Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens may be retiring from the high court as his 90th birthday nears, and names are already being bandied about for his replacement. But as the very rare occasion of a Supreme Court nomination may loom, here’s a look at a few people who were considered for the Supreme Court […]
Introducing the new edition to our Bathroom Reader library:
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The World’s Gone Crazy.
CraZy, BiZArre, SuRReal, SHoCking—there just aren’t enough adjectives in the dictionary to describe all the strange people, places, customs, conspiracies, and science awaiting you in this all-new edition. So put on your tinfoil hat and plunge into…
….and much, much more.
Click HERE to purchase.
You thought we forgot, right? Well, we didn’t. It just took us a long time to go through all the answers and process the massive amounts of data about you and your households. The consensus here at the BRI is that the census was a success. Without further delay, we would like to announce the randomly selected winner of the Uncle John’s 2010 Census…
Crystal Elmer: You are the winner!!!! We have sent you an email. Please email us back with your address and choice of book.
We also want to take this moment to confirm what some of you already suspected. Sadly, Uncle John will not be appearing on America Idol. Although, we do hope that one day our April Fool’s will actually become a reality. Until then, go with the flow!
You won’t believe what our esteemed leader is plunging into next!
Just found this on the intertubes. It’s a fascinating (and creepy) YouTube video about nematomorpha, parasitic creatures more commonly called “hairworms.” We wrote a short piece about them in Uncle John’s Triumphant 20th Bathroom Reader (2007, p. 172). An excerpt:
Tests on grasshoppers that had contracted hairworms by drinking water containing hairworm larvae revealed that the lavrae feed off grasshoppers’ insides and grow until one takes up most of its body cavity. When that worm is ready to reproduce, it secretes a protein concoction that affects the grasshopper’s central nervous system, mimicking messages to its brain. The messages drive the grasshopper to water, where it doesn’t stop for a drink…it jumps in and drowns. It is effectively induced to commit suicide. The worm, which by this time can be three times the length of the grasshopper, then crawls out of the carcass and swims off to find a mate.
Yum!
Here’s the video:
Related Extra: A fungus that brainwashes ants into sacrificing themselves…for the fungus.
And this just in: Yay toads!
In honor of the 143rd anniversary of the day the United States government purchased from Russia the land that would later become the great state of Alaska, we’d like to bring to you some other things related to the number 143. Ahem:
This is just too cool:
Ninety-seven printmakers of all experience levels, have joined together to produce 118 prints in any medium; woodcut, linocut, monotype, etching, lithograph, silkscreen, or any combination. The end result is a periodic table of elements intended to promote both science and the arts.
Example:
Tin
by Natalia MorozAbout the Element
For Tin, a silvery-white metal, the chemical element of atomic number 50. (Symbol: Sn), I pictured The Steadfast Tin Soldier from the classic fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson.About the Print
I also added more tins on the background. It’s a four color linocut, gray, red and blue printed using the jigsaw method, overprinted with black. Printed with Daniel Smith oil based inks on white Rising Stonehenge paper.
Everyone in the United States is required to answer the questions on this important official document by April 1, 2010. And that includes Canada.
Please cut and paste any or all of the following questions into a comment below and answer accordingly. Comments will be placed in a large virtual hat on April 1, 2010, and one winner will be drawn from said hat. Winner will receive either an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas or a free book, whichever makes our accountants happier. Read. Set. Go!
HOO HOO – very funny video of a guy who stepped into the hallway behind President Obama and VP Biden during the health care speech last night. You can almost feel the guy’s stomach drop into his shoes when he realizes what he’s done and does a slow pirouette outta there. (Via)
The Pillsbury Doughboy, the advertising mascot of the Pillsbury Company, was introduced to the world on this date, March 18, in 1965. At least according to some trivia lists. Others say it was November 7, 1965. Pillsbury, apparently, says they have no idea. We here at the BRI are going to go with today. Why? Because it’s today, and we had to do something.
And we mostly want to give our regards to “Poppin’ Fresh” because without him—and the Michelin Man—we would never have had the “Stay Puft Marshmallow Man,” from 1984’s Ghostbusters. And for that we are very grateful.
Extra: From the first link above we found something that not even Uncle John knew: The voice of the original Pillsbury Doughboy was played by Paul Frees—the same guy who did Boris Badenov of the original “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.”
Or: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!, as an old superstition says for the very best cabbages you should get out to the garden and plant them today. After that you can have some corned beef and cabbage and a good fat glass of Guinness—you deserve it.
A few more St. Patrick’s Day tidbits:
Apparently humans are not the only species that use toilets. Wonder if we should send these rodents Bathroom Readers to enjoy while doing their business? Click here for the full story (courtesy of our friends at Neatorama).
Today is the anniversary of the 1967 release of the very first song by the great British psychedlic-rock (and so much more) band, Pink Floyd. The song was Arnold Layne, written and sung by Syd Barret. It’s about a guy who steals women’s clothes from washing lines and wears them. He is unfortunately caught doing this, and “doors bang, chaingang.” Poor Arnold. Wikipedia has quite a bit of information on the song here.
It was hard to believe that this story wasn’t a hoax, but it apparently is the real (weird) deal:
“Road safety chiefs have put up traffic signs warning motorists of drunks in the road in a bid to reduce accidents. Mayor Petru Antal ordered the signs – saying ‘Attention – Drunks’, complete with an image of a reveller on his knees with a bottle – after despairing of accident figures in Pecica, Romania.”
We meant to post the winners of the contest yesterday, but there were so many comments it took us an extra day to get through them all! We call that a rip-roaring success for our first blog contest. 775 comments later, and we now know the intimate details of your toilet paper habits from those […]
From the “How Very, Very Strange” drawer:
Police in Cyprus say they may have found the body of former President Tassos Papadopoulos, three months after it was snatched from its grave. Remains thought to be those of the ex-president were found at a Nicosia cemetery after a tip-off, police said. DNA tests will determine whether it was Mr Papadopoulos’ body, police on the Mediterranean island said. He was president from 2003 to February 2008 and died in December 2008. It is unclear why his body was stolen.
The original report can be found here.
If you look at several “On This Date” lists online (like this one) you’ll find an interesting bit of info for today, March 8: “1st flight of the Goodyear blimp (1972).”
1972? Hasn’t the Goodyear Blimp been around for a bit longer than that? Uh, yes, it has. But since it now exists only after March 8, 1972 – on the internet, where reality goes to die – we’d like to say “Happy Birthday, Blimp.” What the heck, y’know?
And just for the occasion, here are some blimpy facts, from our very own Uncle John’s Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader (page 273).
Wow! Have you heard? The already blizzardized New York City got another two feet of snow. Check it out.
