Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
New York Press Conference 1964
Reporter: Where you your haircuts come from?
George Harrison: Our scalps.
In their early years as a fledgling rock and roll band in the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, The Beatles each sported typical slicked-back, greased-up Tony Curtis/Elvis Presley type D.A. haircuts. In an early explanation as to the origin of the Beatles haircut, George was quoted as saying that he came out of the swimming baths one day, his hair had fallen down over his forehead, and he just left it that way.
The true derivation of the world famous coiffure is a bit more complex. In August of 1960, the newly-0named "Beatles" consisted of five members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, bassist Stu Sutcliffe, and a newly-hired drummer named Pete Best. The band was hired to play as series of gigs in August of 1960 in Hamburg, Germany. It was there that they met two people who were to have a profound effect on their future careers as icon and trendsetters: Astrid Kirchherr and Jürgen Vollmer.
Kirchherr was a very original and creative photographer. One night she saw The Beatles play at a local club in Hamburg called the Top Ten Club (she was talked into going by her boyfriend Klaus Voorman and fellow artist and friend Jürgen Vollmer). Astrid, Klaus, and Jürgen struck up an immediate and close friendship with the five young, talented, and slightly homesick young rock and rollers. Also, Astrid and bassist Stu Sutcliffe almost immediately fell in love.
You can find puns and one-liners all day on Twitter if you follow the right people. Twaggies takes those one-liners and illustrates them in comic images. This one is from @yuckybot. See more of them at Go Comics. Link
Bird watchers and Harry Potter fans are delighted at the larger than usual number of snowy owl sightings in the lower 48 this year. Snowy Owls are native to the Arctic, but fly south every few years to let us admire them. This winter, they've been seen as far south as Hawaii!
“A lot of people who have never seen one before have rushed out and seen multiples,” said Marshall Iliff, an ornithologist at Cornell and the project’s leader. “And photographers are having a field day.”
Additional hot spots include the mouth of the Columbia River in Washington State, with 10 to 13 birds; 20 at Lake Andes National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota, and 30 in Boundary Bay, near Vancouver in British Columbia.
The owls are even showing up in urban and suburban areas, along highways, on signs and fence posts, and in other places where people can more easily spot them. It has been a good snowy owl year at Logan Airport in Boston, too. Because the airfield looks like tundra, snowy owls tend to flock there, and they must be trapped and removed.
“We’ve removed 21 so far this year, and the average is six,” said Norman Smith, who works for the Massachusetts Audubon Society and traps the birds. The most ever trapped was 43 in 1986, Mr. Smith said, “but the year’s not over.”
Experts say that the birds don't seem to be particularly hungry or stressed, so that doesn't explain the move south. The owls are expected to return north as the seasons change. Link -via Holy Kaw!
Vatican City may have fewer than 1,000 citizens and span only 110 acres, but it also has a multimillion-dollar budget and an unbelievably complex history. Understanding how it all works requires parsing through centuries of religious texts. Is the Vatican confusing and mysterious? Is the Pope Catholic? Here’s a look behind the scenes.
1. Regular Exorcise!
Baudelaire once said that “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” But in modern-day Vatican City, the devil is considered alive and well. The former Pope John Paul II personally performed three exorcisms during his reign, and the current Pope Benedict XVI is expanding the ranks of Catholic-sponsored exorcists throughout the world. In fact, Father Gabriele Amorth, the Church’s chief exorcist, claims to expel more than 300 demons a year from the confines of his Vatican office, and there are more than 350 exorcists operating on behalf of the Catholic Church in Italy alone. Amorth also teaches bishops how to tell the difference between satanic possession and psychiatric illness, noting that those who suffer from the former seem to be particularly repulsed by the sight of holy water and the cross.
2. Where Thieves Go to Prey
With 1.5 crimes per citizen, Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world. It’s not that the cardinals are donning masks and repeatedly robbing the bank, it’s just that the massive crowds of tourists make Vatican City a pickpocket’s paradise. The situation is complicated by the fact that the Vatican has no working prison and only one judge. So most criminals are simply marched across the border into Italy, as part of a pact between the two countries. (The Vatican’s legal code is based on Italy’s, with some modifications regarding abortion and divorce.) Crimes that the Vatican sees fit to try itself—mainly shoplifting in its duty-free stores—are usually punished by temporarily revoking the troublemaker’s access to those areas. But not every crime involves theft. In 2007, the Vatican issued its first drug conviction after an employee was found with a few ounces of cocaine in his desk.
