There's a place in many wedding ceremonies where the officiant asks if anyone objects to the joining of these two people. If they show this part in a movie, you know someone is going to say something. In real life, it only happens rarely. But when it does, it's sure to cause drama. In a recent Askreddit post, summeralexander14 asked, "People that have had someone object at your wedding, what happened?"  And the stories came out. While plenty of parents and past lovers made the wedding cringeworthy, some tales stood head and shoulders above the rest.

My dad's seen an objection - he volunteers at a church. The bride and groom were siblings, and their father hadn't told them until he objected (I believe he was estranged to both of them). They already had a kid apparently.

Oops. We don't find out what happened afterward, but it seems like the damage had already been done. Still, that was a horrid way to disclose a secret, in front of a gathering of friends and family. But there are other stories of objections that are remembered years later because they are downright funny.

Priest here. Where I am, the only objection people can make is a legal one. It doesn’t matter if they merely don’t approve.

I had one objection at a wedding, where the person who spoke claimed the groom was already married. That’s enough to stop the wedding. Turned out they were Serbian (which I knew) and didn’t know our legal system. The groom hadn’t realised the church wedding was also the legal wedding, so they’d married each other in a civil ceremony a few days before. That was fun to sort out!

A couple of the stories had to do with children who wanted to fill the silence of the moment. And then there's this.

First wedding in Vegas, found a homeless guy to be a witness in exchange for a sandwich from subway, objected because it didn’t have olives like he wanted.

Read 30 such stories, ranging from horrific to a cherished memory, at Bored Panda.

We know how mining towns in the US worked during the gold rush era in the US. Someone found something valuable, a town sprung up to exploit it, and when the resources played out, the town died off. That didn't happen in Kiruna, Sweden. The iron mine only was very successful, and the town thrived. The mine expanded to follow the iron vein. What could possibly go wrong?  

When the underground mining threatened the stability of the town, something had to be done. Kiruna had been there in northern Lapland for more than 100 years, and has 17,000 residents. The solution? Move the buildings and the people three kilometers east. The current plan is expected to take at least ten years to complete, and by then there will be more areas that need to be saved. You can read more about the moving project at Wikipedia. The last minute of the video is an ad. -via Digg

Every year since 1966, the residents of Gävle, Sweden, erect a giant goat made of straw for Christmas. Why a goat? Why not? The Gävle Goat (previously at Neatorama) is a beloved tradition, which comes with a not-so-beloved custom of burning it down before it can be dismantled in the new year. Despite security measures such as cameras and guards, arsonists have burned down the goat in at least 35 of those years. However, the last time the goat was torched was in 2016. That's enough to make one think that the would-be arsonists may have had a change of heart. But no. On Friday, the 42-foot-tall Gävle Goat was destroyed by fire.



Police say they have arrested a man in his 40s who was observed acting suspiciously before the fire started. Here's where we would normally say "This is why we can't have nice things," but in the case of the Gävle Goat, you can be assured that the people of Gävle will try again next year. Read more on the 2021 Gävle Goat at Reuters. 

BTW: The comments under the YouTube video are 99% happy that the goat was burned. They say it signals a return to normalcy.

What kind of saint would you assign to be the patron saint of nuclear weapons? What could possibly be in such a person's life that would make sense of such a designation?

Russian mystic and visionary Prokhor Moshnin was born in 1754. He joined a Russian Orthodox monastery and quickly rose through the ranks to become a leader. By then he was known as Seraphim of Sarov. Then while still a young man, he became a hermit and lived a mostly secluded life for the next thirty years. Eventually, he opened his doors to those who would come to find his wisdom. Seraphim died in 1833, leaving evidence of his mystic powers like unopened letters that he had already answered. The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Seraphim of Sarov, making him St. Seraphim, in 1903 in a ceremony attended by Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra.

However, the rise of the Soviet Union meant the Church was subsumed by the power of the state. The USSR developed a nuclear weapons program following World War II. With the fall of the Soviets in the 1990s, the Russian Orthodox Church came out of the shadows, and nuclear warheads (as well as nuclear submarines, tanks, and other nuclear devices) were blessed by a sprinkling of holy water in the name of Saint Seraphim of Sarov. Of course, Seraphim knew nothing of these weapons in his life. How in the world did he become associated with these things? Read the story of the patron saint of nuclear weapons at Esoterix. -via Strange Company

(Image credit: Violette79)

We see videos of dogs having a hard time trying to figure out how to carry a stick through a gate, but here this one is doing calculations in his head. We believe this dog, first seen at reddit, is a Belgian Malinois, a rather intelligent breed. Watch this good boy figure out how to carry all the tires at once! Yeah, sure he was trained, but you can see him working out the problem on the spot. Still, if this dog was a real genius, he would spend his time figuring out how to get someone else to do the work for him. -via Laughing Squid

Prince Edward Island, only referred to as P.E.I. in the linked article, is Canada's smallest province. Life there seems pretty calm and uncontroversial, rather nice, actually, as glimpsed at through the CBC's annual list of top news items from the island. For example, in August of 2021, Breadcrumbs the duck became newsworthy because she was lonely. She was a sole duck survivor of a predator attack on her farm.  

