Have you ever heard of a lobster bustle? Well, you know a bustle was an appliance for making a woman’s dress stand out in the back, like she had a big butt. That was the fashion in the 1880s. A lobster bustle looks a bit like a lobster, as you can see in the picture. Pat Tyler made one recently for the City Lights Theater Company’s production of The Elephant Man, now running in San Jose, California. The described engineering of this underwear is fascinating, and if you’ve ever wondered how woman sat down while wearing a bustle, you can find out by watching a video at Collectors Weekly.
Miss Cellania's Blog Posts
As he raised his right hand, chest glistening in the golden beams of the waning sunset, hair floating in the wind, the final words passed his lips; "so help me God." Lady Liberty felt a jolt of life and excitement she hadn't felt since Schwarzenegger
If you couldn’t tell from the Fark headline, Fabio Lanzoni became an American citizen on Wednesday. The 57-year-old model we know from the covers of hundreds of romance novels took the Oath of Allegiance at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Fabio was born in Milan, Italy, and has lived in the U.S. for decades.
(Image credit: Fabio International Fan Club)
The weekend is coming up. Might you be in the mood for a pirate movie? If you like what you’ve seen, but you want to see something else, check out this list of ten memorable movie pirates. They range from the 1935 Captain Blood with Errol Flynn up the the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. You’re sure to find a new pirate you can spend the weekend with!
While medieval Europe was dealing with feudalism, barbarian invasions, and the plague, the African kingdom of Benin boasted a magnificent city with straight roads, record-breaking fortifications, and even street lamps. The streets, houses, and villages were laid out in a planned fractal design, which went over the heads of visiting Europeans. Benin City, in what is now Nigeria, was a sight to behold.
When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”, at a time when there were hardly any other places in Africa the Europeans acknowledged as a city. Indeed, they classified Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world.
In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”
But the city is no more. It was totally destroyed, and the few vestiges left are mostly ignored. Read the story of Benin City at The Guardian. -via Metafilter
So much of what you know about the Star Wars universe was actually learned after the fact. A lot of details you take for granted were never mentioned in the original movie or the original trilogy. Those details were filled in as Star Wars fandom grew to a population who craved documented information on everything.
Personally, I’m glad to find this out, because even though I’ve been a Star Wars fan since 1977, I felt really out of it for not knowing those things were called Ewoks until later. And that’s not the only example. Now I feel vindicated of my ignorance. -via Laughing Squid
Nelson Molina was a sanitation worker in New York City who, 30 years ago, began to collect some of the more notable items he found among the garbage to decorate his locker. His collection grew, and eventually took over the second floor of a sanitation truck depot in East Harlem. There are works of art, antiques, musical instruments, and even trophies. Molina has since retired, but his gallery still stands. The Treasures in the Trash collection is not normally open to the public, but tours are scheduled occasionally. Dylan Thuras of Atlas Obscura went there to take pictures, which gives us a virtual tour of the amazing collection of things people throw out.
Look! It’s a new love song. Love at first sight, that is, between two people who can’t understand what each other are saying. That’s when it gets weird.
Did I say two people? That changes during the video. This is the latest from the Norwegian comedy group Ylvis. I guess that explains everything. -via Viral Viral Videos
In 1932, Louise Thompson noticed that a small spider had gotten into her alarm clock. That wasn’t all that surprising, but she noticed that the spider was trying to spin a web between the hour hand and the minute hand, which was an impossible task because they moved and tore the web. But the spider persisted in its mission. Thompson and her husband kept an eye on the clock for days, thinking the spider would eventually give up, but she didn’t. Word got around, the media was interested, and the next thing you know, the spider was a celebrity. The clock was taken to the University of Akron for study. People all over the world were following the saga of the little spider, and John A. Twamley of Rochester, New York, wrote a poem in its honor.
In the city known as Akron,
In the state of O-hio,
On a clock face there's a spider
Spinning web threads to and fro.
Back and forth he keeps on going
From clock hand unto clock hand,
And why his threads should keep abreaking
He of course can't understand...
