Neatorama

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• Snow Leopard and Four Cubs Caught on Camera
• The Eddie Haskell Story
• Cthulhu's Witnesses
• Magical Dragon Jewelry
• An Honest Trailers for <i>Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure</i>
• Gathering Of Spirits - Spooky Supper
• Man Gives Street Dog Some Food, Which She Takes Home To Her Puppies
• An Adorable Swedish Tradition Has Its Roots in Human Experimentation
• Little Girl Offers To Stand In For Big Ben While The Clock Is Being Repaired
• Why Do Cats Like Catnip?
• Girlfriend Secretly Creates Comic Strips Based On Life With Her Boyfriend
• Cannibal-Quality Finger Food
• Say "Hello" to the New World's Tallest Dog
• Backstroke of the West
• Man In China Has Been Using A Hand Grenade As A Walnut Cracker Since The 80s
• Five Side Characters Who Deserve Their Own Movies

Snow Leopard and Four Cubs Caught on Camera Posted: 04 Jan 2017 03:59 AM PST Snow leopards are pretty rare. A snow leopard with a new cub or two is good news. The World Wildlife fund says this camera trap footage from Mongolia is the first time scientists have seen a snow leopard with four cubs at once in the wild. (YouTube link) The footage is from September, when the cubs were about three months old. They would be half grown by now. Estimates of snow leopard population put their numbers at anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000. -via HuffPo

