You don't have to do any artwork yourself with this zombie generator -just upload your picture and it will turn you into a zombie! Well, at least your picture. This one is me, zombified. Link -via the Presurfer
Miss Cellania's Liked Blog Posts
The perfect Halloween entree, composed of meatloaf, noodles, and olive eyes. Complete directions with meatloaf recipe can be found at Gather and Nest. http://gatherandnest.com/gather-and-nest/2848 -via TYWKIWDBI
The following is an article from Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader.
Here's a bit of American history we're all familiar with... but know almost nothing about. The BRI wants to change that, because we don't want witch trials -or with hunts- in our era. After all, someone just might decide that reading in the bathroom is a sign of demonic possession.
CHILD'S PLAY
In March 1692, nine-year-old Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams, 12, were experimenting with a fortune-telling trick they'd learned from Tituba, the Parris family's West Indian slave. To find out what kind of men they'd marry when they grew up, they put an egg white in a glass... and then studied the shape it made in the glass.
But instead of glimpsing their future husbands, the girls saw an image that appeared to be "in the likeness of a coffin." The apparition shocked them... and over the next few days they exhibited behavior that witnesses described as "foolish, ridiculous speeches," "odd postures," "distempers," and "fits."
Reverend Samuel Parris was startled by his daughter's condition and took her to see William Griggs, the family doctor. Griggs couldn't find out what was wrong with the girl, but he suspected the problem had supernatural origins. He told Rev Parris that he thought the girl had fallen victim to "the Evil Hand" -witchcraft.
The family tried to keep Betty's condition a secret, but rumors began spreading almost immediately -and within two months at least eight other girls began exhibiting similar forms of bizarre behavior.
THE PARANOIA GROWS
The citizens of Salem Village demanded that the authorities take action. The local officials subjected the young girls to intense questioning, and soon the girls began naming names. The first three women they accused of witchcraft were Tituba and two other women from Salem Village, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.
The three women were arrested and held for questioning. A few weeks later two more suspects, Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse, were arrested on similar charges. And at the end of April a sixth person -the Reverend George Burroughs, a minister that Abigail Williams identified as the leader of the witches- was arrested and imprisoned. The girls continued to name names. By the middle of May, more than 100 people had been arrested for witchcraft.
THE TRIALS
On May 14, 1692, the newly appointed governor, Sir William Phips, arrived from England. He immediately set up a special court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, to hear the witchcraft trials that were clogging the colonial legal system.
* The first case heard was that against Bridget Bishop. She was quickly found guilty of witchcraft, sentenced to death, and hung on June 10.
* On June 19 the court met a second time, and in a single day heard the cases of five accused women, found them all guilty, and sentenced them to death. They were hung on July 19.
* On August 5 the court heard six more cases, and sentenced all six women to death. One woman, Elizabeth Proctor, was spared because she was pregnant- and the authorities did not want to kill an innocent life along with a guilty one. The remaining five women were executed on August 19.
* Six more people were sentenced to death in early September. (Only four were executed: one person was reprieved, and another woman managed to escape from prison with the help of friends.) The remaining sentences were carried out on September 22.
*Two days later, the trials claimed their last victim when Giles Cory, an accused wizard, was executed by "pressing" (he was slowly crushed to death under heavy weights) after he refused to enter a plea.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
By now the hysteria surrounding the witch trials was at its peak: 19 accused "witches" had been hung, about 50 had "confessed" in exchange for lenient treatment, more than 100 people accused of witchcraft were under arrest and awaiting trial -and another 200 people had been accused of witchcraft but had not yet been arrested. Despite all this, the afflicted girls were still exhibiting bizarre behavior. But public opinion began to turn against the trials. Community leaders began to publicly question the methods that the courts used to convict suspected witches. The accused were denied access to defense counsel, and were tried in chains before jurors who had been chosen from church membership lists.
The integrity of the girls then came into question. Some of the adults even charged that they were faking their illnesses and accusing innocent people for the fun of it. One colonist even testified later that one of the bewitched girls had bragged to him that "she did it for sport."
As the number of accused persons grew into the hundreds, fears of falling victim to witchcraft were replaced by an even greater fear: that of being falsely accused of witchcraft. The growing opposition to the proceedings came from all segments of society: common people, ministers -even from the court itself.
THE AFTERMATH
Once the tide had turned against the Salem witchcraft trials, many of the participants themselves began having second thoughts. Many of the jurors admitted their errors, witnesses recanted their testimony, and one judge on the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Samuel Sewall, publicly admitted his error on the steps of the Old South Church in 1697. The Massachusetts legislature made amends as well: in 1711 it reversed all of the convictions issued by the Court of Oyer and Terminer (and did it a second time in 1957), and it made financial restitution to the relatives of the executed, "the whole amount unto five hundred seventy eight pounds and twelve shillings."
