In this episode of You Suck at Cooking, we get a lesson in homemade salsa: mainly, what goes in it. The instructions are pretty much chop and stir. And there’s a catchy little song at the end.
I make gallons of salsa every year, but my recipe is both minimalist and designed for home canning, which involves cooking. The other main difference I find with this method is that I never have included anything sweet. I might try some of these fresh chopped salsa ideas this summer when the tomatoes come in, just not the potato or soap. -via Digg
It never occurred to me as a teenager, but watching the original Star Wars movie again with my own kids, I thought of this exact scene. It must be the mother in me that thought, “Careful, you’ll put your eye out …or something!” Considering what an immature, impulsive kid Luke was, it could have very well all ended before it started, just this way. It’s the latest comic from Jim Benton. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Michael Furrh built a golf club that is 22 feet 6.75 inches long. That’s a new world record, as the previous longest golf club was a measly 14 feet long. How do you swing a 22-foot golf club? From far away.
It’s not easy to swing. It’s not easy to carry, either. Furrh does it to draw attention to local charities, so it’s not just a silly idea. Oh, it is that, but it’s also more. -via Sploid
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
The “First Lady” is a title which refers to the official hostess of the White House. Although it is not a firm prerequisite for the title, the First Lady is commonly thought to be the wife of the president. But who was actually the first-ever First Lady?
If you guessed the logical answer, you, of course, said it was Martha Washington. After all, Martha was the wife of the first U.S. president, George Washington. But actually, the title First Lady was never used regarding Martha during her lifetime.
In the early years of U.S. presidents, their wives were referred to by several different monikers. Their titles were often based on the wife's personal preference. The titles “Mrs. President" and “Mrs. Presidentress" were sometimes used.
Martha Washington was often addressed as “Lady Washington.” The wife of John Tyler, our 10th U.S. president, liked to be called “Queen of the House.”
Normally, it’s the seagulls who eat the fish. In this case, a seagull, probably named Jonah, finds that turnabout is fair play. A giant tuna comes to the surface for a tasty, tasty seagull treat.
Then it turns out that this seagull isn’t so tasty after all. Tuna normally eat smaller fish, and the feathers must have been a surprise for him, so the big fish spits the bird out. He’s okay; he managed to fly away. And he most likely told all the other seagulls some harebrained tale about how he was eaten and spit out by a giant fish. The others will never believe him. -via Viral Viral Videos
It’s part of Star Wars lore that “Han shot first,” referring to the scene where we first met Han Solo. He gets into an altercation with a Rodian bounty hunter named Greedo and shoots him. We all know now that George Lucas was making up the story arc of the original trilogy as he went along, so later when Solo emerged as a fan favorite and Princess Leia’s love interest, he remastered the scene to show that Greedo shot first -and missed, so that Solo only killed Greedo in self-defense. Star Wars fans who were born after the remastered home video version came out never saw the scene as it was shown in theaters in 1977. The revision was to make Solo a more ethical hero, but the change angered fans who adored Solo even with a murderous streak. Today, the New York Daily News has an interview with Paul Blake, the actor who played Greedo. He confirms what we’ve been telling younger fans.
"Of course, in it said it all in the original script, we played in the scene in English and at the end of the scene, it reads, 'Han shoots the alien.' " Blake told the Daily News. "It's all it says and that's what happened. It was very painful."
Besides, having Greedo fire first and miss from across a table, as has been the case after the original release, is sort of embarrassing.
"He was a bit inept wasn't he?" quips Blake. "He's a worse shot than a Stormtrooper. I don't think Jabba had him under a pension plan let's put it that way.
Blake would like to see the scene eventually restored to its original version. He also tells us how he got the role. Dying early meant it was short-lived, but the retcon gave him a place in history. -via Uproxx
Military field rations (now called MREs, or Meals Ready to Eat) are designed to be nutritious, portable, compact, and long-lasting. During wartime, these meals are produced in abundance, and there are usually more produced than needed. Years later, sometimes decades later, you can still buy them -and eat them. In fact, there is a community of people who collect MREs and try them out, even long past their expiration dates.
This less-than-appetizing meal might be assumed to have little appeal outside the military. But civilians are interested in MREs for a few reasons. Some are ex-military, and develop a nostalgic curiosity. Others are concerned with emergency preparedness. Still others fall into a YouTube hole, end up watching a guy sample a vacuum-packed tuna-noodle entree from 1989, and get hooked on the MRE buy-swap-sell phenomenon.
