During Friday's World Series victory parade in Houston, a woman dropped her hat from the eighth floor of a parking garage where many fans had gathered to watch. Houston Astros fans displayed some serious teamwork to return it to her. The happy and cooperating crowd itself became the spectacle, with other fans cheering on the participants.
Hlynur Hallgríms of Reykjavík, Iceland, tried to drop his garbage down the chute in his apartment building last night as a storm was passing through the city. The garbage chute declined to take it, or else someone was breaking the law of gravity. What weird pneumatic forces caused the floating trash bag? I have no answers, but there is plenty of speculation in the discussion at Metafilter.
The 1971 movie Brian's Song starred James Caan and Billy Dee Williams as they depicted the real-life friendship between NFL players Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers. For men of a generation or two, it was the first movie that made them cry. It isn't as well known 46 years later, but younger folks should take any chance they have to see it for the framing of the era, if nothing else. Let's find out what went into the making of Brian's Song.
7. Sayers wanted to play his own role.
He really wanted to take part in the film as himself but the training camp schedule wouldn’t allow it.
5. It was a TV movie before it was released in theaters.
It’s not too often that you see films take this route. Unfortunately it didn’t do as well in the theater as it did on TV and it had to be pulled shortly after.
Studios and investors put a lot of money into movies, some more than others, with an expectation of a finished product they can sell. It doesn't always work that way. Movies that don't turn out so well are box-office flops, or else go straight to home video. There are a few rare films that got a lot of hype, especially surrounding the expensive stars who were expected to produce a hit, but were never released. Sometimes it's because they were completely awful films. But there are exceptions, such as Nothing Lasts Forever, which was supposed to be released in 1984.
In the same year that Bill Murray scored a global hit with Ghostbusters, he also appeared in the 1984 movie Nothing Lasts Forever, a sci-fi comedy from Saturday Night Live writer Tom Schiller. Largely shot in black and white, it's about a struggling artist living in New York (which has become a fascist state) and takes a bus trip to the Moon. Zack Galligan, who'd scored a hit of his own that same year with Gremlins, starred as the young lead, Murray played a lunar bus conductor, while the supporting cast also included Dan Aykroyd, Sam Jaffe, and Eddie Fisher.
It sounds like a quirky film, alright, but it isn't its lack of marketability that has left it sitting on a shelf for over 30 years and counting. According to Slate, legal problems involving the movie's use of copyrighted music and clips from classic movies have left it stuck in limbo. Aside from a couple of airings on TV, Nothing Lasts Forever has never had a theatrical or home release; someone leaked it to YouTube about five years ago, but this was blocked by Warner Bros.
Disney did well with the movie The Force Awakens a couple of years ago, but the House of Mouse didn't pay four billion dollars for the Lucasfilm just to "do well." When The Last Jedi opens next month, Disney has some pretty unprecedented requirements for theaters that show the latest film in the Star Wars saga. In other word, they have altered the deal. Pray they don't alter it further.
If you live in a rural community with a dearth of movie screens, you might have to travel a little to see The Last Jedi, but you can't blame the theater owner. -via Digg
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like growing up in Stalin’s shadow or whatever happened to Napoleon’s son, here are their (almost always) tragic stories.
RICHARD THE FOURTH? (Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell)
Back in the 1640s, jolly old England was caught up in a messy civil war between King Charles I and the British parliament over who really ran the country. By 1649, the issue was settled: Parliament was the boss. And to prove it, they chopped off Charles’s head. For the next 10 years, the country was a fun-free zone under the grim, puritanical military dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell. He was such a killjoy that he even banned Christmas.
Wake Up, Dick, You’re in Charge!
Richard was born in 1626, and after being raised in his father’s puritanical but loving household, he joined the army, where he managed to avoid seeing any active service—even while the English Civil War raged around him. In 1649, his run of good luck continued when he married Dorothy Major, daughter of a wealthy farmer, and settled down into the idle life of a country squire.
Little was heard of Richard after that, apart from the fact that his stern father regularly upbraided him for his laziness and overspending. So it must have come as a shock when his dad named him as his successor. Turns out that Oliver, that staunch opponent of hereditary rule, didn’t think that it applied to his own family. When Parliament complained about this, Cromwell -never a big fan of democracy- closed it down. Cromwell’s ministers had little option but to go along with their revered leader’s decision.
Oliver breathed his last disapproving breath on September 3, 1658, and on the same day Richard Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector of the Realm. When Richard took over, the trouble really began. Richard was not cut out for life in the fast lane, and things went downhill fast.
Almost immediately, the army began making waves. To them, Richard was an upstart who traded on his father’s name and had no right to rule. A power struggle between Parliament and the army saw Richard pulled this way and that like a rag doll. The London mob, amused by Cromwell’s evident lack of brass, took to calling him “Queen Dick.” Eventually, the army forced Cromwell to call a new, army-friendly Parliament in spring of 1659. One of the new Parliament’s first acts was to call for the Lord Protector’s dismissal. Passive to the very end, Queen Dick meekly gave in and resigned in May of that year. Figuring his future career prospects didn’t look too good, Cromwell jumped on the next boat to France.
Richard Who?
His father would have been appalled to see what happened next.
You know that showing your teeth means you are smiling, but wolves interpret it as the baring of teeth, which is a challenge. You've been warned. Smiling at wolves is the last thing you want to do, but as it turns out, the wolves are just a little bit smarter than you think they are. Or a lot smarter, actually. They interpret visible teeth as a challenge, but they also know what causes it in humans. This wolf was obviously looking for a challenge in the latest comic from Sam Pratt at Rustled Jimmies. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Redditor chojurou posted a picture of a friend's tattoo. When people ask him what his tattoo says, he replies,
"I don't know, I don't speak Chinese."