This special edition book covers the three "lost" Bathroom Readers - Uncle John's 5th, 6th and 7th book all in one. The huge (and hugely entertaining) volume covers neat stories like the Strange Fate of the Dodo Bird, the Secrets of Mona Lisa, and more ...
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute
Here's a bit of American history we're all familiar with... but know almost nothing about. The BRI wants to change that, because we don't want witch trials -or with hunts- in our era. After all, someone just might decide that reading in the bathroom is a sign of demonic possession.
(Image credit: Flickr user Lexie Rydberg)
BACKGROUND The trouble at Salem, Massachusetts, began with two young girls acting oddly. It explodes into one of the strangest cases of mass hysteria in American history. In the six-month period between March and September 1692, 27 people were convicted on witchcraft changes; 20 were executed, and more than 100 people were in prison awaiting trial.CHILD'S PLAY
In March 1692, nine-year-old Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams, 12, were experimenting with a fortune-telling trick they'd learned from Tituba, the Parris family's West Indian slave. To find out what kind of men they'd marry when they grew up, they put an egg white in a glass... and then studied the shape it made in the glass.
But instead of glimpsing their future husbands, the girls saw an image that appeared to be "in the likeness of a coffin." The apparition shocked them... and over the next few days they exhibited behavior that witnesses described as "foolish, ridiculous speeches," "odd postures," "distempers," and "fits."
Reverend Samuel Parris was startled by his daughter's condition and took her to see William Griggs, the family doctor. Griggs couldn't find out what was wrong with the girl, but he suspected the problem had supernatural origins. He told Rev Parris that he thought the girl had fallen victim to "the Evil Hand" -witchcraft.
The family tried to keep Betty's condition a secret, but rumors began spreading almost immediately -and within two months at least eight other girls began exhibiting similar forms of bizarre behavior.
THE PARANOIA GROWS
The citizens of Salem Village demanded that the authorities take action. The local officials subjected the young girls to intense questioning, and soon the girls began naming names. The first three women they accused of witchcraft were Tituba and two other women from Salem Village, Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne.
The three women were arrested and held for questioning. A few weeks later two more suspects, Martha Cory and Rebecca Nurse, were arrested on similar charges. And at the end of April a sixth person -the Reverend George Burroughs, a minister that Abigail Williams identified as the leader of the witches- was arrested and imprisoned. The girls continued to name names. By the middle of May, more than 100 people had been arrested for witchcraft.
THE TRIALS
On May 14, 1692, the newly appointed governor, Sir William Phips, arrived from England. He immediately set up a special court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, to hear the witchcraft trials that were clogging the colonial legal system.
* The first case heard was that against Bridget Bishop. She was quickly found guilty of witchcraft, sentenced to death, and hung on June 10.
* On June 19 the court met a second time, and in a single day heard the cases of five accused women, found them all guilty, and sentenced them to death. They were hung on July 19.
* On August 5 the court heard six more cases, and sentenced all six women to death. One woman, Elizabeth Proctor, was spared because she was pregnant- and the authorities did not want to kill an innocent life along with a guilty one. The remaining five women were executed on August 19.
* Six more people were sentenced to death in early September. (Only four were executed: one person was reprieved, and another woman managed to escape from prison with the help of friends.) The remaining sentences were carried out on September 22.
*Two days later, the trials claimed their last victim when Giles Cory, an accused wizard, was executed by "pressing" (he was slowly crushed to death under heavy weights) after he refused to enter a plea.
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
By now the hysteria surrounding the witch trials was at its peak: 19 accused "witches" had been hung, about 50 had "confessed" in exchange for lenient treatment, more than 100 people accused of witchcraft were under arrest and awaiting trial -and another 200 people had been accused of witchcraft but had not yet been arrested. Despite all this, the afflicted girls were still exhibiting bizarre behavior. But public opinion began to turn against the trials. Community leaders began to publicly question the methods that the courts used to convict suspected witches. The accused were denied access to defense counsel, and were tried in chains before jurors who had been chosen from church membership lists.
The integrity of the girls then came into question. Some of the adults even charged that they were faking their illnesses and accusing innocent people for the fun of it. One colonist even testified later that one of the bewitched girls had bragged to him that "she did it for sport."
