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Tomorrow is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, which used to be a holiday until it was consolidated with Washington’s birthday. Then Tuesday is Valentine’s Day! Do you have any special plans for Valentine’s Day, or are you one of those who doesn’t care for the over-commercialized, artificially guilt-induced romance of the date? Either way, we’ve got what you need to get through the holiday: a little romance, a little schmaltz, some comic relief, some alternative time-wasters, and a lot of neat stuff on Neatorama! Just in case you’ve missed any of our exclusive features this past week, here are some handy links so that you can catch up.
Jill Harness wrote It’s Never Too Late to Thank Your Mail Carrier in honor of Thank A Mailman Day last weekend.
Sunday is Lincoln’s birthday, which got Eddie Deezen thinking about history, so he wrote The Man Who Shot John Wilkes Booth. Shooting Booth was the least interesting part of his story.
For no particular occasion at all, we reprinted Witness Protection: 5 Not-so Wiseguys from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Hard Looks at Doctors’ Handwriting.
And History’s Wildest Ballet Riot came from mental_floss magazine.
In the What Is It? game this week, the exact purpose for the item in question was never actually verified, but Rob at the What Is It? blog thinks it might be “a form for a medicine ball.” Since we don’t know for sure, we are awarding t-shirts for the TWO funniest answers this week. One came from meiao, who said it’s the ball for Mortal Tetherball. Another good one was from Steve Pauk, who said it was a Rubik’s globe! Those are both worth a t-shirt from the NeatoShop. See the results for all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog.
As of now, there’s a three-way tie for the most-commented-on post of the past week, between Psst, Environmentalists! Earth-Friendly Lifestyle Actually Doesn’t Matter, PETA Sues to End Killer Whale Slavery, and Why French Parents Are Superior. None of those are surprising, as parenting, PETA, and the environment are all hot-button issues.
Over at our Facebook page, you can catch extra content you won’t find at Neatorama, and follow us on Twitter, too! And now we’re also on Google+ as well! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Image Via allspice1 [Flickr]
If you didn’t already hear, Saturday was Thank A Mailman Day. While we missed the holiday itself, the fact is that mail carriers rarely get the respect and appreciation they deserve, which is why we’ve decided to go ahead and “deliver” you these fascinating facts about the USPS with the hope that you’ll find time in the upcoming week to say “thank you” to your mail carrier.
America got its first postal service in 1692 when King William gave Thomas Neale the power to erect “offices for the receiving and dispatching letters and pacquets,” essentially making him the US’s first Postmaster General.
The post office is so well-established in the states that the Constitution specifically grants congress the right “to establish post offices and post roads. In fact, Benjamin Franklin helped create the United States Post Office and served as the first Postmaster General.
After 1792 and up until the post office was divided from the government in 1971, the Postmaster General was a position on the Presidential cabinet and the person in the role served as the last person in the presidential line of succession –meaning that if the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Attorney General and every other cabinet member died in some sort of freakish accident, the leader of the post office would suddenly be in charge of the nation. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m certainly glad it never came to that.
The first adhesive stamps were issued in 1842 and postage rates became standardized in 1845. Congress officially authorized postage stamps in 1847 and the first two general issue stamps featured Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. The two men were the only images seen on stamps until 1856, when a Thomas Jefferson stamp was issued. Throughout this time, other payment methods were still accepted but in 1856, postage stamps became mandatory for mail sent through the Post Office.
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Another in the parade of February holidays is tomorrow: Super Bowl Sunday! Giants vs. Patriots, a rematch of the 2008 game. The ads, of course, are the ultimate efforts of the ad agencies. But I found out years ago that the best will be on the internet the next day. This year, many advertisers are releasing their Super Bowl ads to the internet before the game. That’s honestly a great idea, because that way they won’t get lost in the inevitable “ten best Super Bowl Commercials” lists. You’ve already seen the Budweiser Canada Flashmob and the Bark Side, and no doubt there will be more of “the best” all this coming week. This past week was a lot of fun here at Neatorama, what with Groundhog Day and lots of interesting things to share. Here are our features, in case you missed anything.
Eddie Deezen asked the cinematic question Why Did Bill Murray Keep Going Back in Groundhog Day? And then answered it.
Jill Harness told about 5 Terrible Inventions From Otherwise Great Inventors. We all have our off days.
Time Travel Movie Marathon gave us some great film suggestions, courtesy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
From the Annals of Improbable Research, we had Scientific Dining: Reviews of Research Institute Cafeterias (part one).
And mental_floss magazine brought us 5 Lessons from the Gurus of Spin.
In the What Is It? game this week, these strange-looking goggles are Masonic Hoodwink Goggles, they were used as a blindfold in rituals of initiation. Edward K knew that, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Pismonque came up with a great funny answer: “These are Fear Goggles, the companion to Beer Goggles. When you wake up mostly sober at 5 AM and stumble to the loo, they act as blinders against the horror of discovering your newest intimate acquaintance. The flip-down lids protect against the increasing light of morning and prolong the denial.” That wins a t-shirt! Find out the answers for all the mystery items at the What Is It? Blog.
The most commented-on post was The World’s First Heartless Man, and they weren’t all jokes. Coming in second was Teaching High School Students to Work at Walmart, which I thought for sure would be #1.
After you catch up on everything that’s happened this week, you may want to browse through The Best of Neatorama, where we have all our great feature articles listed -you’re sure to find something that tickles your fancy! Check us out on Twitter and Facebook as well!
After all the impressive additions they’ve given this world, it’s easy to think of famous inventors as brilliant creators who can simply do no wrong. But the reality is that no one is perfect and just because someone came up with a device that revolutionized the world around them doesn’t mean they didn’t have their share of failures as well. Here are some of the less famous (for good reason) inventions of some of the greatest inventors on Earth.
Edison had over 2000 patents by the time he died, so it’s not really much of a surprise that among his innovations on the phonograph, the light bulb, the kinetoscope and the telephone, he also had some utter failures as well.
Interestingly, one of his worst failures was actually a great idea that was just too far ahead of its time for the current technology. The Edison Doll was the inventor’s attempt to bring the joy of the phonograph to children. While talking dolls are common place these days and widely loved by little girls around the globe, the problems with the Edison Talking Doll were many. For one thing, phonographs of the time still had to be manually cranked at the appropriate speed in order to play correctly. That’s asking a lot for a child to do with her toy. Another problem was that even when cranked at the proper speed, the doll sounded simply terrible because voice recording still wasn’t very good at the time. In fact, Edison himself admitted “the voices of the little monsters were exceedingly unpleasant to hear.” As if those two issues weren’t bad enough, the mini phonograph inside the doll was incredibly fragile –meaning even if a little girl did manage to play the sound at the right speed and not run away from the shrieking abomination, she’d almost certainly destroy the wax record after only a short amount of play time.
Of course, all the new technology didn’t come cheap and the doll would cost between $10 and $25 depending on the outfit she came in. That’s the equivalent of between $240 and $600 these days, which is a whole lot to spend on a doll that terrifies your daughter and breaks without any effort. Of 2,500 made, only 500 were sold and most of the dolls were returned. With all of these failures, it’s no wonder the doll was only sold for a few short weeks in early 1890. Of course, the rarity of the failure has only increased the doll’s value over the last century. These days, an Edison doll in good condition can easily go for over $15,000 –and that’s without the original phonograph, since most of the excess inventory was sold off without a sound device inside.
The terrible toy doll wasn’t Edison’s only failure though. In fact, his best-known failure was in his push for concrete housing complete with concrete furniture, even concrete pianos. Edison believed these cheap creations would be a good way to solve the housing crisis and allow low-income families to enjoy the finer things in life without spending a fortune. In 1917, he and Charles Ingersoll offered 11 concrete homes (that’s them above) up for sale for only $1,200 –a third of the cost of an average home. Even so, they didn’t manage to sell a single one.
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We’re running another fun caption contest over on our G+ page! Go leave a funny or witty caption. The one with the most +1s gets his/her choice of t-shirts from the neatoshop! So what are you waiting for? Get thee.
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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website. This post contains spoilers.
