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This was the first year that the WonderCon (Comic-Con’s little sister) was held in Anaheim instead of San Francisco, unfortunately, that didn’t mean that the weather was any better. In fact, it was pouring the better part of the weekend. While the poor weather and smaller size of the convention meant there were far fewer cosplayers than at Comic-Con, the diversity and quality of the costumes was definitely impressive. Here are a few of the best costumes as photographed by Zeon and myself.
There are always a lot of Batman costumes at any convention, but with The Dark Knight Rises coming out this summer, there were even more than usual -including this sexy group of cosplayers. There was also a matching Harley Quinn, but I didn’t get a good picture of her. Sorry boys.
Cat Women and Riddlers were particularly popular at the convention.
Harley Quinn was also a pretty popular costume, which is interesting since they still haven’t put her character into a movie yet. Nolan, maybe you should take note of that fact.
Cross-play was also a pretty big trend and this adorable Robin and Green Arrow did a great job at adapting their costumes accordingly.
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Are you getting excited about tonight’s Mad Men 2-hour special season premiere? WE ARE! To get you in the mood, we found this funny mock-up of a Citysearch profile page created by Don Draper. Click the image above to enlarge it or go here.
Here’s our favorite excerpt:
The ironic cupcake names at Cuddles feel like a cheap ploy. I believe the cupcake customer prefers an earnest message. The word strawberry means something. It calls to mind, picnics on hot summer days…the expectation of valentine’s day when a chocolate covered strawberry is the last thing you remember before the bedroom. What does “Sarah’s super strawberry surprise,” do besides sully the strength of the core ingredient and my experience here. Also, you can’t smoke inside?
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This past week has been an eventful one here at Neatorama! We had more than the usual number of feature articles, a contest with lots of winners, and joined another social networking site. Yes, Neatorama is now on Pinterest! Tell all your Pinterest buddies to come see us there.
The highlight of the week was the Spot the Neatobot game! It reminded me of an Easter egg hunt, with everyone looking around on the website for a badge featuring the Neatobot. Those who follow Neatorama on Facebook, Twitter and/or G+ got hints on where to look. Twenty people won twenty t-shirts from the NeatoShop, and if you haven’t checked your email yet, you may find that you’re one of them!
If you are one of the winners, we’d really like to see what you look like wearing your t-shirt from the NeatoShop. So put it on, take a picture, send to to us, and when we get enough, we’ll post them right here on the site. In fact, if you’ve won a Neatorama or a NeatoShop t-shirt in any of our contests, send us your best modeling image. I look forward to seeing you!
Jill Harness was busy all week marking important calendar events. Tuesday was the 84th anniversary of Fred Rogers’ birth, so she brought us the article Getting to Know Mister Rogers.
William Shatner turned 81 on Thursday, so we had Let’s Have a Shatnerpalooza!
And for the film opening, Jill put together 20 Fantabulous Hunger Games Arts & Crafts.
We got to see some eerie but beautiful high-resolution underwater photographs of the historic wreckage of The Titanic Today at the Spotlight Blog, courtesy of National Geographic magazine.
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader gave us the lowdown on the Beat Generation in the article Meet the Beats.
It’s Good to Be a YAVIS came to us from the Annals of Improbable Research.
And mental_floss magazine told us about The 10 Greatest Love Affairs in History.
In this week’s What Is It? game, the mystery object is a simple ice cube crusher. The first with that answer was just a guess, who wins a t-shirt! The funniest answer came from upiru, who said, “It’s a chewing-gum tester of course. Some clever students even use it to chew their gum discretly under the classroom table.” That’s good for a shirt, too! Congratulations, and thanks to everyone who played along. See the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog.
The post with the most comments this week (outside of the giveaways) was, not surprisingly, Would You Reveal Your Facebook Password to get a Job? But catching up fast is the more recent post Should Airlines Charge Fat People More?
When you’re caught up on everything from this week, you can check out past feature articles at The Best of Neatorama. Pick a year and browse through an amazing variety of neat stuff to read!
Comments Off If you haven’t already heard, thanks to all the non-stop commercials and serious internet buzz, The Hunger Games just hit theaters today. In honor of what is already the biggest book/movie series since Harry Potter, here are some fun and fantastic arts and crafts based on the series.
I have to admit that my favorite fan art creations were those created by Etsy seller PurpleCowPosters. Just look at the simplistic design and the great use of texture on this poster and it’s easy to see why.
In fact, I couldn’t just pick one design from PurpleCowPosters, so I thought I’d include this design for District 12 just to show off the serious skills used in their creations. In fact, even if you don’t really dig The Hunger Games, I highly recommend visiting their store where there are over 100 cool posters for a variety of movies and TV shows available for sale.
What happens if you mix the Obama campaign posters by Shepard Fairey with The Hunger Games? You get this fantastic Snow poster by Tumblr user Pixhunter.
With the subtle tree imagery in the background and the shockingly bright mockingjay front and center, this poster, by Bart Van Ackooij is as beautiful as it is striking.
Yes, it might look like a manga cover than a poster for the upcoming film, but regardless of what the design actually looks like, there’s little debate as to the quality of art in this great piece by RatGirlStudios.
UPDATE: We’ve awarded 12 people t-shirts so far in our week-long contest! There’s still 2 more days and 8 more winners to go. In case you’re just tuning in, here’s how it works:
We’re giving giving you 4 chances each day this week to win your choice of t-shirt from our neatoshop! All you have to do to enter is spot the Neatobot in one of our daily posts (no, silly, not this post – another post that went up today). When you spot it, click on it and enter to win! Want a better chance of winning? Follow our Facebook, Twitter and/or G+ accounts for daily hints!
