Image: Amazon

The 25th anniversary of popular classic The Princess Bride inspired lead Cary Elwes to write a book about the making of the movie. The book features interviews from almost all of the cast and crew, with the exception of André the Giant, who had passed on by then. Elwes' book, As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, is the source for this collection of facts about the film. Here are two anecdotes about André: 

"5. ANDRE THE GIANT COULD REALLY, REALLY DRINK.

Three bottles of cognac and 12 bottles of wine reportedly made him just a little tipsy. When the cast would go out for dinner, Andre—who, according to Robin Wright, ordered four appetizers and five entrees—would drink out of a 40-ounce beer pitcher filled with a mix of liquors, a concoction he called "The American."

6. AND HE HAD AN UNCONVENTIONAL METHOD FOR LEARNING HIS LINES.

Reiner and Goldman met Andre, then a famous wrestler, at a bar in Paris. "I brought him up to the hotel room to audition him. He read this three-page scene, and I couldn’t understand one word he said," Reiner recalls. "I go, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do? He’s perfect physically for the part, but I can’t understand him!’ So I recorded his entire part on tape, exactly how I wanted him to do it, and he studied the tape. He got pretty good!"

Read 13 other facts about The Princess Bride at Mental Floss.

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Disney's 1950 animated classic Cinderella is the focus of Screen Junkies' honest trailer treatment in this video. Beautiful waif taken advantage of by evil family members and made to be an indentured servant, or insane woman driven to talk to animals in her rodent infested dwelling? You decide.

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Jarred Smith of Sydney, Australia was freaked out to say the least when he tried to have a simple breakfast of Corn Flakes and got a Diamond Python instead. The snake was coiled up so tightly in his cereal box that a man from NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) had to tear the box to get it out. Read more on this story at the Daily Telegraph. (Warning: Aside from the F bombs in the video that are bleeped out, there are two PG words not censored, but they're nothing you wouldn't hear on network television.)

Sunday was International Women's Day, yet one company in Indonesia found itself in hot water with plenty of them that day for the sportswear label shown above. Salvo Sports Apparel got a negative response to the washing instructions on the label for a men's sportswear item, which suggested that the men hand their dirty items over to women instead of bothering themselves with silly details like laundering care instructions. 

Visit this article to see how Salvo handled the multiple responses to angry consumers. 

Artist John Lopez, an accomplished sculptor in bronzes, changed direction and media with these beautiful creations out of metaal pieces from old farming equipment. There's a great story behind Lopez starting to work with scrap metal. From his website:

"This unusual detour started about two years ago, when his beloved aunt, Effie Hunt, died in a rollover car accident. Lopez moved to his widowed Uncle Geno Hunt's ranch to build a family cemetery; his aunt would to be the first laid to rest there.

Uncle Geno opened his home and welding shop to Lopez, who completed a fence around the cemetery, then ran out of material. The ranch is 35 miles from the nearest town or post office, so he went looking through the scrap iron on site.

After some experimentation, he finished a gate into the cemetery, and then made a small angel peering over the top of the gate. The project gave him much personal satisfaction, and everyone who saw it was amazed at the result. A new career path was born in that cemetery."

Lopez working with scrap metal produced the animals shown here. He makes horses, rams, cows, buffalo, antelope, bears and dinosaurs with a "wild west" flair. See more photos of his work here. Visit his website and blog to learn more about Lopez and see additional works.

 

Scanning electron microscope view of a boll weevil
Image: Daniel Kariko/Wellcome Images

The Wellcome Trust has announced the finalists in their 2015 Wellcome Image Awards, which celebrate the best in science photography. A panel of nine judges will select from the images of the finalists. The winning entry will be anmounced at a ceremony on March 18th, 2015.

See more of the finalist photos here, and visit the Wellcome Images Website to see winners from the past year.

Cross section of a cat's tongue | Image: David Linstead/Wellcome Images

Pollen Grains, Asteraceae | Image: Maurizio De Angelis/Wellcome Images

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Amy is a 6-month-old miniature pig who is the first of her species to attend dog agility classes at this Seattle facility shown above. She's proven herself to be a fast learner, capable of performing all the necessary exercises in agility and obedience classes. After that, this rising porcine star of the dog world participates in the Seattle Kennel Club Dog Show, as seen in the video below. -Via Tastefully Offensive

This year marks 70 years since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After Germany surrendered to the allies in May of 1945, The United States, China and Great Britain demanded that the Japanese unconditionally surrender as well, or be subject to "prompt and utter destruction." Japan refused those demands.

In early August of 1945, the United States bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which remain the only times that the atomic bomb was used to fight a war. The destruction in Japan was widespread, and up to 240,000 people were killed in the first four months. Many more succumbed to illness from radiation in the following years. On August 15, Japan surrendered. 

