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Did you know you can pay to have the obituary for a non-famous loved one put in the New York Times?
The family of Antonia W. "Toni" Larroux of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi did."Waffle House lost a loyal customer on April 30, 2013. Antonia W. "Toni" Larroux died after a battle with multiple illnesses: lupus, rickets, scurvy, kidney disease and feline leukemia."
The obituary goes on to make fun of four generations of family (from her father to her grandchildren), the Hancock County Library Foundation and the clergyman presiding at her memorial service, closing with the statement that "Anyone wearing black will not be admitted to the memorial."
via Miss Cellania of Neatorama
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 4:18 PM on May 5, 2013
(62 comments)
INFLATION! is the self-described "(con)temporary installation" curated by M+, a not-yet-built museum for visual culture at the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong and located in a future park next to the future museum. As you can guess, all the works on display are large-scale inflatables, and the contribution of American artist Paul McCarthy is "Complex Pile", a 51-foot-tall representation of ... poop.
Designboom has a gallery of all the pieces, which also include a giant roast pig and a full-sized replica of Stonehenge.
NEWSFLASH: Bad weather and an unseen flaw combined to flatten "Complex Pile" into a representation of a big brown stain. Repairs are underway.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 7:26 PM on April 30, 2013
(11 comments)
Does the shutdown of Google Reader make you feel like it has become just another Evil Empire (DeathStar+)? Then plug a feed address into
StarRSS, and enjoy your favorite information sources displayed
Star Wars style. (thank you,
Laughing Squid)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 11:39 AM on April 16, 2013
(12 comments)
NOT a blog about Zombies... but a collection of 'ghost blogs', relabeled for topicality. "Zombie Dead Blog" shows off some of the sincere-but-doomed, as well as the not-even-half-hearted attempts at blogging whose history remains on the web, most often thanks to Blogspot's disinterest in deleting inactive blogs.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 3:46 AM on April 7, 2013
(22 comments)
On the passing of Jane Nebel Henson, who was,
as this piece from a Muppets fansite explains, more than Jim's widow, she was the original Second Muppeteer.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 5:19 PM on April 2, 2013
(51 comments)
25 (of the) Top Movie Posters of All Time with commentaries from non-movie-poster designers. Ignore or critique the ranking, note any obvious omissions, or just chuckle at the unstated similarity between #13 and #14. Still, a fine showcase of movie - and movie marketing - history.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 11:26 AM on March 22, 2013
(48 comments)
"Help Us Name the Moons of Pluto!" Pluto may have lost is designation as a full-fledged-planet in 2006 (after 'dwarf planet'
Eris was discovered that is larger than it), but it still gets plenty of attention by astronomers. In the last two years, the Hubble Space Telescope discovered two more moons of Pluto, which have not yet been named. So
Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute is doing an online survey.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 10:21 AM on February 11, 2013
(51 comments)
Coachella Hipster Cred Calculator "Pick out the bands you like and add them up to figure out your hipster cred". (Points determined purely by how far down the daily billing list they are and how large/small type the band name is (with one exception: somebody must really hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers - not that there's anything wrong with that)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 12:05 AM on February 1, 2013
(86 comments)
Hilary/Hillary: The Most Poisoned Baby Name in US History in which Hilary Parker, Ph.D. candidate in Biostatistics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, uses her statistical mojo to determine just how unique was the drop-off of babies named Hilary/Hillary the year after Bill Clinton was elected President.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 11:52 PM on January 30, 2013
(83 comments)
To some, Canada's greatest guilty pleasure is Poutine (here are
38 variations, all on one page, THANK you Foodbeast) or William Shatner (who is bringing his one-man show to
MY town tomorrow evening). But there are things most of us don't know about the Nice Folk to the North. Therefore, a new site for
CANADIAN SEX ACTS, kind of a Kanada Sutra. NSFW and age restricted, this new site may have performance problems (insert snarky comment here); if so, just enjoy the list of names of great white north positions (Reverse Rick Moranis, Montreal Meatpie, Five-Legged Caribou...)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 3:32 PM on January 18, 2013
(66 comments)
Cartoon Brew's animation historian Amid Amidi posted
an almost-definitive collection of Automobile-themed cartoons from the 1950s and 1960s.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 12:15 PM on January 17, 2013
(6 comments)
The Monopoly game has used the same 8 "base tokens" (car, thimble, boot, scotty dog, battleship, top hat, iron, wheelbarrow) since the 1950s (
with a few extras added to "Deluxe Editions"), and since it's been 15 minutes since Parker Brothers' last promotion, they're doing internet voting at their Facebook page to
"SAVE YOUR TOKEN". In "American Idol" style, the one with the fewest votes will be replaced by the top-vote-getter among 5 "New Tokens" (robot with mustache, big-ass diamond ring, cat, helicopter, awkwardly-balanced guitar). So far, Scottie Dog has a third of the votes (take THAT, cat people), while Whellbarrow and Absurdly-Oldfashioned-Iron are bringing up the rear.