Whether you love Star Trek, T.J. Hooker, Comedy Central’s Roasts or have just happened to watch any program over the last decade that was interrupted with a Priceline commercial, chances are, you just can’t get away from William Alan Shatner. In honor of one of the entertainment industry’s most pervasive characters let’s celebrate one of the world’s greatest over-actor’s 81st birthday with some fun facts about his successes (and failures).
And don’t forget, March 22 is also Talk. Like. Shatner. Day. in honor of his birthday!
Image Via Jerry Avenaim [Wikipedia]
You may have already heard, but William Shatner was actually trained as a classical Shakespearean actor and even started his acting career at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada, playing in a variety of classic plays. His first movie role was in 1951, in the Canadian film The Butler’s Night Off and in 1954 he was cast as Ranger Bob on The Canadian Howdy Doody Show. Only two years later, he made his debut on Broadway. In another two years, he was cast in his first Hollywood film in 1958’s The Brothers Karamazov where he played the youngest of the Karamazov brothers alongside Yul Brynner. He was cast to star in his first TV show only a year later, but CBS canned the show after shooting the pilot and a few episodes. In 1961, he starred in another Broadway play, this time alongside Walter Matthau and Julie Harris.
While Shatner was considered a talented actor and was gaining quite a bit of popularity, he was more focused on getting work than getting good roles and his willingness to take any role likely held back his career. Even so, he forged on with the motto “work equals work,” a slogan he seems to stay true to in modern times. Through the early sixties, he starred in a number of forgettable and non-descript TV and movie roles, including a Roger Corman film and a few episodes of The Twilight Zone. He did get the lead in a critically acclaimed legal drama called For the People in 1965, but the show was a flop and was cancelled after only one season. On the upside, Shatner wouldn’t have been available to be in Star Trek if the show did succeed.
Shatner was also lucky that the first pilot for Star Trek was a complete bomb. While NBC like the idea of the show, they thought the first pilot was way too cerebral . Leonard Nimoy was the only actor who retained his role from the first pilot, everyone else was recast and that’s when William was hired as Captain James T. Kirk.
One of the things that made Star Trek so popular was the way it took on current events with a sci-fi setting. The show dealt with race issues, the Cold War, and more and in an incredibly progressive manner. In fact, Shatner secured his place in television history by being a part of the first interracial kiss on U.S. television. Interestingly, the kiss was actually supposed to be between Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy), but when William got a hold of the script, he insisted that if anyone got to kiss Nichelle, it would be him.
While the staff was a little worried about the impact of the kiss, the country was apparently quite ready for that moment. In fact, one of the most negative letters the show received read, “I don’t believe in the integration of races and the fraternization of the races, but anytime a red-blooded American boy like Captain Kirk gets a girl in his arms that looks like Lieutenant Uhura, he ain’t gonna fight it.” As for positive responses, Nichols was told by Martin Luther King Jr. himself that his family watched the show and that Uhura was a role model and hero to his children.
The show was a hit with fans but had terrible ratings. Even after a successful letter writing campaign and protests around the country managed to save the show from cancellation after its second season, the show’s supporters couldn’t convince the network to sign on for a fourth season.
While young William Shatner never had trouble finding work, post-Star Trek Shatner did. After his wife left him the same year the show was cancelled, his life quickly fell apart. Shatner eventually started living out of a camper shell on the back of his pick up truck. He took any job he could find, no matter how small, including another Roger Corman flick, a few terrible horror movies, a slew of commercials and guest appearances on The $20,000 Pyramid, Hollywood Squares and Beat the Clock.
While the actor was considered quite egotistical and somewhat difficult to work with during his reign on Star Trek, this point of his life was quite humbling. To this day, he still refers to the slump as “that period.”
Fortunately, the same thing that left him a typecast washout also helped revive his career a few years later. In 1973, Shatner did the voice for Captain Kirk in the animated version of the show and he soon started attending the many fan conventions that were held throughout the country. Syndicated reruns of Star Trek received higher ratings than the show did when it was originally on the air and Captain Kirk started to become a household name.
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Did you know today would have been Mr. Rogers’ 84th birthday? While most entertainment icons we talk about on Neatorama only appeal to people of a certain age, the amazing thing is that most of our readers grew up while Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood was being aired regularly. In honor of a great man who contributed so much to the world of children’s television, let’s celebrate with a look at the life and work of Fred McFeely Rogers.
When Mr. Rogers first saw television, the power of the media’s potential immediately blew him away. At the same time though, he loathed the commercially available content, particularly the shows aimed at children. In fact, he once admitted in an interview, “I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there was some way of using this fabulous instrument to be of nurture to those who would watch and listen.”
Eventually, this passion even caused him to leave his first position at a children’s show, as he was sickened by the fact that NBC had to rely on advertisers and merchandising to support the shows children watched for educational purposes.
Before he decided to work in television, Rogers was fascinated by another form of entertainment –music. He even started playing the piano at age five after watching his mother do it during their sing alongs. When he attended college, he immediately went into music and he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition in 1951.
After college, Fred immediately applied to work for NBC, who hired him thanks to his music degree. At first, he was put in the music department of a variety of shows, but eventually, he got to work on a children’s show. After leaving over his ethical issue with the show’s use of advertising, he soon was hired as a puppeteer at WQED, a Pittsburgh public television network.
The whole eight years Fred worked at WQED, he would spend his lunch breaks at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary studying theology and child development. Eventually, he became an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church, although he never actually wanted to be a preacher and was specifically instructed to continue his work with children’s television. While he never actually worked in the church, Mr. Rogers was extremely devout and never once had a cigarette or cocktail.
