A new website called Rent the Runway is betting that it can do for haute couture what Netflix did for movies:
“It was so easy. You just wear it and drop it back in the mail to them,” Ms. Harris said. “I don’t spend $2,000 on a dress regularly, so it’s nice to be able to wear some of the more expensive brands I wouldn’t be able to buy otherwise. And instead of just buying one or two dresses for this season, I can still have a lot of things to wear.”
Rent the Runway was founded by two recent Harvard Business School graduates, Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Carter Fleiss. Ms. Hyman said she got the idea for the service last year after watching her younger sister agonize over whether to buy an expensive new outfit to wear to a wedding.
“Here was this young girl who loves fashion and was willing to spend a good portion of her salary on a dress that she’s only going to wear once or twice, and I thought, there has to be a solution for this,” said Ms. Hyman.
Jenna Wortham of The New York Times has the scoop: Link (Photo: Todd Heisler/NY Times)
Forget the CIA, Frank Warren is probably the world's best keeper of secrets.
In 2004, Frank started a project called PostSecret,
in which he printed 3,000 blank postcards inviting people to mail him
their secrets anonymously. He handed out the postcards to strangers, left
them between book pages in bookstores and libraries, and even left some
on park benches. He got 100 back and posted the secrets on his blog.
Apparently, that struck a nerve: PostSecret went viral and since he started
it, Frank has received nearly half a million postcards in his mailbox
and over a quarter billion visitor to www.postsecret.com.
The website spawned various exhibitions, events and PostSecret books,
as well as various
parodies (a true measure of one's popularity in today's world, I'm
afraid).
The latest book, PostSecret:
Confessions on Life, Death, and God
was inspired by a collection of more than 300 postcards that were part
of the "All Faiths Beautiful" exhibit at the American Visionary
Art Museum. The book contains never-before-seen secrets that, as Frank
so eloquently wrote, "expose the common landscape of our private
lives - from our embarrassing desires to our hidden acts of kindness;
from the private prayers of atheists to the voiceless doubt of believers."
Frank, a Neatoramanaut himself (that's him wearing one of our T-shirts),
has kindly agreed to sit down for a virtual interview with us. You are
invited to submit comments and questions for Frank - we'll pick 5 of the
best comments/questions to get a free autographed PostSecret:
Confessions on Life, Death, and God
book.
Neatorama: Congratulations on the new book (it's fantastic,
by the way, I was engrossed reading it for a couple of hours) - did you
ever think that PostSecret would be as popular as it is today when you
started it?
Frank Warren: No, I have been shocked. In addition to
the five PostSecret books, the website has had over 250,000,000 hits.
I knew that if I could earn people's trust and build a collection of
creative and authentic secrets it would be very special for me. It's great
to know so many others appreciate these extraordinary confessions too.
Neatorama: Why do you think it has been so successful?
Frank: I think people find some of the funny and sexual
postcards amusing but eventually you come across a secret that you might
recognize as one of your own. One you might be hiding from yourself. I
think it is those moments of epiphany and empathy that have allowed the
PostSecret community to grow.
Neatorama: Your latest book focuses on life, death,
and God. Can you tell us a little bit about the reasoning behind the topic?
Frank: PostSecret started as a lark, maybe even a prank,
but over the years the secrets have become more meaningful to me. This
new book, like all the books have never-before-seen secrets that touch
on sexual taboos and some outlandish humor, but more than the other books,
the new book has postcards that share some our deepest and most private
feelings about the greatest mysteries of life. The parts that are always
there beneath the surface but we sometimes forget about during our everyday
lives.
Neatorama: What are some of your favorite PostSecret
secrets?
Neatorama: It's been five years since you started PostSecret
- how has it changed your life?
Frank: Knowing all these secret stories that are happening
in so many of our lives makes life, people, and riding the subway more
interesting.
Neatorama: What's next for you and PostSecret?
Frank: My favorite part of the project now is traveling
to college campuses and sharing the stories behind the secrets at live
events where audience members can share their own secrets - without anonymity,
but sometimes with great emotion.
From PostSecret Confessions on Life, Death and God:
Frank has kindly offered 5 free autographed copies of the book
for a giveaway. Got any questions for Frank? 5 lucky commenters
with the most interesting questions and/or comments will win a copy of
the book (I'll post Frank's replies as an update).
Just because you’re a polygamist, it doesn’t mean that you can’t also be frugal. South African Milton Mbhele just got married to 4 brides the frugal way: he did it all at once!
The four brides, dressed in flowing white gowns, walked down the aisle together, before saying “We do” to the 44-year-old groom.
Mr Mbhele says he didn’t marry them purely for the spectacle but because it also made financial sense. “I don’t know how much four different weddings would have cost me but I know doing it all at once saved money,” he explains.
“For example I only needed one tent, I needed to hire one caterer and one photographer for the entire ceremony.”
The Rockin’-R-Ranch in Columbia Township, Ohio hosts a haunted house and conducts haunted hayrides during October. This year, they also hosted a vampire wedding! Jack Holsinger was carried in a coffin to the alter where he met his bride Connie Spitznagel. Both were dressed as vampires. The best man appeared as pirate Jack Sparrow and the maid of honor was decked out as the Bride of Frankenstein.
Minister Greg Kopp got into the spirit of things as well. The couple vowed to love each other, haunt with each other and howl at the moon together till the end of time.
They promised to forsake all other ghouls and goblins and grow in love and “other body parts” until – you guessed – death parts them.
Instead of a first kiss, Holsinger was ordered to bite his new bride on the neck.
Many of the wedding guests were also dressed as vampires or other Halloween characters. Patrons of the haunted house were welcomed to the wedding as well. Link -via YesButNoButYes
Two couples from Norfolk, England got married in a double wedding dressed as characters from the TV show The Flintstones!
Andrea and Simon Bean, aka Fred and Wilma Flinstone, and Richard and Jill Noble, aka Barney and Betty Rubble, celebrated their double wedding at Weston Park Golf Club on Saturday by taking a quick trip to the next door dinosaur park for some spectacular wedding photographs sure to raise eyebrows on any mantelpiece.
With 165 guests dressed as cavemen and women, two best men dressed as dinosaurs, and a spectacular tiered wedding rock cake, both Wilma and Betty entered the ceremony to the traditional organ sound of Wagner’s Bridal March.
However, this was quickly replaced by an organ version of The Flintstones theme tune.
All of the participants had been married before and felt no need for a tradition wedding. In lieu of gifts, the couples received donations for the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation. Link -via Arbroath
Some people will go to great lengths to get into the Guinness World Records. Take, for example, this Chinese bride that got married in a wedding dress with a train more than 1.2 miles (2 km) long:
It took guests more than three hours to roll out the gown, complete with 9,999 silk red roses attached to it, in the northeastern province of Jilin, state news agency Xinhua said.
"Both the length of the dress and the number silk roses pinned on the wedding dress can make history," the report quoted groom Zhao Peng as saying.
Zhao, who has applied to Guinness World Records, said he was inspired after seeing a story on the previous record holder in Romania, where the dress measured just over 1.5 km.
"I do not want a cliche wedding parade or banquet," he said.
You may have seen or read about some over-the-top wedding productions, but Tony Lucchese told Sarah LaFore will be going the extra mile when they marry today in Portland, Maine. They will say their vows dressed as Superman and Wonder Woman.
Aquaman, Flash and Spider-Man round out the groomsmen. Ten bridesmaids will be Amazon warriors — in comic mythos, Wonder Woman is an Amazon princess — with spears, togas and sandals.
Two weeks ago, LaFore and Lucchese made an emergency trip to Jersey, down and back in one day, to tweak her costume.