As the number of accused persons grew into the hundreds, fears of falling victim to witchcraft were replaced by an even greater fear: that of being falsely accused of witchcraft. The growing opposition to the proceedings came from all segments of society: common people, ministers -even from the court itself.
THE AFTERMATH
Once the tide had turned against the Salem witchcraft trials, many of the participants themselves began having second thoughts. Many of the jurors admitted their errors, witnesses recanted their testimony, and one judge on the Court of Oyer and Terminer, Samuel Sewall, publicly admitted his error on the steps of the Old South Church in 1697. The Massachusetts legislature made amends as well: in 1711 it reversed all of the convictions issued by the Court of Oyer and Terminer (and did it a second time in 1957), and it made financial restitution to the relatives of the executed, "the whole amount unto five hundred seventy eight pounds and twelve shillings."
_________________________
The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Legendary Lost Bathroom Reader.
This special edition book covers the three "lost" Bathroom Readers - Uncle John's 5th, 6th and 7th book all in one. The huge (and hugely entertaining) volume covers neat stories like the Strange Fate of the Dodo Bird, the Secrets of Mona Lisa, and more ...
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom Reader Institute
Mechanical typewriters go back almost 200 years, or even longer depending on how you define "typewriter". In the early days, the design was not standardized, and many configurations were tried out. Letters were chosen on a slider in one style, on a disc in another. Another configuration was the Malling-Hansen Writing Ball (featured previously). Eventually, manufacturers settled on the QWERTY keyboard layout that we still use today, even though typewriters are rarely used anymore. See a variety of these early machines at Dark Roasted Blend. Link
(Image source: The Typewriter Museum)
Theodore Gray (featured previously at Neatorama) teaches us how stunt men can go around in flames. By setting himself on fire. On video.
There are a few perks to my job as a mad scientist, and one of them, as I recently learned, is being able to tell my colleagues that I can’t attend their terribly important meeting because I’m going to set my hand on fire. In the movies, people on fire stumble out of burning buildings all the time. If you look closely, however, you’ll notice that they are almost always fully dressed, and that they tend to keep moving. These are two important factors that make the stunt much easier.
Warning: do not try this at home. http://www.popsci.com/node/49107/?cmpid=enews102110 -via the Presurfer
In 1692, Salem, Massachusetts became the setting for a series of trials in which 19 people were hanged for the crime of witchcraft. Another was pressed under heavy stones until he died, and at least four others died in prison. Over 300 years later, Salem is a very different place. Although some of the very same buildings survive, the residents of the 17th century would not recognize the town it has become.
1. Beginning in the 1970s, Salem began to actively embrace its past as a draw for tourism. The TV series Bewitched recorded six episodes in the town in 1970. As tourists came, more businesses sprung up to accommodate their interest in witches and witchcraft. Practitioners of Wicca and Neo-Paganism moved to Salem, at first to open businesses and later to be among those who shared the same beliefs and lifestyle. A rift grew between the townspeople who wanted to emphasize the town's historic sites and those who wanted to make money by giving tourists what they want. The controversy came to a head in 2005 when TV Land erected a statue of Samantha Stevens, the lead character of Bewitched, in the town center.
2. Salem has historic sites that have nothing to do with the witch trials. The House of the Seven Gables, also known as the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, is an actual house built in 1668 that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write his book The House of the Seven Gables. Salem was an important port in the trade with East India, and shipping merchants built lavish mansions in town. One, the Gardner Pingree House, is now owned by the Peabody Essex Museum. Both buildings are among many in Salem that are open for tours.
3. Salem is home to several Wiccan and/or Pagan organizations, like the W.E.B., the Witches Education Bureau; P.R.A.N.C.E., The Pagan Resource and Network Council of Educators; the Witches' League for Public Awareness; and The Witches' Voice.
4. Salem has three museums in which you can learn the history of witchcraft and the famous trials: The Salem Witch Museum, the Witch Dungeon Museum, and the Witch History Museum. These are in addition to several general history and art museums.
5. Salem takes advantage of its reputation with a dizzying schedule of Halloween events. You can watch a recreation of the events that led to the witch trials performed downtown, enjoy the festival of the dead, or listen to scary stories told at various locations everyday through the weeks leading up to Halloween. Every day in October is jammed with witchy events.
The following is an article from Uncle John’s All-Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader.
It was a dark and stormy night... no, it really was. And that was the perfect setting for telling one of the scariest stories of all time. Here's how it happened.
