Saturday, September 30, 2023

Spirits



Born to Dance



Recognize this hoofer? That's Buddy Ebsen, Jed Clampett himself, in his twenties, younger than you've probably ever seen him. This production number is from the 1936 movie Born to Dance. Ebsen wasn't the star; it was a Jimmy Stewart movie.

Hailing a NYC Cab in 1981

Two of our favorite aliens, Mork and Superman, photographed in 1981. Both left our world way too early. (via reddit)

Couple's First Cat Adoption Doesn't Go as Expected



One thing a first-time cat owner needs to learn is that all cats are different and have their own personalities, just like people. Jeremie and Alyssa met in college and got married. Alyssa thought it would be a great idea to adopt a pet together. Jeremie had never lived with a cat before, and assumed it would be easy, because cats are aloof and independent. You can see where this is going. The couple adopted a kitten they named Wilbur, who had an injured paw. Wilbur turned out to be an affectionate cat, to the point of being clingy. Alyssa was gone in those early days to start a new job, so Wilbur bonded with Jeremie. But Jeremie found that he likes being Wilbur's sun and moon! You can keep up with Wilbur and his little brother Solomon, another rescue cat, at Instagram.

Get Ready



The Hot Lips Logo



Graphic designer John Pasche was making a name for himself for his art deco concert posters in 1970, when The Rolling Stones contacted him about doing one for their 1970 European tour. They went back to him for album art, and that's when the famous logo that became known as Hot Lips was born.

The iconic logo was first seen inside the Stones' 1971 album Sticky Fingers. I remember it well- I went to the local record store, and every copy they had already had the shrink wrap torn because everyone wanted to play with the zipper in the front.

Great Big Story talked with Pasche about his experience in making the logo that became recognizable all over the world. The starting point was the tongue, and the lips came afterward. And they are not Mick Jagger's lips. More than 50 years later, Pasche still gets a kick out of seeing those lips in the wild. (via Laughing Squid)

Hero Dog

No Vampires Remain in Romania



The new song from King Luan comes just in time for the ramp up to Halloween. It features both our favorite vampire, Count Dracula, and our favorite mad scientist, Nikola Tesla. (Thanks, Craig Clark!)

Tweet of the Day

Friday, September 29, 2023

Winners



People will make anything into a competition. (via Bad Newspaper)

Out of the Trees



In 1975, Graham Chapman of Monty Python and Douglas Adams, who hadn't yet written The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, wrote a TV show. Out of the Trees was supposed to be a BBC series, but it bombed so badly that only one episode was ever aired. And then they erased the tape.

But almost 30 years later, it was discovered that Chapman himself had recorded the show on home video. For most of us, home video was not a thing in 1976, when the show aired that one time. Chapman had recorded it on a Philips' "Video Cassette Recording" machine, which went obsolete when VHS and Betamax came about. Chapman's partner, David Sherlock, gave it to the National Film Television and Videotape Archive. They set about building a machine that could play the tape, and it took two years. Was the effort worth it? From an archivist's point of view, yes. From an audience's point of view, maybe not so much. From the YouTube page:

As you can see it isn't a lost masterpiece, because it's no longer lost and it never was a masterpiece.

(via Metafilter)


Easy



(via reddit)

Doctor Breaks Down All The Ways Mt. Everest Can Kill You



Dr. Emily Johnson is a physician and a mountain climber. She's been to the peak of Mount Everest three times, and knows how dangerous it is. In this video, she enumerates the different ways you could lose your life climbing the world's tallest mountain. Dr. Johnson tells us that Everest is not the most dangerous mountain peak. Both Annapurna and K2 are tougher, but way more people die on Everest because way more people climb it, and many of those people are oblivious to the dangers and aren't as well prepared as they should be. Just because a lot of people have been to the peak of Everest doesn't guarantee that you'll make it back. (via Digg


