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Edgar Allan Poe fans waited after midnight this morning at the cemetery in Baltimore where the author is buried, but for the third year in a row, no “Poe Toaster” showed up. For around 70 years, a mysterious person visited Poe’s grave on the morning of January 19th, Poe’s birth date.
Poe House and Museum Curator Jeff Jerome said early Thursday that die-hard fans waited hours past when the tribute bearer normally arrives. But the “Poe Toaster” was a no-show for a third year in a row, leaving another unanswered question in a mystery worthy of the writer’s legacy. Poe fans had said they would hold one last vigil this year before calling an end to the tradition.
“It’s over with,” Jerome said wearily. “It will probably hit me later, but I’m too tired now to feel anything else.”
It is thought that the tributes of an anonymous man wearing black clothes with a white scarf and a wide-brimmed hat, who leaves three roses and a half-empty bottle of cognac at Poe’s original grave on the writer’s birthday, date to at least the 1940s. Late Wednesday, a crowd gathered outside the gates of the burial ground surrounding Westminster Hall to watch for the mysterious visitor, yet only three impersonators appeared, Jerome said.
The author was born in 1809 and died 40 years later. Link -via Fark
(Image credit: AP)
Actress Betty White is 90 years old today. NBC aired a birthday tribute last night, and President Obama took part by sending a video greeting. Link -via Buzzfeed
Paul’s birthday gift to Emma is a story told in picture book fashion. It starts off slow but gets really interesting as it goes along. I hope Emma liked it as much as I did! -via Nag on the Lake
Sometimes you get what you pay for, especially when it comes to hired entertainment for a kid’s birthday party. Enter the wackiest collection of superheroes party entertainers I’ve ever seen, getting down in ways which seem totally inappropriate to do in front of a bunch of youngsters. These kids will never look at Spider Man the same way again, and the Batdance will surely haunt their dreams.
–via BuzzFeed
Muppet creator (and the most renowned puppeteer ever) Jim Henson was born on September 24, 1936, which would make him 75 years old if he were with us today. In honor of the occasion, the Google Doodle features a group of Henson’s monsters -and you can act as the Muppeteer!
Link to Google.
Link to a memorial at the Google Blog.
Link to more from and about Jim Henson.
Link to more from the Muppets.
Brazilian Lucas Jatobá gave us the video Goodbye Barcelona! earlier this year. Since then, he’s been in Sydney, Australia. On his 30th birthday, he gave 30 gifts to random stangers and made of video of the experience. The music is “To Build a Home” by Cinematic Orchestra. At Jatobá’s site, you’ll find a list of the gifts, and links to more pictures and the funny “making of” video. Link -Thanks, Lucas!
It may seem like a simple thing to research, but simply typing in the year of your birth and getting a instant history lesson on pop culture, politics and the news is somehow very entertaining. Type in your year and let us know what were some interesting facts you found out about the year of your birth.
Nikola Tesla was born in what is now Croatia on July 10, 1856, which is 155 years ago today. It’s a good day to take a little time and find out more about this extraordinary man.
Few inventors contributed more to advances in science and engineering in the early 20th century than Nikola Tesla. As one of the Fathers of Electricity, Tesla did groundbreaking work on alternating current (AC) power system, electromagnetism, hydroelectric power, radio, and radar to name a few. Many of his inventions (Tesla obtained some 300 patents in his lifetime) became the stuff we take for granted today: when we flip a switch to turn on the light, we owe a lot of that electrical magic to Tesla.
As fate would have it, Tesla, one of the world’s greatest inventors, died penniless and in obscurity. Even today, many people mistakenly attribute many of his inventions to others (Edison, for example, is in the name of many power companies in the United States – ironically, they use the AC system devised by Tesla rather than the more inefficient direct current or DC system espoused by Thomas Edison; Tesla also invented the fundamentals of radio transmissions before Gugliegmo Marconi).
Today, there’s quite a bit of resurgence in Tesla’s popularity, which is helped in part by his mystique as a “mad scientist.” Amongst his more outlandish ideas, Tesla worked on death rays to knock out enemy airplanes out of the skies, pocket-sized resonance machine that could topple buildings, ways to send electricity through the upper atmosphere, force-fields to protect cities, and so on.