CABIN FEVER
It all started in the summer of 1816. Percy Bysshe Shelley, the famed English poet, was vacationing along the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland with his 18-year-old future wife Mary Wollstonecraft. In adjoining villas were their friends, the poet Lord Byron, and Lord Byron's personal physician Dr. John Polidori. "It was a wet, ungenial summer," Mary Shelley later wrote, and then the rain "confined us for days."
The group passed some of their time reading German horror stories. Then inspired by the tales, Lord Byron announced to the group, "We will each write a ghost story." And with that challenge, two of the most enduring monsters in English literature came into being.
DYNAMIC DUO
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote a tale about a mad scientist who assembles a monster out of body parts stolen from cadavers and then brings the monster to life. Polidori, she recounted later, "had some terrible idea about a skull-headed lady, who was punished for peeping through a keyhole." Percy Shelley came up with a story "founded on the experiences of his early life" ...and Lord Byron created a story about a vampire.
Wollstonecraft spent the rest of the summer turning her story into a novel-Frankenstein. Lord Byron never did complete his story, but Dr. Polidori was so intrigued by the vampire idea that he scrapped the skull-headed lady and, borrowing from Byron, later wrote The Vampyre, the first vampire novel of any substance to appear in English literature. The Vampyre was published in the 1819 edition of New Monthly Magazine, and earned Polidori £30.
REVENGE!
The Vampyre might have been just another simple retelling of the traditional vampire legends of Eastern Europe, were it not for the fact that Polidori and Lord Byron had once been lovers. Cooped up in the villa in Geneva that summer, they were driving each other crazy. Polidori was jealous of Byron's increasingly close friendship with Percy Shelley, and, perhaps because of this, he decided to make the vampire character a parody of Lord Byron.
The vampires of Eastern European lore were not that different from today's conception of werewolves: They were scary, uncivilized creatures, more animal than human. But Polidori's character was different. His vampire was a nobleman, and an immoral, sinister antihero named Lord Ruthven-not unlike Lord Byron, whose numerous sexual liaisons were the scandal of English society.
The name Ruthven was another dig at Byron. Polidori took the name from Ruthven Glenarvon, the main character of Glenarvon, a popular novel, written by Lady Caroline Lamb, another of Byron's former lovers. Lamb, too, had intended her character to be a satirical slap at Byron.
Continue reading
It was a dark and stormy night... no, it really was. And that was the perfect setting for telling one of the scariest stories of all time. Here's how it happened.
CABIN FEVER
It all started in the summer of 1816. Percy Bysshe Shelley, the famed English poet, was vacationing along the shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland with his 18-year-old future wife Mary Wollstonecraft. In adjoining villas were their friends, the poet Lord Byron, and Lord Byron's personal physician Dr. John Polidori. "It was a wet, ungenial summer," Mary Shelley later wrote, and then the rain "confined us for days."
The group passed some of their time reading German horror stories. Then inspired by the tales, Lord Byron announced to the group, "We will each write a ghost story." And with that challenge, two of the most enduring monsters in English literature came into being.
DYNAMIC DUO
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote a tale about a mad scientist who assembles a monster out of body parts stolen from cadavers and then brings the monster to life. Polidori, she recounted later, "had some terrible idea about a skull-headed lady, who was punished for peeping through a keyhole." Percy Shelley came up with a story "founded on the experiences of his early life" ...and Lord Byron created a story about a vampire.
Wollstonecraft spent the rest of the summer turning her story into a novel-Frankenstein. Lord Byron never did complete his story, but Dr. Polidori was so intrigued by the vampire idea that he scrapped the skull-headed lady and, borrowing from Byron, later wrote The Vampyre, the first vampire novel of any substance to appear in English literature. The Vampyre was published in the 1819 edition of New Monthly Magazine, and earned Polidori £30.
REVENGE!
The Vampyre might have been just another simple retelling of the traditional vampire legends of Eastern Europe, were it not for the fact that Polidori and Lord Byron had once been lovers. Cooped up in the villa in Geneva that summer, they were driving each other crazy. Polidori was jealous of Byron's increasingly close friendship with Percy Shelley, and, perhaps because of this, he decided to make the vampire character a parody of Lord Byron.
The vampires of Eastern European lore were not that different from today's conception of werewolves: They were scary, uncivilized creatures, more animal than human. But Polidori's character was different. His vampire was a nobleman, and an immoral, sinister antihero named Lord Ruthven-not unlike Lord Byron, whose numerous sexual liaisons were the scandal of English society.
The name Ruthven was another dig at Byron. Polidori took the name from Ruthven Glenarvon, the main character of Glenarvon, a popular novel, written by Lady Caroline Lamb, another of Byron's former lovers. Lamb, too, had intended her character to be a satirical slap at Byron.
