In the latest Simon's Cat cartoon, the cat once again displays typical cat behavior that manages to ruin Simon's day. He's simply trying to install a new shelf on the wall. The cat knows that anything new is for sits. Especially elevated things.
And as always, the cat gets his way in the end. -via Tastefully Offensive
This guy starts off with a piece of glass. You can see the slats in the pallet below. Then he pours a bucket of liquid silver nitrate on it. You can immediately see the guy's reflection, but somewhere along the way, the slats underneath disappear and the glass is now a mirror! It will probably be a while before the mirror is dry enough to be picked up. If you want to try doing this yourself, the internet has instructions. -via Digg
When is the right time to switch from Halloween decorations to Christmas decorations? In a perfect world, the Halloween stuff would come down on November 1, and Christmas decorations would go up sometime during Thanksgiving weekend. Redditor savage_irony did the changeover in one fell swoop, and he acts like he's both exhausted and proud of himself. I like the finished product, though. -via reddit
The town of Terlingua, Texas, has been hosting a chili cook-off for over 50 years now. In a state where chili cook-offs are thick as thieves, this one is the biggie, and it comes with a ton of history. The founders split into rival cook-offs (now held at the same time), the rules were established, and there were controversies along the way.
Terlingua, Texas. It’s the Super Bowl of chili cook-offs. You can’t compete unless you’ve gotten yourself qualified by winning smaller competitions, and you have to show picture ID on account of what happened in 2003. A fella by the name of Don Eastep, a Yankee no less, snuck into the proceedings posing as his brother, who’d qualified but couldn’t attend.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, take a listen to this. Picture a desert scene with pickup trucks and campers and about a hundred folks in straw hats and aprons cooking chili on camp stoves. Now, our friend here, he’d set up his cooking area, but he wasn’t cooking. He was strolling around sipping a koozie-clad cold one and chitchatting. He’d eventually ask folks for a taste of their chili in a Styrofoam cup, and most of the cooks obliged. He took those samples and dumped them into his own pot. He got enough to enter the contest. And he won. Yep. He won the whole dang deal.
That certainly wasn't the first, or the last spectacular controversy at the Terlingua Chili Cook-off. Matthew Diffee attended the 50th Terlingua Chili Cook-off in 2016 and brings us a condensed but lavishly illustrated explanation and history of Texas' premiere chili event at Texas Monthly. -Thanks, Walter!
(Image credit Matthew Diffee)
PS: If you want a deep dive into the founding and first split of the Terlingua Chili Cook-off, here is the story as it happened, from 1967, part one and part two.
The 2009 move Up in the Air stars George Clooney as a frequent flyer who lays off workers for a living. That's sounds depressing, but the film is a story of emotional redemption that tugs at your heartstrings. It was both a critical and box office success. If you liked Up in the Air, you'll appreciate learning some of what went on behind the scenes.
10. Some of the fired people are not actors.
The director decided to use real people to get real emotions. You can tell who the actors are and who the real people are since the latter have no interaction at all with Clooney and Kendrick, as the director thought this would freak them out.
8. Clooney’s wardrobe for the movie fits into one suitcase.
That definitely suits the idea of his character and fits in with the backpack speech he gives throughout the movie.
There's more trivia about Up in the Air at TVOM.
After Obi-Wan left the mortality wounded Anakin Skywalker on Mustafar, he was rescued and fitted with new limbs, a new breathing apparatus, and a new voice. But what if the mask that gave him James Earl Jones' voice shorted out and Darth Vader was left to use his original voice? Anakin's voice was as clueless and whiny as he was.
Auralnauts imagined exactly this malfunction. The result shows how much gravitas Jones' voice added to the Star Wars saga, and how Darth Vader would come across otherwise. David Prowse was upset that his voice was replaced with Jones', but we all know it was the right choice. -via Geeks Are Sexy
There's no collective noun for koalas. Who knew? It's because you never see a real group of koalas; they aren't very sociable. That's just one of the many new things you'll learn about koalas in the latest episode of the Mental Floss List Show. John Green tells us facts you never even knew you needed to know, like the strange reason koalas became a symbol of Australia, and why a crocodile is easier to steal than a koala. All in all, it's a good thing that koalas are cute, because these facts make them appear otherwise worthless. Still, we don't want to lose our koalas, and that's exactly what's happening.