Almost everyone loves the movies, and along with viewing our personal favorites and other movies, most of us enjoy discussing the subjects and contents of films. Opinions and tastes, of course, vary. But almost everyone I know loves, or at least likes, Bill Murray’s best film, Groundhog Day.
In the film, Murray plays Phil Connors, an obnoxious, self-centered TV weatherman. Phil wakes up one day and realizes it’s actually the same day as it was yesterday -and this occurs over and over and over… Finally, Phil “evolves” and finds his true love (his colleague Rita, played by Andie MacDowell) and his true identity and a “new day” is finally allowed to dawn. The film is actually a great movie version of The Twilight Zone.
The great thing about Groundhog Day (or any other great movie) is that it is endlessly rewatchable (a bit of irony there). Last Groundhog Day, February 2nd, one cable channel played Groundhog Day over and over, for the entire day. Nice gag.
Groundhog Day also makes for great discussions, and numerous theories about the movie and its meaning have been put forth. Is it karma? What goes around comes around? Is it a commentary on man’s true nature? His true goodness -reflected by kindness, understanding, and warmth? Some Buddhists have adopted the film as a modern symbol of their religion. One keeps “coming back” until they finally evolve into a “perfect state,” at which time the endless “coming back” ceases. All valid and very metaphysical theories.
But why was poor Phil stuck in the “endless” time loop in the first place? This is one thing that the film leaves nebulous and unclear. In one sense, it is “hell,” i.e. a world of endless repetition, with no randomness, no unpredictability. But in another sense, this is the situation we all want and need: endless chances to fix and correct our mistakes, and then to understand why they were wrong. In the film, when Phil finally straightens out what he’s done wrong, the “endless” loop stops.
But again, why the punishment? After all, Phil is undeniably a jerk, but hey, he never murdered anyone. He’s not a rapist. He didn’t torture any small animals. Why Phil?
Okay, here’s the answer. The second draft of Groundhog Day says, actually, it was caused by Phil’s scorned ex-girlfriend Stephanie. The second draft of Groundhog Day is pretty close to what we all see in the film. There is a bit more of Phil in the studio at the beginning, but nothing major. But also in the second draft, Stephanie, Phil’s ex-girlfriend, puts a curse on him. Literally, she opens a book of magic spells and does a little ritual that causes him to get stuck in time.
Near the beginning of this script, we meet Phil’s girlfriend, Stephanie, who Phil coldly and unceremoniously dumps. Later, as Phil is going to bed in Punxsutawney, we see Stephanie in her room, using Phil’s business cards and broken watch (conveniently set at 5:59) to perform a magic spell from a book titled 101 Curses, Spells, and Enchantments You Can Do At Home. This sets the theme of Groundhog Day in motion. There is no “higher purpose” given, just an angry, embittered ex-girlfriend with a little book.
Excerpt from the second Groundhog Day script:
Stephanie: Are you saying that our relationship was a waste of time?
Phil: Our relationship? We went out a total of four times, and only once did anything happen. It was fun, but I don’t see that as a big commitment.
Stephanie (closing in again): I had our charts done. My astrologer says we’re extremely compatible. There may even be some past lives involved here.
For whatever reason, the director, the writer, or whoever, made the decision to completely excise any mention of Stephanie and her vindictive curse. I guess they just felt it was unnecessary to the movie or that it “slowed down the action” or that it made Phil too sympathetic, or some such Hollywood reason. Well, maybe they were right.
Groundhog Day is Bill Murray’s (who is a great actor with a great body of film work to his credit) finest and most memorable film. By the way, I never liked Andie MacDowell as an actress. She seems like a very nice lady, but just never liked her on screen. But in Groundhog Day she puts in a very likeable performance.
Oh, and that’s not the only mystery that’s solved here. The screenplay also specifies that Phil will spend the next 10,000 years (Holy cow!) trapped in the time loop. It also has a more definite answer as to why he comes out of it. It was apparently the kiss with Rita at the end of the film that broke the spell, much like a fairy tale. Even in the final filmed version, you can hear a tinkly magic sound as Phil and Rita lock lips.
Oh yes, one last note on Groundhog Day. My friend Kenny had a bit part in the film. I asked him what Bill Murray was like to work with.
“Oh, he wasn’t that friendly, but he got nicer as the film went along.”
“Just like in the film, ” I said.
“Yeah,” he said (as if it had just dawned on him),
“Just like the film.”
This coming Thursday is Groundhog Day! Get your Groundhog Day decorations out, put up the Groundhog lights, and let’s all sing Groundhog carols! Will the Groundhog see his shadow? Ya know, it doesn’t really matter, because whether he does or not, spring will be here in six weeks anyway. At least on the calendar. So we can say we’ve turned the corner on winter,and that’s what the holiday is all about. Happy Groundhog Day! Meanwhile, it’s time to catch up on this week’s best stuff from Neatorama.
Jill Harness collected 7 Amazing Stories of Lost and Re-Found Wedding Rings.
Eddie Deezen brought us The Origin of the Beatles Haircut.
Many thanks to National Geographic for providing Joel Sartore’s Biodiversity Portraits, which we posted at the Neatorama Spotlight Blog.
Goodbye, Farewell, and A*M*E*N was this week’s offering from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
Mental_floss magazine told us 10 Secrets of the Vatican Exposed.
The Psychoanalyst Says Your Gut Says… was a bit of nonsense from the Annals of Improbable Research.
In the What Is It? game this week, the pictured item is a meat cleaver with an attached combination tool, which is for sale at eBay. The first person to identify it was Michael S. Gatlin, who wins a t-shirt for his efforts! Chuck Farkleycame up with the funniest answer:
Chicken
Pablo Picasso
1934
mixed media with cleaver
So Chuck wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop, too! Thanks to everyone who played this week. See the answers to all this week’s mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
The most-commented-on post this week was Raising a Gender-Neutral Child, which is not surprising. Coming in second was Can America Make the iPhone? (Hint: It’s Not About The Labor Cost).
Earlier this week, we were offline for a while due to technical difficulties. Our tech wizard worked all night and most of the next day to get it fixed, and we really appreciate that. If it ever happens again, we will try to post updates on Facebook, Twitter, and G+ so you’ll know what’s going on. Be sure to check back often! And if you need your Neatorama fix in the meantime, those social networking sites are the place to be for fun stuff, discussions, and extra contests you won’t find on the main page. Visit them every day!
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
New York Press Conference 1964
Reporter: Where you your haircuts come from?
George Harrison: Our scalps.
In their early years as a fledgling rock and roll band in the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, The Beatles each sported typical slicked-back, greased-up Tony Curtis/Elvis Presley type D.A. haircuts. In an early explanation as to the origin of the Beatles haircut, George was quoted as saying that he came out of the swimming baths one day, his hair had fallen down over his forehead, and he just left it that way.
The true derivation of the world famous coiffure is a bit more complex. In August of 1960, the newly-0named “Beatles” consisted of five members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, bassist Stu Sutcliffe, and a newly-hired drummer named Pete Best. The band was hired to play as series of gigs in August of 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. It was there that they met two people who were to have a profound effect on their future careers as icon and trendsetters: Astrid Kirchherr and Jürgen Vollmer.
Kirchherr was a very original and creative photographer. One night she saw The Beatles play at a local club in Hamburg called the Top Ten Club (she was talked into going by her boyfriend Klaus Voorman and fellow artist and friend Jürgen Vollmer). Astrid, Klaus, and Jürgen struck up an immediate and close friendship with the five young, talented, and slightly homesick young rock and rollers. Also, Astrid and bassist Stu Sutcliffe almost immediately fell in love.
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If you’re married, you’ve almost certainly misplaced your wedding ring at one place or another and even if you’ve never actually lost it, you probably know someone else who has. After all, a little band of gold or platinum is pretty easy to lose track of, even if it is important to hold on to. But while many people lose their rings, it’s pretty rare to actually find them again. Even so, it has been known to happen. Here are some of the most amazing stories of people who have lost their wedding or engagement rings, only to find them again.
Image Via Jason Pier in DC [Flickr]
Anthea Capewell lost her wedding ring and engagement ring in 1976, when they fell off her finger as she closed her garden gate. After a long and thorough search, she and her husband could only find the engagement ring. Eight years later, the couple moved out of the house, which is why it was even more amazing that 33 years after the ring was lost, Anthea received a call from her old neighbor who claimed to have found the ring. The neighbors discovered the ring buried in some weeds underneath a hedge that was shared by the two homes.
