Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 102

5 Countries’ Top-Grossing Films of All Time

Avatar? Star Wars? Sure, they made a ton of money all around the world, but what are the most popular locally-made movies of all time in various countries?

Nigeria

30 Days in Atlanta is a fish-out-of-water comedy about a Nigerian man who wins a month-long vacation to the American South. Filmed on location in both Lagos and Atlanta, it was critically reviled, but earned 137.2 million naira, more than double the second-highest-grossing film in Nigerian history

The Philippines

The 2013 romantic comedy It Takes a Man and a Woman grossed 405 million pesos, the most ever for a Filipino film. It was the third part of a romantic trilogy, a sequel to two other immensely popular films, A Very Special Love and You Changed My Life.

United Kingdom

Nobody loves James Bond more than the people the super-spy has sworn to protect. Skyfall (2012), the most recent, critically-acclaimed 007 movie is the top grossing movie of all time (of any kind) in the U.K., earning £102.9 million at the box office (about $160 million).

Former Soviet Union

The U.S.S.R. had a thriving film industry, rejecting Hollywood films in favor of homemade fare that reflected Communist ideals. However, the highest grossing film of the Soviet era was a silly adventure movie about modern-day pirates called Pirates of the 20th Century. Release in 1980, it was seen by 87.6 million people.

Japan

Hayo Miyazaki is among Japan’s most popular filmmakers—his Studio Ghibli has produced several serious-minded animated classics, such as My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. His 2001 fantasy Spirited Away is the highest-grossing film ever in Japan (30.4 billion yen, about $245 million), and it won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Film, and the first-ever Academy Award for Animated Feature, beating Shrek and Monsters, Inc.

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$occer Jersey$

Our 28th annual edition, Uncle John’s Factastic Bathroom Reader is finally here. Here is a sneak peek!

Like NASCAR drivers in the U.S., soccer teams, or “football clubs” in the rest of the world, wear jerseys adorned with advertisements for their sponsors, which could be a shoe maker, a brewery, an airline, or something weirder…like one of these.

Spanish club Getafe landed a sponsorship deal with Burger King in 2009. When players lifted their shirts to wipe the sweat off their faces, they revealed the image of Burger King’s creepy King mascot, which was printed upside-down on the inside of the jersey.


From 2003 to 2006, Columbia Pictures sponsored Spanish team Atletico Madrid. Every few weeks, jerseys would change, advertising a different movie. Among the movies advertised: White Chicks, Hitch, Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 2, and Spanglish.


Atletico Madrid has also been sponsored by the tourism board of Azerbaijan. Their jerseys state, “Azerbaijan: Land of Fire.”


In 1990 a Belgian vodka producer sponsored the British soccer team Scarborough F.C. The company makes Black Death vodka. Its logo—a skull and crossbones—appeared on the team’s jerseys, along with the company’s slogan, “Drink in Peace.”


An antismoking foundation paid to sponsor West Bromwich Albion (U.K.) in 1985. The image on players’ jerseys was the familiar “no smoking” sign. (Oddly, though, smoking was allowed in the team’s stadium.)


In 2012 British team Burnley’s sponsor was Totally Wicked, a maker of e-cigarettes and “e-cigarette juice.” The jerseys bore the company logo—an alien/devil hybrid wearing sunglasses and smoking an e-cigarette.


In 2010 England’s Middlesbrough F.C. offered one-month jersey sponsorships, which were cheaper than a full-season deal. Sponsors not only included major brands like Jaguar and Carlsburg Beer, but also Deepdale Solutions, a local, family-owned construction company.


The Greek minor league team Voukefalas received sponsorship from Soula. What’s Soula? A brothel.


The Washington Freedom played in the short-lived Women’s Professional Soccer League until entrepreneur Dan Borislow bought the team in 2011 and renamed it “magicJack” after the telephony-via-Internet gadget he invented. (A year later, the league folded.)

This article first appeared in Uncle John’s Factastic Bathroom Reader.

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The Lost – And Found – Play of William Shakespeare

Probably the greatest and most influential writer in the English language, William Shakespeare is credited with writing more than three dozen plays. Amazingly, earlier this year another one was discovered.