“Paramount to having a successful wedding is having the bride feel pretty,” he said.
He and volunteer carpenters built a Fortress of Solitude altar in a rented warehouse space in Portland. They’ll be married by Kieschnick’s father, dressed as Jor-El, Superman’s dad. Part of the script borrows from Kryptonian wedding vows. The couple will break character to say, “I do.”
The two met while working on a theatrical production in Oak Ridge, Tennessee seven years ago. They have been planning the wedding for 18 months. Link -via Fark
(image credit: Amber Waterman/Sun Journal)
Update: See more at Tony and Srah’s wedding blog. Link (Thanks, Tony!)
Disney isn’t always the Happiest Place on Earth. The parks sometimes harbor deep, dark secrets – and we’re not talking the Haunted Mansion or the Tower of Terror. Below are a few sinister secrets Mickey doesn’t want you to know about.
Deaths
We’ve all heard the rumors that no one has ever died at a Disney park because Disney has paid officials to refrain from declaring injured or ill people dead until they hit a hospital outside of Disney property. But it’s not true. There are several incidents where the victims were reported to have died at the scene.
In 2007, a Spanish teenager died while she was riding the Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster at Disneyland Paris. Her friends noticed she was unconscious when the ride stopped, according to the BBC, and park medics immediately rushed to the scene. There was nothing they could do, though, and she was pronounced dead by the time an ambulance could get there. Photo from DLPInfo.
In June of both 1973 and 1983, 18-year-old boys drowned in the Rivers of America. Both had stayed in the area when they weren’t supposed to – the incident in ‘73 occurred when a boy and his brother decided to stay in the park after closing and the ‘83 incident happened when a boy capsized a rubber emergency raft he had stolen from a cast-only section of the park.
In 1984, Dollie Young was riding the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland when her seatbelt became unbuckled. To this day, it’s not known how Dollie fell out of her car, but she did. She fell to the track and was hit by another car, then caught under its wheels and dragged for a bit before the ride came to a stop. She was pronounced dead at the scene due to massive head and chest injuries.
And, of course, there was the infamous “America Sings” death of 1974. An employee named Debbi Stone was working as the hostess to the show one evening when her fellow cast members were alerted to the fact that she was missing. Some reports say they noticed at some point during the evening; other reports say a guest heard Debbi’s screams and immediately told cast members. Either way, by the time she was found, Debbi had been crushed to death between a rotating theater wall and a permanent theater wall; she definitely didn’t make it to a hospital first. Photo from Yesterland.
Ashes
Even when people aren’t dying at Disney, they want their mortal remains to be forever interred at the Happiest Place on Earth. Disney doesn’t like to talk about it, obviously, but sometimes cast members spill the beans to inquiring reporters. David Koenig, author of Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland, says that the Haunted Mansion has definitely been the site of a quickie memorial service at least once. A cast member told him that she had been working the ride when a group requested extra time on the ride to say a quick goodbye to a little boy who had died and loved the Haunted Mansion. She agreed, but then spotted one of the guests emptying grey ash out onto the ride. The ride was shut down so it could be cleaned up.
In 2007, a guest alerted cast members at the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction that she had seen another woman sprinkling some sort of a powdery substance into the water, and the Los Angeles Times reports that the ride was shut down the same year when a group of people managed to leave a pile of ashes in the Captain’s Quarters section of the ride.
Hidden Messages
I’ve done it, and I bet a lot of you have done it as well: pausing and rewinding and going frame-by-frame to catch hidden messages or images in certain Disney films. Some of them are really there and some of them are just products of our active imaginations. Here’s the lowdown:
Aladdin does not tell children to take off their clothes in Aladdin. It’s a scene where “Prince Ali” is trying to get up to Princess Jasmine’s room to talk to her when he comes across her tiger, Rajah. The tiger growls at him menacingly, and Aladdin says, “C’mon… good kitty. Take off and go!” while shooing the feline away with his turban. The captioning supports this argument. However, the line is whispered and not enunciated well, and in addition, it seems to be edited poorly. Snopes http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/aladdin.asp says that the same bit of dialogue seems to have been inserted twice, so the whispered line is doubly garbled. Because it was so close on the heels of The Little Mermaid controversy, people heard what they wanted to.
Speaking of which, The Little Mermaid did not contain any sexual images on purpose. There were two issues that concerned the public: first, that artwork for the movie contained a phallic images as part of a castle in the background, and second, that the priest officiating over the wedding scene near the end of the movie seems to get an erection right in the middle of the ceremony. Neither is true, according to Snopes. The phallic image was unintentional and was not drawn in by a disgruntled employee who had recently gotten laid off (the artist didn’t even work for Disney) and the “erection” is actually the priest’s knees.
So what is true? Well, there’s definitely an image of a topless woman in the 1977 movie The Rescuers. And Disney fully admits it. In fact, the image – which is a photograph, not an animated bit, and was clearly intentionally placed in the movie – was basically pointed out to the public by Disney themselves. The image occurs so fast in two single, non-consecutive frames, that a viewer would have to know exactly where to pause the movie in order to even see it. The movie was recalled in 1999 after Disney discovered the image was there; they claimed it must have been inserted in post-production. Photo from Snopes.
One that’s maybe true: Jessica Rabbit going commando in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. There’s a scene in the movie where Jessica and Eddie Valiant are thrown from a car, causing her dress to flip up very briefly. It goes fast, but people who have slowed the movie to frame-by-frame say that the way the coloring was done suggests that mischievous animators may have drawn Jessica without any undergarments. However, the coloring, which is darker than the rest of Jessica’s skin, may also suggest underwear.
And here’s a not-so-hidden image you can check out for yourself the next time you’re at Disney World – there’s a Nazi “hidden” in plain sight in a mural at the Grand Floridian resort. In the book Sabotage in the American Workplace, the artist who painted the piece says that Disney hired him to create a Great Gatsby-esque mural for the ballroom in the upscale hotel. He decided to paint a Nazi in the background of the mural to “comment on what was happening in the rest of the world while the Great Gatsbys where whittling away their hours with cocktails.” Photo from Snopes.
There are definitely more dark Disney tales – in fact, we could probably turn this into a series! What weird and/or disturbing rumors have you heard about the House of Mouse? Share in the comments, and maybe we’ll investigate for future posts.
io9 has pictures of 26 wedding cake toppers that geeks would enjoy, including Star Wars, Transformers, Stargate, Back to the Future, and zombie themes.
io9 uses the term “nerdiest”, but I pefer to be addressed as “geek”. The origin of the term — someone who would bite off the heads of chickens at carnival sideshows — seems a bit more fitting.
After you’ve hunted your mate and got him to agree to marry you, what’s a good huntress to do about her wedding dress?
Here’s a custom-designed camouflage wedding dress by Erika Sárközi that will surely strike fear into the heart of the prey, … er groom. (Photography: visual Images)
Cyndi Lauper is one of my heroes. I saw her a few years ago and even though she was around 45 at the time, she had the energy of a teenager. Her style has changed over the years, but it is as unique as ever. If you get the chance to see Cyndi live, do it. She’s an amazing performer with an excellent voice.
That being said, I was excited to write about Cyndi for the Music Tidbits today. It’s in a new format that should make it a bit more fun and readable. Hope you like it!
She Keeps it Real
Or at least, her name is real. Unlike other pop stars, Cyndi Lauper was born in New York in 1953 and was named Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper.
While she’s best known for singing, she can also play guitar, write lyrics and act. She started writing songs and playing guitar at only twelve years old. She’s acted in quite a few movies and tv shows, including Mad About You, the Ron Howard movie Vibes and Life With Mikey beside Michael J. Fox. Her role in Mad About You almost turned into a spin off, but network executives thought the show concept was too out there.
