http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2015/02/this-may-be-best-opening-paragraph-ever.html
"One warm spring night in 2011, a young man named Travis Hughes stood on the back deck of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house at Marshall University, in West Virginia, and was struck by what seemed to him—under the influence of powerful inebriants, not least among them the clear ether of youth itself—to be an excellent idea: he would shove a bottle rocket up his ass and blast it into the sweet night air."
And the rest of the paragraph:
"And perhaps it was an excellent idea. What was not an excellent idea, however, was to misjudge the relative tightness of a 20-year-old sphincter and the propulsive reliability of a 20-cent bottle rocket. What followed ignition was not the bright report of a successful blastoff, but the muffled thud of fire in the hole."

I think I'll stick to gin and tonic - it worked for the Brits in India during the Raj...

Especially red cars... http://metro.co.uk/2012/06/19/red-cars-more-likely-to-be-hit-by-bird-poo-than-any-other-says-survey-472966/

John, the first car I ever drove was a 1948 Packard, in 1964. My parents owned 2 cars at the time - that and a 1952 Nash Rambler. Both companies are gone now, of course, although you could argue that Nash survived since it merged with Hudson to form AMC, which was later acquired by Chrysler.

That was back in the days before government bailouts, of course, so it was survival of the corporate fittest.

John - not urinal-related, but if you've ever listened to Messiah (or any similar choral music from the Baroque era, you'll be aware of how phrases are repeated (sung) over and over. I can't think of Messiah without thinking about how the phrase "We like sheep have gone astray" is reduced to "we like sheep" and repeated for several minutes. https://youtu.be/sxc94nL5avY

They definitely don't make superheroes the way they used to. My favorite remains Zeitgeist, who had supervomit, which he used for good by vomiting all over the bad guys. His stomach acid was so potent, that it could burn through a 4 inch thick steel plate in half a minute.

http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-1960s-superhero-who-powered-up-by.html

When my kids were little I told them that I invented meatballs. They believed it for years.

John - that reminded me of the Surfing Monkey Bank: http://dangerousminds.net/comments/doped_up_hopheads_buy_15_surfing_monkeys

There's a LOT of infrastructure in the Northern Virginia suburbs. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/amazon-web-services-data-center/423147/

Not too sure about Snickers for this application - not that many liqueurs go with peanuts, really, do they? I'd stick with Milky Ways.

John, is there something you're not telling us? You certainly are spending a lot of time researching nurseries.

You might want to consider this one, as well: http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2015/01/best-baby-bed-ever-fantastically.html

John, you might find this of interest: Museums display perfect reproductions of fragile works and visitors can’t tell the difference. https://aeon.co/essays/is-there-a-place-for-fakery-in-art-galleries-and-museums

John, that infographic reminded of this article (which I haven't gotten around to blogging about yet): The case of the missing “u”s in American English http://qz.com/596395/the-case-of-the-missing-us-in-american-english/

The Narcoleptic Squirrel http://vaviper.blogspot.com/2014/09/video-narcoleptic-squirrel-song-bonus.html

Happy New Year, John, and thanks for the link. I'm hoping that they're wrong about the babies - I have two new granddaughters on the way.