Friday 12/13/14
Celebrate:
Ice Cream Day
National Cocoa Day
National Cream Cheese Frosting Day
National Day of the Horse
National Popcorn String Day
National Salesperson's Day
National Violin Day
Official Lost and Found Day
Pick a Pathologist Pal Day
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It's Friday the 13th
A survey found that an overwhelming majority of Americans don't really care about the date today.
"Do you think Friday the 13th is an unlucky day?", 80% said it's probably not or definitely not unlucky.
Men are twice as likely as women to believe that Friday the 13th is unlucky. And they're also more likely to consider themselves superstitious overall. 16% of men say they're very superstitious, compared with just 2% of women.
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Everyone has those few (or maybe many) Christmas songs that they can't stand. "USA Today" ranked the absolute 10 worst. Here they are (these are my comments):
1. "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)", Alvin and the Chipmunks (it's ok a few times)
2. "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", Elmo & Patsy (once..only once)
3. "The Christmas Shoes", NewSong (God Awful!)
4. "The Little Drummer Boy", Jessica and Ashlee Simpson
5. "Funky, Funky Xmas", New Kids on the Block (this is an Anniversary year album which made me say Bah Humbug)
6. "Dominick the Donkey", Lou Monte (*^% this song)
7. "Santa Baby", The Pussycat Dolls
8. "Don't Shoot Me Santa", The Killers
9. "Cherry Cherry Christmas", Neil Diamond
10. "I Never Knew the Meaning of Christmas", 'N Sync
Can I add...but only the full versions of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time", Jose Feliciano's Feliz Navidad, and Elton John's "Step Into Christmas." If they were just edited shorter and didn't just go on and on and on and on and on repetitively they would be fine.
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Every year we get a list of dangerous toys to watch out for. Most aren't this dangerous!!!!
One of the most dangerous toys of all time just sold at auction for over 13 GRAND. Unless you're in your 80s, you've probably never heard of it.
In 1950, the guy behind Erector Sets came up with a new science kit for kids called the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab . . . and it came with actual URANIUM.
It had four glass jars, each with a small amount of radioactive material inside. So you could use a Geiger counter to test the radiation levels.
It wasn't THAT dangerous as long as you didn't open the jars. But playing with it still exposed you to the amount of radiation you'd get from a full day in the sun.
(Lawn Darts lost out to this)
Less than 5,000 sets were sold between 1950 and '51. It got pulled from the market thanks to "government restrictions" and because it was too hard to get the uranium.
Full sets are tough to come by, especially in good condition. An online auction for one ended yesterday with a winning bid of $13,200.
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The perfect gift for someone who wants to be surprised may be: Unclaimed mail. There are companies that let you buy "mystery boxes" of random unclaimed packages. You're not guaranteed to get something of value . . . it's just supposed to be an experience . . . in a "White Elephant" sort of way.
One person says their mystery box had: A knock-off Chanel bag . . . a human-size Bowser suit . . . and a bunch of fake IDs. They thought it was hilarious.
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"Entertainment Weekly" has a list of the Best Christmas Movies:
1. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)
2. "A Christmas Story" (1983)
3. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" (1963)
4. "Elf" (2003)
5. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (1966)
6. "Love Actually" (2003)
7. "Bad Santa" (2003)
8. "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992)
9. "The Year Without a Santa Claus" (1974)
10. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (1964)
11. "Home Alone" (1990)
12. "Trading Places" (1983)
13. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993)
14. "White Christmas" (1954)
15. "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947)
16. "Die Hard" (1988)
17. "Scrooged" (1988)
18. "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (1989)
19. "The Holdovers" (2023)
20. "Gremlins" (1984)
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AskReddit asked, "What's something that you are unreasonably good at?"
some of the responses were:
"Reading upside down (or backwards) from the wrong side of the paper."
"Always knowing what time it is . . . without looking at a watch or a clock."
"Scratching a dog in a way where it does 'the leg thing.'"
"Remembering obscure movie quotes."
"Catching things I drop, like keys, before they hit the ground . . . I can do it every time."
"Picking stuff off the floor with my feet."
"Finding parking in the city." Or, "Parallel parking."
"Bouncing a ping pong ball on a ping pong paddle over long periods of time." (The person added that they're terrible at actual ping pong.)
"Picking locks."
"Sleeping on demand."
"Eyeballing measurements."
"Untangling wires." (handy this time of year with Christmas lights)
See the thread here
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A doctor on TikTok is trending after telling constipated people to try mooing like a cow.
It's a variation of a breathing technique that activates your vagus nerve, a large nerve that connects your brain to your vital organs.
He says mooing increases the internal pressure in your body, much like squatting does. And it tells your colon to get things moving.
If you don't want people to think you're crazy, you can also just pretend to blow bubbles or blow out a candle. Both of those can help too.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - Have you ever heard this superstition???
White lighters are bad luck. This has its roots in the 27 Club, where young musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Kurt Cobain all died at the age of 27. According to the superstition, they had white lighters on them when they died. But BIC disposable lighters weren't even invented until 1973 . . . and Hendrix and Joplin died in 1970.
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