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

Incredible as it may seem to all of us Johnny Carson fans, it has now been 25 years since Johnny Carson last hosted The Tonight Show. On May 22, 1992, Johnny hosted his 4,531st and final Tonight Show. As over 50 million viewers tuned in, there were no guests that night, and Johnny sat alone on a stool and conducted a retrospective hour and said a heartfelt final goodbye to his fans.

Since Johnny's retirement, as all the other talk show hosts will freely admit, Johnny has been irreplaceable and remains the #1 most beloved talk show host in the history of television. Let's take a look at a few little-known facts about Johnny Carson.
      
1. He started out in show business as a magician, calling himself "the great Carsoni."

2. Early in his career, Johnny also worked as a ventriloquist. His dummy's name was "Eddie."

If you recall mood rings from the 1970s or Hypercolor t-shirts from the '90s, you probably won't be surprised that  you can now color your hair with a dye that will change color in response to the temperature. The dye called FIRE from the company The Unseen debuted at Fashion Week.

(YouTube link)

According to Wired UK,

FIRE is designed to be responsive to temperature fluctuations, and is available in multiple colour ranges from bright red to subtle pastels. The data used to create the dye stems from the process of thermoregulation in the human skin and the colour change chemical reaction occurs in response to a certain stimuli - in this case, changes in the environment. When the temperature drops or rises, the carbon-based molecules at the core of the FIRE dye undergo a reversible reaction.

Then you'll have to watch out for this sort of reaction:



If they develop a dye that will go from white to cobalt blue, I'll be first in line. -via Uproxx

Competitive eating has been described as a particularly American thing, but showing off how much one can consume did not originate in the U.S. Nicholas Wood, the Great Eater of Kent, was a 17th-century Englishman who would demonstrate astounding gastronomic feats, often on a bet, and was sponsored for a time by poet John Taylor.

Wood was a self-made farmer when Taylor found him, but the Great Eater had already gained a reputation as a nearly superhuman feaster. Wood made a name for himself as a glutton by performing feats of feasting at fairs and festivals, as well as by taking part in dares and wagers with nobles. As recounted in Jan Bondeson’s book, The Two-Headed Boy, and Other Medical Marvels, Wood had, at various times, devoured such incredible meals as seven-dozen rabbits in one sitting, or an entire dinner feast intended for eight people.

Wood didn't care much about what he was dared to eat, and at various times consumed an entire mutton shoulder (bones included), a dozen loaves of bread soaked in ale, and 60 eggs. Read about the Great Eater of Kent at Atlas Obscura.

The Academy Awards will be bestowed on movies from 2016 this coming Sunday night, so it's time for parodies that double as promotions for the Oscars. There's a scene in the movie Zootopia (which is nominated for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year) in which one character sells bootleg movies, which are movies somewhat familiar to us but star animals and have animal-pun titles.  

You’ll find titles like Wreck-It Rhino, Meowana and Pig Hero 6 in the pile of bootleg movies, showing us what the animal versions of those movies would be like in the thriving metropolis of anthropomorphic creatures. Now the Zootopia directors Rich Moore and Byron Howard, as well as screenwriter Jared Bush, have created parody posters for some of the Oscar nominees who will be vying for an award when the awards are passed on this Sunday.  They’ve done six that are pretty amazing.

You can see all six of those posters at TVOM.

Pedagiggle made a birthday cake for four-year-old Ilyas with a space theme. She wanted to convey the idea of outer space inside the cake as well as the decorated outside, so she created a solar system for the interior. According to the posted instructions, she made the planets by baking cake pop orbs first, then she embedded them in a marble cake with the appropriate food coloring. She also made rocket cookies and Star Wars cookies. That had to be some birthday party! -via reddit

It takes a bit of tweaking to get a character right for a movie, especially if it's science fiction or a comic book adaptation. What looks good on paper often doesn't translate all that well to the screen. So it's common that early drafts are tested out and changed considerably before production. Sometimes those early ideas were just plain stupid.

(YouTube link)

But thanks to archived art and screen tests, we can see what those early and awful ideas were like. Aren't you glad they tried again and again until they got it right …or at least better? -via the A.V. Club 

This slow motion video shows us in excruciating detail what happens when you interfere with a dog getting a treat. Notice the looks of extreme anticipation on their faces. The cat is calculating some kind of subterfuge. Then a french fry is finally flung in their direction.

(YouTube link)

Yeah, that's what they say about the best laid plans. At least the cat will be able to explain his injury as a "Lab accident." -via Boing Boing

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!

(Image credit: Howard I. Cannon)

The mini-opera that premiered as part of the 2016 Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony

Story and words by Marc Abrahams
Music by Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti, Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, and Frédéric François Chopin
Directed by Maria Ferrante and Robin Abrahams
Props by Eric Workman
Piano: Patrick Yacono
Accordion: Thomas Michel

Original cast
Maria Ferrante: The TIMEKEEPER, the scientist who runs the scientific office that controls the world’s master time clock (that office, among other things, administers leap seconds)

Scott Taylor: The REPORTER who comes into this wanting to write a news report about the leap second

The Clock Chorus: Ted Sharpe (chorus wrangler), Ellen Friend, Abby Schiff, Jean Cummings, Sue Wellington, Daniel Rosenberg, Kevin McCaughey, Michael Skuhersky, John Jarcho, Fred Tsai, Erika Hutchinson, Jan Hadland, Kettly Benoit

Innocent Bystanders (in Act 3): Nobel laureates Dudley Herschbach, Rich Roberts, Eric Maskin, Roy Glauber Special Time Micro-Lecturers: Jenny Hoffman, John Lowe, Eric Maskin

Special Time Micro-Lecture (preceding Act 1)

Harvard physics professor Jenny Hoffman explains, in one minute prior to Act 1, what a microsecond is. (Image credit: Mike Benveniste)

Lecturer: Jenny Hoffman (Harvard Physics professor)

Topic: “What’s a leap second, and why do we create them?”