The discovery was such a pleasant surprise for the couple that Anthea and her husband immediately decided to renew their wedding vows in the next year.
In 1974, a year after Donna Claver was married, the pregnant woman set her engagement ring on the tank lid of her toilet while she put lotion on. Unfortunately, the ring slipped into the bowl. Despite Donna and husband Terry’s best efforts, including unbolting the toilet and shaking it vigorously, the ring was stuck inside the hole at the bottom of the bowl and couldn’t be removed. Because the couple was too poor to afford a new toilet, they eventually gave up and put the fixture back in place, expecting to never retrieve their lost ring.
As the years went by, the Clavers moved out of the home and it was sold over and over, but just last year, Terry happened to be roofing a house across the street from his old home when he noticed the new owners carrying the toilet to the trash. Remembering his wife’s lost ring, Terry climbed off the roof and told the gentlemen he’d be happy to throw the toilet away for them. He then took the fixture to his shop and broke it with a sledgehammer. Finally, the ring was free.
Amazingly, after a little cleaning, the ring still looked brand new 36 years later.
Toy surprises are usually reserved for cereals and Cracker Jack boxes, that’s why when Krista Berg discovered a man’s wedding ring in the bag of NutroMax she bought for her pup Otto, she figured it wasn’t meant as a bonus gift. Whereas most people would probably invoke the law of finder’s keepers, Krista decided to call around. When no one at the dog food plant had lost their ring, she tried calling the store where she bought the food and got in touch with Mike Stoddard, the rightful owner of the wedding ring. Mike was glad that Krista found his ring and not someone else, noting, “most people would just keep it.”
When 77 year-old Bridget Pericolo put her wedding and engagement rings into a Dixie cup for safe keeping, she certainly didn’t expect the adventure that followed. It all started when her husband thought the cup was trash and tossed it away with the rest of the garbage.
Unfortunately, by that time, the local trash truck had already come by and collected the couple’s garbage bags. Bridget immediately called the local sanitation department, only to have the supervisor tell her that the truck couldn’t be stopped until the end of their route.
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Last Wednesday will go down in history as the day the internet stood up for itself. More than 115,000 websites went on strike to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills that would endanger the internet as we know it. Many more websites urged action to stop the bills. The result was ten million petition signatures and countless emails to congress, which crashed congressional websites. A whole bunch of Senators and Representatives decided to oppose the bills, including some of the original sponsors! Both bills have been shelved, meaning they won’t be voting on them as scheduled (but each may come back later). And this all happened because people who use the internet made it happen, so THANK YOU, everyone! If you haven’t contacted your representatives in Washington yet, you can still do so.
On Wednesday the 18th, Alex wrote up what the SOPA and PIPA bills were about, and urged Neatoramanauts to take action in SOPA and PIPA: The Internet Needs Your Help!
January the 18th was also an anniversary date that led to two feature articles. Curly Howard of the Three Stooges passed away 60 years ago Wednesday, which inspired Eddie Deezen to tell the story of Whatever Happened to Curly?
It was also the 130th anniversary of the birth of author A.A. Milne, which inspired Jill Harness to write up 11 Things You Might Not Know About Winnie the Pooh.
Jill also gave us 10 Words Originating From Greek Mythology.
Dancing for Dollars from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader was about the 20th-century dance marathon fad.
The Annals of Improbable Research asked the question How Dead Is a Doornail? Commenters clued us in on details about doornails that scientists don’t know!
Five Medical Innovations of the Civil War was reprinted from mental_floss magazine.
The most commented-on post this week turned out to be full of name-calling and abusive comments that will be deleted. Remember, comments that attack another commenter are against the rules at Neatorama. Then there’s the post Should Wearing Pajamas In Public Be Banned? that had a lot of opinionated but mostly civil discussion. That’s more of what we like to see. Tell us what you think, but please, no personal attacks on other commenters!
In this week’s What Is It? game, the object in question is a wolf collar for protecting a dog from attack by wolves, used mostly in Europe. Rastercat was the first with the right answer, but did not select a shirt. Cricket had the funniest answer: it’s the Dugger family’s marshmallow roaster! That one deserves a t-shirt from the NeatoShop. You’ll find the answers for all of this week’s mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
Have you stopped to realize that Valentines Day is only about three weeks away? The NeatoShop has a great selection of thoughtful Valentine gifts that you won’t find just anywhere. And when you buy anything from the NeatoShop, you helping to keep Neatorama going!
When you’ve caught up on everything else, be sure to check our Facebook page and our Google+ page every day for extra content, contests, discussions, videos, and links you won’t find on our main page. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what’s going around the web in real time. And remember, we always welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions for making Neatorama ever better.
English is a fascinating language, particularly in that most of our words come from other languages. While most words come from some sort of root words that have travelled from ancient languages to more modern lexicons, some come from myths and stories of gods and goddesses, particularly from stories from ancient Greece. Here are a few fascinating English words with roots dating back to stories of Zeus and his fellow gods.
If you’re familiar with Greek myths, then you’ll immediately recognize the name of the Titan who was forced to hold up the heavens after angering the Olympians. Even if you didn’t recognize his name from myth though, you certainly recognized the modern use of the term for a group of maps. The connection is logical, but it wasn’t used in the cartography until the sixteenth century.
Image Via Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez [Wikipedia]
These words may not seem to have much in common definition-wise, but there is a good reason they start with the same root –they are both related to time. Chronology deals with the way events happened over the course of time and chronic describes something that takes place over a long period of time. Wondering where we got these words? Well, they are all related to Chronos, the god of time.
Image Via Jorbasa [Flickr]
This is one of the more famous Greek stories-turned-words. In the ancient tales, Echo was a mountain nymph who talks excessively with her gorgeous voice. Her voice was so lovely that she would often distract Zeus’ wife Hera with her long and entertaining stories while Zeus would sneak away and make love with the other mountain nymphs. When Hera found out about Echo’s role in her husband’s activities, she punished her by taking away her ability to speak, except in repetition of the words of others.
There are many differing ends to the story, but in all of them, Echo eventually dies in some heartbreaking manner, leaving her voice to haunt the earth, where it can still be heard to this day.
Did you know today is Winnie the Pooh Day in honor of his creator, A.A. Milne’s birthday? If Mr. Milne were still alive today, he’d be turning 130 and he would no doubt be honored to see that his creation is still bringing joy to children to this day. In honor of Milne and his beloved Pooh Bear, here are a few things you might not know about Winnie and the rest of his pals.
Image Via CorneelW [Flickr]
His name has changed over the years, but not much. When the first A.A. Milne books came out, he was originally called Winnie-the-Pooh, but when Disney acquired the rights to animate the characters, they dropped the hyphen and the hyphenless title became much more popular.
The Pooh stories have broken many book records –even in foreign languages. It has been published in dozens of languages and the 1958 Latin translation even became the first non-English book to be featured on the New York Times Best Seller List and it remains the only Latin book to ever be seen on the list.
Winnie the Pooh may seem like a silly name for a bear, but it was the name of Christopher Robin Milne’s real teddy bear, so it became the name of the bear in the books as well. As it turns out, Christopher Robin named his bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear that lived at the London Zoo (pictured above in his youth), and a swan named “Pooh” that the family met on vacation. Before the toy was given its famous name, it was originally sold at Harrods with the name “Edward Bear.” As for Pooh the swan, he was actually featured as a character in the same poetry book where Milne first introduced Winnie The Pooh to the world, although he still wasn’t named in one of Milne’s works until a 1925 Christmas story he wrote for The Evening News.
Contrary to many rumors, Winnie’s last name is not Sanders. This story was spread because Pooh’s house says “Sanders” over the door, but it is generally accepted that the name was put above the door by the home’s previous resident and that Pooh just never bothered to take it down.
