Chris-Rachael Oseland is a professional chef in Columbus, Ohio. She has a long-established track record as a geek who prepares artistically perfect foods inspired by her pop culture interests, leading to the publication of several cookbooks with dishes inspired by True Blood, Doctor Who, and The Settlers of Catan.

When the first Deadpool film came out, she made these startling brownies that look like Wade Wilson's mask. The recipe is detailed, measured, precise, and orderly--quite unlike the antihero that inspires them. Oseland made the eyes from Oreo cookies and then sliced them midway to produce the sharp impact of Deadpool's vision.

Ian Falconer published the first of the Olivia picture books in 2000, which secured a Caldecott Honor the next year and launched a popular media franchise that included a 40-episode cartoon. Falconer passed away in 2023.

Falconer named the piglet character after his niece, Olivia Falconer Crane. Dan Kois recently interviewed her for Slate.

Crane tells Kois that she was five years old when the first Olivia book came out. She had a close relationship with her uncle, who gave her many gifts, including illustrations of her as a piglet. The characters in the books, including the pets, were all real people and animals that Olivia grew up with.

Despite her fictional appearances in the books, Crane's mother made a point of telling the young Olivia that she was not the character and vice versa. Crane grew up with a healthy separation from Olivia the piglet.

Image: Amazon

The Columbo story aired from 1971 to 2003 with a total of 69 episodes. It was tremendously popular, especially during the 1970s, leading to merchandising efforts. Those projects included this board game published in 1973.

Board Game Geek says that it is structured identically to a 1958 game inspired by the works of Alfred Hitchcock. It has cards for weapons, suspects, and clues, but, sadly, no "Just one more thing" cards. Copies are available for sale on eBay, although they are pricey.

Notice that Columbo is facing away from the players. Internet rumor holds that choice is because the designers did not have permission to use Peter Falk's likeness.

-via Super Punch

Canonically, the Riker Maneuver is a tactical maneuver completed in the movie Star Trek: Insurrection, which is the last of the Next Generation films. But in trekkie parlance, the Riker Maneuver refers to the way that Jonathan Frakes would swing his leg over a chair to sit down--a practice that the actor didn't know was notable until years after the end of the series.

In this AI-generated video by NetDystopiaMusic, Captain Picard summons Commander Riker to a private meeting in the captain's ready room to address complains about how members of the crew are experiencing these close encounters with Riker's masculinity.

-via Holodeck Four

West of Bakersfield is the town of Taft. It has a population of 8,546 people. It developed in the late 1800s and was known as Moron.

Stories vary as to how it got its name. Either the residents chose it on their own or the Southern Pacific Railroad decided to change its name from Moro to Moron so as to distinguish it from the town of Morro Bay.

Either way, Moron was at the center of the 1909 California oil boom. The next year, residents decided to change the name of the town to Taft in honor of then-President William Howard Taft.

-via Super Punch | Photo: LA Dork

Open Reel Ensemble comically refers to their apparati as "traditional folk instruments." These are electronic instruments that involve pulling and releasing magnetic tape with bamboo rods. When accompanied by keyboards, the resulting techno music is mesmerizing and, I find, reminiscent of 70s-era science fiction. 

The band members do not restrict themselves to these bowed instruments. They also sing in front of live audiences. I don't know what this song is about, but I heard the words "America" and "San Francisco." This electronic piece has no vocals, but it does use the magnetic reels as turntables and percussion instruments. It's impressive how Open Reel Ensemble can find so many uses for these antiques.

-via David Thompson

Historically, gravedigging has not been considered a respectable profession. Because of their association with death, gravediggers are sometimes thought to be at least ritually unclean if not physically dirty.

But it's a serious job that requires athleticism. Oddity Central reports that gravediggers from around the world assembled in Hungary to discover which of teams of two men could dig a complete grave the fastest and most precisely. A finished grave is 2 meters long, 0.8 meters wide, and 1.6 meters deep.

A Hungarian team won first place for the second year in a row. László Kiss and Robert Nagy completed their grave in 1 hour, 33 minutes, and 20 seconds.

Ball pits--a staple of indoor playgrounds--were invented in 1970 as a children's play area inside an Ikea store in Sweden. They became very popular, despite a reputation as being unhygenic. Adults may cringe at the bodily excretions that may be present in ball pits, but children don't know better or don't care.

One must be very careful to keep one's balls clean. It's not just good business; it's also good manners. Easyfun is one manufacturer of a ball cleaning machine that vigorously brushes, disinfects, and dries balls. They're sucked in through one tube and shot out the other. Although the process may take a few hours, it's a lot faster than cleaning balls by hand. You can see more images of this process at Core 77.

Instagram user and master chef etn.co_mam shared photos of her latest project--lovely pastries that are instantly recognizable as inspired by Edvard Munch's 1893 painting The Scream.

Well, Instagram's automatic translator rendered the Japanese as "wind gas", but I understood what it meant.

The face is made of cheese and the body of cocoa and chocolate. How does it taste? I'll guess it's reminiscent of existential terror.

James Brown makes amazing things, such as a ring you can play Doom on and LEGO bricks with visual displays. His most recent project is a doll head that lip-syncs audio. The foundation of the animatronic is an electric typewriter ball. In this video, the doll recites the famous BBC Shipping Forecast--a century-old broadcast which has a surprisingly strong fanbase.

Kevin Lee of DIY Garage Bars, Man Caves & More produced this amazing 1/6 scale replica of Doc Brown's DMC DeLorean from Back to the Future II. It's based around a Hot Toys brand realistic model. 

The renowned Katz's Delicatessen in New York City is famous for its perfect pastrami that has delighted the people of the city since 1888. I've never been there, but I'm salivating over the Reuben sandwich on the menu.

Michael Palan of The Takeout ventured to Kith Treats, an ice cream shop, there upon hearing reports that it's offering a sundae flavored with the tastes of Katz's.

The Dilluxe has pickled, chocolate, rye croutons, and vanilla ice cream mixed with pastrami rub and mustard. Palan shies away from definitive approval of the mixture, but does affirm that the treat is reminiscent of Katz's.

It took redditor /u/Barbi0za 22 hours and countless sprinkles to compose this cherry and almond cake. They used tweezers to carefully arrange each of the sprinkles into a remarkably accurate depiction of Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. The solid forms of the sprinkles work well to convey the brush strokes of the original work.

When asked if it was difficult to cut into this masterpiece, /u/Barbi0za responded that they appreciate a temporary art form, so that experience was actually enjoyable.

Ellis Rosen is my favorite New Yorker cartoonist. Every one of his posts on Instagram is worth browsing through completely.

One of the stories that he is gradually developing is the struggle between Mr. Ruffles, a dog who is implied to be a secret agent similar to James Bond, and an evil squirrel who is his archnemesis. The squirrel usually has the upper hand. You can find a collection of cartoons developing this storyline here.

Ronobir Lahiri is a sitar player in Los Angeles who has accompanied musicians as famous as Katy Perry and Lil Nas X.

On his YouTube channel, Lahiri provides recordings of covers that he has created of pop and rock songs, such as the above "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana. You can also find his covers of "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon, "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure, and "Take on Me" by A-ha.

-via Born in Space