Cohen also knows that the process can be tedious, even on video, so as the candy is being cooled, pulled, shaped, and pulled again, he tells us everything he knows about bananas. Like, how they are cultivated, the internal structure of a banana, and why banana candy usually doesn't taste like a banana. The candy factory is also a soda fountain called Lofty Pursuits in Tallahassee, Florida, so Cohen is fairly enamored of the bananas he uses for banana splits.
There are mountains and molehills, and we can pretty much tell the difference. But what's the difference between a hill and a mountain? And what's the difference between a mountain and a mountain range? If you recall the 1995 movie The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain, the difference was whether the hill was 1,000 feet high or not. But is that from sea level or the surrounding plain? And what if there is no surrounding plain? Tom Scott has a more precise look at the question.
You have to draw the line somewhere, but there's the question of who gets to draw that line. And then there are the various cultures around the world that have designated their hills and mountains before any such regulation in the terms was proposed. Scott has information about the question, but whatever answer you come up with will have exceptions. It depends, in other words.
We saw people mooning in the movies Brave and Braveheart, which make it seem like an ancient Scottish ritual, although adults might assume that Brave (2012) took the idea from Braveheart (1995). Still, you have to wonder whether Scots really did that, and were they the ones who came up with the idea. The answer is, um, no. Baring one's butt as an insult to one's enemies has a long and sordid history, that may have extended back before written language. However, the existing literature does have quite a few examples.
There is ample evidence that people mooned each other during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest known instances of mooning happened during the Fourth Crusade around 1203, when Western Europeans attempted to take Constantinople. As the crusaders’ ships pulled away after the failed attack, the Byzantines hooted and hollered and “showed their bare buttocks in derision to the fleeing foe.” Another account tells of the Italian nobleman and troubadour Alberico da Romano, who in the first half of the 13th century was so indignant at losing his favorite falcon during a hunt that he “dropped his trousers and exposed his rear to the Lord as a sign of abuse and reviling.”
They didn't call it "mooning" in the Middle Ages, so you have to wonder if the common people had their own term for the gesture, if it was that common. Read what we know about the history of mooning, in a link-heavy article at Slate. -via Metafilter
If you read the list of ripped women movie characters we posted last week, you'll love this one. It's a video roundup of movie scene featuring women soldiers of all kinds, and they are all different characters from the other list. I'm just glad there are enough recent movies that acknowledge the bravery of women soldiers to compile a list like this, and that women soldiers are becoming less of a novelty and more of a regular character type. See them all at TVOM.
Okay, he's got this idea that he's very talented at what he does, yet for some reason he's complaining that people aren't buying it? You've probably known people like that. Then, somewhere between the third and fourth panels, he sees the contradiction. Or maybe he's just desperate for a little success. This is the newest comic from Jeff Lofvers at Don't Hit Save.
Cats are great listeners… until they aren't. While they're around, all fluffy and calm, they are your best friend, willing to keep you company as you pour your heart out. That is, until something better comes along, like a floating dust bunny. Then you may as well be talking to your stuffed teddy bear. This comic is from Yasmine Surovec at Cat vs. Human.
Children do not want to go to sleep at 8 PM, or whenever you've decided bedtime is. They're not sleepy, and they want to play. But their parents have been waiting all day for a chance to catch their breath, and they'd love to have a few minutes of calm before they fall into their own exhausted sleep. New Zealand dad Jordan Watson (previously at Neatorama) shares some of his wisdom about putting children to bed.
It's a losing battle. You cannot make a child fall asleep. You can only hope to outlast them so you can have a few minutes to yourself. Good luck. -via Tastefully Offensive
Fast Times at Ridgemont High was released 35 years ago today. It was a high school comedy full of unknown actors who went on to stardom, such as Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage, Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Judge Reinhold, and Anthony Edwards. Cameron Crowe wrote the screenplay, which was based on the book he wrote about a high school he attended and researched undercover. The movie wasn't promoted much, but it became a smash hits among teenagers and grew into a classic. Variety talked to Crowe and director Amy Heckerling about the film's origins.
Save for Ray Walston, as the acerbic history teacher and Spicoli’s nemesis, Mr. Hand, there are very few adults in “Fast Times,” including the characters’ parents.
“I hate parents,” said Heckerling. “Parents open a whole box of stuff I didn’t want to get into. I just wanted to say ‘Here’s the world of kids in their own universe. This is real. This is this particular time and place. These are real characters and what they were going through.’”
Crowe recalled being told that if you make a movie just for kids, it will fail because not enough kids will come to the movie. “That was strange to all of us,” he said. “So we banded together to make this movie where parents barely existed. It was raw in what it was showing. There was pot smoking and abortion and all of this stuff.”