It's a classic but tragic mistake. Irmgard Holm of Phoenix, Arizona has several eye drop medications because of cataract surgery, but what she grabbed was a bottle of superglue.
Her case is not as rare as one would hope.
Link -via Breakfast Links
"The bottles are identical and I am not young anymore, but I am not senile," says Holm.
She tried washing the adhesive out, but the quick-drying glue did its job and sealed her eye shut. Paramedics and hospital staff had to get it open and wash out her eye before major damage was done.
"They had to cut off the glue substance and it was all hard and in the eye, and I couldn't even see."
Her case is not as rare as one would hope.
The Food and Drug Administration will interview Holm later this week, and she hopes her case and the others will put pressure on glue makers to change their bottles' shape and size.
Link -via Breakfast Links
The Nobel Prize committee has announced the 2010 Nobel Prize laureates for Physics. The honor will be shared by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov "for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene". However, this is not the first physics prize for Andre Geim.
You can see a video of the levitating frog at Improbable Research. Link
Congratulations to Andre Geim, new Nobel Prize winner in physics. He becomes the first to win, as an individual, both a Nobel Prize (this year, together with Konstantin Novoselov, for experiments with the substance graphene) and an Ig Nobel Prize (in the year 2000, shared with Sir Michael Berry, for using magnets to levitate a frog).
You can see a video of the levitating frog at Improbable Research. Link
On September 30th, 1960, Americans sat down to watch the premiere of a prime-time animated series called The Flintstones. Fifty years later, Fred and his gang are remembered as our favorite cavemen. The Hanna-Barbera production ran for six seasons and is still a part of our pop culture landscape.
1. Today's Google doodle honors The Flintstones anniversary. After today, you'll find it in their archives.
2. The characters of The Flintstones were greatly influenced by the 1954-56 hit TV series The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason and Art Carney as working class neighbors. Blowhard Fred Flintstone was very like Gleason's character Ralph Kramden, goofy sidekick Barney Rubble resembled Carney's character Ed Norton, and their wives Wilma and Betty had the practical personalities of the wives in The Honeymooners. Jackie Gleason considered suing Hanna-Barbera, but did not want to go down in history as "the guy who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air".
3. The show's gimmick, besides being a rare prime-time cartoon, was that the Flintstone family had everyday modern situations set in prehistoric times. There was no electricity, no internal-combustion engines, and no shoes, but the characters still had modern conveniences like dishwashers and phonographs. All these appliances were powered by captive animals (including dinosaurs). The heavy equipment Fred and Barney worked with was powered by pulleys, and their cars were powered by "the courtesy of Fred's two feet."
4. Most of the series' comedy came from puns about rocks. The Flintstones lived in the town of Bedrock. Fred worked for a boss named Mr. Slate. Guest stars on the show had "rock" names.
5. The show had some interesting casting: the man of a thousand voices, Mel Blanc played Barney Rubble for most of the series' run, and provided the sounds of Fred's pet dinosaur Dino. Actress Bea Benedaret, who you might remember as the owner of the Shady Rest Hotel on Petticoat Junction and cousin Pearl on The Beverly Hillbillies did the voice for Barney's wife Betty Rubble. Funnyman Harvey Korman joined the cast in 1965 as the voice of The Great Gazoo.
6. In the first two seasons of The Flintstones, the opening theme was different from the theme song you remember (Meet the Flintstones). The original song, which had no lyrics, was called "Rise and Shine", and was also used for the show's closing credits.
7. The show contained several breakthroughs for network television. It was the first prime-time animated series on American television. After the Flintstones' daughter Pebbles was born, Betty Rubble was depressed about her inability to conceive a child. This was the first time an animated show addressed the issue of infertility. The Rubbles then adopted their son Bamm-Bamm. The "first" that most people associate with the show was the fact that Fred and Wilma slept in the same bed. However, this was not the first American depiction of such sleeping arrangements; that was in the 1947 sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny, which few people saw, considering how many people owned TV sets in the 1940s. However, Fred and Wilma were the first couple to sleep together in a cartoon.
8. While under development, the series had several names. First, the show was going to be called The Flagstones. Then it was The Gladstones. Finally, it was The Flintstones, and couldn't be changed after the series premiered. However, an episode called The Flagstones was made to demonstrate the idea to potential financial backers.
