(via Bad Newspaper)
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
British English vs. American English Definitions
Laurence Brown examines those English words that are the same in Britain and America, yet they have different meanings. You already have some in your head, don't you? Let's see if he includes your favorites in the eleven on his list. There's a sponsor message from 2:13 to 3:30.
No, he didn't address chips, biscuits, or fanny. I guess we are all too familiar with those already.
Tara and Marley
Monkeys are cute and resemble humans, but they do not make good pets. Sadly, some monkeys become adults before their human owners will admit that. What happens then? Monkeys raised in captivity do not know what they need to know to survive in the wild, much less become part of a monkey community. The best they could hope for is to live in a shelter that takes their wild nature into account, like Animal Tracks, the same shelter where Frank the Armadillo lives.
Tara is an aging Hollywood star, relinquished when her animal casting company moved away. Why didn't she go with them? I suspect it's because Tara was 25 years old and no longer as photogenic as she once was. She is 30 now, and still feisty, but totally comfortable with humans. Her monkey companion Marley was raised as a neutered pet. That means his social status among monkeys is pretty low, but he's doing okay at the shelter with Tara.
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
When Crosby, Stills, and Nash performed their song "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" at Woodstock, it was only the second time they had performed together in front of an audience. Their slot was in the middle of the night, but that audience was a half million people. No wonder they were scared.
The song was written by Stephen Stills about his girlfriend at the time, Judy Collins. He had been writing down his thoughts about her in snippets of poetry for months, as the relationship deteriorated and he contemplated losing her (spoiler: he did). These inspired different tunes, but none of them had enough to make a complete song, so Stills mashed them all together. That's why "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" indeed sounds like a collision of four songs. Yet they were four really good tunes, and the completed love song became a staple of FM radio. Read how and why the song came about, and how Collins responded to it at Dangerous Minds.
Dad Builds Palace For Dogs
Aaron Franks built a doghouse on his deck. That's a bit of an understatement. This is not ordinary doghouse! It's a three-level dog dreamland featuring stairs, three entrances, cubbyholes, beds, a pool, three swings, an umbrella, tunnels, a pirate wheel, a potty pit full of wood chips (complete with fire hydrant), and a water dispenser. Franks also has a monitor in his bedroom so he can watch his four pit bulls enjoy their doggy mansion. His wife didn't realize the scope of the project, as he worked on it for two years. He may add more in the future. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Synonyms
Call and dial are synonyms.
However a booty call and a butt dial are two very different things.
(Thanks, WTM!)
Monday, September 29, 2025
Poor Cinderella
Betty Boop stars as Cinderella in the 1934 short Poor Cinderella. It was Betty Boop's only color cartoon of her original run in the 1930s. It's actually only two colors, which looks downright bizarre today. This cartoon came out right after the Hays Code went into effect, and it appears that producers were trying to figure out what to do with their most popular character.
His Name is Mudd
This bulldog gets introduced to the new trampoline. It will be hard to get Mudd to come out for dinner. (via Bits and Pieces)
So Obvious as to Draw Attention
Wood found inside a corndog-on-a-stick? Who would have thought? This is a real headline, from today. You have to read the story to understand. Pieces of wood, presumable from the sticks, have been found in the cornbread batter surrounding the dog, and injuries have been reported. That's why the recall. Check your frozen corndogs. (via Fark)
7 Cool Things To Look For In Old Cemeteries
It's almost October, the time of the year when you want to roam through cemeteries until dark. Don't ask me why; I've just heard that people do that. One of them is the YouTuber behind Dime Store Adventures, who lays out what seems like a scavenger hunt for graveyard enthusiasts. Among the seven unusual things you can learn to identify is the Sears headstone. Yes, Sears and Roebuck sold everything at one time or another, and a hundred years ago you could get a gravestone by mail order. Even before that, you could get a gravestone made of zinc! These "zinkers" are still out there, which says something about their longevity. Armed with the knowledge in this video, you'll have a lot more fun in a cemetery. (via Laughing Squid)
Miss Cellania's Links
Data's Name Led To Gene Roddenberry Creating A New Star Trek Rule. (via Neatorama)
Imagine how strange the calls two women got were: The good news is that your biological mother did not abandon you 36 years ago when you were a baby. The bad news is that your mother was murdered. Video here.
"The Staff Ate It Later." Japanese TV confronts the shame of wasting food. (via Nag on the Lake)
The best closing line in a film, ever.
