Bathroom Readers' Institute's Blog, page 190
September 18, 2012
Wow! Spearfisher Gets Fish Stolen By Huge Fish
This is awesome:
Looks like it got his hand, too!
42nd Anniversary of the Death of Jimi Hendrix
September 17, 2012
Cat Power Fights Zombies
We’ve written about Cat Power before (page 433): she’s had an interesting career, you might say. (“Hello, Mr. Squirrel…”) And she’s got a brand new video out, for her song “Cherokee.” And it’s weird.
From Rolling Stone.
The song is from the new album, Sun.
September 16, 2012
Did You Know: Donkey Kong = Popeye?
"Hey, let's play a video game - geh geh geh geh geh..."
Did you know that the inspiration for the characters in Donkey Kong came from the characters in the classic old cartoon Popeye?
When a 1981 video game called Radar Scope sold poorly, Nintendo suddenly had 2,000 empty arcade-game cabinets to fill. At the same time, a deal with King Features to make a Popeye Nintendo game fell apart, so staff designer Shigeru Miyamoto used the Popeye love triangle for inspiration: Popeye, his girlfriend Olive Oyl, and brute Bluto became Mario, Pauline, and a giant ape named Donkey Kong.
Just one tidbit of inspiration-based information you can learn right in your own head—so to speak—from “You’re My Inspiration,” the very first article in Uncle John’s HEAVY DUTY Bathroom Reader. You can order yours today. Or tomorrow.
September 14, 2012
Flush Fiction: “For Wile E. Coyote, Apetitius giganticus”
Here’s a snicker-starter of a story from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader presents FLUSH FICTION: 88 Short-Short Stories You Can Read in a Single Sitting:
For Wile E. Coyote, Apetitius giganticus
by Jason Schossler
“A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.”
—George Santayana
1
Monday he comes home squashed flat by a locomotive, Tuesday, his hair burnt to a crisp. Friday, a week—no bird, no prey, and nothing in the medicine cabinet to treat the anvil lodged in his head.
2
Picking up his daughter from her interview at Perdue Farms, he overhears her talking to her BFF. “We’ve had KFC for supper every night this week,” she says. “My dad is such a loser.” When she says the word, she presses her fingers to her forehead in the shape of an L.
3
The spring catalogue arrives with the chirp of awakening birds. Earthquake pills, TNT, a catapult, quick-drying cement, dehydrated boulders, a boomerang, and free with every $100 order, a rocket sled and thirty miles of railroad tracks.*
* some assembly required
4
The nights are long. His hind legs stiffen up in his sleep, and his right hip hasn’t felt the same ever since those jet-propelled tennis shoes blasted him through the center of the earth to China.
5
On the family room sofa his wife eases the thread through the needle and stitches his tail back into place. Now and then she stops to look up at the shimmering sage in the backyard. “It’s not just the kids,” she says with a throb in her voice. “The neighbors are talking, too.”
6
It’s the customer service as much as the good line of credit that keeps him coming back to Acme Corp.
Coughing red soot from another day’s avalanche, he asks Sue, the refund department operator, about her father’s knee surgery, swimming in Lake Wallenpaupack, her butterfly garden of bee balm and lilac, and on the other end of the phone, Sue is curious about life in the Southwest, and if it really is what they call a dry heat.
7
During his lunch break in the shade of the cottonwoods he listens to The Ultimate Secrets of Total Self-Confidence by Dr. Robert Anthony on his iPod.
Closing his eyes, he visualizes the world he wants to live in: the bird browning in the oven, legs tied together, skin brushed in melted butter like an oasis on the other side of a great, uncrossable desert, and by late afternoon, the kids probing the tender curves with gentle forks, a mysterious passion on their faces.
8
…Next up on Coast to Coast AM we’ve got a caller from the Southwest, a Mr. W.C., who—now get this—claims to know a magical roadrunner that can pass through walls….
9
The Southern Belle disguise has arrived. Inside the package is a handwritten note from Sue. This should do the trick.
In front of the mirror he tries on the saucy red dress. Puckers his lips and turns to admire the ruffled bodice. The costume comes with a velvet bonnet and matching handbag large enough to conceal a stick of dynamite.
Standing behind him, his wife starts to cry. “Who are you?” she says. ”I don’t know you anymore.”
He wiggles his eyebrows. The bird is good as cooked.
*****
September 13, 2012
Bizarre Chinese Animation Slams New York Yankees
This is so weird.
Made by these folks.
Related: Excerpts from our darn good baseball book.
• This was actually made by a company based in Taiwan. Here’s a 2010 story on them here.
Catwalk Video Filmed Entirely With Google Glasses
Remember the hyped-up not-release of the science-fictiony eyeglasslike things known as Google Glass? (We blogged about it here.)
Here’s another round of hype – now with more supermodels – so maybe they’re closer to actually releasing these things?
Maybe it’s just us, but if people are worried about texters falling into open manholes – what do they think these things will do? (Please don’t people wearing these anywhere near escalators.)
September 12, 2012
September 11, 2012
Your Cat Did WHAT? Woman Finds Cat Giving Baby Possum Piggyback Ride
Aussie cats—they’re different:
A Melbourne woman got the shock of her life after opening the back door to find her cat happily giving a piggy-back ride to a baby ringtail possum.
Emilia Lendoudis, of Briar Hill, was about to scold her six-year-old cat Minx for scratching at the door on Tuesday morning when she noticed the unusual visitor on the pet’s back.
“I was washing the dishes and I heard her scratching at the flyscreen to come in. When I went to let her in I saw something on her back and it was a possum,” she said.
Look at the cute little bugger(s):
Just holding on for dear life!
A wildlife official said the cat and possum must have met before, as they normally would not be so friendly with each other.
There’s even video:
September 10, 2012
Grizzly Stares Down Plane While Guarding Dead Bison
Animal Photo of the Year entry. (Click to enlarge.)
Bum bum…
…bum bum bum bum…
Vreep! Vreep!
Yellowstone National Park wolf project leader Doug Smith snapped this photo last Friday, while tracking some of the park’s wolf packs from the air.
Smith spotted a dead bull bison in the park’s Hayden Valley, an apparent victim of a nasty encounter with another bull bison during the herd’s annual rut. As you can see, a very large grizzly bear has claimed the bison carcass as his own.
And:
What you can’t see, according to Smith, is the Canyon wolf pack lurking some 50 yards behind the grizzly, patiently waiting its turn on the carcass.
Yellowstone. What a place.
• More photos by Yellowstone wolf biologist Doug Smith here.
• PBS has a bio on him here.
• Smith talking about the wolves on a YouTube video here.
* * * * *
UJBR Bonus: We’ve got a long article on the fascinating evolutionary history of bears – and the rundown on the eight species that remain today – in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader NATURE CALLS. You’ll go wild for it. (That was uncalled for. We’re sorry.)
