Laurence Brown of Lost in the Pond (previously at Neatorama) tells us about a few American town names he finds quite odd. Brown selected seven towns with unusual names, and you've probably never heard of most of them. Such lists usually start with Intercourse, Pennsylvania, but not this one. These towns were not selected for salaciousness but for the interesting stories behind them. The exception is Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, which we've all heard of, but still makes a good story. Honestly, I believe these particular seven towns were actually selected because of all the possible puns.
If you'd like to go further down the rabbit hole of interesting place name origins, look up Ink, Arkansas. The story goes that when selecting a town name, the ballot said, "Please write in ink." And they did.
Chicken, Alaska, was supposedly named such because no one could agree on the spelling of their first choice, which was Ptarmigan.
Hungry Horse, Montana, was named after two legendary horses, Tex and Jerry, who escaped and almost starved to death.
Peculiar, Missouri, has two origin stories, both worth reading at Wikipedia.
Why, Arizona, was originally named simply Y, after a highway intersection that was y-shaped. The postal service requires a town name to have at least three letters, so it was changed to Why.
Nome, Alaska, has several possible name origin stories. The most interesting is that a handwritten notation on a map said "? Name" but was read as "C. Nome," interpreted as Cape Nome.
Fenway Park, Boston, Sept 27, 1950 - Due to 1950 Great Smoke Pall, huge amounts of smoke from Chinchaga forest fire in Canada, Fenway Park must turn their lights on at 4:30pm for an Red Sox game. It was one of biggest forest fires in North American history burning 3,500,000 acres pic.twitter.com/AflikNbQms
— Old-Time Baseball Photos (@OTBaseballPhoto) May 8, 2020
The Chinchaga fire of 1950 was the largest recorded forest fire in North American history. The fire started in June of that year, and by autumn had burned between 3,500,000 and 4,200,000 acres in the forests of Alberta and British Columbia. It was policy at the time to let wildfires burn as they will in "unsettled areas." And since no one was fighting the fire, it didn't make the news much. So it was a surprise when, in late September, the smoke from the Chinchaga fire moved east to blanket the large cities of the eastern US and Canada. On September 24, it was so dark in Ontario the street lights came on during the day. Planes at La Guardia airport in New York City had to land by instruments. The smoke affected Europe, too. Some people thought it was a nuclear attack; others thought it was the end of the world. Read about the Great Smoke Pall of 1950 at Fishwrap. -via Strange Company
The Muppets perform the song "Sclrap Flyapp" on The Ed Sullivan Show in November of 1968. The title is also the entirety of the song's lyrics, except for an occasional "merp" from the smallest monster. This was before Sesame Street, SNL, or The Muppet Show. Jim Henson's puppets had appeared in plenty of regional TV commercials and a local Washington, DC, show, but to see them in the '60s, most of the US had to wait for a rare guest appearance on a variety show or late night talk show. It was always a treat because the monsters were just so charmingly silly. The "Sclrap Flyapp" song was a recurring bit that was done on several shows, varying somewhat each time. You can also see a 1965 version from The Jack Paar Show or a 1966 appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. Here's another unidentified version with still different puppets that more resemble the Sesame Street cast. The skit eventually evolved in to "Hugga Wugga" on The Muppet Show. -via Laughing Squid
ain’t nobody got time for dat #NFID23 #NFHS pic.twitter.com/2jfgxeebMm
— laila (@tooturntlai) September 13, 2022
North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills, Michigan, has made a name for itself in the past few years by allowing their senior class to dress any way they want to for their school ID pictures. It's their fourth year at the school, so the administration pretty much knows them all by the time they reach their senior year. Many of them take the opportunity to show off their cosplay skills! The class of 2023 recently had their photos done, and the students are posting their pics on social media, as expected.
Welcome to the jungle! 🎸🎸#NFID23 @Slash @gunsnroses pic.twitter.com/DqQzdJPx2X
— Katie Rose (@katieorose_) September 13, 2022
We thought Slash's real name was Saul, but it turns out to be Katie. But Jack didn't need to dress up at all.
“Well, I got her number. How do you like them apples?” #WillHunting #MattDamon #NFID23 pic.twitter.com/22LAbXuMed
— Jack Poirier (@JackPoirier10) September 13, 2022
These students have had years to think about their costumes. Many of them went with a pop culture character they already resemble somewhat, while others go the whole nine yards to make a fantasy come to life.
Holy smurfing smurf it’s senior year!!#NFID23 @SmurfsMovie @Nfhs2023 pic.twitter.com/7yUg6MS0Vw
— Izzy Cimmino (@IzzyCimmino) September 13, 2022
Bored Panda has posted 30 of the best student IDs from this year's senior class, ranked by votes. Let us know which one really impresses you!
