More than 800 cats were paraded and judged at The Supreme Cat Show in Birmingham, England, yesterday. The event, held for thirty years now, is one of the largest cat competitions in Europe. Exhibitors brought longhairs, shorthairs, Persians, Sphinxes, and more with fancy names like Sugartump Supremo Disaronno, Adzwosh Darling Doris Day, Bleugems Believe-in-me, and Leadpruuf Pruby Doo. The overall winner was a British Lilac Tortie named Premier Pinemarten Tina Sparkle, owned by Penny Hopgood.
Be careful! A guy in Corbett, Oregon, was going to remove the snow from his driveway. Turns out he didn’t need to worry about snow at all. He needs to worry about the ice! The driveway is on a hill, and from the looks of it, no vehicles should attempt to drive down. Or walk down, for that matter. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
So, did Batman watch Frozen, or did he become familiar with the entire story by osmosis, like I did? I finally saw the movie, or most of it, about a month ago. This comic is from DeviantART member nebezial. And there was a great comment underneath:
Clark? Do you want to save the planet? Come on lets go today. We don't save people anymore, come out the door, and up up and away. We used to be best allies, but now we're not and it's all DC's fault. Do you want to save this planet? It doesn't have to be this planet.
The movie Steel Magnolias turned 25 years old this past week. Where did the time go? Just the mention of the movie reminds me of getting my hair done and crying along with the movie characters as we watched on VHS. The star-studded film was based on a successful play and became one of the biggest hits of 1989. Let’s learn some more about Steel Magnolias.
1. IT’S BASED ON A TRUE STORY.
Writer Robert Harling wrote Steel Magnolias as a way of coping with the passing of his sister, Susan, who died from complications related to diabetes in 1985. In the play, Susan became Shelby.
5. BETTE DAVIS WANTED A PIECE OF STEEL MAGNOLIAS.
Bette Davis saw the play in New York and immediately began a push to be cast in the film as Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine’s part). She also thought that Katharine Hepburn could make a fantastic Clairee and Elizabeth Taylor would be a perfect Truvy. In 1989, Harling told The Morning Call how Davis had invited him to tea to lobby for the part. As he left, Davis told him, “You may give the role of Ouiser to someone else. But you and they will hear from Bette Davis.”
15. THE FILM WAS CRITICIZED FOR THE MALE ROLES’ LACK OF SUBSTANCE.
But the guys are lucky there were any roles for them in the film at all. Though the men are often talked about in the stage play, no men appeared on the stage at any time. In his review of the film for The New York Times, Vincent Canby noted that “The men in their lives are played by Sam Shepard, Tom Skerritt and Dylan McDermott, among others, but the male characters are no more substantial now than when they were invisible.”
Treating male characters as tokens with barely any substance may be a flaw, but women are used like that in movies all the time. Steel Magnolias turned a spotlight on women and showed that a man is just one of many things they care deeply about. Read the rest of 23 Facts About Steel Magnolias at mental_floss.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
Western movies, of course, start and end with John Wayne. Whether it is Rio Bravo (my favorite John Wayne Western), Red River, The Shootist, True Grit, Stagecoach, or any one of the dozens of other Western classics he made in his long and illustrious career, John Wayne remains the Michael Jordan of the Western film.
Films about Wyatt Earp, the most famous Old West lawman, also abound in film history, whether it be Gunfight at the OK Corral, My Darling Clementine or the scores of lesser cinematic tributes, Earp remains "the" Old West icon of icons. With all this said, in my own humble opinion, 1993's masterpiece Tombstone is the finest western ever made.
Filmed on a budget of $25,000,000, Tombstone was the first-ever Wyatt Earp film to deeply research and pay actual attention to the Wyatt Earp period in Tombstone. Ironically, when the film was released, a few critics panned the film's straying from the truth and indulging in "revisionism.” This statement couldn't be further from the truth.
Tombstone has unparalleled accuracy in detail not only with dialogue, but mustaches, clothes, guns (including long-barreled and nickel-plated weapons), and, especially, hats (which had a clearly southwestern flavor, particularly in the cavalier-style sombreros worn by Wyatt and Doc Holliday.) It is also the first and only Wyatt Earp film to be shot in the country where the actual events took place, the first movie to use young, vigorous actors as the principals, and the first to make the town of Tombstone itself look exciting.
