They flew the Jolly Roger to signal their reputation for mayhem but, in fact, the pirates didn't actually want a fight, because fighting is costly and dangerous and might result in economic loss. […] Of course, to maintain a reputation that you are a badass, you actually have to occasionally be a badass, so pirates intermittently engaged in violence, reports of which they happily provided to newspaper editors, who duly published them in gory and exaggerated detail.

The spines on aloe vera look cactusy, but they are really faux spines and not likely to prick you at all.

the proper time to plant potatoes

In severe winters, when pressed by hunger, they [the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego] sacrifice the oldest women of their party—holding the head of the sufferer over a fire made of greenwood, to produce suffocation.