The Tuesday before Christmas 2011

*wipes tears of laughter. So enjoyed this. Via tykky. 

Merci! by Christine Rabette

Reminds me of my baby sister when we were kids

Teddy, the talking porcupine, wishes you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Light Show 2011 - Sexy and I Know It

Puppy Christmas


the power of the wind in a tornado


who's there cat


Pacman Frog catch some touch screen bugs.


Man, oh man, the Republicans cannot stand the truth. It's grotesque:

Boehner’s office cuts off C-SPAN cameras as GOP takes verbal beating  -The non-partisan political network, produced as a courtesy by the nation’s cable operators, had said it wanted to offer a more “journalistic product,” but the speaker denied their request to place and operate more cameras.

House GOP Refuses to Allow Dem Whip to Speak on Floor & Offer Senate Compromise


59 year old woman who had never held a hockey stick in her life
gets the puck right in the hole and wins a $50,000 truck


Dubstep dancing on The Great Wall of China.

Afghani fruit vendor

Now the days are dark at 4:30pm, is the time of year I think a lot about swimming in the Caribbean Sea.

Tuesday, December 20th 2011

Apparently, the Berlin Laughter Project did a flash mob laughing thing on the subway. (via BitterOldPunk)


A little more contagious laughter.


Cat soothing crying baby to sleep


Humbling and ingenious. Human pile drivers in Thailand.


Sounds like there's a sort of music that goes along with the work too

Something that amazes me about that
video is that the pile driving system
seems ancient, primordial.
Then there is the sound of the cellphone
at the end. Primordial and modern in the same moment.

That reminds me of the marvelous Ghanaian postal workers music


Naughty advertising for a Brazilian motel "Practice safe habits, breakfast with tropical fruit"




Terrifying heroism.
As a child soldier in Cambodia's notorious Khmer Rouge army Aki Ra laid many landmines. He now clears these deadly bombs with a stick and a pocketknife, more than 10,000 to date. It is very dangerous. No one pays him to do it. Aki is the real deal.

Turns out Brussels sprouts are really healthy for us.

Caren Alpert, a food photographer based in San Francisco and New York, has produced a range of images of everyday foods taken with an electron-microscope. "It is my hope that these photographs might transform our food obsession into a newfound closeness with what nourishes us," she says.

Sugarplums and other stuff, December 18th 2011

Type in "let it snow" into Google and it will snow!


This is the most sugary Sugar Plum Fairy dance ever. Amazing.


Visions of sugar plums.


What is a sugar plum anyway?

Apparently it's not even, necessarily, a plum. Huh. Another one of those Christmas myths.

How I imagined they would look


More how they really look

A sugarplum recipe: Sugarplums are a mix of dried fruits, nuts, and spices with brandy as a preservative. In Victorian times, without refrigeration, brandy not only added seasonal spirit but also aided in the preservation of items.
"A sugar plum is a piece of dragée candy that is made of dried fruits and shaped in a small round or oval shape.^[1][2]

"Plum" in the name of this confection does not mean plum in the sense of the fruit of the same name. At one time, "plum" was used to denote any dried fruit. ^[3] Sugar plums can be made from any combination of dried plums (aka prunes), dried figs, dried apricots, dried dates, and dried cherries. The dried fruit is chopped fine and combined with chopped almonds, honey, and aromatic spices, such as anise seed,fennel seed, caraway seeds, and cardamom. This mixture would then be rolled into balls, often then coated in sugar or shredded coconut."

So interesting about dragée candies.


Cartoon voice actors read Twas the Night Before Christmas


The names of the reindeer:
Dasher,Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder (or Donner), and Blitzen


Holiday reality calls


When a house in Moscow caught fire the firemen doused the blaze and this is what it looked like after.






This is the before and after story of that house in the above images.



An archive of wonderful images, comparing Moscow then and now on Bridge To Moscow

The construction of Moscow State Univercity. Moscow, 1951-52. source: www.oldmos.ru

Moscow state Univercity. Moscow, 2009

Red Square Moscow, 1987

Red Square Moscow, 2009

Fedor Alexeev. Red Square. Moscow, 19th century

Red Square Moscow, 21st century

Christ the Savior Catherdal, Moscow, the end of the 19th century

Christ the Svior Cathedral, Moscow, 2009

Ok, nothing to do with sugar plums or holidays but significant. The potential censorship of the web via SOPA. What is SOPA and why could it impact everyone on the planet?
Wtf is SOPA?


Art by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison 










Oddly fun things to buy at Lost At E Minor
I like the eyelashes necklace

and the gold dipped quail egg

Eight days before Christmas 2011

Oooh. So beautiful and interesting! How those silvery Christmas ornaments are made.


The old time ones









Some flocked with 'snow'






Topped off with









I like the modern, art glass ornaments ones as well

 Mexican tin ornaments too.

One of the favorite toys my dear Dad gave me. A whimmydiddle from Appalachia


It was a really cool toy for a city kid. My other favorite was the flipperdinger.


The flipperdinger in action.


*wipes tears of laughter
Camel interrupts Interview


who knew baby rhinos sounded like this?


Penguin Fetches Newspaper


phew! close call


more cat scream yawns


beyond