Florence Hackman of Cincinnati, Ohio must have some secrets to her longevity and suggestions that we could incorporate into our own lifestyles. Her birthday plans provide immediate guidance.
19 News reports that Mrs. Hackman will celebrate her birthday with the boys at the Deerfield Township Fire Department watching pro football and drinking Fireball Cinnamon Whisky. Her beloved Cincinnati Bengals will presumable demolish the Minnesota Vikings.
-via Dave Barry | Photo: WXIX
Our gingerbread house takes the cake this National Gingerbread Day! Deanna with the Tax Office really topped herself this year with her Gingerbread @bucees. You can see her creation at the tax office location in Georgetown, 904 S. Main St. pic.twitter.com/4TYiM9mhpx
— Williamson County (@wilcotxgov) December 12, 2023
Buc-ee's is a chain of roadside convenience and hunting supply stores. We Texans regard them as the ultimate place to stop on road trips for gas, food, and sparklingly clean bathrooms. There is devout brand loyalty to the chain and people commonly sport clothing with the iconic Bucky the Beaver logo on them.
Deanna Vaters, an employee of the county north of Austin (where Buc-ee's locations are thick on the ground) and her husband made this gingerbread model of a nearby Buc-ee's complete with model cars and lights. They made many of the human figurines to resemble her co-workers.
-via Dave Barry
I thought it would be funny to write a song about how we all hate/love @MariahCarey's amazing 'All I Want For Christmas' but in the style of The Pogues 'Fairytale of New York'.
— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) December 11, 2023
It ended up being way more of a tear jerker than expected.
You can get it here:… pic.twitter.com/xuacn7xfXX
As Christmas approached in 1994, people around the world discovered Mariah Carey's now-iconic song "All I Want for Christmas Is You." It has since become one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time. For 29 years, people have heard it on radios and over the loudspeakers at stores.
I like it. The song has, alas, been banned from my own household's Christmas soundtrack, so I have to use headphones when it comes on. Some people who shall go unmentioned loathe the song.
Brittlestar, a Canadian internet comedian, understands the love/hate relationship that Christmas celebrants have with "All I Want for Christmas Is You." In this song, he expresses how the song has become an inevitable part of the season.
Today, I ran across the above image on Twitter. It made me laugh because it reflects the historical reality of the industrial disparity between the United States and Japan during World War II. The Japanese Empire was doomed because it gravely misunderstood both American culture and the importance of industrial capacity in a war waged in the 1940s.
To my knowledge, the United States did not have a ship dedicated to producing birthday cakes. But it did have a vessel devoted entirely to the mass production of ice cream for sailors. This was a BRL (Barge, Refrigerated, Large) of the US Navy that could manufacture 1,500 gallons of ice cream every day.
Yes, my sources are unclear about whether it's 1,500 gallons per day or or per hour. But at that point of ice cream production, it no longer matters which is correct.
Twitter user Ted Merz shares this photo that he snapped from New York City. It shows a conventional delivery bike, which are common in the city. But this one has a printer mounted over the front wheel. The printer is loaded with legal size paper and has a port (presumably a USB) to connect to laptops.
What's it for? In the Twitter thread, commenters suggest possible uses. One remembers a bicycle messenger who was also a notary public, which lawyers found particularly useful. Another suggests that it's designed for, specifically, printing and delivering contracts.
I'm also curious what kind of printer can take this kind of a beating and still work.
-via Super Punch
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons reports on a recent scholarly journal article which considereswhat is the aesthetically ideal shape for the male buttocks (content warning: nudity). The authors, who published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, surveyed 2,095 people, of whom 60% were male. The researchers showed the respondents photos of men's butts and asked for ratings.
In survey revealed a general preference for butts that are midway between flat and protruding, as well as between narrow and wide. Dimples are highly valued, too.
-via Study Finds
Photo via Andrea Fistetto because my wife says that I'm not allowed to just use a selfie for this post, even though that would be the obvious choice.
Rovaniemi, Finland, the capital town of Finnish Lapland, has long claimed to be the home of Santa Claus. The winter weather of northern Finland is certainly suitable for Santa Claus, his reindeer (which are native to the region), and his sleigh.
Children around the world are responsive to this claim and, each year, Santa Claus's cabin in the woods in Rovaniemi receives about 30,000 letters from children. That's a lot of mail and Santa needs your help sorting it.
That's why Airbnb is offering a one-night stay in the cabin, which has three beds and one bathroom.
Luke Pickman is a musician who calls himself the "Instrument Maniac". He has an astonishingly vast collection of musical instruments from around the world. To call him a "multi-instrumentalist" is a huge understatement.
Last year, we shared Pickman's video in which he played "The Lick" on 92 instruments. Since then, his collection has grown. In 1 minute and 51 seconds, he performs a complete composition with 111 instruments. Some are ones I've never hard of, including an otamatone, a flexatone, and two different types of stylophones.
With each instrument, Pickman lists the manufacturer. Amusingly, for the musical saw, that's just his garage. For a conch shell, Pickman identifies the ocean as its creator.
