I'm going to go ahead and use of my personal quota (1) of cat posts. First off, this post is much indebted to Higgins' classic borrowed cat post. Secondly, I'm not a cat person. Cats are far too human, i.e. moody, for me to pursue them in addition to human companions. Cats sense this about me, and thus we tolerate each other; perhaps occasionally (some stormy night after a glass too many of Chambord), you'll find us curled up on the couch together: me guilty, watchful, the cat practically rolling its eyes.... READ ON
One of the major disappointments I suffered this week was realizing I'd never heard about "Hollywood is Calling"--the phone service where "you can have a real celebrity make a live phone call to someone you know for just $19.95." The correlative disappointment, being, of course, that I've never received such a call. But! Now that I'm aware of its services, the next time I stumble upon any of their advertised occasions ("motivational call" or "just calling to say hi" but maybe not "thank you for the job... READ ON
Over at the Boston Globe today, there's an interesting story about the buzz surrounding "embodied cognition." As in, when squirming helps you solve that quadratic equation. A series of studies, the latest published... READ ON
Last November, Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling negotiated himself an eight-digit one-year contract...with a built-in "fat clause" that would give him $2 million in "weight incentives." Stay tuned to his blog for weigh-in updates! That's a nice statement coming after a year in which companies began fining workers for unhealthy lifestyles. Clarian Health docks workers $10/paycheck for being overweight, but then IBM offers $150 for their employees to enroll their children in programs that combat obesity. Right... READ ON
It's Thursday, just one day closer to opening night of the American Idol, Season 7! Will there be a Sanjaya redux? Will Seattle be crowned the worst audition city yet again? (Randy famously trashed the city thusly: "'it must be something in the rain water,' and tried to explain the ineptness as 'wild, insane. Maybe depressed.'") While Simon may gripe about how painful is it to endure the dregs of the talent pool, people who work in casting ('sup!) usually drool over the especially horrid auditions. Those... READ ON
Even though I no longer live in the town where I was raised, I have its local newspaper saved in my bookmarks. The Record-Eagle of Traverse City, MI helped me become literate and gave me something to strive for: everyone wanted to be in the Record-Eagle--not for anything unsavory, surely (all those boring legal notices were saved for the free weeklies)--but maybe some bolded action on the high school sports page. These days, I rarely check in on my old Record-Eagle, but that's mostly because I have some... READ ON
Since we aren't too far removed from the holiday gauntlets, it seems likely that more than a few of us have suffered through something for the sake of politeness. The search for "the politest little girl" or boy was an annual competition held by the Junior Inspectors Club of New York City's Department of Sanitation. In 1940, the competition's panel of judges (aged 10-15) awarded the honor to 9 year-old G. William Kennell, who demonstrated a thorough command of his craft: Suppose you were... READ ON
We've had our share of sign fun on this site, and we're still riding Ransom's recent sign post wave, so why not more? Signs of the most popular genus: "For Sale"; "Help Wanted"; "Beware of Dog" are, naturally, a dime a dozen, and we've all used them or can at least concede their usefulness. Then there are the weird signs, as mentioned by Higgins, rarer signs, the collectibles. My friend just got the best gift--a packet of vintage signs his mother-in-law picked up at a yard sale. They were bleached from... READ ON
If you're still sad about the Coney Island revamps and Astroland's swan song, here's something to rub in the melancholy a little. Last week, Wired commemorated January 4th, 1903, the day Thomas Edison decided he needed to electrocute an elephant to prove his point: that DC was superlative, AC atrocious. Edison had established direct current at the standard for electricity distribution and was living large off the patent royalties, royalties he was in no mood to lose when George Westinghouse and Nicola... READ ON
Every left-brained dude needs a right-hand man, so here's a salute to some notable bro-bro teams who rocked... READ ON
5 Questions: Maybe, Maybe Not
Troy McClure Film or Actual Terrible Movie?
Marie Curie's notebooks are still radioactive.
