Not Too Much Spark Though!

Ringing In The New Year Vintage Style

Via I Have Seen The Whole Of The Internet

Flavorwire's New Year’s Eve Bingo

• print all four bingo cards 
• share them with a few friends 
• place a sticker on each appropriate square as the night progresses 
• the first person to get five in a row wins 2013.

Get more cards at Flavorwire

“Don’t Even Brush Your Teeth”: 91 Hangover Cures From 1961

Posting to be helpful.

1. White bread

2. A dozen raw oysters

3. Mashed potatoes

4. “Eat a white Bermuda onion like an apple. Wait half an hour, then take a good shot.” —George Gust, Club 58, Detroit. Restaurant and bar owner, white, male, about 28; born and reared in Detroit; of Greek extraction.

5. Buttered celery

If these don't work there are more cures at  The Awl

Incredible photos

My friend Donald sent me some great photos via Ned Hardy. Here are some of them:

The Kennedy trio in the mid 30s as teenagers; John, Bobby and Teddy

Martin Luther King Jr removing a burned cross from his front yard with
his son at his side. Atlanta Ga 1960

Jewish refugees, approaching allied soldiers, become aware
that they have just been liberated, April, 1945

Tereska, a child in a residence for disturbed children, grew up in a
concentration camp.
 She drew a picture of "home" on the blackboard, Poland , 1948

Last four couples standing in a Chicago dance marathon. ca. 1930.

Three Princeton students pose after the Freshman, Sophomore snowball fight.
 1893.Princeton , NJ .

The first official riders in New York City ’s first subway, 1904

Snow In Niagara

I'd like to go for a walk but it's been so long since we had a real snowfall that I've forgotten where I stowed my snowboots. I made it as far as the end of the driveway to drag the trashcans in.

Taking Out The Trash Canadian Style

janeladele's husband takes the trash out in his underwear in Canada’s freezing cold. Ain't no big deal, I usually run our garbage to the curb in my ratty old pajamas.
Via Laughing Squid

Wicker child transporter

This kid does not appear overjoyed.

Via Retronaut

Deconstructing Detroit

Reclaim Detroit is an organization dedicated to salvaging materials from demolished houses and creating jobs through training employees in green deconstruction techniques.

Focus: HOPE - Reclaim Detroit from Focus Hope on Vimeo.

Via  Unconsumption

A Walk Through Le Marais

Le Marais is one of my favourite arrondissements of Paris. The peacefulness of the Place des Vosges, the incredible collection at the Musée Picasso, the Musée Carnavalet (with its recreation of the room of Marcel Proust), the Jewish District around the rue des Rosiers and so many fab bistrots  (Camille is a favourite of mine.) I've yet to do it on a skateboard though.
Filmmaker Thomas Guerrin gets it right in this video.



Via Kuriositas

No drugs please and 'keep it down'

David Bowie's advice to a 17-year-old girl on how to host a rock concert in 1969.
The recipient of the letter, who did not wish to be named, is now 60 and working as an academic in York.
Via Quiddity

Uncork Your Creativity

Mr. Nag fiddles with the cages and corks of champagne bottles while drinking the contents and fashions tiny bistro chairs but these designs put his to shame (sorry sweetie):

Anna Uniezyski

Tony Nemyer

Gavri Slasky

Design Within Reach challenges you to create an original miniature chair using only the foil, label, cage and cork from no more than two champagne bottles. The charming chairs above are submissions from previous years.

Via If It's Hip, It's Here

O little town of Bethlehem, where art thou?

photo credit: http://mynerja.com

Is it possible that the Bethlehem celebrated by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus is actually a village in Galilee and not just outside of Jerusalem as commonly believed?
Aviram Oshri, an Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist, thinks so. Here are some of the arguments he makes:

• The village was inhabited by Jews in the first century, while the city of Bethlehem was uninhabited in the first century
• Mary’s travel to the village of Bethlehem would have been easier to make (7km) than her journal to Bethlehem City (150km)
• Christians did not pay attention to the City of Bethlehem until the fourth century, when Constantine made Christianity the Roman Empire’s official religion

Link
Via

Cat Bowl Feeds Only the Right Cat

We would like to get a second cat to keep Joyce company but have hesitated because she is a glutton, probably from being abandoned and nearly starving to death before I found her. She'll eat as much as I place in front of her and when my son visits she pushes his dog away from its dish and wolfs down the dog food. I am afraid a second cat might starve and Joyce would get even fatter. This gadget might be the solution to our dilemma.
Gatefeeder uses a special collar-mounted RFID tag to ensure only the right pet gets the food inside. No Smart ID, no dinner!
But yikes, it's $249.00!

Via

We Are Young by Fun. Played by Old Computer Equipment

This is a sweet little video. I love this song, especially Janelle Monae's  acoustic version.