In 1728, British playwright Lewis Theobald published a play called Double Falsehood. Based on the “Cardenio” section of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, it was a comedy about the romantic pursuits of two brothers, one who was good and one who was evil. To drum up publicity, Theobald said that he based his play on The History of Cardenio, a work supposedly written by William Shakespeare and a co-author, John Fletcher. Historical records show that Shakespeare’s London theatrical company The King’s Men performed the play in the 1600s, but that it was never published.

At the time, some scholars thought he was lying, and that his Shakespeare claims were false, while others thought he had just ripped off an unpublished Shakespeare play whole cloth and put his name on it. Now we know the truth, and it’s a little bit of both schools of thought. Double Falsehood was very likely based on a Shakespeare work, but Theobald didn’t rewrite much of it.

Earlier this year, Ryan Boyd and James Pennebaker of the University of Texas at Austin analyzed 33 plays by Shakespeare, nine by Fletcher, and 12 by Theobald. They used special computer software which analyzes word choice, phrase patterns, and other stylistic choices singular to an author. The results were compared to Theobald’s Double Falsehood. The final analysis: The first half of the play was undoubtedly written by Shakespeare; the second half, equal input from Shakespeare and Fletcher. Very small traces of Theobald’s voice were found, suggesting to the scholars that he merely made some tiny edits.

This means there’s a new Shakespeare play in the Bard’s canon. Not only that, but a print from the era was recently found. Last year, an English baron named Sir Humphrey McEloy died. In his personal effects was found a copy of The History of Cardenio, as attributed to Shakespeare and Fletcher. It was authenticated as the real deal.

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Ask Uncle John Anything: The Juice is Loose! (And the Cider, Too)

Uncle John knows pretty much everything—and if he doesn’t, he heads his massive research library, or puts one of his many associates on the case. So go ahead: In the comments below, ask Uncle John anything. (And if we answer your question sometime, we’ll send you a free book!) This query comes from reader Jeremy C., who asks…

What’s the difference between apple juice and apple cider?

As Ned Flanders pointed out on a 1997 episode of The Simpsons, there’s one great way to tell the difference between apple juice and cider. “If it’s clear and yella, you’ve got juice there, fella. If it’s tangy and brown, you’re in cider town!”

Well, it’s a little bit more involved than that. It’s also got to be a technical or chemical difference, because as far as we’re concerned apple juice and apple cider have virtually the same taste and what foodies call “mouth feel.” But you better learn the difference now, because apple season is right around the corner!

Fresh cider is the liquid that comes out of freshly-picked and freshly-pressed apples. It’s been bottled as is, unfiltered to remove particles of apple, like pulp and other bits. Apple juice is that same liquid, but it’s been filtered to remove the solid chunks, and then, usually, pasteurized so it will keep longer. This is why cider is usually darker colored: It’s raw and largely unprocessed. (It’s also not had its naturally-occurring yeasts filtered out, which is why apple cider can go fizzy, and even alcoholic, over time.)

Sometimes, however, the difference is a marketing term. There’s no federal law that requires cider or juice manufacturers to clearly state if the product is one or the other. Unless it’s hard cider, which is apple cider that has either naturally gone boozy, or produced to make it boozy.

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Women of the Gridiron

With college football season heating up once again, let’s take a look at two women that made history on the field.

Katie Hnida

Katie Hnida enjoyed a successful stint on her Colorado high school’s team and was dubbed one of America’s “20 Most Influential Teens” by Teen People before she became a placekicker at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She didn’t receive playing time but she was on the roster for the team’s appearance at the 1999 Insight.com Bowl, making her the first female athlete to participate in a college bowl game. She eventually transferred to the University of New Mexico for the 2002 season. She played during their appearance at that year’s Las Vegas Bowl, but her lone extra point attempt was blocked. However, on August 30th, 2003, she became the first woman to score in an NCAA Division I-A game with two extra points in a win over Texas State.

Liz Heaston

In addition to the being the oldest college in the western United States, Willamette University in Oregon featured the first female player to ever score points in a regular season college game. During their 1997 season, coach Dan Hawkins was forced to find a replacement kicker for the team after his starter got injured. His options were limited and he eventually asked star soccer player Liz Heaston if she could fill in. In a game on October 18, 1997 vs. cross-state rivals Linfield, Willamette led 13-0 when Heaston kicked an extra point with 57 seconds left in the first half. She managed to score another extra point in the fourth quarter and the Bearcats went home with a 27-0 victory. Heaston’s historical accomplishment earned her a segment on The Today Show and a phone call from David Letterman. She played in one more game before she hung up her football cleats. Heaston’s jersey is now on display at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta.

