Steve Guntrip of Bournemouth, UK, became enamored of a stuffed toy he saw in a claw machine. It was a dinosaur called Mr. Dinosaur from the children’s show Peppa Pig. Over the next few months, he tried to win one from claw machines, or even buy one, but found they were becoming scarce. That only made him want one more.  

After lots of research, I came to the conclusion that the dinosaur was no more. It was marked as discontinued on the only website, the official one, which sold it. In a last ditch attempt, I emailed them:

They replied! They actually had some leftover but not enough to put them online. I strongly hinted if they could post me one but they said they were unable. This felt like the end of the road; I do not have very much money at all and while I did adore the dinosaur, bills and rent really must come above cuddly-toy-joy. The cost of the dinosaur was prohibitive but the petrol I’d need to put in the car to get there just made it impossible, especially in the time frame of “we’ll have sold the last of them in a few days”.

So he went to Ask Reddit, and had an adventure raising money to travel to Peppa Pig World and buy one of the few that were left. With the funds in hand, the best part of the story began. Guntrip and his girlfriend Bry documented the trip down to the last detail, in pictures, text, and video, in order to share with his benefactors. The got the last three dinosaurs, one for himself, and two for benefactors who wanted one. You can read the entirely charming saga at his blog. -via b3ta

These real death notices weren’t written by journalists, but by the witty families of the dearly departed.

James Robert “Beef” Ward, 39, will be sadly and sorely missed by his loving family. Jimmy, who his family affectionately called “Pork” or “Bubba,” was preceded in death by his mother, Barbara Jean “Buffalo Butt” Ward. Survived by his fiancee, Annie “Red” Callahan; father, J. Richard “Old Fart” Ward; sisters, Cathy “Funny Face” Graf, Karen “Turtle” Ward, and “Hamburger” Patty Ward.

-Columbus Dispatch

Edward “Bruce” Merritt. Born April 3, 1951 in North Carolina. His older sisters regularly beat him up, put him in dresses, and then forced him to walk to the drugstore to buy their cigarettes. Bruce never met a stranger, and in many ways was stranger than most. He is survived by one daughter, two grandchildren, two ex-wives, unpaid taxes, and many loyal loving friends.

-Dallas Morning News

Chuck P. Dimmick passed away suddenly on April 18, 2009, while attending a NASCAR Race to watch his favorite driver, Jeff Gordon. Chuck was the Director of Marketing for the Lund Cadillac Group. We are sure he would still want all to know that 0.9% financing is still available on all new 2008 Hummer H2’s.

-Arizona Republic

Theodore Roosevelt Heller, 88, was discharged from the U.S. Army during WWII due to service-related injuries, and then forced his way back into the Illinois National Guard insisting no one tells him when to serve his country. In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans.

-Chicago Tribune

Arthur (Fred) Clark, who had tired of reading obituaries noting others’ courageous battle with this or that disease, wanted it known that he lost his battle as a result of an automobile accident on June 18, 2006. During his life he excelled at mediocrity. He had lifelong love affairs with bacon, butter, cigars, and bourbon. His sons said of Fred, “He was often wrong, but never in doubt.” When his family was asked what they remembered about Fred, they fondly recalled how Fred never peed in the shower -on purpose.

-Richmond Times Dispatch

Ruth E. Rencevicz, born on August 8, 1927, passed away on September 7, 2008, due to complications resulting from her children making her old before her time. Ruth served her country as a covert spy for the CIA, where during the Cold War she was largely responsible for the breakup of the Soviet Union. At least, that’s the way she told it. Ruth was also very active as a volunteer known to selflessly give of her time by standing on the balcony yelling at kids for “playing that rap music” at all hours of the day and night.

-Akron Beacon Journal

Louis J. Casimir Jr. bought the farm Thursday, Feb. 5, 2004, having lived more than twice as long as he had expected and probably three or four times as long as he deserved. Although he was born into an impecunious family, in a backward and benighted part of the country at the beginning of the Great Depression, he never in his life suffered any real hardships. For more than six decades, he smoked, drank, and ate lots of animal fat, but never had a serious illness or injury. His last wish was that everyone could be as lucky as he had been, even though his demise was probably iatrogenic. Lou was a daredevil: his last words were “Watch this!”

-The Daily Item (Pa.)