The rise of the internet and disaster-preparation led to a growing number of people interested in taste-testing old MREs. That’s why you can watch someone open and eat a meal prepared for Canadian soldiers in World War II. Read about these hobbyists and their adventures in eating at Atlas Obscura. -via Metafilter
May the fourth be with you! Daisy Ridley takes the opportunity of Star Wars Day to plug Star Wars: Force for Change, the official Star Wars charity that supports children’s programs all over the world.
The current promotion is a raffle for a trip to Skellig Michael, where the final scene of The Force Awakens was filmed. You can donate and enter here. I can’t think of a better way to recognize Star Wars Day than to join in the challenge. -via Uproxx
How much do you know about the USA’s biggest city? Probably quite a bit, since it’s been a major entry point for immigrants for hundreds of years, and it’s a hub for business, finance, and entertainment. But there’s always more to learn, which you’ll do when you watch this week's episode of The List Show from mental_floss.
You spend a third of your life in bed, so you may as well make it comfortable, to the best of your ability. Some folks have more of that “ability” than others. If you have the dough, you can get a bed that’s out of this world, with quality materials, construction, and features that will make you want to stay there all the time. This bed looks quite pricy, but it’s the parts you don’t see that are truly opulent.
Costing a mere $210,000, the Parnian Furniture Bed has a hand-carved, wood, gold and stainless steel frame by Adolhay Parnian. The bed boasts iPad holders, a Swivel TV, computer monitors and many secret compartments. The Parnian Furniture Bed is one of the most interesting and stylish beds on this list. The materials can be customized to include ebony, curly maple, sapele and numerous other options. With any of the materials selected, it works with any décor and interior design.
But it’s far from the most expensive bed on this list of luxury beds at Money, Inc. A couple top a million dollars!
Sarah Cooper of The Cooper Review has cracked the code of how big tech companies select employees from the gazillions of applications they get. Rather than finding out about potential employees, the interview process is series of tests designed to identify those who can survive the ordeal. For example,
7. Ask the same questions over and over and over again
WHY? To test consistency
In the tech world, predictability is a good thing. During the interview, don’t worry about asking the same question over and over again because you keep blanking out. This is a great tool for testing the candidate’s consistency. Candidates should only be wildly inconsistent with their answers when interviewing for senior roles.
8. Conduct dual interviews with a good cop / bad cop vibe
WHY? To find people who can multi-task under pressure
Put the candidate in the middle of a conference room with interviewers at both ends of the table. Is the candidate able to simultaneously direct her attention to both interviewers while sufficiently answering each question at the same time? Or is she clearly exhausted and wondering why she even agreed to this interview? This is a great indicator of how the candidate will perform during a crunch.
See all ten techniques, and then be glad that your resume was eliminated before the interview process. -via Digg
When someone rings your doorbell, you expect a real person to be there (unless they announced “land shark”). Luckily, no one answered the door when an alligator came to call.
Gary Rogers was walking his dog in Monck’s Corner, South Carolina, when he saw an alligator roaming the neighborhood. The animal tried to climb the fence to reach the backyard pool, but was unsuccessful. It then went to the front door, scratched around the doorknob, and reached its snout up to the doorbell. No one was home, though, so the gator eventually wandered off. -via reddit
These cats are playing out a scene happening all over. Children need fresh air and room to stretch their imaginations. But more importantly, parents need them out of their hair. Being your own bad example requires privacy. This comic is the latest from The GaMERCat. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Gene Hansen of Edgeley, North Dakota, is not only a retired farmer and landowner, he’s an artist with a plow. The 75-year-old recently paid tribute to the late Prince by plowing a football-field-size love symbol, which was his name for a while, into a field.
"I thought to myself, maybe I should try something like that," Hanson said Monday, May 2. "I didn't tell anyone I was going do it, I didn't even tell my wife I was going to do it. But it's been fun."
He used a drawing of Prince's "love symbol" that he pulled from the internet as his guide, he said.
"I don't have a cab on my tractor. I just have a three-point disk in the back," he said. "I taped that little sign on the hood of the tractor and just went by that."
When he was finished, he flew his airplane over the field to take a picture. It’s a good thing- the symbol will be gone soon, when the field is completely plowed for a new crop. -via Uproxx
It’s hard to believe now, but movies featuring Marvel comics superheroes used to really suck, bacon the 20th century. One of the worst was the 1990 movie Captain America. So Screen Junkies went for the low-hanging fruit and stepped back in time to give it an Honest Trailer. But stepping back in time does not mean 50 years ago. Why did they make this video look so ancient? To me, 1990 was pretty much yesterday.
If you haven’t seen the movie, or if you conveniently “forgot” that night that everything else at Blockbuster was already rented, this will tickle your funny bone. -Thanks, Paul Panday!