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The War on Poop

We recently told you about various the worldwide fight against public urination. Well, here’s story #2.

The Portland Pooper

This stinky culprit has developed a habit of dropping his doodie outside of an office building in downtown Portland, Oregon. After recently discovering several pieces of human waste in the parking lot, the owner of a nearby shop decided to do something about it. They placed a camera in a window and, a short time later, the Pooper showed up again, this time with toilet paper. Photos of the suspect now adorn posters that have been placed throughout the surrounding neighborhood. Portland police are currently in the process of trying to track him down and put an end to his reign of terrorizing turds before he strikes again.

San Francisco’s Poop Patrols

In addition to worrying about light poles collapsing after being corroded by urine, the residents of San Francisco also fret about encountering public poopers. The city has been contending with a huge homeless problem for decades and this means that many people use its streets as toilets on a daily basis. It’s become such a problem in the downtown area that officials are now increasing what they call “poop patrols.” Residents can report incidents and workers for San Francisco’s Public Works department will do their best to clean up the mess within an hour, so long as it’s between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Crews with steam-cleaners will spend more time washing the area’s streets while other teams will focus their efforts on unsanitary homeless encampments. Meanwhile, $3 million in public funds has been set aside to hire 18 workers to hose down San Francisco’s 80 most often “targeted” alleyways.

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9 Facts About Queen Elizabeth II

On September 9, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II will surpass Queen Victoria to become the longest reigning monarch in British history. Here are some royal facts about Her Majesty.

At the time she became Queen of the United Kingdom and Head of the Commonwealth, she became head of state for many countries, although many have since cut official ties. Among them: Pakistan (until 1956), South Africa (1961), and Ceyon (1972, and it’s called Sri Lanka now). Other countries to join the Commonwealth during her reign: Fiji, the Bahamas, Belize, and the Solomon Islands.


Her full, real name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, although it’s not like she needs identification. In fact, she doesn’t have to have a license to drive around one of her many Range Rovers.


Her favorite TV show in recent years: Downton Abbey. After viewing one episode, she wrote to producers when she noticed a tiny inaccuracy. The medal worn by a British officer in World War I were not given out until World War II.


She’s the most English person in the world…but she still speaks fluent French.


John and Frances Manning of Manchester, England, sent the Queen an invitation to their 2012 wedding as a lark. The Queen and her husband, Prince Phillip, actually showed up, as they were in town having lunch next door to the wedding venue.


The Queen famously loves her little corgi dogs, and in 1999 began outfitting them in specially made rubber boots to protect their feet from the gravel outside Buckingham Palace.


She served in World War II as a driver and mechanic.


The Queen’s favorite retreat is Balmoral Castle in Scotland. That’s only about 70 miles from Loch Ness, and the supposed Loch Ness Monster, for whom the Queen once had at least a passing interest. Letters from 1962 between her office and naturalist Sir Peter Scott asked for Her Majesty to be kept abreast of any discoveries or developments in the hunt for the (still mythical) beast.


If by some chance you capture a dolphin off the coast of England, it’s not yours—it’s the property of Queen Elizabeth II.

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Pop Culture References From Old Cartoons That Are Lost to Time

When we were kids, we watched those Bugs Bunny cartoons and knew they were referencing something, but we weren’t sure what. Here’s a quick guide.

It Happened One Night

Bugs Bunny is most notable for two characteristics: cracking wise and munching carrots. Despite the fact that rabbits really do eat carrots, both behaviors, along with some vocal tics and mannerisms, are all inspired by Clark Gable’s performance of reporter Peter Warner in the 1934 film It Happened One Night.

The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn Esquire and his Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom

The names of cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry were picked because they were common, generic male names, right? Not really. In the 19th century, British writer Pierce Egan wrote a book about the misadventures of two guys in London called The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn Esquire and his Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom. It was a huge success, and made the combination of the names Tom and Jerry a common way to refer to any male duo, and became the name of the Christmas cocktail, the Tom and Jerry. Those names were still in the public consciousness when picked for the cartoon duo in the 1940s.