After he left NBC, practically everything Rogers did helped him get ready for the show that made him a household name. And I don’t just mean he learned more about working on children’s shows and how to use puppets, I mean he developed the puppets, characters and music numbers that would eventually work their way into his own show. On The Children’s Corner, the program he started on at WQED, Fred started wearing his famous sneakers because he noticed they enabled him to be quieter while moving around on set. He also started working on the voices of King Friday XIII, Queen Sara Saturday, X the Owl, Henrietta Pussycat, Daniel Striped Tiger and other characters from the Neighborhood of Make-Believe.
In 1963, he was contacted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and asked to develop a 15-minute kid’s program called Misterrogers. While Rogers had never stepped out in front of the camera before, it was Fred Rainsbury, Head of Children’s Programming at CBC who urged him to be the host of the new show. Rainsbury knew Mr. Rogers was great with kids after seeing him interact with children and wanted to bring that realism to the show itself.
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Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Sorry, kids, you won’t get any points for wearing green to school because it’s a Saturday. But that just makes the adult parties a little easier to do! Americans like to celebrate everyone’s holidays: Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day, etc. and there’s always talk about cultural appropriation and how we tend to do the food and costumes without understanding their real meaning and the culture the holidays came from. Hey, it’s in our nature to try and celebrate the kaleidoscope or the melting pot that the nation is made of. But still, while you are preparing for a green beer bash, you might take some time to read up on St. Patrick and Ireland and how the Irish celebrate their national holiday today. And you can catch up on all the neat stuff you may have missed during the work week here at Neatorama.
Wednesday’s date was 3/14, which is significant, so Jill gave us 14 Pi Pies For National Pi Day.
Eddie Deezen wrote about The Day John Lennon Met Paul McCartney.
We learned a bit about building skyscrapers from The Fearless Wonders, from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research brought us The Second-Hand Effects of Bitching.
And mental_floss magazine gave us the story of Grant Wood’s American Gothic.
Over at NeatoBambino this week, we had posts on difficult pregnancy, summer fun for kids, a toddler car theft, and a creative video birth announcement. Check them all out!
In this week’s What Is It? game, the pictured object is a Pro Pitch Gauge, made by The Classic Company, for measuring the angles in the holes of bowling balls. Steve Pauk had the right answer with the very first comment! However, he did not select a t-shirt. StilesJM wins the prize for the funniest answer: Phrenology gauge used by sororities, applied to the cranial midline of a prospective member to determine how much of a pitch she really is. That wins a t-shirt! See the answers to all this week’s mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
The most commented-on post of the week was The Surface Area of Nothing. Coming in second was The Death of Manners, and Will Eating Red Meat Kill You? is in third place. However, the recent post Millennials: The Most Selfish Generation Ever? will probably end up having a lot more comments before it slips into the archives.
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 in real time.
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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
The actual genesis of The Beatles is a bit nebulous and could be argued. However, most Beatles historians cite the date of July 6, 1957 as the official beginning of The Beatles.
John Lennon, a Liverpool guitar player (and local troublemaker, part-time shoplifter and full-time egomaniac) had been playing a few local gigs in the area for a year or so. John’s initial band was called The Blackjacks, consisting of a few of his mates from school. Soon thereafter, the band’s name was changed to The Quarrymen, in honor of their present school, Quarry Bank High School.
It was on July 6, 1957 that John and his ragtag band were playing twice at the St. Peter’s Church fete in the Woolton parish. This date is significant as possibly the single most important seminal date in the history of rock music. Why? It was on this day that John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met.
The Quarrymen, led by John, played on the back of a coal truck, giving one performance in the afternoon and another in the early evening. Several cameras were out that day, and the very brash Lennon took the lead vocals on a few of the popular rock’n'roll songs of the day. Lennon was decked out in a checked shirt, tight pants (“drainies’), and his hair was slicked-up in the fashion of his supreme idol, Elvis Presley.
The event was a bit bittersweet, too, although Lennon didn’t know it at the time. John’s beloved mother, Julia, was there in the crowd, rabidly cheering her teenage son on. As a sad sidebar, Julia was to be killed tragically, a little over a year later, in a car accident. Julia was killed by a drunken off-duty policeman as she was walking across the street to catch a bus. John was never to really get over the loss of his mother, and called it “the worst thing that ever happened to me.”
Paul had been invited to watch The Quarrymen by a mutual friend, and he watched with curious interest as John sang. John and his Quarrymen were actually scheduled to play twice that day, once in the afternoon and later in the evening. After the band’s first concert Paul was introduced to John, who, Paul later recalled, had breath smelling of illegally-obtained beer.
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Happy 3/14…aka Pi Day! There are plenty of ways to celebrate this delightful holiday, from baking your own pie to attending or hosting your own pie contest. That being said though, if you’re too lazy to get involved with pie making yourself, you can always check out some of the contests online, particularly the Instructables/Serious Eats contest. Of course, if you do that, you’ll only get to enjoy the pies created for that particular contest that year. That’s why we’ve compiled this list featuring some of the geekiest pies ever created in honor of everyone’s favorite irrational number.
Serious Eats is one of the biggest sponsors of Pi Day contests, but they also offer their tips to bake your own Pi-shaped pie for those who aren’t up to the contest challenge. While this one features peanut butter and chocolate filling, I’m sure you could adapt the basic design to feature any of your favorite pie flavors.
The great thing about this pi, by Instructables User brooklynbrownie, is that it isn’t one round pie, but a series of pies that write out the first 101 digits of pi, and it still incorporates pi’s iconic symbol right there in the middle. With this much thought and effort, it’s no wonder brooklynbrownie took home first place in the 2011 contest.
Here’s a pie by Instructables user Beanie10 that might be too confusing for some people to really grasp. See, it’s an apple cranberry pie inside of a blueberry pie inside of a raspberry pie with a maze on top. Ok, if you saw Inception then you totally get where this Pi-Ception is coming from, but that doesn’t change how awesome it is. And just look at those amazing pi writings on the outside of the crust. This thing took some serious dedication and probably would have won first place in the contest if broolynbrownies wasn’t just so perfectly thought out.
