This week we're replaying episodes that are anything but phoned in. For this episode from April 2022, the story of several communities in Indiana that started their own wired telephone service, and the wire they used was plain old fence wire. Plus: Kansas City celebrates Fountain Day.

Barb-Wire telephone line (Insulators.info)

Barbed Wire Telephone Lines Connected The Old Frontier (Successful Farming podcast)

Everything You Need To Know About Fountains In Kansas City (VisitKC)

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Here in the US, we're getting ready for trick or treaters on this Halloween night. But in Scotland, kids go guising instead - because there, you can’t go door to door for candy without giving a bit of a show. Plus: a visit to a very creepy medical museum in Lexington, Kentucky.

Halloween in Scotland (Historic UK)

The Creepiest Museum In The Country Can Be Found Right Here In Kentucky (Only In Your State)

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A lot of us enjoy a good pretend-scare around this time of year. But around this time in 1986, a school in California offered up a Halloween hoax that was a little too on the nose for the student body. Plus: a public library in Massachusetts has a ghost hunting kit that patrons can check out and use.

School Prank--Pupils Told That War Has Started (Los Angeles Times)

Ghost Hunting Kit Available at the Public Library (Neatorama)

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For National Cat Day, we have the story of how one of the biggest museums in the world once had to deal with a large collection of feral cats. Though of course the museum wasn't the only workplace in the UK that had cats in important places.

The British Museum podcast: The purrrplexing story of the British Museum cats (British Museum)

Bureaucats: The felines with official positions (BBC)

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Today in 1978, the premiere of the TV movie “KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park. It was meant to be a big moment for the band, but that's not quite how it worked out. Plus: today in 1933, a newsreel announced that to stop traffic jams in Bronxville, New York, police would enforce a three-second limit on kisses at the train station.

KISS Meets The Phantom Of The Park (BradyCarlson.com)

Kiss Get Superpowers In A TV Movie (Songfacts)

Commuters' Kisses Cut By Police To End Traffic Jam (Newsreels.net)

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New York City's subway system is, of course, mostly underground, but some of the equipment that isn't is hiding in plain sight. Like an equipment room that’s disguised as a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights. Plus: Austria could someday have electric towers designed to look like some of its signature animals.

A Fake Brownstone in Brooklyn Hides a Secret Subway Ventilator (Untapped New York)

power lines shaped as animal sculptures supply electricity across austria (designboom)

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In the Great Depression, people had to get creative to handle the many economic challenges that were coming their way. Like how Pismo Beach, California found a good stand-in for regular currency: clamshells. Plus: three black bears at a zoo in California get a visit from a wild black bear.

Clamshell Currency (Hakai Magazine)

When Seashells Were Money (Messy Nessy Chic)

'Polite Visitor:' Bear Sneaks Into NorCal Zoo To Visit Fellow Bears (Patch)

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Ahead of National Hug a Sheep Day on Saturday, the story of a special treat that farmers in Wales used to make: Sheep-Shearing Cake. Plus: this Saturday in Claremore, Oklahoma, it’s the Route 66 Pecan & Music Festival.

Welsh Shearing Cake or Cacen Gneifo (Daffodil Kitchen)

Route 66 Pecan & Music Festival

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