| A Real-Life Ghost Story Posted: 22 Oct 2012 05:00 AM PDT 
The following is an article from Uncle John's Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader. Are you scared of the dark? Do you sleep with the light on? Do you hear noises in other parts of the house when you know you're alone? You're about to read a ghostly tale with an incredible twist: It really happened!
DOCTOR WHO
William Wilmer, an ophthalmologist who practiced in Washington, D.C. in the early 1900s, was one o fate most distinguished eye doctors of his era. Among his patients were eight different presidents, from William McKinley to Franklin Roosevelt. He also treated Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator; Joseph Pulitzer, the new York newspaper tycoon and creator of the Pulitzer Prize; and countless other prominent Americans. But perhaps his most unusual claim to fame is the fact that in 1921 he managed to talk a prestigious medical journal, The American Journal of Ophthalmology, into printing a ghost story.
The story had been recounted to Dr. Wilmer by one of his patients, whom he identified only as "Mrs. H" to protect her privacy. The strange occurrences she and her family experienced began in 1912, shortly after she, her husband, and their children moved into a large, run-down old house that hadn't been lived in for about a decade. The house didn't have electricity -it was lit with gaslights and heated by an old furnace in the basement.
THIS OLD HOUSE  (Image credit:Flickr user 'Nino" Eugene La Pia)
The gloomy old house began to exert a strange influence on its new occupants, as Mrs. H recounted in Dr. Wilmer's article. "Mr. H and I had not been in the house more than a couple of days when we felt very depressed," she wrote. The floors were covered with thick carpets that absorbed all sound of the family's servants going about their tasks, and Mrs. H found the silence a little overpowering. but even more disturbing than the silent footsteps of the people who were in the house were the noisy footsteps of people who weren't there …or at least could not be seen with the naked eye. "One morning, I heard footsteps in the room over my head, Mrs. H recounted. "I hurried up the stairs. To my surprise, the room was empty. I passed into the next room, and then into all the rooms on that floor, and then to the floor above, to find that I was the only person in that part of the house."
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED
The house's strange power seemed to grow over time. Soon, the entire family began to suffer from headaches and exhaustion, yet whenever family members took to their beds to regain their strength, the headaches and fatigue only grew worse. The children were affected most of all: They were pale much of the time, often felt tired and ill, and had poor appetites.
No part of the house offered refuge: When Mr. H sat in the dining room, he was so overcome by the sense of an unseen presence standing <em>right behind him</em> that he began turning his chair to face the hallway so that he would see anyone who tried to sneak up. The children developed an aversion to spending time in their playroom on the top floor of the house, Mrs. H remembered: "In spite of their rocking horse and toys being there, they begged to be allowed to play in the bedroom."
RING RING
By December Mrs. H and the children were so worn out that she decided to take them on a short vacation while Mr. H remained at home. The break worked wonders for Mrs. H and the kids, but poor Mr. H was more tormented than ever. Strange and inexplicable noises disturbed his sleep at night, making it impossible for him to get any rest. "Several time he was awakened by the sound of a bell ringing, but on going to the front and back doors, he could find no one at either," Mrs. H said. "Also several times he was awakened by what he thought was the telephone bell. One night he was roused by hearing the fire department dashing up the street and coming to a stop nearby. He hurried to the window and found the street quiet and deserted."  (Image credit: Flickr user Mary Mathieson)
In early January, Mrs. H and the children returned home, but no sooner were they back in the house that the trouble started again. The children came down with colds -which normally would necessitate remaining indoors, especially in the winter. But their symptoms seemed to lessen when they went outside, only to recur when they came back into the house. Soon, Mrs. H, like her husband, was awakened at night by strange noises -the sounds of doors slamming, pots and pans being thrown around the kitchen, and heavy footsteps climbing a staircase behind the wall in her bedroom. "There was no staircase behind the wall," Mrs. H wrote.