Personally, I’m rooting for Shannon N. of A Periodic Table Blog to win this year’s contest. After all, what is more delightfully mathematically irrational than a pie filled with numerical apples? Of course, she didn’t neglect pi either, it’s written out to almost the first thirty digits on the crust.
If you like puns, then you’ll love this Pi(rate) Pie by Instructables user emitchell314 that not only features a delightful pirate skull, but also crossed pi symbols filling in for crossbones.
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Spring forward! It seems to happen earlier and earlier every year -or is that just me? Daylight Saving Time begins tomorrow in most of the United States, so set your clocks forward one hour before you retire for the night (or at 2AM if you are up). We’ll have daylight much later in the evening from now through the summer, but the kids will have to wait for the school bus in the dark -at least for a while. Sure, we lose an hour, but we’ll get it back in the autumn. Some overnight hourly workers whose employers aren’t paying attention may get paid for an hour of no work, but they’ll have to work an extra one in the fall to make up for it. If you have the weekend off, you might want to start going to bed earlier to get used to the time change. But you’ll still have time to catch up on the good stuff you may have missed this week at Neatorama.
Today is Chuck Norris’ birthday, so Jill asked if we are Ready for Some Real Chuck Norris Facts?
Eddie Deezen wrote about classic TV in the article Jackie Gleason and The Honeymooners.
The Annals of Improbable Research brought us research that speculated that Brain Damage May Be an Advantage for Gamblers.
Behind the Magic 8-Ball told the story behind the toy, courtesy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
Mental_floss magazine gave us 7 Entourages That Changed the World.
In the What Is It? game this week, the mystery device is a billiard cue trimmer and tip fastener. The first one to know the answer was Doug D, but unfortunately he did not select a shirt. The funniest answer came from The Professor, who called it a Genie Shovebackinner, you know, for getting the genie back into the bottle. That’s worth a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! You can find out the answers to all the mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog. Thanks to everyone who played, and we’ll do it again soon!
The most commented-on post of the week posed the question Is a ShopVac Mouse Trap Ethical? Coming in second was The Opportunity Cost of a Free Concert Ticket. Both ethics and economics are complicated subjects, but Neatoramanauts are not afraid to tackle them!
You are also invited to check out past articles on all kinds of subjects at The Best of Neatorama. Join in the discussions at our Facebook page. And be sure to follow Neatorama on Twitter!
Oh yeah, St. Patricks Day comes up next weekend. Check out the NeatoShop for a great selection of St. Patricks Day t-shirts, accessories, and other fun stuff for the holiday!
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Did you like The
Simpsons' homage to Game of Thrones
Winter is coming ... to your living room, if Adrian Merz and Cornelia Hess have their way. The duo covered an entire living room with white Post It Notes in their art project "Winter 1972."
Winter is coming ... to your local TV news, courtesy of seanoz of FoolHardy (lots more Game of Thrones parody videos there). This one above is from Season 1 Episode 7.
Winter is coming ... to your computer's desktop wallpaper in this The Game of Thrones and Calvin and Hobbes mash up by Joel Watson of Hijinks Ensue (covered previously on Neatorama, but too good to pass up).
Winter is coming ... and will keep your hands toasty warm. These cute knitted mittens are made by Stacey of Knitpicks. You can get the pattern from Ravelry, if knitting be your game.
Winter is coming ... to your local coffee shop, according to this nifty chalk advertisement by Justin Lawrence DeVine of Sticks, Stones & Herringbones (previously on Neatorama)
If you like that, winter is coming to your body ... as this nifty Winter Is Coming T-Shirt by Mike Jacobsen, over at the NeatoShop.
To be fair, not everyone likes Chuck Norris, whether it’s because they loathe his political beliefs, his violent action flicks, his purported plagiarism on WorldNetDaily, or because they are just sick and tired of the meme associated with him. But even if you don’t like certain things about Mr. Norris, there’s still plenty to appreciate, from his underdog back story to his constant philanthropic efforts, he isn’t a bad guy by any means. In honor of the legend, let’s celebrate his March 10 birthday with a few real Chuck Norris facts.
While most “Chucks” use the nickname to stand in for “Charles,” Mr. Norris was actually born Carlos Ray Norris. He was named for his father’s minister, Carlos Berry. In fact, it wasn’t until he joined the Air Force that Carlos became “Chuck” Norris.
Sure, these days ghosts sit around the campfire and tell Chuck Norris stories, but back when Chuck was a youngster, he was usually busy being bullied, not being the bully. Most of the insults were directed at his mixed race heritage, as Norris is mostly Irish and Cherokee and children of the forties and fifties weren’t exactly multi-culturally sensitive. Seriously though, how could anyone be mean to the adorable kiddo in that picture?
While you still might imagine that little Carlos would at least stand up for himself when being picked on, at the time, he wasn’t very athletic and his shyness only compounded the problem. Rather than taking action, he only dreamed about beating up on his tormentors.
Image via ChuckNorris.com
Not only did “Chuck” get his nickname after joining the USAF, he also learned how to fight while serving, thus the Force is responsible for making him into the only person who can slam revolving doors. In fact, his black belt training in Tang Soo Do led to Chuck starting his own form of martial arts, Chun Kuk Do, which combines all of the different fighting styles he learned throughout his life.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Any artist is lucky if he produces one enduring, immortal work. Jackie Gleason was to produce 39. They were called The Honeymooners.
I was October 1, 1955 and Gleason had been starring in and hosting his very popular variety show called, logically enough, The Jackie Gleason Show. The Jackie Gleason Show was a huge ratings hit, ranking at #2 in popularity of the then-current TV shows. The show, like any variety show, consisted of singing, dancing, jokes, and comedy sketches.