She’s always Been So Original
When she was only a middle-schooler, she was already dyeing her hair crazy colors and wearing her weird clothing styles she’s known for. Speaking of her wardrobe, it actually became a problem during the1985 taping of “We Are the World,” when a weird clacking noise showed up on the tape. Audio engineers finally tracked the noise down to her jewelry bonking against itself.
Doctors Said She’d Never Sing Again…Then She Did
In 1977, Cyndi severely damaged her vocal cords. Three different doctors told her she would never sing again. But she didn’t give up and started seeing vocal coach Katir Agresta, who helped Cyndi recover by teaching her a series of vocal exercises.
She’s Got High Standards
In 1978, she started a music group, Blue Angel, with saxaphonist John Turi, where they performed original music. When labels started showing interest in Cyndi’s vocal abilities (she can sing in four octaves and has perfect pitch), they wanted to sign her as a solo artist. She refused to sign with any labels until Polydor Records opted to take on all of Blue Angel.
When Cyndi signed as a solo artist with Portrait Records, the label wanted her to sing all only their pre-written pop songs. Cyndi changed most of these songs to suit her personality, which also let her claim co-writer credits and royalties later on. The most well-known song she did this to was “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which was originally written for a male singer. Cyndi thought the original lyrics were a little misogynistic, as it was all about a woman pleasing a man.
Although the label didn’t trust her writing abilities, the record producer decided they needed one more song on her first album and convinced the label to let her write a song. She co-wrote Time After Time with Rob Hyman. The song ended up being the biggest single of 1985 and has since been covered by over 100 artists. The title came from a 1979 sci-fi movie starring Malcolm McDowell.
In the video for “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” Cyndi’s mother was played by her actual mother. Also in the video was Cyndi’s dog and pro-wrestler Lou Albano. Cyndi’s famous red dress in the video was from the boutique she was working at between being signed for Blue Angel and her solo career. The video won the first ever award for Best Female Video at the MTV Music Awards. The album it was on was so popular that she became the first female artist to have four consecutive Top 5 hits from a single album.
The World Wrestling Foundation Loved Cyndi
And vice versa. Aside from having Lou Albano appear in her first video, Cyndi had frequent interactions with the stars of the WWF. Her video for the Goonies included a number of wrestling greats, including Andre The Giant and when she recieved her first Grammy Award, Hulk Hogan appeared with her, pretending to be her bodyguard. She also made quite a few appearances at WWF events, the most famous event was at the Inaugural WrestleMania event. She appeared as the manager of Wendi Richter and entered the area to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
She Hates The Goonies
Or rather, the song she wrote for the album, “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough.” It doesn’t have too much to do with the song itself, she was just traumatized by the physical exhaustion she suffered during the taping of the video. The director was too much of a perfectionist and ran the entire crew ragged. She left the song off of her best of album and only started singing it at concerts again back in 2003.
PeeWee’s Playhouse Lied To You
Cyndi wrote and performed the theme song for PeeWee’s Playhouse, but was credited as Ellen Shaw for some reason. When Cyndi was married, PeeWee (aka Paul Ruebens) was at her wedding, along with Little Richard, John Tuturo and other celebrities. Although Cyndi threatened to show up dressed as a Christmas tree, she wore a traditional white gown.
Cyndi Loves Guest Appearances
Throughout her recording career, Cyndi featured a number of guest stars on her albums, including Billy Joel, The Bangles, Rick Derringer, Bootsy Collins, Eric Clapton, Shaggy, Ani DiFranco, Jeff Beck, Paul Reubens (PeeWee Herman), Sarah McLachlan, The Hives and more. In her recent 2008 tour, she had appearances from Joan Jett, Rosie O’Donnell, The B52’s, Indigo Girls, Regina Spektor, Wanda Sykes, Sarah McLachlan and more. Lastly, although it may not count as a guest appearance, Julia Stiles, appeared as young Cyndi in the video for “Sally’s Pigeons” before she was a famous actress.
She’s Heterosexual, but Once Wished She Was Gay
Lauper is considered a gay icon, but she is heterosexual. Her sister and many of her close friends are gay and she has been performing at gay pride events since 1994. In fact, for a while, she thought herself to be a lesbian. She told The Times, “My sister was gay, my best friends were gay, so I figured I had to be gay. So I did everything they did. I tried kissing girls. But it didn’t feel right for me and eventually I was forced to come out as a heterosexual.”
When Christine England married Keith Green of Barnstaple, Devon, England, she took her new name as Mrs. Green seriously -they took their vows dressed as Shrek and Fiona from the Dreamworks movie Shrek! Their 100 wedding guests were also in fantasy costumes.
‘It was funny because when we said our vows Keith had these green ears sprouting from the top of his head.’
She tried to get her 18-year-old son to dress up as Donkey, another character from the offbeat cartoon fairytale, but said ‘he wasn’t having any of it’.
Mr Green, a builder – who doesn’t seem to mind being likened to an ogre – added: ‘It was a very strange experience to say the least, but a thoroughly enjoyable one. We love the films and my wife tells me I bear a resemblance to Shrek.’
The couple hired a make-up artist to make them look like the characters – voiced by Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz – in the hit films.
Christine’s mother Annette England, 66, said: ‘It’s not necessarily how you imagine seeing your daughter get married but it was great fun.’
This wedding dress valued at 1.5 million dollars is made from 2009 peacock tail feathers! It was unveiled at a recent wedding expo in Nanjing, China. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Some of you might be familiar with Cake Wrecks, a site that mocks botched baked goods. This site is sort of like Cake Wrecks for weddings. If you think the camo tuxes are something, wait til you see the Hello Kitty dress and the gal who chose hot pants and bustiers for herself and her bridesmaids. To each his (or her) own, I guess!
Link Photo by Stacy Reeves, obviously. I checked out her site and she actually does very lovely work; don’t hold the camo outfits against her.
I missed the Movie Trivia post for last week, so we’re doing a double feature today. Grab yourself a bowl of popcorn and some M&Ms and enjoy!
By the way, if you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen The Sixth Sense by now, I’m going to recommend that you stop reading, because a lot of my trivia revolves around the plot twist. There, you’ve been warned. I’m jealous of people who have never seen the movie, actually – this is one of those films I wish I could go back and see again for the first time.
• We don’t see a drop in temperature when Malcolm (Bruce Willis) is around Cole (Haley Joel Osment) because the cold only occurs when a ghost is angry or upset. Malcolm is never angry or upset around Haley Joel.
• I knew there was a reason I liked this movie: M. Night Shyamalan says the movie was at least partially inspired by an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark, which was only like my favorite show on SNICK back in the day. The episode was called “Tale of the Dream Girl” and centered around characters who had died but didn’t know it.
• Lefty Bruce Willis learned to write righty so we couldn’t easily see that he wasn’t wearing a wedding band (presumably his wife received it when he died).
• The color red is used to represent “anything in the real world that has been tainted by the other world,” M. Night Shyamalan says. A few examples: the red sweater Cole wears when he gets attacked in the attic, the red dress Malcolm’s wife wears when she visits the restaurant where they got engaged, the doorknob in the scene pictured and right and the red tent where the little girl who was poisoned by her mom appears to Cole.
• I didn’t know that Malcolm’s old patient (and killer) Vincent Grey was played by Donnie Wahlberg until years after the fact. I probably didn’t recognize him from his New Kids days because he lost somewhere around 43 pounds for the role. He told M. Night Shyamalan that he was going to drop some weight for the role, and Night basically said, “Sure, you do that,” thinking somewhere along the lines of 5-10 pounds. Wahlberg showed up to the set to film his scenes and Night didn’t even recognize him at first because his frame had gone from muscular and athletic to extremely wispy and thin.