3. The Worst Confessions
Some sins are simply too much for a local bishop to forgive. While priests can absolve a sin as serious as murder (according to the Church), there are five specific sins that require absolution from the Apostolic Penitentiary. This secretive tribunal has met off and on for the past 830 years, but in January of 2009, for the first time ever, its members held a press conference to discuss their work.
Three of the five sins they contemplate can only be committed by the clergy. If you’re a priest who breaks the seal of confession, a priest who offers confession to his own sexual partners, or a man who has directly participated in an abortion and wants to become a priest, then your case must go before the tribunal to receive absolution. The other two sins can be committed by anyone. The first, desecrating the Eucharist, is particularly bad because Catholics believe that the bread and wine transubstantiate into the body and blood of Christ. Messing with them is like messing with Jesus. And then, there’s the sin of attempting to assassinate the Pope. That one’s pretty self-explanatory.
The meetings of the Apostolic Penitentiary are kept confidential because they’re a different form of confession. The sinner is referred to by a pseudonym, and only the Major Penitentiary, Cardinal James Francis Stafford, decides how the sin shall be dealt with. Presumably, a bunch of Hail Marys doesn’t cut it.
The Islington Council made a sign warning people not to attach anything to park furniture or trees -and then attached it to a tree at Highbury Fields in north London, England. A neighboring architect, who was annoyed at the many signs posted recently, went to remove the sign and was surprised to see who had posted it on the tree. Soon, others gathered around to laugh at the nonsensical notice. The council soon relocated the notice to a nearby message board. They blamed the mistake on a junior member with good intentions. Link
Last Wednesday will go down in history as the day the internet stood up for itself. More than 115,000 websites went on strike to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills that would endanger the internet as we know it. Many more websites urged action to stop the bills. The result was ten million petition signatures and countless emails to congress, which crashed congressional websites. A whole bunch of Senators and Representatives decided to oppose the bills, including some of the original sponsors! Both bills have been shelved, meaning they won't be voting on them as scheduled (but each may come back later). And this all happened because people who use the internet made it happen, so THANK YOU, everyone! If you haven't contacted your representatives in Washington yet, you can still do so.
On Wednesday the 18th, Alex wrote up what the SOPA and PIPA bills were about, and urged Neatoramanauts to take action in SOPA and PIPA: The Internet Needs Your Help!
January the 18th was also an anniversary date that led to two feature articles. Curly Howard of the Three Stooges passed away 60 years ago Wednesday, which inspired Eddie Deezen to tell the story of Whatever Happened to Curly?
Dancing for Dollars from Uncle John's Bathroom Reader was about the 20th-century dance marathon fad.
The Annals of Improbable Research asked the question How Dead Is a Doornail? Commenters clued us in on details about doornails that scientists don't know!
The most commented-on post this week turned out to be full of name-calling and abusive comments that will be deleted. Remember, comments that attack another commenter are against the rules at Neatorama. Then there's the post Should Wearing Pajamas In Public Be Banned? that had a lot of opinionated but mostly civil discussion. That's more of what we like to see. Tell us what you think, but please, no personal attacks on other commenters!
In this week's What Is It? game, the object in question is a wolf collar for protecting a dog from attack by wolves, used mostly in Europe. Rastercat was the first with the right answer, but did not select a shirt. Cricket had the funniest answer: it’s the Dugger family’s marshmallow roaster! That one deserves a t-shirt from the NeatoShop. You’ll find the answers for all of this week’s mystery items at the What Is It? blog.
Have you stopped to realize that Valentines Day is only about three weeks away? The NeatoShop has a great selection of thoughtful Valentine gifts that you won't find just anywhere. And when you buy anything from the NeatoShop, you helping to keep Neatorama going!
When you've caught up on everything else, be sure to check our Facebook page and our Google+ page every day for extra content, contests, discussions, videos, and links you won't find on our main page. Also, our Twitter feed will keep you updated on what's going around the web in real time. And remember, we always welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions for making Neatorama ever better.
