Retro & Vintage – Page 89

The .Gif Friday Post No.419 – El Niño, Sisyphus Machine & a 1833 Phenakistoscope

[Found here, here and here.]

Ancient Celtic Pole Dancer Figurine

Oh wait. It’s an ancient Celtic Pole Dancer figurine helmet. Nevermind.

[Found here via here.]

Tempting A Cheese Of Piece Is How?

There’s something inherently disturbing about that ad.

[Found here.]

Clowns Are Not Creepy (unless they wear Ever-Rite shoes).

That’s Lon Chaney (aka “The Man of 1,000 Faces“) from 1928’s “Laugh, Clown, Laugh.” He was arguably the first trollface.

[Found here.]

Yet God Still Lives Here.

[Found here, here, here, here and here.]

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.

Saturday Matinee – Pre-Christmas Festivities

That’s a cover of one of the best songs of The Phil Spector Christmas Album from 1963, but it’s not Christmas until I hear Leroy Anderson‘s “Sleigh Ride” sung by The Ronettes.

This corrupted and irreverent version of the traditional song always amuses me even though the missus hates it.

Have a great weekend, folks, and I’ll make up for this later. Honest.

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.]

The Saturday Matinee – Capuchin Monkeys, The Cramps, The Two Man Gentlemen Band & Tuba Skinny

This clip from Frans de Waal’s TED presentation amuses me (and I may have posted it previously).

The Cramps were a product of the legendary 1970s CBGB NY punk scene, as were these folks:

Okay I lied. The Two Man Gentlemen Band never played at CBGBs (which stood for Country, Blue Grass & Blues in case you didn’t know). Let’s go for one more.