• This is probably common knowledge at this point, but in case you don’t know, the little girl who is poisoned by her mom is played by a young Mischa Barton. It was one of her first few roles.
• Michael Cera (Arrested Development and Superbad) has said that his first-ever audition was for the role of Cole Sear.
• Although he was only 11 at the time, The Sixth Sense was far from Haley Joel Osment’s first acting gig. He has been acting since the age of four, including notable roles such as Forrest Gump, Jr., and Avery Brown (Murphy Brown’s son).
• The whole movie was filmed in sequence.
• As with all of his movies, M. Night Shyamalan has a little cameo. You can catch him as the doctor who examines Cole after he has the incident in the closet at the birthday party.
• All of the clothes that Bruce Willis wears throughout the movie are variations on the clothes he was wearing the day he died.
It’s too bad that Shyamalan hasn’t had the critical success he had with The Sixth Sense. I really enjoyed Signs and am probably one of the few people who didn’t hate The Village, but yeah… they weren’t quite the same. Maybe it’s because we’re all expecting the plot twist at this point. Anyway, what did you think the first time you saw the movie?
Directed by Michelle Lehman, last year’s Tropfest Australia winning film, Marry Me, tells a little love story about “a little girl who likes a little boy and a little boy who likes his BMX bike”. The film was inspired by a true story when director, Michelle, at 5 years of age, would chase Jason Mahooney around the school in a pretend wedding dress (her mother’s nightie).
Paul and Caragh Brooks spent a total of about $200 on their wedding, in front of family and friends at a Taco Bell restaurant in Normal, Illinois.
With several dozen invited guests in the room, the couple sat in a decorated booth with Ryan Green of Normal, a friend of theirs who became an ordained minister online. As Green, dressed in a T-shirt, officiated, they said the same vows.
“I promise to honor your life’s choices, comfort you in sorrow, celebrate in your joy and support your endeavors…,” they said. “Whatever the world brings, I take you as my partner.”
Business went on as usual in the front area of Taco Bell, and some customers in the Friday night supper rush stopped to watch.
Shortly before the ceremony, Kathy Brooks, the groom’s mother, said, “This is the way to go — there’s no stress.”
Ah, wedding – the holy matrimony where two souls are united as one till death, trial separation or divorce do ‘em part.
Weddings are usually formal occasions where brides can often spend beaucoup bucks on the perfect wedding dress to make themselves beautiful and refined.
But not these women. No, sirree! They seem to belong to the if-you-got-’em-flaunt-’em school of thought.
Here’s the 10 trashiest wedding dresses, as listed in Rue the Day blog: Link
Katrina Chalifoux of Rockford, Illinois won this year’s toilet paper wedding dress design competition sponsored by Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, Charmin, and Cheap-Chic-Weddings.com.
Katrina spent two weeks creating the dress, which has raised flower pattern from molded toilet paper!
Did you just get dumped? Are you finding it difficult to get over that special someone who just broke up with you?
Well, then – don’t wallow in your misery, there is a better way: share it with the world by showcasing "the detritus of soured love" in Croatian artists Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic’s Museum of Broken Relationships.
Beginning in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, the exhibit has since traveled throughout the Balkans before landing in Berlin, where it currently appears. Along the way, the curators have collected more then 300 anonymous objects, from a wedding dress to an ax, that scorned citizens donated. According to Grubisic, those from Croatia’s south tended to be more "merciless" towards their ex, while the Berlin additions to the show have so far been the most "violent." (Source: Radar Online)
When asked about his favorite piece, Grubisic said:
"We have had teddy bears won in funfair rides, CDs with favourite songs, love poetry and photographs, there seems to be a lot of broken hearted people in Britain.
"My favourite is a Welsh love spoon, which obviously did not work according to the broken-hearted sender." (Source: Ananova)
On the Museum of Broken Relationship website, you can even upload your own … er, "exhibits": Link – via MetaFilter
At the China Reproductive Health New Technology & Products Expo, fashion models strut wedding gowns, evening dresses, bikinis, hats, and other clothes made entirely of … condoms!
Sure, there’s lots to consider in planning a wedding: dresses, cakes, bands, halls … all of which can add up to a hefty bill for the parents of the bride (or, in some cultures, the groom). But perhaps those bellyaching about the substantial hit their bank account is about to take should pause for a moment to consider some of history’s most ridiculously, outrageously off-the-wall weddings. Suddenly, dropping a few grand on a one-wear gown doesn’t seem so bad, does it?
1. Attila the Hun and Ildico (453 CE)
Attila the Hun [wiki], perennial barbarian bad boy, was apparently also a perennial playboy. Leader of the Huns, Attila somehow also found time to marry 12 women and father an unknown number of children. Never able to quite get enough, Attila still might have wanted to hold off on the last wife. On his last wedding night, in 453 CE, the royalty of every nation under Hun dominion, from the Rhine to the Volga, were in attendance, and thousands of gallons of booze and whole herds of sheep were brought in to slake their appetites.
No ordinary nuptials, the drinking and feasting were to last for days, but on the morning after taking his 16-year-old bride to bed, the 50-something warlord was found dead. Whether his death was caused by poison, overdrinking, or just too much fun in the sack, the world will probably never know.
2. Margaret of York and Charles the Bold (1468)
Despite the protests of France’s Louis XI, who was fearful of an alliance between the English and the Burgundians, Margaret of York [wiki] was engaged to Charles the Bold [wiki], aka the duke of Burgundy. And in spite of the king’s objection, the crazy cats decided to go forth with said ceremony and party like it was 1469.
Extravagant even by the standards of European royal weddings, the blessed event was accompanied by a tournament in which the most famous knights in Europe bludgeoned one another for days. And Margaret’s crown, covered in pearls and diamonds, was so valuable that it’s now on display in the treasury of Aachen Cathedral.
Of course, the preceremony celebrations were equally grand. The nuptials themselves were preceded by parades through the streets of Bruges, a pageant reenacted every year during (coincidentally enough) the tourist season.
Sadly, Margaret’s subsequent life was a little less like a fairy tale: she lived to see the death of her husband in battle (1477) against the French and the overthrow of both Burgundy as an independent duchy (1482) and of her own family across the Channel (1485).
3. Prince Rainier of Monaco and Grace Kelly (1956)
Prince Rainier and Grace Kelly
Billed as "the wedding of the century," the union between the prince of Monaco [wiki] (whose family is actually descended from Genoese pirates) and the Hollywood starlet [wiki] was the talk of the civilized world for much of the mid-1950s.
Rainier gave his bride a 10-carat diamond ring, and his subjects gave their new princess diamond earrings and a necklace to match and, for no particular reason, a Rolls-Royce. Of course, the gown was no joke, either, as Grace’s new dress was designed by an Oscar winner, Helen Rose.
The couple had two wedding ceremonies, a private civil ceremony in the Riviera principality’s throne room and a public religious ceremony in Monaco Cathedral. Over 600 of the world’s rich and famous attended the reception, including Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and Ava Gardner.
Tragically, Princess Grace was killed in 1982 in a car accident. Interestingly, commemorative U.S. postage stamps were issued in her honor, but they gave her name only as "Grace Kelly." Why? Because U.S. laws bans the placement of foreign monarchs on its postage stamps.