VOTE DAILY to support your favorite "chocking hazard for under 3 yrs. old"
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 5:43 PM on January 10, 2013
(179 comments)
"...on the Internet, a sockpuppet is an alternate account that lets people post anonymously. And that's where we get our drama." Based on, and linked to, actual comment exchanges at LiveJournal, YouTube and elsewhere, performed by some of the top voiceover artists* and lip-synced by... duh, sockpuppets! So obviously they had to call it Sockpuppet Theater. In the words of your host, Jonas Sock, "How Meta.**"
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 4:18 PM on January 9, 2013
(19 comments)
One of those inevitable year-end traditions is
Lake Superior State University's List of Banished Words, led this year by the currently ubiquitous
"Fiscal Cliff", followed by the related political/economic shorthand
"Kick the Can Down the Road". Of course,
"YOLO" is on the list (
as I predicted), along with
"Double Down" (surprisingly NOT in reference to the
KFC menu item),
"Job Creators",
"Spoiler Alert",
"Bucket List",
"Guru" (
didn't Mike Myers kill that word in 2008?), the marketing-speak
"Superfood", the twitter-driven verbed noun
"Trending", the oxymoronic
"Boneless Wings" and this year's pick for 'word that has lost all meaning':
"Passionate". Of course, Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV, an acronym not yet banned, but give it time...)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 1:16 PM on December 31, 2012
(70 comments)
The Hundred Best Lists of All Time compiled and ordered by The New Yorker. All with links*, includes one-time**, revisable*** and regularly updated lists****, as well as some collections not in list format*****, lists in name only ****** and truly dubious entries*******.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 12:52 PM on December 27, 2012
(22 comments)
The Spirit of Christmas (SLYT, gross, bloody, disrespectful nightmare fuel, in other words, classic CYRIAK)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 9:53 AM on December 24, 2012
(10 comments)
Erdal Inci has been experimenting with "cloned motion" in video for years and has now converted some of his hypnotic videos into looped gifs. (long-loading page, but worth it)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 3:36 PM on November 26, 2012
(8 comments)
38 Fake Film Titles to the Tune of "Bob" by 'Weird Al' Yankovic made by Oliver Smith in which an aspiring animator has created a tour-de-force (and tour-de-farce) showreel of kinetic typography and film homages using the palindromic lyrics of
The Weird One's Bob Dylan riff (with a few actor and director credits tossed in to remind you what he's referencing). If Oliver Smith doesn't get a ton of job offers from this, the animation biz is broken.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 10:31 AM on November 19, 2012
(16 comments)
Arika Okrent (previously here
on sign language interpreters and her
352-page book about 'Invented Languages') is currently kicking ass and taking etymologies at the Mental Floss site with a flurry of listicles* on the 'invention' of today's English/American language:
The solidly informational
"11 Weirdly Spelled Words—And How They Got That Way"**
The entertainingly snarky
"11 Creative Suffixes That Inspire New Words"
The just plain fun
"From Y’all To Youse, 8 English Ways to Make “You” Plural"
plus one non-linguistic piece of pure pedantry:
"11 Movie Chess Scenes Where The Board Is Set Up Wrong"***
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 5:45 AM on November 16, 2012
(52 comments)
The Useless Web serves a collection of some of the most frivolous, insignificant and worthless websites (many of which were previously seen here).
