Were you able to watch the opening ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics last night? It was as beautiful as it was incomprehensible. The next two weeks of competitions will be much easier to follow: we like to see someone slip and fall every once in a while, but we don’t want anyone to break their neck. Enjoy the Games, but don’t let that distract you from another important event coming up this week: Valentines Day! Yeah, I know, it’s an overly-commercialized Hallmark holiday, but there’s never a bad time to express your true feelings to someone you love. And forgetting the occasion can be a mark against you. Right now, let’s get you caught up on what’s been going on this past week at Neatorama.
John Farrier brought us An Exclusive Interview with Erik Kwakkel, Medieval Book Historian.
He also showed us 11 Strange and Fancy 20-Sided Dice.
Eddie Deezen marked 50 years of The Beatles in America with the post The Beatles' American Television Debut (Or Was It?)
Over at our Spotlight blog, we told you the tale of Horace and Agnes: A Love Story.
The Tallest Man in the World came from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.
The Annals of Improbable Research gave us A German Military Chest-Slapping Hazard, and American Pottery.
10 Shocking Stories About America's First Ladies was from mental_floss magazine.
The Whodunit this week from Hy Conrad was called The Vampire on the Balcony.
In the What Is It? game this week, the mystery object is an ice cleat for attaching to the heel of a shoe. A handy item, no doubt, but we were looking for funny guesses. One of the best answers came from Berhard, who said,
This is obviously a tool-less mountable „space saver“ spare horseshoe... just enough to get you and your mustang to the next farrier... without the need to carry a forge and an anvil..
The wild west ancestor of the „limited use donut tyre“...
That’s good for a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! But how does he make those upside-down quotes? The other great guess came from Randall:
Don't be put off by the seemingly crude appearence of this device, for without it the astronauts would have never reached the moon! This an artificial orange squeezer that was used to make Tang, the delicous vitamin packed space drink you can enjoy right here on earth, if you have a taste for watery sickly sweet orange colored sand. I can't describe exacltly how it worked, because thats still so classified, even Snowden won't tell us. I think it was fitted to a space boot, and the artificial orange was stomped on like they do grapes when they make wine.
Congratulations to both on such clever ideas! We’ll do it again next week. See the answer to all the mystery objects of the week at the What Is It? blog.
The post with the most comments this week was the Coca-Cola Super Bowl Ad and Punxsutawney Phil Has Been Right Only 39% of the Time. The latter gave us our comment of the week, from Joseph Francis:
Yeah, it's a movie quote, but it's also one of the nicest things said all week. John would have picked another bon mot by the same commenter.
The most popular of last week's posts was How Fast Can You Read? In second place was Goat Simulator, and The Tallest Man in the World came in third.
The posts that received the most hearts were Lil' Drac, the Cutest Baby Bat You'll See Today and Magic Eye Music Video.
The most-emailed post was Antique Rocking Bath Tub, followed by Snacktime and The Ultimate Wake-up Prank.
The Neatorama post of the week that was the most-liked on Facebook was Star Trek: The Next Generation Valentine's Day Cookies. The most Tweeted was World Traveler Gets a Fill-in Tattoo of Every Nation He's Visited. The post Crocheted My Little Daleks was the most shared on Google+, and the most-pinned was Yoga Skepticism. It's easy to share our posts with your social media buddies: just look for these icons —> at the end of every post. Click on the post title and you'll have even more options at the bottom!
The joke above was the most-pinned image at the Neatorama Pinterest boards this week. But you would have already known that if you had suscribed to NeatoMail! Sign up at the top right sidebar. THe most popular post on our Facebook page was the comic Snacktime. The Neatoramanauts Facebook page also has plenty of content that doesn't appear here on the main page.
Valentines Day is six days away, and you can still get some great gifts for the occasion from the NeatoShop, although you might want to consider an expedited shipping option at this point. If you're good to go with your Valentine, you'll want to check out our extensive line of St. Patricks Day t-shirts and accessories!
Have a great week!