If you've never heard of a MedBed, here is what you need to know. (via Fark)
34 Movie Details That Are Either Blatant Rip-Offs or Just Coincidentally Similar in Almost Every Way.
A Māori man says he was refused service from Burleigh Pavilion on the Gold Coast because of his cultural tattoo. Caleb Pokai has a tā moko on his neck — a centuries-old tradition and symbol of cultural pride. (via Metafilter)
A massive eruption 74,000 years ago affected the whole planet – archaeologists use volcanic glass to figure out how people survived. (via Strange Company)
When Bruce Lee Trained With Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. (via Damn Interesting)
Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style
I couldn't describe this any better than the blurb at YouTube:
This film short is called "Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style" and was made by Charles A. Ridley in 1941. He re-edited existing footage of Hitler and Nazi soldiers (taken from the propaganda film "Triumph of the Will") to make it appear they were marching and dancing to "The Lambeth Walk". He used the music because members of the Nazi party had called the tune "Jewish mischief and animalistic hopping". The re-edit was distributed uncredited to newsreel companies in the US and UK. Made 60+ years before YouTube, it is regarded as one of the first political remix videos.(via a comment at Metafilter)
Sunday, September 28, 2025
The Greatest Guitar Solo Each Year (1965-2024)
"Greatest" is certainly one person's opinion, but this montage will bring back musical memories nevertheless. (via Laughing Squid)
Cat Obsessed with Plastic Containers
Oliver had a rough start in life, sick and abandoned, but found a great home with Robin and her pets. He developed an obsession with one particular piece of Tupperware, which became his comfort object. Go figure.
A Classic Blog Meets Its End
Hanan's priorities changed when his daughter was born, and he blogged about Adora afterward at Grow-a-Baby, which evolved into an art project that ended in 2020. Then he moved to Denmark, and now has a photo blog.
Take a last look at the original Grow-a-Brain, because the Typepad platform is disappearing Wednesday, taking all remaining blogs with it. (Thanks, Hanan!)
One Froggy Evening
The classic 1955 Looney Tunes short One Froggy Evening is still a hit today, but did you know it was based on a true story?
Burn Out
Stella is an intergalactic mechanic who must make an emergency landing on a strange planet. It appears to be void of life. That is, except for the ghosts. But it's not a frightening alien story. Stella confronts a ghost of her past, and has an experience that gives her the impetus to push on and never give up. So what if she's a mechanic instead of an explorer? You never know when that will be the best thing to be. This short animation is from director Cécile Carre of the French animation school GOBELINS. (via io9)
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Time Travel Is Confusing
We dream about time travel, because it would be so cool to travel back and right some of the wrongs of our history. Or forward, so we can know what to expect in the future. But being able to do those things warps our understanding of time itself and can lead to an existential crisis. Dorkly places this discussion in a video game, which is pretty safe because it has a goddess book, a guitar as a weapon, goblins, and other implausible elements. But the questions about time travel are universal. If you must go back in time to save the world, did the world really ever need saving? If you then return to your time, you would be the only one to know what could have been. Or were you always predestined to travel back in time and do whatever you did? We've heard this discussion before, but rock-eating Greg makes it funny.
This story is only three minutes; the rest is an ad.
No Project Without Drama
It's a typical story. A bathroom leak leads to an emergency repair, and that's when you notice all the other parts of the room that are crumbling with age or not working as well as they should. This bathroom needs a complete remodel! Can you do it yourself? Maybe, but it's going to be a major learning experience. The video No Project Without Drama is described as "A bathroom renovation in five acts, with plenty of sweat, pain, and pride" (according to Google Translate). This is the way the emotions during such a project would be rendered on a theatrical stage.
Sure, it's ad, from German fixture company Hornbach. I'm planning a bathroom remodel myself, but it certainly won't be DIY, and I'm dreading taking the first steps. I know it will be highly dramatic, even when someone else is doing the work. (via Nag on the Lake)
Cheetah Attacked by Meerkats
This is something that could only happen at a zoo. This took place at Cheetah Experience in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Kinji the Cheetah loves the meerkats at the conservation center, but the meerkats, well, they don't like anyone. And they can be pretty fierce for their size. See, the meerkats are protecting their family from a dangerous predator by attacking Kinji whenever he comes around. To Kinji, it's a fine little back scratch from his little friends. He just purrs and enjoys it. Dolph C. Volker of the center says,
A cheetah purr is quickly becoming my favorite sound in the world... so relaxing, calming, and something that penetrates the psyche down to the rudimentary soul for me. A purrs is designed to calm tensions; letting others around them know a friendly cat is present.(via Tastefully Offensive)
Friday, September 26, 2025
Fanfare for the Common Man
Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" performed by Charles Reardon on pipe organ and Macadger Byrne on trumpet, at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Washington, DC. (via Metafilter)
Fixing the Universe
We are thankful for those who spend their time bringing order to a chaotic world. Glad to see he's wearing those safety flip flops. This is from Jared Dewy.
