This year is going to be an awesome year because I said so.
1116111 = day/month/year hour : minute : second
2016 = 11111100000 in binary. So there you go.
Category: History
The How & Why Wonder Book of Hot Links
Levitating Superconductor on a Möbius strip [via].
Oikophobia and Xenophilia are related.
Chocolate or vanilla? The debate began around 1520 when Cortés y los Conquistadores brought both to Europe.
Irreverent satire/snark posted in 2004 comes true.
Repost: The Entire Bible in 30 minutes or less.
The Cliff’s Notes’ version of The New Testament takes more than 30 minutes, but the intro is interesting.
Top image from The How And Why Wonder Book of Atomic Energy. This illustrated series was awesome.
The Weasel Goes Pop
That’s a 19th Century Jack-In-The-Box, and it creeps me right out.
What’s the “weasel” and why does it go “Pop?” Hard to say, but it likely has to do with weaving yarn. When it became associated with the toy is a mystery, and why the toy became associated with fast food stumps me as well.
[Found here.]
Wire Frame WIN
An outline overlay reconstructs the damaged Heidentor, a 4th century AD Roman victory monument in Austria.
[Image & caption with link found here.]
7 December 1941 – Remember Always
Annotated Draft of “Day of Infamy” Speech: Joint Address to Congress Leading to a Declaration of War Against Japan by Franklin D. Roosevelt, December 8, 1941.
Hot Links in F# Major
Books In Chains: Combating Book Theft in Medieval Times.
Fred Willard on Letterman 1987.
Zappa, Beefheart & Pink Floyd 1969 [via].
From the Unusual Sentences Department:
“Twenty minutes in, he stops, lifts his tail, and produces one phenomenally long and sonically impressive Super Fart.”
The Clark Brothers ca. 1948. Too slow? Jump to 02:40.
Charlie Ryan & The Timberline Riders – The B-Side of Hot Rod Lincoln: Hot Rod Hades.
This is kinda cool. It’s a Unicorn Head Squirrel Feeder, and I like the soundtrack.
How to make a cigar box diddley bow.
The Superbone begat the Firebird. Pretty ingenious in that it allows a B♭ trumpet player to play difficult keys (like F♯ major) with a slide adjustment.
[Top image: Maynard Ferguson playing a Firebird left-handed.]
The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month: Armistice Day aka Veterans’ Day
Have you ever had the patience, alas
to count to 101,079?
Or to walk the salt-resistant grass
and touch the headstones in each long line?
To think of each warrior buried there
knowing their lives have been split in two
half for their carefree heroic youth
and half for the freedom of me and you?
If so, you couldn’t have stemmed the flood
of tears that surely blurred your eyes
as the spirit dips His brush in blood
to paint Old Glory in the skies
R. T. Sedgwick
[Image of Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetary and poem found here.]
Saturday Matinee – Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve & Halloween: Bobby Pickett, Ted Cassidy & Tom Waits
The history of Samhain (aka All Hallow’s Eve, aka Halloween) is interesting, and despite what some claim (that it’s “The Devil’s Holiday”) it’s actually the opposite. Check this out.
But that’s not what we’re here for, and we’re not here to post Bobby Pickett‘s “Monster Mash” either even though Leon Russell played on that recording according to Wiki.
Nice try, Bobby, but that sucked donkeys. Ted Cassidy did it right.
So how do we wrap up this Halloween vid post? How ’bout some Tom Waits?
Yeah, when the kids were tads, we’d do up the front stoop right, with spiderwebs, pumpkins that made little kids cry and dogs bark, and blast Tom Waits and Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum cassettes on a boom box that could be heard for blocks. Fun times.
Have a safe Samhain, All Hallow’s Eve, and Halloween, folks. Be back tomorrow for El Día de los Muertos.
The Democrat Presidential Debate October 2015
Looks like it’s gonna be Hillary, Bre’r Bernie, Curly Joe and four or five other people who haven’t shown up yet.
And Friday The 13th comes on a Tuesday this month.
[Update: There were some subtle funnies in that snoozefest.]
This Is The Too Hot to Post Post
90+ degrees in the shade today, and I was too distracted to put together something semi-original, so here’s this. Lo siento mis amigos.
The Latintones. Grupera mex-chicano de los 60’s 70’s de Tejas starts it off, and the rest of the collection is pretty cool as well.
Tacky Raccoons 