Acquired Taste

when he was very young. Not wanting to live without her, he grabbed hold of a high tension wire attached to an electrical transformer, but he was not injured. The electricity that would have killed another human being simply passed through him without causing any harm. Since then, he's discovered his body is capable of handling multiple amps of electricity with

only minor side effects. The average human can't even withstand a tenth of an amp without serious injury or death, which makes nare something of a modern miracle, like a character out of a comic book who has developed a superpower. William McKenna's superpower, though, was not so much impressive as it was off putting. McKenna was born around eighteen sixty

eight in Long Island, New York. His childhood is something of a mystery, but what we do know is that he got a job at Meyer's Glass factory in Brooklyn when he was just fourteen. McKenna was on his lunch break one day when he noticed a strange but enjoyable new texture in his food. With every bite, he became more enamored with this flavor that had found its way

into his meal. Back then, you see, there weren't as many safety precautions in factories as there are today, and so it wasn't uncommon for debris to find its way into a person's hair, skin, or even their food. As it turns out, what McKenna had been eating that day was glass, glass dust, to be exact, and it kickstarted

a new passion in him. Pretty soon, he was chomping on glass any chance he could get, so much so that the factory owners started to notice that their inventory was disappearing, which is why when they found McKenna chomping on one of their bottles, they knew they had found their thief. He was promptly fired and forced to find a new line of work, but McKenna realized something that

day that he had a unique talent for eating. He started working at a die museum under the nickname the Human Ostrich due to his indestructible stomach, although human goat might have been more appropriate, because pretty soon William began eating much more than just glass. To get the word out about his act, he showed up at the offices of a newspaper called The New York Graphic, boasting about

his newfound skills. He even performed for them by eating carpet tax, a couple of handfuls of paper, and a glass tumbler. Oddly, the reporters weren't too taken by his show. The article written about him remarked that he was a disheveled man and smelled of cigarettes and garlic. All in all, not an impressive specimen even as a sideshow act, but

that didn't stop him from performing. He once said that he brought in seventy five dollars a week as the Human Ostrich, about twenty five hundred dollars today, and despite his bizarre eating habits, McKenna also made sure to eat three large meals every day. He could not, of course, subsist only on glass and metal, all of this while maintaining a fairly normal frame, weighing in at one hundred

and thirty eight pounds and five feet six inches tall. Eventually, McKenna took his show on the road, eating random items for audiences in places like Self Bend, Indiana. The papers there described him as being able to eat everything from a cambric needle to a five inch spike, a boiler plate or a railway sandwich, and of course glass, large hunks of it, not crump tiny slivers. He would crunch a whole glass cup or bottle, taking big bites in front of the audience, and to finish it all off,

he would end by eating a live bullfrog. He wouldn't chew it, though, he would swallow it whole, and then let people touch his belly so they could feel it moving around inside. Sadly, William McKenna's death was as mysterious as his childhood. He fell out of the public eye by the early eighteen nineties, and his fate remains unknown to this day, although I'd like to think that he lived a long life and died of old age, not

from swallowing needles and carpet tacks. Of course, I'm a glass half full kind of guy, the half that McKenna didn't eat. That is Mary Ann Evans wanted to be a writer. In fact, she was a writer, and a talented one in that unfortunately for me. Mary She was born in Victorian England during the eighteen hundreds, when society believed women were incapable of writing as well as men, especially when it came to literature of any worth. For a while, she worked at a far left wing journal

in London. The owner of The Westminster Review took the glory for being the editor, although it was Mary Anne who did much of the work behind the scenes, but she did enjoy some success at the journal. Reviewers and readers became fans of the articles that she wrote. But Mary Anne was determined to succeed, and she worked hard to hone her craft. She realized that if her work was to be taken seriously, she needed to adopt a male pen name. So she chose a name that sounded

masculine and intellectual, and the ruse worked. Mary's pen name quickly became a respected and well known author. Her novels were widely read and admired. Under her pseudonym, Mary wrote stories that explored complex themes and characters, and she became a beloved figure in the literary world. She rarely talked about her personal life, so it's no surprise that only a select few friends and family knew the famous novelist

was not only a woman, but Mary Anne. Not only did she write novels under her male pen name, but she also wrote essays, poems, and reviews. Critics and readers alike enjoyed her sharp wit and admired her ability to challenge conventional wisdom, making some of her essays controversial. Little did readers know that some of these controversies reflected the women behind the name. Mary Anne was a feminist, and her novels often explored women's lives and the constraints that

society placed on them. She believed that women should have the same opportunities as men, and she used her writing to advocate for women's rights. Oddly, although a writer herself, Mary Anne remained a critic of other women novelists. She was a master of characterization. Her novels are known for their vivid, complex yet ordinary characters who often struggle with their flaws and weaknesses. She was interested in exploring the complexities of human nature and the way that people interact

with each other. Under her pen name, mary Anne also translated several important works of philosophy and literature from German into English, including Spinoza's Ethics and Fauerbach's Essence of Christianity. While the pen name had fooled readers, one person saw past the ruse. Charles Dickens wrote to the famed author twice. In the first letter, he addressed the author's womanly touches. The second letter came after Mary Anne sent Charles Dickens

a copy of one of her novels. He replied with a thank you and alluded that he had never seen any man present himself a woman so firmly in thought. In eighteen fifty nine, y brilliant success of the novel Adam Bede made the public more curious about the author, which even Queen Victoria raved about. People around mary Anne began to suspect problems arose when someone else complained that he had not received money from the book. Mary Anne thought that it was funny until people pitched in as

a fundraiser. That's when she began to worry about those that con artist was scamming. After an article ran stating that the famous author was a woman. Marianne's publisher told her that it was time to come clean. In eighteen fifty nine, she admitted that she and the renowned author were the same. Instead of a fallout, fans and readers accepted the news, and instead of referring to her by her real name, the public continued to use the pen name.

In eighteen sixty, Mary Anne Evans released her next novel as the celebrated author, George Eliot. The fact that the novels fans had come to love had been written by a woman never cut into her profits or her popularity. I guess you could say that the pen name is indeed mightier than the sword. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by

visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me, Aaron Mankey and partner with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at Theworldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.