Obvious Warning: May contain sound, flashing images, old memes or peanuts. Well, probably not peanuts.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 1:10 AM on November 12, 2012
(48 comments)
BRAVEST WARRIORS!!! From Pendleton 'Adventure Time' Ward, it's a new, somewhat more adult (mild profanity & alien relationships) sci-fi cartoon about Second Generation Heroes who are kind-of-dorks.
Here's an earlier version he did for Nickelodeon's Random Cartoons, but the new series is made for Fred 'Frederator' Seibert's
Cartoon Hangover YouTube Channel. If that wasn't edgy or NSFW enough for you, check out
"Peepshow Therapy with Carmen Geddit" or just wait for the debut of James 'American Elf' Kochalka's
"Super F***ers"
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 7:55 AM on November 10, 2012
(11 comments)
BUYRAL (2:30 promotional video) is a new service that makes brands go viral, by
the sale of bulk clicking on videos. Just another straight-faced tongue-in-cheek idea from Totonto's
john st. advertising, who were previously seen on MeFi with
Catvertising (and, yes, they have made
some cat ads).
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 11:52 PM on November 5, 2012
(6 comments)
In 2008, the Muppetheads behind the
Tough Pigs staged their own muppety election, in which
Ernie (and running mate Bert) won the Presidency over a Fraggle ticket of Gobo & Red. Now they're doing it again, but with Ernie not going for a second term and inevitable favorite Kermit not running either, the 2012 Muppet Election is between a Sesame Street ticket of
Grover/Cookie Monster and a Muppet Show ticket of
Gonzo/Rizzo. And yes, there is negative campaigning on
both sides.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 2:28 PM on November 2, 2012
(26 comments)
11FOOT8.com is a site dedicated to documenting a single 11'8" railroad trestle over a street in Durham, North Carolina and the trucks (and sometimes RVs) taller than 11'8" that fail to pass through underneath (or sometimes do pass through, just with pieces lost). Now over 30 crashes have been compiled into a three-minute video of (dare I? I dare.)
The Bridge's Greatest Hits.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 7:39 PM on October 29, 2012
(113 comments)
Emergency Compliment Random reassurances, as close as your web browser. (Of course, if you like what they say, they'll sell you a poster.)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 12:59 PM on October 24, 2012
(50 comments)
It has never been easier to be an amazing mind-reader. (SLYT German PSA w/subtitles... any more would be telling)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 5:27 PM on September 24, 2012
(29 comments)
The Most Interesting Wine Man in the World? Maybe. Maybe not. But Paso Wine Man is not from France or Northern California.
Paso Wine is from a winemaking region 100 miles west of Bakersfield and 30 miles east of Hearst Castle*. Proud winemakers with a sense of humor who introduced Paso Wine Man with an
Old-Spice-esque video for the spring Zinfandel Festival.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 12:24 PM on September 14, 2012
(13 comments)
"I Want Fakht You" is a semi-show-stopping musical number in the new Hindi comedy/fantasy film
"Joker" (
official trailer),
a rather odd movie (by Bollywood standards) about what happened after the Inmates literally started running the Asylum (plus a rocket scientist, some post-colonial history, a media circus and
maybe aliens!).
It MUST be noted that the word "Fakht" is Hindi for "Just", so the lyric is "I Want Just You", but the audio may still be NSFW for clueless Anglophones.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 2:50 PM on September 6, 2012
(30 comments)
Jerry Nelson, one of the major talents 'underneath' the Muppets,
has passed away at the age of 78.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 4:03 AM on August 24, 2012
(68 comments)
Cul de Sac, (previously) generally considered the best newspaper comic strip of recent years (and which may be the last great newspaper comic strip)
will end next month, due to the worsening Parkinson's of creator Richard Thompson. His illness had previously motivated
an impressive artistic show of support from all kinds of comics artists (newspaper strips, editorial cartoons, magazine illustrations, webcomics and one guy who hadn't done much lately)
(previously) I, for one, hope he gets to spend some time hanging out with Bill W.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 9:07 AM on August 17, 2012
(23 comments)
100 Maniacal Movie Laughs in 6 Minutes assembled by the maniacal James Chapman who previously collected
Movie Titles in Movies (
plus one)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 2:08 PM on August 12, 2012
(22 comments)
The Counting Song (SLYT), a cute, animated ditty for kids that may be
too educational. From Adam Buxton (
previously here)
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 10:46 PM on August 8, 2012
(14 comments)
The Top 10 Most Difficult Books compiled by critic/author/editor/literati/people-who-use-their-middle-names
Emily Colette Wilkinson and
Garth Risk Hallberg who have been
surveying Difficult Books for TheMillions.com
since 2009 (and you think the last 3 years have been hard for YOU).
