Blog Posts

RIP: Hazel Dickens

We just heard today that the great bluegrass singer and true American treasure Hazel Dickens passed away on Friday.

“Hazel Dickens, a West Virginia-born bluegrass singer who was an authentic voice of America’s working class, has died in Washington at 75.

Ms. Dickens grew up in dire poverty in West Virginia’s coal country and developed a raw, keening style of singing that was filled with the pain of her hardscrabble youth. She supported herself in day jobs for many years before she was heard on the soundtrack of the 1976 Oscar-winning documentary about coal mining, ‘Harlan County, U.S.A.’

Her uncompromising songs about coal mining, such as ‘Black Lung’ and ‘They Can’t Keep Us Down,’ became anthems, and she was among the first to sing of the plight of women trying to get by in the working-class world.”

Get your chills ready, and listen to this:

Last Shot of the Civil War: Fired in Alaska

Crazy story for you history nuts out there:

The 150th anniversary of the first shot of America’s deadliest conflict has been widely noted this month. Few people are aware, however, that the last shot was fired off Alaska’s shores.

It was fired by the Confederate ship CSS Shenandoah, at the end of its mission to disrupt Yankee maritime business all over the world. And where did they get the ship?

In October 1864, it [the ship] was secretly transferred to the Confederate Navy in a black-ops rendezvous off the coast of Africa. A skeleton crew rigged the ship for battle and renamed it Shenandoah.

I can see the movie now! Mel Gibson as the skipper! (Is that wrong?)

Was the ship successful?

RIP Elizabeth Taylor

The one and only Elizabeth Taylor has passed away in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 79. From the website of her hometown newspaper in London, England:

Farewell Dame Liz

SCREEN icon Dame Elizabeth Taylor, who spent her formative years in Hampstead Garden Suburb, died yesterday aged 79. The double Oscar-winning actress, whose best known films include National Velvet and Cleopatra, was one of the 20th century’s biggest stars.

The Guardian says “Born to be Cleopatra.”

Tsunami Surge Video – San Francisco Bay

You’ve all no doubt heard about the huge earthquake and devastating tsunami in Japan. Our thoughts are with everyone there.

You may have also heard that tsunami warnings were issued for the American West Coast, not far from the BRI headquarters. (We are too far inland to be in any danger, just to note.)

Just two hours and change west of us, Crescent City, California, got hit pretty bad. Andd just to the north of there Brookings, Oregon, got it, too.

Further to the south, someone took a video of a surge entering San Francisco Bay. (No word on damages there.)

Revenge: Best Served to Telecom Companies

This, dear readers, will make every one of you feel a tiny bit better for every minute you’ve ever been on a senseless and agonizing telephone run-around mill courtesy of your telephone company—and a tiny bit times a thousand or so adds up to a lot of feeling better:

Belgium’s much-reviled phone company Mobistar was elaborately pranked by a program on VRT Belgium; the pranksters hid themselves in a steel container, which they had dropped directly in front of the gates of a large Mobistar office at 5AM. The container had a prominent customer service number printed on the side of it — a number which rang the pranksters inside the container — that was promptly called by a series of Mobistar employees who wanted to get the container moved off before 2,000 Mobistar employees reported for work and found the parking lot blocked off.

The pranksters proceed to put the Mobistar employees through a high-art comedic phone hell, disconnecting them…

The Sega Urinal Game

As the kids say: Oh. My. God.

Four types of “Toylets” games are available to be played during a test period ending this month at four male bathrooms in pubs and game arcades, in a project aimed at drawing attention to digital adverts.

Each urinal is fitted with a pressure sensor, and a small digital display is placed at eye level. Digital adverts are shown after the games.

Games include “Graffiti Eraser” in which a user tries to aim at the pressure sensor in the urinal to erase virtual graffiti on the display.

There is even a video. Really. (And no, it does not feature an actual man peeing.)

RIP Mr. Jack LaLanne

The undauntable Jack LaLanne has left for the big exercise room in the sky:

“I have not only lost my husband and a great American icon, but the best friend and most loving partner anyone could ever hope for,” Elaine LaLanne, Lalanne’s wife of 51 years and a frequent partner in his television appearances, said in a written statement.