And that is literally what it says. Those who read Chinese pointed out that it appears to be a machine translation, rendered in typewriter font instead of calligraphy, but it says what it says. Southernnfratty gave us a little more information.
中國話 is kind of a dated way to say "Chinese" (almost like how you'd say/write it in Japanese, actually).
Most people in Mainland China say 中文 or 汉语, or 國語 / 普通話 / 華語 if you're in HK/Taiwan/SE Asia. Also colloquially many people say "讲” more often than "说” ; the latter which to me sounds a bit more textbook-y.
But other than that, the tattoo is correct
Edit: 弄纹身的那个人的手写也挺标准的 Edit 2: Guys I was just pointing out a few subtleties lol. The phrase is a bit awk but overall correct. And 说/讲 can be used interchangeably, 讲 just sounds more natural to me
The experimental kitchen at Chicago restaurant Alinea has produced a transparent pie that tastes just like traditional pumpkin pie. Created by executive chef Mike Bagale and chef de cuisine Simon Davies, it's not the kind of thing you can just whip up at home, unless you have a rotary evaporator, or a moonshine still that's not being used.
To make their translucent pumpkin pie, Bagale creates a heavily spiced traditional pumpkin pie filling, blends it with water, and then pours that liquid into a rotary evaporator, a device that distills liquids. He explains his process:
"We put the pumpkin pie stock under a vacuum, and that stock boils at room temperature. Because it’s boiling, it’s evaporating, and that evaporation hits the rotary evaporator’s chilled coils and drips into a collection flask. We take that collection flask and we season it with a little bit of salt and sugar, and then set it with gelatin. So, it’s basically pure aroma. You get a condensation water that blows off the stock, and once you season it you have something that’s really really special."
That distilled pie filling is added to gelatin to make the clear pie filling. Get the complete recipe at Vogue. But be warned, after all that work, your traditional family might prefer to look at it rather than eat it. -via Mental Floss
Look at this beautiful cat! On her left side, she is a black cat with a blue eye, and on her right side, she's a ginger. If you look at the rest of Quimera, you see that her pied look wraps around the other side of her body.
Now that the latest iPhone will set you back a cool grand, it's time to review some ways to avoid damaging it. My phone needs to be recharged every two or three days, but the customer rep at my phone company said she had to recharge hers two or three times a day -she has an iPhone. If you use your phone constantly, and have to charge it often, you may as well do it correctly. Just hooking it up to the charger every night without thinking won't get it. Thrillist has the seven most common charging pitfalls you need to know for keeping your iPhone in working order. -via TYWKIWDBI
The United States first observed Daylight Saving Time in 1918, as a measure to save energy during wartime. The federal government pulled back after the war, and DST became optional for the states. It went nationwide again during World War II, but afterward, DST became optional again, not only for states, but for each local government. Some places set their clocks forward in summer, others didn't, and to increase the confusion, places that observed DST could change their clocks whenever they pleased!
In office buildings, it could be 4 p.m. on one floor and 5 p.m. on another — an important matter for several reasons, including who punched out first to get to happy hour. People would step off airplanes with no idea how to set their watches. Ponder this head-scratcher:
“A short trip from Steubenville, Ohio, to Moundsville, West Virginia became a symbol of the deteriorating situation. A bus ride down this thirty-five-mile stretch of highway took less than an hour. But along that route, the local time changed seven times.”
The notoriously confusing parking signs in Culver City, California, have received the ultimate tribute. Mike Phirman noted the extreme angle necessary for reading one and made it into a Star Wars-style opening crawl. The city's signs have reached a height of 15 feet in the past. Although this one isn't quite that ridiculous, it's still pretty impressive. And pretty silly. -via Tastefully Offensive
An article at Smithsonian gives us five history lessons in sandwiches, some you might have never heard of before. Have you ever eaten -or even seen- a chow mein sandwich?
The chow mein sandwich is the quintessential “East meets West” food, and it’s largely associated with New England’s Chinese restaurants – specifically, those of Fall River, a city crowded with textile mills near the Rhode Island border.
The sandwich became popular in the 1920s because it was filling and cheap: Workers munched on them in factory canteens, while their kids ate them for lunch in the parish schools, especially on meatless Fridays. It would go on to be available at some “five and dime” lunch counters, like Kresge’s and Woolworth – and even at Nathan’s in Coney Island.
It’s exactly what it sounds like: a sandwich filled with chow mein (deep-fried, flat noodles, topped with a ladle of brown gravy, onions, celery and bean sprouts). If you want to make your own authentic sandwich at home, I recommend using Hoo Mee Chow Mein Mix, which is still made in Fall River. It can be served in a bun (à la sloppy joe) or between sliced white bread, much like a hot turkey sandwich with gravy. The classic meal includes the sandwich, french fries and orange soda.
In addition to the chow main sandwich, read about the origins of the tuna salad sandwich, the club sandwich, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and an abomination called the Scotch woodcock in a sandwich roundup at Smithsonian.
Here's a cartoon about a man working for a living. It's soul-sucking drudgery, sure, and the only time he interacts with his boss is when he's done something wrong, and that's not pleasant. But does it really have to be that way?
Tim Searfoss spent a year and a half working on this animation in his spare time to channel his frustration about his real job -which was not in animation, but I would bet it probably wasn't making bolts one at a time, either. Maybe his next job will be making more cartoons like this. -via reddit
