toothpick

trustycoffeemug
(n.) a small tree able to be held between two fingers, used to scrape leftovers from between your teeth or debris from other hard-to-reach spaces.

... usually it is considered a bad idea to do both with the same toothpick.

football

trustycoffeemug
(british) a sport originally played in britain in the middle ages. it is played by two opposing teams who stand on opposite ends of a lawn and try to kick a ball into the opposing side's net. conceptually a fairly mind-numbing pastime, most people watch it in hopes of seeing the game degenerate into violence.

"classic" brutish british football is played according to strict association rules developed over centuries, and is thus called soccer (mostly by americans). however, several "unofficial" variations of the sport exist, including those that evolved into rugby, american football (see below) and probably some other, even worse ones.

switzerland

trustycoffeemug
a tiny alpine country nestled between france, germany, and italy. throughout history it has managed to stay wealthy and peaceful by providing other countries with things they need (formerly mercenaries, nowadays tax havens) without otherwise getting involved in international politics in any way whatsoever.

offers nice skiing, decent education, clean, orderly cities and quiet seclusion, but the price for this is that there's virtually no nightlife. you can have swiss banks or french brothels, but, it would appear, not both.

dancing mania

orikami
(v.) involving groups of up to thousands at a time, spreading like wildfire across Europe. the dancing could continue on for hours, days, and apparently even months. people would collapse from exhaustion and injuries (often fatal). adults and children alike.
this mass phenomena abruptly stopped after the 17th century.

One of the most well-known major outbreaks took place in Aachen, Germany in 1374, just several decades after the Black Death swept across Europe. Another particularly notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace in 1518.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania
https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/mysterious-case-medieval-dance-mania-001838

(also: ecstatic dance)
(also: whirling dervishes)

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