Gleason, an incredibly talented and versatile entertainer, actor, and comedian, had played several different characters on the show, including Reggie van Gleason, Joe the Bartender, Fenwick Babbit, and the Poor Soul. But Gleason’s masterpiece of a character was to be an average everyday guy who lived in Brooklyn, a blustery braggart bus driver named Ralph Kramden.
Ralph Kramden was originally seen as the main character in one of the sketches on Cavalcade of Stars (Cavalcade of Stars was a previous variety series Gleason had hosted on the old Dumont network). Original suggestions for the sketch’s title were “The Lovers,” “The Couple Next Door,” and aptly, “The Beast.” It was finally decided to call the bit “The Honeymooners.”
The very first “Honeymooners” sketch was aired on October 5, 1951. Interestingly, the show was broadcast exactly ten days before that other immortal cultural TV comedy icon of the fifties, I Love Lucy.
The original “Honeymooners” was much different from the show we all know and love. The first-ever “Honeymooners” was just Jackie as Ralph and his wife Alice. The original Alice Kramden was played by Pert Kelton, a fairly grim (in both looks and personality) actress, who had to leave the show after seven episodes. The public reason given was that she had health (heart) problems. It was later revealed that Kelton had been blacklisted because of her then-considered-radical political beliefs.
This first sketch was much darker (and less funny) than the later episodes. It lacked in humor, sentiment, and pathos, all later trademarks of the show. It also lacked a very important ingredient: Art Carney. Carney, a wonderful “second banana,” had played a policeman in that original “Honeymooners” sketch, but was later written into the series as Ralph’s best pal, sewer worker Ed Norton.
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What a week this has been! March came in like a lion, alright. Tornadoes and strong thunderstorms both Wednesday and Friday left a trail of death and destruction across the Midwest. The Friday storms left me without internet access, so the weekend roundup is a day late. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that March will keep the other end of the old saying as well, and go out like a lamb. Meanwhile, let’s look back at what happened at Neatorama this past week.
Jill Harness wrote up Five Common Misconceptions About the Middle Ages.
She also wrote a feature for NeatoBambino called The Eight Toughest Babies in the World. Be sure to check out NeatoBambino every day!
The Annals of Improbable Research noticed the improbable number of research papers done on The Lazy Bureaucrat Problem.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the record-breaking basketball game, Eddie Deezen wrote The Night Wilt “The Stilt” Scored 100.
Mental_floss magazine gave us Putting Animals in Their Place.
The Unluckiest Train Ride came from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
In the What Is It? game this week,the pictured object is an M15 Grenade Launcher Sight. The first commenter in with the correct answer was Berhard, who wins a t-shirt for his efforts! The t-shirt for the funniest answer goes to villaridge, who said it was “one of the many scale models that Gene Rodenberry had made whilst he was fine tuning what the Enterprise space ship would look like.” See additional pictures of the grenade launcher sight and the answers to the other mystery items of the week at the What Is It? blog!
The most commented-on post of the week was a tie between Father Jailed Because Daughter Drew a Picture of a Gun and Annoying People Talking on Their Cell Phones? Jam ‘Em! Coming in third was Disney Closes New Habit Heroes Exhibit.
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 in real time. Thanks for spending time with us at Neatorama!
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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
March 2, 1962, was one of the most unbelievable, unforgettable nights in professional sports history. This was the night Wilton Norman “Wilt the Stilt” Chamberlain scored 100 points in a professional basketball game.
The 7’1″ star center of the Philadelphia Warriors was then in his third season of complete NBA domination, leaving opposing centers in the dust in the face of his awe-inspiring presence. Chamberlain had already set several scoring records in his first two seasons, including averaging 37.6 and 38.4 points a game respectively. Wilt had also set the single game scoring record less than three months previously, pouring in a record 78 points in an overtime game on December 8, 1961.
When Lakers star Elgin Baylor, whose record of 73 points Wilt had broken, was asked if he was upset, Baylor answered as if he had a crystal ball. “Someday that guy’s going to score 100,” he prophesied, almost eerily.
Wilt had already broken several records, but the 1961-62 season was to be his crowning glory, a season in which he would average a jaw-dropping 50.4 points per game.
The night before Wilt’s historic game, he was in New York, having spent the night (not unusually) in the company of a female companion. At 6 AM on the morning of March 2nd, Wilt dropped his lady friend off at her home. He hadn’t slept a wink and was suffering from a hangover. He boarded the train to Philadelphia at 8 AM.
After meeting several friends at the Philly train station, he had a long lunch with them and almost missed the team bus to Hershey. The night’s scheduled game at the Hershey Sports Arena was an unimportant one. Wilt’s Warriors had a record of 46 wins and 29 losses and were entrenched in second place, a full 11 games behind the champion Boston Celtics. The game promised a dull time for all. Wilt’s teammate, York Larese, commented, “There was nothing exciting about the Knicks playing the Warriors in Hershey. Chocolate was more exciting.”
On that cold, rainy night only 4,124 fans showed up (the Hershey Arena seated 8,000). The game was so unimportant, only two photographers showed up to cover it. The Knicks’ starting center, Phil Jordan, was out sick and was replaced by second-stringer Darrall Imhoff. Also, tellingly, the third-string center was Cleveland Buckner, who had “defended” Wilt just two days earlier and was smoked for a record 28 points in one quarter.
The game began and Wilt got out of the gate quickly, scoring 23 points in the game’s first quarter. Even stranger, he was nine for nine at the free throw line. A notoriously poor free throw shooter, Wilt’s first thoughts that night were of possibly setting some kind of free throw record.
