February 12, 2023
"The Room" of Talking Animal Movies
Normally the guys at Bloodbath TV (formerly Bloodbath & Beyond) riff on horror movies, but they've made an exception for an absolute baffler of a film called Love on a Leash. It's about a sassy talking dog named Alvin Flang who magically becomes a man each night, falls in love with a woman and spends half his time as her pet and half his time as her boyfriend. Things only get weirder from there. [more inside]
Infinite Mac
The 1846 Attempt to Enfranchise African-Americans and Poor Whites in NY
One of John Brown's funders gave 3,000 land grants so that the recipients could qualify to vote. The New York State Archives has a copy of a ledger showing transactions from Gerrit Smith, an abolitionist and among the wealthiest people in New York. The effort was, in part, to enable the recipients to meet the state's property requirement for voting. The Albany Times-Union has a story about the ledger and Smith.
“I’ve been scammed more than once.”
On Trump's Truth Social: Ads for Miracle Cures, Scams, and Fake Merchandise (slNYT gift, Internet Archive, previously)
Tunnock's Teacake man at 90
I’m in at 6am every day, except Sundays when I start a bit later....
I have a bike to get around the factory. It’s 50 years old and my father had it in front of me. It’s the same one – powered by a car battery. I have all my accoutrements on it too – a horn, sanitiser and a bell. I need to let people know I am coming! The secret diary of Sir Boyd Tunnock, aged 90 and 11 days. Tunnocks has been a family business in Scotland since 1890 - it produces such iconic sweet delights as the caramel wafer, the snowball and the tea cake which Sir Boyd invented himself back in the 50s. [more inside]
The Fine Line Between Pleasure and Harm
Four Loko, the "blackout in a can", fifteen years later. It tasted of the artificial tang of Smarties with a foreboding bitterness; the sun set over the skyline, and then—nothing. I was told later that we ate pizza, that I called my partner, that I ran... somewhere, and that I hadn’t even finished my can. Oh wait, there was one more memory: This felt weirder, wilder and darker than being drunk.
How to correctly exist in polite society.
A list of 140 rules that are completely correct in everyway and definitely won't cause extended arguments about how to etiquette.
The most astonishing athletic performance you will see today
Without makeup, costumes, or sets, and with minimum orchestration, here is the delirious Act One curtain number from the 2011 production of "Anything Goes," directed and choreographed by Kathleen Marshall, performed in rehearsal by the full cast led by the otherworldly Sutton Foster. You're welcome.
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