Kelly Marie Tran plays one of the lead roles in The Last Jedi, a new character named Rose Tico. Tran worked an office job in Hollywood for years, going to auditions and getting only occasional small acting roles. Then in 2015 her life changed (and in December it will change even more) when she made it through the auditions for the new Star Wars movie. The kicker is that Tran had never seen any of the Star Wars movies! A self-described nerd, Tran was always busy deep into Harry Potter fandom. But she was called back to audition month after month, five in all, for director Ryan Johnson.
Three weeks later, in November 2015, Johnson emailed Tran’s agent and asked to meet with Tran before she went home for Thanksgiving. “I remember every moment,” she said through a grin. “Walking up the stairs, there’s a little bit of small talk, and then Rian says, ‘I want to offer you this role.’” Tran didn’t react; she froze. “What happens when everything you’ve ever wanted comes true?” She hid her face behind her hands at the memory. “I didn’t say a word. I was terrified. It was such an overwhelming shock.” Johnson waited, and then asked, “Umm, do you want this?” Yes, she did.
Tran went home for the holidays, but couldn’t tell anyone she’d just landed the role of a lifetime — all aspects of the movie were being kept top secret. She lied and told her mom, dad, and two sisters that she’d booked an indie film in Canada. She casually suggested the family go see The Force Awakens, but her dad objected. “He goes, ‘Ughhh, I hate movies like that. I don’t know why people go see sci-fi movies,’” Tran laughed. “And I was like, ‘Welp.’”
Read about Kelly Marie Tran, how she got the role, and what she's allowed to tell us about her character Rose Tico at Buzzfeed. -via Digg
(Image credit: JSquared for BuzzFeed News)
The Space Age Museum posted a couple of days ago and the one you're about to read about make one wonder if a museum is really a museum if it isn't available for people to see. Mike Powell and Jürgen Horn heard about a museum at Hanoi University, but found it locked. However, it wasn't exactly off-limits, so they arranged for a private showing. It seems like a case of no one really cares much about seeing it. But to a first-time visitor, the Zoological Museum of Hanoi University is a treasure.
The effort was worthwhile, as this collection is fantastic for all the right reasons … and all of the wrong ones, as well. Fans of shoddy taxidermy will be in heaven. There are three rooms, mostly featuring mammals who were stuffed and embalmed by the French at the turn of the century, and the creatures look their age.
There are jars with lizards, penguins, scowling baby leopards, half-rotting monkeys, dozens of mounted heads, and even a baby elephant. The museum is small, but it manages to pack a lot in, and took longer to get through than we had expected. And it’s really entertaining… we felt bad laughing at some of the more comical corpses, but couldn’t help ourselves.
Take a tour in pictures and video of the Zoological Museum of Hanoi University at For 91 Days.
(Image credit: Flickr user UT Connewitz Photo Crew)
Neatorama is proud to bring you a post by David Buck, courtesy of Ernie Smith of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog.
The tale of R. Stevie Moore, perhaps the most prolific musician that the world has ever seen. So why haven’t you heard of him?
Many great artists exist outside the mainstream. All it takes is a keen ear, an open mind and taste for variety to find a few unique artists or songs one would never hear on the radio or otherwise be exposed to. One of my favorite musicians of all time is Robert Steven Moore, whom I have had the great fortune to not only hear (and own) his wonderful music, but also to have spoken with him—albeit briefly—on several occasions. Some people may feel overwhelmed at the sheer quantity of his work and at a loss for a starting point. Fortunately, I’m here to help.
100 vinyl copies of R. Stevie Moore’s first official album, Phonography, were originally distributed in 1976. One of those copies was rumored to have been owned by Frank Zappa, a noted champion of outsider artists who helped to bring The Shaggs, Wildman Fischer and other musicians to popular attention. This is, of course, apocryphal, but it’s a neat idea and—given Zappa’s musical interests—makes perfect sense. While Zappa’s own unique brand of composition spread over 60 albums during his lifetime and over 100 albums posthumously, that number is dwarfed by Moore’s catalog in sheer quantity. Moore has released more than 400 albums—either by himself or through a label—over the past 50 years.