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No matter how interested you are in history, you probably have still heard a lot about the Dark Ages, but much of that information, even the stuff you learned back in school, is actually fiction. Here are five commonly held beliefs about the Middle Ages that aren’t actually fact.
Note: While the specific time period coverd by the term the “Middle Ages” (also called the “Dark Ages” and the “Medieval period”) can vary, in this article, they refer to the years 500 – 1500 A.D.
When most people think of medieval doctors, they tend to think of barbarians whose only solution to problems was to bleed the victim until the problem went away or until the patient died. While its true that the doctors of the time were operating under the Greek concept of humours, that have since been proven wrong, that doesn’t mean that doctors of the time were totally inept or that there were no improvements to medicine made until the Renaissance. In fact, the idea of doctors needing to attend a University was first developed during this period and those who wished to become a Doctor of Medicine would need to go through ten years of higher education in order to qualify.
During the Crusades, European and Islamic doctors began exchanging techniques and while it’s easy to think that the Westerners got the advantage in this trade, there was still useful information traded from both sides. In fact, it was the European doctors who taught Middle Eastern practitioners that wound infections could be successfully treated with vinegar.
During the early Middle Ages, surgery was considered to be less important than the practice of other medicines, but as time progressed, surgery started to earn a much higher regard. By the fourteenth century, doctors had discovered a number of innovations in the field including the use of antiseptics to prevent infections and anesthesia made from opiates and herbs to help patients through the procedure.
Additionally, hospitals were first developed during this period, originally operating as hostels for travelers, clinics for the injured and homes for the disabled. Italy led the trend of hospital building and, by the end of the fourteenth century, Florence had thirty hospitals within its boundaries. In England and France, most hospitals were established in Monasteries, where monks would help care for sick travelers and victims of chronic diseases and plagues.
So next time you end up needing to visit the hospital, get better, and then remember you have those alleged bumbling fools of medieval doctors to thank not only for the treatment center, but also for the idea that doctors should be well-educated before they are allowed to start serving the public.
For years, stories have been circulating that the average person of the Dark Ages would only bathe once a year and that the reason brides carried bouquets was to help them ward off the gross smell of the guests at their wedding, but really, people of the time had pretty decent hygiene. In castles, the wealthy would have a tub with a stool in it so they could sit and bathe for long periods of time. Many castles also had a special room next door to the kitchen that was exclusively for bathing parties.
While the poorer populace may not have had their own tubs inside their home, they still could visit the public baths in the city or bathe in rivers or lakes near their home. In fact, bathing didn’t fall out of fashion until the Renaissance, when it was believed that water could carry disease. So there’s a good chance that a peasant from the thirteenth century actually smelled a lot better than Leonardo da Vinci.
Their clothes didn’t smell horribly either, laundry soap was introduced from the Orient in the early Middle Ages and while clothing did go unwashed in the freezing winters, as soon as spring hit, laundresses went out in droves washing clothes on the local river banks.
Sources: Gode Cookery and Wikipedia
Babies need nurturing and protecting, but Mother Nature also makes them astonishingly resilient at times. Jill Harness collected eight stories of infants who survived accidents, criminal acts, and natural disasters that you’d think would have killed them. For example:
An SUV plowed through the family’s home, smashing immediately into the baby’s crib. Amazingly, despite being thrown from her crib, lodged under the SUV’s bumper and slamming into a wall and a door frame, little Aylina was fine. She was pulled out from under the front bumper of the SUV, still wrapped in her purple blanket with only a few scratches and otherwise completely unharmed.
Read all the stories at NeatoBambino. Be warned: although the babies survived each of these stories, they do contain violence and may be disturbing to some readers. Link
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We’ve arrived at the last week of February, and I mistakenly thought that we’d gone through all the many holidays of the month, but no. Coming up Wednesday we have Leap Day, which takes on a holiday atmosphere just because the date is so rare. But first, the 84th Academy Awards ceremony is tomorrow night! Those who care about movies are waiting to see who will win the Oscars. Those who care about having a little fun this weekend are here at Neatorama! If you’re catching up on the past week, we’ll help you out with some links to our exclusive articles.
Eddie Deezen got ready for the Oscar presentations by looking at the awards’ history in 13 Women who Won an Academy Award by Playing a Hooker.
Jill Harness treated us to 20+ Pieces of Superhero Mashup Art.
For Presidents Day, we had Dysfunctional Erection: the Washington Monument, courtesy of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave us Synchronized Pipetting.
From mental_floss magazine, we had The Torn Identity: How an Earthquake Spawned One of the Greatest Immigration Fraud Schemes in History.
Over at the Neatorama Art Blog, we welcomed a new gallery this week from Philadelphia artist and illustrator Josean Rivera. Go check out his stuff!
In the What Is It? game this week, the objects are long-knives for use in cockfights; they were attached to the legs of battle cocks. Craig Clayton was the first with the correct answer, and wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The prize for the funniest answer goes to Steve Pauk, who declared they are Edward Scissorhands’ nail clippings!Find out what all this week’s mystery items are at the What Is It? blog. And thanks for playing along!
The post that drew the most comments, besides the giveaway, was Should Affirmative Action Be Completely Banned? No surprise there! Tying for second place in the number of comments were Lucy Lawless Helps Hijack An Oil Drilling Ship For Greenpeace and Hotness. You are welcome to contribute to the conversations.
Here’s a usability tip in case you want to find related subjects at Neatorama. When you click on a post title, you go to that post’s individual page. Here, I went to the post Tabasco: Secret Sauce of Space Travel. At the end of the post, you’ll see this:
Now, you know that “Link” takes you to the original story, where you can read all the information. Then you have the social networking buttons you can click to tell your friends about this post. And under that are “tags”: astronaut, space, Tabasco, taste. You can click any of those words and get a list of Neatorama posts that are also tagged with those words. If you click “Tabasco,” you’ll get only two posts, including this one. I think we need to write more about the sauce. Or if you click “astronaut,” you’ll see quite a few Neatorama posts about astronauts. That’s an easy way to find more posts on something you’re interested in reading about.
