December 3, 2017

I don't care who's a good boy—back away from the baby, bud

When it comes to babies, dogs are quite protective [lots of barking]. Cats (with notable exceptions) are more about the snuggles [h/t Miss Cellania].
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 11:16 PM PST - 30 comments

Refugees Are Welcome Here

The Story of Seven-Hundred Polish Children (1966) (18’05, Black & White) [more inside]
posted by Start with Dessert at 7:07 PM PST - 7 comments

Have another Christmas song to argue about

Xmas Express was a series of commercials for Japan Rail that ran from 1988-1992, with a reboot in 2000. They featured the Japanese Christmas song "Christmas Eve," recorded by Tatsuro Yamashita in 1983, and a different up-and-coming actress each year. In each, the main character is shown meeting her boyfriend at a train station - because if you didn't know, Christmas is a romantic holiday in Japan, where the traditions include going out to a romantic dinner, seeing the lights, and sharing KFC and a Christmas cake. (Other holidays are outside the scope of this post, but if that piques your interest, you might also want to read about Valentine's Day and White Day in Japan.) [more inside]
posted by sunset in snow country at 6:39 PM PST - 11 comments

“Are those big spots his... ears?”

The Investigation Into Toad's Head Continues [Kotaku] “In case you didn't know Toad is at the center of a heated, ongoing debate. On one side are the people who think the mushroom on his head sits there like a hat. On the other side are people who think the mushroom is part of his head. Thanks to the latest Boundary Break video [YouTube], we have some new evidence to consider. While the debate has been raging for aeons, it was recently brought back to the fore thanks to Super Mario Odyssey. There are a bunch of toads in the game and some of them are wearing hats. Like, real ones. On top of their mushroom part. This seemed to suggest the pro-head people have been right all along. A post over at Dorkly [Dorkly] that laid out the debate in detail earlier this month also explained that Toad's mushroom can't be a hat because Cappy, Mario's companion in the game, can only possess creatures who aren't already wearing hats. Mario can possess toads in the game, ergo the mushroom must not be a hat.”
posted by Fizz at 4:27 PM PST - 51 comments

Seasons' Greetings from the Steinbeck Family

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! It has been another dry and brutal year in the Salinas Valley. In case you do not have our previous holiday letters on hand, I will remind you that the Salinas Valley is a lush depression winding through the mountains west of the San Joaquin Valley. There is enough sunlight and enough rain in the Salinas that just about any crop a man plants should grow and flourish. A man could live off the land, if he put his mind to it. He could sell enough beans or corn or, hell, oranges even, that he could keep his belly tight and his flask full, and he could put a roof over his head, and once in a while, if he got the urge to, he could even go into town and lie with a woman. Of course I (John) am only joking about that last part!!
posted by ChuraChura at 2:45 PM PST - 9 comments

Play it.

"I truly believe this remains the greatest scene ever filmed." - David Youngblood on La Marseillaise in Casablanca
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:26 PM PST - 66 comments

The invisible struggle for autistic women

I recoiled in silence, knowing no amount of explanation would break her stereotypes of autism.
For too many, though, that crucial diagnosis may never come. People who struggle with executive abilities tend to get ignored. The spectrum is labeled through the ability to communicate and socialize; adapting to daily life is not often factored into the diagnostic process. Difficulty with executive function is treated as a byproduct of autism, not a defining feature.
[more inside]
posted by Cheerwell Maker at 10:34 AM PST - 72 comments

GIANT 15 FT EDIBLE GINGERBREAD HOUSE

"Santa going down the chimney, catching on fire." Last year, Tate Lovett and his dad built a 4 foot high gingerbread house. This year they went to 15 feet and made the news. [more inside]
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:46 AM PST - 13 comments

Every dude with a copy of Breakfast of Champions on his nightstand

20 Authors I Don’t Have to Read Because I’ve Dated Men for 16 Years, or, if you’ve spent enough time around dudes, you’ve basically already read these.
posted by acb at 9:45 AM PST - 278 comments

Hi, my name is Tony…

Postmortem: Every Frame a Painting After a year and a half without new content, the film analysis channel, Every Frame a Painting (YouTube, Vimeo) is officially over. Tony Zhou, the narrator and creator of the video essays, along with his now disclosed collaborator, Taylor Ramos, discuss the reasons for shuttering their channel and the process they used to create the essays. (via Medium) Previouslys: 1., 2., 3., 4., 5., 6., 7.
posted by coolxcool=rad at 9:10 AM PST - 25 comments

Look What You Made Them Do

In a now-viral tweet, @xnulz asked twitter to: “Name a badder bitch than Taylor Swift.” Here are just a few of those badder bitches: [more inside]
posted by melissasaurus at 8:57 AM PST - 102 comments

Injunuity

Two Spirit [yt] - "Two Spirit: A Native American possessing both a male and female spirit. An umbrella term used to describe the fluidity of Native American gender identity and sexuality with respect to traditional tribal roles." [more inside]
posted by kliuless at 6:41 AM PST - 4 comments

Defunctland

Defunctland is a notional amusement park comprised of defunct rides and attractions from actual parks, but more interestingly it's a series of entertaining short videos about the stories of vanished rides- why they were built, what they were like, and why- be it changing tastes, entertainment conglomerate politics, poor quality, or terrible engineering- they became defunct. Episode list inside. [more inside]
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:10 AM PST - 15 comments

Wintergatan melody - Minecraft cover

You like the Wintergatan Machine (right?) - and you like Minecraft (right?) - then you'll definitely like the Wintergatan song in Minecraft, automated with note blocks and redstone! [more inside]
posted by carter at 5:21 AM PST - 4 comments

The story of the Rastafarians

On the day Emperor Haile Selassie visited Jamaica, a powerful storm broke out. The country, prior to the Emperor’s arrival, had been ravaged by famine and starvation. There had been no rain to water the crops for decades. The first time, in a long time, that it rained was when the Emperor set foot out of his aeroplane in that country. Jamaicans, from that time on, started to see the Emperor in a new light, they started to assume that maybe he was not just a person, but a messiah of some kind. Maybe even the messiah himself.
[more inside]
posted by infini at 4:27 AM PST - 21 comments

BAH HUMBUG! SHOCK

Historian Dr Bob Nicholson complained on twitter about the incorrect use of massive headlines in newspapers in historic dramas such as the recent film The Man Who Invented Christmas, about Dickens writing A Christmas Carol. The tweet went viral and was, ironically featured in a couple of newspaper stories (The Times - firewalled and The Mail) as well as elsewhere. Dr Bob himself recommends this article on Dickens.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:15 AM PST - 17 comments

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