When we men meet with reverses
We should keep this thought in stock:
That 'til death we should keep striving
Like the spider in the clock
The Akron Humane Society wanted the spider to be freed, while scientists said it would die outside in the Ohio winter. Read the whole story of the little spider who became a media sensation at About. -via Nag on the Lake
Most of states in the US have official state fossils -43, to be exact- but there’s no convention for choosing or identifying a state fossil, so each state does its own thing. Some select a species of fossil found in the state. Some choose a particular specimen, usually with a story behind it. At least one state almost had creationism language added to the fossil proclamation. Some states chose plant fossils. And California had a real competition.
California, in the early 1970s, chose between two candidates, each backed by a rival politician. One argued for trilobites, a highly successful group of woodlouse-like marine animals. The other backed Smilodon fatalis, the saber-toothed cat, a frequent resident of the La Brea tar pits at Los Angeles. Choosing the trilobite would have given California the country’s oldest state fossil. Choosing the cat would have given it a fossil with huge, scary teeth. They chose the cat. (Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin all picked trilobites.)
Well, saber-tooth cats are cool. The worst judgment was reserved for Georgia and Kentucky in an article about all the different state fossils at the Atlantic. -via Metafilter
(Image credit: Flickr user James St. John)
Sometimes the leader of the western world just needs to let off a little steam.
1. Abe Lincoln’s Frat-Boy Act
In January 1833—decades before The Great Emancipator, burdened by the most devastating crisis in U.S. history, couldn’t stomach three square meals per day—a 24-year-old Abraham Lincoln opened a grocery store in New Salem, Illinois, with his Army buddy William F. Berry.
Aptly named Lincoln and Berry, the emporium sold bacon, guns, and beeswax—essentials for any homemaker—plus rum, whiskey, and brandy. That stockpile of tipple came in handy on the day Lincoln had to settle a financial dispute between an employee and a local gambler. According to biographer Carl Sandburg, Lincoln bet the gambler that he could “lift a barrel of whiskey from the floor and hold it while he took a drink out of the bunghole.” If he failed, he’d give the gambler a fur hat. If he succeeded, the gambler got nothing. Abe then dropped to a tactical squat position, lifted the barrel to his mouth, and basically performed a reverse keg-stand with superhuman strength.
Of course, the stunt came back to haunt Lincoln during his 1858 run for Senate. In a series of debates, incumbent Stephen A. Douglas exposed Abe’s past life as a “flourishing grocery-keeper in the town of [New] Salem” who could down “more liquor than all the boys of the town together.” Setting a precedent for eons to come, Lincoln refuted the claim.
2. FDR’s Recipe for Disaster
If you love sports movies, you’ve probably seen the big ones: The Natural, Rocky, Hoosiers, The Longest Yard, etc. How about a movie you might not have seen, that has to do with different sports? An underdog can be just as inspirational in wrestling, skateboarding, bicycling, or track. Check out some dramas you might not have considered watching before. Some of them are pretty old, which just means they had to be really good to get on this list of sports movies from TVOM.
This dog named Chloe is in trouble. But can you blame her? First off, she sees you putting that pink stuff to your mouth every day. Second, it smells good, like they usually do. Third, she’s a dog; they will eat anything. And we know what Chloe just ate.
I live in a home that has neither dogs nor lipstick. But my first thought was still about the difficulty of getting lipstick out of the carpet. -via Uproxx
This gemstone ring from Etsy shop AllThingsGeekChic is beautiful, but be warned: before you give it to your girlfriend as an engagement ring, make sure she is a fan of the Evil Queen from Snow White or she might get the wrong idea, and take it like a dagger to the heart. You wouldn’t compare her to the Disney villain, would you? If she is a fan, or has a great sense of humor, you are golden. It would also be great as a cosplay accessory.
For the Fairest One of All. Cast in 925 Sterling silver the dagger is 14k gold plated with 3 lab created blue diamonds. The heart is a 2ct lab created ruby. The band has 42 lab created diamonds down the sides for special added sparkle.
Check out more pictures of this ring at Easy. -via Geeks Are Sexy
The Force Awakens introduced us to the Sith wannabe Kylo Ren, who could have been a Jedi but decided to turn to the dark side. Why? Childhood trauma? Psychopathology? Greed? No. It’s because the dark side is just way cooler. Here he explains that reasoning to Luke Skywalker, courtesy of Dorkly. -via Tastefully Offensive
These young ladies are dressed in some sort of uniform, lined up side-by-side in a picture taken in Conthey, Switzerland, by photographer Tiziana Vergari. Can you count how many girls there are? Check the poll below. -via Buzzfeed
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