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Last week, Miss C asked what your favorite blog says about you, but have you ever wondered what your favorite game says about you?
Street Fighter: You can’t spell some words.
Braid: You save old Moleskines full of doodles.
Tetris: You wear a short-sleeved shirt and tie to work.
Skyrim: You’re working on a novel.
Duke Nukem: You say “I’m street smart, not book smart.”
Pac-Man: You’re the last surviving consumer of Good & Plenty.
I think I would be working on a novel…but I don’t have the time thanks to Skyrim.
Cute Overload is the internet Mecca for all things cute, which is why their list of top ten cutest critter photos might just be one of the best end of the year lists you’ll see this month. While many of the pictures were featured on Neatorama over the last year, not all of them have been…yet.
There have always been movies that put a clever spin on a fairy tale to make it creepy and dark. But most of the famous fairy tales we all know were fairly horrifying in their original versions. One of the seven tales is Little Red Riding Hood.
This classic went through a few revisions before it became the staple of bedtime stories around the world. In the bloodiest version, there is no hunter that saves the day and the evil wolf is actually a werewolf (but not the type to fall in love with.) After killing and dressing himself up as grandmother, the werewolf feeds bits and pieces of the deceased to Red Riding Hood. Eventually she sees through the disguise and finds a way to escape. But it’s pretty safe to say that Red Riding Hood probably had some issues to deal with after that incident.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Can you get any more meta than a year end list that is a list of internet lists?
The internet is awash in lists. We’re sure that somewhere there’s a few billion government dollars being spent on why we humans have such a limitless appetite for all things numbered, but it’s no wonder we adore them: they’re fun, easily digested, often-trashy candy for the brain. But from the great swathes of pop-culture enumerations, some stand out like beacons in the foggy internet night.
Link -via Gorilla Mask
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Oobject captures the majesty and opulence that once defined theater archiecture, and the sadness of their current emptiness in this gallery of urban decay photography. The theater pictured here is in Hellingly Asylum, Sussex.
Theaters are a relic of the past. Don’t believe me? Look at drive-in movie theaters and the shakespearean stage. They simply don’t exist in modern America anymore, save for a relic or three buried in a small town somewhere. This list pays tribute to the thespians and films of the past century, to their writers and directors and to the actors who made them happen.
(image credit: Flickr user Howzey)
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Cinematical put together a shockingly small list of great geeky girl movie characters. They’re all fine examples, but surely there must be more out there along the lines of Thora Birch in Ghost World (left).
Geeky girls are few and far between in the 100+ years of cinema, but they are key to the revelation that technology and freethinking are not the sole playground of men. Geekology is omnisexual, and has been since…well that’s the mystery.
Check out their list, and tell us what they missed. They did well as far as post 1990 goes, but what about the classics? I’m calling dibs on Lt. Uhura, possibly the first geek girl who simultaneously had a free, sometimes kooky mind, and access to a computer. Who else is a geek grrl of filmdom?
Link (Image: MGM)
From Crystal Pepsi to Pepsi Samba to Pepsi Ice Cucumber, one thing is assured: these sodas are gross.
Whether you prefer Coke or Pepsi really doesn’t matter in this day and age. The soda market is flooded with variants by the two giants and lesser known companies that are trying to penetrate consumers’ refrigerators. But no matter you preference, any soda drinker can agree that these flavors that Pepsi put out are downright awful. From the classic Crystal Pepsi fiasco to the more recent Pepsi Jazz, prepare to be amazed and surprised at products marketing executives actually thought would work out.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by vveneziani.
I’m a compulsive list-maker. If you look in my purse at any given time, you can usually find three different mini notebooks filled with random scribblings, lists and ideas. You don’t even know how delighted I was to come across Listography. It’s a place to keep online lists of anything your little heart desires. And you can look at random people’s lists too, which is sort of like crack for me. I see a fun list that someone has made and think that I need to make one too. It’s endless. There are very practical lists such as groceries, to-do and how to pay down debt. But it’s the very silly lists that I’m hooked on – Fictional Characters I’d Like to Date, Embarrassing Songs That I Really Love, Food I Have to Have for My Last Meal. There are even some very sweet ones – Things I Will Do With My Kids got to me a little bit.
