In an intriguing blog entry the mysterious jasminembla muses about the man in the moon, and his relationship with thorns, linking finally to a most remarkable collection of sourced and footnoted Victorian Moon Lore authored by a Rev. Timothy Harley, 1885. In the "Man in the Moon" section, we learn that, indeed, the man in the moon has been traditionally linked with thorns, variously being exiled to the moon for stealing a bundle of brambles, strewing brambles on the path to church to hinder the pious, or cutting wood on the Sabbath, among other infractions - and that this folktale has existed since at least 1157, when an English abbot asks, in Latin, "Do you not know what the people call the rustic in the moon who carries the thorns? Whence one vulgarly speaking says, "The Rustic in the moon / Whose burden weighs him down / This changeless truth reveals / He profits not who steals." Furthermore, no less a personage than Shakespeare has mentioned the thorny situation of the poor man in the moon... and most interesting, perhaps, the rather convincing theory that the bramble-burdened man in the moon may very well be an older "Jack" of Jack and Jill fame, who did not steal, but was stolen by the moon, along with his sister.
posted to MetaFilter by taz at 5:46 AM on June 26, 2008 (19 comments)

Can I learn to create melodies?
posted to Ask Metafilter by grumblebee at 8:33 AM on June 15, 2008 (38 comments)

You won't find Donkeyskin in many modern fairy-tale anthologies, perhaps because it concerns a girl so beautiful that her own father wanted to marry her. But don't worry, she dresses up as a donkey and escapes! Made famous by Charles Perrault, the story has many variants--Catskin, Allerleirauh, Thousandfurs, The She-Bear, All Kinds of Fur--and has been subject to many interpretations. The tale was illustrated by several of the great gift-book illustrators, including Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Gustave Doré, and the less well-known R. de la Neziere. (More R. de la Neziere here and here.) Oh, and here's a sexy one.
posted to MetaFilter by Powerful Religious Baby at 4:09 PM on June 15, 2008 (41 comments)

Help me find some excellent summer dresses for everyday wear. Specifics inside.
posted to Ask Metafilter by robinpME at 3:35 PM on June 11, 2008 (21 comments)

A woman walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a double entendre, so he gave it to her. Ba-dum dum. What's green and has wheels? Grass. I lied about the wheels. Ba-dum dum. A baby seal walks into a club. (pause) Ba-dum dum. How many kids with ADD does it take to change a lightbulb? LET'S GO RIDE BIKES! Ba-dum dum. A priest, a rabbi, and a minister walk into a bar. The bartender says, "What is this, some kind of joke?" Ba-dum dum. Instant Rimshot. For all those times you need a big red Flash button that'll give you a well-timed rimshot. (Jokes courtesy of Ask Mefi.)
posted to MetaFilter by WCityMike at 7:10 PM on May 12, 2008 (250 comments)

What are some of your absolute favourite online essays, articles and other pieces of non-fiction writing?
posted to Ask Metafilter by turgid dahlia at 4:21 PM on May 1, 2008 (49 comments)

Give it up for The Cramps and The Gun Club. Two of the greatest bands to come out of the late 1970s/early 1980s punk scene, they (wikis here and here) shared a few things in common: guitarist Kid Congo Powers as well as a penchant for re-invigorating the raucous, carnal, primal spirit of American popular music--i.e. early garage rock and rockabilly (what the Cramps dubbed "psychobilly") and blues. Start with this screamer from The Cramps, and this blistering classic from the GC's first LP.
posted to MetaFilter by ornate insect at 4:10 PM on May 5, 2008 (48 comments)

In 1974 - or 1976, depending who you ask - Armistead Maupin began writing "an extended love letter to a magical San Francisco” in the form of a serialized, fictional drama published originally in the Pacific Sun, the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner, originally called "The Serial" which then became collectively known as Tales of The City. It is a suprisingly beautiful, deep, emotional, cosmopolitan and lasting tale about life in San Francisco in the turbulent, heady days of the 1970s and 1980s. Widely credited with and cherished for helping spread a little of the openess, tolerance and acceptance that San Francisco is now famous for. It then became a series of books - Tales of the City, More Tales of the City, Further Tales of the City, Babycakes, Significant Others, Sure of You - and lastly, the spin-off tale of Michael Tolliver Lives. Almost exactly twenty years after first publishing, it then became an excellent miniseries from the United Kingdom's Channel 4, which aired in the United States on PBS, but not without protest or limitations.
posted to MetaFilter by loquacious at 1:20 AM on May 4, 2008 (39 comments)

"The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class"
posted to MetaFilter by kliuless at 2:22 AM on May 1, 2008 (98 comments)