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 8:28 PM on August 4, 2012
(87 comments)
Seinfeld 2012 Imagining the characters from the now-vintage sitcom dealing with current technology and social media. From the creator of
the beloved Beartato.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 11:06 AM on August 1, 2012
(77 comments)
Cartoonists on the world we live in from the
GrauniadGuardian, including such obvious suspects as
Nicholas "PBF" Gurewitch and
Kate "Hark!" Beaton, as well as
others you've probably seen before but
don't recognize but should.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 12:21 PM on July 21, 2012
(11 comments)
This Toon Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us SLYToon) officially authorized by the original artists, those wacky guys.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 7:42 PM on July 18, 2012
(16 comments)
Michael J. Ruocco is more than the self-described 'curator' of the
Animation Smears and Multiples tumblr* (
previously here), he's also a talented young animator -
here's his short toon about a bird who picked the wrong place to nest - and a serious student of Animation History whose other site is
365 Days of Ward Kimball**, about the Disney animator who was considered one of the best and certainly the most adventurous of
Walt's 'Nine Old Men'. Kimball's free-wheeling style showed up in everything from
Snow White to
Fantasia to
The Three Caballeros to his Oscar-winning short
'It's Tough to Be a Bird'. His semi-NSFW irreverence is on display in
off-model drawings of Mickey Mouse and
caricatures of himself. And on the side, he made
elaborate comics for an antique car magazine, formed the jazz band
The Firehouse 5 Plus 2 (that's him on trombone)*** and put
a full-sized railroad with working trains in his back yard.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 6:02 PM on July 17, 2012
(2 comments)
What is the probability that you are dreaming right now? asks Jan Westerhoff, author of Oxford University Press'
Reality: A Very Short Introduction (large excerpts at Google Books). Westerhoff explains that since it's accepted that about 20% of time sleeping is REM (dreaming) sleep, if you sleep 8 hours a night, then 10% of your "conscious" time is actually dream time.*
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 7:11 AM on July 15, 2012
(88 comments)
Shaenon K. Garrity, who has more expertise than most with the humorous depiction of the paranormal and government black-ops from her webcomics
Narbonic* and
Skin Horse** uses it to do a weekly twelve-panel MAD magazine-ish recap of episodes of The X-Files in
"Monster of the Week". So far:
Pilot or They Haven't Invented the Theme Song Yet,
Deep Throat or Deep Throat Is Barely Even In This Episode and
Squeeze or The First Monster Of The Week.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 12:40 AM on July 13, 2012
(18 comments)
Mike Judge (King of the Hill, Beavis and Butthead) directs and Titmouse (Metalocalyse, Superjail!) produces an animated music video for the Zac Brown Band (categorized as
"country, Southern rock, bluegrass, reggae and folk" in Wikipedia) that has nothing to do with the song. Ladies and Gentlefolk, somebody with an excellent sense of humor presents:
Robo-Redneck.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 2:13 PM on July 4, 2012
(20 comments)
Bei mir bist du scheen (or schejn or schön or schoen) by Azerbaijani pop singer
Ilhama (featuring DJ OGB) is a recent remake of a
1930's Yiddish song originally translated for
the Andrews Sisters. The visuals featuring
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy are as much fun as the music. (Check out L&H
dancing and
singing in "Way Out West".) But still, my all-time favorite interpretation of the 'Bei Mir' song was a 1976 commercial for Shasta Soft Drinks that repurposed it as
"Root Beer, Mister Shane".
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 12:04 PM on June 29, 2012
(38 comments)
The Frog's Bollocks (and Other Assorted Bollocks) NSFW. Not Shown To Scale. Not Narrated by Richard Attenborough. NOT related to
this story (I hope). Blame
Drawn.
posted to MetaFilter by oneswellfoop
at 10:10 AM on June 23, 2012
(17 comments)