See also: The North Farmington High School IDs from previous years.
Every fantasy world has a character who is there to show that there's a range of personalities among the principle characters. The easiest way to show this is to make him annoying. This goes double for when a fantasy is made into a movie, where this character is often portrayed as short with a high nasal voice. You can spot them a mile away. They may be heroic or villainous, or only brought in for comic relief, or they may end up having the key to the entire conflict. Alasdair Beckett-King, the man with the reddest hair on YouTube (previously at Neatorama), illustrates this in a hurry in a very short film, even managing to mention examples along the way. You can write reams about this trope, but if you've seen a few fantasy films, you'll already know what he's talking about. Here he gets a lesson in judging people merely by their annoyance level, because that's relative.
The new movie The Woman King opens this weekend in the US. It stars Viola Davis as General Nanisca, the leader of the Agojie, an army of women in the West African kingdom of Dahomey. The film is set in 1820, when Dahomey was under the rule of King Ghezo, played by John Boyega. The fictionalized movie is inspired by real people and real events, but are amalgams in a condensed story.
The Agojie arose in the 17th century, when women were trained to become elephant hunters. The group was elevated to palace guards, and then warriors. They were considered third-tier wives of the king are were therefore prohibited from other relationships. Dahomey differed from surrounding countries in that they kept a standing army ready even when not at war. The Agojie served alongside male warriors until Dahomey was defeated by French colonial forces in the 19th century.
The movie concerns a battle with a historical enemy in which Nanisca and her troops fight to prevent people from falling into the slave trade, but the focus is primarily on one small part of Dahomey's history. The historical Dahomey had many enemies and grew wealthy from the slave trade. Read the real story of the fierce and fearless Agojie at Smithsonian.
The 32nd First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony was held last night. These are prizes awarded by the Annals of Improbable Research for scientific and other breakthroughs that make people laugh, and then make them think. For example, a study on how eating ice cream helps a side effect of cancer treatment may seem odd, but it may well improve the lives of some folks. The development of a moose crash test dummy is funny but useful. A study of enemas depicted on ancient pottery is just plain fun. And while the idea that random luck has more to do with success than talent may be obvious to some of us, it's good to have a research paper handy in an argument.
Continue reading to see the complete 2022 winners list, with links to the research papers.
Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (now starring in Welcome to Wrexham, about their Welsh football club) both turned 45 years old and got their first colonoscopies. That's pretty normal for people who have health insurance. But Reynolds lost a bet and had to fulfill his pledge to share his colonoscopy with the world. Katie Couric must be very happy that now she's not the only celebrity to be seen undergoing such an, er, intimate procedure. However, we won't see anything traumatic. The kicker is that even though McElhenney won that bet (by learning to speak Welsh), he also showed his colonoscopy because he thought he could somehow outdo Reynold's procedure in one way or another. The upshot is that a colonoscopy is pretty simple, and there are drugs. This is all in support of the organization Lead From Behind, where you can find out more about colon cancer prevention. -via Laughing Squid
Magic tricks, as far as we know, go back to the era of the Roman Empire. The "cup and balls" trick may even have been the first. It was used to to confuse observers, and take their money if they bet on their own ability to keep up with the ball. Maybe they could, but it was being moved from cup to cup anyway. Eventually, such tricks and illusions split into two paths: one for scamming people and the other for entertainment. The entertainment path could bring great fame, and it was legal besides. Later, even that path split between those who convinced the audience that their magic was supernatural and those who emphasized the skill of illusion. Along the way, the most famous magicians put their own spin on the art and became legends. Learn some tidbits about how magic became what it is today, and meet some of the more famous of its practitioners at Mental Floss. You can also listen to the list of fun facts in a video at the same link.
Just a few years ago, you would have laughed at the idea of sedimentary rocks on Mars. Now, we have photographic evidence, thanks to one of the robot residents of that planet. NASA's Perseverance rover explored an area called Jezero Crater, where a mighty river once flowed billions of years ago. The landscape image was generated from 1,118 pictures and comprises 2.5 billion pixels. We can't see them all in a video, but that's enough so that we can get a zoomed-in look at Betty's Rock, Skinner Ridge, and Hogwallow Flats. Perseverance is storing rock and soil samples that NASA plans on picking up and bringing back to earth sometime. The idea that it can transmit such gorgeous photos millions of miles back to earth is already mind blowing. And Jezero Crater is just a tiny piece of a big planet to explore. On a side note, you have to wonder how you get on the NASA committee that names these landmarks. Who is Betty? And how did they come up with Hogwallow Flats? Read more about this video at digitaltrends. -via Damn Interesting
You thought that house cats sleep a lot. Well, they do, at a little over 12 hours a day, or more than half their time. But a koala spends 21 hours out of every day asleep! Giulia De Amicis created a large graphic that details how different animals (mostly mammals) sleep, from the koala to the elephant, which only sleeps a couple of hours a day. The data is from the Sleep Foundation. What is amazing is that there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason for some species needing so much more sleep than others.
