The cure for boredom is to mess with the cat. You might feel sorry for the poor cat, having to jump through hoops, so to speak, for a treat, but hey, he's getting treats. Anyway, this experiment didn't go to the lengths I expected, because the guy ended it when the cat knocked a treat out of his reach. That was an accident! He could have gone further! I could try this with my cats, but they would just rip the entire cardboard box apart to get a piece of meat. -via Boing Boing

McDonald's is trying to do something nice for the hard-working people risking their health for the rest of us. They are offering free meals to first responders and health care workers.

As a small token of our appreciation, we’re giving away free Thank You meals to our frontline heroes. Stop by a participating McDonald’s from 4/22 - 5/5 and we’ll take care of the rest.*

*At participating McDonald’s 4/22/20 through 5/5/20 at drive-thru and front counter only. Valid ID required. Limit one Thank You meal per person per day. Not available with Mobile Order and Pay or McDelivery®. Breakfast meal includes Egg McMuffin®, Chicken McGriddles®, or Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit, plus Hash Browns and any size soft drink, tea or hot brewed coffee. Lunch/dinner meal includes Double Cheeseburger, 6 Piece McNuggets®, or Filet-O-Fish®, plus small fries and any size soft drink, tea or hot brewed coffee. Menu options may vary by restaurant. No substitutions. Decisions of manager are final.

It's the details where things may go wrong. A look into the discussion at Facebook shows that quite a few people are either having a problem with the promotion itself, or having a problem accessing it.

1. It is not a mandatory company-wide campaign. Each outlet can choose whether or not to participate in this promotion.

2. Managers at participating outlets independently define "health care worker." This usually includes doctors and nurses, but may be limited to those working at a hospital. It may or may not include other hospital employees, CNAs, pharmacists, techs, nursing home staff, home health nurses, or clinic workers.

3. Some commenters report that their local participating outlet claims the promotion is a discount, not a free meal.

4. Commenters believe that truck drivers, grocery store workers, and delivery people deserve a free meal just as much. Some think McDonald's employees should get free meals for working through the pandemic.

5. Other commenters think the free meals should go to unemployed workers, who may now be depending on food banks.

You know what they say: There is no free lunch, and no good deed goes unpunished.

(Image credit: RMajouji)

A wildfire ravaged Tasmania, off the coast of Australia, in 2013. During the chaos, a lamb escaped from her farm and became stranded on the wrong side of a fence. It wasn't until much later that Alice Gray and her family discovered the sheep was missing when they reviewed some video surveillance footage. The sheep, dubbed Prickles, showed up again recently as Gray was celebrating her son's birthday.

"While we were setting up, we looked across a dam and we saw this big round thing on the other side of the dam — like, oh my God, I think that is that crazy sheep we saw in the video," Gray said.

"So we were just having our barbecue lunch when my husband went missing. And about 15 minutes later, he called back and he was puffing and panting. … He'd trapped the sheep in the corner of a paddock and was lying on it."

It took a group effort to wrangle the massive sheep into the back of the truck and return it to the flock, where Gray says she is now settling in nicely.

Prickles has gone seven years with no shearing. Gray's family is using the incident as a fundraiser for COVID-19 victims by letting people guess how much wool Prickles will produce when she is finally shorn on May first. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit: Alice Gray)

(Image credit: IFadingLightI)

It takes a leap of faith to adopt a tiny kitten, especially one who has been abandoned, neglected, or abused. Or an older cat who has run out of luck. A good dose of love and time can make all the difference. It might even make you look smaller!

(Image credit: Indisputabull)

A year later, you might not even recognize it as the same cat. See the difference a permanent home can make in the life of a struggling cat, and what a great companion it may turn out to be, not to mention handsome fellows. See 35 before-and-after pictures, many with stories, at Bored Panda.

Movie buffs and those in the industry eagerly await the weekend box office report to see how newly-released movies rank. Those statistics may be completely moot when theaters are closed. But the report still came out this week, and the Weekend Domestic Chart for April 17 lists Resistance and Swallow as tied for the number one spot. Both movies grossed $2,490 from one theater. It was a double feature at the Ocala Drive-In in Ocala, Florida. Slashfilm explains the weirdness.