The live-in servants weren't spared the house's torments, either. During the day they had the feeling that someone -or something- was following right behind them, on the verge of reaching out and grabbing them as they went about their duties. At night they, too, were awakened by strange noises: tinting and rattling china, heavy footsteps walking on the upstairs floors, and furniture being dragged across floors and shoved up against doors.
Then came the apparitions.
WHO'S THERE?
According to Dr. William Wilmer's account, everyone in the H family had heard unexplainable noises and sensed eerie presences, but no had actually seen any ghosts… until January 1913. Mrs. H saw them first: "On one occasion, in the middle of the morning, as I passed from the drawing room into the dining room, I was surprised to see at the further end of the drawing room, coming towards me, a strange woman, dark haired and dressed in black. As I walked steadily on into the dining room to meet her, she disappeared," she wrote. "This happened three different times." Another night one of the servants awoke to see an old man and a young woman sitting at the foot of her bed, staring at her. She lay in bed paralyzed until an unseen hand tapped her shoulder and she was suddenly able to sit up. But as she did so, the man and the woman vanished.
One night Mr. and Mrs. H went to the opera. After they returned from the opera and went to bed, Mr. H was awakened by the sensation of ghostly fingers grabbing his throat and trying to strangle him. He still heard ringing bells at night, and now they were complemented by the sounds of people moving through the house. He assumed the noises were made by burglars, but every time he got up to confront the intruders, they were nowhere to be seen. Mrs. H wrote, "it was about this time my houseplants died."  (Image credit: Flickr user zendritic)
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
If only one person had seen or heard unusual things in the house, they could have easily been dismissed as the figments of an overactive imagination. But everyone in the house was now seeing, hearing, or even feeling things. And besides, you can't kill houseplants with figments of someone's imagination.
Whatever was happening in the house, it was very real. When they contacted the home's previous residents, the Hs learned that the bizarre events had been going on for many years. "The last occupants we found had exactly the same experiences as ourselves," Mrs. H wrote, "with the exception that some of them had seen visions clad in purple and white crawling around on their beds. Going back still further, we learned that almost everyone had felt ill and had been under a doctor's care, although nothing very definite had been found the matter with them."
SOMETHING IN THE AIR
The first hint of what might be really happening came in January, after Mr. H described the terrifying goings-on to his brother. Brother H remembered an article he'd read years before, describing a family that had been tormented by the same kinds of sounds and visions that his brother described. Brother H suggested that perhaps Mr. H and his family were being poisoned.
Poisoned? Now, on top of everything else, the ghosts were poisoning them? No, Brother H explained, the article he'd read said the family in question had a faulty heater that released large quantities of carbon monoxide gas into the home, and all the symptoms the family experienced -depression, fatigue, illness, strange noises and visions, the feeling of being watched and even touched by unseen people, even dead houseplants- were entirely consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning. Brother H suggested they contact a doctor.
In those days doctors still made house calls, so the following day when the physician came around to examine the H family, he also took a look around their home. As soon as he examined the old furnace in the basement, his suspicions -and those of Brother H- were confirmed. "He found the furnace in very bad condition, the combustion being imperfect, the fumes, instead of going up the chimney, were pouring gasses of carbon monoxide into our rooms," Mrs, H reported. "He advised us not to let the children sleep in the house another night. If they did, he said we might find in the morning that some of them would never wake again."
WHAT'S UP, DOC?
 Unlike most ghost stories, this one ends with the family living happily ever after. Mr. and Mrs. H took the doctor's advice and moved out of the house until the furnace could be repaired. When they moved back in, the eerie sights and sounds …were gone.
A lot has changed since 1912, but one thing hasn't: Carbon monoxide poisoning is still the leading cause of accidental poising deaths in North America. The reason it's so deadly is that carbon monoxide is odorless and tasteless, and it doesn't irritate your airways when you breathe it. That makes it very difficult to detect, and a concentration of as little as 400 parts per million can be fatal. Often the first sign that something is wrong with the air is when someone loses conciousness.