9. Flintstones Vitamins are a childhood staple now, when I was a child, every kid wanted Chocks. Bayer produced Chocks, the first chewable children's vitamin in 1960. The Flintstones line of vitamins began in 1968 when Chocks took on the shapes of the characters from The Flintstones TV series. Everyone noticed that Betty Rubble was missing, and the company did not add her to the vitamin lineup until 1995! Two cereals, Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles, were named after the daughter the Flintstones gave birth to during the series. They are still sold in grocery stores.
9. The success of The Flintstones led directly to the creation of another Hanna-Barbera prime-time cartoon, The Jetsons. The comedy was just about the same as The Flintstones, except the main characters were set in a futuristic world of flying cars and robot maids instead of foot-powered cars and animal appliances. As The Flintstones were seen as a copy of The Honeymooners, this new animated series was seen as a copy of the comic and movie series Blondie. The Jetsons premiered in 1962, but only 24 episodes were produced. Those same 24 episodes were later shown on Saturday morning TV, over and over, for many years.
1. Today's Google doodle honors The Flintstones anniversary. After today, you'll find it in their archives.
2. The characters of The Flintstones were greatly influenced by the 1954-56 hit TV series The Honeymooners, starring Jackie Gleason and Art Carney as working class neighbors. Blowhard Fred Flintstone was very like Gleason's character Ralph Kramden, goofy sidekick Barney Rubble resembled Carney's character Ed Norton, and their wives Wilma and Betty had the practical personalities of the wives in The Honeymooners. Jackie Gleason considered suing Hanna-Barbera, but did not want to go down in history as "the guy who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air".
3. The show's gimmick, besides being a rare prime-time cartoon, was that the Flintstone family had everyday modern situations set in prehistoric times. There was no electricity, no internal-combustion engines, and no shoes, but the characters still had modern conveniences like dishwashers and phonographs. All these appliances were powered by captive animals (including dinosaurs). The heavy equipment Fred and Barney worked with was powered by pulleys, and their cars were powered by "the courtesy of Fred's two feet."
4. Most of the series' comedy came from puns about rocks. The Flintstones lived in the town of Bedrock. Fred worked for a boss named Mr. Slate. Guest stars on the show had "rock" names.
And who can forget the celebrities? "Cary Granite" (Cary Grant), "Stony Curtis" (Tony Curtis), "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone" (Ed Sullivan), "Rock Pile/Quarry/Hudstone" (Rock Hudson) and "Ann-Margrock" (Ann-Margret) all had cameos.
(RIP Tony Curtis)
The exception was Tuesday Weld, whose "Bedrock" name was Tuesday Wednesday.5. The show had some interesting casting: the man of a thousand voices, Mel Blanc played Barney Rubble for most of the series' run, and provided the sounds of Fred's pet dinosaur Dino. Actress Bea Benedaret, who you might remember as the owner of the Shady Rest Hotel on Petticoat Junction and cousin Pearl on The Beverly Hillbillies did the voice for Barney's wife Betty Rubble. Funnyman Harvey Korman joined the cast in 1965 as the voice of The Great Gazoo.
6. In the first two seasons of The Flintstones, the opening theme was different from the theme song you remember (Meet the Flintstones). The original song, which had no lyrics, was called "Rise and Shine", and was also used for the show's closing credits.
7. The show contained several breakthroughs for network television. It was the first prime-time animated series on American television. After the Flintstones' daughter Pebbles was born, Betty Rubble was depressed about her inability to conceive a child. This was the first time an animated show addressed the issue of infertility. The Rubbles then adopted their son Bamm-Bamm. The "first" that most people associate with the show was the fact that Fred and Wilma slept in the same bed. However, this was not the first American depiction of such sleeping arrangements; that was in the 1947 sitcom Mary Kay and Johnny, which few people saw, considering how many people owned TV sets in the 1940s. However, Fred and Wilma were the first couple to sleep together in a cartoon.
8. While under development, the series had several names. First, the show was going to be called The Flagstones. Then it was The Gladstones. Finally, it was The Flintstones, and couldn't be changed after the series premiered. However, an episode called The Flagstones was made to demonstrate the idea to potential financial backers.
9. Flintstones Vitamins are a childhood staple now, when I was a child, every kid wanted Chocks. Bayer produced Chocks, the first chewable children's vitamin in 1960. The Flintstones line of vitamins began in 1968 when Chocks took on the shapes of the characters from The Flintstones TV series. Everyone noticed that Betty Rubble was missing, and the company did not add her to the vitamin lineup until 1995! Two cereals, Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles, were named after the daughter the Flintstones gave birth to during the series. They are still sold in grocery stores.