Career Day



Showing up for career Day at school is optional. He should have opted out. This comic is from Brad T. Jonas. (via reddit)

The Beauty of Age



Spherical Houses Weren't a Great Idea



The Netherlands instituted an experimental architecture program in the 1960s so they could have more interesting houses. It's a great idea, because nothing is more boring and depressing than a suburb full of cookie cutter homes so alike that you have to look at the numbers to find your own. Some interesting ideas came of the program, and in 1984, the spherical house was launched. Now, you can probably think of several reasons why a spherical house won't work, but there's more! So what did they do with all these spherical houses? Let poor people live in them! I suppose it's better than no housing projects at all, but still. And now you see why designers and architects have different training and careers, and if they collaborate, they must plat devil's advocate with each other. Tom Scott tells the story of the Netherlands' spherical houses.

Miss Cellania's Links

8 Historical Methods for Keeping the Dead in their Graves. Scythes, locks, and iron stakes were some of the tools for keeping the dead buried—but they didn’t necessarily mean the living were afraid of vampires.

30 Men Share Real-Life Examples Of “A Woman’s Touch”.

Feast on Sushi, Steak, and Globalization at Iraq’s American-Themed Buffet.

How Poison Fruit Pits Became Irresistible to Humans.

All the Songs, But They're About Cats.

31 Halloween Facts for Everyone Who Has Started Celebrating Already. It is labeled as 31 for the number of days in October, but you might notice that several have nothing to do with Halloween as a holiday- they are just scary.

The Surprisingly Radical Roots of the Renaissance Fair.  

How Many Microbes Does It Take to Make You Sick?  (via Damn Interesting)

Why Don’t Cars Have Hood Ornaments Anymore?



Pest Control Service



1939 Speech Synthesizer



Introducing VODER (Voice Operation DEmonstratoR) from Bell Labs. This device was demonstrated at the World’s Fair in New York in 1939 and at the Golden Gate International Exposition. Pretty amazing for the time, huh? (via Everlasting Blort)

Tweet of the Day

In case you don't recognize him, this is US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken performing for the people of the State Department during the launch of the the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative on Wednesday. (via Madame Jujujive

Thursday, September 28, 2023

Don't Prank the Cat



From 1894. (via Undine)

Welcome!

Welcome to... everywhere, from the movies. There's a list of films used at the YouTube page. (via TYWKIWDBI)

Printer



Panther is a Member of the Family



You may have seen an article or a video making the rounds that tells the story of a woman who found an abandoned kitten on the side of the road, and took that kitten in. She was surprised to see the kitten grow into a panther! Well, that's not the real story at all.

Luna was born in a "traveling zoo"in Siberia. It sounds like something we in the West would call a circus. Luna's mother refused to nurse, and her cub was suffering greatly. Victoria, who had experience with big cats, volunteered to take the cub in and feed her. She named the cub Luna. Luna is a melanistic leopard, which we call a panther, although melanistic jaguars are also called panthers. Victoria heard that the zoo was trying to sell Luna, so she bought the cub herself. Luna became part of the family, and made friends with the female Rottweiler that belongs to Victoria's parents, named Venza. They became best buddies and playmates!



Now, a family home is not the best place for a wild animal, but in Siberia, it might be the best arrangement possible for Luna. You can follow Luna, Venza, and Victoria on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram. (via Fark)

Mensroom

The Trick is to Make a Coin Vanish



I had some training in the art of illusion, or "magic tricks," many years ago when I worked at an amusements park during college summers. I can tell you from experience that it is easy to see how a trick is done once you get used to it, but it is hard to make it work in front of viewers. That takes practice, and lots of it, to make it seem natural. Making a coin vanish from your hand is the simplest and most basic magic trick you'll ever do, but if you can get it right, and understand the effort it takes, you can go on to learn many astounding illusions and impress everyone you meet. Magician Oscar Owen is glad to teach you many more illusions through his YouTube channel. He also offers a free magic course that emphasizes how fast you can learn magic tricks. But illusions are like chess; it takes about five minutes to learn it, but a lifetime to master it.