Jack Balmer. As this is my auto-obituary, I’d like to write it in my own fashion! I was born in Vancouver on All Saints Day 1931. Apart from practicing dentistry for 30 years, I have also at one time or another been fairly adept as a skier, private pilot, race car driver, vintner, mechanic, model builder, marine aquarist, carpenter, photographer, plumber, scuba diver, writer, boat builder, Olympic team member (coach for a bronze medal), and a Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary member. Since I’ve had a ball in life, with no regrets and nothing left still undone, and since our world seems to be quickly deteriorating, it’s a good time for me to cash in. Goodbye and good luck!

-Vancouver Sun

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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!

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Take a "mini-vacation" in more ways than one! Damp Design filmed activities in Geiranger, Norway, in tilt-shift and time-lapse modes to make it seem like a miniature world of miniature holiday travelers, but a lovely world just the same. -via the Presurfer

I have that curse, too, but I developed a workaround by taking a nap every day. That didn’t go over too well in the time clock world, but it has become a sacred ritual for this blogger. This comic is the latest from Justin Boyd at Invisible Bread. -via Pleated-Jeans

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Wednesday, while people were attending a Rose Bowl fan festival outside the stadium in Pasadena the day before the game, strange wind conditions kicked up a “dust devil,” a small vortex that lifted tents and inflatables and tossed them around. Gary Knudson recorded the incident on video. You can see a Chick-fil-A cow fleeing the vortex, because you know what tornadoes can do to cows.

Three people sustained minor injuries from flying debris and were treated at the scene. -via Viral Viral Videos

This majestic cat is named Meatball. It’s not a funny angle, his eyes always look like that. Someone described him as “a pure bred snarf snarf,” a Thundercats reference that came up several times. But even more people were reminded of Gimli. Does he remind you of anyone?

Personally, I wouldn't mind if Meatball became a meme or even an internet cat, just because I'd like to see more pictures of him.   

A century before Jennifer Lawrence was slinging arrows as Katniss Everdeen, Helen Holmes invented the female action hero. So why have you never heard of her?

On the roof of a speeding freight train, a slender woman in a white feather cap and a long narrow skirt sits crumpled, cradling her head. Her day’s work is done. A minute ago, she leaped onto this train from a towering overpass, pointing out two stowaway thieves to the engineers on duty. As they race to nab the bandits, she doubles over to catch her breath. The men, she knows, can take it from here.

Suddenly, one of the thieves appears on the roof. Fresh from a fistfight with the conductors, the thug tries to rush past her. She scrambles to her feet and lunges at his waist. They wrestle. He tries to shake her. She tackles him, and in an instant the two are pitched over the side into the river below. As they wade from the water, the wet hat still clinging to her head, she sacks him again, delivering a taste of justice.

It’s a quintessential climax to an episode of the wildly popular 1915 silent film series The Hazards of Helen. In a few year’s time, short action flicks like this had become standard weekend diversions for moviegoing Americans, giving rise to the first generation of screen stars: Mary Fuller in What Happened to Mary, Kathlyn Williams in The Adventures of Kathlyn, and Pearl White in The Perils of Pauline. These weren’t coy coquettes or damsels in distress; they were action stars racing cars, riding horses, and jumping trains.

Helen Holmes, the scrappy 20-year-old featured in The Hazards of Helen, wasn’t the most famous or the most glamorous. But with the women’s suffrage movement reaching a fever pitch, her no-nonsense handling of everyday affairs in a man’s world turned her into a fan favorite. What made her truly revolutionary -even as she faded into obscurity with the rest of the silent film stars- was what she did behind the scenes.

A Chicago-raised tomboy-turned-model, Holmes was more than just the star of The Hazards of Helen- she was, in large part, its creator. Holmes landed her first film roles in silent comedies in 1912. Shortly after, she joined forces, personally and professionally, with J.P. “Jack” McGowan, an Australian director who specialized in short action flicks, most of them one- or two-reel railroad dramas.

From the start, McGowan and Holmes wanted to do something different. They envisioned a rough-hewn adventure series centered on Helen, a railroad operator, who threw herself into peril in every episode. Production for Hazards began in Glendale, California, in 1914, but by early 1915, McGowan had fallen from a telegraph pole performing a stunt. For six weeks he was in a plaster cast at the Sisters’ Hospital in Hollywood. That’s when Holmes took over the production, and she fully embraced the task.

