celebrities

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Paul McCartney's First Girlfriend

Dorothy "Dot" Rhone, a quiet girl from Liverpool, England, grew up with an emotionally distant mother and an abusive father who drank. She was terribly shy, introverted, and withdrawn, and she thought her nose was too big, going so far as to sleep with a clothes pin hooked on it in the sad hope that it might make her nose smaller. One person, though, did think she was pretty. His name was Paul McCartney. In 1959, when she was 16, Dot attended a gig at the "Casbah Club" featuring a teenage group who... READ ON

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The Late Movies: "TableTop," Wil Wheaton's Boardgame Show

So Wil Wheaton has a YouTube show about boardgames, and it's awesome. It's called TableTop, and it's a long-form (about a half hour per episode) look at various good boardgames, including a basic explanation of how to play each -- plus an actual play session so you can actually get it. Whether you're a boardgame nerd or a "normal" person looking for a fun diversion for your next party, this is for you. I've collected five starter episodes for your enjoyment. The TableTop YouTube channel has tons of... READ ON

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11 Country Stars and Their Cookbooks

1. Kitty Wells Country Kitchen Cookbook by Kitty Wells... READ ON

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11 Celebrities Posing with mental_floss

Dateline: Novi, Michigan – Motor City Comic Con 2012. Your intrepid reporter and her ever-patient husband/photographer brave the hordes of Darth Vaders, Dudley Do-Rights, and Daryl Dixons to bring you 11 celebrities posing with mental_floss: 1. Sean Patrick... READ ON

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The Late Movies: Ray Bradbury, Interviewed

Today we learned that we had lost Ray Bradbury. Tonight, let's listen to the author speak about his life and career. If you watch nothing else in this list, scroll down and pick one of the short clips from 1968 -- they're all terrific. On Books, Literacy, and Fahrenheit 451 Bradbury interviewed in a short film for the National Endowment for the Arts. This is all about the library. Sample quote: "We should learn from history about the destruction of books. When I was 15 years old, Hitler... READ ON

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Remembering Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury died yesterday at the age of 91. Best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury was a prolific writer and a tireless advocate for libraries. My favorite work of his is the short story The Veldt, which both scared and inspired me as a kid -- that story was one of the first that made me want to become a writer. You can listen to Stephen Colbert perform the story live in a stunning recording. To remember Bradbury, I'm setting aside an hour to re-watch his speech from 2001, presented at... READ ON

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Neil Gaiman's Commencement Speech on Creative Careers

"Nothing I did, where the only reason for doing it was the money, was ever worth it except as bitter experience. Usually I didn't end up getting the money either. The things I did because I was excited and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I've never regretted the time I've spent on any of them. The problems of failure are hard; the problems of success can be harder, because nobody warns you about them. The first problem of any kind of even limited success is the... READ ON

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David Blaine: How I Held My Breath for 17 Minutes

As a little light science-ish fare for Friday, here's a TED Talk in which David Blaine explains his quest to hold his breath for a really, really long time. He goes through a variety of possible "trick" techniques (none of which worked), and discusses his much-publicized failure to escape from handcuffs during his "Drowned Alive" feat. But then he gets to the interesting stuff -- a seemingly credible story of how he trained to do a sustained breath-hold after breathing pure oxygen. This is a different... READ ON

Article

Ze Frank on Getting Happy (ft. Chris Higgins)

Ze Frank has been making awesome internet videos since before that was a thing. Today, I have the honor to appear briefly* in his show Chase That Happy, which is concerned with how we get happy when we aren't. While the goal of life isn't to be happy all the time, perhaps it is to watch Ze Frank and hope that maybe, someday, he will blink. Representative quote: "For example I discovered Happy Typing, where you type like a Crazy Secretary in a silent film. [Frank types crazily]" Content note:... READ ON

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And Now, a Little Public Radio Humor

Last Thursday, This American Life LIVE played in movie theaters around the US, Canada, and Australia, beamed live via satellite from a stage performance in New York City. For public radio nerds, this is pure gold: two hours of This American Life performed onstage, and you watch it in a theater crammed with likeminded nerds who actually know what "Car Talk" and "Fresh Air" are. The show is running again tonight (pre-recorded from Thursday's performance) in some locations. If you're a public radio nerd... READ ON