There are few places around the world without a tradition of group drinking. The English "Cheers!" is a shortcut, a one-word toast. The same thing is done in many other countries in many other languages, although there are some variations on the tradition. You might notice that Russia has several such toasts. And some places that don't traditionally use a one-word toast still practice group drinking, so they've appropriated "Cheers!"
I learned about the Chinese "Gan Bei" many years ago. My boss told me it meant "Bottoms up!" implying that the glass should be drained. You should not assume that in the other languages. It's not a bad idea to ask about drinking etiquette in a place you aren't already familiar with. -via Laughing Squid
Molly Beans is a webcomic by Dan Sacharow that tells a continuing story, yet each comic can stand on its own. In the latest comic, we get bit of insight into Molly's idea of drive, work, and satisfaction. Can anything be rewarding if it's easy? Many of us consider the worthiness of our efforts, but rarely on this scale. I hope she enjoys whatever ice cream she decides on.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
Bess Flowers was born in Sherman, Texas, on November 23, 1898. While growing up, her father was extremely strict. When Bess dated boys, her father would always bawl them out, much to Bess's consternation. She finally grew tired of her dad's boorish behavior, and "borrowing" the extra money her mother kept stashed in the family sugar bowl, she decided to leave home and head for New York. "I was going to New York because I wanted to be an actress," she was to recall.
But at the train station, Bess spotted a poster with oranges on it, advertising another destination. "What the devil," she impulsively decided, "I'll go to California and get into pictures." Little did she know that not only would she "get into pictures," she would become the most prolific actress (or actor, for that matter) in the history of motion pictures.
Bess actually could never remember the name of the first movie she appeared in, but she did recall it was at Metro in 1922. "I got a job the first day I went on an interview," she remembered. In 1923, Bess made her first known and documented movie appearance, as an un-credited extra in the silent film Hollywood. She appeared in two more films in 1923, then took the next two years off (for whatever unknown reason) before beginning her amazing career as an extra in earnest.
For the next 38 years, beginning in 1926, Bess Flowers was to be an "uncredited extra" in over 350 feature films, not counting many comedy shorts. She is generally accepted by most sources as the performer who appeared in the most movies.
Pizza is more than just a delicious food that can be eaten warm or cold- pizza is fuel for our crazy modern lives. And when you fill your body up with pizza you're not only eating a bunch of great tastes that taste great together, you're eating a dish so good it's super! Now, we can't technically call pizza a "superfood" but do you know any other food more worthy of such a title? Of course not!
Share a slice of foodie humor with the world by wearing this Powered By Pizza t-shirt by Thriftjd, it's the tasty way to declare your love for the most delicious dish mankind has ever created!
Visit thriftjd's Instagram, then head on over to his NeatoShop for more delicious designs:
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You might remember Toby Atticus Fraley as the artist behind Fraley's Robot Repair in Pittsburgh. He's all the way across the country now, with an art installation in front of City Hall in Palo Alto, California. The Artwork Forge II is a retro vending machine that produces custom art! A local review says,
The project, a turquoise, shed-sized machine that looks like a cross between a child's playhouse and a retro-futuristic robot with springs for legs, dispenses colorful, postcard-sized images on wooden blocks in a variety of designs. It's a whimsical device that, according to the artist, "simulates the experience of commissioning an original artwork by compiling data from your personal preferences, social media, news trends and celebrated masterworks of art."
Following the retro theme, the machine only accepts quarters. The Artwork Forge II will be on site through March. See more pictures at Fraley's website, and some of the dispensed artworks at Instagram. -Thanks, Toby!
There have been ten women who have given birth while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives; one of them was Tammy Duckworth in 2014. While she was on maternity leave with her daughter Abigail O’kalani Bowlsbey, she decided to run for Senator. Now she is on track to be the first member of the U.S. Senate to give birth while in office. Duckworth (D-Illinois), who turns 50 in March, is due in April.
Sen. Dick Durbin D-Ill., said in a statement, “I am proud to have her as my Illinois colleague and prouder still that she will make history by being the first U.S. Senator to have a baby while in office. I couldn’t be happier for her.”
The other congressional births have all come while the female lawmakers were serving in the House.
“I feel great,” said Duckworth, a little over six months pregnant.
Senator Tammy Duckworth served 22 years in the military as a helicopter pilot, lost both legs in combat, retired as a lieutenant colonel, earned a PhD, elected to Congress, elected to the Senate, and will give birth while serving there.
Jordan Peele's horror film Get Out was nominated for four Academy Awards today: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor for Daniel Kaluuya. Coincidentally, Screen Junkies had the Honest Trailer ready to go.
Or maybe it wasn't a coincidence... Maybe they knew something, like how Get Out deserves the nominations. They don't so much denigrate the film, but celebrate it for the strange story it is.
The young wizards who study magic at Hogwarts learn a great many things, but Muggles 101 is an elective that few students care to take so they know very little about Muggle stuff.