Is It Dangerous to Eat Raw Cookie Dough?
I've suffered through salmonella twice, and believe me, you don't want to deal with it. Both times it was severe enough to make me go see a doctor even without health insurance. I don't know where I got it the first time, but the second time was when my refrigerator condenser quit working and I didn't know it because the motor continued to run. Anyway, salmonella is a nasty bacteria that will flatten you for several miserable days.
Sure, I ate raw cookie dough as much as anyone as a kid, but that was when our eggs came from small producers who had room for free-range chickens. The risk is greater these days, but thorough cooking kills salmonella. If you must eat soft cooked eggs, you should use pasteurized eggs. Meat must be cooked to the recommended internal temperature. And produce should be thoroughly rinsed. Rinsing won't kill salmonella bacteria, but it will reduce the number of pathogens. This TED-Ed lesson on what salmonella does to your body should keep you from taking chances with your food.
Miss Cellania's Links
The thousand-year story of how the fork crossed Europe, and onto your plate today. (via Damn Interesting)
After fireworks caused her dog to panic, a stranger offered them a ride home. A story to make you feel better about the world. (via Metafilter)
Mobile Bay Jubilee: When the Shore Floods Suddenly … With Fish?
How different animals react to thunder. (via Everlasting Blort)
Medicare's new AI authorization program pays contractors to deny claims.
The Church of Sainte-Mère-Église. Look closely, and you'll see a bit of World War II.
20 of the Worst Technically Correct Ways to Describe Classic Movies.
50 Pets Who Thought They Were Ninjas But Ended Up Just Being Derps.
"Well, if you are reading this obituary, it looks like I'm dead." It makes you wish you had known Linda Brossi Murphy. (via Fark)
An Honest College Tour
If you have a high school senior in your home, get ready for lots of walking around campuses, trying to discern what makes this school different from the one you saw last week. Your child knows there's no way they're ever going to attend this school because it's close enough for their parents to drive to. However, it's close enough to drive to, and they get an excused day off from from school for taking the tour.
The tour is led by a student on a work study program, and they do their best because they don't want to go back to washing dishes in the cafeteria. Your kid runs into someone they know from high school, and you don't see them again for hours. Meanwhile, you're lucky to see one dorm room, since no one volunteers for theirs to be seen. Soon, you realize that it doesn't matter a bit what the school looks like, only whether they will give your kid financial aid. After two or three of these tours, you just send your kid (and all their friends) off to go see a campus on their own. They just wanted a day away from school anyway. (via College Humor)
Modern Research
(via Everlasting Blort)#Tylenol #Paracetamol
— Thomas (@thomasho.bsky.social) September 23, 2025 at 8:06 AM
[image or embed]
Thursday, September 25, 2025
"Rionoid" by Duran Sabbath
This is what happens when you mix "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath with "Rio" by Duran Duran. It works pretty well. Duran Duran posted this, probably after someone sent it to them, and asked, "Who can we thank for capturing that secret gig many years ago???" at the YouTube page. Then they turned off comments to make sure they never got an answer. (via Laughing Squid)
She's a Daddy's Cat
I find it hilarious when people give very human names to their cats, like Phil, Greg, or Jessica. I have a cat named Tommy, but that wasn't my choice. Mackenzie, managing producer at the Dodo, and her husband Jackson named their cat Karen. Karen is obsessed with Jackson, which might make Mackenzie feel a bit like a third wheel. She doesn't complain, though, because it's so cute when Karen follows her husband around, imitating his actions, and generally loving him fiercely. See more of Karen and her family at Instagram.
Favourites
There are men who feel the need to take charge of a difficult situation solely in order to make that situation easier for the ones he loves. A family on a camping trip rushes to a small rural clinic after a deadly snake has bitten both their children. Why, yes, this is in Australia, how did you know? Anyway, the doctor knows this is a tiger snake, and time is of the essence. Then the situation goes from bad to worse.
The short film Favourites by Nick Russell and Nick Musgrove has won several awards on the film festival circuit, but I'm not going to tell you in which category. That would be a spoiler. (via Nag on the Lake)
Learn to Play Cat
In this episode of Simon's Cat Logic, Simon Tofield and Nicky Treverrow talks about how cats play, and the best ways for us to play with them. It starts with how to train kittens in recognizing toys. Even after a lifetime of playing with cats, even I learned some new tips in this video. It has a Simon's Cat cartoon tagged onto the end, in which we see the cat having a ball with that elusive red dot.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Steve the Orange Fish
An animated video for the French song "Le poisson Steve." You can see a bunch of different versions of the song's videos with links at Metafilter.