4. Muhammad and Salama of Dubai (1981)
Things can be rough when you’re constantly trying to "keep up with the Joneses," or the Hamids, as the case may be. Arab weddings are often such bank-breakers that Arab economists frequently bemoan the size and expense that have become culturally expected. But that didn’t stop Rashid bin Sayid al-Maktoum, sheikh of Dubai, in planning his son Muhammad’s 1981 wedding to Princess Salama. Lasting a mere seven days (seven!), the wedding was held in a stadium built expressly to host the festivities. Twenty thousand guests attended, and the bill came in at just over $44 million.
5. The Mittal Affair (2004)
In possibly the most luxurious wedding in history, Vanisha Mittal, the daughter of Anglo-Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal [wiki], married Amit Bhatia, an investment banker who literally cashed in. The wedding, held in June 2004 in a chateau in France, lasted six days and was reported to have cost over $90 million (yes, that’s U.S. dollars). The guest roster included some of Bollywood’s brightest stars and some of Europe’s deepest pockets. Among the expenditures: $520,000 for a performance by pop diva Kylie Minogue, who performed for a half hour. That’s almost $300 per second, a figure even more shocking when you factor in dollars per unit of talent. (Image Credit: BBC News)
I walk past this every day on my way home from work. It is located in the Hong Kong MTR (underground/subway/metro) station and it is constantly surrounded by people taking photographs. I figured I would join the crowds and get some snaps of this monstrosity. Worse than being some creepy addition to the universe of Hello Kitty crap across the world, an actual, legal, marriage has taken place here.
Turns out the first ever legally valid subway Hello Kitty Dream Wedding was held in February 2007:
Witnessed by relatives, friends and MTR passengers, bridegroom Jamie and his bride Horlick with their bridesmaids and groomsmen, boarded the first-ever MTR Hello Kitty Wedding Train and headed towards to MTR Hong Kong Station. The wedding train was specially designed for the occasion with images of Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel dressed as little cupids covering the train body and compartments. The interior was decorated with flowers and ribbons in the grandest and most romantic fashion.
The story of the Lovers of Teruel [wiki] (Los Amantes de Teruel) goes like any other great love stories:
… Diego Marcilla had returned with great riches and with the intent of marrying Isabel. Diego had not counted the day in which he petitioned Isabel’s father whereas the Seguras had. Diego ran to the feet of Isabel and pleaded with her to marry him. Isabel refused, for it was impossible; she had already wed. Then Diego pleaded for just one kiss so that at least he could go on in the world, and this request Isabel refused. Upon hearing this Diego could not bear the separation between himself and his love, and with a sigh he died on the feet of his beloved Isabel. The next day, during the funeral for Diego Marcilla, Isabel showed up dressed in her wedding dress. She proceeded to walk to the front of the church and place a kiss on the man whom she had refused but in doing so Isabel died, falling prostrate on the body of the man whom she loved.
The cool thing is that the remains of Diego and Isabel were exhumed and reburied in two new tombs sculpted by Juan de Ávalos in shape of the two lovers holding hands!
Anita over at Say No to Crack has a neat post about all kinds of clothings made from … toilet paper! The photo on the left is but one example of things you can make from it: a toilet paper wedding dress!
George Washington was a consistent disappointment to his mother, Mary. She complained frequently to anyone who would listen that he was lax in supporting her and, much to his embarrassment, once begged the Virginia legislature for a little spending money.
John Adams spoke with a lisp because he stubbornly refused to wear dentures.
Thomas Jefferson, despite his otherwise refined tastes, was a notoriously lousy dresser with poor posture. He once shocked a British minister with his slovenly appearance.
"Hail to the Chief" was written written specifically for James Madison, because he was so short that no one ever noticed when he entered the room.
James Monroe was driven to the brink of bankruptcy by his spendthrift wife and daughters; Monroe’s wife then compounded matters by developing an expensive, and eventually fatal, illness.
Partial to skinny-dipping in the Potomac, J.Q. Adams was once surprised mid swim by an enterprising female reporter, who forced him into a naked interview.
Andrew Jackson made his wife, Rachel, a bigamist by illegally marrying her before she’d divorced her first husband.
Martin Van Buren liked to gamble on the outcome of elections.
William Henry Harrison was the biggest vote getter in the American history if calculating by what percentage of eligible voters chose him – but was only president for 31 days.
John Tyler holds the presidential paternity record. He had 14 children live to maturity, the youngest born when Tyler was 70.
James K. Polk was plagued with diarrhea throughout his single term. He eventually died of what he described as a "derangement of the stomach and bowels."
Zachary Taylor received so much fan mail after his Mexican War victories that he started refusing all postage-due letters. As a result, he didn’t find out he’d won the Whig nomination for president for almost a month.
Millard Fillmore had a historic audience with the pope shortly before being nominated for president on a violently anti-Catholic ticket.
Franklin Pierce was pals with author Nathaniel Hawthorne. In fact, the two were vacationing together in the White Mountains when Hawthorne died in his sleep.
James Buchanan had one eye set higher in his head than the other, so he walked around with his neck cocked to one side.
Abraham Lincoln had a twangy high-pitched voice – nothing at all like Sam Waterston’s.
Andrew Johnson loved the circus.
Ulysses S. Grant changed his name from Hiram Ulysses because he was ashamed of the initials H.U.G. Also, he hated music. All music.
Rutherford B. Hayes was a huge fan of croquet.
James A. Garfield, a former classics teacher, could simultaneously write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other.
Chester A. Arthur had over 80 pairs of pants and insisted on changing several times a day.
Grover Cleveland had a prosthetic jaw and an illegitimate daughter, neither of which seriously affected his popularity. He’s also the only president to have been elected to two non-consecutive terms.
Benjamin Harrison had the first electric lights in the White House, but was scared to turn them on or off for fear of electrocution. Instead, he made the servants do it.
William McKinley’s wife was an epileptic whose contorted face he sometimes covered up with a handkerchief during formal dinner parties.
Theodore Roosevelt’s mother and first wife died on the same day, in the same house, on the fourth anniversary of his engagement, which was also Valentine’s Day. Rough.
As president, William Howard Taft weighed 326 pounds and got stuck in the White House bathtub. He had a bigger one installed.
Woodrow Wilson was a gifted mimic fond of telling racist jokes in Irish dialect. He also liked to imitate drunks.
Warren G. Harding kept his romantic trysts in the closet – literally. He often met his mistress in a closet off the presidential office.
Calvin Coolidge, while president, enjoyed riding on a mechanical horse and whooping like a cowboy. He also thought it was great fun to hit the buzzer for the servants and then hide.
Herbert Hoover and his wife were both proficient in Chinese and would often use it to talk privately in the presence of guests.
Franklin D. Roosevelt had a collection of 25,000 stamps. He added to it by simply having the Postmaster General and State Department mail him every new issue.
Harry S Truman once wrote a threatening letter to the music critic of the Washington Post in response to a negative review of his daughter’s voice recital, stating "I never met you, but if I do, you’ll need a new nose …" His entire middle name, incidentally, was S.
Dwight D. Eisenhower hated cats. In retirement in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he enjoyed shooting at any that came near his house.
John F. Kennedy only watched the first halves of movies. Then he’d get bored.
Lyndon B. Johnson proposed to his wife, Lady Bird, on their first date, a breakfast, then bought her a wedding ring for $2.50.
Richard M. Nixon loved football. As president, he’d occasionally called up NFL coaches to chat and offer strategic advice.
Gerald R. Ford was originally named Leslie Lynch King Jr. after his biological father, who abandoned the family when Ford was an infant. The next time Ford saw him was 15 years later, when Leslie Sr. showed up without warning and gave the kid 25 bucks.
Jimmy Carter wrote a children’s book called "The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer."