UJBR Blog: Year in Review

This is our first year in the great big blogosphere, and therefore our first UJBR YiR. We had an executive meeting of the BRI crack staff, and decided that the theme of our first ever YiR should be…weird bathroom news. I mean “bathroom” is right there in our name and everything! How weird is that?

Getting right on with it:

In February, Toronto, Ontario, restaurant Mildred’s celebrated Valentines Day by encouraging patrons to have sex in its bathrooms. “Have you given any thought to moving beyond the bedroom?” they asked on thei website. “Check out Mildred’s Sexy Bathrooms throughout the weekend of Big Love. You get the picture.”( We do get the picture—and it ain’t pretty!) Bizarrely, Toronto Public Health said it was alright: “As far as bodily fluids,” said Jim Chan, manager of the food safety program, “it’s pretty much similar to the other human functions going on in there.” (Photo: Rene Johnson, Toronto Star)

Our New Year’s Gift to You: The Origami Ducky

We wanted to get each and every one of you a gift this holiday season. But, since we didn’t have everyone’s addresses, the hard part was figuring out what to get you that we could transported through the internet. So, here is our little thank you for supporting us in 2010 and for the many years before…and after: THE ORIGAMI DUCKY! (First appeared in Uncle John’s Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader)
Continue Reading to print out the template.

Miracle on Ice: Where are They Now?

Three days ago the Men’s U.S. Olympic Hockey team got an unexpected win over heavily favored Canada, the first time the Americans have beaten the Canadians in an Olympics since 1960. MSNBC got 8.22 million viewers for the Sunday afternoon broadcast—the second highest total in the network’s history. (Only election night 2008 got more.) Congratulations to the U.S. team, and good luck for the rest of the tournament to both the U.S. and Canada.

The game came just a day short of the 30th anniversary of what is arguably the biggest moment in U.S. sports history, the “Miracle on Ice” that saw the Americans beat the Russians, winner of the gold in the four previous Olympics, on their own way to winning gold at the 1980 games in Lake Placid, New York. In Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges into Minnesota (2006), we covered the “Miracle on Ice” story—and looked into where some of the players and coaches are today. Here’s an excerpt (with updates!)

The Aussie Loo

Greetings, Bathroom Reader fans around the world. BRI Thom here, reporting from the field, which, barring deportation or a fatal shark attack, I shall be doing so henceforth. I’ve flown the bathroom-reading headquarters coop in our sleepy little Oregon hamlet, and am currently reporting from a picnic bench a few yards from the South Pacific Ocean just north of Sydney, Australia—one block or some from my new home. Leaving Uncle John and the crack staff at the BRI was heartbreaking…until I got here. (I mean come on! I practically live on a tropical beach, for goodness’ sake!)

Fortunately Uncle John forgot to change the locks here, and I’ll still be posting on the UJ Blog!

My first exclusive: The Aussie Loo, and how it corresponds almost exactly to Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. Just take a look at this beauty:

The Pearl Harbor Spy

Today, December 7, 2010, is the 69th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. (69th?! Wow!) In our very latest—and many are already saying the greatest, thank you very much—work, Uncle John’s HEAVY DUTY Bathroom Reader, we tell the story of the single Japanese spy who made the entire attack possible. Here’s an excerpt:

DUSTBIN OF HISTORY:
THE PEARL HARBOR SPY
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, remains
one of the most infamous events in U.S. history. Yet the spy who
played a key role in the sneak attack is a forgotten man,
unknown even to many World War II buffs.

Under Cover
On March 27, 1941, a 27-year-old junior diplomat named Tadashi Morimura arrived in Honolulu to take his post as vice-consul at the Japanese consulate. But that was just a cover—“Morimura” was really Takeo Yoshikawa, a Japanese Imperial Navy Intelligence officer. His real mission: to collect information about the American military installations in and around Pearl Harbor.

Law & Order: The Knucklehead Files

This is a news item about two separate, yet equally important groups: The police who investigate crime, and the District Attorneys who get sent text messages by drug dealers. (Dong dong!)

Police say an Indiana man was arrested after mistakenly sending text messages to a prosecutor about drugs he was trying to sell.

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