Read the story of Tesla’s life and inventions, along with plenty of photographs, in an excerpt from the book Tesla: Master of Lightning by Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth. Link
What can you possibly give a two-year-old dog to make him the happiest puppy in the world? Bunk will never forget this one! -via Buzzfeed
Rachel Gilbert recently celebrated her 100th birthday -by indulging in her need for speed. Gilbert, of Laconia, New Hampshire, took a spin around the track in a pace car at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in honor of her birthday.
As part of this ultimate birthday celebration Gilbert and her family will receive suite passes overlooking “The Magic Mile,” where they will enjoy every lap of the LENOX Industrial Tools 301.
Gilbert will also have the opportunity to rub elbows with the stars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series during the Sunday morning drivers’ meeting.
The longtime race fan was surprised with this once in a lifetime opportunity from her family and Gappens. When told she would be riding around the speedway in the pace car, she was ready to leave for Loudon immediately.
Included in her birthday package was a race car cake, an official LENOX Industrial Tools 301 hat, NHMS jacket and birthday card. Her favorite driver Carl Edwards even signed and sent an official crew shirt and birthday wishes.
“My mom has always been a major race fan. She doesn’t miss a race on TV,” says daughter Marie Anne Mills.
Gilbert has been a fan of auto racing for over 50 years, and the folks at the track appreciate her. Link -via Fark
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William Shatner turns 80 years old today. In honor of the occasion, Buzzfeed has posted many pictures of Shatner in various roles, from the original Star Trek (and even earlier roles) to his current starring role in the TV series $#*! My Dad Says. Here you see him at age 26 during rehearsal for The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Link
[YouTube] – via The Frisky
Ah, it’s the weekend – so let’s have a little fun. A free T-Shirt from the NeatoShop for the funniest caption: what’s going through the Wilford Brimley cat‘s mind?
Place your T-shirt selection alongside your entry, otherwise you forfeit your prize, mmkay? One caption per comment, though you can enter as many as you’d like.
Update 8/26/10 – Congrats to Nick who won with this gem: “I told them all i wanted was a cheezburger.”
I just found out that Maru, the Japanese Scottish Fold who took the internet by storm, is turning three years old today. That means he was quite young when we first featured him on Neatorama. Here is a compilation video for the occasion. -via I Am Bored
Mukhtar is a bud bus driver in Copenhagen. You can tell he was worried when a trumpeter started playing on his bus. Would the other passengers complain? Then it gradually became clear that almost everyone on the bus was there to wish him a happy birthday! -Thanks, Hanan!
Charlie Chaplin has a fan club in Adipur, Gujarat, India called the Charlie Circle. A couple hundred local people are members, and have a celebration every year on April 16th, Chaplin’s birthday. For this year’s party, more than 100 people attended dressed as Chaplin’s character the Little Tramp. The man behind the town’s fascination with the actor is film buff Ashok Aswani, who became a Chaplin fan in 1966 when he watch The Gold Rush four times in one day.
The young man, his life changed by Chaplin’s cinema, dropped out of college and applied for an actor’s course in India’s most famous cinema school in the western city of Pune. He passed the admission test, joined the school but was thrown out after six months when he failed his tests.
Returning to Adipur, Mr Aswani opened the Charlie Circle club in 1973. He became a practitioner of indigenous medicine, giving away free Chaplin CDs with his potions.
The annual celebration includes a street party and procession and the showing of a Chaplin film. Link -via Fortean Times
(image credit: Sanjoy Ghosh)
In an amazing stroke of luck, coincidence or great planning five members of one family share the same birth date, over several generations! That is, as of yesterday when Mila was born on March 29th like the rest of te family.
It all began 70 years ago with Anita Marshall. Her daughter, Alicia Bams, shared her birthday and it kept snowballing from there. Soon, Anita’s grandson, Eddie Marshall, checked in on the same day. Then, along came granddaughter Sydne freeman and, now, Mila.
Bams says, “Now we have one more person to put on the birthday cake every year.”