Ronald Reagan’s 1965 personal memoir, Where’s the Rest of Me? opens with the line, "The story begins with the close up of a bottom."
George H.W. Bush was the first president to use any of the following words in his inaugural addresses: "cocaine," bacteria," and "easygoingness."
Bill Clinton was eight years old when he was beaten up by a sheep. That was the day, according to his autobiography, that he learned that he could take a hard hit.
George W. Bush was the first sitting president to acquire an iPod and correspondingly the first to admit a weakness for Blackie & the Rodeo Kings.
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From mental_floss’ book Scatterbrained, published in Neatorama with permission.
Be sure to visit mental_floss‘ extremely entertaining website and blog!
Baker Valentyn Shtefano and his bride Viktoriya show off her wedding gown, which Shtefano made out of flour, eggs, sugar and caramel in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod in Aug. 27, 2006. The edible dress, made of 1,500 cream puffs and weighing in at 20 pounds (9 kilograms), took the 28-year-old baker two months to make.
This is a co-blogging with ILuvNUFC of Look At This … blog, who suggested the fantastic theme of "World Records" – At first I thought, okay, how hard could this be?
It turned out to be quite challenging: there are thousands of weird and fascinating world records (so, my apologies to ILuvNUFC for dragging this project for a long time!). For example, who’da thunk that there’s an entry for farthest nasal projection, fastest human conveyor belt, and longest midget toss? For every one weird world record that I find, there must be hundreds more out there!
So, finding weird world records has been my obsession for the last couple of weeks. Alas, time has run out: so incomplete as it may seem, here are our picks of some of the world’s neatest and weirdest world records.
World’s Largest Monster Truck. This redneck wet dream is Bigfoot 5, the world’s largest monster truck made by Bob and Marilyn Chandler of St. Louis, Missouri:
BIGFOOT #5 was completed in the summer of 1986 for the sole purpose of handling the 10 foot tall Firestone Tundra tires. The tires were originally used on an Alaskan land train that was used by the US Army in the 1950’s. Before they were permanently installed on BIGFOOT #5, they had been used by BIGFOOT #1, #2, & #4. Its first show was the Fall Jamboree in Indianapolis where it donned dual 10′ tires, making it the tallest, widest and heaviest pickup in the world! Today, BIGFOOT #5 mainly sets on display at BIGFOOT 4×4, Inc. in St. Louis, Missouri.
Largest (and Probably Only) Airplane Ever Eaten. Michel Lotito, better known as Monsieur Mangetout (Mr. Eat Everything) is basically a normal guy, except he eats things like metal and glass.
He is the current (as if anyone else can do it …) world record holder of biggest meal ever eaten: a Cessna 150 airplane.
Doctors found that Mangetout’s stomach lining is twice as thick as a normal stomach lining, which explains why he is able to digest these things. The doctors concluded that his rare condition must have developed when he was still in his mother’s womb.
World’s Fastest Strip Down. From Japan (where else?) comes a man who can take off all of his clothes in just 7 and a half seconds!
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] (Don’t worry, work safe – This is Neatorama, folks!)
World’s Fastest Furniture. At 87 mph, this sofa called Casual Lofa is the world’s fastest furniture:
This sofa is fully street legal! It has an MoT and Vehicle Licence and is powered by a mid-mounted, unleaded A-series Mini engine.
Along with the Leopard skin upholstery, the unusual features include a pizza pan (complete with pepperoni pizza) steering wheel, hand operated drinks-can brake ‘pedal’, a chocolate bar to select the 4 automatic gears and a knee throttle which facilitates a feet-up (or down)driving position.
World’s Largest Maze. North Yorkshire farmer Tom Pearcy of "York Maze" created the world’s largest maze, in tribute of the 40th anniversary of Star Trek:
The maze, which is just outside York, covers 32 acres – the equivalent of 15 football pitches. It was designed using satellite technology which meant the paths could be cut to an accuracy of half a metre.
Farmer Tom Pearcy said it is the first time this technology has been used in maze design.
World’s Longest Nose. Betcha didn’t know that there’s an annual longest nose competition in Turkey. Or that Mehmet Ozyurek’s 3 and a half inches snout wins every time!
At the annual longest nose competition in Turkey things are not done in a normal fashion. Noses are measured in anchovy bones, but we do not know how many anchovy bones make up 8.8 cm. or 3 1/2 inches.
Mehmet Ozyurek of Turkey nosed out the competition with his 3 1/2 snout to be the proud owner of the world’s longest nose.
World’s Stretchiest Skin. The world’s stretchiest skin belongs to Garry Turner:
Garry Turner, of Caistor, Lincolnshire, England, stretched the skin of his stomach to a distended length of 15.8 cm (6.25 in) on the set of Guinness World Records: Primetime in Los Angeles, California, US, on October 29, 1999.
Garry has a rare medical condition called Elhers-Danlos Syndrome, a disorder of the connective tissues.
Most People Inside a Soap Bubble. Sam Heath, better known as " Sam Sam the Bubble Man" set the world record for most people inside a single bubble. Sam used a 7-m wand to encapsulate 19 people inside the bubble!
Seagaia Ocean Dome: World’s Largest Man-Made Beach. This indoor water park in Miyazaki, Japan, features a retractable roof, controlled weather, and perfect waves every day of the year!
World’s Greatest Miser. Hetty Green was a very rich woman – actually, she was once the richest woman in the world, probably because she didn’t spend any money. And I mean any:
Green was mainly interested in business, and there are many tales (of various degrees of accuracy) about her stinginess. She never turned on the heat nor used hot water. She wore one old black dress and undergarments that she changed only after they had been worn out. She did not wash her hands and rode an old carriage. She ate mostly pies that cost fifteen cents. One tale claims that she spent a night looking for a lost stamp worth two cents.
Hettie’s son Ned broke his leg and had to have it amputated because Hettie delayed treatment while insisting on finding free medical care!
World’s Longest Midget Toss. Midget or dwarf tossing has got to be one of the strangest "sport" ever! The longest toss recorded was in 2002 British Dwarf Tossing Championship, when Jimmy Leonard tossed Lenny the Giant 11 feet and 5 inches!
In case you’re wondering, the midget usually comes out ahead – they’re paid a princely sum to be tossed around. Some even made over $100,000 a year until the sport was banned in the US in 1989.
World’s Longest Eyebrow. Leonard Traenkenschuh of Port Townsend, Washington, has a 3 and a half inches eyebrow hair (and still growing!):
Leonard has two – count ’em, two – hairs past that length. His longest strand is 3½ inches.
“I didn’t set out to grow a hair to set a record,” says the man who has lived in Port Townsend since 1980 and works at the hospital transcribing medical records. “This just happened.”
Leonard, 56, has never been a particularly hairy person. He does not have a beard and does not have thick sideburns or a mustache. “I just have fertile brows,” he says.
What’s up with India? Three – count ‘em, three – of the world’s longest ear hair belong to Indians! Links: Radhakant | Antony and BD (previously on Neatorama: World’s Longest Ear Hair)
As if that’s not enough, two of the world’s longest moustaches also belong to Indians. The one on the left is Kalyan Ramji Sain of Sundgarth, India, who hasn’t trimmed his 11.1 ft (3.39 m) moustache since 1976. The one on the right, the reigning world record holder, is Badamsinh Juwansinh Gurjar, whose moustache measures 12.5 foot long.
World’s Biggest Cookie. Immaculate Baking Co. baked the world’s biggest cookie in 2003. The cookie is about 100 ft. in diameter and 40,000 lb in weight (yes, that is a photo of the cookie taken from 100 feet above – the red speck is a guy standing in the center of the cookie!)