This doesn’t mean that there’s only one theater open in the entire country — there are still a fair few drive-in theaters (official and makeshift) across the U.S. that are still open — but it seems Ocala is the only one still showing new releases and reporting their grosses. The majority of drive-in theaters show repertory screenings of older or classic films. But perhaps other drive-in theaters could take note of Ocala’s newfound renown — it is making headlines, after all — and start showing new releases so that we could get a fuller box office report. For now, it seems like the No. 1 movie at the U.S. box office is the unnerving Haley Bennett-starring thriller Swallow.

Contrast the report with the one from February 14, which had Sonic the Hedgehog at #1. It grossed $58 million in its opening weekend. The charts may fill out a bit when warmer weather spurs more drive-ins to open, but that still won't make more new movies available. -via reddit

When you think of a convergence between a king and a pirate, you wouldn't be surprised to find he was the descendant of the Vikings. Eric VII had been king of Denmark since he was seven years old, and that realm eventually included Norway and Sweden, too. He was an unpopular ruler, waging ill-conceived wars and levying taxes, until the Swedes began rebelling and the nobles wanted to overthrow him. And he didn't even have an heir. Matters came to a head in 1438.  

With the walls closing in, Erik saw that his fate was sealed. He decided to leave the country with the royal treasure chest, a few of the crown jewels, the royal regalia and the country’s historical flag. He knew where he was going: to join the pirates.

The pirates in question were sea-worn men who for years had created fear and havoc among the merchants and noblemen of Sweden, Denmark and the German towns known as the Hanseatic League. The pirates’ enemies — the nobility who were once King Erik’s friends — were the same people with whom he now found himself at odds. So naturally, his enemies’ enemies became his friends.

As he stood proud and unrepentant on that ship, the Dannebrog banner in hand, plowing through Oresund toward the pirate’s nest on the isle of Gotland, the Danish nobles were on his trail. And while he cursed the powers that be and readied himself for piracy, the nobles made a deal with his sister, Catharina, offering her son, Christoffer of Bayern, the Danish throne. They simultaneously started a rumor that King Erik was directly involved in a conspiracy to overthrow the Royal Council. According to a diary from the noble lady Anne Krabbe, found in the Royal Danish Library’s “New Royal Collections” and written in uneven handwriting, the nobles told a tale of Erik striking a deal with the rebel farmers of the time, supposedly telling them to kill their lords, so that Erik could return and claim his throne.

Read the story of King Erik VII of Denmark and his turn to piracy at Narratively. -via Damn Interesting

(Image credit:  Darya Malikova)

The garden at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson in Virginia, grows with more than 70 species of heirloom vegetables, plus herbs and fruit. It's not been a continuous garden, but a painstaking recreation of the experiment Jefferson was obsessed with, along with things like moose, macaroni and cheese, and wine.

The third U.S. president’s interest in fruits, vegetables, and spices was obsessive and indulged on a grand scale. From the perspective of ingredients, Hatch calls Jefferson early-America’s foremost culinary connoisseur.

“His devotion to obtaining rare varieties and experimenting with cultivation techniques bordered on religious,” says Hatch. “He dedicated more writing to the subject, about 700 pages, than any other.”

As an evangelical byproduct, Jefferson founded what was arguably the nation’s first seed bank.

“He would hear about a ‘new’ vegetable and have to have it,” says Hatch. If growing experiments proved fruitful, seeds, taste descriptions, and instructions were mailed to “everyone he knew”—including George Washington, James Monroe, and James Madison. The efforts helped introduce then-obscure ingredients such as tomatoes, eggplant, and okra into mainstream usage.

