Here we are in the dog days of summer. Still two weeks before school starts, and I should be outside picking beans, but it's so hot, I just want to stay in the office and surf the net. As I jotted down the schdeule for the new school year on the August calendar, I realized that Neatorama's anniversary is coming up! What should we do that's special to celebrate eight years? I'm open to any suggestions, since we've never done much to celebrate in years past. We usually forget about the anniversary until after it's over and gone. Meanwhile, it's been an eventful week here at Neatorama, and it might help to have a list of the high points so you can catch up.
Alex brought us two, count 'em, two fantastic photographic features at the Neatorama Spotlight blog. First there was Snow + Volcano = Magic, followed by Urban Zoom.
Jill Harness showed us 14 Great Geek Bouquets And Boutonnieres.
Eddie Deezen wrote about the song "She Loves You" by The Beatles.
Stilettos and Schizophrenia came from The Annals of Improbable Research.
Uncle John's Bathroom Reader gave us TV's Father: Philo T. Farnsworth.
Just Add Milk: How Cereal Transformed American Culture was from mental_floss magazine.
David Israel came by long enough to ask us some Questions In Need of Answers.
Hy Conrad presented another Whodunit called The Unsafe Safe House. I had to stage the photograph for it -that's Mr. Cellania wearing my father's fedora behind the coat rack.
In the What Is It? game this week, the picture shows the switch matrix for the old Voice of America towers that were located next to I-75 just north of Cincinnati, Ohio. It's basically a giant switch box for the antennas. Berhard came the closest to getting it right (even though he was trying to be funny), but this week we wanted funny but wrong answers. One great answer came from tarnation, who explained, "Another superb Wile E. Coyote paint job, that the Road Runner (and probably an Acme truck) will go right on through. Of course Wile E. will then try…" That's worth a t-shirt! Samantha Simons also had a great guess: "It's a giant musical instrument. When you drive through, it makes random sounds like a cow mooing, a bubble popping, and a hedgehog hiccuping. It was originally put in the middle of a city, but the noise disturbed the locals to the point of riots. So they moved it out into country." That sounds like something someone should build! So Samantha wins a t-shirt, too. Thanks to everyone who played -we had a lot of great entries, so you should go read them all. See the answers to all of this week's mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
The post with the most comments was Questions In Need of Answers. Nothing else came close, except the giveaway. Do you reckon we should make this a regular column?
The most popular post of this week was Send Pizza, followed by Snow + Volcano = Magic, and Libraries Used to Look Like This. For the second week in a row, The Forbidden Island was actually the most-viewed post, but it wasn't from "this week."
The post with most ♥s was Libraries Used to Look Like This, followed by a tie between Teenager Saves Kidnapped Little Girl and Pulling Quills From a Raven.
The most emailed post was Send Pizza. In second place we had a tie between What it's Like to Have a Brother with Autism and Picnic Launch.
Over at the NeatoShop, we're fixin' to have a run on lunch boxes, pens and pencils, and backpacks. Yes, if you want to get something special and personal for your offspring amid all the everyday supplies for back to school, you need to order it early, before your favorite theme or character sells out!
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