Pre-SpongeBob Steven Banks
From 1994. Hilarious, irreverent, and brutal. (Watch to the end to see what we mean.)
Author: Uncle John
RIP, Whitney Houston
Dang. Shocking news:
Whitney Houston, who reigned as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.
Uncle John’s 25th Anniversary Giveaway
Here at the BRI, we are thrilled to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the greatest trivia series ever published. It is true that we love trivia and have some interesting discussions around the office. When we can’t agree on an answer, things can get a bit heated. (Who saw the picture of the head in our fridge that we posted on our Facebook page? That may, or may not, have been a former co-worker.)
The one thing that we will always agree on is that without our fans (hey, that’s you!) we wouldn’t be experiencing such amazing success. So, we want to thank you all for being fans by having a super easy, and extremely rewarding giveaway.
Entering is easy. Read more to find out how.
Super Bowl Gift Pack Winner
Thanks everyone for entering our Super Bowl Gift Pack giveaway.
We had a total of 12 correct entries and the random winner is…
RIP, Etta James
Etta James has left us at the age of 73. Here’s a nice writeup from the newspaper of her original hometown. That was one big, hard, beautiful life.
This is a nice video, for the haunting song and performance, and for the slow display of wonderful images. Really nice job.
Giveaway: Super Bowl XLVI Gift Pack
It is time to prepare for the Super Bowl again. While we are still not sure which teams will be playing in the big game, we all know that Super Bowl XLVI will be played in Indianapolis and there will lots of parties. To help you prepare for the big day, we are giving away a book gift packet complete with The NFL’s Top 100, a cookbook with mouth-watering recipes, a pictorial history of Indianapolis, and of course, Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Sports Spectacular.
Breaking News: Mutants are not Humans!
After spending years in story boards and movies debating if mutants are humans or not, Marvel is now taking the stance that mutants are in fact not humans. The real life debate has nothing to do with mutant rights, but rather taxation on toys. Excerpt from article:
‘Dolls,’ which are toys that represent humans, are taxed at 12%. ‘Toys,’ meanwhile, are, well, toys, but ones that don’t represent humans. Those are taxed at 6.8%. You can probably see where this is headed.
But, where do you draw the line? Who is a mutant and who isn’t? As you can see in the article “11 X-Men Who Aren’t Actually Mutants,” it might be hard to distinguish between the two. For example, did you know that Storm was a member of the X-Men with no powers in 41 different issues?
Samoa and Tokelau to Skip December 30
The South Pacific Nations of Samoa and Tokelau are about to cross the International Date Line. Tonight at midnight, the islands will jump from December 29 to December 31. The decision was made in order to standardize trading with their partners in the region. Our thoughts go out to all those with a December 30 birthday on the islands. Hopefully your families will not use this as an excuse to skip out on gifts. More information about the switch is here and here.
The Suitcase is Wiggling
Imagine the surprise of the baggage X-ray technicians who discovered this! A Czech man boarding a plane in Argentina, bound for Madrid, tried to board the plane with 247 live animals. Among the animals were 15 venomous vipers. Yikes!
Snakes on a plane doesn’t seem like a good idea at all. Someone should make a movie about that and they should call it “Snakes on a Plane.”
Here are some more details about the story.
Hidden Subway Vents
Not all the subway vents around a major city are visible. In fact, there many such vents hidden in buildings and fake structures. Here is one fake apartment building that the city of New York maintains in Brooklyn to hide giant vents that allow fresh air into the subway system.
Procrastinators R Us: Last-Minute Gifts!
Did you know you can send someone who doesn’t own a Kindle e-books from Amazon? That’s right: Amazon has FREE apps that allow you to read e-books on computers, phones, etc.
All you need is the giftees email. It’s so easy – and they’ll get the gift in time for Christmas.
And the gift can be Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader e-books!
Tsunami Girl Home After 7 Years [updated]
“An Indonesian girl swept away in the 2004 tsunami has been reunited with her parents seven years on, the family say.
Meri Yulanda, also known as Wati, turned up at a cafe in Meulaboh, Aceh, earlier this week, looking for her parents.
She says she was found by a widow after the disaster and forced to work as a beggar, being freed only last week.”
Louis CK’s Experiment
You may have heard about this. If so, well, there’s been a very big update as of yesterday.
Back story: On December 10, comedian Louis CK put a video of himself performing at the Beacon Theater in New York City up for sale on a website made just for purpose. It offered the video for $5. You could pay through PayPal – even if you didn’t have a PayPal account – and download the video right away. And:
The Batman Infographic
Comic book writer Grant Morrison said it best: “[Every bat-suit is] completely different” – sometimes insanely different – “but they’re all instantly recognizable as [the-bat-suit].”
1,100-year-old Mayan Ruins Found in North Georgia
This is one of the most mindblowing stories we have ever seen. Let’s look at that headline again:
That’s impossible.
Football Giraffe Says…
Kim Kardashian [updated]
We just noticed that someone named “Kim Kardashian” is in the news – again – and we just wanted to say a few things about this, so here goes:
Hanukkah Lamps Selected By Maurice Sendak
Happy Hanukkah! The eight-day Jewish holiday also known as the “Festival of Lights,” which honors the redidication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century CE, begins today. (If you’re unfamiliar with the details of the origin of this holiday—that’s what jewfaq.org is for.)
To commemorate the holiday this year, the Jewish Museum in New York City has a display entitled “An Artist Remembers: Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak.”