Most of the other characters were named after Christopher Robin’s toys as well. That is, except for Owl, Rabbit and Gopher. Owl and Rabbit were created by Milne and illustrator Ernest Shepard solely to add a little more variety to the character list. Gopher wasn’t added until 1977, when the Disney company added the character to their animated feature, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
You can see all of the real plushies that inspired the characters at the New York Public Library. With one exception –Christopher Robin lost his Roo plush in the thirties, so it is sadly missing from the collection.
You can also visit most of the locations from the stories. The Hundred Acre Wood, Roo’s Sandpit, Poohsticks Bridget and the rest are all fictionalized names of real places in the Ashdown Forrest in Sussex, England where Milne bought a country home in 1925. For example, the Hundred Acre Wood is really the Five Hundred Acre Wood and Galleon’s Leap is really Gill’s Lap.
Christopher Robin was less than thrilled about the success of his father’s stories. Apparently his grudge started when kids in school picked on him by citing passages from the stories. As he grew older, he accused his father of achieving success by “climbing on my infant shoulders, that he had filched from me my good name and left me nothing but empty fame.” I don’t know about you guys, but if my dad wrote awesome books about me and my toys, I’d be touched, especially as I got older and realized that if the kids making fun of me used verses from the stories –that they must have been fans of the stories themselves.
While Disney maintained Pooh’s classic red shirt look, first introduced in 1932, critics complain that the company has changed the personality and stories too drastically. Strangely, if you prefer your Pooh Bear to be closer to the original, you’ll have to sacrifice the character’s look as his most accurate animation portrayal has been performed by his Russian version. While Russian Winnei’s stories closely follow those depicted in the original trilogy of Pooh stories, he certainly looks drastically different from the illustrations created by artist Ernest Shepard. That’s him in the cartoon above, if you couldn’t tell.
As for Disney, they’re doing just fine with their own take on the bear and his friends. It turns out the company makes just as much money from Pooh movies and merchandise as they do from the same creations bearing Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto.
Image Via parodyerror [Flickr]
Of course, Disney hasn’t manipulated the stories nearly as much as a few others have. The character has been used by Benjamin Hoff to explain the tenants of Taoism, by Frederick Crews to satirize philosophical approaches used by academics and by John T. Williams to illustrate the works of popular philosophers including Descartes, Pluto and Nietzsche. Apparently the little stuffed bear might just be one of the best philosophers of our time. As if that weren’t enough, Kenny Loggins even wrote a song based on the cuddly character.
He has also left his mark on the real world as well. There are streets in Warsaw and Budapest named after him. And the imaginary sport of Poohsticks, where contestants drop their stick in a stream to see whose will cross the finish line first, is now played worldwide and even has a World Championship match in Oxfordshire.
Are you a Pooh fan? Is there anything I left out here? Also, who is your favorite character in the Hundred Acre Wood? Personally, I love Eeyore, but that’s partially because he reminds me of my lazy, mopey dog.
Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, Mental Floss
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
In 1932, Jerome Howard, soon to be universally known as “Curly” joined The Three Stooges comedy team. Curly was replacing his older brother Shemp as the third stooge, joining his older brother Moe and frizzy-haired Larry Fine. In 1934, the team signed with Columbia Pictures and began churning out the series of comedy slapstick shorts that were to bring hilarity to the entire world. His “Woo-woos” and “Nyuk-nyuks,” as well as his incredible gift for physical, inventive, surreal comedy, make Curly Howard “everyone’s favorite Stooge.”
From 1934 to 1944, Curly Howard and his comedy partners made 80-odd of the funniest shorts in the history of movie comedy. But by 1945, something appeared obviously wrong with the brilliant Curly. He was having a harder time than usual learning and remembering his lines (Curly was always a bad study, anyway). His once graceful, quick movements now seemed slower, more lethargic, and his voice had lost its high-pitched vitality, now sounding deeper and more like a strained croak. In early 1945, Moe Howard made an appointment for his kid brother at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. The hospital test results proved shocking: Curly was suffering from high blood pressure, hypertension, a retinal hemorrhage, and obesity.
Curly loved the good life, drinking, hanging out at clubs, seeing and dating as many beautiful women as possible. Moe, trying to help his beloved brother settle down, tried to fix Curly up with a glamorous beauty named Marion Buxbaum. Always a sucker for a pretty face, Curly married Marion after only two weeks. Curly was soon to discover that Marion was not a very nice person and was only after his money. The marriage proved a disaster, and the unhappy couple divorced after only three months together. In the divorce proceedings, Marion said of Curly: “He used filthy vile language, kept two vicious dogs, he shouted at waiters in cafes, struck and kicked me, put out cigars in the sink.”
These specious accusations were disputed by all who knew Curly as a jovial, good- natured, good-hearted fellow. Curly, always a free spender, had spent a fortune buying gifts for Marion and the divorce really shook him up. He had his first stroke soon thereafter, in early 1946.
Curly’s great vigor and boyish vitality, his comedy trademarks, sank lower and lower. Instead of resting after his stroke, as Moe requested, studio head Harry Cohn kept Curly churning out new Three Stooges shorts. Sadly, this final handful of Curly shorts show him looking very old and worn, his previous starring roles are greatly reduced, and indeed, they do put a bit of a black mark on his otherwise classic body of amazing comedy performances.
Curly’s appearance became worse and worse until finally, while filming his 97th Three Stooges short Half Wits Holiday, on May 6, 1946, the straw finally broke the camel’s back. Curly was supposed to participate in the film’s final, climactic pie fight, and Moe spotted Curly sitting in his chair on the set. “Come on, Babe,’ he said (“Babe” was Curly’s nickname among his close friends). Moe found Curly slumped over in his chair with tears running down his face: Curly had suffered another stroke.
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There was a funny image macro posted at reddit this week which turned into a great discussion here at Neatorama called Buying Bread. It was the most-commented-on post of the week. It could have been a “making fun of dumb people” thread, but a lot of you contributed personal experiences. Teaching your kids how to manage on their own is difficult, and no one can cover everything they may encounter. Hope pointed out how even in families who diligently pass along knowledge, there are things that will surprise you about being on your own.
I grew up helping with (doing) most of the household chores so laundry and shopping was no problem. However, the horrible taste of sour milk still lingers in my mind as being very surprising. Milk never sat around long enough to go bad back home so it never occurred to me not to buy an entire gallon for myself.
Thanks for a great discussion thread! The second most-commented-on post was The Great Mistake Lurking in “Don’t Stop Believin,’’ which brought a geography lesson with it. You learn something new everyday! Here are this week’s feature articles, in case there’s one you missed:
Jill Harness showed us 17 Great Geeky Hats For National Hat Day, which is tomorrow, so you still have time to make your plans accordingly.
Eddie Deezen wrote Why Do Nerds So Often Wear Glasses? which could have been titled The History of Nerds in Pop Culture.
Mental_floss magazine brought us 10 Coins That Aren’t Boring.
A Thousand Cranes, the story of Sadako Sasaki, came to us from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
And from the Annals of Improbable Research, we learned about Popcorn-Bag-Induced Disorientation in a Gull.
At NeatoBambino, it was adorable crocheted superhero costume week, featuring Batman, Robin, and Wolverine. Plus cute kids on video, a bald Barbie, and other neat stuff.
In the What Is It? game this week, Berhard was the first in and had the right answer, too! These are caulking chisels used on a ship, specifically “the Great Lakes schooner Mary A. Gregory, c. 1900.” They are now in a museum display. The funniest answer came from Straight Flush, the first of several who mentioned Wolverine, who said “They are cancerous tissue growth removed from Wolverine’s thoracic cavity, not to mention adamantium tissues .. duh!” Both win a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! See the answers to all the mystery items this week at the What Is It? blog.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day makes this a long holiday weekend for some people, so after you catch up on these posts, you may want to browse through The Best of Neatorama, where we have feature articles going back six years! You’ll also find more content, discussions, and treats on our social network pages at Facebook, G+, and Twitter.
Comments Off January is filled with weird holidays, from Run Up The Flag Pole and See if Anyone Salutes Day (January 2) to Play God Day (January 9) to Measure Your Feet Day (January 23), but of all the strange holidays this month, perhaps one of the most fun is National Hat Day on the 15th. While there are plenty of fun ways to celebrate this holiday, there’s perhaps no better way for our Neatorama readers to celebrate with a great geek hat like one of these.
Unsurprisingly, many of the best geek hats are custom made and, since many nerds also enjoy crafting, the majority of great geek hats you’ll find are knitted or crocheted.
As if any crochet Domo hat weren’t nerdy enough, Etsy seller littlepopos opted to make Domo in his excellent nerd incarnation, complete with tape on his glasses.
What better way to play your role as the Dovahkiin than to wear this delightful crochet steel helm based on the in-game icon by Etsy seller CreativeExcess. If you don’t want to fork over the money to get your own completed hat, you can always buy the pattern for $5, which is sort of a real-world version of forging your own helmet.
Pika-Pika-Pika-Hat! Why catch them all when you can get the cutest Pokemon hat from Etsy seller littlepopos?
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Why do nerds so often wear glasses? This is an interesting question, and obviously it has a significance in my own life and career.
The word “nerd” was actually coined by my favorite fiction writer, the great Dr. Seuss. In 1950, in Dr. Seuss’s book If I Ran the Zoo, Seuss drew a non-human creature called a ‘nerd” from the land of Ka-roo. This is the first instance of the word “nerd” in print. Some theorists believe the word started at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the 1940s. The students who liked to party there were called “drunks” and the quieter, less-inclined-to-party types were labeled “knurds.” See, “drunk” spelled backwards is “knurd,” the precursor to the modern “nerd.”
In 1957, in Glasgow, Scotland, “nerd” was first defined as “square.”
Motion pictures, the most powerful medium of communication in human history (before television) had, of course, a huge impact on the lives of almost everyone on earth. The “nerd” in movie history has not, to my knowledge, ever been fully written. As far as I can determine, the first nerd in movie history was the popular silent comedian Harold Lloyd. Lloyd played a weak, underdog type of comedic character, one bullied by men and ignored by women. But in the end, he would triumph and inevitably get the girl of his dreams. The Lloyd character wore trademark glasses. In fact, Lloyd always referred to his character as the “glasses” or “glass” character, much as Charlie Chaplin was “the Tramp.”
After Lloyd, the nerd character was on the shelf for many years in movies -with sporadic exceptions. Ironically, Cary Grant, perhaps the most dapper actor in movie history, donned glasses and played a nerd character in 1938′s classic comedy Bringing Up Baby.
In the 1950s and ’60s, the great Jerry Lewis often played a nerd-type character in his wonderful comedies. Once in a while, Jerry would wear glasses in his films, notably The Nutty Professor and The Ladies Man. One of his early films with Dean Martin (That’s My Boy) Jerry played a classic glasses-wearing nerd. Jerry as “Junior Jackson” is a shy, clumsy nerd who is trained to be a football player by the handsome, popular Dean Martin. Lewis almost always played a semi-nerd, but it was always a bit of a very cool nerd with Jerry Lewis. While Jerry was always a dumb klutz in his films, he always danced gracefully and also, Jerry was a relatively good-looking fellow, unlike most nerds (or comedians) in comedies. And of course, Jerry did not usually wear glasses. But the movies next classic nerd did.
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The first week of January means back to work! And put the Christmas decorations away! Mine are packed, except for that last box, which is waiting for the kids to take the rest of the candy out of their Christmas stockings so I can box them up for next year. They don’t want to do that because without a name on the container, a sibling might claim the candy. But that’s what’s what dresser drawers are for! Anyway, we are headed into the only season I don’t particularly like: the cold stretch between the holidays and the first flowers. But we will make it through, with the help of some interesting, amusing, and educational content on the internet. You’ll find the best of it here at Neatorama!
Jill Harness gave us two features this week, beginning with 10 Amazing Stories of Animal Prosthetics.
And her article Fast Food Flavors You Won’t Find In The US was the most-commented-on post of the week.
How to Write a Ph.D. Dissertation from the Annals of Improbable Research found its way into graduate student forums and provided some comic relief for those currently going through the process.
Mental_floss magazine gave us 5 Habits of Highly Effective Outlaws.
And Tipper vs. Music came to us courtesy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
At NeatoBambino this week, we learned where to get toy tattoo guns for our kids, how to interrogate a baby, and how a toddler’s brain is organized -or rather, disorganized.
In the What Is It? game this week, the very first answer was correct -it’s a form for baking bread (or a “bread mold” which sounds like a fungus). Anker wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop for knowing that! The funniest answer came from The Professor, who said, “It’s a good old-fashioned can of whoop-ass!” he wins a t-shirt, too! See the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog.
When you’re caught up on everything from this week, you can access past feature articles at The Best of Neatorama. And have a great weekend!
I recently posted an article about discontinued snack foods, and many of our readers pointed out that some of the foods were still available in other countries. As it turns out, fast food companies operate in a similar manner, offering local favorites to other countries that they would never consider selling in America. Here are a few American fast food establishments and the dishes they don’t offer in America.
In Canada, poutine, fries covered in cheese curds and gravy, is offered at almost every fast food restaurant, but BK offers their own varieties that fit in with the rest of their food –most notably, the Angry Poutine with fried onions and peppers on top.
In Puerto Rico, mallorcas, sweet pastry buns, are a popular breakfast treat and Burger King takes full advantage of the popularity of these buns by offering the King Mallorca, filled with ham, eggs and three different cheeses. If you want something even more filling, you might want to try their Enormous Omelet, which isn’t an omelet at all, but actually one of the restaurant’s long hamburger buns filled with a hamburger patty, two eggs, bacon and cheese. Later in the day, you can always snack on some King Wings, which are buffalo wings marinated in honey –why aren’t these sold in America yet?
In many countries, including the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Colombia and Mexico, you can enjoy the deliciously fatty Cheesy Whopper, which features a deep fried disc of cheese on top of a standard Whopper.
Personally, I want to try the Hawaiian BK Chicken available in New Zealand, which is like all the other chicken sandwiches Burger King sells, only it features bacon and pineapple. Sign me up!
The variety of KFC’s international menus is simply astounding, as the American version exclusively limits itself to fried chicken and a few sides, while the international franchises seem to have no limits on what they serve. On the more standard side, there is the Fillet Tower Burger, which is available throughout Europe and other locations, which is essentially just a chicken sandwich topped with a hashbrown. On the other end of the spectrum is the menu from Thailand, which features stir fries, a tuna and corn salad, fish fingers (like chicken fingers, but fish) and a donut filled with shrimp meat. China offers a similarly strange menu compared to the standard KFC fare, as it includes corn salad, beef wraps, red bean porridge, shrimp burgers and an egg and vegetable soup.
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Just like humans, when an animal loses a leg or other important body part, a prosthetic can mean the difference between living a normal life and struggling on a day to day basis. Here are ten stories of animals that suffered loss and then learned to live with a new adaptation to their body.
While some people criticize the efforts put into these prosthetics, particularly in species that are not under threat of extinction, it is important to realize that these developments could help save a critical breeding member of an endangered species one day. Additionally, many of these techniques are brand new and by testing them on animals, researchers are developing useful insights to see if they may one day work on humans. If you end up losing a body part and get a bionic replacement twenty years from now, you might just have a cat or dog to thank for your top-of-the-line prosthetic.
Oscar lost his two rear legs in an accident with a combine harvester. After losing so much blood, his owners were told to expect the worst, but even after he survived the ordeal, their vet warned that cats rarely live happy lives with only two legs. Fortunately, he referred Oscars owners, Kate Allen and Mike Nolan to a veterinary surgeon who specializes in state-of-the-art animal medicine.
After looking at Oscar’s situation, Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick agreed to take on the new patient, surgically fitting him with implants that can eventually be attached to prosthetic paws. The surgery makes Oscar a notable kitty as he is the first cat to ever have prosthetic paws.
While the process was a success, Oscar’s paws haven’t yet been perfected for outdoor use. He has been made to be a house cat for the rest of his life, but really…that’s not all that bad now is it, especially when you consider how he was injured in the first place.
The first animal to receive such treatment though was Storm, a Belgian Sheperd, who lost his paw after it became infected with a tumor. The same vet that would later provide Oscar with his bionic paws, Noel Fitzpatrick, was the first to offer this service to any animal and Storm was the perfect candidate. Fitzpatrick says that he hopes his developments can eventually be used to help soldiers returning from Iraq and victims of the July 7th bombings in London.
