Dr. Pepper/Rapper Game Answers!

Thanks to everybody who gave their best guesses on yesterday's quiz. If you're like me, you will be delighted to learn that out of the 15 names below, only two are rappers: Dr. Octagon and D-Nice. All the rest are Dr. Pepper knockoffs, which Jonathan and Dan found on this site, Fake Dr. Pepper Land. Check it out; there are so many more there in the incredibly extensive gallery that didn't make it into the quiz. My personal favorite is Giant Eagle Brand's "Mr. aahh".

Bummer!

Yesterday I had the privilege of being a guest blogger on the excellent, hilarious and addictive site Bummer! and you can read my entry here.

Truly Terrible Gift Idea of the Day

Spotted on Amazon, advertised as "perfect for Mother's Day," this "Retro Candy Gift Box" is available in several decades. Here is their 1940's version.



















(Happy Birthday, Mom! I didn't buy you this.)

Feelin' Tiny, But Okay With It

From the April issue of Harper's Magazine, under "Findings":

An Arizona comologist urged scientists to search for a "shadow biosphere" that may exist, undetected, alongside our own. Shadow life, it has been suggested, would be descended of a "second genesis" and would prove that life on Earth evolved twice over.

A British astrophysicist calculated that 37,964 planets in the Milky Way are sufficiently hospitable to harbor higher life forms and that 361 are likely home to intelligent civilizations.

A Florida synthetic-biology lab announced the creation of a chemical compound capable of Darwinian evolution but said that the compoud was not yet capable of living on its own. "It is not self-sustaining," explained the lab's head scientist. "You have to have a graduate student stand there and feed it."

For What, Exactly?

License plate spotted on a black sedan on DeKalb Ave:

IM2YUMMY

Interesting Point

April Fools Day at Air America

Google Ad of the Day

Barack Obama: Yes or No?
10-Second Poll.
www.openpinion.com/Barack-Obama>

Overseen On Time Warner Cable Summaries

by MICHAEL KROLL, guest blogger

Bewitched (2005):
A real life witch (Nicole Kidman) stars in this remake of the 1960's t.v. classic.

Misappropriated Literary Reference of the Day

[This is a real MTA NYC Subway ad...thanks to this blog for the pic.]

Hulu.com Comment of the Day

Why do people whine so much?
Re: "Prince Family Paper," The Office: Season 5, Episode 12

Why can't people just watch tv and enjoy it for once. Everyone always has to critique everything and describe just how bad it is. Do you people like anything? What's the point of watching if all your doing is pointing out how much you don't like it. Seriously, just watch TV and stop complaining. I like the office and just humor in general.

-Jay094

Foodspiration

Another thing that's inspiring me right now is Winter's Tale, an incredibly imaginative, inventive and visually rich novel by Mark Helprin. It's 673 pages long, I've been reading it since Christmas, and it's actually sort of taking over my brain. Here's a passage in which an eccentric and probably crazy maid named Boonya rattles off a list of her master's favorite foods that the new cook will have to learn how to make:

"Oh, durbo cheese stuffed with trefoil, camminog, meat of the vibola, roast bandrilog seeds, satcha oil hotcakes, young Dollit chicken in Sauce Donald, giant broom berries, creme de la berkish tollick, serbine of vellit, pickled teetingle, chocolate wall hermans, trail lemons, Rhinebeck hot pots with fresh armando, parrifoo of aminule, vanilla lens arrows, fertile beaties, archbestial bloodwurst, Turkish calendar cake, fried berlac chippings, cocktail of ballroom pig, vellum cream cake, undercurrents, crispt of tough boxer lamb, sugared action terries, merry rubint nuts, and rasta blood-chicken with sauce Arnold." (p. 352)

Hungry? Me neither. But it makes me want to read even more slowly. And then it makes me want to make up some of my own. Like... Burnt hat-velvet crumbcake. Pureed fintoon-bread. Aged foil blossoms.

Kittenspiration

Hi folks, you know I like to put original work here on this here blog of Lumberjack tales. But every once in a while I come across something that I so badly wish that I had made myself that I have to share it, because it's something I keep coming back to for inspiration and I know you'll like it too. This was one. This is another:

Actual Towns in the UK

Thanks to Tom & Aaron
for finding this in the NYT...
full story w/ more pictures here,
highly recommended.

Caption Contest!

[Mine: Abe Plays the Backup-Drums]

Rejection Letter....Win

from: McSweeney's <lists@mcsweeneys.net>
to: Lauren Kirchner <lauren.kirchner@gmail.com>
date: Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 5:12 PM
subject: Re: List submission: Tattoos I Want to Get

Hi, Lauren -

I'm afraid I'm going to pass, but I think this reply would look awfully good on your right forearm.

Best,
Chris

>Lauren wrote:

>Tattoos I Want to Get
>by Lauren Kirchner<mailto:lauren.kirchner@gmail.com>

>Nicolas Cage's face, life-sized, superimposed on my face
>Studio portrait of my future family
>Siskel & Ebert's Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down logo (on my boobs)
>Musical score of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin
>New York City subway map, just for convenience
>Phone numbers & addresses of ex-boyfriends
>Chinese character for "ironic"
>My latest rejection letter from McSweeney's
>A frowning baby head on my bicep

What's Your Resolution?

by JESSALEE LANDFRIED, guest blogger

A letter to the editor that my dad received at the newspaper where he works (he is the editorial page editor at the Durham Herald-Sun), in response to the prompt, "What's your New Year's resolution?":

> I think the person who keep dropping off unwanted pets at
> my house should resolve to stop this. We are going broke
> trying to take care of what we do have. We are trying to
> find the chicken a good home. The last little kitten we
> didn't find until it was run over. Enough is ENOUGH !
> Besides being broke, we are tired, my health could be
> better, and we are mad at whoever is doing this. Hope I
> don't see catch them. I live not 1 1/2 mile from the
> Durham County Animal Shelter which has facilities for
> unwanted pets.

[Editor's note: This is unrelated, but I really like the headline of Wednesday's Herald-Sun editorial: "Getting Serious on Dog, Cat Tax."

TYFBAF is the new LOL

by LEILA ESTES, guest blogger

Thank you for being a friend!

[Thanks to D-Listed for the pic. More celebrity dolls here.]

Lumberjack on the TV

I used to produce a weekly radio show hosted by Sam Seder, who now has a daily webcast thingy with Marc Maron called "Maron v. Seder", which you can watch or podcast here. It's political and funny and sarcastic and great. Lately they're doing a series for the show called "Meet the Co-Workers," and here's the one where they meet me:

Best Animals You Never Knew Existed, Pt. 2

by AARON REUBEN, guest blogger

6. Pink Fairy Armadillo (Chlamyphorus truncatus) - Argentina

7. Cantor's giant soft-shelled turtle (Pelochelys cantorii)

8. Blob fish (Psychrolutes marcidus) - Australia

9. Malaysian Tapir (Tapirus indicus) - Malaysia

10. Yeti Crab (Kiwa hirsuta) - South Pacific Ocean