The song "Iko Iko" has been recorded by many musicians, the most popular being this version from The Dixie Cups recorded in 1964 during an informal jam with no instruments, just drumsticks banging on furniture. But it was written by James Crawford in 1953, and recorded with the title "Jock-a-Mo." There were years of litigation between Crawford and the Dixie Cups over the rights to the song.
"Iko Iko" is a Mardi Gras song. Crawford wrote the lyrics from phrases he heard during a confrontation between two Mardi Gras Indian groups during a parade in New Orleans. Crawford did not know what the words meant. Read more about the song's fascinating history at Wikipedia. (via She Who Seeks)
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Iko Iko
Jane Austin's Period Drama
The Regency-era romance novels of Jane Austin defined an entire literary genre. They lend themselves well to cinema, with lush historical settings and the strictly-defined etiquette of the upper crust. We call these movies period dramas. Sketch comedy writers Julia Aks and Steve Pinder saw a pun in the term, and went to great lengths with it, turning a period drama into a comedy of errors.
Mr. James Dickley is about to propose marriage to Miss Estrogenia Talbot when she starts her menstrual period. The clueless Dickley assumes she has been injured, and escalates the situation to a ridiculous degree. The short Jane Austin's Period Drama is up for the Oscar for Live Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards. If you want to know more after watching it, Wikipedia has you covered.
Patient Awakes from Anesthesia, Proposes to Nurse
Paris Ferguson had a car wreck and broke her arm. They gave her some good drugs at the hospital, since they didn't know what other injuries she had. As she came out of surgery and woke up, all her inhibitions fell away, and she proposed to the cute nurse, Luke, who was tending to her. Luke alternated between laughing and blushing. Paris later made a video telling the whole story, which is pretty long. (via Digg)
O Printer! My Printer!
Mr. T-blog sent me a poem (Thanks!). It was inspired by the loss of TWO printers in a span of only two months. I can relate to the magnitude of this disaster. Apologies to Walt Whitman.
O Printer! my Printer! our fearful trip is done,
The laserjet has weather’d every rack, the PPM we sought is won,
The USB port is near, the drum roller I hear, the users all expletiving,
While follow eyes the DPI, the copy jam grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of ink,
Where on the desk my Printer lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
My Printer does not answer, his papertrays are pale and still,
My HP does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The laserjet is recycled safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From Staples trip the victor ship comes in with replacement won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Watch the desk my Printer lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
-Mr T-blog
Monday, February 16, 2026
The Radio Quiz
Old folks lament that young folks don't know how to hold a regular conversation with other people, but that nothing new. This episode of I Love Lucy was way back in the 1950s (that will become evident), and people had the same problem back then. We had TV to avoid talking the same way people use phones today to avoid interacting with each other. At some point they give up and listen to the radio, and find that Ricky knows more about American history than anyone. I'm not surprised. He obviously studied for the US citizenship test.
He Survived Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6th, 1945, the US military dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and killed 70,000 people. Another 70,000 would die later from injuries and radiation within a few weeks. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The Japanese, not knowing how many bombs the US had (which was two), surrendered and ended World War II.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima when the first bomb detonated. He was severely injured, but managed to get back to his home in Nagasaki and go to his job just in time for the second bomb to be dropped. What are the odds? Weird History tells the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who survived both bombs and became a staunch advocate for nuclear disarmament later in life. There's a skippable promotional break from 2:03 to 3:13.
Speaking of the odds, back in 2012, Neatorama published an article about the approximately 165 people who fled Hiroshima after the bombing and went to Nagasaki for safety. Read about these nijyuu hibakusha, or "double bomb-affected people" in The Unluckiest Train Ride.
Weird Al Yankovic Describes EVERY United States President
For President's Day, Weird Al Yankovic made a supercut of all of them. US presidents, that is. Each president is matched with a clip from a Weird Al Yankovic song that illustrates a bit of trivia about them. The trivia is in the caption at the bottom, and the song is identified in the lower-right corner. This reveals that Weird Al has a very deep discography, and our presidents have been weird.
Miss Cellania's Links
2026 Winter Olympics Village Ran Out Of Condoms After Just 3 Days. The article contains many double entendres. (via Metafilter)
Men lose their Y chromosome as they age. Scientists thought it didn’t matter – but now we’re learning more. (via Damn Interesting)
Which Country Has Won The Most Winter Olympic Medals? (via Nag on the Lake)
It's not easy to fly a plane. Luckily, no one died. (via Memo of the Air)
Scientists find evidence that ancient Romans used human poo as medicine. (via Strange Company)
Meet the Splayd, the spork's sharper Australian cousin.
Courts have ruled 4,400 times that ICE jailed people illegally. It hasn’t stopped. (via Fark)
A Modern Fairy Tale: The story of the sad little skiing prince who lost his princess, but thought an international press interview and a tearful, uninvited confession would bring her back. (via Metafilter)
I Want to Take You Higher
Watching Tina and the Ikettes shimmying in those high heels makes me tired. This performance from Ike and Tia Turner was an Italian TV appearance in 1971.
Sunday, February 15, 2026
How That False Alarm Happened
In 2018, residents of Hawaii received an alert of incoming missiles,
with a tag that "this is not a drill." Panic ensued, and it was 38
minutes before the news followed that it was a false alarm. How did it
happen? The explanation was that an employee pushed the wrong button.
There is speculation that it was an option in a drop-down menu. The
video above is an easy explanation, because it's happened to all of us. (via reddit)
Airbnb Surprises
What you see is not always what you get. But sometimes your lodging can come with a bonus. (via Everlasting Blort)
7 American Phrases That Completely Baffle Brits
It's not surprising that contemporary slang sometimes becomes a lasting phrase, but often it stays in its original nation. Every place has shortcuts that are incomprehensible to outsiders. Laurence Brown looks at some American phrases that we all know, but puzzle other English-speaking countries. You might not realize how weird they are. There's a 90-second skippable ad at 2:50.
The converse video is here, about British phrases that baffle Americans. I was baffled by none of them.
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