Assorted items
Thanks for all the comments on that last entry! You folks are the best. Your notes have been cheering me up immensely.
Some items here as I head for bed; no theme again this time.
- Craigslist postings to be sent to deep space: "[Craigslist] CEO Jim Buckmaster won an auction on eBay for the first private communication to be transmitted into deep space by Deep Space Communications Network, of Cape Canaveral, Florida," so they decided "to offer free job postings, apartment listings, personals and other classifieds to the extraterrestrial community."
- Cool video clip giving advice on how to be a guest on TV (click video link in italicized paragraph above numbered list). (Thanks, Mary Anne!)
- Strip club sidesteps anti-nudity law by "[charging] customers $15 for a sketch pad, pencil, and a chance to see completely naked women dancers," because of a local law that "[banned] total nudity in public unless it had 'serious artistic merit.'" (Thanks, Josh!)
- The NFL shop used to ban the word "gay" from personalized jerseys. After some protests regarding an NFL player whose last name is Gay, and a fan whose last name is also Gay, the NFL removed "gay" from the list of banned words—but it still bans "lesbian" and over 1100 other words. There are plenty of words it doesn't ban, though, such as "terrorist." For some great examples of football jerseys that it does and doesn't ban, see the end of that outsports.com article. (Thanks, Wonkette!)
- The top 100 gadgets of all time, according to Mobile PC magazine.
- Movies of levitating objects, including a frog, a strawberry, etc. (Thanks to Mike Dickison's Random Tangents page.)
- Charlie Parkhurst, Wells Fargo stagecoach driver in the middle of the 19th century, had an interesting story. Be sure to read to the end of the page (it's only about seven paragraphs). See also another Parkhurst page, but read the Wells Fargo one first.
- "Last Lines From Best American Short Stories Not Yet Written." Inspired by the Bulwer-Lytton contest, I once tried to do a set of bad last lines of stories (this was back in high school); the friend I showed them to noted that they were really more like first lines than last lines. It's hard to write convincing last lines; I don't think this McSweeney's set entirely works, but the premise is cute. (Thanks, Will!)
- Longmire does romance novels—romance novel covers with revised titles and sometimes blurbs. Some of them are kinda offensive, but some are pretty funny. (Sorry, lost track of who sent me this.)
- Woman officiates at Muslim wedding ceremony (well worth skimming the comments as well). (Thanks, Mary Anne!)
Lots more where those came from, but those'll do for tonight. Off I go to sleep.