That said, the static image in this video still bothers me, because it looks like he's got a crusty wound on his hand. I don't know where that came from, but it's not relevant to the trick. (via Digg)

Betty




I’m Ready for my Closeup



Burger Fiction brings us a supercut of camera pushes -shots where the camera zooms in on our hero (or villain) to make him/her appear more epic. With appropriately epic music. (via Tastefully Offensive)  

Tweet of the Day

(Thanks, WTM!)

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

No Proofreader, No Spellcheck



And the typesetter's basic literacy is questionable. (via Bad Newspaper)

The Only River That Flows Into Both the Atlantic and the Pacific



Gravity will have its way, and it controls the way water works everywhere on earth. Traditionally, people have respected that, and settled into places where nature provides a water supply. But in the modern era, people often disregard nature's water supplies to rely on technology. Still, there's a limit to how much we can do to overcome the laws of gravity and the enormous geography we have. Half as Interesting take a look at the way water flows in North America, and focuses on a singular anomaly in Wyoming. That's the home of mysteriously-named North Two Ocean Creek. Far from any ocean, this is the one place along the Continental Divide where water can flow to either the Atlantic or the Pacific Oceans! It's not a phenomena we can engineer to bring water to the people who need it; it's both unique and natural.  


Key West



Rey and Simba



Animal Defenders International (ADI) works to free wild animals from unnatural living conditions. They support wildlife shelters and opened their own preserve in South Africa. When Peru banned circuses from using wild animals, compliance was slow. ADI tracked down one circus high in the Andes and took two lions, brothers named Rey and Simba. It was a monumental task, involving a fight with the circus, a 19-hour drive to Lima, and then two years of paperwork, and an intercontinental flight taking 33 lions to South Africa. But after all that work, it was a joy to see Rey and Simba getting to walk on grass and explore their roomy new stomping grounds in the place they belong. These lions are bonded to each other for life. They know what they've been through together.



Traffic



5 Amazing Movie Endings That You've Never Seen



Many feature films have several possible endings before one is selected for the final edit. The chosen ending is often a result of test audiences’ preference, a better idea that occurred to writers along the way, or the decision to open the door for possible sequels.

Screen Rant lets us in on the endings that weren’t used in five movies. Therefore, this video contains spoilers for First Blood, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I Am Legend, Terminator 2, and 28 Days Later. I think if you were ever planning to see those movies, you would have by now. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Miss Cellania's Links

Happy 23rd blogiversary to Everlasting Blort! In celebration, Madame Jujujive is bringing back some very old but entertaining links.

October Haunted Happenings in Salem, Massachusetts.

New York Times writer draws ire for blaming Biden’s economy for $78 airport meal. More discussion here.

A Curious 1909 Custody Case for the Paris Police.

Welsh Sheep-Shearing Cake Is a Forgotten Pastoral Pleasure. try it yourself with this old recipe.

Kazuaki Horitomo's Monmon Cats. Tattooed cats tattooing other cats. (via Nag on the Lake)

This Implantable Device From MIT Pumps Insulin Without Needles. (via Neatorama)

Gravity is not uniform. It varies geographically. (via Atlas Obscura)

A Blast from the Past (2015): The Legend of Pope Joan.

His Birthday

Today is mine, too. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)

Steadfast Stanley



Stanley is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi who is left behind when the zombie apocalypse comes. All he wants is to find his boy and bring him his other shoe. Will his tiny little legs be able to outrun the zombie hordes? The only thing for certain is that you will love the little dog. John Lim made this student film at CalArts. (via Metafilter)

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Opinion



This is about feral cats. (via Bad Newspaper)

Troll Girl



An odd-looking baby is abandoned at the church steps and is taken in by a nun. The "Troll Girl" grows up as an outcast, trying to hide her true nature. She just wants to blend in and be left alone, but she is bullied relentlessly. Along the way, she finds inner talents that come in handy when she has to save the only person who ever loved her unconditionally. Troll Girl was written and directed by Kay Carmichael of Giantslayer Studios.   