Bing Crosby

Before the dawn of rock n’ roll, Bing Crosby was the most popular entertainers in the country—he won an Oscar for acting and racked up 40 number-one hits. He was hugely popular and famous, so even a casual reference in a cartoon to his personal life would be understood. Crosby was a big fan of both horses and betting – he raised horses and started a racing club, pouring a fortune into those hobbies. But none of his horses ever won a big race, something that became a running joke in the press. That’s why in old cartoons you’ll often see a friendly horse nuzzling a guy in a sweater and a hat – that’s Bing Crosby.

The Liberace Show

With his fabulous costumes and chatty stage persona, Liberace was a natural fit for TV. In fact, he was one of the first TV stars with The Liberace Show, which aired from 1952 to 1955. His brother, George, played violin in his backing band, but was often absent from show tapings for concerts or session work. Whenever he was, Liberace would quip, “I wish my brother George was here.” Whenever the action in a cartoon would require Bugs Bunny to sit down at a piano, he’d turn to the camera and utter the same line.

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How to Toilet Train Your Cat

Face it: Your cat is the ruler of your house. She knows it, and so do you. So why shouldn’t she sit on the throne? So, it is time to learn to toilet train your cat!

What You’ll Need

Absorbent cat waste material. Clumpable kitty litter will ruin your plumbing, so try an organic or natural kind, or shredded newspaper.

Cardboard box

Cat litter

Plastic to place underneath the cardboard

Scissors

Do It Yourself!

Replace your cat’s regular litter box with the cardboard box, fill it with its familiar litter, and leave it in the cat’s usual spot. Once she is acclimated to these changes—which will take a few days—gradually move the box toward the bathroom, relocating it by just a few feet each day.

Once the box is in the bathroom, the pace slows down. Move the box to the foot of the latrine, and then up under its seat, where it should stay for at least a week or two. This is where most training regimes go awry. The inconvenience of moving the pan every time you need to use the bathroom—to say nothing of the gross-out factor—leads many would-be trainers to give up. Patience and persistence are vital.

After the first few days, cut a hole in the bottom of the box, gradually enlarging it as time goes on.

When the hole is the same size as the area inside a toilet seat, suspend the cat’s litter pan under the seat, but over the bowl.

The cat must come to feel comfortable on the seat, and only practice will help her achieve the proper balance. Once she gets the idea, though, your cat is likely to take to it thoroughly.

Next Step?

Teach your cat how to flush. Duh!

This article was first published in Uncle John’s How to Toilet Train Your Cat: And 61 Other Ill-Conceived Projects.

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6 Weird September Holidays You Ought to Celebrate

Who needs Labor Day when you’ve got International Talk Like a Pirate Day?

September 5: Be Late for Something Day

What is it about this holiday that makes us think it was supposed to be observed on September 4? At any rate, today is the one day you’ve got an excuse to show up a few minutes later then you’d promised.

September 8: Pardon Day

This holiday is a time to either seek forgiveness or to grant it, or even a chance to remember that manners are important. (Say “pardon me” or “excuse me,” once in a while.) The observance goes back to 1974: On this day in that year, newly appointed President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for any crimes he committed surrounding the Watergate scandal.

September 13: Fortune Cookie Day

It’s the day honoring everyone’s favorite psychic cookie. Generally served at the end of the meal in Chinese restaurants, the fortune cookie was actually invented at a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco—Makoto Hagiwara presented them at the Japanese Tea Garden in 1914.

September 15: Felt Hat Day

American men used to wear hats—and if Mad Men can be believed, they wore those felt, brimmed numbers regularly up until the early 1970s. Similar to how it was once considered uncouth to wear white shoes after Labor Day, men traditionally put away their felt hats for the year on September 15.

September 19: International Talk Like a Pirate Day

It’s a known fact that there is nothing more fun than talking like a pirate. (For example: “Argh!” and, “Avast, me hearties!”) Holiday originators John Baur and Mark Summers knew this when they created it in 1995. They were goofing around talking like pirates during a game of racquetball and decided to register a day as an official one for pirate-speak. Summers suggested September 19, because he’d easily remember it, as it was his wife’s birthday.

September 28: Ask a Stupid Question Day

This one sounds silly, but it actually goes back to a teaching concept in the 1980s. Some teachers were concerned that students weren’t learning enough, and were maybe not asking enough questions out of fear of sounding stupid. So teachers created this “anything goes” day to make it clear that students always had the right to ask for clarification.

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