Remember, you’ll find extra content and discussions at our Facebook page, and make sure you are following Neatorama on Twitter, too -and now Neatorama is available G+ goodness!
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Anne Baxter wins in 1948
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Okay, maybe it’s pure sexism, but the surest way an actress can grab a Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress Academy Award is by playing a prostitute. Whether a “hooker with a heart of gold,” a high-class call girl, or a destitute woman who turned to the streets, any actress knows well that if she takes on a role dealing with this occupation, she had a better shot at an Oscar win.
Sexism? Hmmm… well, I may be wrong on this count, but I don’t think any guy has ever won an Oscar for playing a male prostitute. Jon Voight was nominated for his male hooker role in 1969′s Midnight Cowboy, and I think that’s as close as it ever got.
Well, let’s not digress into social discourse about “why women become hookers” right now. Suffice to say that the social structure through the ages has definitely made it harder for women than for men to go out and earn an honest living. And of course, there is the obvious (to any fair-minded observer) difference in the sexual makeup of men and women.
By the way, it’s not just Oscar “wins” -many of movie’s well-known “women as hookers” performances, i.e. Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990), Shirley MacLaine in Irma la Douce (1963), and Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas (1995) did not win Oscars (I mistakenly thought both Julia and Elisabeth had won for their roles), but they did get nominations.
So far, 13 known actresses have taken home an Oscar statuette for playing “a woman of questionable repute” (okay, I think I’ve about exhausted the list of hooker metaphors). Let’s take a look at these 13 actresses. Eleven of the 13 definitely played prostitutes; two are a bit nebulous.
1. Janet Gaynor in Street Angel (1928)
At the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, Janet received the first-ever Oscar, but for three different movies, not just Street Angel. Interestingly, for the only time in Oscar history, an actress got an Oscar for three different films. So, although Street Angel was only a partial contribution, Janet still was technically the first.
2. Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)
A very melodramatic old movie where Hayes’ main character suffers nine misfortunes, one of which was becoming a prostitute.
3. Anne Baxter in The Razor’s Edge (1947)
Anne plays tragic alcoholic Sophie Nelson. She was a “thrown-away woman who turns to prostitution.” Pretty overwrought, huh?
4. Clare Trevor in Key Largo (1948)
This is one of two nebulous prostitution labels on the list. Clare plays a boozy, broken-down torch singer in this, one of my favorite Humphrey Bogart films. Although Clare may or may not have been a hooker in this film, she did specialize in playing the “hooker with a heart of gold.” In the classic Western Stagecoach (1939) she played a frontier prostitute “reformed” by John Wayne. Also, in the wonderful 1937 film Dead End, Clare played Bogie’s ex who was forced into prostitution by unforeseen circumstances. Clare received Oscar nominations for both roles.
5. Donna Reed in From Here to Eternity (1953)
It’s a long way from playing Mary Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) to playing an Oscar-worthy hooker seven years later. (Maybe it took more money than George thought to pay back the Building & Loan!) Now, to be fair, this designation is nebulous, too. Donna pays a “dance hall girl” in the film. She is obviously very “friendly” and “entertains” her guy customers who “visit” her, but she is not a definite hooker. Remember, too, this was the Fifties, a very conservative era in movies. It wasn’t like most scripts could openly say a woman character was a prostitute. They relied, usually, more on intimation. So I can’t honestly say Donna was a hooker here, but her character acted in that direction.
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Sure superhero fan art can be fun on its own, but you know what’s better? Non-superheroes suddenly transformed into amazing men and women of comic book lore. Sure they might not be as good at saving the world, but from an aesthetic perspective, they’re way more fun.
Perhaps one of the most epic superhero mashup artworks around is this great Futurama X-Men Meld by DeviantArt user Gottabecarl. Can you identify all of the characters in this massive artwork? Be warned, you might have to head to his DeviantArt page just to be able to see them all in their full scale.
If there was anyone Muppet that best matches Wolverine, DeviantArt user Rahzzah totally nailed it as Animal. That being said, I don’t know how well Beaker would serve as any superhero. He’s not exactly the bravest Muppet around. Personally, I think casting Miss Piggy as Phoenix seems like a much more natural choice.
When the jury was still out on whether or not Community would be renewed for another season, artist Aviv Or expressed his feelings on the matter by showing just how much he thought of the show’s characters. Personally, I adore the idea of Abed playing the role of Professor X.
Ever wonder where Mystique got all those tiny skulls on her belt? Caanan Grall has the answer with this single frame that explains so much about her back story. While it might not be as informative, his take on Clark Kent taking over for Archie is certainly just as entertaining.
Have you ever wondered what Batman and Robin would be like if they were mixed with a grouchy Chihuahua and a obese house cat? DeviantArt user Stejam13 has your answer with this wonderful combination of the classic comic and the legendary Nicktoon, Ren & Stimpy.
Someone once told me that they made February the shortest month because it’s the awfulest part of winter. I beg to differ- they made February the shortest month because if it were any longer, we’d cram even more holidays into it! But maybe both theories are right, and we tend to create February holidays because we need to cheer ourselves up to get through the last part of winter. This week is full of them! Carnival is in full swing, President’s Day is Monday, Mardi Gras is Tuesday, Wednesday is, of course, Ash Wednesday, and it’s also George Washington’s actual birthday. Whew! But through it all, you can turn to Neatorama as a shortcut to the best things on the internet -and exclusive articles, too, like these we had this last week:
On Monday, Jill Harness gave us 15 Romantic Records Perfect For Valentine’s Day.