Dance marathons started out as innocent fun but wound up as grim as the Depression that ended them.
Post-World War I America was in a mood to break all records: popular events included endurance kissing and hand-holding contests, eating marathons, and flagpole sitting. A guy named Shipwreck Kelly became national celebrity after sitting atop a flagpole for 7 days, 13 hours, and 13 minutes. When someone challenged Bill Williams to push a peanut up Pike's Peak with his nose, he agreed. It took him 30 days, and he won $500 (415 euros) for the feat. It all had to do with the mood of the day. But nothing caught the public's fancy as much as dance marathons.
A CRAZE IS BORN
The birth of U.S. dance marathons can be traced to early 1923 when, inspired by a record set in Britain a few weeks earlier, Miss Alma Cummings took to the floor of the first American dance marathon, which was held in New York City's somewhat seedy Audobon Ballroom. Cummings wore out six males partners over the next 27 hours and won a world record. Within a week, a French college student broke that record. A few days later, Cummings retook the title, which was soon broken again, this time by a Cleveland, Ohio, salesgirl. The challenge was on.
A few weeks after Cummings' win, a Texas dance hall owner got the brilliant idea of charging spectators admission (25¢ during the day, $1 at night). He gave his first winner -Miss Magdalene Williams- a prize of $50 (42 euros). On April 16, Cleveland's Madeline Gottschick beat William's record with a time of 66 hours. Within days, that record was broken three times. On June 10, Bernie Brand danced for 217 hours (more than 9 days) and went home with $5,000 (4,151 euros) in prizes. In just a few months in 1923, the dance marathon had swept the nation and the world. And so it continued throughout the 1920s.
THE DOWNBEAT
The deaths of a few supposedly healthy young people -including 27-year-old Homer Morehouse from heart failure after 87 hours of dancing- brought some unwelcome attention. Officials banded together with church groups (who saw the marathons as immoral) and movie theater owners (who saw the marathons as competition) to try to stomp out the fad. Critics called the contestants "dangerous, useless, and disgraceful," and they even likened them to the dancing manias of 14th-century Europe.
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the first gunshots of the Civil War -and the first gunshot wounds. As it turns out, the bloodiest war in American history was also one of the most influential in battlefield medicine. Civil War surgeons learned fast, and many of their MacGyver-like solutions have had lasting impact. Here are some of the advances and the people behind them.
Life Saving Amputation: The General who Visited his Leg
The old battlefield technique of trying to save limbs with doses of TLC (aided by wound-cleaning rats and maggots) quickly fell out of favor During the Civil War, even for top officers. The sheer number of injured was too high, and war surgeons quickly discovered the best way to stave deadly infections was to simply lop off the area -quickly.
Among those saved by the saw was Daniel E. Sickles, the eccentric commander of the 3rd Army Corps. In 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, the major general's right leg was shattered by a Confederate shell. Within the hour, the leg was amputated just above the knee. His procedure, publicized in the military press, paved the way for many more. Since the new Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C. had requested battlefield donations, Sickles sent the limb to them in a box labeled "With the compliments of Major General D.E.S." Sickles visited his leg yearly on the anniversary of its emancipation.
[caption id="attachment_59043" align="aligncenter" width="408" caption="Daniel Sickles' leg on display at the the National Museum of Health and Medicine."][/caption]
Amputation saved more lives than any other wartime medical procedure by instantly turning complex injuries into simple ones. Battlefield surgeons eventually took no longer than six minutes to get each moaning man on the table, apply a handkerchief soaked in chloroform or ether, and make the deep cut. Union surgeons became the most skilled limb hackers in history. Even in deplorable conditions, they lost only about 25 percent of their patients -compared to a 75 percent mortality rate among similarly injured civilians at the time. The techniques invented by wartime surgeons -including cutting as far from the heart as possible and never slicing through joints- became the standard.
As for the nutty-sounding behavior of the leg-visiting commander, Sickles can be justifiably accused. In 1859, while serving in Congress, he shot and killed U.S. Attorney Philip Barton Key for sleeping with Sickles' wife. Charged with murder, Sickles became the first person in the United States to be found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity.