The good news: Hardware stores now sell carbon monoxide detectors (similar to smoke detectors) for about $40. If you have a gas furnace, clothes dryer, or other appliance, or if you have a fireplace or wood-burning stove, investing in a carbon monoxide detector can mean the difference between life and death …or ghosts and no ghosts.
DEJA VU
From time to time, modern carbon monoxide stories still find their way to print. An article in a 2005 issue of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, for example, describes the case of a 23-year-old woman who collapsed while taking a shower after she saw what she thought was a ghost. The problem was traced to a new gas water heater, which had not been properly installed and was leaking carbon monoxide into her home.
__________  The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John's Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts. If you like Neatorama, you'll love the Bathroom Reader Institute's books - go ahead and check 'em out!
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| The Ultimate ST:TOS Poster Posted: 22 Oct 2012 04:00 AM PDT 
DeviantART member Dusty Abell created this poster with 123 individual characters, creatures, and crafts from Star Trek: The Original Series. It was a labor of love. The trinity of Kirk/Spock/McCoy were the backbone and soul of the show for me. Individually they represented three distinct qualities whose interplay made for fascinating viewing..........Kirk the ethical leader, Spock the logical sounding board and McCoy the emotional confidant. The stories, both serious and whimsical captivated me, the production wowed me and the acting was always entertaining. I've included at least one, sometimes more, character, entity, starship or structure from every episode of the original series, 80 in all including the pilot, in this piece. I hope Trek fans enjoy this as much as I did making it, I'm pretty proud of it.
How many characters, creatures, and crafts can you name? If you become stumped, Abell has posted a key here. You can enlarge it to see better at the DeviantART page, or hit the download button for a super mega large image. If enough people are interested, Abell may make some prints available for sale. Link -via io9 |
| Produce So Good That Resistance is Futile Posted: 22 Oct 2012 03:00 AM PDT 
Taken along Highway 126 in California. |
| Evolution of a Raptor Suit Posted: 22 Oct 2012 02:00 AM PDT  (YouTube link)
How did they make the velociraptors in Jurassic Park look so terrifying? They were real guys inside suits! John Rosengrant, who was the lead raptor in the film, shows how they came up with the technique from concept to film. Now that would be the ultimate Halloween costume. Read more at the Stan Winston School of Character Arts. Link -via The Daily What Geek |
| Skull with Dragon Tattoo Money Bank Posted: 22 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT 
Skull with Dragon Tattoo Money Bank - $29.95
Are you looking for a frightfully fun way to store your loose change? You need the Skull with Dragon Tattoo Money Bank from the NeatoShop. This gruesome coin bank features bewitching hand painted details. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Skull shaped items and spooktacular Halloween stuff. Link |
| Scarf Charting the Population of Russia over Time Posted: 22 Oct 2012 01:00 AM PDT 
You're looking at a bar chart showing the growth of Russia's population from the years 1500 to 2000. A blogger who goes by the moniker Russian Sphinx crocheted it to entertain her cat and keep warm. Link -via Explore |
| Bathtub? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Bathtub! Posted: 22 Oct 2012 12:00 AM PDT |
| Enormous Hoop Skirt Posted: 21 Oct 2012 11:00 PM PDT 
Eventually, women pushed back against extreme fashions. But not before the grandmother of Cathy Rozman wore an entire parade float: My grandmother, Mary Svetich Rozman, was 16 years old when she was Queen of the May at the May Day parade in Calumet, Michigan in 1917,” writes Cathy Rozman from Plymouth. “The trick to this float is that she’s standing on a car underneath the giant skirt! Afterward, her family liked to tease her with the nickname ‘Queenie.
Link -via Retronaut |
| Rod Stewart Was Never a Gravedigger Posted: 21 Oct 2012 10:00 PM PDT  Before he became a famous singer, Rod Stewart held a series of odd jobs.
After he dropped out of school at fifteen, Stewart worked as a screen printer printing wallpapers. It was an odd match, given that he's colorblind - he was laid off soon afterwards and lamented "That's always going to limit your possibilities in the wallpaper industries. If you are colour-blind, one of the things you can't be is an aircraft pilot. One of the other things you can't be is a wallpaper designer."