In case you’re wondering, it’s chocolate chip. Link | Photos
World’s Largest Family of Jugglers. The title of the world’s largest family of jugglers belongs to the 13-member Boehmer family.
Larry and Judy Boehmer said this about their unique family:
Being in a large family usually means learning to juggle several tasks at once – making dinner while helping children with homework, bandaging a knee, keeping an eye on the horseplay in the back yard, and lending a caring ear.
However, in addition to normal family life, the Boehmers juggle clubs, rings, torches, balls, and anything else they can get their hands on. It all started 22 years ago with a juggling book, a motel room and a lot of spare time.
World’s Longest Palindrome. Remember "A Man, a Plan, a Canal – Panama" palindrome [wiki]? Well, Peter Norvig wrote a computer program that spat out the world’s longest palindrome (granted, mostly consisting of names, but still …) at 17,259 words…
A man, a plan, a carpus, AEC, Rickey, EKG, navettes, Sorcha, Basil, … (rest here) …, Aia, Jose, Zitah, SBLI, Sabah, Crossett, Evang, Keyek, Circe, a supr, a canal, Panama.
World’s First Obscene Gesture. Remember past Neatorama story on how Little Mister Apricot lost his title? (4-year-old Matthew Burgos flipped off the crowd after being crowned Little Mister Apricot!)
Well, it turns out this gesture goes back a loooong ways – about 2,500 years ago, in fact.
From SexualRecords:
Known to the Romans as the digitus infamis ("notorious finger"), its meaning hasn’t changed at all in the intervening years. Aristophanes uses it in The Clouds [wiki] (423 BC) as a literary device. In the following excerpt, Strepsiades, while talking to Socrates, deliberately confuses the obscene daktylos (Greek for "finger") with the poetic dactyl:
SOCRATES: Polite society will accept you if you can discriminate, say, between the anapest and common dactylic—sometimes vulgarly called "finger rhythm." STREPSIADES: Finger rhythm. I know that. SOCRATES: Define it then. STREPSIADES [Extending his middle finger in an obscene gesture]: Why, it’s tapping time with this finger. Of course, when I was a boy [holding up his penis], I used to make rhythm with this one.
That Strep, what a character. Biblical scholars point to Isaiah 58:9-10, which seems to indicate that the gesture was known to the ancient Israelites: "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the point of the finger, and speaking wickedness….then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday." Either way, it’s a rich testament to the adage that actions speak louder than words.
Many more … ehm, interesting records at SexualRecords [yes, sensitive topic. But mostly text]
World’s Largest Bike. Greg Dunham of Stockton, California, built this ginormous 15-foot high, 25-foot long motorcycle on a dare!
Dunham built the 15-foot high, 25-foot-long monster bike over three years. It weighs about 6,500 pounds and Dunham steers it from a cage below the handlebars.
The beauty shop owner said he created the monster bike because his friends said it couldn’t be done and he wanted to prove it could. The reaction he gets from people who see it is icing on the cake. "People love it," Dunham says. "Fifteen guys came from out of nowhere to see it. One of the guys said, ‘Build me one!’ People love it!"
World’s Largest Ketchup (Catsup?) Bottle. You say ketchup, I say catsup, but we can all agree the largest ketchup er catsup bottle is in Collinsville, Illinois!
A water tower was needed for plant operations and to supply water to the new fire protection sprinkler system. Gerhart S. Suppiger, then president of the company, suggested the tower be built in the distinctive tapered shape of their catsup bottles.
Everyone was amused by the idea back then, little realizing they would create a landmark that would be world renown 50 years later.
World’s Largest Gold Coin. How’s this for spare change: a 100,000 Euro gold coin made from 24-karat gold created by the Austrian Mint:
The coin, with a face value of 100,000 euros, bears a replica of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s famous hall on one side and instruments on the other.
Only 15 of the 24-carat discs – dubbed Big Phil and measuring 37cm (14.5in) -were created by the Austrian mint.
World’s Largest Currency. Think that’s a big coin? That’s nothing compared to the currency in the teeny Island of Yap, where stone wheels larger than tractor tires are used as cash!
Hundreds of giant stone coins, some as big as 12 feet in diameter, stand by the side of the road, lean against houses or lie half hidden among trees and shrubs. Many of the mottled gray stones are centuries old and are worth thousands of dollars.
Though doughnut-shaped coins that weigh a ton might seem impractical elsewhere, stone money is an essential part of the economy and cultural life of Yap, a small group of islands 4,300 miles west of Hawaii.
The larger pieces are seldom moved and instead change hands in something akin to an electronic bank transfer. They are used to buy land, pay for services or provide compensation in cases of wrongdoing or negligence. Even stones that sank offshore long ago still hold their monetary value.
Those giant coins aren’t the only things interesting there:
On the outer islands of Yap, Western clothing is banned and men and women are required to go shirtless at all times. On the main island, also called Yap, the entire population is required to go topless on certain days of the year to celebrate traditions.
But some leaders worry that Yap’s customs are breaking down as islanders have more contact with the outside world, especially women who return after working on neighboring islands.
"When they come back they are more outsider than Yapese," Gov. Robert A. Ruecho said. "They don’t want to remove their tops."
Chief Ruepong says any Yapese who want to abandon traditional ways should leave.
"If they don’t want to be topless, they can live in Guam," he said.
World’s Tallest Snowman. Meet Angus, King of the Mountain – the world’s tallest snowman. Built in 1999 in Bethel, Maine (apparently there’s a lot of snow there. And time. Lots of time.)
Some interesting statistics about this snowman are as follows:
Height 113 ft. & 7 inches tall 9,000,000 lbs 200,000 cubic feet of snow 4 ft. wreathes as eyes 6 ft. of chicken wire & muslin for the carrot nose 6 automobile tires as the mouth 20 ft. fleece hat 120 ft. fleece scarf 3 skidder tires for the buttons 2 – 10 ft. trees for arms
The snowman’s hat was made by seventh graders at Telstar Middle School.
His six-foot nose was made by local elementary school students and as a special touch, has the imprints of the student’s hands.
Most People on World’s Largest Surfboard. This is a two-fer: Nev Hyman set the world record for longest surfboard with his 40-foot long creation (about the length of a school bus!) and the board set another world record for the largest number of surfers riding on one board (47 people).
World’s Tallest Bicycle. World’s Tallest Bicycle was made by Terry Goertzen, a pastor of the Jubilee Mennonite Church in Winnipeg. The bike was 18 ft. 5 in. (5.55 m) tall!
The origins of the feat were innocent enough. Terry’s wife SuAnn had given him a welding set for Christmas and soon he was building bikes, including a multi-layered one. On a whim, he checked the world’s record for tallest bicycle. When he realized he was already close to the 4.3 metre record, he decided to beat it.
The local media enjoyed the event, headlining it with language about prayer or getting “closer to God.” A crowd of some 200 also had fun at it, cheering Terry on and buying the hot dogs and drinks sold by the church to raise funds for bicycles for students in India.
World’s Largest Transport Ship. Yes, you saw that right: it’s a ship carrying a ship. Indeed, the semi-submersible heavy-lift ship MV Blue Marlin and her sister ship MV Black Marlin were designed to transport oil drilling rigs. This world’s largest open-deck transport ship was photographed carrying USS Cole, which was damaged by a bomb in Yemen.
World’s Largest Bowl of Pasta. Lisa and Steve’s got a unique wedding. Who else can claim to be married (on Valentine’s Day 2004 no less) on the Keeler TV Show while standing on the world’s largest bowl of pasta (all 7,355 lb. of it!).
