Friday, June 26th, 2026 — Today is National Chocolate Pudding Day, which somehow led us to medieval legends, grocery store scanners, and the world’s largest water gun fight.
In this episode, we explore the enduring mystery of the Pied Piper of Hamelin… the first barcode ever scanned on a pack of chewing gum… and the Guinness World Record for the largest water pistol fight ever held.
Plus, the birthday of Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck, whose stories helped readers better understand lives far different from their own.
A lot of today’s stories ended up becoming about ordinary things that turned into something much bigger:
a legend,
an invention,
and a little bit of organized chaos.
Anyway… that’s what I ended up finding while working through June 26.