9. The success of The Flintstones led directly to the creation of another Hanna-Barbera prime-time cartoon, The Jetsons. The comedy was just about the same as The Flintstones, except the main characters were set in a futuristic world of flying cars and robot maids instead of foot-powered cars and animal appliances. As The Flintstones were seen as a copy of The Honeymooners, this new animated series was seen as a copy of the comic and movie series Blondie. The Jetsons premiered in 1962, but only 24 episodes were produced. Those same 24 episodes were later shown on Saturday morning TV, over and over, for many years.
(Reconstruction by Kennis and Kennis, photgraph by Joe McNally/National Geographic)
10. National Geographic has a roundup of links on Neanderthals for the 50th anniversary of The Flintstones. In 2008, they did an extensive article on Neanderthals which included reconstructions of what they might look like. The NatGeo staff nicknamed this one "Wilma", in honor of Fred Flintstone's wife.
(YouTube link)
A brother and sister had their wisdom teeth removed on the same day. Lucky for us, mom was armed with a camera for the ride home! -via Bits and Pieces
Sightings by locals in the Himalayan nation of Bhutan led researchers to look for tigers in higher elevations than they've ever been known to reside. Dr. Alan Rabinowitz of Panthera, a big cat conservation organization, and BBC wildlife photographer Gordon Buchanan went up in the mountains and set camera traps above 3,000 meters of elevation. They left the cameras for three months, then found that among many other species, tigers indeed came to have their pictures taken.
The next step is to create a preserve that would protect the tigers and other animals. See several videos at BBC News. Link -via the Presurfer
This is the only place on earth known to have tigers, leopard and snow leopards all sharing the same valley.
It is remarkable to have these three big cats sharing their range.
Most extraordinarily, the cameras took footage of two wild tigers, one male and one female, a discovery that moved Mr Buchanan to tears.
The next step is to create a preserve that would protect the tigers and other animals. See several videos at BBC News. Link -via the Presurfer
Groovy! This page takes recent Creative Commons photos from Flickr and turns them into kaleidoscopic images. Use the lowest button to change the image, and your mouse to change the kaleidoscopic effects. Link -via J-Walk Blog
Remember the Star Trek casket? It appears to be no longer available, but the same company is ready to launch the sale of Star Trek Urns for fans who choose to be cremated when they reach the final frontier. Eternal Image also has bronze Trek medallions which can be attached to urns or headstones. http://www.eternalimage.net/Star-Trek-Products.html -via AOL News
Bewitched was an American television series that ran from 1964 to 1972. The premise was that a witch (Samantha Stephens) married an advertising executive (Darrin Stephens), but in order to blend in with "mortals", Samantha had to keep her supernatural powers secret. However, neither she nor Darrin could control her wacky relatives -particularly Samantha's magically meddling mother Endora! In most episodes their cover was nearly blown, but the couple explained away the most ridiculous situations as a "demonstration" of a creative new advertising campaign.
1. The biggest controversy on Bewitched was the sudden switch in Darrins. Dick York played Darrin from 1964 to 1969, when Dick Sargent slipped into the role with no explanation. Dick York had suffered a back injury while filming a movie in 1959. Continued pain left him addicted to prescription painkillers, which damaged his health as years went by. By 1969, he was suffering blackouts on the set. In January York was rushed from the set to the hospital and never returned to Bewitched. After he left the show, he was flat on his back for a year. York also suffered financial losses from bad investments and he and his wife cleaned houses for a living at one point. By 1980 he kicked the drugs and began acting again. York died of emphysema in 1992.
3. A few new phrases were born from Bewitched. Darrin Syndrome is the term for replacing the actor of a main character with no explanation. This situation is sometimes called The Other Darrin. It happens a lot, but in the case of the character Becky in the series Roseanne, there were constant jokes about the switch. In one episode, the family watched Bewitched on TV and actress Sarah Chalke (the second Becky) remarked that she preferred the second Darrin. Of course.
4. Darrin was not the only character played by two actors in Bewitched. Among others, the neighbor Gladys Kravitz was portrayed by Alice Pearce at first, then by Sandra Gould. However, Gladys Kravitz Syndrome has nothing to do with TV casting. It's a term used when people are just too nosy about the lives of their neighbors.
5. The characters on Bewitched drank so much alcohol that a fan website created a database of the drinking incidents with locations and episode numbers.
6. Elizabeth Montgomery, who played Samantha, also played her deliciously mischievous cousin Serena in several episodes. She was not credited for the role, as producers figured it would be obvious. The role was credited to "Pandora Spocks", who didn't exist but received fan mail from viewers who didn't get the joke. Spocks eventually received her own biography from a fan site.