From the Upcoming 
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Whereas other little piggies went to market, stayed home, had roast beef or had none, a little piggy named Oscar had a birthday and broke a world record:
Oscar the pig turns 20 years old and is crowned the world’s oldest living pig. O.K., technically the little porker turned 20 in October, but us slow pokes are just getting around to wishing him a very happy belated birthday.
quote:
The attempt for the Guinness record came on a whim. Kimbell’s boyfriend – himself the owner of an 11-year-old potbellied pig named Ziffle – looked up the current record and discovered Oscar was older.
The application process involved a lot of paperwork to prove his age. Kimbell sent in Oscar’s birth records, photos of him growing up with her, and letters from veterinarians and his travels.
She got word of their success in late December.
Kimbell doesn’t have any big plans for her record-holder. She turned down an invitation to Rome for a Guinness TV show because Oscar’s too old to travel. He turned 20 on Oct. 29.
Here’s hoping Oscar has many more years of belly rubs and falling asleep in front of the television: Link
Usually, you get presents on your birthday – but on his 81st birthday, it was business owner Bob Moore that gave out presents. A big present, actually: he gave his whole company to his employees!
Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore celebrate his 81st birthday this week at the company that bears his name, Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods.
Moore, whose mutual love of healthful eating and old-world technologies spawned an internationally distributed line of products, responded with a gift of his own — the whole company. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan that Moore unveiled means that his 209 employees now own the place and its 400 offerings of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes.
"This is Bob taking care of us," said Lori Sobelson, who helps run the business’ retail operation. "He expects a lot out of us, but really gives us the world in return."
Link (Photo: Doug Beghtel/AP)
While people all over the world are marking the 75th anniversary of the birth of Elvis Presley, we would like to give a big shout out to a treasure who is still with us -University of Cambridge professor emeritus Stephen Hawking, who turns 68 years old today.
Born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death, Hawking is a theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most intelligent men alive. He has published numerous papers and books on the nature and origin of the universe, the best known being A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Hawking also had a miniseries on PBS in 1997, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, as well as a long list of TV and movie appearances. He is renowned for making difficult concepts comprehensible to the average reader or viewer.
Hawking has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, which has taken his ability to move or speak under his own power. He uses a speech synthesizer to communicate. Still, Hawking has been heard singing at least three times on Neatorama, in A Glorious Dawn, I Love the World, and in this lecture.
Among Hawking’s degrees, honors, and other accomplishments is the awesome fact that he is the only person ever to play himself in any Star Trek film or series.
Happy Birthday, Professor Hawking!
Mickey Mouse made his public debut in the cartoon Steamboat Willie on November 18, 1928 -81 years ago! The character appeared in Plane Crazy a few months earlier, but the Walt Disney Company doesn’t count that because it was a silent film. Link
UCLA’s Leonard Kleinrock remembers sending the first message over the Internet 40 years ago this week; the first word sent host-to-host was supposed to be “login,” but the receiving computer crashed after the first two letters. So the Internet’s first word was “Lo!” Soon came the first denial of service, and the first spammer.
In honor of the occasion, Asylum’s Tommy Christopher compiled the Top Ten Signs the Internet Has Turned 40.
10. Hangs around at clubs using cheesy, outdated pickup lines like, “All your base are belong to me, baby!”
9. Starts referring to YouTube videos as “talkies.”
8. Still uses MySpace, and thinks of Heather_69 as a “friend.”
7. Stays in the left lane of the information superhighway with its blinker on.
6. Google mysteriously changes its name to “Google, She Wrote.”
5. Star Wars Kid now on his second divorce after nailing his secretary.
4. Starts believing that Al Gore invented it.
3. Inexplicably purchases a Chrysler Sebring convertible.
2. Swears it goes to Pornhub.com for the articles.
1. Has to call its kids for tips on how to use itself.
I’ll add a bonus one: Uses the file menu to shut itself down…all seven open windows of itself. Any more ideas out there?
Our very own Stacy Conradt wrote a neat article over at mental_floss about 10 people who died on their birthdays (full circle!) Here’s one that particularly interesting:
Jean Felix Piccard. Name sound familiar? It’s because he and his twin brother Auguste Piccard were the inspirations for the name of Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard. Jean’s inventions have been used in building aircrafts, spacecrafts and balloons (that’s him with his wife in the picture). He died on his (and his brother’s) birthday on January 28, 1963 at the age of 79.
Link – via i met a possum