Shown here are two photographs from a collection at Vintage Everyday that illustrates the horrors of such nuclear devastation. Be warned that a few of the photos show injured people. Such images are an important testament to the terror of war and a cautionary tale against the use of nuclear weapons.

Images: Wayne Miller/Magnum Photos
 

Rarely are food trucks so pink and cute. The Hello Kitty Cafe truck has been making appearances in California this year. Many San Franciscans are looking forward to the food truck being in their area during the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival on April 11-12 and April 18-19 in Japantown.

On the menu are cupcakes, donuts, macaroons, petit four mini cakes, a water bottle shaped like a bow, hot chocolate and lemonade. Each item sold is in the shape and/or colors of Sanrio's celebrated anthropomorphic cat. 

Check out the Cafe's Facebook page to see additional photos and learn about the locations of its upcoming stops, and follow them on Instagram. 

Via The Bold Italic | Images: Hello Kitty Cafe Facebook Page

 
 

Melissa Small, the Design Director of San Francisco-based online magazine The Bold Italic, created this humorous series of charts having to do with the delicate and crazy-making condition of pregnancy. The series, entitled Charts That Explain Why I’m Crying And Sweating, lets the experiences of pregnant women be known in a playful manner. Pregnancy can sometimes be trying for women (and for their partners), but looking at the situation in a lighthearted way helps to keep this wonderful/awful nine-month period in perspective. 

See Small's entire series of funny pregnancy charts here. 

Via Design Taxi | Images: Melissa Small

French artist Mr Garcin (previously), makes elaborate collages of characters from popular culture. The artist's latest series is another winning collection of collages made from artfully placed pieces of comic books. Shown here are works featuring Captain American, Batman and Thor. 

See the full collection of collages by Mr Garcin at his website. -Via Geek Tyrant

Jodi DiPiazza, diagnosed as autistic at age two, is a talented musician. At fourteen she is a student at the Mannes College of Music, where she studies classical and jazz piano, voice, music theory, composition, guitar and songwriting. When Jodi was only nine years of age, she wrote a song called “Heroes of Autism” for Toys R Us, which helped raise over three million dollars to support research and assistance for children with autism.

At the 2012 Night of Too Many Stars, then 11-year-old Jodi did a rendition of “Firework” in a duet with Katy Perry and got a standing ovation. In this video, Jodi returns to sing "Yoda” with Weird Al, and it's fantastic! Toward the end of the song, a group called Actionplay Chorus, made up of teens with autism, joined Jodi and Al. Don't miss it.  -Via Uproxx

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by thebluelemur
Original: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges-Pierre Seurat

Great works of art have been prized by humanity throughout history. We build fantastic architecture to house our artworks, such as the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Guggenheims of New York and Spain. Collectors spend millions every year making acquisitions. Patrons make trips all over the world to visit the museums. 

So how could one possibly improve on a Monet, Renoir or Seurat? Lend them superpowers! At Worth1000, people are artfully doing just that, and in competition with each other. See a ton of fun entries here (and at the bottom of that page there are additional links). -Via Guff


 Rembrandt vs Joker by Valgio
 Original:Self Portrait with Beret by Rembrandt van Rijn


Soaring through a Starry Night by Todd1000
Original: Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

 

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A tremendously energetic Husky mother apparently decides that it's time she taught her adorable litter of puppies to pivot, pounce and play. They catch on quickly and match her exuberance ounce per ounce. Animal lovers, brave the blur of the video — it doesn't get much cuter than this. Via The Daily Dot

Everyone makes a stupid mistake once in a while, some more frequently (and more stupidly) than others. In today's digital culture, a tasteless joke that might once have netted the teller a few disapproving glances is now often relayed over social media and broadcast far and wide. This can get people into a world of trouble. 

One unfortunate pair of jokers who got far more than the laughs they bargained for are UK-based couple Leigh van Bryan and Emily Bunting, shown in the photo above. Prior to leaving on a 2012 vacation to Los Angeles, van Bryan, an Irishman living in Britain, tweeted the following message:

"Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America? and 3 weeks today, we're totally in LA p****** people off on Hollywood Blvd and diggin' Marilyn Monroe up!"

When they landed at LAX, federal Homeland Security officials detained the couple, confiscated their passports and questioned them for five hours. In spite of them telling the feds that "destroy America" is slang for getting drunk and rowdy, and in spite of them explaining that the Marilyn Monroe reference was from the animated American television show Family Guy, the authorities remained stone faced and serious. Van Bryan and Bunting maintained that the authorities searched their luggage, telling them they were looking for spades and shovels that would enable them to dig up a body. 

Leigh was treated to a full body search before the two were handcuffed and jailed overnight in separate cells. The next morning they were put on a plane back to the UK, without so much as an adieu. 

Read about nine more situations in which people got into hot water as a result of their internet usage in this article.