Pregnancy is Insane
Watch out, Kurzgesagt is going to explain where babies come from, in graphic cellular detail. It ain't easy. An embryo does whatever is necessary to establish dominance over the mother's body. It suppresses her immune system, lest it attack the foreign body. It floods her body with weird hormones that change her body and cells she will carry for the rest of her life. An established fetus will take all the resources it needs from the mother, leaving her body lacking, so she must scramble to keep herself going nutritionally. In that, it is like a parasite or a tumor that will drain and possibly kill its host in order to survive. Yet the prize at the end of it all can make it worth the effort. In the last few years, I've had a front row seat to two pregnancies in my own daughter, and can attest to how hard it is to see your baby girl go through the utter havoc a normal pregnancy put her body through. Yet she happily repeated the process. This video is only 10:40; the rest is promotional.
The History of Punctuation
Most of us never think about punctuation when we read books or internet articles or short texts. But when someone send you a longer, more involved message and they don't use punctuation, then you start to appreciate it. Punctuation is there to make written text seem more like a natural monologue or conversation. Believe it or not, when writing with letters was first developed, there weren't even spaces between words, much less marks to indicate how the words should sound. Sure, few people knew how to read, but when someone read that text out loud, how it was done made a difference. As more people learned to read, those marks had to be standardized. Dr. Erica Brozovsky tells the story of how different kinds of punctuation came to be and why.
Miss Cellania's Links
You Never Know What's Going On Inside. Relax, this is about real estate.
8 of the Most Shocking Prison Breaks in History. These infamous prisoners unexpectedly validate the adage “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Parrots will mimic anything. And do it well.
The human stain remover: what Britain’s greatest extreme cleaner learned from 25 years on the job. (via Damn Interesting)
Jimmy Kimmel and Strike Force Five vs. Trumpactus. The latest from Tom the Dancing Bug.
22 Crowning Achievements in Character Naming.
Sourdough and submission in the name of God: How tradwife content fuses femininity with anti-feminist ideas.
Snoop Lake: Snoop Dogg Does the Swan Lake Ballet. Contains NSFW language.
Colin Furze's Driveable Hot Tub
Insane inventor Colin Furze (previously) has built such a reputation that now he's being paid to bring ridiculous tech to life. In his latest stunt, he covered a BMW with a lawn (artificial turf), sealed it up and filled it with water, and installed a barbecue grill on the back. Silly? Yes, and a lot of fun. The car is an ad for Google, so they provide Furze with the raw materials for the hot tub car.
Watch Furze drive around, splashing his bathwater all over the road. Oh yeah, the interior also has water jets, to which he adds bubble bath soap! Now try to imagine what happens when they grill burgers behind a bubble bath. This is the "fun" video. In case you are wondering exactly how he sealed the car so well that it could be driven filled with water, this video shows the process, and this video covers the other accessories. (via Laughing Squid)
Hokey Pokey
And you thought this was just a dance, didn't you? It's really a way of life. This comic is from Cat and Girl. (via Memo of the Air)
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
In Lieu of Flowers
Printing a URL is useless, especially if you don't delete all the extraneous stuff after the question mark. (via Bad Newspaper)
The Mandalorian and Grogu Trailer
I never saw the TV show The Mandalorian except in YouTube clips, because I never signed up for Disney+. Too bad, that meant I could not cancel it this past weekend when so many others did. I had heard of The Mandalorian and Grogu, but only found out today it is a movie that will be in theaters. The trailer was delayed because of the Kimmel suspension over the weekend, then finally was posted when it was announced he'd return to air tonight. The situation is explained at kottke.
I'm glad that so many people are willing to give up Star Wars, Marvel, the NFL, Hulu, and other Disney entertainment for the sake of protesting the Mouse's capitulation to government threats. However, all this is opening our eyes to how much of a monopoly Disney has, and that's not a good thing. It's the same with Sinclair and Nexstar owning way more local stations than is good, and they want more.
Anyway, the comments under this trailer are mostly about the Kimmel situation, followed by Star Wars fatigue and how Disney's cash grab ruined the franchise, and very few are about the actual trailer.
Rosh Hashanah in the Movies
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year holiday, began last night and continues until sundown on Wednesday. YouTuber David if yiddishkeit takes the opportunity to look at some feature films that include Rosh Hashanah: Liberty Heights, School Ties, The Believer, and Overture to Glory. I haven't seen any of them, but the first three may go on my very long to-do list. Shanah Tovah!