7. The real house used in the 1959 movie Gidget was copied, but reversed, to build the set for Bewitched. The patio and living rooms were copied from those used in the 1963 movie Gidget Goes to Rome. The exterior set used for the home of nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz later became the home of The Partridge Family.
8. The Stephens had two children during the run of the series, but they were not ratings gimmicks. Elizabeth Montgomery produced two children, her second and third, as she played Samantha in Bewitched, and both pregnancies were written into the show. Her son Robert Asher was born in 1965 as daughter Tabitha appeared in the series, and daughter Rebecca Asher was born in 1969 as Adam Stephens was born in the series.
9. In the last year of the series, Bewitched was cursed with terrible time slots. Already showing its age, the series' ratings fell faster than ever in 1971-72 when it was scheduled against the very popular Carol Burnett Show and then moved opposite the powerhouse series All in the Family.
10. Elizabeth Montgomery cherished her privacy, and felt no need to make her vital statistics public. When she died in 1995, her age was published as 57, although she was actually 62. She had married Robert Foxworth a couple of years before her death, but few knew about it, so some obituaries said she was single. Her death certificate said "Elizabeth A. Montgomery", but her actual middle name was Victoria.
1. The biggest controversy on Bewitched was the sudden switch in Darrins. Dick York played Darrin from 1964 to 1969, when Dick Sargent slipped into the role with no explanation. Dick York had suffered a back injury while filming a movie in 1959. Continued pain left him addicted to prescription painkillers, which damaged his health as years went by. By 1969, he was suffering blackouts on the set. In January York was rushed from the set to the hospital and never returned to Bewitched. After he left the show, he was flat on his back for a year. York also suffered financial losses from bad investments and he and his wife cleaned houses for a living at one point. By 1980 he kicked the drugs and began acting again. York died of emphysema in 1992.
(Image source: TV Trivia)
2. Ratings for Bewitched fell in its final three years, which many blamed on the Darrin switch. It wasn't Dick Sargent's fault; people just didn't like the change from a more familiar face. In fact, Dick Sargent could have very well been the original Darrin! He auditioned for the show in 1964 and was actually offered the job, even before Elizabeth Montgomery was cast as Samantha. However, he had to decline as he was under contract to Universal Studios, which wanted him for the series Broadside.3. A few new phrases were born from Bewitched. Darrin Syndrome is the term for replacing the actor of a main character with no explanation. This situation is sometimes called The Other Darrin. It happens a lot, but in the case of the character Becky in the series Roseanne, there were constant jokes about the switch. In one episode, the family watched Bewitched on TV and actress Sarah Chalke (the second Becky) remarked that she preferred the second Darrin. Of course.
4. Darrin was not the only character played by two actors in Bewitched. Among others, the neighbor Gladys Kravitz was portrayed by Alice Pearce at first, then by Sandra Gould. However, Gladys Kravitz Syndrome has nothing to do with TV casting. It's a term used when people are just too nosy about the lives of their neighbors.
5. The characters on Bewitched drank so much alcohol that a fan website created a database of the drinking incidents with locations and episode numbers.
6. Elizabeth Montgomery, who played Samantha, also played her deliciously mischievous cousin Serena in several episodes. She was not credited for the role, as producers figured it would be obvious. The role was credited to "Pandora Spocks", who didn't exist but received fan mail from viewers who didn't get the joke. Spocks eventually received her own biography from a fan site.
7. The real house used in the 1959 movie Gidget was copied, but reversed, to build the set for Bewitched. The patio and living rooms were copied from those used in the 1963 movie Gidget Goes to Rome. The exterior set used for the home of nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz later became the home of The Partridge Family.
8. The Stephens had two children during the run of the series, but they were not ratings gimmicks. Elizabeth Montgomery produced two children, her second and third, as she played Samantha in Bewitched, and both pregnancies were written into the show. Her son Robert Asher was born in 1965 as daughter Tabitha appeared in the series, and daughter Rebecca Asher was born in 1969 as Adam Stephens was born in the series.
9. In the last year of the series, Bewitched was cursed with terrible time slots. Already showing its age, the series' ratings fell faster than ever in 1971-72 when it was scheduled against the very popular Carol Burnett Show and then moved opposite the powerhouse series All in the Family.
10. Elizabeth Montgomery cherished her privacy, and felt no need to make her vital statistics public. When she died in 1995, her age was published as 57, although she was actually 62. She had married Robert Foxworth a couple of years before her death, but few knew about it, so some obituaries said she was single. Her death certificate said "Elizabeth A. Montgomery", but her actual middle name was Victoria.
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