Neatorama is proud to bring you a guest post from Ernie Smith, the editor of Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. In another life, he ran ShortFormBlog.

How the Nintendo Times, a Nintendo fan site, is covering the release of the NES in real time—three decades after its original release.

It sounds like an odd thought exercise, but in reality, it’s a whole lot of fun, based on the website Nintendo Times. Since 2015, the writer and blogger Craig Majaski, who cut his teeth at the long-running gaming site Gaming Age, has been editing and putting together a site in which 30-year-old discussions and interviews about the early days of the Nintendo Entertainment System are published as if they’re happening in real time.

For example, this post about a Nintendo press announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show has a publish date of January 11, 1987—as well as forward-thinking statements like “Nintendo is going to continue its aggressive marketing campaign for 1987.”

So how does one come up with an approach like this? Majaski cites an interest in preservation, one shared with other folks like historians Steve Lin and Frank Cifaldi, the two principals of the Video Game History Foundation who he cites as being very helpful to his cause.

The Zymoglyphic Museum in Portland, Oregon, is full of fantastic exhibits from fictional worlds. There are mermaids, eyeball plants, and clams wearing eyeglasses. But there are also specimens of Xenophora, a genus of mollusks that are very real -and very weird. These sea snails decorate their own shells with other shells! Well, some species prefer rocks for accessories. It's a method of camouflage, but you can see why each shell can be seen as once housing an artist of sorts. See lots of Xenophora shells from the Zymoglyphic Museum at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Philippe Alès)

Based on a non-fiction account, the 1995 mob movie Casino reeked of danger and violence in every scene. The actual filming of the movie was difficult in several ways, not the least of which was adhering to the true story while changing many details. Characters were combined into a smaller cast, real places in Las Vegas were used and disguised (except when they weren't), and the plot was shortened. And there were so many details that 22 years later, the movie is still generating trivia lists.

Find out more of the behind-the-scenes details of the production of Casino, at TVOM. 

The legal drinking age in the U.S. is 21. The age is set by the states, but the federal government enacted "incentives," like highway funds, to get all states on the same page. In this video, bartenders, some more experienced than others, show how they can tell if someone is over 21 and legal to serve.

(YouTube link)

Turns out they aren't as adept as they thought. That's why you get asked for your ID, even if you are 35. To be honest, people between puberty and middle age can be any age if you don't know for sure. -via reddit

We first met The Simpsons in 1987, and they've had their own show since 1989- 28 seasons now! There are those who would argue that only the first ten years were any good, while there are millions of fans who weren't even born when the show began. With that much material, it takes some hard work and audacity to rank the best 100 episodes. But the Ringer did it, and now everyone is arguing over the list, as was to be expected.

To compile this list, I sought feedback from both hardcore Simpsons fans and former members of the show’s creative staff. Still, it was an inherently subjective undertaking. “You could choose every other episode from the first 200 episodes for your top 100 and you wouldn’t be too far off,” one Simpsons writer told me. I don’t claim to be a scientician, but I tried to be meticulous. So crack open a Duff and enjoy.

You'll want to skip to the top ten and see if your favorites are there, then backtrack and read about the entire 100 Best. Episodes. Ever. -via Metafilter

In this dash cam video, we find that a light has gone wonky on the streets of Kemerovo, Russia. A passerby thinks he can give it a whack with a stick and maybe it will straighten up and work right. What could possibly go wrong?

(YouTube link)

You'll have to watch the video to find out. Let's just say he makes things much worse. -via Tastefully Offensive

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.

Our 18th U.S. president, Ulysses S. Grant was, like so many of our presidents before and since, a fascinating person in real life. Not only was he one of our most famous presidents, but Grant was also a very celebrated and distinguished military leader. Okay, let's take a look at a few things you may not have known about Ulysses s. Grant.

1. Grant's real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant, but he so hated his initials -H.U.G.- that he began using Ulysses as his first name.

2. Ulysses S. Grant's father bestowed the nickname "Useless" on him. Nothing like a little negative reinforcement to set a kid off on the right path, eh?

3. While president, Grant was once arrested for speeding in his horse-drawn carriage. He insisted on paying the fine and wrote a letter to the cop's boss complimenting the officer on his respect for the law- regardless of who the lawbreaker was.