True Love: A Tribute to The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride has a cornucopia of elements that make it one of our favorite movies. But the overarching theme is true love. In this cute video that seems shorter than it is, the Gregory Brothers songify the lines from the movie to make a love song about love.. true wuv. (via Tastefully Offensive)
Mindreading
It's supposed to be a funny joke, son! Maybe it would have been better to think of a yawn. This comic is from Yellyvi. (via Geeks Are Sexy)
Monday, September 22, 2025
The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
Steve Winwood performs the classic from Traffic with nothing but a piano and his still-perfect voice. This was recorded in 2022, when he was 74 years old. (via Memo of the Air)
Mourning Maru
Maru graced us with his presence for 18 years, and then left us on September 6. His younger housemate Hana had lived with Maru for all of her 12 years, and felt his absence deeply. She and the youngest cat Miri are clinging to Maru's favorite objects and inhabiting the beds where he napped. So many people inquired about the younger cats that mugumogu posted this video update, with the story told in captions.
A week after Maru died, mugumogu posted about Miri's 5th birthday party and hinted that Miri may have seen a vision of Maru in attendance. A further update tells us that Hana is still looking for him.
Irene
Photographer Christopher Ward takes pictures of strangers and learns a little about them in his project Model Strangers. He met Irene in London's Kensington Gardens. She's delightful! We hope she has a wonderful time on her next adventure.
Miss Cellania's Links
12 of the Biggest Unforced Errors in Hollywood History.
How the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz Survived the Death Camps. (via Nag on the Lake)
Bad Taste: The Pepsi Needle Panic of 1993. (via Strange Company)
‘Tidal wave of problems’: With harvest here, Trump’s trade war pushes some US farmers to the brink. They call it "farmageddon." (via Fark)
How can you measure the magnificence of a mountain?
Sometimes a cooking video comes with a surprise.
School Shootings: US vs Europe Maps. (via Nag on the Lake)
How Prepared Are We for a Rare and Powerful Solar Event? A coronal mass ejection could knock out power and disrupt communication on Earth.
How American Gothic Became an Icon
Grant Wood's American Gothic is more than a famous painting. Sure, it's a great piece of art, but there's more to it than that. When it was first unveiled, the painting wasn't recognized as anything special. But the subject matter made it something worth talking about. In this video from Vox, we see that it was the people who saw the painting that made it special. They saw what they wanted to see in American Gothic. (via Digg)
Sheep
— Clyde McKinley (@clydemckinley.bsky.social) September 21, 2025 at 6:02 PMGood night, everyone!
Sunday, September 21, 2025
The Riker Maneuver Causes a Stir
Commander Riker's unique method of getting in and out of a chair has become known as the Riker Maneuver. It ultimately caused some problems among the Enterprise crew, and Captain Picard had to have a talk with him. Notice how he references anonymous complaints and then makes it clear who complained. Long afterward, we found out that actor Jonathan Frakes was dealing with pain from a back injury when Star Trek: The Next Generation was in production, and the maneuver was a less painful way of sitting down -especially in that spandex jumpsuit. (via Neatorama)
A 3600-foot Tumble
If you watch the video before reading this description, it will be a lot more terrifying. Ulvi Ercan was paragliding at an altitude of 1100 meters (3600 feet) when he experienced a "60 percent asymmetrical collapse" which is terrifying, but he managed to recover. The point of view in the video is the camera he dropped. It spins and recovers over and over, but keeps filming the ground rushing up. Is this because the lens is the heaviest part of the camera? You can almost hear the camera go "Wheee!" when it's spinning and "Aaaah!" when its not.
Luckily, the camera lands not on someone's head or on a boulder, but in a grassy area where an ant is somewhat surprised. Ercan checked his flight log to figure out the approximate location of the camera, then wandered around turning an app on and off to hear a beep and to find his GoPro. We assume the spunky little camera kept recording until its battery was drained. (via Born in Space)
Anaconda: The Comedy
The sixth movie in the Anaconda series is somewhat of a remake, a comedy starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black. Also called Anaconda, the new movie sees Rudd and Black on a quest to remake the original 1997 film, which was their childhood favorite, on location. They just can't see how history tends to repeat itself.
So its a movie about two guys remaking a movie about documentary movie makers. It's a bit of genius to keep the implausible monster while highlighting the cheesy plot points by making them into intentional comedy. The judicious use of "Baby Got Back" as a threatening background motif in the trailer is too clever by half. Anaconda opens nationwide on Christmas Day. (via Laughing Squid)
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