The Eddie Haskell Story Posted: 04 Jan 2017 01:59 AM PST Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.    "A kid like Eddie Haskell only comes along about once every hundred years" -Wally Cleaver, 1958 "Nonsense. There's one on every block" -Ken Osmond, 2014 Ken Osmond was born in Glendale, California on June 7, 1943. His father, Thurman, was a carpenter, and Ken described his mother, Pearl, as "a typical movie mother." Every day, after school, Pearl would drive her two sons, Ken and his older brother Dayton, to acting classes. Besides drama, the two boys were also took classes in dance, diction, dialects, martial arts, and equestrian riding. At the age of nine, young Ken landed his first movie role, an uncredited bit in the Mayflower/Pilgrim film Plymouth Adventure starring Spencer Tracy in 1952. Other film roles shortly followed, including So Big (1953), Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955) and Everything But the Truth (1956). TV roles came for Ken too, including guest shots on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Circus Boy (featuring a young pre-Monkees Micky Dolenz), Annie Oakley, and Lassie. In October of 1957, a new TV show made it's debut- the show was called Leave It To Beaver. The first few episodes of Leave It To Beaver were pretty standard 1950s "family show" stuff, although as an interesting twist, Leave It To Beaver, unlike other family shows of the '50's, focused on life from the kids' point of view, as opposed to the parents. After a few good, but bland and tame, episodes of Leave It To Beaver, in the episode "The New Neighbors," a new and very different teenage character made his debut on the show. This strange but fascinating teenager was to be probably the greatest "scene stealer" in the history of American television. A friend of Beaver's older brother, Wally, in the show, Eddie Haskell was a snide, smarmy, loud-mouthed braggart in front of his fellow kids and teenagers, who put up a "sweet and courteous" front whenever an adult or parent was present. In the original pilot for the show, then-called It's a Small World, Harry Shearer played the pre-Eddie Eddie, a character named Frankie Bennett. But Harry's character, unlike Ken's relatively harmless cowardly braggart, was dark and menacing. It is almost certain that had Harry Shearer continued playing the Eddie Haskell-type character on the later series, neither Eddie Haskell, nor the Leave It To Beaver series itself, would never have gained its present day iconic status. (Fortunately for Harry Shearer and all his fans, he was to find TV immortality himself, albeit many years later,  as one of the main voices on The Simpsons). Ken recalls his audition for the role of Eddie Haskell as "a huge cattle call" with several hundred young actors. Finally, the aspirants were winnowed down to thirty or so, then, on his third audition, Ken got the role. Ken's Eddie Haskell character in "The New Neighbors" episode was originally planned as a one-off appearance. Ken filmed his part in his debut episode, no one made mention of his ever returning and he said goodbye to the rest of the Leave It To Beaver cast, thinking it was just another credit to pad his resume. For "The New Neighbors" episode, Ken had three scenes as Eddie, about 25% of the episode's 24 minutes. But soon, Ken was called back to film a second episode- "The Clubhouse," where Eddie tries to keep Beaver (Jerry Mathers) out of his club by deliberately jacking up the club dues. By his third appearance on the show ("Voodoo Magic") Ken said he "was beginning to wonder something might really come of this." In these early episodes, we see Ken slowly refining and perfecting the soon-to-be iconic Eddie Haskell character. In "Voodoo Magic," Eddie convinces Wally (Tony Dow) and the Beaver to see a movie about voodoo, even though their mom (Barbara Billingsly) has expressly forbidden it. Ken gives a truly hilarious performance in this episode, as Beaver uses a voodoo doll (which seems to be really working) to make Eddie sick and in great pain. Ken recalled about this episode, "It was a fun show to make, I had a lot of lines, and I got to show off my Eddie talents for feigning illness." Ken was also perfecting his trademark Eddie Haskell laugh: "Heh heh heh," which he would use in every Eddie Haskell appearance. By the end of season one, Eddie Haskell had been featured in 19 Leave It To Beaver episodes. Ken soon fit right in and all the three teenage members of the cast, Tony Dow  (Beaver's older brother Wally) and Frank Bank (who played Eddie's pal, Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford) became fast friends. The three pubescent teens spent many a lunch hour together, dining at the nearby Bob's Big Boy and checking out the pretty secretaries from nearby studios who they knew dined there, too. The Eddie Haskell character had caught on in a big way and the fan mail started flowing in for Ken. Interestingly, but perhaps predictably, Ken received a large amount of fan mail from prisoners, actual inmates serving their terms behind bars. Strangely, in season two of the show, 1958-59, Eddie Haskell only made three appearances. But by the show's third year, 1959-60, Ken made 25 episode appearances (Eddie Haskell was to be in 97 of the 235 Leave It To Beaver episodes in total). Season four featured perhaps the most iconic episode of the show, "In the Soup," where Beaver falls into a giant cup of soup featured on a billboard. After his rescue by the fire department, Beaver is humiliated in front of a large crowd of onlookers, including, of course, the wisecracking heckler, Eddie Haskell. The Eddie Haskell character had become so popular, there were actually a few "Eddie" episodes, including "Eddie's Double-Cross," "Eddie the Businessman," and "Eddie's Girl." In the "Eddie's Girl" episode, Eddie brags to Wally about his beautiful girlfriend, but after introducing them, the girl (played by Carol Green) only has eyes for Wally. Ken recalled particularly loving the "Eddie's Girl" episode because it showed "a very human and vulnerable side to Eddie that I loved playing." After season four of the show, in 1961, in which he was in 19 episodes, Ken enlisted in the Army Reserves and the usual haircut was required. In seasons five and six of Leave It To Beaver, we see Eddie Haskell's curly mop of hair switching over to a G.I. crewcut. Ken served his term in the Army Reserves and still filmed the show in his off time. Finally, after the show's sixth season (1962-63) Leave It To Beaver was cancelled. Because of the overwhelming popularity of Eddie Haskell, Ken, like so many series regulars before and since found himself typecast and had a hard time finding work in the industry. It was tough going for Ken, but he did manage to scare up small appearances in the TV shows Petticoat Junction, The Munsters and Adam-12. Ken wrangled a few movie roles too, in 1967's Let's Live a Little and in 1968's With Six You Get Egg Roll, Doris Day's big screen swan song. After a few mainly fruitless years, Ken joined the LAPD and was actually shot on three occasions in the line of duty. Ken proudly served 18 years as a Los Angeles policeman. In 1969, he married his girlfriend, Sandy Purdy. Still happily married, the couple has two sons, Eric and Christian. In the 1980's Ken and his sons co-starred in The New Adventures of Leave it to Beaver, a remake of the earlier series, but with the former child cast now playing adults and having adult problems. Oddly, Ken was the victim of two bizarre urban legends in the 1980s, one that he was in reality singer Alice Cooper and another that he was actually porn star John C. Holmes. Fortunately -and mercifully- both rumors proved to be false. Ken has made countless appearances all across the country and still is a regular at many autograph shows. Ken's Eddie Haskell character is known and loved all over the world. Eddie Haskell is now an indelible piece of Americana. Heh-heh-heh. (YouTube link)