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research, now in all-pdf form. Get a subscription now for only $25 a year!

transcribed by David Kessler, Improbable Research staff

As part of the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, four of the world’s great thinkers were invited to give 24/7 Lectures. Each 24/7 Lecture was on an assigned topic. The lecturer was asked to explain that topic twice:

FIRST, a complete technical description in TWENTY-FOUR (24) SECONDS; and THEN a clear summary that anyone could understand in SEVEN (7) WORDS.

The time and word limits were enforced by the Ig Nobel referee, Mr. John Barrett, and by the Ig Nobel NSFW Indicator, noted New York Attorney William J. Maloney.

This article provides the complete transcripts of the 2016 24/7 Lectures.

Topic: Clock Genes

Lecturer: Rich Roberts (Nobel Laureate, Biochemist at New England Biolabs)

Complete technical description in TWENTY-FOUR (24) SECONDS:

“The original Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput, or CLOCK, gene encodes a basic helix-loop-helix-PAS transcription factor called CLOCK that is one of a family of genes that control circadian rhythm in mammals. More than 20 genes are involved, with such catchy names as “Period” and “Cryptochrome.” The products of many of them are…” [Time called by the Referee]

Clear summary that anyone can understand, in SEVEN (7) WORDS:

“Clock genes are responsible for jet lag.”

Topic: Duck Genital Morphology

If you've been watching the BBC TV series Planet Earth II, you've no doubt been amazed at the wildlife footage. It almost looks like a Hollywood action film -a blockbuster, even. A lot of that is due to new filmmaking technology.

(YouTube link)

The BBC has been making nature documentaries for 60 years, and they have steadily gotten better as the cameras and equipment get better. This video from Vox gives the short history of that technology and how it can be used to film fascinating creatures that don't follow a script. This is "part 1 of 3," so we can look forward to more behind-the-scenes looks at how Planet Earth was made. -via Tastefully Offensive

On Sundays, Cake Wrecks showcases realy beautiful cakes to balance out the wrecks of the rest of the week, and this week's subject is unicorns. How do you make a unicorn cake? The main requirements are rainbows, gold, eyelashes, and a horn, at least according to the roundup of lovely unicorn cakes. Oh yeah, it helps if you have a little talent for food artistry. Those unicorns are even cuter in multiples, as these cake pops from Just Add Sugar make clear. Sweet!  

PS: Cake Wrecks also posted a collection showing how NOT to make a unicorn cake a few years back.

Who lives in a pineapple under the street? Urban Spongebob! And you thought it was the just the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles who lived in the city drains. And Pennywise. The next step is to see how many puns can be made about the sponge that might be found under this colorful manhole cover. You'll find about a hundred attempts in the discussion at reddit.

Henry Lipkis

Cats are inspirational- they've inspired many murals of all styles, sizes, and colors from diverse artists who have one thing in common: they know people love to see cats. Cats are showing up in public street art all over the world.

David Zinn

From adorable photorealistic cats to towering abstract impressions, see a collection of 31 street artworks featuring cats at Street Art 360. 

-via @madamjujujive

Belgian illustrator Adrien Noterdaem (ADN) takes pop culture characters from TV and movies and converts them into the cartoon style of the TV series The Simpsons. No fictional world is off limits.

See a collection of his cast drawings from the movies Rogue One, The Force Awakens, Pulp Fiction, Alien, Fury Road, Ghostbusters, Jurassic World, and the TV shows Orange is the New Black, Downton Abbey, Suits, and more in a gallery at TVOM.  

This Presidents Day article is from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Presidency.

You probably wouldn’t let the unconscious, anesthetized,  or generally incapacitated mind the store, but  would you let them mind the country?

It seems like a necessary and not terribly difficult thing to do—make sure someone is always running the country. But it took U.S. lawmakers nearly 200 years to get most of the kinks out of the presidential succession process. Not until the 25th Amendment to the Constitution was passed in 1967 was the procedure for replacing an incapacitated president clarified. So what happened before that? Well, the government sort of made things up as it went along.

THAT DEPENDS ON WHAT THE MEANING OF "PRESIDENT" IS

The first real test of the succession process came when William Henry Harrison died after only a month in office. After delivering his inauguration speech in cold, windy weather without an over-coat, Harrison caught a cold that quickly turned into pneumonia. Within a month he was dead.

The Constitution said that given the president's death, his powers and duties should go to the vice president, who at that time was John Tyler. But not everyone was sure that Tyler actually became president. While he might have the president’s powers and duties, was it really the same thing as being president? Wasn’t he only acting, so to speak? Tyler didn’t think so. He quickly had himself sworn in as president and even gave an inauguration speech at the ceremony.