Harsh



Cats vs Zombies



Who will take charge after the zombie apocalypse? Who has the power to save us from the zombie hoard? Why, it’s the internet’s favorite thing: cats! From Mr.TVCow comes the cutest little guerrilla fighters ever, with a mad plan to save the world from the dangerous zombies! (via Metafilter)

Welcome



Mama Is At Home Alone



When Mama finally gets some time all alone by herself, she has no clue what to do. All her time has been in service to everyone else in the family for so long that choosing how to spend that time is a real stumper. Moms don't plan ahead for time to themselves because that sets up a dream that may take years to fulfill. They just get used to subsuming their own desires in order to keep the househole running smoothly. Kim Holderness illustrates that conundrum to the tune of "Papa was a Rolling Stone."



Cat Lover




Mississippi Queen



Leslie West, Felix Pappalardi, and Corky Laing, otherwise known as Mountain, perform at Randall's Island in New York in 1970. This clip is from the film The Day The Music Died.

Tweet of the Day

The New York subway system comes with the occasional floor show. (via Everlasting Blort)

Monday, September 25, 2023

Wedding Vandalism



From 1890. (via Undine)

Piece of Cake



Two brides, porcelain wedding cake toppers Val and Mara, are unsatisfied with the grooms they are paired with. One of the guys turns abusive, and his bride is injured but not destroyed. The other couple comes to the rescue and the whole cake shop turns into a war scene. After the violence dies down, Val and Mara really only want to be with each other. It's a touching tale, but the real story is revealed in still shots shown during the credits. I had to laugh when the shopkeeper arrived the next morning. As Marvel has taught us, never leave before the credits roll. The award-winning short film Piece of Cake was written and directed by Sophie Feher and produced by Emma Goeas at the Savannah College of Art and Design.


College

(via reddit)

Not Quite Roadkill



Jennifer found a fox on the side of the road, which had apparently been hit by a car. It wasn’t dead, but was badly injured, unconscious, and barely breathing. The fox, eventually named Tammy, was taken to the Woodlands Wildlife Sanctuary, a totally volunteer-supported wildlife rehab center in Ontario. Tammy pulled through, although it was tough, and it was a long time before she could get around on her own. When she did, she met Todd, another fox that had been hit by a car. According to the conversation at Facebook, Tammy and Todd will be released together when Tammy is determined to be completely healed. (via Viral Viral Videos)

Premiere Listing 1966



(Thanks, WTM!)

Freestyle Slackline Competition



This sport appears to be a combination of trampoline and tightrope walking. The final competitors are Estonia and America. They give it their all as fast as they can to impress the crowd and the judges at the Globetrotter World Slackline Masters meet in Munich. Who should win? Why do they do this? These guys even fall off with style! (via Digg)

Miss Cellania's Links

When a Fashion Week Image Goes Viral. It's not pretty. (via Nag on the Lake

Bob Ross’s First Made-For-TV Painting Has Surfaced—and It’ll Cost You $10 Million.

I won $37 million in the lottery. The money wrecked my relationship with my mom and I got scammed by my best friend.

Homemade Sriracha. This version hits the right notes, but with a brighter, fresher flavor.

84 years after a Kimberly woman went missing, her family convinced police to open an investigation into her disappearance. (via Strange Company)   

Struck with Style: Lightning Rod Fashion of the 18th Century.

Summoning the Water Lord. Turn the sound on.

Jellyfish show how you don’t need a brain to learn, say researchers. (via Damn Interesting

New Documentary Werewolves Unearthed Debuts October First.

