Thursday's Must-Reads Not all things go according to plan. Today, we're digging into 16 places around the world that feature the wonders and blunders of urban planning, from "the second-worst roundabout in the United Kingdom" to an incomplete freeway bridge. Also below: a UFO-shaped McDonald's and America's "quiet zone." Dive in. When Urban Planning Goes Wrong Sometimes, even the best laid plans go up in flames. Great ideas can devolve into folly, expensive puzzles left incomplete or inadequately suited to people’s needs. Sometimes the line between awe-inspiring and groan-inducing can be perilously slim—or completely non-existent. From an incomplete freeway bridge to another that solves a high-rise problem, here are a few of our favorite wonders and blunders of urban planning. READ MORE → Places of the Day Divine's Headstone Towson, Maryland The final resting place of this iconic drag performer is decorated with pearls, hot-pink lipstick, a small rainbow-colored unicorn, and other mementos. READ MORE → Hand of St. Etheldreda London, England St. Etheldreda’s Church dates back to 1250, and claims to contain the undecayed hand of a Saxon Princess, still intact more than 1,350 years after her death. READ MORE → Roswell McDonald's Roswell, New Mexico In the world-famous town of Roswell, New Mexico, known for the rumors of its titular extraterrestrial incident, the local McDonald’s boasts a UFO-shaped location. READ MORE → Printing Press History During the summer of 2021, UNESCO’s International Center for Documentary Heritage (ICDH) built a team of nearly 50 people spanning time zones and academic fields to expand our knowledge of the culture and history of printing technology in the Eastern and Western worlds. Researchers want to know what happened in the history of printing between the production of the Jikji, a Korean Buddhist document published in Heungdeok Temple in 1377, the earliest printed book on record, and the Gutenberg Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany in 1455. READ MORE → Global Diversity of Fry Dips There is something about a french fry that begs to be dipped. Maybe it’s the fact that they’re shaped sort of like a finger, which is the ideal form for dipping. Maybe it’s that modern potatoes—at least those outside the Andes Mountains—are mostly neutral in flavor, and take to any combination of additions. How you choose to flavor your deep-fried starch says a lot about who you are, and how interrelated world cuisine has become. READ MORE → America’s ‘Quiet Zone’ In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, we visit Green Bank, West Virginia, an area free of wifi and cell signals due to the massive telescope nearby that requires radio silence. LISTEN ON OUR SITE → LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS → LISTEN ON SPOTIFY → LISTEN ON STITCHER → Jordan Pond Popovers Traditionally enjoyed with afternoon tea, popovers are hollow, egg batter–based rolls. They were created by settlers in Maine as a modification of British Yorkshire pudding, and these light, hollow rolls have been linked to Acadia National Park since the 1890s. READ MORE → Our Courses and Trips Stitch Together a Sampler Quilt Join textile artist Aaron Sanders Head for an exploration of quilting drawn from the long tradition of sampler quilts. You’ll learn to create a quilt from start to finish—tracing the history and variations of twelve quilt blocks, including the Nine Patch, Flying Geese, Pineapple, Shoo Fly, Churn Dash, and many others. ENROLL IN THIS COURSE → Ancient Ruins to Modern Culture This classic Greece trip will take you to all the must-sees from the Acropolis to Ancient Olympia, making sure to connect these ancient sites with modern-day Greece by opening the door to modern-day culture. Be ready to connect with the community, experience traditions first-hand, and dig into hyper-regional food culture — this is Greece after all, a foodie’s dream. BOOK THIS TRIP →