Earlier this year, Naki’o became the first dog in the world to be fitted with a full set of bionic paws from Orthopets, a leader in the pet prosthetics industry. Far from just helping him walk easier, the paws are so well attached that he can now run and swim just as he did before the accident. Naki’o lost his paws due to severe frostbite after his previous owners abandoned him to fend for himself throughout the freezing winter in Nebraska. Despite the fact that the poor pup had to crawl on his stomach to move, he still found a loving adoptive family who worked tirelessly to raise the money to get Naki’o the prosthetics he desperately needed. Their efforts paid off as Naki’o is now thrilled to have his bionic paws and is eager to run, jump and fetch with his new family.
If you’re not following @neatorama on Twitter, you don’t know what you’re missing!
There you’ll find all kinds of neato things we don’t always feature here on the blog, like special contests!
Oh, and if that wasn’t reason enough to, how about this: Pee Wee Herman follows us - don’t you want to be in such good company?
This week only: After following us, give us a shout with hashtag #neattweet2012. We’ll pick two people at random and send you any t-shirt from the neatoshop! Do it. Now. (Or at least by the weekend when we select the winners!)
We’ve come to the very last day of the year 2011, a time to look back and think about what a year it’s been. Neatorama had a great year, and that is the result of the participation of a lot of people! Many thanks to all you Neatoramanauts, those who visited this site, and to those who entered our contests, submitted links, tweeted our stories, linked to us, emailed our links, and left comments. Thanks to those who purchased items from the NeatoShop. Thanks to everyone who joined us at our social networking sites this year. Thanks to Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader, The Annals of Improbable Research, and mental_floss for allowing us to share their articles. Thanks to the people at our partner sites and friend sites. Thanks to the creative folks who gave us material all over the internet worth linking to. And thanks to the authors, technicians, administrators, guest authors, contributors, and the many others who work behind the scenes to bring you Neatorama every day. I got a wonderful New Year wish from Eddie Deezen that I will share with all of you: “May the happiest days of your past be equal to the saddest days of your future.”
Meanwhile, it is a holiday weekend, so you might have some time to catch up on the good stuff we posted this week. Jill gave us a timely post that might come in handy for your celebrations: 10 Fun Ways to Ring In The New Year.
She also gave us Failed Flavors Of Popular Snack Foods.
Edifice Complex was from the newest volume of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research documented The Coming and Going of Cello Scrotum.
And 4 Amazing Powers of Chili Peppers was republished from mental_floss magazine.
In the What Is It? game this week, the object in question is a Holmes Steering Gear Clamp for towing automobiles (an antique). Aaron Rosen was the first commenter who knew what it was for, but he did not select a shirt. TDM had the funniest answer: A clothespin for chain-mail! For that, TDM wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop. You’ll find the answers to all this week’s mystery items posted at the What Is It? blog.
Over at NeatoBambino, we’ve had a rash of adorable child meme images posted this week, including this badass little girl walking away from an explosion -without looking back, of course. (Could this be a metaphor for the New Year holiday?) You’ll find cute kid videos, too, in addition to the normal news, information, and child product reviews at NeatoBambino.
If you haven’t checked out our Twitter feed or Facebook page or G+ site yet, this weekend would be a good time to do that! You’ll find plenty of “extras” that don’t get posted at the main site, plus active communities of Neatoramanauts with their contributions.
As we say goodbye to the year past, an easy way to look back on 2011 is to go to The Best of Neatorama, where our feature articles are archived by year for your reading pleasure. You can select a year with the slider at the top of the page. I recommend starting with 2011.
The next logical thing is to look forward to a great 2012! We have some improvements in the works that I know you’ll like, but we will still be bringing you new, interesting, and just plain “neat” stuff, so I sincerely hope you will join us every day of 2012!
Even if you don’t live in America, you’re probably familiar with our New Year’s Eve traditions, being as how they’re played on TV stations across the globe and portrayed in countless movies. That being said, there are tons more celebrations out there that don’t involve kissing at midnight, watching a ball drop and staring at fireworks in awe. Here are a few New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world.
Image Via asterix611 [Flickr]
It’s always nice to get a gift from a neighbor, friend or family member, but in some countries, visitors bearing gifts are practically guaranteed on the first day of the year. The tradition is commonly known as First-Footing and while it’s practiced everywhere from Russia to Wales to parts of the U.S., it is most common in Scotland. While the gifts brought for the occasion are important as they represent the type of luck the recipient will receive, it is also important who brings the gift. Ideally, the first person to enter a home at this period will be a tall, dark man, as this will bring the most luck.
Scotland’s New Year’s Eve celebrations are known as Hogmanay and the celebration is responsible for introducing the “Auld Lang Syne” song to the world. But the festivities vary from place to place and while some areas celebrate by singing and linking arms at the appropriate point in the song, other celebrations are much more dangerous.
In Stonehaven, locals make up balls of chicken wire filled with newspapers, sticks and rags that sometimes measure up to two feet wide. Each ball is attached to a chain or nonflammable rope about three feet long. At midnight, the balls are then set on fire and swung around the heads of their creators as other revelers watch the spectacle. Eventually, the fireballs are put out or thrown into the harbor. Despite the dangers, the event has drawn in many tourists and the small town now sees around 12,000 people standing in the city streets to watch the fire balls spin. If you want to see the action without risking life and limb, the celebration is now streamed on the internet.
Image Via MrPurple [Wikipedia]
If you just can’t get enough burning out of your New Year’s experience and you’ve already visited Stonehaven, then perhaps it’s time to purchase a ticket to Ecuador. That’s because on New Year’s Eve, locals line the streets with effigies of people who have made a negative impact on the last year, most commonly, unpopular politicians. Thousands of dummies are lit up at the stroke of midnight in an effort to prevent the negative events associate with those people from impacting the new year.
Image Via lowfill [Flickr]
Comments Off Americans may love their junk food, but that doesn’t mean they’ll scarf down just any old snack. That’s why the big name brands have so many failed flavors, even after spending thousands on marketing and development for said flavors. Here are some of the many flops created by some of the biggest names in junk food.
Perhaps the most documented failure of any American company was Coke II, aka “New Coke.” Humorously, despite the massive reaction against the beverage, Coke II actually smoked both Pepsi and original Coke in taste tests. While most people did prefer it, the idea of losing a beloved American classic was too much for some people, who protested and called the company headquarters until the old version was reintroduced three months later. Coke II continued to be sold until 2002 when it was pulled due to poor sales.
Of course, Coke II wasn’t the brand’s only failure, there was also Coca Cola with Lemon, Coca Cola Black Cherry Vanilla, Coca Cola Black (a coffee-flavored cola) and Coca Cola C2 (a low-carb version).
Image Via akeg [Flickr]
When you think of failed Pepsi flavors, let’s face it, one variety seems to come to mind before all others –Crystal Pepsi. While it might not have been the marketing disaster that Coke II was, it was still a huge failure and ended up being discontinued in the US only a year after its introduction. A little while later, Pepsi tried again with a citrus-flavored version called Clear from Pepsi, but that flavor also bombed and was quickly discontinued.
A few other Pepsi failures include Pepsi Kona (a coffee-flavored Pepsi that was only sold on the East Coast before it was discontinued), Pepsi Vanilla, Pepsi AM (Pepsi’s attempt to compete with coffee as the morning beverage of choice, this one contained far more caffeine than the average Pepsi), Pepsi Blue (a berry-flavored, non-cola beverage).
Image Via Roadsidepictures [Flickr]
Hershey’s flops may not be as well-known as Coke or Pepsi, but they have far more discontinued flavors than either of those cola brands. You may remember some of these flavors but there are so many, at least a few will probably be new to you.
A few original products they discontinued included Bar None (a chocolate bar with two wafers and peanuts), Hershey’s S’mores (a chocolate bar with graham crackers and marshmallows), Swoops (chocolate slices shaped like potato chips) and Hershey’s Sticks (chocolate sticks individually wrapped and sold together in boxes).
They’ve also discontinued quite a few variations on their popular products, such as Hershey’s Cookies and Mint, Hershey’s Kissables (Hershey’s Kisses with candy shells) and Hershey’s Bites, which were bite-sized versions of their classic candies sold in bags.