Squishe



(via Fark)

Sexual Harassment Found Footage



From the Found Footage Festival, we get a supercut of sexual harassment employee training videos from the ‘90s. The re-enactments are cheesy and get laughs, but the things they illustrate were just another day at the office back in the day. (via Everlasting Blort)

Tweet of the Day

(Thanks, WTM!)

Sunday, September 24, 2023

With Chips

(via Bad Menu)

I Want This Shirt



The Rare Liondog in the Wild



This amazing footage shows a lion dog that very much resembles Fritz the golden retriever. Watch him stalk his prey, the elusive soap bubble. Here he encounters a herd of them, to his utter delight! (via Tastefully Offensive)

Camera



(Thanks, WTM!)

Following a Mountain Biker by Drone



Warning: this video may induce vertigo. We've seen heart-stopping POV videos of mountain bikers wearing helmet cams. The next iteration of this type of videography is from the view of a fpv (first person view) drone. In this sequence, we follow Kade Edwards down the Red Bull Hardline downhill mountain bike race track in Wales, an extreme track if you ever saw one. Can Edwards stay upright on this terrifying run? Can the drone keep up with him? Can it navigate through thick groves of trees? Can we keep our stomachs from leaping while watching? Edwards makes the run look easy, but we all know that it isn't, and the drone pilot did a fantastic job. Any of us would have crashed and burned in either role. (via TYWKIWDBI)

Faris




Cat Shuts Up Yapping Dog



Devon Meadows set up a camera to see what goes on when he’s not home, particularly how much his new puppy Chazz barks. That’s how he came to witness an epic shutdown by his cat, Grayscale. Cats know when to be intimidating, and the puppy was certainly put in his place. (via Neatorama)

Tweet of the Day

That "99% will fail" part is pure clickbait. The correct answer could be 0, 2, 4, or 6, depending on how you parse the question. How do you fail this one? By guessing on odd number? This is really a language problem, not a math problem.

Saturday, September 23, 2023

Question of the Day

100 Movie Dance Scenes Set to “Uptown Funk”



Everyone’s dancing to “Upttown Funk,” from Charlie Chaplin to Nicola Cage to cartoon characters! There are 100 movies represented here; how many of them have you seen? (via Tastefully Offensive)

How Popey was the Pope?

(via reddit)

The Aztec Death Whistle



No, you won't die if you hear the sound of an Aztec death whistle, but you'll hear it a lot in this video, and you might want to be ready with the volume control. It can cause a jump scare in the people in the next room, or make children cry. The Aztec death whistle is a small instrument that looks like a duck call, but the sound it produces is like a terrified person screaming beyond control. If you didn't know what caused it, hearing this in the night would make the hairs on your back rise up. James Orgill of The Action Lab actually made some Aztec death whistles with a 3D printer. He tells us both the history and science of these whistles, and blows those darn whistles quite a few times. That's an interesting and sneaky way to lead up to an ad for the 3D printer. (via Digg)


Autumn



A Teaser Trailer for Squid Game: The Challenge



The last we heard about the upcoming TV game show Squid Game: The Challenge was in January. Now the upcoming Netflix series has a teaser trailer and a premiere date. The teaser is less than a minute long, but we can see that they've gone to great lengths to recreate the visuals from the original fiction series Squid Game from 2021. This time, it's all about the games, with no life-and-death risks or moral decisions to make along the way. In Squid Game: The Challenge, 456 people will compete for a grand prize of $4.56 million.

