- Take a moment this holiday season to indulge in the Southern University sousaphones playing the Veggie Tales theme in the Superdome parking lot.
- Actor Michael Sheen purchased and then forgave $1.3 million of his neighbors’ debts.
- This first-person account from a high school kicker of what it’s like to miss a game-tying PAT is riveting.
- There are no words to convey how excited I am about the return of The Muppet Show, even if it’s just a one-off. See also: Forks Out: A Benoit Blanc Sesame Street Mystery
- Yes, There’s a Parallel Parking Championship – via Jason
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“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong.” – H. L. Mencken
If you’ve been extremely online (and building things on the web) since the middle of the 1990s, you will enjoy reading this Christoffer Artmann essay: 30 Years of <br> Tags
- After much cajoling, last night our son finally convinced us to watch Interstellar (2014, Matthew McConaughey) and I loved it. Brilliant film.
- I feel like this archive of fictional companies is missing a few thousand references from The Simpsons alone, but it’s a good start.
- Fahlo is a wonderful service that (for a nominal fee) allows you to track an animal in the wild. I can confirm that kids love this app.
- The full story of Fedora Man is in the running for the best thing on the Internet this year.
- Ugh: The rise of deepfake cyberbullying poses a growing problem for schools.
- The serial killer epidemic in 1970–80s US may have been caused by lead fumes from cars and factories, and solved by environmental regulations. – via Tom Whitwell
- Take a minute to recall The 2017 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog – via Lauren
- Friendly reminder: The mass deportation of undocumented people was one of Hitler’s largest coercive policies before the war.
- Just in time for Christmas! “This lightproof, soundproof vat filled with our signature vine-ripened, zesty sauce marks the beginning of an exciting new era in tomato-based relaxation.
Posts tagged “The Simpsons”
- An extraordinarily rare original of the Magna Carta has been discovered, hiding in plain sight in the archives of the Harvard Law School.
- Texas Democrats are trying to ban Republican Senator Ted Cruz from attending college playoff games, saying he’s “a well-known curse” for teams in the state.
- A baby born with a rare and dangerous genetic disease is growing and thriving after getting an experimental gene editing treatment made just for him. – via The Associated Press
- How cool is this? Rick Steves was on The Simpsons
- “These kids are ticking time bombs” – The Threat of Youth Basketball
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry:
- The Environmental Protection Agency plans to weaken Biden-era rules that limit exposure to “forever chemicals” in drinking water.
- Kristi Noem has been working with the producer of Duck Dynasty to pitch a reality TV show titled The American, featuring immigrants competing in a string of challenges “for the honor of fast-tracking their way to U.S. citizenship.” – via brendannyhan.bsky.social
- The U.S. Register of Copyrights was abruptly dismissed last weekend just 24 hours after her office released a report stating AI companies can’t freely use copyrighted movies and TV shows for training. – via The Dailies
- NYU denies diploma to student who criticized Israel in commencement speech
- In response to latest POTUS executive orders, RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual-violence organization, has barred its crisis hotline staff from sharing resources specific to LGBTQ people, immigrants, and other marginalized groups. – via maggieastor.bsky.social and sarahweinman.com
- The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the state can keep banning abortions around six weeks after conception by agreeing with the earliest interpretation offered of when a heartbeat starts.
- If I ever got name-checked on The Simpsons, I think I would spontaneously combust. – via @sepinwall
- How Gen Z Came to See Books as a Waste of Time – via @theatlantic
- For about a year and a half I was really into intermittent fasting. I used a great app called Simple that helped me track my daily water consumption and weight, and also handled reminding me when my fasting windows were, let me log what I was eating and when, etc. The app was so good, I even gladly paid for an annual subscription to unlock bonus features. And then — for reasons I cannot imagine — the developers rolled out a “new” version loaded to the gills with whiz-bang AI features that made the app completely useless and incomprehensibly frustrating. I tried for a few months to get used to the new system, but eventually abandoned it, canceled my subscription, and still haven’t found a decent replacement. I abhor the continued enshittification of everything.
