We are being inundated with not only end-of-the-year lists, but also end-of-the-decade lists. It's nice to look back at the biggest news stories, sports highlights, and the best photographs, but I prefer the offbeat lists, like these memorable mug shots. Pictured is Phil Spector. Link

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The company that produces Help Stop Snoring, a UK product, asked snorers to send in recordings of their snores. The sounds were assembled into a song for an ad. Link -via Arbroath

A Hello Kitty menorah? Yes, it's just one of a collection of off-the-walll menorahs at Urlesque. The Star Trek menorah we featured recently is in there, as well as a menorahs shaped like a moose, a cat, a Jeep, and some that are hard to describe. I wonder how many of these are actually used to celebrate Hanukkah. Link

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This cute Japanese coin bank has a kitten inside with its hand raised just like Maneki Neko! In this case, money does come to him. I wish I knew where to buy this. -via Buzzfeed

Update: You can get one from the NeatoShop!.

Would you let your children pose with this Santa and his taxidermy donkey? This postcard is part of an extensive collection of found photos belonging to Albert Tanquero. I spent a lot of time this morning looking through pages and pages of his Flickr stream of old photographs, each of which has a story we may never know. http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefound/ -via mental_floss (where you'll find more creepy Santas)

This Star Wars Christmas decoration is one you can make yourself! The TIE fighter is made from felt, cardboard, and pipe cleaners with a sprig of mistletoe added. Hang the finished product over a doorway in the traditional manner of mistletoe. Instructions included. http://www.starwars.com/kids/do/crafts/f20091210.html -via Unique Daily

You are used to seeing fake deer on lawns as Christmas decorations, but in Colorado Springs, you might see a real decorated deer! A TV news crew was there to capture video when a deer with Christmas lights tangled in his antlers roamed through a neighborhood.

"I guess it got some lights tangled up in its antlers," said Louis McIntire.

McIntire saw the decorated deer, with a tangle of lights on its antlers strung down to the ground. "Everyday they're around here," said McIntire.

The lights are usually reserved for the trees and fences, not the deer. "A deer with Christmas lights is like, what did Santa lose his reindeer," said Steve Cvanita.

A neighbor chased the buck and tried to get the lights off. "He'd get pretty close, but not close enough," said McIntire. "They jump the fence here once in a while."

Wildlife experts say the problem should resolve itself when the deer sheds the antlers. Link -via Arbroath

Product is a graphic tale by Jon Phillips. The dystopian sci-fi plot can get a bit depressing if you think that will bother you. If not, you'll be glad you stuck with it through to the end. Click the linked image to enlarge. Link -via Digg

The Science of Cooking is full of great information for curious chefs, children learning to cook, or anyone who ever wondered what was really happening when you turn sugar into candy.

When you cook up a batch of candy, you cook sugar, water, and various other ingredients to extremely high temperatures. At these high temperatures, the sugar remains in solution, even though much of the water has boiled away. But when the candy is through cooking and begins to cool, there is more sugar in solution than is normally possible. The solution is said to be supersaturated with sugar.

Supersaturation is an unstable state. The sugar molecules will begin to crystallize back into a solid at the least provocation. Stirring or jostling of any kind can cause the sugar to begin crystallizing.

Explore the science behind cooked eggs, rising bread, preserved pickles, and more. Recipes are included. Link -via the Presurfer

The Letter People was a literacy program that began in 1972 and grew into a TV show. In today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss, we'll see how well you recall the individual Letter People of Letter Land. You'll be given the character, but can you remember their original alliterative "characteristic"? I couldn't! Link

Amy Rawson makes a needle felted Christmas Cthulhu every year, a couple of which you've seen previously at Neatorama. This year's version of Santa Cthulhu includes a Mrs. Cthulhu! Link

Some of the stranger awards of the world should be familiar to you because they've been featured here on Neatorama. Others may be completely new to you, such as the Shorty Awards for the best Twitter Tweets, or the Foot-in-Mouth Awards, given to a public figure for something dumb he or she said.

The Foot in Mouth Award is awarded each year by the British Plain English Campaign for "a baffling comment by a public figure". This is given, appropriately, to a public figure who has said something completely stupid. It's awarded every year by the British Plain English Campaign. Previous winners include: “I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe and somebody said I was a snake, I'd think ‘No, actually I am a giraffe.'” (Richard Gere) and “I love England, especially the food. There's nothing I like more than a lovely bowl of pasta.” (Naomi Campbell).

Link -via Unique Daily

First, there was the Yule Log to light long winter nights. Then candles illuminated Christmas tree. Thomas Edison hung the first electric Christmas lights in his laboratory in 1880, which replaced the dangers of candle-lit trees with the dangers of electrical fires. Even the Great Depression couldn't stop people from buying Christmas lights.

The tradition of stringing electric lights may have started as a Christmas thing in America, but now it's a global phenomenon used for all kinds winter festivuses (festivi?). It's a practice we take for granted—come December, they're everywhere. The evolution of the Christmas light parallels that of the light bulb, with some remarkably ornate—OK, tacky—variations. But regardless of how they look, one thing's for certain: They're a much better option than sticking a candle in a tree.

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Jerry Seinfeld introduced us to Festivus, "a holiday for the rest of us," in 1997. How much do you remember about the Seinfeld episode that started what became a well-known December holiday? That's the challenge in today's Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss. I scored a miserable three out of ten. You will do better! Link

When several hungry but cash-challenged college students chip in for a pizza, cutting it into equal and fair slices become very important. So important that mathematicians Rick Mabry and Paul Deiermann looked into the problem that emerges when the pizza cutter does not slice exactly through the center of the pie. This is known as the complete pizza theorem.

Their quest started in 1994, when Deiermann showed Mabry a revised version of the pizza problem, again published in Mathematics Magazine (vol 67, p 304). Readers were invited to prove two specific cases of the pizza theorem. First, that if a pizza is cut three times (into six slices), the person who eats the slice containing the pizza's centre eats more. Second, that if the pizza is cut five times (making 10 slices), the opposite is true and the person who eats the centre eats less.

Only the first statement was proven. Deiermann and Mabry worked on proving the second off and on until their breakthrough in 2006. Now that they have proven the theorem, they are working on other problem, such as how to divide a calzone. Link -via Metafilter

(image credit: Flickr user zharth)