Additionally, the company also experimented with beverages, discontinuing a premade bottled milk drink called Hershey’s Milkshake and their Hershey’s Chocolate Milk Mix.
Image Via theimpulsivebuy [Flickr]
Christmas Eve! Time to be with family, friends, and community celebrating the season. We here at Neatorama hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus, and a Happy New Year as well! It’s been a busy week, and if you just now have some time on your hands after the rush of holiday preparation, we have plenty of neat items, contests, and features for you to catch up on.
Gary Noarnan was kind enough to provide us a guest post explaining 8 Reasons why the Nine of Diamonds is Unlucky.
In honor of the new movie, Jill Harness wrote The History of the Tintin Comics & Film.
Eddie Deezen gave us It’s A Wonderful Life: The Christmas Flop.
The Annals of Improbable Research brought us Snow-Clearing from SUV Roofs and from Fire Hydrants: An Informal Look.
Mental_floss magazine filled us in on the first Christmas in Space!
The Evolution of Santa Claus came to us from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
The most-commented (non-contest) item of the week was Mysterious Sphere Falls From Space. The story lent itself to at least three jokes: the Mythbusters cannonball, the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, and pretending that this was the What Is It? game. Speaking of…
In this week’s What Is It? game, the mystery object is a A Yankee Cork Press, for compressing corks to the proper size to fit into a bottle. Just a Guess? had the right answer before anyone else, and so wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Kevin George had the funniest answer: “That’s the famous scuplture “Desert Cowskull” by the steampunk impressionist Nemo Remington.” That deserves a t-shirt, too! You can see the answers to all this week’s mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
We also had the Bathroom Reader Mobile App and Book Giveaway! Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader now has a mobile app and ebooks, and they gave us apps and paperbacks of the newest Bathroom Reader book to give to Neatorama readers. Congratulations to the five who won the apps: iain, Akik P, anonymous coward, TohAtin, and Ben Ratner! And congratulations to the five who won paperback copies of Uncle John’s 24-Karat Bathroom Reader: e kolter, Miles G, Shae, Dougert, and Brad! Everyone else can go to Uncle John’s website to find out about the new Bathroom Reader Mobile App and check out the new Bathroom Reader ebooks and all the books for sale as well.
Oh, we have more contests! Congratulations to Thad Gillespie, who won a t-shirt from the NeatoShop in caption contest no 3 over on G+. Put Neatorama in your G+ circles to keep up with opportunities to win, and other neat stuff going on that you won’t find here at the main site!
Want more? Be sure to check our Facebook page every day for extra content, contests, discussions, videos, and links you won’t find here. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what’s going around the web. And we have one more thing to say to you…
Comments Off 
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
It’s a Wonderful Life is on the American Film Institute’s list of “100 Greatest Movies Ever made” (coming in at #11) and was voted the #1 spot on the list of “Most Inspiring Movies of All-Time.” To all of us now, the film seems as much a part of the Christmas season as Santa Claus, egg nog, gift giving, and kissing under the mistletoe. But much like The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane, the most beloved Christmas movie of all time was a disappointing box office flop when it was first released. In fact, It’s a Wonderful Life may just have sailed away, out of our collective consciousnesses, but for television and the magic of reruns.
It wasn’t actually until the 1970s, almost 30 years after its theater debut, that It’s a Wonderful Life became the cultural icon it now is. The film’s copyright protection ended and it fell into the public domain in 1974, so stations could air it for free. Repeated airings at Christmas time in the ’70s caused millions and millions of movie fans to fall in love with this now-considered “timeless classic.”
Republic Pictures restored its copyright claim to the film in 1993, with exclusive video rights included. At present, it can only be shown on the NBC-TV network.
Directed by the wonderful Frank Capra, It’s a Wonderful Life had its official debut on December 20, 1946, and going into limited release just five days before Christmas. It didn’t go into general release until July of 1947. One has to wonder at the logic of the distributors of the film. Why put an obvious “Christmassy” film into general release after the holiday? Nowadays, that would be rather like releasing one of the Halloween films in November or the film Valentine’s Day in March. What the heck were these guys thinking?
It’s a Wonderful Life also faced an even-bigger obstacle regarding its release. It was almost completely overshadowed by another film called The Best Years of Our Lives. An indisputably beautiful, touching film, The Best Years of Our Lives was a salute to returning World War II veterans. The film showed how each one dealt with life after war. The United States, of course, still had war on its mind, and this mindset probably caused the discerning movie-goer of 1946-47 to opt for The Best Years of Our Lives and neglect It’s a Wonderful Life.
Critics, too, pretty much dismissed the film upon its release; reviews were decidedly mixed. It’s a Wonderful Life did garner five Oscar nominations, but it was shut out at the awards ceremony.
Jimmy Stewart was not the first choice to play the film’s lead, perennial All-American George Bailey. (Stewart has called George Bailey his all-time favorite role.) The studio very much wanted Cary Grant, but fate, as is its want, intervened, and Stewart, a true screen legend, was given his quintessential role. Henry Fonda was also in the running for the lead role (he would have made a perfect George Bailey, too).
Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers also was offered the female lead as Mary Bailey, George’s devoted wife (director Capra’s perennial favorite leading lady, Jean Arthur, was unavailable). But Ginger was set to do a Broadway play and gave the offer a thumbs down. She considered the story “too bland.” Ginger never quite forgave herself for this monumental error in judgement, and Donna Reed got the part.
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If you haven’t already heard through the thousands of ads being seen at this very moment, the Tintin movie opens today. For the handful of Americans who are actually fans of the Belgian hero, this is big news. But since Tintin never caught on in America like he did throughout the rest of the world, many people are purely interested to see if a Peter Jackson/Steven Spielberg crossover could possibly be as epic as the big names on the marquee would suggest.
That’s why we here at Neatorama wanted to share a little bit of history and trivia about the world-famous character. Even if you are already a fan of Tintin though, read on because there might just be a few tidbits you didn’t know about.
Image Via Dylan Parker [Flickr]
Tintin was created by Belgian artist Georges Rémi, who wrote under the pen name Herge. He was largely based on one of the author’s earlier characters, a chubby boy scout named Totor. While he was thinner and better dressed than Totor, Tintin maintained the earlier character’s high ideals and kindness, as well as his knack for getting into sticky situations.
The first Tintin strip was printed in the Belgian right wing newspaper, Le XXe Siècle (The 20th Century), on January 10, 1929. Going along with the paper’s right wing beliefs, the character’s first adventure, titled Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, featured him fighting against socialist leaders in the Soviet Union. After the comic proved to be a success, Herge went on to send Tintin on adventures throughout the world, both in real and imaginary locales.
While Herge started out with a right wing mindset, his opinion quickly changed as Hitler’s legions began to ramp up their occupation of other European countries. By 1939, Tintin began to fight off authority figures from the far right, even battling Musstler, the leader of the imaginary fascist state Borduria, in King Ottokar’s Sceptre. If you couldn’t tell by the name and the time period, Musstler was Herge’s take on a combination of Hitler and Mussolini.
Later that very year, Belgium was invaded by the Nazis, who quickly closed down the majority of the newspapers in the country. They did leave open the leading paper, Le Soir, under the condition that it be put under German management. After Le XXe Siècle, was closed, Herge was briefly unemployed, but soon was hired to work as an illustrator for Le Soir. Soon enough he started printing new Tintin stories in the paper’s children section, but under the repressive political atmosphere, he was forced to strip the comic of its political affiliations. In an effort to get around these limitations, Herge changed Tintin’s occupation from that of a reporter to an explorer, which allowed him a much more politically-neutral world in which to operate.
By 1949, Herge’s character was so popular that he was offered the opportunity to publish his own magazine exclusively dedicated to Tintin. He immediately left Le Soir and go to working on Le journal de Tintin. The character became a massive success and was adored in countries throughout the world, eventually having his adventures translated into more than 50 languages.
As for Herge, he continued working on new stories for the character all the way up until his death in 1983.