- Male bigfin reef squid may be the best fathers of all cephalopods. [Ed. note: But can they make Sunday morning chocolate chip pancakes?]
- It’s really a shame that Russell Brand has gone crazy, because Forgetting Sarah Marshall is easily one of the all-time best comedies.
- Strong Lloyd Dobler vibes in this essay, and I am here for it: “[P]eople do want to work, just not for the paltry wages they were making before the pandemic.”
- “If you spell your name backwards and place an umlaut over one of the vowels, that’s your IKEA name.” [Ed. note: Mine is Engäg and I’m a kitchen drawer divider.] – via @drewtalbert
- Regular exercisers drink more, a new study confirms, but are less likely to be problem drinkers. – via @outsidemagazine
- Black Friday / Holiday Sales:
The world’s comfiest t-shirts and coziest sweatpants are crazy expensive, but this weekend almost everything is on sale at Aviator Nation.- Everything at ’47 Brand is 30% off this weekend. Get all the best sports gear gifts here.
- Need some everyday walking shoes? Everything is 50% off at Allbirds this weekend.
- I have an AirPods Pro case and a wallet from Saddleback Leather Co. and they’re both exquisite. Not everything is on sale, but they do have some pretty good deals this weekend on a few things. (Their motto is, “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead.”)
- Use promo code BLACKFRIDAY to get 30% off (and free shipping) on everything at J. Peterman this weekend.
- Fun Fact: Jon Gries, the actor who portrayed Lazlo Hollyfeld in Real Genius (TriStar Pictures, 1985), went on to play Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite (Searchlight Pictures, 2004) and the love interest of Jennifer Coolidge in The White Lotus (HBO, 2021).
- Star Wars: Skeleton Crew premieres December 3rd on Disney+ Wow. The trailer looks amazing.
- If you know anyone with an iPhone — and, duh, of course you do — one of these MagSafe power bricks is a great gift idea.
- Superman Is Still America’s Greatest Superhero: We need Christopher Reeve now more than ever.
- How Selling $160 Sweatpants Turned a SoCal Surfer into One of America’s Richest Women – via @forbes
- Forget Matt Gaetz. Merrick Garland Is America’s Worst Attorney General. – via @usnews
- I would rather watch three straight hours of Progressive commercials than another Avatar movie.
- Pamela Hayden, the voice behind Milhouse Van Houten, will retire from The Simpsons after 35 years. – via @dailycosmicmarvel
- It’s always been somewhat puzzling that Donald Duck chooses to use an airplane to fly and a boat when he’s in the water. I don’t have a problem with his insistence on eschewing pants. But I find it deeply, deeply disturbing that he carves a Thanksgiving turkey for his family. – via me
- Here’s everything you need to know about the new 12-team college football playoff format.
#FridayFive: Simpsons Stores
On Shopping in Springfield
Los Angeles Monorail
Why can’t we have nice things?
- One thing this country has always enjoyed is a good drink. Whether it was rum on the Atlantic, bourbon at the races or that Bloody Mary at Sunday Brunch, alcohol is the American Drink.
Boom! Dexter returns at the end of September. (Don’t watch the trailer if you didn’t see season 4 yet!)- Don’t Eff With Fudgie the Whale, Lindsay!
- I cannot wait to see Bad Universe (featuring BadAstronomy).
- Mister Gunther makes horoscopes fun!
- Betty Goes Reno: A visit to the glamorous divorce ranches of the Mad Men era.
- He hasn’t taken a single snap in a real game yet, but Tim Tebow is already leading the league in jersey sales. (Nike has some cool Tebow sneakers, too.)
- Do you think you can identify who voices each character on The Simpsons?
- I didn’t know that there are ATMs in Antarctica.
- Being President of the United States is probably the loneliest job in the world.
Boom! Dexter returns at the end of September. (Don’t watch the trailer if you didn’t see season 4 yet!)2024-06-07: Broken links in this post have been removed and/or updated.
#FridayFive: Simpsons Characters
View the Friday Five from June 18th, 2010