The Anesthesia Inhaler: A Knockout Breakthrough
In 1863, Stonewall Jackson's surgeon recommended the removal of his left arm, which had been badly damaged by friendly fire. When a chloroform-soaked cloth was placed over his nose, the Confederate general, in great pain, muttered, "What an infinite blessing," before going limp.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
In 1932, Jerome Howard, soon to be universally known as "Curly" joined The Three Stooges comedy team. Curly was replacing his older brother Shemp as the third stooge, joining his older brother Moe and frizzy-haired Larry Fine. In 1934, the team signed with Columbia Pictures and began churning out the series of comedy slapstick shorts that were to bring hilarity to the entire world. His "Woo-woos" and "Nyuk-nyuks," as well as his incredible gift for physical, inventive, surreal comedy, make Curly Howard "everyone's favorite Stooge."
From 1934 to 1944, Curly Howard and his comedy partners made 80-odd of the funniest shorts in the history of movie comedy. But by 1945, something appeared obviously wrong with the brilliant Curly. He was having a harder time than usual learning and remembering his lines (Curly was always a bad study, anyway). His once graceful, quick movements now seemed slower, more lethargic, and his voice had lost its high-pitched vitality, now sounding deeper and more like a strained croak. In early 1945, Moe Howard made an appointment for his kid brother at the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. The hospital test results proved shocking: Curly was suffering from high blood pressure, hypertension, a retinal hemorrhage, and obesity.
Curly loved the good life, drinking, hanging out at clubs, seeing and dating as many beautiful women as possible. Moe, trying to help his beloved brother settle down, tried to fix Curly up with a glamorous beauty named Marion Buxbaum. Always a sucker for a pretty face, Curly married Marion after only two weeks. Curly was soon to discover that Marion was not a very nice person and was only after his money. The marriage proved a disaster, and the unhappy couple divorced after only three months together. In the divorce proceedings, Marion said of Curly: "He used filthy vile language, kept two vicious dogs, he shouted at waiters in cafes, struck and kicked me, put out cigars in the sink."
These specious accusations were disputed by all who knew Curly as a jovial, good- natured, good-hearted fellow. Curly, always a free spender, had spent a fortune buying gifts for Marion and the divorce really shook him up. He had his first stroke soon thereafter, in early 1946.
Curly's great vigor and boyish vitality, his comedy trademarks, sank lower and lower. Instead of resting after his stroke, as Moe requested, studio head Harry Cohn kept Curly churning out new Three Stooges shorts. Sadly, this final handful of Curly shorts show him looking very old and worn, his previous starring roles are greatly reduced, and indeed, they do put a bit of a black mark on his otherwise classic body of amazing comedy performances.
Curly's appearance became worse and worse until finally, while filming his 97th Three Stooges short Half Wits Holiday, on May 6, 1946, the straw finally broke the camel's back. Curly was supposed to participate in the film's final, climactic pie fight, and Moe spotted Curly sitting in his chair on the set. "Come on, Babe,' he said ("Babe" was Curly's nickname among his close friends). Moe found Curly slumped over in his chair with tears running down his face: Curly had suffered another stroke.
Hey there, panda bear! How cool it is to stay warm with the Panda Knit Mask over your head -on the ski slopes or on the way to school. This 100% acrylic, machine washable ski mask is available at the NeatoShop. Roll it up like a hat, or roll it down and see out the holes to keep your face warm. To keep your whole family warm (and still tell them apart), check out the entire selection of knit ski masks from the NeatoShop.
Nerdy reputation or not, coin collecting (otherwise known as numismatics) has been a hobby since the days of ancient Rome. If you’re not a member of the enthusiast crowd, though, knowing a thing or two about the following faves just might be enough to help you rub elbows with true aficionados.
1. The Stupidest Coin the Government Ever Made: The Racketeer Nickel
In 1883, the United States issued a newly designed five-cent piece called the “V nickel.” The coin got its name because the value was indicated on the back simply with the Roman numeral ‘V,’ sans the word “cents.” After all, it was obvious it was a nickel, right? Apparently not. Turns out, the V nickel was the same size as a U.S. $5 gold piece, and both coins featured a bust of Lady Liberty on the front.