Outside of mammals, sleep gets even weirder. Birds can sleep with half their brain while the other half is awake, so some of them can even sleep while flying. Snakes sleep with their eyes open, because they don't have eyelids. No wonder this data is limited to mammals, since sleep in other types of animals is really hard to study. You can see the graphic in a larger size at Moss and Fog. -via Nag on the Lake
2022-08-10 06:38:49
— Marcel & Co. (@Chickens) August 10, 2022
TEMP F............62.6°
HUMIDITY..........94%
WIND MPH..........2.2
WIND DIR..........N
PRECIP IN.........0.0https://t.co/djkLU6BquE pic.twitter.com/M6Tye8cQIq
What if a flock of free-range chickens decided to share their selfies with the world on their own blog? Well, these chickens are birdbrains, so they had a little help getting set up. Technogeek Jacob Bijani and photographer Noah Kalina set up a camera on the chickens' stomping grounds, along with a motion sensor, flash, and a Raspberry Pi, all in waterproof shielding "at the request of Marcel the Rooster." From there, it's all automatic. The photos are immediately uploaded to the website and to Twitter.
2022-08-22 19:21:19
— Marcel & Co. (@Chickens) August 23, 2022
TEMP F............70.0°
HUMIDITY..........90%
WIND MPH..........6.9
WIND DIR..........SE
PRECIP IN.........0.04https://t.co/VJZ5rhp2qi
BUY NOW: https://t.co/VNVIwtxrJD pic.twitter.com/n2s9JxwCK9
Some of the pictures are portrait quality, some are group shots, and many are chicken parts. Some are chickens clearly mooning the camera. And it's not just chickens. Deer are particularly good at tripping the cameras, but you'll also see raccoons, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and the rare but surprising human. Many of the photos are available as NFTs. See them all at Chicken Photos. -via Everlasting Blort
For the first time since 2019, Ottawa Comiccon returned this past weekend. More than 40,000 people headed to the EY Centre in Ottawa to celebrate the convention's return. Cosplayers, some who had been waiting three years to show off their stuff, were all over, and Geeks Are Sexy was there to document them. The participants were in a dancing mood, so here are some of them gettin' down to "Struttin'" by Thumpasaurus. This is just a tiny sample of the awesome costumes that were on display, so you'll want to check out the photo gallery from Ottawa Comiccon 2022 at Geeks Are Sexy. I hear there may also be other videos to come. A good time was had by all.
Saturday Night Live will kick off its 48th season on October first. When the show first began back in 1975, we got used to the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, who were a relatively stable group,* at least after Bill Murray replaced Chevy Chase. But then in the fifth season, they all disappeared and made way for a new group of up-and-coming comics. Since then, there have been cast members rotating in and out for various lengths of time. Who has stayed with Saturday Night Live the longest? That title goes to Keenan Thompson, who has been there for 19 of the 47 seasons so far, and will be there this fall as well. No one else comes close to that tenure, and only two other cast members have lasted more than a dozen years. In the early days of SNL, cast members would leave to pursue movie stardom, but now they know how risky that is and manage to squeeze those projects into the summer hiatus. Six cast members were there for nine seasons, but one is still on the show, so will move up on the list when the new season begins. Mental Floss has a list of the 15 cast members with the longest tenure on Saturday Night Live, with a video of their best work for each of them.
*Maybe not so stable as individuals.
"The official Palace beekeeper, John Chapple, 79, told MailOnline how he travelled to Buckingham Palace and Clarence House on Friday following news of The Queen’s death to carry out the superstitious ritual," telling the bees QE2 had died.https://t.co/7ZnRefH9NX
— Dirt Doctor (@HowardGarrett) September 10, 2022
There are many rituals and traditions surrounding the death of a monarch, and they are now being carried out in the UK following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. That includes one that goes back hundreds of years, but is pretty obscure these days. On Friday, 79-year-old John Chapple, the royal beekeeper, went around to all the royal beehives and broke the news to the bees.
"Telling the Bees" is a custom explained in a previous post that was once both a common courtesy to household members who toiled to provide food for the family, and a superstition to keep bad things from happening. Chapple went to beehives at Buckingham Palace and at Clarence House, tied a black ribbon around each hive, and explained to the bees in each hive that the queen had passed on, and that their new master is King Charles III. He assured the bees that they will be treated well. Chapple hopes to be the one who continues to care for them. Read more about the royal beekeeper and his duties at The Daily Mail. -via Boing Boing