Gormenghast, that is, the main massing of the original stone, taken by itself would have displayed a certain ponderous architectural quality were it possible to have ignored the circumfusion of those mean dwellings that swarmed like an epidemic around its outer walls.
posted to MetaFilter by steerpike at 5:19 AM on April 16, 2008 (57 comments)

Looking for questions to ask my son 'through the years' (more inside).
posted to Ask Metafilter by Twicketface at 10:46 AM on April 11, 2008 (24 comments)

"Curse Tablets are small sheets of lead, inscribed with messages from individuals seeking to make gods and spirits act on their behalf and influence the behaviour of others against their will. The motives are usually malign and their expression violent, for example to wreck an opponent’s chariot in the circus, to compel a person to submit to sex or to take revenge on a thief. Letters and lines written back to front, magical ‘gibberish’ and arcane words and symbols often lend the texts additional power to persuade. In places where supernatural agents could be contacted, thrown into sacred pools at temples, interred with the dead or hidden by the turning post at the circus, these tablets have survived to be found by archaeologists."
posted to MetaFilter by amyms at 12:47 AM on April 12, 2008 (20 comments)

I want to buy a train car and then travel in it. How do I do this?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Capri at 7:39 AM on April 10, 2008 (14 comments)

Wearing an old-fashioned diving suit, William "Diver Bill" Walker worked in 14 feet of murky water beneath Winchester Cathedral, digging out the old timber and peat foundations and replacing them with bags of concrete cement and concrete blocks. Staying underwater six hours per day for five years (1906-1911), Diver Bill moved 25,800 bags of concrete and laid 114,900 concrete blocks, saving the Norman building from certain collapse.
posted to MetaFilter by chuckdarwin at 2:40 PM on April 9, 2008 (38 comments)

Commonly misused phrases or expressions?
posted to Ask Metafilter by cosmic osmo at 6:41 PM on April 2, 2008 (166 comments)

303, 909, FX, MIXER = ACID VARSITY. In other words, two virtual 303s, a 909, effects and a mixer running for free right in your browser.
posted to MetaFilter by 6am at 9:16 AM on April 4, 2008 (41 comments)

Blooming is booming. Whether you prefer DIY or professionals, knowing what to plant and when can be daunting...unless you've got some really excellent websites on your side. And you do! Plantwire will help you find plants through conventional search, tags, or even by colour. Fine Gardening Magazine's site has much to offer: how-to section with videos, design ideas, and a fabulous plant guide. Garden Simply can help you achieve sustainable, organic gardening. Garden and Flower has several convenient guides on how to achieve gardening nirvana - including butterfly garden essentials!
posted to MetaFilter by batmonkey at 7:32 AM on March 28, 2008 (20 comments)

What exact characteristic(s) make someone appear polished and sophisticated?
posted to Ask Metafilter by amfea at 4:01 PM on March 19, 2008 (29 comments)

In 1975 a young divorced mother named "Gloria" volunteers, in an attempt to find some answers to the problems in her life, to be videotaped being a client to three rather new psychotherapies: Person-Centered Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and Gestalt Therapy. Not only is she filmed participating in each therapy, she receiving the therapies from the respective founders of each therapy, Carl Rogers (Part 1, sadly it's cut short), Fritz Perls (Part 2), and Albert Ellis (Part 3). They all take the time before each therapy to explain their methods and there beliefs and how the therapy will go.
posted to MetaFilter by Del Far at 11:19 PM on March 11, 2008 (17 comments)

"Researchers found that failing to publish negative findings inflated the reported effectiveness of all 12 of the antidepressants studied." See also: Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature.
posted to MetaFilter by OmieWise at 8:12 AM on January 17, 2008 (137 comments)

... a small, heavy package wrapped in brown paper arrived in the mail at the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City. Inside was a mess of wires. It wasn't a bomb - it turned out to be the only live recording of Woody Guthrie known to exist. The wire was fragile, bent, stretched and twisted. Jamie Howarth applied some algorithms he had developed to restore old recordings, and the result has been nominated for a Grammy.
posted to MetaFilter by dylanjames at 7:40 PM on February 8, 2008 (43 comments)

What is the best book on tarot, and on doing tarot reading?
posted to Ask Metafilter by bubukaba at 3:29 PM on January 21, 2008 (20 comments)

"A few years ago a psychologist and a philosopher got into an argument over whether we can accurately describe our thoughts. "Yes," said the psychologist; with training and the help of my special technique, we can accurately describe our thoughts. The philosopher doubted it. To resolve their argument, they recruited a young woman who agreed tell them her thoughts, so that they could argue over whether she was credible." Eric Schwitzgebel and Russ Hurlbert debate the transparency of inner experience. See also Schwitzgebel's extremely interesting blog.
posted to MetaFilter by painquale at 7:39 PM on January 13, 2008 (34 comments)