HP Scanjet 3C – Vocals
Yamaha CX-5 – Piano
BWD-504 Oscilloscope to display CX-5 audio output
Harddrives – Drums
The Harddrives are controller with a PIC16F84A microcontroller

Via

Doctor Who - A Visual History - 1963 - 2012

This should keep all you Who heads occupied for awhile.

Doctor Who History 1963-2012 from Joe Siegler on Vimeo.

Via Kuriositas

Downton Abbey Gingerbread House 2012

I wish I'd seen this a few weeks before Christmas!

Greg Rutter's Definitive List of The Things You Should Have Already Experienced On The Internet In 2012 Unless You're a Loser or Old or Something

It's a lazy Christmas afternoon. Kill time before dinner catching up on all the stupid stuff you missed this year.
Link
Via

The First Christmas Movie

Made by George Albert Smith in 1898.

La boite verte

Lord Buckley meets Groucho Marx

Hip poet/comic Lord Buckley is more than a match for Groucho.

Boing Boing

The Voice of Father Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!



(My friend Scott is the fellow dancing in the second half)

Pleasure Seekers - What a Way To Die

"The Pleasure Seekers were an all-girl garage rock band from Detroit, Michigan.
One of the first all-girl groups to be signed to a major label, original band members
Suzi and Patti Quatro were only 15 and 17, respectively, at the time of their first record."

Thanks Bruce!

Pavel Puvov's Street Art

By carefully removing some of the snow next to a street light, Russian street-artist Pavel Puhov created this piece.

Street Art by Pavel Puhov 

Father Christmas Delivers To The Front

Retronaut

A Field Guide To Christmas Plants and Animals

Laughing Squid

Have Yourself A Moldy Little Christmas

Make penicillin and deck the halls at the same time! These holiday themed art creations were made  by scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute using different species of fungi.

See two more at Geekologie

The Physics of Santa

Have you ever wondered how Santa manages to deliver gifts to 200 million children around the world within 24 hours?

 [Infographic]
Via

Frankincense Tree Threatened

Frankincense has been closely identified with Christmas since one of the Three Wise Men carried it as a gift to the newborn baby Jesus. But over-exploitation, changing land use and a destructive beetle are killing Boswellia sacra, the tree that produces frankincense. Unless something is done the species faces extinction within 50 years.
Scientists are looking at ways of making it more cold-resistant to expand its growing area.

The Welsh Frankincense Project sells trees that can be kept as houseplants.  Every sale contributes directly to the  survival  of these precious trees
  Read the article at the Telegraph

The Christmas Song

The Clash with Tymon Dogg: Once You Know

One more Joe Strummer link today.

London At Christmas

Londonist

Inside the World of Wychwood Park

Long ago I rented an apartment that backed onto Wychwood Park and I used to walk my dog there. It is a beautiful oasis in the heart of the city. My husband at the time painted a life size portrait of me in front of a shed in the park which he sold to a friend (John Edwards). I'd love to know where the painting ended up.



 thestar.com

The Late Great Joe Strummer

Died ten years ago today.

Have Yourself A Piggy Little Christmas

Via Tack-O-Rama,

Django Unchained celebrated with an illustrated history of Quentin Tarantino

Below, to celebrate the release of Django, which stars Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio, we take a look at his filmography, in a handy illustrated format. Scroll over each character for some history on the Tarantino film in which he or she stars! Illustration by Steve Murray



National Post

How To Look Like Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas)

It takes a little time but you'll look marvelous!



Via Blort

How to Mix Drinks with David Wondrich

Don't just guzzle from the bottle. This year add a touch of class to your holiday imbibing. Cheers!



Via

OCD Cutting Board

The perfect gift for a very exacting cook.

$24.95 at Amazon.com
Via Book Of Joe

Brooklyn Brownstone Homes Made of Gingerbread

Chef Renee Baumann and friends baked this Gingerbread Brooklyn block to be auctioned off to benefit City Harvest.
More here
Via

Deep Tea Diver

Most of you know me as a wine drinker but I usually don't start that nonsense until after 5pm. In the morning I drink strong coffee. In between I am a serious tea drinker and think this is the cutest piece of tea gear I've seen in awhile.
Buy it here

The Knitting Needle and the Damage Done

Knit tats. Wear your craft on your sleeve.

Link
Via

"Whiskey" the Last Turnspit Dog

Poor wee Whiskey. When I was a little Nag my mum would tell me about the little turnspit dogs. I remember shedding tears for them.

Whiskey the last turnspit dog

Turnspit dogs were used until the middle of the 19th century to turn meat on a spit. The dog would be placed in a small wheel connected to the spit and as he ran the spit would be turned.
'Whiskey' is the last surviving specimen of a turnspit dog, albeit stuffed. The breed died out with the advent of mechanisation in the kitchen.

Link
More about these hardworking dogs here

Consider Your Man Card Reissued

An ad by Bushmaster, manufacturer of the rifle allegedly used in the Newtown school shooting.

More Astounding Gun Ads at Mother Jones

Via 

Peter Kent, The Early Years

Could this be Peter Kent before he became Canada's Kyoto killing environment minister?