The original series was a dystopian horror about the lengths desperate people will go to win riches at the expense of their fellow man (or woman). The entire idea of making it into a game show with lower risks only shows how well we manage to miss the point. Still, the games themselves made viewers consider their own strategy to win. In the original, there were 455 losers and one winner. The reality game show has not revealed whether the fates of their contestants will be the same, besides that detail of death. You can watch Squid Game: The Challenge on Netflix beginning November 22. (via the A.V. Club)


Plotting



This book is by Matthew Inman at the Oatmeal. (via Fark)

Avery Lands a Fish



Avery is out fishing with her dad with her pink Barbie fishing pole. Not only does she catch a fish, it’s a 5-pound, 20 inch bass! And she did it all by herself. Father and daughter will remember this catch for the rest of their lives. (via reddit)

Tweet of the Day

(via Everlasting Blort)

Friday, September 22, 2023

Slow News Day



From 1879. (via Undine)

True Facts About Reef Corals



In the latest edition of Ze Frank's True Facts series, we learn about reef coral. Yeah, it's an animal, although what we see of them are their shells, which make a reef. You might wonder how he could ever make a bawdy, silly, joke-filled video about coral, but he manages to do so. One animal of coral is called a polyp.  What we would call building a reef, he describes as a polyp "farting crystals." You get the idea. Yeah, it's a ridiculous way of telling a story, but that makes it much easier to learn how coral works. Or at least more likely to be remembered. See, already I am impressed that coral reproduces both sexually and by cloning themselves. And they have several ways of eating. The images in this video are beautiful on some ways, and gross in others. There's a one-minute skippable ad at the five-minute mark.

What a Crock

(via reddit)

Five New Cheetahs



Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, was the site of a blessed event on September 12. An eight-year-old cheetah named Echo gave birth to a litter of five cubs! The cubs appear to be doing quite well, and are being left alone with Echo. When they are a bit older, staff will take inventory to see how many males and females there are, and take a blood test to determine who the father is. It will be either Asante or Flash, both part of the Cheetah Breeding Center Coalition program, which the zoo is a part of.

You can peak in on the cheetahs any time with the Cheetah Cam, although Echo has been moving them around, so you may have to come back later to see them. Read more about this cheetah family at Zooborns.

Run to Live Longer



How fast can you run? That depends on what's chasing you. Motivation is everything. This comic is from Bonus Context. (via Geeks Are Sexy)

Jupiter



Stainless Steel Hollow Sections



If you enjoy the dry humor of engineering nerds, wait until you see three of them together! A Finnish industrial company called Stalatube wanted to show off their stainless steel hollow sections. That's a pretty esoteric product, and their engineer Pekka is not all that charismatic (and likely fictional), so how will they draw attention? They team up with Finnish madman Lauri Vuohensilta of the Hydraulic Press Channel and and Mythbusters' Jamie Hyneman, now a professor at  LUT University in Lappeenranta, Finland.

They put different grades of steel through Lauri's hydraulic press test, with the results you might expect. Then they go on to test the steel with heat. But that's not enough, so they take their samples to a testing facility where the steel is further tortured. Hyneman is duly impressed with the product, but that's still not good enough for Pekka. There's more to come; the second episode of this ad series will drop on October 6. Yes, it's an ad, but if you are going to watch a ten-minute ad for anything today, you'd want it to be this one. (via Metafilter)

Miss Cellania's Links

The loss of dark skies is so painful, astronomers coined a new term for it. That word is noctalgia. (via Metafilter)  

‘Extraordinary’ structure has no real parallel in the archaeological record, scientists say. At 476,000 years old, it predates Homo sapiens. (via reddit)

Hollingsworth Hound presents The CEO's Guide to Government Services. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.

Han – The Little Merman. A controversial statue in Elsinore, Denmark, is the gender-swapped version of The Little Mermaid.

When a Five-year-old Asks About Nazis

How to Use Analogous Colors to Make Your Home Look Expertly Designed.

Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision. Lots more links at Metafilter.

The Nedelin Catastrophe: The Worst Space-Related Disaster Ever. It was, of course, covered up from public knowledge.

New Research Reveals How the Nazis Targeted Transgender People.