Anyway. Have fun.
Each year since 1976, Lake Superior State University has released a list in late December of words that should never be used again based on their overuse in the 12 months prior. This year’s list largely revolves around the election and the economic crisis:
Leave a comment and let us know what 2008 word you think should be banned forever.
It must be hard being the lesser-known sibling of one of the world’s greatest painters, or authors, or minds. On a larger scale, I bet it’s like going through high school as the younger sibling of a brother who was the star quarterback. “Van Gogh? Are you related to Vincent? Oh, man, Starry Night was just amazing.” OK, maybe not. But at any rate, there are often supportive siblings behind the successes of great people – here are just a few of them.
Branwell was the only boy out of all of the Bronte siblings, and was by all accounts extremely talented in his own right. But what I think is most interesting is that he may have been the inspiration behind The Graduate. In 1843, he was hired as the tutor for the family of a local reverend, Edmund Robinson. It’s well documented that he fell in love with Lydia Robinson, Edmund’s wife, so it’s no surprised that Branwell was “mysteriously” dismissed from his position in 1845 – It’s thought that Rev. Robinson found out that the two were having an affair. Heartbroken by the loss of Mrs. Robinson, he began drinking a lot and was likely addicted to opium. He ended up dying of tuberculosis, as did his sisters Emily and Anne. Charles Richard Webb, the author of The Graduate, is also rumored to have based the novel on his own affair with an older, rich socialite, but I would say he had at least heard of the Branwell Bronte story just based on the similarity of the names of the main characters.
Like a lot of little sisters, Jane adored her older sibling and emulated everything Cassandra did. Their mother once said, “If Cassandra’s head had been going to be cut off, Jane would have hers cut off too.” Jane wrote numerous letters to her sister, but only about 100 have survived. Cassandra supposedly destroyed most of the letters after Jane died in 1817. Like her famous sister, Cassandra never married.
Erasmus was five years older than his famous brother, Charles. He went to the Shrewsbury Boarding School and developed in interest in chemistry, so he and Charles set up an amateur lab in the garden shed at their house. By 1822, he decided to study medicine, but by 1829, he had given up the career at his father’s advice. Dr. Robert Waring Darwin felt that Erasmus was too frail and delicate of a man to handle such a stressful career and talked him into retirement at the age of 26. He and Charles were very close and visited often, even after Charles got sick and started to become reclusive. Charles’ children loved Erasmus and called him Uncle Ras. He died in September 1881, more than 50 years after his father told him he was too sickly to do much with his life.
As the younger brother of Vincent, Theo was instrumental in Vincent’s success – he provided materials and financial support and introduced him to Gaugain, Cezanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, Rousseau, Pissaro and Seurat (Theo was an art dealer and had excellent connections). Vincent even lived with Theo for a while. When they didn’t live together, they were constantly writing to one another. These letters have been compiled in a book, but you won’t find many of Theo’s letters – Vincent apparently destroyed most of Theo’s correspondence, while Theo avidly saved everything from Vincent. Some of Vincent’s responses, though, indicate that Theo was aware of Vincent’s mental health issues and was concerned about his brother.
Maria Anna (she didn’t go by Marianne until she was an adult) was Wolfgang’s older sister, and his only sibling who didn’t die in infancy. She was part of the Mozart family Grand Tour from 1763-1766, and was even the big draw in the early years – she showed a natural talent for the harpsichord and piano. Eventually, when she got old enough to marry, she was no longer allowed to tour or show off her musical talents. She apparently was a good composer, because letters from Mozart have survived that praise her artistry, but none of her pieces have ever been found. She and Wolfgang were quite close as children but apparently drifted apart as adults – no correspondence between the two exists after 1788.
Bartholomew was just one of Christopher’s brothers – he had two others, Giacomo and Giovanni. Bartholomew was, fittingly, a mapmaker. Apparently world exploration ran in the family. This map is from the workshop of Bartholomew and Christopher; it’s been documented that they worked closely together. In 1494, he helped Christopher in his campaigns to conquer Hispaniola and governed it for a while. He was also a member of Christopher’s last transatlantic expedition.