-via The Awesomer
The Altai people live in Mongolia, China, and Russia. Here's Altai Kai (Altai Band) from the Altai Republic within Russia. For more than twenty years, the group has performed traditional music and favorite popular songs with traditional instruments, such as the stringed topshur. Their vocals come from the haunting throat singing found among the cultures of Central Asia.
Altai Kai recorded this version of "Jingle Bells" that begins with unfamiliar sounds, but soon becomes a clearly recognizable adaptation of the classic Christmas carol.
-via Massimo
In September, Rosemary Hayne expressed her displeasure at the service that she was receiving from Emily Russell, an employee of a Chipotle restaurant in Parma, Ohio. She threw (1) a temper tantrum and (2) a bowl of food at Russell.
This incident was recorded and soon went viral. Police arrested Hayne for misdemeanor assault. Last week, CNN reports, Judge Timothy Gilligan sentenced Hayne to 180 days in jail. He suspended half of that sentence, leaving her with 90 days. She could choose to serve either the full 90 days in jail or just 30 days in jail and 60 days of working in a fast food restaurant. Judge Gilligan suggested that Hayne personally experience what it's like to work in the high pressure environment of the food service industry.
Hayne humbly accepted the offer and is now looking for a job to fulfill that requirement.
-via Instapundit
Het is weer #Sintpannekoek! pic.twitter.com/15ykTgOl1V
— Marijke (@Rijkie87) November 29, 2015
If you were in the Netherlands two days ago, you may have noticed that some people wore pancakes on their heads, but you sensibly decided not to get involved and instead that nothing was out of the ordinary.
Now, back in the safety of Not the Netherlands, you can find out why the Dutch were engaging in this practice. The Independent explains that November 29 is Saint Pancake (Sint Pannekoek) Day.
This is a fairly recent tradition that dates back to only 1986, when cartoonist Jan Kruis published a comic of a character described as a Twelfth Century monk who came to be known as Saint Pancake. On his feast day, celebrants wear pancakes on their heads.
Since that time, Dutch fans of the comic have worn pancakes on their heads on November 29, and the practice has become a tradition across the country.
-via Dave Barry
The producers of this in-house training video for McDonald's restaurant employees didn't do anything by half measures. It's as entertaining as it is practical.
When McDonald's began selling McNuggets worldwide in 1983, it used puppets to teach employees how to stock, cook, and serve them. The McNugget puppets dress variously as a cowboy, a sexy model, and two costumes that would, um, probably be considered questionable by today's social standards. Each eagerly anticipates being dipped in sauce and then eaten.
The puppets act out an elaborate play with jokes and professional voice acting interspersed with scenes of humans at work.
-via The Awesomer
YouTube member Epentibi uses artificial intelligence programs to create realistic news broadcasts from the 1960s through the 1980s in worlds gone terribly wrong. I gather that Epentibi is inspired by the strategy video game Hearts of Iron IV, but it's not necessary to know that game to appreciate good alternate history.
What would the world of the 1960s be like if the Axis won World War II? Eventually, as American newscaster Walter Cronkite explains in 1963, the Nazi governance system would lead to civil war.
The earliest version of Cookie Monster appeared on a snack commercial in 1966. Jim Henson brought him to Sesame Street just a few years later, where he has remained ever since. He is among the most successful Muppet characters of all time whose appeal has lasted for generations.
This is, I think, because Cookie Monster speaks to the primal nihilistic urge of modern man to consume and be consumed by the universe. The real Cookie Monster is always inside of us, seeking to satisfy a hunger from which we can never escape but nonetheless are destined to seek.
This leads us to the inevitable question: what are those cookies that Cookie Monster devours so ravenously, as though they were the children of Cronus?
Sopan Deb writes in the New York Times (sorry, it's a paywalled article) about his quest for an answer to this question. They are made of pancake mix, puffed rice, Grape-Nuts, instant coffee, and water. The chocolate chips are made of colored glue.
Muppet wrangler Lara MacLean, who has worked for the Jim Henson Company since 1992, bakes them at home. She prepares the cookies so that they crumble in Cookie Monster's mouth at just the right consistency, letting him feel every crumb of defeat fall from his mouth to the amusement of his young audience.
Cookie Monster's muppeteer, David Rudman, comments, "The more crumbs, the funnier it is."
-via Super Punch | Photo: Smithsonian Institution
Moody's Analytics is a financial analysis firm. Axios reports that a recent paper published by this company finds that the presence of a Cheesecake Factory restaurant at a shopping mall is a positive indicator of that mall's financial well-being.
Shopping malls, once dominant features of American suburban life, have declined with the pandemic lockdowns and the rise of online shopping. But, Moody's finds, 93% of malls with a Cheesecake Factory are current on their loan payments contrasted with 72% of malls that don't. This is likely because a Cheesecake Factory restaurant is a destination experience that draws people to a mall.
-via Megan McArdle | Photo: Mike Kalasnik