Recreating the garden at Monticello wasn't easy, but Jefferson left his detailed plans behind, which aided the accuracy of the project. Read about bringing Jefferson's garden back to life at Atlas Obscura.

humbly presented: jeff goldblum as poptarts (a thread) pic.twitter.com/9GDox0P4rX

— Rachel Clayton 🎣🛹 (@rachelclayday) April 14, 2019

That's about as nonsensical a post title as I've ever typed, but bear with me. Rachel Clayton had some extra time to investigate a pattern she'd noticed, which is how Jeff Goldblum's many sartorial expressions can be illustrated with different flavors of Pop Tarts. I was aware of the man's fashion sense, but I had no idea that Pop Tarts came in so many flavors.

pic.twitter.com/wmD08a3hQO

— Rachel Clayton 🎣🛹 (@rachelclayday) April 14, 2019

On the surface, it seems like a dumb idea. But when you see how well they match up a dozen times (plus quite a few more contributions from followers), it's worth sharing. See the entire Twitter thread here.  -via Geeks Are Sexy

Looking for historical accuracy in Hollywood movies is often a losing proposition, but some movies get it more right than others. You might be surprised at what fashion historian Hilary Davidson has to say about Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

I spent six years writing a book on Regency fashion, called Dress in the Age of Jane Austen. I have spent a lot of time looking at genuine Regency dress. But I also spent a lot of time in the last year or so doing a lot of tedious production work for the book. I watched a lot of films on the way. I love Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. I was watching it in the background as I was copy editing my index or some tedious, tedious thing and just enjoying it. Then, we got to the bit where they kidnap Beethoven.

My eye is so attuned to Regency dress, and anyone who follows my Twitter will know that I get quite opinionated about Regency costume on-screen. I was looking at the background extras, and I suddenly paused it and went, “Hang on a second.” I rewound it a bit and went through it in slow motion and went, “You know what? This is really, really good.” It’s a 1980s teen comedy. You don’t expect a high standard of costuming. After that, I thought, well, that’s it. That’s my benchmark. If the main characters’ costumes in a Regency production aren’t better done than the background extras’ in a 1980s teen comedy, I think you’ve failed in the costume design.

So which movies pass the Bill & Ted test? Find out at Slate. -via Metafilter

Have you ever heard of a "bottle whimsey"? It's an object, artwork, or complete scene inside a glass bottle. You are familiar with the classic ship-in-a-bottle, but that's only one type among an astonishing variety of things that people managed to get into a bottle. It's a folk art that people developed as a hobby that resulted in an impressive accomplishment shielded from damage by the bottle itself. Susan D. Jones, author of Genius in a Bottle: The Art and Magic of Bottle Whimseys, explains the rise of the art form.

“The vast majority of whimseys date from after 1900, even 1910,” Jones explains. “They didn’t become something everyday people could make until bottles became common and thought of as disposable. My guess is that the first disposable small bottles were patent medicine bottles; so many of my older bottles are stamped with the name of a drugstore.”

After the Civil War, handmade bottle whimseys became more popular in the United States and the themes expanded from the craft’s European roots: Some showcased Masonic or fraternal objects, wishing wells, farm or household tools, elaborate whittled fans, and other general whimsies. As Jones writes in her book, “A growing and mobile population of laborers spread the art form through contacts on the job, in the Army and Navy, in prison, and by the late 19th century, through the hobo communities connected by river, road and rail. Houses, intricate interlocking wooden puzzles, shops and saloons and brothels, fans and birds, framed pictures and memorials, tools, chairs, and wishing wells all became the subjects of this folk-art expression.”

“I think the yarn winders and niddy noddies and spinning wheels were popular because they are difficult to make and wind,” Jones says. “The kind with different levels of spokes coming out from the center, wound with thread around them and sometimes with beads, are very challenging. So there is an extra ‘gee whiz’ factor. And yarn winders were something many people had at home to copy from.”

Read the rest of the story, and see some amazing examples of bottle whimseys at Collectors Weekly.

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is a documentary series on Netflix that took the world by storm when so many people suddenly were furloughed and told to stay at home. The subject is fascinating: people who keep big cats and other exotic animals. They include controversial Texas zookeeper Joe Exotic, who checks off enough boxes to be rejected in a pitch for a fictional series, and his rival Carole Baskin, founder and CEO of Big Cat Rescue in Florida. You've heard enough gossip about the series; should you sign up for Netflix and watch Tiger King? This Honest Trailer may help you decide.

