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In 1969, Ace Berg and John Rendall bought Christian the lion cub from the Exotic Animals department of London’s Harrods for 250 pounds. For one year, “He travelled by Bentley, ate in fine London restaurants and spent his days lounging in a furniture shop.” The original owners have now written a book about their experience, but the Daily Mail has a great article on the lion that’s quite touching. Link
In this entry from the Journal of the Lewis and Clark expedition, dated 11 Feb 1805, Meriweather Lewis explains how to produce a "fine boy" with a bracing tincture of rattlesnake parts:
The party that were ordered last evening set out early this morning. the weather was fair and could wind N. W. about five oclock this evening one of the wives* of Charbono was delivered of a fine boy. it is worthy of remark that this was the first child which this woman had boarn and as is common in such cases her labour was tedious and the pain violent; Mr. Jessome informed me that he had freequently adminstered a small portion of the rattle of the rattle-snake, which he assured me had never failed to produce the desired effect, that of hastening the birth of the child; having the rattle of a snake by me I gave it to him and he administered two rings of it to the woman broken in small pieces with the fingers and added to a small quantity of water. Whether this medicine was truly the cause or not I shall not undertake to determine, but I was informed that she had not taken it more than ten minutes before she brought forth perhaps this remedy may be worthy of future experiments, but I must confess that I want faith as to it’s efficacy.
*Sacagawea — she was about eighteen when the baby was born and died at 25. Her husband was Toussaint Charbonneau and the fine boy was Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau.
The illustration comes from a website devoted to the Sacagawea dollar.
Neatorama reader Jerrold Litwinenko wrote about a weird hobby: airplane spotting [wiki].
"Plane spotting" is an odd hobby, and most certainly isn’t for everyone. But those that do it are really into it and seem to enjoy themselves immensely. I learned this first hand the other day when on a whim I decided to take a curiosity-induced drive around the perimeter of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and see what I could learn about the phenomenon that is plane spotting.
Of course, some of the best plane spotting pics can be found at Airliners.net. For example, this, this, and this Where is that crazy airport? from The Princes Juliana International Airport [wiki] on the island of St. Maarten.
From techPowerUp! here comes the gerbil cage PC mod! Link – Thanks Jason Dumbaugh!
Don’t forget to check out Neatorama’s Ultimate Case Mod List.
You: "This vacuum cleaner sucks ass"
Seller: "So, you can read."
For real, though: Link - Thanks John Johnson!
What’s the most important day on the organized crime calendar? Mother’s Day:
Each and every Mother’s Day until he landed behind bars, mobster Jimmy "The Gent" Burke performed a sacrosanct ritual.
Burke, the mastermind behind the $5.8 million Lufthansa heist immortalized in "Goodfellas," dropped a few C-notes on dozens of red roses from a Rockaway Boulevard florist. He then toured the homes of his jailed Luchese crime family pals, providing their mothers with a bouquet and a kiss.
He never missed a year, or a mom.
Burke’s gesture was no surprise to his fellow hoodlums: Mother’s Day was the most important Sunday on the organized crime calendar, when homicide took a holiday and racketeering gave way to reminiscing — often over a plate of mom’s pasta and gravy.
"These guys, they do have a love for their mothers," said Joe Pistone, the FBI undercover agent who spent six Mother’s Days inside the Bonanno family as jewel thief Donnie Brasco. "They thought nothing of killing. But the respect for their mothers? It was amazing."
Link – Thanks David R!
“Coca Cola old ads” is a blog dedicated to vintage Coca-Cola advertising posters.
“Cars” by David Michael Clarke: a 21 min 34 sec long car names audio track – the perfect alternative to counting sheep.
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Photo: David Loope
Today’s collaboration with Cellar Image of the Day brings us this image, captioned:
"A human foot over the footprint of a theropod, the same kind of dinosaur that T. rex was"
Close enough! Link: Article | Photo – Be sure to check out Cellar IoTD for more fun pics!
Comments Off This goal was made some week ago in a game between the two Swedish soccer teams Örebro SK and IFK Göteborg. The name of the lucky player who managed do the amazing goal is Andres Vasquez.
For the ones of you who do not understand Swedish, here’s a sum up of what the player says:
-I’m very pleased with the goal.
Link [YouTube]
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The Food Timeline not only shows when certain foods were first used for human consumption, but also contains links for the history of most foods featured. For example: did you know that a botanist wrote about seeing 100 pounds radishes in 1544? That ancient Egyptians used marshmallows and licorice for medicine? Fascinating! Link -via Cynical-C
Flickrvision is one of those sites that can get you stuck for just a little bit too long if you don’t watch out. It’s a Google Map on which you in real-time will see new photos that are being posted on Flickr. Link
You might remember all those old public service announcements. The website Black20.com remade a bunch of them Star Wars style.