Cthulhu's Witnesses Posted: 03 Jan 2017 11:59 PM PST Don't you hate it when Cthulhu's Witnesses show up at your door while you're in the middle of an eldritch ritual? It's like they know you're a faithful follower of Nyarlathotep and they're just itching to argue about which deity is superior, as if ol' Squidface could take down Crawling Chaos! But, as this Optipess comic shows, Cthulhu's followers are an extremely loyal bunch, and they don't even mind if he chews on them a little as long as he's happy...which is an emotion he doesn't understand. -Via Geeks Are Sexy

Magical Dragon Jewelry Posted: 03 Jan 2017 09:59 PM PST There's somtething special about a dragon and if you're a fan of the fantastic beasts of legend, you'll want to check out LilDragonDesigns' Etsy store where you can grab some magical new jewelry designs featuring dragons. You can even get a cool jewelry box to hold your reptilian jewelry.  Via Geek Girls

An Honest Trailers for <i>Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure</i> Posted: 03 Jan 2017 07:59 PM PST Screen Junkies starts 2017 with an Honest Trailer for the 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, a comedy about time travel you might remember. (YouTube link) That movie will be 28 years old next month. It hasn't aged all that well, as the long rash of stoner buddy movies has played out now. But it is a treat to see George Carlin, even when he's dispensing someone else's wisdom. -via Tastefully Offensive

Gathering Of Spirits - Spooky Supper Posted: 03 Jan 2017 05:59 PM PST Gathering of Spirits by Charamath We tend to think of spirits as being so far removed from humans that we have nothing in common with them, but spirits seem to enjoy the same activities as people do. And nothing brings a bunch of spirits together like a home cooked meal, which affords them the time to sit together and discuss all of their recent spectral activity. Together the spirits would chat away the hours between dusk and dawn over some hibachi grilled goodness, and whether they dwelled in a castle, a forest or deep underground the spooky neighbors would find themselves becoming fast friends. Add some anime awesomeness to your geeky wardrobe with this Gathering of Spirits t-shirt by Charamath, it's sure to spark lots of conversations between you and your fellow Ghibli fans! Visit Charamath's Facebook fan page, official website, Twitter and Tumblr, then head on over to her NeatoShop for more wonderfully geeky designs: Yzrey and Chewy Smash Rose and Baby Lion Sun Spirit Corgi Knight Merc View more designs by Charamath | More Cartoon T-shirts | New T-Shirts Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Man Gives Street Dog Some Food, Which She Takes Home To Her Puppies Posted: 03 Jan 2017 05:59 PM PST It's hard to say no to a stray dog begging for food on the city streets, and even though people can come up with all kinds of reasons why they shouldn't give a buck to a homeless person they can't deny a stray dog if they're animal lovers. And, as the guy who shot this video in Bangkok, Thailand discovered, sometimes donating food to a stray means you're helping feed her family of pups as well, which we can all agree is a win-win-winwinwinwin situation! (YouTube Link) -Via Daily Mail

An Adorable Swedish Tradition Has Its Roots in Human Experimentation Posted: 03 Jan 2017 03:59 PM PST Swedish people as whole have some of the best teeth in the world, but it wasn't always so. In the 1930s, even three-year-olds had cavities in most of their teeth. There weren't enough dentists to repair teeth, and no one knew how to prevent tooth decay, because they didn't know what caused it. They needed to do some controlled experiments. What they did was highly unethical, and would never be permitted today. During the second World War, at a mental hospital outside of Lund, Sweden, researchers forced a group of patients to ingest 24 pieces of a sticky, light brown substance in a single day. These severely disabled patients were involuntary participants in a long-term study commissioned by the state medical board in cooperation with big industry, and this coerced feeding would continue for three years. The four to six doses that they consumed four times a day over that time were in some ways sweeter than their typical medicines—but also more troubling. No benefit to the patient was ever expected. Rather, the goal was to measure the damage inflicted by the substance over time and determine a dosage safe for public consumption. That substance was caramel, and it inflicted so much damage to the patient's teeth that we learned it was sugar that caused tooth decay. Read about the experiments and the legacy they left behind, at Atlas Obscura. (Image credit: Harris & Ewing/Library of Congress)