Solid Gold was a television show that ran from 1980 to 1988, on Saturdays, in the early evening, hosted by (among others) Dionne Warwick, Rick Dees, and Marilyn McCoo. It showcased snippets of the Top Ten popular songs of the week, accompanied and sometimes interpreted by the Solid Gold Dancers. This post is about them.
posted to MetaFilter by not_on_display at 9:42 PM on January 11, 2008 (69 comments)

The Dream of the Giant Turtle....... The Bermuda Depths! Remember that "made for tv" movie from the seventies with the gigantic turtle, and the girl with the weird glowing eyes, and the creepy song, and...and then there was.... Carl Weathers, and Burl Ives???
posted to MetaFilter by bradth27 at 10:46 PM on January 12, 2008 (13 comments)

Time to kill while waiting for Santa to arrive/dinner to digest/family to leave? Well, here's a Very Special Holiday Episode fpp just for you. God bless us, every one.
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 8:56 PM on December 24, 2007 (49 comments)

Punk Guitar Heroes - Television's Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd Television, and its guitar pas de deux between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, fit into the punk scene only because they are the ones basically responsible for CBGB becoming a punk rock club. Verlaine convinced Hilly Kristal to let them practice there and play shows, and the rest is history.
posted to MetaFilter by psmealey at 1:27 PM on December 17, 2007 (32 comments)

How to talk to a friend with cancer, Time interview. Author of the excellent, Help Me Live: 20 Things People With Cancer Want You to Know [now a free, readable online Google book], Lori Hope, also lectures on compassionate communication and blogs for the practical and supportive CarePages.com, "free, personal websites that connect family and friends during illness and injury. Top 10 Dos and Don'ts.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 9:45 AM on December 16, 2007 (34 comments)

He was born in 1980, during a risqué Groundlings show. After cameo roles (NSFW/language) in two Cheech & Chong movies, he earned his own HBO special. Four years later, Pee Wee Herman made his first feature film. Love him or hate him, his tv show won 22 Emmys... it seemed he was the luckiest boy in the world. Until one fateful day. Since then he's kept busy, and has regularly started and then nixed rumors of the bow tie's return. Recently he's changed his mind though, and in June a middle-aged Pee Wee made a surprise appearance after 15 years. Now he's promising two upcoming Pee Wee films... but will Johnny Depp take over his giant underpants?
posted to MetaFilter by miss lynnster at 1:39 AM on December 17, 2007 (105 comments)

Two talking cats l cat talking translation l assorted cats.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 8:20 AM on December 15, 2007 (38 comments)

What the hell do you people do for work that you can sit on the internet all day like this?
posted to MetaTalk by koeselitz at 7:36 AM on December 14, 2007 (196 comments)

Open Yale Courses provides free and open access to seven introductory courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars at Yale University:Astronomy, English, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies: a full set of class lectures produced in high-quality video, syllabi, suggested readings, and problem sets.
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 7:43 AM on December 14, 2007 (30 comments)

Life-altering experiences. Can you point to a single experience in your life, as a child, which you can define as having contributed to the person you are today? (+)
posted to Ask Metafilter by jeremias at 4:41 AM on February 2, 2005 (216 comments)

The Peace Drug The Washington Post Magazine takes a look at MDMA as a cure for PTSD.
posted to MetaFilter by empath at 4:53 PM on November 27, 2007 (76 comments)

I'm looking for a good list of books that take a contrarian view of their respective fields of inquiry. Books like Freakanomics, The Tipping Point, The Black Swan, Good Calories Bad Calories.
posted to Ask Metafilter by herda05 at 1:40 AM on November 27, 2007 (14 comments)

How rich is rich?
posted to MetaFilter by anotherpanacea at 7:25 AM on November 27, 2007 (53 comments)

This cheesy 1979 promo film from the group, Blackjack, offers a glimpse into the hard rock past of balladeer Michael Bolton, which also includes a co-writing credit for a Top 40 hit by Kiss. Similarly, Bill Joel disavows the days when he posed in medieval armor next to slabs of raw beef on the cover of the self-titled album by Joel's heavy metal duo, Attila, although Julian Cope is a fan of the album and its Deep Purplish vibes (check out Holy Moses and Wonder Woman). To round out the trifecta, we have Tori Amos who got marketed as the metal-chick frontwoman of Y Kant Tori Read (check out the video for The Big Picture). On the other hand, metalheads have the opposite problem of hiding their pop past. Examples include the industrial metal band Ministry's early days as a new wave synth act and Tommy Iommi's brief tenure as a member of Jethro Tull before becoming lead guitarist of Black Sabbath. Meanwhile, Bon Scott, the late lead singer of AC/DC, is probably spinning in his grave over the YouTube footage of him as an Australian teen idol and a bearded hippie with a recorder.
posted to MetaFilter by jonp72 at 4:21 PM on November 26, 2007 (70 comments)