A curious tombstone stands in the Hebrew Cemetery in Corsicana, Texas. Or it once stood; now it reclines instead. The name on the stone reads Rope Walker, although that isn’t a real name, but rather an occupation. The story goes that when an elderly one-legged tightrope artist died during a stunt in Corsicana, no one knew his name, so they did the best they could with the tombstone. Find-a-grave has the short version of the story.

"In the late 1890s a one-legged tight-wire walker was performing his act in downtown Corsicana as a promotion to bring people to town. He would walk a rope stretched across Beaton street from the tops of two buildings. The rope walker carried a cast iron stove on his back to add to the trick. On July 28, 1898, the 69 year old man, who claimed to have been born in Princeton, New Jersey on February 6, 1829, was performing his tight rope performance when the rope sagged excessively and he fell while halfway across Beaton Street. Mortally injured, the man called for a rabbi. There were none to be found but a Jewish merchant prayed with him in Hebrew. The dying man stated his date and place of birth but no cone could remember if he have his name and he was never identified. He was buried in the Hebrew Cemetery in Corsicana. His headstone simply reads "ROPE WALKER"

Find-a-grave also has a longer version of the tale, which seems like a standard Texas tall tale, because it is. The true identity of Rope Walker was known at the time of his death, although it may have been forgotten by the time the stone was ordered. The legend was untangled a few years ago, and you can read about it at the Corsicana Daily Sun.  -Thanks, WTM!

The Wright Brothers are credited with the first powered heavier-than-air flight, which took place in 1903. Their flying machine design started the evolution of the airplane, and it didn't look all that different from the biplanes that were made for a couple of decades afterward. The first plane to fly in England was another story. Horatio Phillips built what's known as the Philip’s Flying Machine, which left the ground in 1907.

Phillip’s aircraft actually had a brains-boggling 200 wings (a ducentiplane, if you’re into that)—Phillips called these airfoils “sustainers,” and technically the 1907 machine had four banks of 50 wings each.

This mass of very narrow wings and supporting hardware was dragged aloft by a 22 horsepower gasoline engine, and Phillips was able to fly it for over 500 feet—keep in mind, the very first hop by the Wright brothers was only 120 feet.

Read the story of the Philip’s Flying Machine at Jalopnik. -via Digg

Why would people immediately forget about a big moment in history? Maybe because they never heard much about it in the first place. Modern history is written by the press because news accounts are so readily archived. It's the headlines that are talked about and remembered, and if you are unfortunate enough to get your 15 minutes of fame while something else dominates those headlines, you won't get much publicity, and you may end up as just a footnote in history. Like Harriet Quimby, who deserves to be known and remembered.  

Harriet Quimby is the kind of badass Disney princess who breaks records as easily as she breaks the mold. While her pretty face landed her a modeling gig for a soft drink company and her quick wits allowed her to write six Hollywood movies, it was her eagle eyes and quick reflexes that made her the first female American ace pilot. But while she was in the air breaking some glass ceilings, some dumb dudes were in the water smashing into an iceberg.

In 1911, the 35-year-old Quimby became the first woman in the U.S., and only the seventh in the whole world, to earn her pilot's license and she was branded "America's First Lady of the Air." But for Quimby, being part of the flyboys' club wasn't enough, she wanted to run the joint. So not even a year after getting her license, Quimby did what only a single man had done before: pilot a solo flight across the English Channel in what was pretty much a wooden hot tub with a propeller taped to it.

There's more to the story, which you should read because Quimby's astonishing accomplishment was buried under the other headlines of the day- the sinking of the Titanic. Her story and five others are at Cracked.

(Image credit: Library of Congress)

While some of us in the hinterlands think it odd that a furniture store serves meatballs, those who have tried IKEA's Swedish meatballs rave about them. You can't shop there right now, so IKEA has made the recipe public, meaning you can (try to) make them at höme!

“Staying at home can be hard, but we want to help make everyone’s lives that little bit easier and more enjoyable,” said Lorena Lourido, country food manager at IKEA, according to Yahoo! News. “Bon appétit or, smaklig måltid, as we say in Sweden!”

Americans without kitchen scales might be a little confused by ingredients measured in grams, but Google will help you convert. For example, 500 grams of beef is just over a pound. If you cannot read the small print in the instruction graphic above, the full recipe is at InsideHook.