World’s Largest Cabbage. Bernard Lavery knows how to grow things. Giant things. In fact, he holds ten or so world records for heaviest fruits and vegetables. This one above is the world’s largest cabbage, which weighed 124 lb and measured 12 feet by 13 feet!
World’s Largest Bagel. At 868 lb, 6 ft in diameter and 20 in thick, Bruegger’s Bagel made the biggest bagel in the world in the 2004 New York State Fair.
The bagel is so big that it needed to be baked in a custom-built oven and moved with a small crane!
World’s Most Horny Animal! Meet Lurch, a Watusi steer and holder of the world record horn. Owner Janice Wolf of Arkansas measured Lurch’s horns at over 7 ft long and 37.5 inches around and are still growing!
World’s Largest Human Rainbow. In September 2004, over 31,000 students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines wearing colorful shirts gathered together to form the world’s largest human rainbow. Link
Most Rattlesnakes in Mouth. Jackie "The Texas Snake Man" Bibby certainly lives up to his name. He’s got four – count ‘em four world records for: most live rattlesnakes held in the mouth (8), sat with in a bathtub (81), shared a sleeping bag with (109), and fastest sacking of 10 rattlesnakes (17.11 seconds). *Shivers*
Heaviest Weight Lifted with Tongue. You wouldn’t know it but there is a world record for heaviest weight lifted with tongue. Yes, you read that right:
On September 11, 2004, sword swallower (he once swallowed a running jackhammer) and performer extraordinaire Thomas Blackthorne lifted 24 lbs 3 oz with a butcher’s hook threaded through his tongue.
World’s Fastest Drummer. Art Verdi holds the record for World’s Fastest Drummer. In this clip, Art Verdi reached 1,100 drum strokes in 60 seconds, as determined by a drumometer.
World’s Tallest Lego Structure. In February 2005, Legoland in Carlsbad, California, set the world’s record for tallest Lego structure ever made at 92 feet and 6 inches. It took 12,000 people using more than 400,000 bricks and five days to build the tower.
Farthest Nasal Ejection. If you’re looking for world records, you can’t go wrong with the Guinness World Records. It’s still the place to go to find weird world records, like Kevin Cole’s Farthest Spaghetti Nasal Ejection World Record:
Kevin Cole of Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA, holds the record for the longest spaghetti strand blown out of a nostril in a single blow. On December 16, 1998, Kevin successfully achieved a record distance of 19 cm (7.5 in) on the set of Guinness World Records: Primetime in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Balancing Heaviest Things on Head. John Evans has a unique talent of balancing very heavy things on his head. In fact, John holds no less than 30 world records of balancing things on his noggin!
World’s Fastest Human Conveyor Belt. On March 3, 2005, one hundred students at Eisenhower Junior High School in Taylorsville, UT, set the world’s record for fastest human conveyor belt by "conveying" a mattress a distance of nearly 180 feet in just 2 minutes and 1 second.
A new website called Rent the Runway is betting that it can do for haute couture what Netflix did for movies:
was inspired by a collection of more than 300 postcards that were part
of the "All Faiths Beautiful" exhibit at the American Visionary
Art Museum. The book contains never-before-seen secrets that, as Frank
so eloquently wrote, "expose the common landscape of our private
lives - from our embarrassing desires to our hidden acts of kindness;
from the private prayers of atheists to the voiceless doubt of believers."
Just because you’re a polygamist, it doesn’t mean that you can’t also be frugal. South African Milton Mbhele just got married to 4 brides the frugal way: he did it all at once!
The Rockin’-R-Ranch in Columbia Township, Ohio hosts a haunted house and conducts haunted hayrides during October. This year, they also hosted a vampire wedding! Jack Holsinger was carried in a coffin to the alter where he met his bride Connie Spitznagel. Both were dressed as vampires. The best man appeared as pirate Jack Sparrow and the maid of honor was decked out as the Bride of Frankenstein.
Two couples from Norfolk, England got married in a double wedding dressed as characters from the TV show The Flintstones!
Some people will go to great lengths to get into the Guinness World Records. Take, for example, this Chinese bride that got married in a wedding dress with a train more than 1.2 miles (2 km) long:
You may have seen or read about some over-the-top wedding productions, but Tony Lucchese told Sarah LaFore will be going the extra mile when they marry today in Portland, Maine. They will say their vows dressed as Superman and Wonder Woman.
So what is true? Well, there’s definitely an image of a topless woman in the 1977 movie The Rescuers. And Disney fully admits it. In fact, the image – which is a photograph, not an animated bit, and was clearly intentionally placed in the movie – was basically pointed out to the public by Disney themselves. The image occurs so fast in two single, non-consecutive frames, that a viewer would have to know exactly where to pause the movie in order to even see it. The movie was recalled in 1999 after Disney discovered the image was there; they claimed it must have been inserted in post-production. Photo from 
After you’ve hunted your mate and got him to agree to marry you, what’s a good huntress to do about her wedding dress? 
When Christine England married Keith Green of Barnstaple, Devon, England, she took her new name as Mrs. Green seriously -they took their vows dressed as Shrek and Fiona from the Dreamworks movie Shrek! Their 100 wedding guests were also in fantasy costumes. 
Paul and Caragh Brooks spent a total of about $200 on their wedding, in front of family and friends at a Taco Bell restaurant in Normal, Illinois.
Ah, wedding – the holy matrimony where two souls are united as one till death, trial separation or divorce do ‘em part. 
We’ve featured a lot of strange (and strangely bad) 
Did you just get dumped? Are you finding it difficult to get over that special someone who just broke up with you? 
At the China Reproductive Health New Technology & Products Expo, fashion models strut wedding gowns, evening dresses, bikinis, hats, and other clothes made entirely of … condoms!
Extravagant even by the standards of European royal weddings, the blessed event was accompanied by a tournament in which the most famous knights in Europe bludgeoned one another for days. And Margaret’s crown, covered in pearls and diamonds, was so valuable that it’s now on display in the treasury of Aachen Cathedral. 
Rainier gave his bride a 10-carat diamond ring, and his subjects gave their new princess diamond earrings and a necklace to match and, for no particular reason, a Rolls-Royce. Of course, the gown was no joke, either, as Grace’s new dress was designed by an Oscar winner, Helen Rose. 
In possibly the most luxurious wedding in history, Vanisha Mittal, the daughter of Anglo-Indian steel tycoon 
Anita over at 
George Washington was a consistent disappointment to his mother, Mary. She complained frequently to anyone who would listen that he was lax in supporting her and, much to his embarrassment, once begged the Virginia legislature for a little spending money.
James Monroe was driven to the brink of bankruptcy by his spendthrift wife and daughters; Monroe’s wife then compounded matters by developing an expensive, and eventually fatal, illness.
John Tyler holds the presidential paternity record. He had 14 children live to maturity, the youngest born when Tyler was 70.
James Buchanan had one eye set higher in his head than the other, so he walked around with his neck cocked to one side.
James A. Garfield, a former classics teacher, could simultaneously write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other.
William McKinley’s wife was an epileptic whose contorted face he sometimes covered up with a handkerchief during formal dinner parties.
Calvin Coolidge, while president, enjoyed riding on a mechanical horse and whooping like a cowboy. He also thought it was great fun to hit the buzzer for the servants and then hide.
Harry S Truman once wrote a threatening letter to the music critic of the Washington Post in response to a negative review of his daughter’s voice recital, stating "I never met you, but if I do, you’ll need a new nose …" His entire middle name, incidentally, was S.
George H.W. Bush was the first president to use any of the following words in his inaugural addresses: "cocaine," bacteria," and "easygoingness."
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