooms in the Umeda Station of Osaka will be the site of a new toileting experience. Technicians will install screens that will show video content, including advertisements. Railway passengers will be able to avoid the most awkward aspect of using a public toilet: not having a screen in front of them.

The photo that I selected is not from Japan, a nation with famously clean public restrooms. It's not even Texas's own Buc-ee's, which has a similar reputation. But I want to set realistic expectations for the time when this trend comes to America.

Photo: THe GoOgLeR

The Vulgar Chef, as you expected, produced this culinary marvel.

On Instagram, he says nothing. He just shares this image of the pastry masterpiece. On Facebook, he describes experiments with donut sorcery, including a shepherd's pie donut.

But he says nothing about how he created this salty, choclately beauty. The Vulgar Chef just lets us imagine it as we salivate hungrily and lick our computer screens.

The Little Free Library movement has inspired people to create free public activities and opportunities for strangers, such as art galleries, dog stick libraries, and even a bocce court.

You can think of these expansions of the Little Free Library movement as a Sidewalk Joy trend. People feel inspired to bring joy to passersby who need free experiences that help us feel like we're part of communities.

Portland, Oregon goes all out on Sidewalk Joy. You can follow a map to walk through the city and find opportunities to take and share toy cars, jigsaw puzzles, toy dinosaurs, or play miniature golf.

Photo: Free Toy Library

Phoebe Sanders can be called an experimental banjoist as she is constantly pushing the limits of how this classic American instrument can and should be played. In addition to traditional playing of traditional songs such as "Big Rock Candy Mountain," she's played her banjos underwater and built a functional banjo out of trash.

Sanders's performances include playing her favorite instrument while simultaneously controlling marionettes. In the above video, she makes her raccoon dance by pumping pedals that pull the strings of the puppet.

Canada and France share a maritime border, despite the ejection of France from North America in the Seven Years' War. Article 6 of the 1763 Treaty of Paris allowed France to retain the tiny islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon in the Gulf of St. Lawrence to facilitate French fishing in the region. France retained control over them despite losing the Napoleonic Wars to Britain and her allies.

During the Twentieth Century, the great powers gained increasing interest in directly controlling the seas from which they were able to extract wealth in the form of oil. So the precise border between these French islands and the now independent Canada was not a matter to ignore.

The two nations concluded arbitration in 1972, leading to the sea borders illustrated above. The map is provided by Sovereign Limits, a website about maritime boundaries. France maintains a sizeable Exclusive Economic Zone dangling inside otherwise Canadian waters.

-via Amazing Maps

"Master of Puppets" is among Metallica's most famous songs. Since 1986, it has captivated audiences and been covered by many musical groups (my favorite of which is Apocalyptica's).

In this 2024 cover, the famous Kunst en Genoegen marching band in Leiden, the Netherlands, smoothly marches through the streets performing a perfect "Master of Puppets." The traditional marching band instruments work well for this thrash metal classic.

-via The Awesomer

The legend of the Bell Witch is still told in Tennessee, and tourists can visit the Bell Witch Cave in Adams, Tennessee, which doesn't really figure into the story but has a replica of the Bell house and some artifacts from the family. John Bell and his family started undergoing paranormal experiences in 1817. Most of the incidents were poltergeist activity, although the word was not yet used in America at that time. The hauntings went on for years. The family kept the weird phenomena to themselves for months, and when the word got out, other families reported similar events. 

The hauntings continued until John Bell, the patriarch of the family, died under mysterious circumstances in 1820. Bell had married his wife Lucy when she was 12 years old (he was 32). They moved to Tennessee after Bell beat a murder rap in North Carolina. The family eventually had nine children and a solid reputation in Tennessee. But the witch threatened Bell constantly, and some reports said his health was failing the entire three years of the hauntings. Or was he poisoned? Dr. Emily Zarka tells the tale of the Bell Witch. 

Picher, Oklahoma, was once a booming mining town of 20,000 people. The Eagle-Picher Company mined zinc and lead there for over a hundred years, but today it's a ghost town. The mine closed in 1967 and in 1983 Picher was declared a Superfund site, with dangerous levels of lead found in the city's residents. Underground mining left its buildings unstable. And a tornado wiped out 150 of the remaining homes in 2008. The government paid people to move away, and Picher city services ceased in 2009. Louise Story, who is on a quest to visit all 50 states, visited the eerie ghost town with her son, driving by the abandoned homes with the windows rolled up because of the toxic lead-filled air.  

But they also visited Commerce, Oklahoma, less than five miles away, the boyhood home of Mickey Mantle. Story told her son about how his father, Mutt Mantle, and his grandfather Charlie trained him to be a switch hitter baseball star from an early age. It was only afterward, with a little research, that the stories she told of the two Oklahoma towns became connected. Read that story at Atlas Obscura. 

(Image credit: peggydavis66)