ProBoyNick is Russian street artist Nikita Golubev. One of his chosen media is dirty vehicles. He uses paintbrushes and his fingers to selectively remove grime to reveal a work of art! It's just another of the several experimental art project he has going. See a selection of his best "dirty work" at Boing Boing, and all of his creations at Facebook.

On any movie set, there's a lot of waiting around while scenes are set up or details are worked out. In this behind-the-scenes photograph from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, and several other folks are busy on their phones, while Kurt Russell knows the real priority is to get enough sleep between takes. He is a wise man. -via reddit

English is a language that's always evolving. Every day, we use words that weren't in existence 50 years ago. Then there are words that have been around a long time, but they've changed. One way the language has changed is by condensing sentences we use a lot down into one word. Lots of these words have a history that may be surprising to you.

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Linguist Arika Orent takes us on a tour of words that once were entire phrases, but became condensed with use. You might be saying something completely different from what you thought! -via Geeks Are Sexy

James Bennion is an artist in Utah. Harmon's Grocery displays his artwork that's also advertisements for their wares on chalkboards throughout the store. They are not only artistic, but clever, too!



See a selection of Jimbo's best grocery signs at Laughing Squid, and more of his creations at Instagram.

If you are a Star Wars fan and couldn't attend Star Wars Celebration this past week, you can enjoy the highlights of the convention. See the passionate fans, the cute kids, the movie stars, the music, the cosplay, and the excitement surrounding the 40th anniversary of Star Wars.  

(YouTube link)

Fans got to see previews of the new Star Wars video game, new toys, the planned Star Wars theme parks, and the first trailer for episode eight. And then there were the tributes to Carrie Fisher. A good time was had by all. -via Tastefully Offensive

There is an old Yiddish proverb that says, "We make plans, and God laughs." Or, as in the case of the latest comic from The Awkward Yeti, He sends rain and lightning to show how ephemeral your plans can be. I've seen this happen twice today. One of my daughters' job hours were cut to below the pay-the-rent level, while another daughter's summer internship requires her to be in place before her finals are over. You can make plans, and you should, but you also have to be flexible about dealing with changing circumstances you will no doubt encounter.  

Earlier this month, the Motor City Furry Convention took place in Novi, Michigan. They selected Pets for Vets as their charity this year, and asked Cheryl Wassus to come to the convention and speak about it. Wassus is an enthusiastic volunteer for the organization, which provides therapy dogs for veterans, so she agreed. But she had no clue what a furry convention would be like. She assumed it was for pets and pet lovers.   

In an interview with New York Magazine, Cheryl said, "I really had no idea what to expect going in on Saturday. This organization had chosen us as their charity."

Cheryl explained to Cosmopolitan.com that the organizers of the event contacted her asking her if she'd like to do a presentation for the non-profit, and she agreed, though she didn't quite understand what the convention was for.

"I usually try to do some research the night before I go to these events but the website was pretty obscure," she said. "It had a links and information on how to register but no pictures. So I just assumed it was a regular business convention of some sort."

my mom thought furrycon was a pet event and volunteered w our therapy dog pic.twitter.com/mizlydLxjl

— kenny wassus (@kgw) April 8, 2017

But she went with her therapy dog Link, and although she was surprised to find out what furries really are, they had a wonderful time. Read about Cheryl, Link, and the Furries at Cosmopolitan. -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Cheryl Wassus)

Screenwriters who were nominated for Oscars this year tell stories about the notes that studio executives and producers would leave in their scripts. Although I'm sure that they contribute good suggestions sometimes, these tidbits lead one to believe that executives and producers have to complain about something to justify their job titles. Many of the best stories are about "totally missing the point."

Theodore Melfi (“Hidden Figures”)
“Most of the notes you get are from actors. They’re bad. This one studio [Fox Searchlight] person said, ‘Do we have to have so much math?’ So I pretended to be interested but, no, it’s about math.

***

Todd Black (producer of “Fences”)
“We made a Western called ‘The Magnificent Seven’ [with Sony Pictures]. And the biggest note in development and shooting it was, ‘Do they have to wear cowboy hats and have facial hair?’ And I said, ‘Do you not want them not to have horses either?’ That was a huge note on a daily basis.”

Another story revealed that the people arguing for changes turned out to really not know what changes they were arguing about. Read more of these at The Wrap. -via Boing Boing