All over the world, you’ll find ancient objects that are revered for their significant place in history, or for being a tangible connection with religious figures. Often their provenance is a matter of faith more than documented history. And as the centuries go by, their stories grow more complicated as the objects are coveted by other believers. For example, a cloak worn by the prophet Muhammad is now in the possession of the Taliban, the same group that destroyed so many artworks and icons of other religions. 

According to legend, the cloak made its way to Afghanistan in the possession of the first king of the modern Afghan state, Ahmad Shah Durrani. When visiting what’s now Uzbekistan, he saw the cloak and knew that it needed to return home with him. He made a promise to the keepers of the cloak, pointing to a rock and swearing that he wouldn’t take the cloak very far away from that particular stone. Today, that stone, the king’s remains, and the cloak rest in a heavily guarded shrine in Kandahar.

The cloak is kept under lock and key with a single family of honored custodians. It’s an honor that they take very, very seriously; many assassins have tried and failed to reclaim the cloak.

In 1996, the cloak became a part of the imagery of the Taliban when Mullah Omar, the man nominated to become the figurehead of the next holy war, requested an audience with the cloak. When he removed it from the shrine and appeared in public with it—a holy symbol that’s usually absolutely off-limits to the general public—it gained him the support of the people and the legitimacy he needed to make the Taliban a force to be reckoned with.

There are also stories about body parts belonging to Buddha and John the Baptist, swords and stones used to crown kings, and what some consider to be the Holy Grail, all at Listverse.  -via Daily of the Day

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Filmmaker Boris von Schoenebeck wondered if he would get close enough to the cheetahs of the Serrengeti in Tanzania to film them. He needn’t have worried. These cats are used to vehicles coming through their territory to look at them. And they looked back, taking over his vehicle and even chewing on one of his cameras! You have to wonder what effect all those tourists are having on the cheetah population and on their prey. Are they upsetting the balance of nature, or is the money they spend going to help animal conservation? -via Tastefully Offensive

The last time we encountered a TARDIS Murphy bed, four years ago, many of you expressed interest in owning it. Stubbs, the blogger at The Stubby Thumb, wanted a Murphy bed but was aghast at the prices. However, there are kits available, so she figured if she were going to build her own bed anyway, she may as well make it a TARDIS.

Not only is it an awesome bed, but she posted the process with pictures for us to enjoy. While you won’t learn to be a master woodworker from the post, you will enjoy the story of how many things can go wrong on the way to perfection. Now her guest room is bigger on the inside! -via Geeks Are Sexy

It seems strange now, but when I was a kid, movies were  not rated. Then they were almost all rated G. I recall going to a couple of films rating M, but I didn’t let my parents know. Turns out they didn’t mind. Now a G rating means that only little kids and their parents go to see it, and studios will fight to change an NC-17 to an R, when at one time not even an X rating was the kiss of death for a film. How did things get this way?

It all started as soon as movies were invented, with municipal bans to control what people saw on the big screen. In 1915, the Supreme Court ruled that movies were not protected as freedom of speech under the Constitution. The film industry decided to police its own product to keep government censors out of the business, but that still made waves at every turn. The system has evolved and changed a lot over the years, in steps that are outlined in an article at Gizmodo. -via Digg

I recall being so excited about a new year when I was young, thinking maybe this will be the year our boys all come home from Vietnam, and how much longer we had to go until the 21st century, but I’d be so old then! And now here we are in 2015. It is a little scary. This is the latest comic from Doghouse Diaries.

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Using a bidet can be intimidating if you’ve never done it before. How much more intimidating can it be to use one for the first time while the camera is roiling, capturing your every reaction? Be warned, this video contains quips about anatomy and bathroom habits -as you could probably guess. -via Buzzfeed

I wasn’t sure if this was a foreshadowing or just a New Year gag from Chris at Lunarbaboon, so I went to his Facebook page and it appears to be an announcement, indeed! Expect a new character in the strip this coming June. Congratulations!  

Gizmodo collected six movies that referenced the year 2015 in their versions of the future. Well, that future is here, and where are our hoverboards? Not all the cinematic visions of the future are as fun as Back To The Future 2- some are quite dystopian, which is why they’ve ranked them in order of pleasantness. The real 2015 will be nothing like what was once imagined, but there is one thing we know for sure, and that will be that BTTF2 references will continue all year long.