After he got laid off, Stewart got a short-lived job putting picture frames together, then another brief stint as an electrician's assistant feeeding wire into conduits. Stewart's soccer-crazed dad prodded him to become an apprentice at a professional soccer club in hopes that he'd become a professional soccer player, but Stewart quit because he disliked having to clean the team players' shoes in the morning. When his father retired, the family opened a newsstand. Stewart was forced to do newspaper rounds. He recounted "In those periods when I was unemployed, my dad couldn't see why I shouldn't help him out. I would get shaken awake at six in the morning - not something which has ever gone down well with a teenager - and stumble blearily into the shop to sort papers into rounds with the other paper boys, who were, without exception, nine- or ten-year-old kids and (also without exception) cheeky sods. Here was humiliation more extreme than anything reality television has yet dreamed of."
There's one job that Rod Stewart was famous for having: a gravedigger at Highgate Cemetery. That, it turns out, is a bit of a stretch: "... there were a couple of Saturdays up at Highgate Cemetery, earning a few quid by measuring out plots and marking them off with string. You learn a lot about yourself, doing physical work. And what I learned about myself was that I didn't like doing physical work. Incidentally, it was from these few hours of casual labour at the cemetery that the popular myth arose (one I happily rode along with) that I was once a gravedigger. It's a delicious, mysterious piece of back-story, but again we must move to strike it from the record. I was no more a gravedigger than Gordon Ramsay was a gravedigger who played for Rangers."
Source: Rod: The Autobiography |
| Robot Dancing Gangnam Style Posted: 21 Oct 2012 09:00 PM PDT 
(Video Link)
When robots begin taking over our memes, they've gone too far. This presumptuous robot named CHARLI has been taught by turncoat human programmers to dance Gangam Style. Psy, as champion of the human race, must face down CHARLI in a dance-off. -via It's Okay To Be Smart |
| The Weirdest Dog You've Ever Seen Posted: 21 Oct 2012 08:00 PM PDT 
Photo: National Geographic Channel
No, actually that's not a dog. Herpetologist Brady Barr (previously on Neatorama) of Nat Geo WILD's Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr is hugging a Japanese Giant Salamander. David Braun, editor of National Geographic's Tales of the Weird blog (he and co-editor Amy Briggs have also published a very neat book with the same name ), interviewed "Gator Doc" Barr back in 2009 about his job: I asked Barr what he thought was the most dangerous moment in a career of wrestling crocs and catching giant snakes by the tail. “It’s a really tough question,” he said, “because it always seems like the most recent experience was the most dangerous.” Apparently there have been many such moments, including when a hippo, reputably the most dangerous animal in Africa because it kills more people than any other animal, chased Barr. “I was out in the open, no trees, and the hippo was bearing down on me. I thought I was going to be killed. It’s a miracle it didn’t get me,” he recalled.
More over at National Geographic: Link |
| Drawn to Facts No. 009: Your foot is the same size as the distance between your wrist and elbow Posted: 21 Oct 2012 07:50 PM PDT |
| Bandits Attack Village, Villagers Set Bandits on Fire Posted: 21 Oct 2012 07:00 PM PDT 
In 2009, twenty bandits in India experienced a catastrophic victim selection failure when villagers fought back and slaughtered them: About 20 robbers raided a remote village in Jharkhand state late on Wednesday, but they were surrounded by hundreds of villagers, who began chasing them, police said. "Four were beaten to death, while eight took shelter in a house, which was set on fire by the villagers," Mohammad Nehal, a senior police officer, told Reuters. Armed villagers stood guard outside to ensure none of the robbers escaped, he said.
Link -via Legal Juice | Image: Fox |
| Re-Grow Your Celery Posted: 21 Oct 2012 06:00 PM PDT 
That bunch of celery you bought at the grocery store? It might turn into an eternal supply of celery if you have any gardening luck at all. Cheryl at Chickens in the Road cuts off the bottom end of the whole bunch and plants it. The roots and stalks start regrowing immediately! It will grow a brand new top to be cut and used. After re-growing celery, you can cut and plant the bottom again for more new growth from the top.
I plan to start planting my cut celery bottoms in small pots or trays late next winter so that I have a few dozen to plant out into the vegetable garden in May. I wonder if I can grow it in a sunny window all winter!
Have you ever tried this? Link -via Bits and Pieces |
| How McDonald's Makes Their French Fries Posted: 21 Oct 2012 05:00 PM PDT |
| Skeleton Bride and Groom Paper Mache Posted: 21 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT 
Skeleton Bride and Groom Paper Mache - $23.95 (Bride and Groom sold separately)
Are you looking for a way to celebrate your everlasting love? You need the Skeleton Bride and Groom Paper Mache dolls from the NeatoShop. These enchanting Day of the Dead skeleton style sculptures are the perfect way to show that special someone that your love will never die. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Halloween items. Link |
| Repeating History Posted: 21 Oct 2012 04:00 PM PDT 
A look into the nature of the past from Doghouse Diaries. If you're not familiar with George Santayana, you can find out more about him at Wikipedia, including more quotes. And no matter how you view history, it's still good advice to learn from your mistakes -or someone else's. Link -via Geeks Are Sexy |
| Why Aren't Insects as Big as Humans? Posted: 21 Oct 2012 03:00 PM PDT 
The short answer is because it would scare the pants off of us. But if you must know the real scientific answer, well, nobody knows actually: The short answer is, researchers don't know exactly, although there are several hypotheses as to why insects and other arthropods don't get bigger, said insect physiologist Jon Harrison, at Arizona State University in Tempe. The first hypothesis is that insects' exoskeletons may not be strong enough to allow them to get much bigger — that they'd have to become impossibly thick. Harrison learned this theory as an established fact during his training, but little experimental evidence to support the idea exists, he said. The only study to look at this question found that larger arthropods don't have thicker exoskeletons, he said. "So there's no direct evidence for this," he said.
Douglas Main of LiveScience explains: Link |
| Vintage Halloween Postcards Posted: 21 Oct 2012 02:00 PM PDT 
Flickr user riptheskull has a great account name, and a wonderful collection of Halloween ephemera. Check out the collection of Halloween greetings people could send to each other on postcards 100 years ago. There are over 1,600 in the set! Link -via Buzzfeed
(Image credit: Flickr user riptheskull) |
| Cheese Monster Posted: 21 Oct 2012 01:00 PM PDT ![]()
Well, everyone likes cheese, even monsters. So, for Cheese in Paris ad campaign by the Centre National Interprofessionnel de l’Economie Laitière, a French group that promotes the country's cheese industry, ad director Ruairi Robinson created this marvelous 30-second ad spot. Remember, nothing says Muenster like Monster! Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via The Braiser |
| Father and Daughter Locked in Nasty Election Fight for President of Their House Posted: 21 Oct 2012 12:00 PM PDT 
Redditor Aspirin742 and his 6-year old daughter are currently neck-and-neck in the polls to be elected President of their house. The campaigns have resorted to nasty smears that should disgrace both candidates, except that Elissa's accusations are mostly true--at least according to PolitiFact. Link -via Boing Boing |
| Cocaine is in the Air Posted: 21 Oct 2012 11:00 AM PDT 
Photo: Shutterstock
Drugs. It's not only found on money anymore. Turns out all you have to do to inhale some cocaine in Rome is to go outdoors and take a breath: A study of psychotropic drug levels in ambient air from eight Italian cities found background levels of cocaine, cannabinoids - the active ingredients in marijuana - nicotine and caffeine in every urban centre. Turin had the highest concentrations of cocaine, says Angelo Cecinato at the Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research in Rome. Meanwhile, Bologna and Florence had some of the highest cannabinoid levels, which Cecinato attributes to the large student populations in the two cities.
Link |
| How to Make Spring-Loaded Coffin Posted: 21 Oct 2012 10:00 AM PDT 
A coffin box, some fake bugs and a few springs and you have what it takes to make your own creepy trick coffin that's a perfect Halloween trick. Link |
| Miami Vice Posted: 21 Oct 2012 09:00 AM PDT ![]() (vimeo link)
Cosmic neon animation illustrates the music video for the song "Miami Vice" by Fancy Mike. If you remember the '80s TV cop series Miami Vice at all, you probably remember it in neon colors. Video by Alexandre Louvenaz. -via Andrew Sulllivan |
| Mouth-to-Snout Saves Baby Tapir Posted: 21 Oct 2012 08:00 AM PDT 
The Denver Zoo had a scare on September 3rd when its Malayan tapir went into labor. It was the first tapir birth for the zoo. Rinny, the zoo's female tapir, was having trouble while giving birth to a calf last month and a staffer freed the newborn from the mother's amniotic sac. After successfully helping to extract the calf, zoo members aided the newborn by performing "mouth to snout rescue breaths," the zoo said in a media release Friday.
The staff helped the calf get liquid out of his lungs and breathe.
"It's always a little scary when something like this happens, but thankfully we all have great resources and training," said Rebecca McCloskey, an assistant curator with the zoo.
The calf is a male the zoo named Dumadi. He is now thriving. Link (with video) -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Denver Zoo) |
| The Story of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" Posted: 21 Oct 2012 07:00 AM PDT  Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
The classic song "Hound Dog" was released in 1952 and was number one on the charts for seven weeks. Yes, that was 1952. Okay, before you jump the gun, let me tell you, this original version of "Hound Dog" had nothing to do with Elvis Presley. The first version of "Hound Dog" was recorded by a 25-year-old African-American rhythm and blues singer named Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton. The song was a smash hit and sold almost two million copies. Sadly, "Big Mama" Thornton hardly collected any of the profits she rightfully deserved.  (YouTube link)
Alright, now lets skip up to the spring of 1956. A young rock and roll singer named Elvis Presley was the hottest act in show business. The hip-shaking Elvis already had number one records and albums and was selling out live concerts all over America. But the red-hot Elvis was currently experiencing his first bit of comeuppance.
In April of '56 Elvis committed to a two-week booking in Las Vegas at the Venus room of the new Frontier Hotel. Elvis was declared a flop by Las Vegas audiences and critics alike, playing nightly to half-bored adults who failed to fall under his spell as their teenaged kids had. Being a flop in Las Vegas (or anywhere) is no fun, and after giving a less-than-spectacular show to a less-than-enthused crowd one night, Elvis drifted over to another hotel to take in a show.
 The group onstage was Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. They gave their own version of Willa Mae's "Hound Dog," a more souped-up, rockier version. Elvis broke up when he first heard the funny song with its strange lyrics. Soon, Elvis was coming to see Freddie and his Bellboys every night, and yes, every time they sang "Hound Dog," Elvis would crack up hysterically.
Now we cut to July 1, 1956. TV host Steve Allen featured the 21-year-old Elvis as the guest star on his television program The Steve Allen Show. Steve was trying to "tame" the reckless rock and roll whirling dervish and he had poor Elvis appear on his show in a formal tuxedo and tails.  (YouTube link)
And so, in what Elvis would later call "the most embarrassing moment" of his career, he appeared, singing "Hound Dog" to a Bassett hound (!!!) while wearing his white tie and tails. No hip-wiggling, no gyrations, Elvis was directed to just stand there and sing the song to the bored-looking mutt named Sherlock. Elvis dutifully did what he was told and the whole "Hound Dog" thing might have just ended like the memory of a bad toothache for a disillusioned Elvis.
But every once in a while (although not often enough), a terrible experience develops into something wonderful.
 The very next day (July 2, 1956) after The Steve Allen Show, Elvis reported to RCA studios to cut a few sides. Yep, you guessed it, "Hound Dog" was on the agenda. It took the super-sensitive Elvis 31 takes to get just the right version of "Hound Dog" on acetate. But after 31 takes, he knew he had one that felt right.
Elvis used his recollection of Freddie Bell and the Bellboys as the template for his "Hound Dog" version, This recording session was also the first in which Elvis acted as the session producer.
Interestingly, Elvis not only rock and rolled "Hound Dog" up, but he changed the original lyrics. Elvis added in the strange line "You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't no friend of mine" to the Leiber-Stoller lyrics. This odd lyric, like a shake of salt in a perfect stew, morphed a raw diamond into a perfectly polished gem.
It is believed this lyric switch was originally performed by Freddie Bell and his Bellboys, but Elvis also did some lyric-switching of his own. In the "Big Mama" Thornton version, she sings, "Well they said you was high class, I can see through that." She sings this lyric twice on her version. Elvis changed this lyric to "Well they said you was high class, but that was just a lie." Elvis sang his revised lyric six times in his recording.
 In the weeks between laying frown the track and its release (incredibly, as the B-side of "Don't Be Cruel"), hardly an interview went by without Elvis being asked when the song would come out. Elvis' manager, Colonel Tom Parker, joked with RCA executives that the song was going to be so big that the company would have to change its symbol from the "Victor Dog" to the "Hound Dog."
When "Hound Dog" was finally released in July of 1956, it lived up to all the hype. When originally released, it was, ironically, kept out of the #1 spot by its own A-side. In compensation for its eclipse by "Don't Be Cruel" on the pop chart, "Hound Dog" made it to #1 on the R&B and country charts. But soon, "Hound Dog" itself became the #1 pop song, a rare first in recording history, both sides of a record topping the charts.
Later, both "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" were awarded platinum status. On top of all these titles, "Hound Dog" was also voted the #1 most-played song on juke boxes on September 1, 1956.
Elvis instantly added "Hound Dog" to his repertoire, and it immediately became the bring-down-the-house finale to all his live shows. He platted his final show at the Louisiana Hayride with "Hound Dog" in December 1956 and sang it every opportunity that came upon TV that year.
Elvis performed a high-energy version of "Hound Dog" in his legendary "Comeback Special" in 1968. When he returned to performing live in Las Vegas in July of 1969, Elvis introduced "Hound Dog" as his "special song."  (YouTube link)
Although in his later years, Elvis tended to give his early rock and roll classic songs short shrift in his concerts, he knew no Elvis concert would ever be complete without at least a perfunctory version of his most famous tune. In his later years, Elvis was to christen one of his private planes The Hound Dog.
More than any of Elvis' hit songs, the stirring opening notes of "Hound Dog" instantly conjure up the indelible image of the wild, uncontrolled singer with the sideburns and the jumping beans in his jeans. It almost seems a kind of tacit agreement amongst Elvis fans the world over that "Hound Dog" is the "theme song" -his trademark.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine placed Elvis' "Hound Dog" at #19 in its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1988. |
| Spready Bear Posted: 21 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT 
Spready Bear - $11.95
Looking for a way to give your favorite little chef some culinary independence? Get the Spready Bear from the NeatoShop. This adorable koala shaped sandwich plate comes with a smiling mouth shaped spreader. Don't be fooled by the photo. This Spready Bear can be used for much more than making PB&J. It's also great for toast, waffles, and mini pizzas. Let your creative genius shine through. Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more Mealtime Fun and great Aprons. Link |
| Cat Special Forces Posted: 21 Oct 2012 06:00 AM PDT  (YouTube link)
YouTube cat mixer ignoramusky offers a compilation of cats whose reach exceeds their grasp. The use of the tune "Ride of the Valkyries" makes this compilation all the more effective. The very last kitten is the best, even though (or maybe because) the kitten does not "fail." -via The Daily What |
| The Cosplay of Nightmares Posted: 21 Oct 2012 05:00 AM PDT 
The power of the darkside compels you...to change his diaper. Link |
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