Edward Everett Tanner III, nicknamed Pat, was an American author born in 1921. Working under the pseudonyms Virginia Rowans and (as he was best known) Patrick Dennis, he wrote sixteen novels before his death in 1976. Although Patrick Dennis was … Continue reading Edward Everett Tanner III Night Thread (March 13)
It’s International Women’s Day. Celebrate accordingly. Enjoy my excellent graphic. Continue reading International Women’s Day Thread (March 8)
The Philadelphia Wireman is an unidentified artist whose works — about 1200 of them — were found abandoned in a Philadelphia alley in the late 1970s. Each sculpture is made of miscellaneous objects bound together with wire; materials include “plastic, … Continue reading Philadelphia Wireman Night Thread (March 6)
“Princess Caraboo” was an impostor who appeared in the English town of Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, in 1817. A young woman wearing unusual clothes and speaking a language she had made up, she pretended to be a native of a fictional island … Continue reading The Feb. 10 Night Thread of Princess Caraboo
We’ve come to the last entry in my little Late to the Party series. This is easily the best-made out of the three slasher movies I’ve watched in terms of cinematography and editing. The way Myers appears barely visible in … Continue reading Late to the Party: Halloween
Having just seen A Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time as well, I was obviously comparing it to this movie as I watched. Friday the 13th came out only four years earlier but feels like it’s from a … Continue reading Late to the Party: Friday the 13th
This is the story of a proactive young woman who can’t get any goddamn help from anyone. I’m a big fan of Nancy and hate everyone else in this film. Nancy quickly figures out the rules of Freddy’s game and … Continue reading Late to the Party: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Peter Vaughan was a British character actor. Apparently, if you are also British, he was best known to you as Grouty from the sitcom Porridge, but he popped up in a million things over the decades. A big man with … Continue reading Peter Vaughan Day Thread (Friday March 8)
Things I knew about Elf going in: Things I did not know: Buddy is a baby in an orphanage. Santa comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve, and Buddy crawls into his bag of toys and is accidentally taken back … Continue reading Late to the Party: Elf (2003)
The comedian Jerry Stiller was born on June 8, 1927. He first became famous as half of a comedy team with his wife Anne Meara. The two were regulars on TV and radio during the ’60s and ’70s. To a … Continue reading The Jerry Stiller Night Thread (Thursday June 8)
“My postilion has been struck by lightning,” or a variation thereon, is a sentence often used as an example of the kind of bizarre and useless phrases that come up when you’re learning a foreign language. It was a nineteenth- … Continue reading The Night Thread’s Postilion Has Been Struck By Lightning (Sunday Feb. 19)
The Dumbarton Oaks Museum in Washington, D.C., has a kickass collection of pre-Columbian American artifacts. Let’s look at some! Continue reading The Night Thread says more like the COOLarton Oaks Museum (Friday Jan. 27)
Exit 57 was a sketch show on Comedy Central in the mid-nineties, starring Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Jodi Lennon, Mitch Rouse, and Amy Sedaris. Honestly, it was mostly pretty bad, but they had a handful of good sketches. I like … Continue reading Day Thread of This Exit 57 Sketch (Thursday Nov. 17)
I went to the Harvard Art Museums on Sunday. I saw many cool things. Here are a few of my favorites. Continue reading Day Thread of the Harvard Art Museums (Wednesday Nov. 16)
Five hundred years ago in Zurich, Christoph Froschauer served sausages at a party, leading to several arrests. It was Lent, and under Catholic canon law at the time, that meant no eating meat. Froschauer, a printer, was part of a … Continue reading The Night Thread of the Sausages (Wednesday Oct. 5)
Sorry to anyone I threw for a loop by claiming it was Thursday last night. In fact, it was not Thursday, and it is not expected to be Thursday until later this week (details to come). Anyway, hurray for accessible … Continue reading The Night Thread’s Got the Pill (Tuesday Oct. 4)
Native American civil-rights activist and actress Sacheen Littlefeather died yesterday at 75. To most people, she was best known as the speaker sent by Marlon Brando to the Oscars ceremony in 1973 to decline his Best Actor award for The … Continue reading Sacheen Littlefeather Night Thread (Monday Oct. 3)
Lots of spiders spend time on or in the water. Some can swim underwater for long periods to hunt or escape predators, and others have adaptations that let them simply survive underwater long enough to wait out flood conditions. But … Continue reading The Night Thread goes scuba diving with spiders (Wednesday Aug. 10)
A mnemonic device is any technique or trick that helps you retain and retrieve information. Wikipedia has a list of mnemonics, mostly of the first-letter-based variety that we all learned a lot of in school. (Its planet ones are all … Continue reading The Night Thread uses mnemonic devices (Thursday Jul. 7)
Elmer of Malmesbury — also spelled Eilmer and about a million other different ways — was an English Benedictine monk who lived in the 11th century. I’ve probably posted about him here before, because I love him. He made a … Continue reading The June 21 History Thread Celebrates Elmer the Flying Monk
Grape-Nuts is a breakfast cereal created by Post in 1897. Per their website, Grape-Nuts actually contains neither grapes nor nuts. It’s made from wheat and barley. So, why is it called Grape-Nuts? As with many great emblems in history, there … Continue reading The Night Thread Likes Grape-Nut Ice Cream (Apr. 30)