In this clip from the BBC One series Life Story, Sir David Attenborough narrates a hermit crab housing chain. If you’ve ever had pet hermit crabs, you know they are always on the lookout for the perfect shell, one slightly larger than the one they have because they are growing. But a shell that is too big will be hard to carry around. In the wild, they’ve worked out their own system for exchanging shells of the proper size. Everybody wins! I love how each of them "claimed" the shell they really wanted, as if they had been watching it for some time. After seeing this, I have to wonder if they leave the smallest shells strategically placed near crab eggs for newly-hatched hermits. -via b3ta
Robert Jones brings us a mashup of the TV show Friends and the film Guardians of the Galaxy! Yes, it’s the every-so-familiar intro to Friends re-edited with selected relevant clips featuring Peter, Gamora, and Rocket celebrating their friendship, despite how different they are. -Thanks, Robert!
This is a nice-looking house for sale in Sweden. It looks quite normal from the outside, but inside… well, the kitchen looks quite normal, modern, and well-equipped. Really nice living room! Wait, are those trophy heads on the walls aliens? Then we get to the hallway, and there’s a full-size Predator! Just wait until you see what’s behind that fancy carved door... Yes, this house is for sale, and you can see a lot more pictures of it at the real estate ad, but I don’t believe you’ll get much out of the text unless you can read Swedish. -via Everlasting Blort
Will Reid has made a name for himself by creating instructional videos for his teenagers, laying out the basics for simple tasks like replacing the toilet paper roll. Now it’s time for the next chapter in this global airing of the family’s dirty laundry. Will’s daughter Beth has a camera of her own, and takes us on a tour of her father’s bathroom, where he gets a taste of his own medicine. Will replied on the YouTube page,
With regards to the empty toilet roll? All I have to say is ............. speak to my wife Sandra!!! ;-)
That’s right, blame someone else! Hey, at least Beth’s paying attention to the videos he’s been posting! -via Tastefully Offensive
The work of a good conceptual artist will surprise you with something you’d have never considered, then upon reflection you find that it makes total sense in some way. That’s the impression I get from Austria-based German artist Toni Spyra, who takes everyday objects and sees them in a new and creative way. He wants to share that creative re-imagining with you.
Although I haven’t watched the show since I was a kid, I thought I remembered the Batman TV series perfectly, because I never missed an episode. It is not so. I was very young then. I recall many of the villains that the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder fought, but there are 37 of them in a list at mental_floss that are just now starting to come back in my memory. Also, since I was so young, I did not realize how many of the actors portraying those parts were already well-known celebrities. I yeah, I knew about Cesar Romero and Earth Kitt, but I did not know that director Otto Preminger played Mr. Freeze in two episodes. Nor did I realize that Anne Baxter played two different villains. Wait, there was both a Riddler and a Puzzler? There’s a lot more trivia in this Visual Guide to All 37 Villains that you’ll enjoy.
Officials in Tuszyn, Poland, have a problem with Winnie-the-Pooh. They met to select a new macot for the municipal playground. They rejected the idea of using literary stuffed bear Winnie-the-Pooh on the grounds that he doesn’t wear pants. A Polish fictional bear who is completely clothed was suggested as an alternative.
One official is heard saying: "It doesn’t wear underpants because it doesn’t have a sex. It’s a hermaphrodite."
Councillor Hanna Jachimska then began criticising the Winnie-the-Pooh author Alan Alexander Milne.
She said: "This is very disturbing but can you imagine! The author was over 60 and cut his [Pooh's] testicles off with a razor blade because he had a problem with his identity."
Oh! Oh! I know this one! My father taught geology and geography, and this is one of the few lessons I remember learning as I sat through his summer classes as a young kid. It was cheaper than a babysitter, see. So, I learned words like meander and oxbow. Minute Earth explains what happens to a river over time as the water continuously flows. Our earth is quite a dynamic, ever-changing place. -via Viral Viral Videos
We make jokes about Canadians, and Canadians make jokes about Americans, but deep down, we love each other. Kind of like siblings. Tuesday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the Nashville Predators. Considering all the snow between here and there, the crowd was overwhelmingly Canadian. During the U.S. national anthem, the microphone pooped out. That’s when the Canadian crowd jumped in to finish the song themselves! It was a lovely moment. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
You'll look at this and think, “Genius! Why didn’t I think of that?” because he’s got a swing he doesn’t have to push. Then you think “I hope he doesn’t kill himself.” Watch a little more and you’ll wonder how sturdy that rope really is. He does look like he’s having the time of his life, though. -via Digg