"The owner was like, 'Well, ducks are social creatures. They need some friends.' And so they put out a call on Facebook," Atkinson said.

"Facebook [came] to the rescue, including a former farmer on the North Shore who had some spare ducks. Suddenly, Breadcrumbs has some friends and it's in the news."

The other seven news stories include a local man who became a professional competitive eater, a little girl who met a lamb, a cop who chased a suspect in a kayak, and a weasel found in a toilet. Read them all in this year's list of top news stories from P.E.I. -via Fark

(Image credit: Kelsey Langille)

The history of automobiles is somewhat murky, not because we don't have records, but because we can't quite settle on a consistent definition of an automobile. You may have read that the world's first production automobile was patented in 1885, yet there were many pioneers in the field before that. Getting a machine to push a load that wasn't attached to anything else goes back much further.

French inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built a steam-powered wagon for the French Army to haul cannons in 1770. His fardier à vapeur, as he named it, was self-contained, steerable, and ridable. That pretty much fills the bill for an automobile, yet Cugnot's design had drawbacks that meant it would never go into production. It was not practical or useful enough to replace horse-drawn wagons.

Cugnot deserves a page in history for his invention, but he also has the title of the first driver in an automobile accident as he drove his fardier à vapeur into a wall. There's even a woodcut illustrating the momentous event. Read about Cugnot's steam-powered wagon at Amusing Planet.

(Image credit: Joe deSousa)

Feuerzangenbowle is a flaming punch that is now associated with Christmas in Germany. Its roots can be traced back at least as far as the 1700s, when students documented the party trick of burning rum-soaked sugar and letting the aromatic syrup that resulted drip into some kind of drink. Over time, that drink became the now-customary wine with fruit and spices. It was the subject of a 1944 German film titled Die Feuerzangenbowle (pictured above).

Today you can find Feuerzangenbowle (which translate to fire tongs punch) at Christmas markets and festivals in Germany. Well, not exactly today, because such events have been canceled due to the global pandemic. But the punch was there in 2019, and maybe next Christmas. Meanwhile, you can make your own Feuerzangenbowle, or the single serving Feuerzangentasse, at home with recipes from Atlas Obscura. Keep in mind that you shouldn't serve or drink the warm punch until all the sugar has melted and the flame has completely extinguished.  

OMG. Must-read obit for Renay Mandel Corren: “Renay is also survived by…her favorite son, the gay one who writes catty obituaries in his spare time, Andy Corren, of - obviously - New York City.” https://t.co/cGOp6Nwarw

— Paul Seamus Ryan (he/him) (@ThePaulSRyan) December 16, 2021

Renay Mandel Corren of El Paso, Texas, died on Saturday. She was 84. She led a unique life, which we get to know about thanks to the obituary composed by her son, writer Andy Corren. Corren pulls no punches in describing his mother and her antics in life, but the love and esteem her family held for her comes through in the story.

A more disrespectful, trash-reading, talking and watching woman in NC, FL or TX was not to be found. Hers was an itinerant, much-lived life, a Yankee Florida liberal Jewish Tough Gal who bowled 'em in Japan, rolled 'em in North Carolina and was a singularly unique parent.

That's just a small snippet of Renay's life story, any sentence of which would make a good pull quote. Renay Corren led a full life of losing money, throwing caution to the wind, traveling, swearing, lying, and producing a large number of descendants. Her adventures include a rumored affair with broadcaster Larry King in the 1960s. Readers are encouraged to remember Renay by pulling on a slot machine or playing blackjack. You can read this amazing obituary in its entirety at the Fayetteville Observer. -via Fark

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is not a Christmas song, but like "Jingle Bells" and "Winter Wonderland," we only hear it at Christmastime because of the snow mentioned in the lyrics. And speaking of lyrics, those are what make people argue about the song. In its first few decades, it was just a flirty song that echoed the way romance was done at the time. Eventually it started to become clear how problematic those lyrics are.

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was written in 1944 by Broadway songsmith Frank Loesser, and he and his wife performed it as a novelty song at parties, where other guests loved it. You can see why no one back then would think twice about a married couple singing the song to get a laugh. But then it went to the movies. By the 21st century it was known as the date rape song, with the man coercing the woman to stay all night with him and her wondering what was in her drink.

But while we've come a long way in "how romance is done" since the 1940s, some of the lyrics in the 77-year-old song didn't mean what modern audiences think they did. Get an explanation of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" at Mental Floss.

It's been almost ten years since we were treated to the delightful insights of Kirby Ferguson (previously at Neatorama) and his series Everything is a Remix. We're glad to see he's resurrecting that series for 2021. Episode one was an introduction to the idea that everything is remix. It's quite long, but very interesting.