Via Fengtastic! 

United Noshes

Jesse and Laura are cooking one meal from every United Nations member country, in alphabetical order, as a dinner party and fundraiser for World Food Program USA. So far they have raised a total of $12,133.

Their Canadian meal included poutine (which I have never tasted and probably never will), tourtière, KD (really), maple baked beans, butter tarts and Caesars. A little Quebec centric but very Canadian.

Read more at United Noshes
Via MeFi

Go figure

Stockholm Syndrome

USA vs Sweden. Wyatt Cenac travels to Sweden to wake up their hauntingly thin citizens from their socialist nightmare. An oldie but goodie.

Link 

'Tis The Season To Spill Your Food All Over Your Best Outfit

Here is a bit of useful Christmas advice. You're welcome.

Via Holy Kaw!

Doppelgangers

Over the years I have been mistaken for Canadian actress/comedienne Andrea Martin (above) several times. She used to live around the corner from us in Toronto and her son was in a nursery school program with my older son. We were both dark and short so someone with poor eyesight might mistake us for one another. More recently I was stopped on the street here in Niagara on the Lake and asked if I was Ms Martin and on a flight back from Paris I heard one woman whisper to another, "That's Andrea Martin." 

Photograph by François Brunelle

Photograph by François Brunelle

Canadian photographer Francois Brunelle is fascinated with the human face and the question of whether everyone has a doppelganger somewhere on Earth that looks exactly like them. For years now, he has been working on a project called I’m Not a Look-Alike!, which features portraits of people who look like identical twins but aren’t actually related at all. Brunelle looks for subjects whose faces are so similar that their close friends might have trouble telling them apart.

See more here
Via

The Bowerbird, Avian Decorator

When I first met Mr. Nag I used to call him a bowerbird because his apartment was full of glittery, colourful junk that he'd accumulated. At the time I thought it was cute, now not so much.

The male bowerbird has one dazzling bachelor pad. His nest, woven around a tree and carpeted with moss, takes years to build. Each bowerbird has his own exquisite taste in decorations; some prefer neat arrangements of blue and purple flowers while others enjoy the classic minimalism of dark seeds and glass. Common embellishments include leaves, coins, nails, shells and even live insects. This elaborate ritual is sacrosanct, because the bowerbird knows that if his bower isn't beautiful, he will not seduce his mate.

Read more at The Observer

Bennett School for Girls Set for Demolition

Bennett School For Girls had its first premises in Irvington in New York and finally came to rest in Millbrook, Duchess County in the same state seventeen years later. Generations of well-heeled girls received their junior college education there and this two year program of study continued in to the 1970s. So what caused the school to decline of the school in to such a state of magnificent disrepair?

Link via  Kuriositas

The Days Before Christmas

The Days Before Christmas by Stanley Jackson by Wolf Koenig & by Terence Macartney-Filgate, National Film Board of Canada

Black-and-white short documentary about Christmastime in Montreal. The milling crowds, department store Santas, Brink's messengers, kindergarten angels and boisterous nightclubs - all combine to make a vivid portrait of the holidays.

Via one of our national treasures, the NFB

Rep. Brandon Dillon, My New Hero

Who are the real freeloaders? Conservatives in Ontario and at the federal level are launching fierce attacks on labour. Listen to this guy. He makes sense.

Champion Kisser Of The World (1921)

Frenchman André Brulé outkissed 80 international contestants to take the title of "World's Greatest Kisser" in 1921. Judges of the contest were "beauties of the younger set at Biarritz".

Brulé's perfect kiss was according to the following procedure. He took careful aim, and then with his right arm waistward and his left foot used as a pivot, swung suddenly, implanting the kiss exactly in the middle of the mouth. The advantage of this method, which, it is declared, requires long practice, is that the girl has no time to escape...

If I saw him closing in on me I'd hightail it.

Via TYWKIWDBI 

Diane Arbus “Xmas Tree In A Living Room In Levittown, Long Island, 1963"

Via Shrine of Dreams

Christophe Jacrot's Photos Of Paris In The Rain

"I like the way rain, snow and “bad weather” awaken a feeling of romantic fiction within me (climatic excesses are another topic). I see these elements as a fabulous ground for photography, an under-used visual universe with a strong evocative power, and with a richness of subtle lights."

Some of them resemble impressionist paintings. All are beautiful. It's been three years since I've been to Paris and looking at these photos makes me wish I were there.

More at Christophe Jacrot photographies
Thanks Bruce!

Amazing Water Art -

This takes a lot of skill! The technique is similar to that used in paper marbling.



Thanks Bruce!

Look Like A Water Bird

Aren't puffins cute? Here's how to get the look:

GTL – Puffin: Strawbery Red White and Blue Lollipop / Sara Kety Baby & Kids 'Tuxedo' Footie (Infant) Black 3M

The Hairpin will also show you how to look like a swan or a flamingo if elegance is more your thing.