This Week at Neatorama

It’s been an exciting week all around: St. Patricks Day, the vernal equinox, and the NCAA March Madness tournament -which continues through the first week of April. I see signs of Spring Fever: my kids want to get out and do something, anything but homework. And I just want to sleep, especially when I think about all those garden chores I used to look forward to. A sure cure for whatever ails you is something funny, informative, interesting, and just plain neat from Neatorama.    

Following some big science news this week, Alex wrote 4 Neat Facts About The Big Bang That'll Make You Look Smart Without Understanding Any Physics.

Alex also posted 25 Amazing Behind-the-Scenes Photos of Star Wars.

Eddie Deezen brought us The Popeye the Sailor Story.

We had two posts on our large-format Spotlight blog this week. One was Beautiful Images From Rare Books of Science and Astronomy.

The other Spotlight post was Thierry Noir: Thirty Years of Political Street Art.

An “Uplifting” Story: The History of the Bra came from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.

The Annals of Improbable Research told us Why Engineers Paint.

The Genius of The Joy of Cooking was from mental_floss magazine.

The Whodunit from Hy Conrad this week was Undercover Jonah.

In the What Is It? game, the mystery object is a corn husker, according to patent number 27,638, "...it both strips off the husks and severs the ear from the stalk." We also had some funny alternate suggestions for its use. Jaguarfeather said, “New evidence has emerged that sea life evolved through its own Iron Age. A rare specimen fossil of the high-arched metallic dorsal Clampfish has recently been excavated near Iron Bay, BC.” That’s good for a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! And e6c has this to say, “It's my wife's nose hair tweezer... (for the love of God, I hope my wife doesn't see this post)” Well, you might be in trouble now, because that’s a winner! Thanks to everyone who played (all the answers were great), and thanks to the What Is It? blog!

We had a reader poll in the post The Law of Diminishing Jean-Claude Van Dammes. The biggest part of respondents said they wanted "Van Dammemore."

The (non-giveaway) posts with the most comments this week were The Best and Worst Things About US States and Functionally Obsolete. 

We love puns, and we also love when people post song lyrics, knowing that only a select few will get the reference. So the comment of the week is this one from Benjamin Eugene NElson on the post Suor Christina: "Sister Christina, oh the time has come!"

The most popular post was Man Sings Let It Go in the Voices of 21 Disney and Pixar Characters. In second place was The Best and Worst Things About US States, and Marshmallow Escapes was third.

The post that got the most hearts was a tie between Baby Jams Himself Awake and Chris Ahalt's Amazing Glass Animals. The most-emailed post was Toddler's First Traffic Ticket, followed by Man Sings Let It Go in the Voices of 21 Disney and Pixar Characters.

Our most popular post among Facebook users was This Elegant Library Is Literally Guarded by a Colony of Bats. The most-pinned on Pinterest was Soviet Hobbit Illustrations. The post A Collection Of Men's Hairstyles From The 1970s was the most-Tweeted, and An “Uplifting” Story: The History of the Bra was the most-shared on G+.

Are you getting NeatoMail? Subscribe today (top right on the main page) and receive a newsletter that will give you first crack at giveaways from Neatorama, plus highlights of our various sites. And some silliness, too. This week, Jill related the dangers of cultural assimilation gone wrong -who knew that Lunchables don't come in corned beef flavor anymore? We also learned that this cute t-shirt is the most popular of our designs among Pinterest members this week. You can follow Neatorama on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, too!

Have you been to the NeatoShop just to browse lately? There's a nice selection of Easter decorations and basket stuffers, and a lot of them are on sale at special prices!

Have a great week, everyone!