Do you remember an old photo of a thunderbird/pterodactyl, nailed against a barn wall, with men standing in it for scale? So do many others (including myself). But since that photo has entirely disappeared, are we all victims of a form of mass hysteria? Or victims of a massive reality-altering conspiracy (ctrl-f for 'Birdzilla')?
posted to MetaFilter by Kickstart70 at 9:26 PM on November 26, 2007 (103 comments)

Got any good short, silly one-liner jokes?
posted to Ask Metafilter by angryjellybean at 9:51 AM on November 23, 2007 (97 comments)

Gram Parsons and Buck Owens. What am I missing here?
posted to Ask Metafilter by goalyeehah at 1:44 PM on November 20, 2007 (23 comments)

I've always admired people who are just genuinely nice, warm folks and inspire everyone they talk to. I'd like to be one of those people when I grow up, but I don't know how to do it. Sometimes, when I do or say nice things, people get freaked out and think that I'm hitting on them, want something from them or am being insincere. That isn't the case, but every time it happens, I get a little more timid about doing nice things for people. It's easy to get by with a prickly Dorothy Parker routine, but that's not how I want to live my life. And I'm sick of not doing or saying nice things just because I'm not socially adept enough to pull it off. Being an asshole is easy, and no one ever questions your motives. How can I, as an introvert, act upon my nice impulses without freaking people out? What's the secret to being a mensch?
posted to Ask Metafilter by freshwater_pr0n at 6:58 PM on November 14, 2007 (28 comments)

I've become bored of digg, slate and reddit. I'd like some substitutes (but not too close of substitutes that I get quickly bored again).
posted to Ask Metafilter by survivorman at 2:05 PM on November 15, 2007 (21 comments)

WFMU's The Hound has been delighting record geeks for the past few decades with sets of some of the wildest, wooliest rockabilly, R&B, blues, gospel, garage rock, and punk that can be dug out of crates. His site offers full podcasts, and individual mp3's under the show links, and organized by artist, and title. Bo Diddley singing to Kruschev! Blues songs about the Kinsey report! The Cashmere's talking about the hop! Brownie McGee singing about baseball's integration! Roughly 4 million variations on 'The Twist!' And that;s just the tip of this glorious iceberg.
posted to MetaFilter by jonmc at 8:19 AM on November 18, 2007 (12 comments)

It's getting colder and darker by the day. Give me your strategies for coping with winter!
posted to Ask Metafilter by agent99 at 5:53 AM on November 7, 2007 (25 comments)

What words do you know which have a strong dissonance between their form and meaning?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Jon Mitchell at 2:15 AM on November 3, 2007 (88 comments)

Do you have an FBI file? Or do your grandpa and grandma? "Find out now by ordering a copy of their FBI files and learn a bit more about your family history. Best of all, it's free! (Well, except for the cost of a postage stamp.)" This web site helps you generate the letters you need to send to the FBI to get a copy of your own FBI file. While we're at it, we can generate request letters to some other Federal agencies besides the FBI that you may be interested in (or who may have been interested in you!).
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 6:00 AM on November 2, 2007 (30 comments)

Remains of guru's disciple identified Shortly after the 1998 death of "A Separate Reality" guru Carlos Castaneda, whose peyote-fueled sorceric journeys into the Mexican desert captured the imagination of a generation in the 1970s, five of his closest disciples made out their wills, disconnected their telephones, and disappeared into thin air. via
posted to MetaFilter by hortense at 11:57 PM on February 20, 2006 (46 comments)

The world’s weirdest moths l Moths that drink the tears of sleeping birds l Awesome moth camouflage l Buff Tip moth l moths magnified l Jim des Rivières' moth portraits
posted to MetaFilter by nickyskye at 8:05 AM on October 21, 2007 (39 comments)

How do you make the perfect spinach salad?
posted to Ask Metafilter by Espoo2 at 7:02 PM on October 18, 2007 (41 comments)

Control, the biopic covering the the life and untimely death of Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis, opens in the US today (on a limited release) [ trailer | fan site | on set interview ]. This is director Anton Corbijn's debut full length film [ interview ] and was co-produced by Tony Wilson (a giant in the Manchester and UK music scene, sadly missed. Check out 24 Hour Party People [trailer | clip]) . Control opened in the UK several days ago and the reviews are largely positive [ Guardian | Times Online | Independent | Channel 4 | Time Out | Manchester Evening News ].
posted to MetaFilter by the_very_hungry_caterpillar at 11:43 AM on October 10, 2007 (40 comments)