We’re working on an article for Uncle John’s Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader (due out in November 2010) called “Show Stoppers.” It’s about concerts or theater shows or whatever that had to be stopped mid-performance for one humorous or interesting reason or another. Here’s an excerpt—and it just happens to be our favorite. (We’ll tell you why at the end of the piece in the “Special Note” section.)
I was just doing some research for an article on—well, you’ll see in November!—when I came across a Straight Dope discussion board from February where people were talking about actors who were in the midst of making films—and died before they were finished. Brandon Lee in The Crow, Vic Morrow in The Twilight Zone, and Bela Lugosi in Plan 9 from Outer Space are mentioned. Then someone wrote this:
“Keanu Reeves died at the beginning of The Matrix, but fortunately they found a plank of wood that looked just like him.”
With all due respect to Mr. Reeves—dat funny.
While performing an important search for an article one day—okay, I admit it, it was this morning, and I was bored, and I put “pergle” into Google just to see what would happen, you caught me!—I found this blast from the past: Pergl Gas Pump Globes. Remember those?
“Gas globes are spherical glass signs that sat atop gas pumps in the first half of the 20th century, advertising a specific oil company or brand of gasoline. Generally made from a ring of metal with a lens mounted on either side, they were produced in various shapes (like the Shell clamshell) and innumerable designs.
The purpose of gas pump globes was brand identification for drivers at a distance. Lighting wasn’t as good on gas stations as it is today. Sometimes all a motorist could recognize driving by was the gas pump itself lit up, and the globe glowed so they’d know what brand of gas was available. Post World War II, pumps started getting smaller, and by the 1960’s, it was unusual to have a globe.”
Pergl makes reproductions, but there are of course lots of dealers in actual antique globes, and over at OldGas.com, “The Gas Station & Auto Service Collectibles Web Site,” they have a huge gallery of photos of vintage globes.
Very cool photographs of several bridges from all over the world that, if you had to cross them, would definitely have your knees clattering. (Unless you don’t have knees.) Be sure to check out the video…complete with strangely creepy music.
We can’t tell if this story is funny…or hilarious:
“Scores of Carlsberg workers walked off their jobs in protest Thursday after the Danish brewer tightened laid-back rules on workplace drinking and removed beer coolers from work sites, a company spokesman said.
The warehouse and production workers in Denmark are rebelling against the company’s new alcohol policy, which allows them to drink beer only during lunch hours in the canteen. Previously, they could help themselves to beer throughout the day, from coolers placed around the work sites.
The only restriction was ‘that you could not be drunk at work’.”
I don’t know about you, but if I was 96 years old I’d be afraid that bungy jumping might, I don’t know, make parts of my body fall off or something. But not South African Mohr Keet. And holy cow, watch the video—that’s a really high bridge. (216 meters, or 708 feet high!)
Our favorite part: After Mr. Keet jumped, his daughter did, too. She’s 72 62. (And they both said they were “poop scared” before jumping.)
Today, April 7, marks the 77th anniversary of the beginning of one of the most raucous 24-hour periods in American history. It was on this day in 1933 that Congress officially modified the Volstead Act, better known as the National Prohibition Act, which in 1919 had made it illegal to manufacture, sell, or transport any beverage containing more than .05% alcohol. The modification rose that to 3.2%, and, as the day neared, the breweries around the country that hadn’t been driven out of business in the dry, 14-year period (they survived by making drinks like root beer and ginger ale), readied for what would become one of the wildest national parties in American history:
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:
