Neatorama

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• The Artists
• Blue Dog Roadkill Graffiti
• Retro Christmas Gun Ads
• This Little Girl Has Toy Marketing All Figured Out
• Santa Claus Playing "Jingle Bells" with a Handgun
• The Nutcracker Suite
• Antique Fruitcake Sells for $525
• Monday Night Sky Show
• Mistletoe: The Evolution of a Christmas Tradition
• Houdini Holiday Cards
• Cat Plays Dreidel
• Amazing Folk Dancers Float across the Stage
• Santa Claus Q&A
• Baby, Its Cold Outside
• Mall Santa Delivers Christmas Wish

The Artists Posted: 26 Dec 2011 04:31 AM PST (vimeo link) A game of one-upmanship gets out of hand in a rivalry between two painters. You can see the end coming, but that doesn’t detract from the charm of this animation by Giant Creative. -via Tastefully Offensive

Blue Dog Roadkill Graffiti Posted: 25 Dec 2011 11:54 PM PST Not a fan of Rodrigue’s Blue Dog paintings? Neither am I, which is why I was amused to find that one of the little buggers had become roadkill somewhere in New Orleans, Louisiana. Link –via Wooster Collective

Retro Christmas Gun Ads Posted: 25 Dec 2011 11:46 PM PST Man, Christmas seems to come and go faster each year! These ads harken back to a simpler time, a time when cowboys were all the rage, and gun ads were allowed to appeal to kids during the holidays. It’s a nice bit of nostalgia, and a few of the pics in this gallery are definitely chuckle worthy. Just don’t shoot your eye out! Link –via BoingBoing

This Little Girl Has Toy Marketing All Figured Out Posted: 25 Dec 2011 11:26 PM PST (YouTube Link) This young champion of justice is named Riley, and she’s sick and tired of all the toy marketing gimmicks that keep girls from buying the superhero toys that they really like. Watch as she explains what all the pink at the toy stores really means, and I’m sure you’ll agree that she is totally right. Let girls enjoy their superhero toys already, or Riley’s going to grow up and take you all down! –via ComicsAlliance

Santa Claus Playing "Jingle Bells" with a Handgun Posted: 25 Dec 2011 01:00 PM PST (Video Link) Well, of course. Did you think that he was going to use an alphorn? Those things take up too much room in a sleigh. The tune becomes more recognizable about halfway through the video. -via View from North Central Idaho

The Nutcracker Suite Posted: 25 Dec 2011 12:41 PM PST (YouTube link) The floating heads of the Koren Ensemble (featured previously) perform selections from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. -Thanks, Daniel Koren!

Antique Fruitcake Sells for $525 Posted: 25 Dec 2011 11:39 AM PST Most food products quickly depreciate in value, but not fruitcakes! Consider diversifying your investment portfolio with one. After seventy years, you can sell it at a high price: Elite Estate Group sold the cake in an auction on its website. Company owner Larry Chaney says the man, who wanted to remain anonymous, probably bought the cake as an investment. [...] The cake was made in 1941 by The Kroger Co. It was returned unopened to a Kroger store in 1971. The manager took it home and kept it until recently when his son was helping him get rid of some things and gave the cake to Chaney. Link -via Dave Barry | Photo: Elite Estate Group

Monday Night Sky Show Posted: 25 Dec 2011 11:30 AM PST If the day after Christmas strikes you as a letdown, make a note to yourself now to get outside on Monday evening. NASA tells us there’s going to be a conjunction of heavenly bodies. The action begins shortly before sunset. Around 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm local time, just as the sky is assuming its evening hue, Venus will pop into view, glistening bright in the deepening twilight. No more than 6 degrees to the right lies the crescent Moon, exquisitely slender, grinning like the Cheshire cat with his head cocked at humorous attention. This is a wonderful time to look; there are very few sights in the heavens as splendid as Venus and the Moon gathered close and surrounded by twilight blue. But don’t go inside yet, because the view is about to improve. As the sky fades to black, a ghostly image of the full Moon materializes within the horns of the lunar crescent. This is caused by Earthshine, a delicate veil of sunlight reflected from our own blue planet onto the dusty-dark lunar terrain. Also known as “the Da Vinci glow,” after Leonardo da Vinci who first understood it 500 years ago, Earthshine pushes the beauty of the conjunction over the top. Meanwhile, Jupiter will be looking down on it all from a perch overhead in the constellation Pisces. In ascending order, Jupiter, Venus and the Moon are the three brightest objects in the night sky, able to pierce city lights and even thin clouds. Almost everyone, everywhere will be able to see them. Link (Image credit: Flickr user ozgurmulazimoglu)

Mistletoe: The Evolution of a Christmas Tradition Posted: 25 Dec 2011 10:39 AM PST Why do we take a parasitic weed, one that is rather difficult to gather, and hang it in the house so people can kiss underneath? That’s a rather weird tradition when you think abut it. Smithsonian tells several old tales of why we do this, but the real story of how mistletoe evolved from sandalwood into what it is now is the more interesting tale. Before there were forests, wispy plants fell on each other in their struggle to reach the sun, like clumsy teenagers unsure of their growing bodies. Then one plant evolved a simple woody stem. It could grow taller than the other plants, and it stole light from them. It poisoned them with shade. Wars ensued that have lasted hundreds of millions of years. Trees of many kinds arose and struggled with each other to be taller. Any species that does not participate in battle loses out in the darkness of the understory—any species except a few. Those in the clan of the sandalwood evolved a way out of the darkness. They survived by stealing from the trees what they had spent their tall stems fighting for. Sandalwood discovered deceit. Its roots kissed the roots of trees and slipped inside them to steal. But sandalwood still needed to grow up a little and put out a few green leaves to have enough sugar to thrive. And then came mistletoes. Mistletoe is a common name for several independent lineages descended from sandalwood. Like their ancestors, mistletoe species sink their roots into trees. Unlike those ancestors, they do so in the sky. The story continues to explain how mistletoe developed its way of reproducing in the treetops. Link (Image credit: Flickr user Darwin Bell)

Houdini Holiday Cards Posted: 25 Dec 2011 09:06 AM PST This custom Christmas card was sent out by escape artist, illusionist, and debunker Harry Houdini around 1920 or so. There’s another of his cards at Letters of Note. Link (Image source: Houdini Himself)

Cat Plays Dreidel Posted: 25 Dec 2011 07:02 AM PST (YouTube link) Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel! Just what a cat loves for Hanukkah. I think he needs to work on his skills a little, though.

Amazing Folk Dancers Float across the Stage Posted: 25 Dec 2011 06:35 AM PST (Video Link) In 1948, the Russian dance troupe Berezka formed, taking its name from the Russian word for birch tree. Audiences were mesmerized by its special step, hidden beneath the dancers’ long, flowing dresses. They appear to actually float over the floor! Skip to about 1:30 in the video to see this effect. Link -via The Presurfer

Santa Claus Q&A Posted: 25 Dec 2011 06:08 AM PST In a rare column, Santa Claus shares some correspondence containing some of the more difficult questions he’s received. His answers will make you think. For example, Darnell asked why he didn’t get the Atari he asked for in 1981. No question, Atari would have been a great gift for you in 1981. I did get you a skateboard. As you skated around your neighborhood that spring you met your best friend for life, Victor. You ran over the girl you'd eventually bring to your senior prom, Dominique. If you'd spent all that time indoors playing Atari, maybe your life wouldn't have taken these turns. Sometimes I'm not able to give children the gift they want, but I can give them a gift they'll use and enjoy that is maybe the perfect gift for them at that moment. Part of believing in the spirit of the Holidays is trusting in that spirit. Read more at The Hairpin. Link

Baby, Its Cold Outside Posted: 25 Dec 2011 05:25 AM PST (YouTube link) Zach Braff and Donald Faison from the TV show Scrubs recorded a Christmas song and uploaded it to YouTube this morning as a Christmas greeting. -via reddit

Mall Santa Delivers Christmas Wish Posted: 25 Dec 2011 05:06 AM PST Four-year-old Dominic McCracken-Bruce and his 2-year-old brother Tyson only asked for one thing for Christmas -their Mommy. Army Reserve Capt. Dawn McCracken-Bruce was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait for the past nine months. When she came home for the holidays, she and her husband decided to surprise the boys during their visit with Santa Claus at the Mall at Robinson in Pittsburgh. See the video at WTAE. Link -via Fark

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