Image Via CoffeeGeek [Flickr]
At first glance, Tintin seems like a pretty straightforward guy. In fact, fans of the series often praise how uncomplicated the character is, as it makes him entirely relatable even when confronted by an array of bizarre and eccentric characters in fantastical cities. But when you look a little deeper, you soon realize that Tintin’s lack of complexities make him quite enigmatic.
For example, how old is Tintin? No one really knows. He’s old enough to not be concerned with school or family, to go to a pub and drink, to hold down a job and to live alone, but everyone still calls him a young boy. In 1979, Herges said that when he first started the comic, he thought of Tintin as being about 14 or 15, but by that point, he considered the character to be 17.
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Neatorama is proud to present a guest post from Gary Noarnan, a contributor to the ragbag.
The king of hearts is called the suicide king because the king appears to be stabbing himself in the head. The jack of spades and jack of hearts are known as one-eyed jacks because their faces are in profile and only one eye is visible. But do you know why the nine of diamonds is called the curse of Scotland? Did you even know that it’s considered to be the most unlucky card in the deck? It is, though how it received its fearsome name is a source of wild speculation.
[Image credit: Flickr user feministjulie]
Here are eight leading theories on why the nine of diamonds is called the curse (or scourge) of Scotland. Some are more plausible than others, but all of them are highly intriguing.
1. British Commander William Augustus, the “Butcher Duke of Cumberland” was a lover of card games and always carried two packs on his person. After his decisive victory in the Battle of Culloden, he quickly scribbled an execution order for his Scottish prisoners on the closest paper he had at hand. The paper turned out to be—you guessed it—the nine of diamonds, a card that haunts the Scots to this day.
[Prince William, the “Butcher Duke” of Cumberland]
2. In the reign of Mary Queen of Scots, A notorious jewel thief by the name of George Campbell snuck into Edinburgh Castle and successfully heisted nine valuable diamonds. He then escaped to a neighboring country, never to be heard from again. Queen Mary responded by levying a heavy tax upon her kingdom to replace the gems. The hapless tax-payers have ever since had negative opinions about the nine missing diamonds and have vented their frustration by renaming the nine of diamonds playing card, the curse of Scotland.
[Image credit: Flickr user afternoon_sunlight]
3. Comete, a card game inspired by the discovery of Halley’s comet was introduced to Scotland by James II. To win the game, one needed to secure the nine of diamonds. It is said that the card was called the curse of Scotland on account of the large sums of money that Scottish gamers lost when first learning this new game.
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We’re running another fun caption contest over on our G+ page! Go leave a funny or witty caption. The one with the most +1s gets his/her choice of t-shirts from the neatoshop! So what are you waiting for? Get thee.
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Hanukkah (or Chanukah) the Jewish Festival of Lights begins Tuesday evening at sundown, and runs through December 28th. We wish you a wonderful holiday if you celebrate Hanukkah. If you don’t, this would be a great opportunity to learn more about it. Then Thursday is the winter solstice. And Christmas Eve is one week away. OK, I know you’re busy this weekend, unless you’re one of those folks who get all their holiday preparation done way ahead of time. But take some time to catch up on the great features we’ve shared this week at Neatorama.
Jill Harness gave us some Christmas goodies in 15 Great Geeky Gingerbread People & Homes.
A Few More Facts About The Simpsons by Eddie Deezen was posted in honor of the series’ 23rd anniversary today.
From Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader came Tastes Like TV, with some awful recipes from your favorite sitcoms.
The Inventive Inventions of Dotts was brought to us by the Annals of Improbable Research.
Mental_floss magazine gave us 10 of the Greatest Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns of All-Time.
We have a different kind of contest running right now, and you have just a few more days to get your entry in, in the Extreme Neatorama Reading competition. There are four prizes from the NeatoShop up for grabs (your choice, of course) so get the contest details and send your pictures in ASAP!
In the What Is It? game this week, the item is a barbed wire salesman’s cane, made of barbed wire from patent number 184,486. No doubt he was selling barbed wire. The answer must have been too simple, because no one guessed it. We did have a lot of strange and amusing answers, though. The prize for the funniest one goes to ladybuggs, who said this is a dipstick for the Munstermobile! That clever thought wins him a t-shirt from the NeatoShop. See the answers to all this weeks mystery items revealed at the What Is It? blog.
If you live in the U.S. there’s still time to do your Christmas shopping at the NeatoShop, thanks to UPS express shipping, but time is running short. Check the left sidebar at the shop for shipping deadlines. However, if you wait until the very last minute, the items you want may run out.
When you’ve caught up on everything here, be sure to check our Google+ page and our Facebook page every day for extra content, contests, discussions, videos, and links you won’t find on our main page. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what’s going around the web in real time. And remember, we always welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions for making Neatorama ever better!
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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website. This post is in honor of The Simpsons anniversary tomorrow.
On December 17, 1989 The Simpsons made its debut on Fox TV. What can you say about The Simpsons? Now in its 23rd season, it is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant television shows of all time. Let’s take a look at some Simpsons trivia you may not have known
Why are they yellow?
Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, said he made the characters yellow to grab the attention of channel surfers.
How much does Maggie cost in the opening sequence?
O.K. we’re all familiar with the classic opening sequence on the show, where Marge and Maggie are at the supermarket checkout line and Maggie goes through the market scanner. Ever wonder how much she scans for? Maggie originally scanned for $847.63, which was the price of raising a baby for one month back in 1989 (when the show debuted). Now things have changed and Marge’s groceries add up to $243.36. When Maggie is added and scanned, she doubles the tab to $486.52.
Tracy Ullman sued the show.
The Simpsons is one of the most successful spinoffs in history, spawning from The Tracy Ullman Show. Tracy Ullman’s variety show ran for three years on Fox, and The Simpsons originated as brief cartoon vignettes on the show. Dan Castellanetta (the voice of “Homer”) and Julie Kavner (“Marge”) were regulars on the series, nancy Cartwright (“Bart”) and Yeardley Smith (“Lisa”) were brought in to do the voiceovers for the cartoons. After The Simpsons took off on its own, Tracy Ullman sued, unsuccessfully, to earn a share of The Simpsons‘ merchandising bonanza. (So far, The Simpsons has lasted twenty years longer than the show that spawned it.)
Most unnecessary translation switch.
The Simpsons is dubbed in by foreign-speaking actors for its runs in many different countries. In episodes dubbed in French, Homer’s catchphrase “D’oh!” is translated and read as “T’oh!”
Most Parodied movie?
The Simpsons is always incredibly clever satire. One of the show’s favorite satire targets is, of course, the movies. According to the show’s creators, the show’s most parodied film is Citizen Kane. “They could create an entire film from Simpsons clips,” a Simpsons writer has stated, referring to the amount of Citizen Kane gags they’ve used.he added that The Godfather films were very popular targets, too. Specifically, the show’s creators listed the show’s four most popular movie targets for satire as:
1. Citizen Kane
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. The Shining
4. A Clockwork Orange
What celebrity guest star has played the most roles?
The Simpsons is not only the longest-running animated TV show in history, but it holds the record for the most celebrity guest star appearances. Albert Brooks has made the most guest appearances in the most different roles: five different appearances as five different characters.
Many last names come from actual streets.
Matt Groening got many of the last names of characters on the show from streets in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Lovejoy, Quimby, Flanders, Kearney, Terwilliger, and Burnside are all actual street names in Portland.
Who is the only character on The Simpsons to have five fingers on a hand?
The Simpsons characters, like almost all animated characters, have only four fingers on each hand.Only one Simpsons character has ever had five fingers. “God” is the only character portrayed on The Simpsons to ever have five fingers.
Secret Hidden Beatles Message
Of all the hundreds of Simpsons celebrity guest voices, just six have appeared in episodes as both themselves and as a fictional character. They are Elizabeth Taylor, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Mark Hamill, Steve Buscemi, and Joe Montagna.
Sensitive guest voice.
Former heavyweight boxing champion “Smokin’” Joe Frazier guested on a Simpsons episode. In the episode, Joe gets into a fight with the local drunk, Barney Gumbel. Joe objected to Barney beating him in a fight, so the writers changed the scene so Joe would win.
For more on The Simpsons, see The Birth of The Simpsons, Life Imitates The Simpsons, and Meet Omar Shamshoon.