It wasn’t long before light bulbs started going off over the heads of con men all across America. Within weeks of the V’s debut, crooks were gold-plating the nickels and palming them off as $5 gold pieces. Meanwhile, government officials scoffed at the notion that anyone would fall for such an obvious hoax. Unfortunately, they were wrong again. Despite the gold-plated nickels not looking like $5 coins and not being nearly as heavy, most people didn’t notice, because the gold coins were rarely used in everyday purchases.
By April 1883, “gilded nickels” were both a national joke and a growing concern for commerce and law enforcement. The U.S. Secret Service made arrests in 10 states related to the scam. In one raid, they seized a “half bushel” of coins waiting to be plated. But all good things come to an end, and con artists had a hard time getting enough new nickels to keep the racket going. Finally, embarrassed officials put an end to the scam by halting production of the nickels until new dies were prepared. This time, the redesigned backs read “V cents.” Today, the V nickel remains a favorite among coin collectors.
2. The Coin You Carry in Bundles: The Kissi Penny
Money hasn’t always been strictly confined to coins and bills. In Biblical times, for example, people used sheep and cattle as currency. Of course, because deceased livestock don’t paste that well into scrapbooks, numismatists have to draw the line somewhere. And that’s where the phrase “odd and curious money” comes in. It’s a numismatist category used to classify various pre-cash societies in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Why do nerds so often wear glasses? This is an interesting question, and obviously it has a significance in my own life and career.
The word "nerd" was actually coined by my favorite fiction writer, the great Dr. Seuss. In 1950, in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo, Seuss drew a non-human creature called a 'nerd" from the land of Ka-roo. This is the first instance of the word "nerd" in print. Some theorists believe the word started at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the 1940s. The students who liked to party there were called "drunks" and the quieter, less-inclined-to-party types were labeled "knurds." See, "drunk" spelled backwards is "knurd," the precursor to the modern "nerd."
In 1957, in Glasgow, Scotland, "nerd" was first defined as "square."
Motion pictures, the most powerful medium of communication in human history (before television) had, of course, a huge impact on the lives of almost everyone on earth. The "nerd" in movie history has not, to my knowledge, ever been fully written. As far as I can determine, the first nerd in movie history was the popular silent comedian Harold Lloyd. Lloyd played a weak, underdog type of comedic character, one bullied by men and ignored by women. But in the end, he would triumph and inevitably get the girl of his dreams. The Lloyd character wore trademark glasses. In fact, Lloyd always referred to his character as the "glasses" or "glass" character, much as Charlie Chaplin was "the Tramp."
After Lloyd, the nerd character was on the shelf for many years in movies -with sporadic exceptions. Ironically, Cary Grant, perhaps the most dapper actor in movie history, donned glasses and played a nerd character in 1938's classic comedy Bringing Up Baby.
In the 1950s and '60s, the great Jerry Lewis often played a nerd-type character in his wonderful comedies. Once in a while, Jerry would wear glasses in his films, notably The Nutty Professor and The Ladies Man. One of his early films with Dean Martin (That's My Boy) Jerry played a classic glasses-wearing nerd. Jerry as "Junior Jackson" is a shy, clumsy nerd who is trained to be a football player by the handsome, popular Dean Martin. Lewis almost always played a semi-nerd, but it was always a bit of a very cool nerd with Jerry Lewis. While Jerry was always a dumb klutz in his films, he always danced gracefully and also, Jerry was a relatively good-looking fellow, unlike most nerds (or comedians) in comedies. And of course, Jerry did not usually wear glasses. But the movies next classic nerd did.
Mr. Potatohead comes in a Wizard of Oz flavor! This Mr. Potatohead Wizard of Oz set comes with four 5" tall Mr. Potatohead figures dressed as Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. And they're available now from the NeatoShop! If you're a real Wizard of Oz fan, you'll want to check out the other Wizard of Oz products, and Mr. Potatohead fans will want to see other Mr. Potatohead figures. We've got what you want at the NeatoShop!
Following the 1980s Film Alphabet, artist Stephen Wildish has created a new alphabet poster for the movies of the 1960s. I've only studied this a few minutes, so there are a couple I haven't deciphered yet. It's not that I don't recall the movies, it's more that I just can't remember the titles. Link -via Laughing Squid