Sweet treats, often including a very specific type of cake, are a near-universal part of a wedding celebration. We are used to the traditional tall wedding cake in America, and we've posted many modern interpretations. Wedding cakes and their traditions vary widely in other countries.
At weddings in France and parts of Belgium the croquembouche is served. The name croquembouche derives from the French “croque en bouche” meaning crack in mouth. This is apt as croquembouche is a tall, conical structure of cream-filled pastry buns enveloped in hard sugar. On top of the croquembouche are a set of figurines symbolizing the newlyweds. Similar to a croquembouche are the Icelandic wedding cake known as kransakaka and the Danish kransekage. These are wreath cakes consisting of multiple almond pastry rings of decreasing size placed one atop the other to form a cone of cakes. Each ring cake is decorated with white icing and the whole cake is filled with confectionary. According to Danish tradition the newlyweds should remove the top layer with the number of layers that adhere to it indicating how many children the couple will have.
GirthyBurritos spotted this vehicle filling up at an interstate exit. This cat is clearly headed for a new life in a new place. Since he had to strap his cat tree on top, you can assume that the interior is full of catnip, Fancy Feast, and hair ties. The reddit thread underneath gives a collaborative speculation as to his story.
Salty
"Sitting in James' truck at the gas station, I began to question my choice to leave. No. Karen and James had their chance, that sparrow was the last straw.
I had hunted, killed and gifted 47 prey by that point and every one had been met with disgust and rejection. After duly showing gratitude for my humans handing me ownership of themselves and their land, Karen grabbed me by the neck and rubbed my face in the delicious meal I had brought them. I was baffled and deeply offended. I didn't understand them, they didn't understand me, it was time to move on.
Without me patrolling the garden, Karen and James would most likely be eaten by dogs. So be it, I had no more use for them."
Bifferer
...so, with 2 kilos of catnip and my lookout post strapped to the roof, I topped off the tank and left town.
Snarkhive
"We were just outside of barstow when the catnip began to take hold"
xtraordinaryshitpost
I would watch this movie.
Further down in the comment thread, the plot gets much weirder. Wherever he's going, he's definitely in the driver's seat. I bet his name is Toonces. The moral of the story: Never leave your car keys out where the cat can get them.
Edward Jones was a lifelong criminal. He got started early, and made a real reputation for himself by sneaking into the royal palace during Queen Victoria's reign. At age 14, he was caught stuffing the queen's underwear down his pants. Jones had gotten into the palace by dressing as a chimney sweep. Strangely, he was acquitted of the charges, which only emboldened him to return and make somewhat of a career of sneaking into Buckingham Palace.
The boy was very good at getting into the palace. Two years after the original incident, Her Majesty had just given birth to her first child, and Jones climbed a palace wall, walked around the palace, and left undetected. He came back the following night and was discovered in the Queen’s dressing room, hiding under a sofa. He was sentenced to three months in prison, and while the first break-in caught the public’s imagination, the second caught the public’s ire, as concern for the newborn princess overrode the novelty of a kid breaking into the castle.
But almost immediately after Jones’ sentence, he was back. This time he helped himself to a snack, but the palace had increased security, and a guard caught him. Jones was sentenced to three months hard labor, and still more palace guards were added.
Burnaby, British Columbia was the locale for one of those chain reaction stories in which a small action becomes a big mess. A squirrel chewed through a wire on an (electric company) BC Hydro utility pole. The pole caught on fire as a result, and electrical power was down for more than 150 Burnaby residents …and one factory. Scardillo Cheese was able to rent generators to keep their cheese refrigerated, but not enough to refrigerate the milk waiting to be made into cheese. Power was restored after about 12 hours, but by then, 82,000 liters of milk were spoiled.
The company is estimated to lose about a week of production disposing of and cleaning up the milk. The squirrel is still at large.
The hooded grebe is a critically endangered species of bird that lives in South America. They are known for their spectacular mating dance, which is even more stylized than the human tango.
Yeah, it's funny-looking, but it works for them. If they can memorize all those moves that precisely, they can certainly raise a flock of chicks. Hey, at one time, the Hustle worked for us. This footage is from the upcoming documentary Tango in the Wind. -via reddit
Experimental musician Andrew Huang (previously at Neatorama) made a song out of the whistles, clangs, and growls that the radiant heating system in his building makes. Oh yeah, he also collected sounds from another building to round out the collection of tones he had to work with.
Cracked readers were asked to submit their best "brush with greatness" stories, and the top 19 were published. Some were delightful, some were just plain weird, and some were sadly lame. The best ones were funny. I liked this one because of the epilogue.