Eddie Deezen told us about Head: The Monkees’ Strange Movie. I hope this clears up any confusion.
The Value of Love, Using the Dylan Model was reprinted for Valentines Day from the Annals of Improbable Research.
Uncle John’s Bathroom Readers brought us The First Black American Sea Captain.
And The Treasure of the Sierra Madre was from mental_floss magazine.
In the What is It? game this week, the scary-looking tool is a slater’s axe. It’s also called a sax, saxe, slate cleaver, slate cutters’ trimmer, slate trimmer, and zax. It was used to trim and punch holes in roofing slate. Anker was the first with the right answer, and so wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! The prize for the funniest answer goes to marcintosh, who said, “It’s a Panel Trowel. It’s used for spreading white grout in the gaps between comic book panels. That’s why it’s shaped like a word balloon.” That one deserves t-shirt, too! Thanks to everyone who played along. See the answers to all this week’s mystery items now at the What Is It? blog.
The most-commented-on post of the week was Dad Shot Laptop Over Daughter’s Facebook Post. Coming in second was Lunch Bags Inspected for Nutrition. These stories lit up the internet this week, and there are updates: Tommy Jordan was visited by authorities who found no evidence of wrongdoing and his daughter has a job offer, and the teacher in the lunch fiasco should have just given the child a carton of milk.
If you haven’t been over to our Facebook page lately, you’ll find additional discussions on our posts plus extra stuff you won’t find on the blog, like marvelous images with no context, such as this:
If that’s not enough, check out the Best of Neatorama. Use the slider at the top to access articles from the past six seven years.
Have a Happy President’s Day!
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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
The Monkees were a Beatles-inspired TV pop group consisting of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Mike Nesmith. For two seasons (1966-1968) the band starred in a very entertaining, creative, and ground-breaking TV series, based mainly on the Beatles’ hit movie A Hard Day’s Night, and featuring the band’s zany comedy and some excellent songs.
The genesis of Head, which was to be the one and only film made by The Monkees, was a weekend in early 1968, spent in Ojai, California, in which the four Monkees, plus Bob Rafelson and then B-movie actor Jack Nicholson, turned on a tape recorder and randomly took turns verbally tossing ideas into it. These “ideas” were to become the basis and script for Head.
The ill-fated movie got off on the wrong foot from the first day of filming on February 11, 1968. A rock-bottom budget of $750,000 was scraped together to finance Head (during production, the film had the working title Changes).
The four Monkees wanted a writing credit for the ideas they’d contributed to the script, but producers Rafelson and Bert Schneider denied them their request. This caused an upset resulting in three of the four group members not showing up on the set for the first day of shooting. Only Peter Tork was present, as Davy, Micky, and Mike staged their revolt and stayed home. The three did show up the next day, but the damage was done. The “three Monkee revolt” severely damaged the working relationship (and friendship) between the group and the producers.
The semi-hostile relationship was characterized by Rafelson and Schneider playing cutting edge albums loudly on the set and saying things like “Now that’s really rock and roll!,” in order to bait the Monkees about their pop, bubblegum-style music and image.
The cast of Head was quite eclectic and included Annette Funicello (just two years from her last “beach party” film), boxer Sonny Liston, singer Frank Zappa, a young Terri Garr, Green Bay Packer linebacker Ray Nitschke, and the Radio City Rockettes, plus Mike Nesmith’s wife and Davy Jones’ wife (both in uncredited cameos). Veteran actor Victor Mature signed on, too, after reading the script, which he admittedly did not understand at all: “All I know is, it made me laugh.” Mature’s character in Head was “the Big Victor.” This was reportedly a jab at RCA Victor, the company that released the Monkees’ records and who owned and aired the TV show The Monkees. Even Jack Nicholson and friend Dennis Hopper made brief cameos. But even this mixed group of talented people could not save Head.
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Whether or not you’re in a relationship, it’s still pretty easy to get swept away in the romantic spirit of Valentine’s Day. In honor of the holiday, let’s take a look at some of the most romantic world records ever achieved.
I don’t know about you guys, but I would need a serious Chap Stick infusion after kissing someone for 46 and a half hours. The couple, Ekkachai and Laksana Tiranarat, was part of a contest held in Thailand in 2011, which led to seven couples breaking the existing record of 32 hours that was set back in 2009.
It takes two people who can both hold their breath for a long while to break this record, which is why it is so impressive that Italians Michele Fucarino and Elisa Lazzarini were able to hold their breath while kissing for 3 minutes and 24 seconds.
While the Italian couple may have set the record for longest underwater kiss without breathing, Antonio de la Rosa Suarez holds a different but equally impressive record for kissing underwater. In his case, two women took turns kissing him while passing air to him. He stayed down there for 7 minutes, which seems like a relatively short record given that he was allowed to breathe during the process. Maybe one of you guys could take a crack at this one.
Love Sharon Stone? Not as much as Joni Rimm apparently. Rimm actually shelled out $50,000 for one kiss with the actress, who offered up a lick-smacking session as part of a charity auction supporting Project Angel Foods, a charity dedicated to providing free meals for people with HIV and AIDS.
As if having a giant wedding ceremony wasn’t romantic enough, the fact that 34 couples opted to exchange wedding vows underwater on Valentine’s Day makes this one sweet occasion, even if kissing the bride 33 feet underwater isn’t exactly an easy proposition.
It seems strange, but the world’s longest hug was actually almost a full day shorter than the world’s longest kiss. At only 24 hours and 33 minutes, it seems that this record, held by Ron O’Neil and Theresa Kerr, is just begging to be broken –so if you want to get in the book, better start locking arms now.
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!
Comments Off 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.”
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