In the wild, many gray squirrels die in infancy, and those who survive can live to about six years on average. Thumbelina almost died in infancy. She was only a couple of hours old when her nest was destroyed, but this family took her in. That was ten years ago. Thumbelina is well adjusted to being an indoor squirrel, but she's got some problems in her old age. She developed polycystic ovarian syndrome, which causes her to gain weight easily, and left her quite round. She has also lost teeth, which means her family has to not only strictly measure her food, but puree it as well.
How much effort is too much for a pet squirrel? Thumbelina's family doesn't seem to mind, even though they've gone to extraordinary lengths for her. She's got quite a personality and brings them joy. You can see more of Thumbelina at Instagram.
Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Thumbelina
Weird Fast Food Items from Around the World
Fast food restaurants in the US gather together around interstate exits, and they offer variations on sandwiches, chicken pieces, pizza, burritos, and fried potatoes on the side. They taste the same from coast to coast. Those brands expanded to other countries where food cultures vary from the American model. You can't tell people in Italy that only American cheese is available, and you can't tell people in Thailand that chocolate doesn't belong on a hamburger. And even fast food outlets have to give customers what they want. You know, I could get on board with an edible coffee cup if it weren't for all the people who touched it before me.
Tom Blank, the original voice of Weird History, takes us on a tour of international fast food offerings that might gross you out, but might also make you want to travel to try them.
Cow Wins Horse Race
The annual St. Teresa's Charity Pantomime Horse Race pits teams of humans dressed as four-legged beasts against each other in a mercifully short race.
The St. Teresa’s Charity Pantomime Horse Race at the UK’s Catterick Racecourse raises funds for St. Teresa’s Hospice in Darlington. In its third annual running, the race welcomed four entrants: Heavy Brigade in the cow suit, racing for the Royal Dragoon Guards; Unicorn on the Cob in the unicorn suit, racing for marketing agency Purple Creative; #Professionals in the horse suit, a last-minute entry from Racing UK; and Wonky Donkey, racing for Lookers Volkswagen.Spectators will be forgiven for thinking that drinking may have been involved. (via Metafilter)
The Biggest Plot Hole In the Star Wars Prequels
Monday, July 27, 2026
Shakir the Turkish Street Cat
Turkey is awash with stray cats, which can't really be called feral because they are friendly and people feed them. Of course, there's not enough kind people to support all of them. One kitten lucked out when a cashier at a shop let him in and informally adopted him. Shakir is there every morning for hte store opening, and keeps watch over everything from his perch on the checkout counter.
Get Ready for a Lack of Communication
Bill McClintock is at it again, with another unlikely rock/soul mashup. Eddie Kendricks never rocked so hard! This one features vocals from The Temptations's 1966 hit "Get Ready" and the music from "Lack of Communication" by Ratt from 1984. Despite being written and produced by Smokey Robinson, the Temptations' song did not do as well as was expected, and the remake by Rare Earth in 1970 was a bigger hit. Still, the Temptations version of "Get Ready" proved to be long lasting, and familiar even 60 years later. The Ratt song? Maybe you had to be a metalhead at the time to really know it.
And if you are such a metalhead, you might recognize Dimebag Darrell's guitar work from the 1994 Pantera song "I'm Broken" in this mix as well. Enjoy songs song three different decades in this masterful mashup.
Miss Cellania's Links
Man Tried to Rob a Bank With a Stolen Kitten. (via Strange Company)
Why American ambulance rides are so expensive. The unfortunately botched economics of emergency care. (via kottke)
Young solo pilot loses her front landing gear. Another pilot takes charge to get her down safely.
What Big Food Did to Ice Cream. The “encrapification” of the American pint — a chemist’s plain-language dissection. (via Fark)
“Weird Al” Yankovic Can’t Stop Landing On The Right Side Of History.
The Largest Intact Meteorite on Earth Is Still Exactly Where It Landed. But Why No Crater? (via Damn Interesting)
If you attack a rapper performing on the street, you might have to listen to him diss you as you wait for the ambulance. (via Metafilter)
The spiteful family feud behind one of New York’s oldest and most luxurious hotels. (via Strange Company)
Road Diets
Yeah, America is big, so we developed four lane roads to get us from town to town faster. Then four-lane roads were extended into town to alleviate traffic. But do we really need four-lane roads in a city? City streets are safer with traffic going slower. To achieve that, some cities are putting their streets on a diet, making them smaller and slower. So far, that's making street use easier for pedestrians and cyclists, while still not causing worse traffic for drivers -in most places. Your mileage may vary, no pun intended. (via Laughing Squid)
Sunday, July 26, 2026
Never My Love
The Association was a pop band who sang sweet love songs with many vocal harmonies. They were the first to record "Never My Love" in 1967, and made it a hit. It has been recorded many times since, most notably by The 5th Dimension in 1971 and by Blue Swede in 1974. This performance by The Association on The Ed Sullivan Show is from December of 1968.
Mr. Jambo
In this music video, musician Barry Bergen travels to Africa in the 1980s to glean the ancient wisdom of this magical land. Mr Jambo is an older man who must contain the wisdom Bergen is looking for, but he doesn't speak English. Indeed, the closed captions tell us that he is saying, "I don't speak English. Do you have a translator?" Meanwhile, Bergan mentions jambalaya and bears, as if they have anything to do with Africa. As silly as the premise is, the song is quite catchy.
There is no Barry Bergen; he's a creation of comedian Kyle Gordon who has has made a career of parodying songs from genres you may not be consciously aware of, but you'll recognize when you hear them. The song "Mr. Jambo" is a parody of the "white guy goes to Africa" genre that you know mostly from Paul Simon's album Graceland, although it's been done by others. It's from his third album Kyle Gordon Is Everywhere, to be released in October. (via Boing Boing)