This video, which is part two, is about movies, but it's also about memes and how they eventually become remixes themselves. To do that, Ferguson explains what memes have in common with the rest of our pop culture. They are all copied from copies, because we like what's familiar, and we like to know what to expect. That's just human nature. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, because copying and remixing what we find good will eventually produce something truly creative, whether it's a meme, a movie, a TV show, or some other form of art.

-via Laughing Squid

The subreddit AITA is one of reddit's most popular, or at least viral. It stands for "Am I the asshole?" in which users present a situation and other redditors pass judgement. Someone using a throwaway account (u/throwawayorangecat) posted a truly unique situation that you have to read. We assume that all names have been changed. Their workplace has two cats, Jorts and Jean. Jean is a female tortoiseshell cat who is friendly, smart, and normal. Jorts is a big male orange cat who is friendly, but can't even figure out how to open a door when it's ajar. Pam is a co-worker who took it upon herself to "teach" Jorts how to open a door and generally get along in life.

Don’t get me wrong— watching her try to teach Jorts how to walk through a door is hilarious, but Jean got locked in the closet twice last week. Yesterday I installed a cat cutout thing in the door and Pam started getting really huffy. I made a gentle joke about “you can’t expect Jean’s tortoiseshell smarts from orange cat Jorts” which made Pam FURIOUS. She started crying and left the hallway, then sent an email to the group (including volunteers) and went home early.

In her email Pam said I was “perpetuating ethnic stereotypes by saying orange cats are dumb” and is demanding a racial sensitivity training before she will return.

At that point, u/throwawayorangecat posted the question at reddit. Then u/throwawayorangecat got called in by Human Resources. In an update to the story, we found that they managed to smooth things over and set some boundaries, but more details emerged that show u/throwawayorangecat was not the only one who considers Jorts really dumb, and that Pam was trying some weird and misguided things with the cat. The original poster is to apologize to Jorts, get him a cat bed, and make sure that Jorts' avatar is changed from a sweet potato to a picture of the cat. The whole story is just plain hilarious.

Do it for me. https://t.co/fA2ESmW571

— Jorts (and Jean) (@JortsTheCat) December 15, 2021

I love this poem https://t.co/5DccCH3Fwr

— Jorts (and Jean) (@JortsTheCat) December 15, 2021

These posts sent Jorts trending on Twitter, and u/throwawayorangecat started a Twitter account for Jorts. -via Metafilter

The Fermi Paradox states that the odds are overwhelmingly against the notion that the earth is the only place that life exists in the universe. But if there are others out there, why haven't we found them, or why haven't they found us? Maybe they are hiding. Maybe they are afraid of us. After all, considering our science fiction stories, it's obvious that we are afraid of intelligent beings from other planets. But beyond fiction, there's always the possibility that successful alien life forms may be like us. And that's terrifying.

This video from Kurzgesagt goes through the steps to explain why an alien civilization may avoid approaching us due to the same trepidation that people feel for other people that they don't already know. That's not limited to intelligent beings, either, as the lower species in our own world can be awfully dangerous to each other as well. Meanwhile, we keep sending out probes and radio signals hoping to contact alien beings. We may be way too naive and trusting in these projects. -via Damn Interesting

Who's your favorite villain- the one we all love to hate? Who's your favorite Christmas villain? Put them together and you've got one weird but unforgettable mashup. We always knew Vader had a heart three sizes too small. Hoodwinked Toys combined Darth Vader and the Grinch for this one-of-a-kind Christmas toy. Yes, it's unique, there was only one, and it's already been sold. They could have sold hundreds if they were mass produced. However, you might be interested in some of their other action figures available, like the chocolate chip Wookiee. Still, I kinda would like to see the Chewie Lou Who, even though I know he doesn't exist.  -via Boing Boing

You're a mean one, Mr. Sith!

The Miss Universe pageant was held Sunday in Israel. Miss India, Harnaaz Sandhu, was crowned the winner. While people debate the very idea of beauty pageants for many reasons, one thing we can agree on is that the most entertaining part of the global pageant is the parade of national costumes. As I see it, they fall into three categories: a nice gown designed to make the contestant look good, an over-the-top Vegas showgirl-style contraption, and a costume that actually tries to convey something about the represented nation. Miss Malta, Jade Cini pictured above, is an example of having to carry a lot of national hardware. Miss Iceland represents the  latter category.

I like the costume worn by Miss Iceland, Elisa Groa Steinþorsdottir. The theme is the volcanoes of Iceland, and that's fairly obvious without her having to carry an extraneous structure. In addition to these categories, which sometimes blended into each other, the pageant saw some specific political messages from Miss Ireland and Miss Finland. Miss France channeled Josephine Baker in her costume. There were a few costumes that actually approximated historic dress from their nation's past. And of course, some that make you wonder what they were thinking. See a gallery of all 69 national costumes from the Miss Universe pageant at Buzzfeed.