Grandkids




The Dog Train



Eugene Bostick has a soft heart for dogs. He’s taken in countless unwanted dogs and gave them a forever home. And to give them a little extra fun, he takes them on a train ride! He built the train out of plastic barrels and pulls it with his tractor. The dogs love it.  (via Neatorama)

Tweet of the Day

(via Everlasting Blort)

Thursday, September 21, 2023

How's the Food?

(via Bad Menu)

What Bears Do in the Woods



They dance, of course! When bears emerge from the hibernation in the spring, they've shed most of the weight they put on last summer, but they still have their winter coat. As the temperatures rise, they feel their fur starting to get loose. It's an itch that must be scratched, and the best place to do it is against a tree with rough bark. The dancing in this video starts at about 1:45, and it's a downright sensuous experience. As they scratch their backs, the fur comes off, and so does that bear's scent. It's our job to add the music.

This clip, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, is from the BBC TV series Planet Earth II. The entire video is a feast for the eyes, as long as you aren't a marmot. (via Born in Space)  


Police Crackdown

(via reddit)

Willie Wonky and His Kitten Charlie



Mandy and Phillip took in a special needs foster cat and named him Willie Wonky. Well, cats don't care what you name them as long as you care for them. They had to make some adjustments in their household for Willie, but he turned out to be so delightful and loving that they adopted him permanently. A "wobbly cat" is one with a neurological condition called cerebellar hypoplasia, which affects motor control but is not painful and doesn't affect a cat's lifespan if they are cared for. Mandy and Phillip learned so much while caring for Willy that they took in another wobbly cat, a kitten named Charlie. Willie bonded with Charlie, and now Charlie has been adopted into the family, too! You can keep up with Willie, Charlie, and the rest of the family at Facebook and Instagram.

Do You Remember?


It was posted in June, but I saved it for a specific date. If you don't get it, watch this video. This comic is from Deliberately Buried.

Bike Path

Why Does The Gambia Exist?



In the summer of 2020, a young man from Gambia stayed with me because of the pandemic. He couldn't remain at school after graduation, he couldn't fly home, and slowdowns in government work meant he couldn't get a work permit in time to accept job offers. I was gone a lot taking care of my mother, but I learned quite a bit about the Gambia. The word means "river."

I asked him how Senegal felt about the Gambians taking both banks of the river. He said that wasn't us, that was the French and the British. This video tells that story. The Gambians and Senegalese get along fine, and share things like utilities and sports teams. However, some of the things I learned about West African politics made me feel very lucky to live in the US.

Cosmo



(via Fark)

Activewear



“Activewear” is the marketing term for sports or exercise clothing. Everyone wears activewear, but few are actually active. There are two basic kinds of activewear: the body-hugging yoga pants and sports bras that show off one’s physique, figure, or lack thereof, and the loose sweats good for warmth and comfort. Young people want to show off their bodies and look like they work out, and we older folks just want chafe-free covering. The video is aimed at girls, but we all know guys do it, too. This music video was created by the Van Vuuren Bros for the TV show Skit Box. (via Tastefully Offensive


Tweet of the Day

These little girls are terrified at first, but they rally and defeat the dragon! That's some bravery. (Thanks, WTM!)

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Paving Stone

(via Bad Menu)

I'm Your Captain (Closer to Home)

Grand Funk Railroad, recorded at Shea stadium in July of 1971. You can read a description of that record-breaking concert here.


Traffic Rules



(via reddit)

Barbie's Honest Trailer



If you haven't seen Barbie yet (and there are a few of us), here's your chance to get an extended look and critique of the movie. Oh, and you won't want to miss the Quentin Tarantino part. Screen Junkies pronounces it a showcase of ad placement, not just for Barbie but also for Chevrolet and other consumer products. Plus, it's deeply feminist, implausible, and juvenile. But who cares about all that? It's really funny, which covers all other sins. But they find plenty of other good things to say about Barbie, so it's no wonder that the movie has made $1.4 billion already, the most of any 2023 movie so far.

Dogs and Cats