This one is my favorite. Youtube
| The following is reprinted from Uncle John’s Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader.
These tidbits about extinct candy bars come from Dr. Ray Broekel, “candy bar historian” and publisher of a newsletter called the Candy Bar Gazebo. THE AIR MAIL BAR. Introduced in 1930 to honor the first airmail flight in the U.S. – in 1918, from Washington, D.C. to New York City. Ironically, the first flight never made it to New York. After takeoff, the pilot noticed someone had forgotten to fill the fuel tank. Then he got lost over Maryland and had to land in a cow pasture. The Air Mail candy bar had a similar fate. FAT EMMA. In the early 1920s, the Pendergast Candy Company in Minneapolis introduced a candy bar with a nougat center. They planned to call it the Emma bar. But when it wound up twice as thick as expected (they accidentally put too much egg white in the mixture), they changed the name to Fat Emma. Later, Frank Mars copied the idea to create the Milky Way bar. THE SAL-LE-DANDE BAR. The first candy bar named after a stripper – Sally Rand, whose “fan dance” at the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair shocked and titillated the nation. In the 1960s, another stripper bar was available briefly: the Gypsy bar, named after Gypsy Rose Lee.
THE RED GRANGE BAR. Endorsed by Red Grange, the most popular football player of his day. After starring at the University of Illinois, he joined the Chicago Bears in 1925 and helped keep the National Football League in business. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do the same for his candy bar. THE VEGETABLE SANDWICH BAR. One of the weirdest “health” bar ever made, this 1920s vegetable concoction contained cabbage, celery, peppers, and tomatoes. Its makers claimed that it aided digestion and “will not constipate.” THE ZEP CANDY BAR. “Sky-High Quality.” One of several candy bars that capitalized on the popularity of “lighter-than-air” dirigibles in the 1930s. This one featured a sketch of a Graf Zeppelin on the wrapper. It was taken off the market after the Hindenburg exploded in 1937.
THE CHICKEN DINNER BAR. One of the bestselling bars you’ve never heard of. It was introduced in the 1920s and remained on the market for about 50 years. The original wrapper featured a picture of a roasting chicken on a dinner plate – a bizarre way of suggesting it was a nourishing meal and encouraging customers to associate it with prosperity (“a chicken in every pot”). The manufacturer, Sperry Candy Co., even dispatched a fleet of Model A trucks disguised as giant sheet-metal chickens to deliver the candy to stores. Several years after the bar’s debut, Sperry dropped the chicken from the wrapper. But it kept the name. THE BIG-HEARTED “AL” BAR. George Williamson, owner of the Williamson Candy Company, was a good Democrat and a good friend of New York governor Al Smith, Democratic nominee for president in 1928. Smith lost in a landslide to Herbert Hoover, and his candy bar soon followed.
THE “IT” BAR. The #1 female sex symbol of the silent movie era was Clara Bow – known as the “It Girl.” (She had that special quality her movie studio called “It.”) In 1927 the McDonald Candy Company of Salt Lake City tried cashing in on her popularity with a candy bar featuring her face on the wrapper. It did well for a few years, then disappeared along with Bow. (She wasn’t able to make the switch to talkies, because although she was lovely to look at, her Brooklyn accent made her impossible to listen to.) Also Gone: The Betsy Ross bar, the Lindy (for Charles Lindbergh), Amos ‘n’ Andy, Poor Prune, Vita Sert, and Doctor’s Orders. Reprinted from Uncle John’s Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader. ©1999 by the Bathroom Reader’s Press. |
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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader.
This special edition book covers the three “lost” Bathroom Readers – Uncle John’s 5th, 6th and 7th book all in one. The huge (and hugely entertaining) volume covers neat stories like the Strange Fate of the Dodo Bird, the Secrets of Mona Lisa, and more… Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute
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Now you too can have your name in lights, at Not Celebrity – via Miss Cellania
THE SEVEN UP CANDY BAR. Got its name from having seven connected pieces, each with a different center. The bar came out in the 1930s, before the 7-Up Bottling Company began production of its soft drink – so the Trudeau Candy Company owned the trademark rights to the name. Eventually the 7-Up Bottling Company bought the bar and retired it, so they had exclusive use of the name no matter how it was spelled – Seven Up or 7-Up. [Image Credit: 