“You know a lot about my career,” Moore told me during a conversation we had recently.
Every time we post a video from Jun's Kitchen, people are fascinated by the beautiful ginger cats Haku and Nagi, who watch Jun Yoshizuki making tasty treats. They sit calmly and never try to interfere or ask for a bite!
Jun explains how he treats the cats so that they behave so well. Haku and Nagi are very cooperative, but that doesn't apply to Poki, the world's most annoying cat. You get the idea that Poki is sequestered during cooking videos. Maybe he'll come around as he matures. Or maybe he'll remain an adorably contrary cat. -via Laughing Squid
The members of Monty Python aren't just about TV or movies. They make comedy wherever they go. I found a comment at reddit that told a story about the recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London. John Cleese made some big donations, as you can see from this picture of embedded stone tiles with the donor's names. I found confirmation of the story from other sources.
The bigger the donation, the bigger the tile. He pointed out two, which he explained were his favorites. They were both purchased by John Cleese (if you need me to explain who that is, stop reading my blog this instant). He purchased one tile for himself, and one for fellow Python member Michael Palin. He paid extra for Palin’s plaque, under one stipulation …
They had to spell Palin’s last name wrong.
I just about died.
The joke was not publicized, but is pointed out by tour guides at the Globe. That's one that will outlast every member of the troupe. -via reddit
We learn from our mistakes, but it's less painful to learn from other people's mistakes. Stories of Thanksgiving disasters can be quite funny and they will become part of the family tradition to tell them again every year. On Thanksgiving, millions of people across the US are preparing the same meal and screwing it up in classic ways. Like neglecting to quarantine the family pets away from the turkey.
Take Frank Gunsberg of Ramsey, New Jersey, who was hosting a dinner for 20 guests when he realized both his golden retriever and the turkey were missing. He found them behind a cabinet—the bird on the floor, unmarred but for a few puncture wounds. Though his wife protested, Gunsberg wiped down the bird and served it anyway. "Those guests are hearing this story for the first time," he told NorthJersey.com.
Then there was the case of a chihuahua that climbed inside a bird. "A frantic new mom hosting her first Thanksgiving feast had a Chihuahua that climbed up onto the kitchen table and into the turkey, and she couldn’t get the dog out," writes Todd Sigg on the Illinois Poison Control Center blog. "I told her to pull really hard and yank the little guy out ... I could understand the awesomeness of it from the dog’s point of view, a meat room."
Even if you don't need tips on preparing the Thanksgiving feast, you'll get a kick out of what went wrong for other folks in an article at Mental Floss.
(Image credit: TheKohser)
Tom Scott tries out the University of Iowa's National Advanced Driving Simulator. It's a cool machine, a pod that moves while showing you a virtual reality world. The simulator puts you, the driver, in a variety of situations to test how well you control the vehicle.
The scientists who operate the simulator test drivers who text, talk on a phone, eat, are under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and other situations. Scott was interested in testing a behavior he indulges in often- talking to a camera while driving. The result? He missed seeing things that he never would have realized in a real driving situation -like signs. Even when you keep your eyes on the road, if you are more busy thinking about anything else besides driving, that could happen to you. -via Digg
In the 21st century, we have what seems like dozens of new superhero movies every year. That doesn't mean the superhero movie is a new phenomena. In between the movies Superman and Batman in the 1980s, there was Supergirl in 1984, starring Helen Slater. The movie was not well-received, although Slater's performance was. She just couldn't hold up the film alone while everything else about it fell apart.
Peter O’Toole and Faye Dunaway Were Not So Well-Received
In contrast to Slater, Peter O’Toole and Faye Dunaway’s performances as Zaltar and Selena were not so well-received. This can be seen in how the two managed to win nominations for the Golden Raspberry Awards for the Worst Actor and the Worst Actress.
Christopher Reeve Failed to Make an Appearance
Initially, Christopher Reeve was supposed to make an appearance in Supergirl in his role as Superman. However, he bowed out, with the result that his absence had to be explained by a newscast within the movie announcing that Superman was visiting another galaxy.
Read more about what went into the movie Supergirl at TVOM.