However, the wizards who have dabbled in the ways of the Muggles have been known to enjoy booze, corn cob pipes, poker and Pokemon video games, not necessarily in that order.
And, according to this Good Bear Comics strip, they don't know how to game responsibly so Muggles should never game with a wizard.
We often read about the huge buildings constructed for Olympic games that fall into ruin afterward, abandoned, forgotten, or demolished. They were constructed with big plans for a second life after the Games that never worked out. But there are exceptions. A few cities have found creative uses for Olympic structures that worked out well, even though some have undergone massive renovation or even changed uses more than once. That beautiful Water Cube built for the Beijing Olympics? It's still in business.
Built for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the National Aquatics Center (more commonly known as the Water Cube) held synchronized swimming, diving, water polo and other swimming events. Michael Phelps fans—this is where he earned his eight gold medals, and where 24 other world records were set. The building was renovated after the Olympics, and half of it is now Asia’s largest waterpark, called Happy Magic Water Cube. There are 13 waterslides, a lazy river, a wave pool and a spa. The second floor of the building has an auditorium with 17,000 seats. There’s also a theater, several restaurants and bars and a museum of Olympic history. The Olympics will be back in Beijing in 2022, and the Cube is slated for use in the curling tournaments.
Other structures found new life as a prison, a church, and an entertainment center. One was used for a different sport in another Olympics! Read about them at Smithsonian.
Some dogs take to snow like a fish to water, others simply abhor the way that cold and wet stuff feels on their paws so they're miserable when their humans force them to walk around in the snow.
But whether they love it or loathe it all dogs can agree on one thing- sledding through the snow is way cooler than walking around with cold paws like a mangy mutt.
The dog in this video from Bogart, Georgia wants to be cool but he's not brave enough to sled on his own, so he decides to ride piggyback on his owner instead!
A quiz from the Department of Geography at Ghent University in Belgium is studying how various maps affect how people see the world. You'll be given two countries to compare, and your task is to adjust them by size until they are accurate relative to each other. It's not easy, even if you are familiar with the distortions of flat maps that depict a round world. It helps if you are at all familiar with the countries of the world. Try the quiz and let us know how you did! I ended up with a 61% score. I did fairly well on most of them, then screwed up badly on one country I wasn't familiar at all with. Your input will help the University's study of maps and might lead to more accurate world maps. -via Metafilter
For some people love at first sight is nothing but an illusion, for others it's pure physical attraction, but for the advertising salaryman in this animated short the apple of his eye represents a warmth and freedom his life is missing.
He sits inside his billboard watching her work away in her garden, but not in a creepy way but rather in a hopeful way, hoping to someday break free of his advertising duties and speak to her in person.
But the life of a billboard advertiser is a lonely one, and when you literally live at work you don't have a lot of time to date...
Love In The Time Of Advertising is a sweet 3D animated short created by David Bokser and Matt Berenty of Wolf & Crow Studio, with an unique rom-com style storyline sung by the narrator.
If you've ever used a 50-year-old cookbook, you might find yourself confused at an ingredient list that calls for a "box" or "can" of something. That something might have come in one size then, but is available in many sizes or altogether different packaging today. Recreating what people ate thousands of years ago is even more complicated. One archeological site that has an intriguing amount of information about food is Pompeii, buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Farrell Monaco works at the site, with its 35 bakeries complete with frescoes and burnt loaves of bread, frozen in time by the disaster. She chronicles her work with the Pompeii Food and Drink project at her site Tavola Mediterranea.
Each morning, Monaco picked her way across the site early, before it was beset by throngs of tourists. These walks, she says, stoked her imagination. She wondered about daily routines from 2,000 years ago, when the volcano was of little immediate concern and bakers and cooks fussed to fortify the busy city. What smells drifted from ovens in the morning? How did lunch taste? In pursuit of answers, Monaco decided to recreate a panis quadratus and bring the past into her kitchen.
Christopher Walken has one of the most distinctive faces and voices in Hollywood, and his signature speaking style makes him stand out in every role he plays.
So if Christopher Walken opened a coffee shop people would pour in just to hear him take their orders and see his famous face behind the bar making coffee drinks for jittery customers.
But then he'd start to lose customers by running the shop the Walken way, aka badgering people about the lingo they use to order a cup of joe and being too tough to take crap from customers.
Freddie Mercury is gone but he will never be forgotten, and thanks to his reincarnation Freddy Purr-cury he can continue his singing career for nine more lives! Unfortunately humans have no idea what the kitty version of Freddie is saying, and they find his singing and cavorting annoying, but people seem to like his little kitty moustache and yellow jacket!
Celebrate the undying legacy of your favorite singer and the effect his voice has on housecats with this Don't Stop Me Meow t-shirt by Dingul Dingul, it's sure to make you feel like a superstar every time you slip it on!
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