If you love horse shows and show jumping, but you can't afford to buy and board a horse, then the sport of hobby horsing may be for you. The sport's biggest championship took place a couple weeks ago in Vantaa, Finland. Around 200 competitors and a thousand spectators gathered to crown winners in several events and celebrate their peculiar sport.   

(YouTube link)

From the Washington Post:

Hobby-horsing has gained momentum outside Finland because of this year’s release of the documentary “Hobbyhorse Revolution” by the Finnish Oscar-nominated director Selma Vilhunen. Over a year, she followed young hobbyhorse enthusiasts and their preparations for a competition.

Some actual horse riders may look down on hobby-horsing as childlike past-time not suitable for anyone aged over 10, but Fred Sundwall, the secretary general of the Equestrian Federation of Finland, disagrees.

“We think it’s simply wonderful that hobby-horsing has become a phenomenon and so popular,” Sundwall said. “It gives a chance to those children and teens who don’t own horses to interact with them also outside stables and riding schools.”

-via reddit

When a movie is an icon, the poster doesn't need to tell you the name of a film. The image says it all. Imgur user joinyouinthesun converted dozens of them into hi-res images without any text, but you know them all. Surely there's at least one you'd want to hang on your wall. Check them out at TVOM. I bet you can name them all.

Isn't this an adorable Hobbit house? Redditor KahlumG has lots of pictures of it. His uncle built it back in the 1980s near Tomach, Scotland. The inside is just as magical as the exterior.

You have to duck to get through the front door. The fireplace heats the stove. There are bedrooms upstairs, a greenhouse and a pond in the back, and grass grows on the roof. You have to see the bathroom to believe it. See a gallery of over a dozen pictures of the house at imgur. -via reddit

Actors who play superheroes in the movies have to do a lot of TV interviews, and every one of them is eventually asked how their young children feel about Dad being a superhero. They aren't impressed. Seeing it through the child's eyes, that is quite understandable. They know Dad, he's Dad all the time, so when he's a superhero, he's play acting and not the real thing. Anyone else they don't know as well just might be the real thing! -via Geeks Are Sexy

Last year we introduced you to Kap Te'O Tafiti of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. He showed us how to make fire, and made it a totally charming lesson. Now he's back to show us how to husk and crack open a coconut. There are two methods for removing the husk, and using one's teeth is the cooler way.

(YouTube link)

See there, now you'll be prepared when you come home from the grocery store with coconuts in the husk! -via Tastefully Offensive

This footage is from Hempfield High School in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, taken in 1976. Check out those fashions! And the hair! If that's not your generation, it may seem a bit weird. But the music is awesome.

(YouTube link)

I graduated from high school in 1976, so this is all very familiar to me. I could swear I recognized a few people, even though I went to a different high school. We got away with so much back then that kids can't get away with now. -via Digg

(YouTube link)

The doctor has a diagnosis, and it's not good. There are so many things wrong that he breaks out into song, to the tune of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from The Pirates of Penzance. It looks like we have a new entry into the many funny parodies of the song, thanks to Cyanide & Happiness. This video may contain NSFW lyrics, although it's hard to tell. -via Geeks Are Sexy 

Two items in the local newspaper's police blotter tell a story that may have repercussions for a long time. Although the second one is cut off, we get the idea. The controversy could have been kept out of the paper if the woman had just contacted the neighbor, or even the pizza parlor, about what she saw. But when the police get involved, everyone will know eventually. Found at Bad Newspaper.

Plays with Wolves found it! This happened in July of 2015, in Burlingame, California.

It was hot Friday in Texas. John Wells lives in the desert area of Terlingua. He's not a rancher, but an alternative energy and sustainability researcher. Wells put out a bucket of water with a GoPro sitting in the bottom, to see what animals came by for a drink.

(YouTube link)

We see bees, birds, a bunny, chickens, a donkey, and a steer. The rabbit is named George, recognizable among the other wild rabbits by the notch in his ear. Wells said the bees were rescued from the bucket.  -via Tastefully Offensive 

If you've come home drunk a few times, you already know what you're going to need when you get there. The problem is that you're too drunk to actually deal with it just then. This guy knows himself well enough to do something about it. He's rigged up a Rube Goldberg contraption to help his drunk self out!

(YouTube link)

This setup has more than one task. More than two. He's covered everything! But how well will it work? Find out in this video by Chris Reinacher. -via Tastefully Offensive

What most people think of when they hear the word "karate" is someone breaking boards with a flat hand chop. Alex Culang and Reynato Castro posted a series of comics about karate, all featuring that chop. See all five of them at Buttersafe. They are funnier all together like that.  

Ochre Jelly (Iain Heath) gives up spot-on LEGO recreations of pop culture characters, celebrities, and memes. But he went a little sideways with his series called REJECTZ. These are familiar characters in LEGO, but made ugly to be funny. He says, 

Previous REJECTZ collections include Super Heroes and Disney Princesses. The inspiration for REJECTZ came when LEGO recently released their BrickHeadz range of sets, which was their first attempt at brick-built characters. Compared to the kinds of characters builders like myself have been putting out for years, their effort seemed like kind of a mockery, so I set out to see if I could craft ones that were even uglier than theirs - but ugly in a good way!

See Ochre Jelly's entire collection of REJECTZ in this Flickr set. -Thanks, Iain!

The following article is from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into California.

(Image credit: Dirk Hansen)

Built in 1888, the Hotel del Coronado (or Hotel Del) near San Diego has been the site of ghost hauntings, movie filmings, celebrity getaways, and all kinds of other legendary stuff. Let’s separate the facts from the fiction.

RUMOR: In December 1904, the Hotel del Coronado lit the first electric outdoor Christmas tree in the United States.

TRUTH: The hotel itself makes this claim, but it’s unlikely. Electric lights on trees probably came sometime in the late 1800s. However, in 1904 the hotel did wire 250 lights to its 50-foot tree. It may have been the first in Southern California and was certainly done at a time when few people lit outdoor trees at all and indoor ones were still fire hazards with candles. The tree remained on display for a three hours each night from Christmas Eve through New Year’s.

RUMOR: Every U.S. president since Lyndon B. Johnson has stayed at the Hotel Del.

One thing that almost all cultures have in common is wishing good luck to newly-married couples, because they are going to need all the help they can get. It's no wonder that so many superstitions have grown up around weddings. Something odd happened at Sven and Gerta's wedding and they are miserable, so that must have been bad luck. Something else happened at Johann and Eve's wedding, and they have six children now, so that must be good luck. If it worked once, it may work again, and so a tradition begins.  

1. IN GREECE, THE BRIDE AND GROOM GO NUTS WITH SNACKS.

The Mediterranean country is home to a sweet tradition. The happy couple hand out sugar-coated almonds, called koufeta, to their guests. As one Greek Orthodox bride explained to Manhattan Bride magazine, the white of the almond symbolizes purity, the egg shape is a sign of fertility, the hardness represents the endurance of marriage, and the sugar is meant to show the sweetness of married life. Together, they’re meant to wish the newly married duo "happiness, health, wealth, children, and a long life." And should a single girl take one of the blessed snacks and sleep with it under her pillow for three nights, tradition states she’ll somehow see her future husband!

Read about ten more wedding superstitions at Mental Floss.

Most people don't get asked that question very often, and it's a good thing. If we were to audit our thoughts, probably 90% of them would be things we'd never say out loud. Now that I think about it, that only goes for most of us. There's always that one person who never learned to think before speaking. Usually we can avoid folks like that, unless they are in a position of power. This is the latest from Sarah Andersen at Sarah's Scribbles.