It's finally December! That early Thanksgiving threw me off a bit, but I got our Christmas lights up. I believe they are visible from the ISS, and more than once friends have driven right past our house because it looks so different. The neighbors breathe a sigh of relief when I shut them off about midnight. If I can ever catch our family photographer home during the evening hours, I'll show you a picture.
We've all been busy this week here at Neatorama, and have a lot to share with you. Last weekend, Jill Harness posted Adorable Photos and Videos of Critters and Kiddos Enjoying Fall Foliage.
Alex Santoso gave us 8 Famous Mascots Whose Names You Didn't Know.
Tiffany Norman had some shopping advice for us in 7 Neatest Gifts for Photographers. She also posted photos of her experience with Popping Popcorn On The Cob at NeatoBambino.
In honor of the actor, who passed away a week ago, Eddie Deezen told us A Few Facts About Larry Hagman.
A Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of the Pokémon came from the Annals of Improbable Research.
The Bathroom Reader Institute gave us I Yam What I Yam: The Story of Popeye.
And Curious George's Great Escape was the weekly contribution from mental_floss magazine.
A couple of our other items went particularly viral this week and deserve your attention if you haven't already seen them: The one about Niels Bohr and his beer pipeline, the one about the alarm clock that shoots a cannon, and the one about the fox who stole a phone and then used it. Well worth sharing!
In the What Is It? game this week, the mystery object is an old depth gauge, "for sounding in depths of from one hundred fathoms." Read more about it at the What Is It? blog. No one guessed that! For a minute I thought Lord_Dissident was going to have the correct answer:
There is some sort of plastic can in the weathered remains of a wooden cabinet, a clock or something leaning on the side, and a large metal plunger on top of it all. Synopsis: it's a pile of rubbish sitting outside with a man (whose shadow can be seen in the grass) hovering over it.
Well, no, but that one was the funniest answer, so he wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Here's a little hint for the rest of you: the What Is It blog often posts the answer quite some time before we do, in case you want to look there when no one has it right. Thanks to everyone who played this week!
The post with the most comments this week turned out to be a tie between Do Orchestras Really Need Conductors? and I Am Bitterly, Bitterly Disappointed. In third place was A Few Facts About Larry Hagman. All those comment threads (and others) are still open for your input. However, if you just want to tell us you like a particular post, it's as easy as clicking the little ♥. That goes for every post we have.
Until we get some front-page buttons, I'll need to remind you of our new sub-blogs. At Lifestyles of the Cute and Cuddly we saw adorable ducks, parakeets, and cats, plus a White House Christmas tour by Bo, the First Dog. Also, Neatolicious is gathering up more and more holiday recipes and food news. And Mad Skills need to be in your feeds and bookmarks as well. The Halloween blog is still diligently recording the best scary stories and costumes of 2012, and NeatoBambino has babies and kids and everything about them.
And if that isn't enough Neatorama for you, we have extra content and fun at our Facebook page, Twitter feed, and Pinterest pinboard. For mobile users, Flipboard makes it easy to keep up with Neatorama. Oh yeah -look for Neatorama in Instagram, too!
And last but not least, we have the NeatoShop where you can do all your Christmas shopping and also help ensure the longevity of the blog. You have plenty of time to order before the shipping deadlines, but don't wait too long because the hottest items will sell out!