Little Girl Offers To Stand In For Big Ben While The Clock Is Being Repaired Posted: 03 Jan 2017 01:59 PM PST Some kids are so conscientious they can't stand to hear about anything being wrong, broken or out of order, even if the broken thing is the clock attached to the Palace of Westminster in London.  When 8-year-old Phoebe Hanson learned Big Ben was going to be out of commission for up to three years as part of a $42 million clock mechanism repair job she, like many Londoners, dreaded the impending silence. So she wrote to the BBC with a solution- she offered to stand in for the clock and shout "BONG!" until the repairs are done. (YouTube Link) Her heartwarming letter earned her a return letter from the BBC, who had this to say about her idea: “Re. Big Ben’s Bongs (lack of). Dear Miss Hanson, Thank you for your letter and your very imaginative idea about what to do when Big Ben falls silent for repairs early next year. Some of the cleverest and most important people at the BBC are scratching their heads, wondering quite what to do. Once before, when Big Ben fell silent for repairs, we played different birdsong every evening. The listeners loved that. Then the people behind Tweet of the Day (that’s on each day just before 6 in the morning) stole our idea… so we can’t do that again. I must say I was very much taken with your idea… and we have passed it on to those who make the decisions. As you know, the Bongs are live… and (you may not know this) the beginning of the Westminster Chimes (the bit that goes BimBom BimBom BimBobBimBom before the first BOOONNNGGGGGGGGGG!) is always at a slightly different time (which is why you sometimes hear someone accidentally talking when they start). It depends on things like temperature and atmospheric pressure and stuff like that. So it would be quite a task for you, doing the Bongs: you’d have to rush in after school each day (and at the weekend), rush home for tea, homework, a bit of chillin’, then a quick sleep. And then – here’s the hard bit – you’d have to rush back again at midnight, because there are live bongs again before the midnight news. That’s an awful lot of work for someone who is still quite young. I know I wouldn’t like to do all that. Thank you very much for writing to us. I’m very impressed that you listen to Radio 4. I wish my two children did. Have a spiffing Christmas and a stupendous and lucky 2017. Roger Sawyer. Editor: PM, Broadcasting House, iPM – BBC Radio 4″ Maybe they should swap it out for one of those jumbotron screens? -Via Warped Speed

Why Do Cats Like Catnip? Posted: 03 Jan 2017 11:59 AM PST Cats love catnip, and we love to watch cats react to catnip. It has no lasting effect on them, and they aren't operating heavy machinery anyway, so what's the harm? Simon Whistler from Today I Found Out takes a deeper look into what catnip does. (YouTube link) The key ingredient is nepetalactone. That's a new one on me. It's a kind of cat pheromone, which only makes you appreciate how nature has given a gift to cats in plant form. -via Laughing Squid

Girlfriend Secretly Creates Comic Strips Based On Life With Her Boyfriend Posted: 03 Jan 2017 10:59 AM PST People show love for their significant others in many different ways, and for artists there's no better way to show love than with a drawing or painting. Comic artists have a similar drive to show love with art, but their chosen artform also allows them to add words to the doodles, to paint a more complete picture of their affection. Saratoga Springs-based artist Catana has been producing comic strips based on her relationship with her bearded beau that reveal how deeply she feels for this dude, and her affection may be considered stalking in some states. And when her boyfriend posted these Catana Comics online they immediately went viral, which is either because people relate to their love or they find Catana's antics highly amusing! -Via Bored Panda

Cannibal-Quality Finger Food Posted: 03 Jan 2017 09:59 AM PST The question is, how realistic do fake body parts have to be before you can't bring yourself to eat them? You've seen Halloween recipes made to look like disembodied fingers and other limbs, but they contain cake or candy or something. This recipe is the real deal, because the fingers are made of meat, with the exact shape of real fingers, complete with bones sticking out! Tye Lombardi cast molds of her fingers that ended up being so realistic that she recognized her own scars. She filled them with meat, stuck in pretzels "bones," and garnished them with barbecue sauce. The result is too realistic, but still delicious. Learn to make your own fingers edible at the Necro Nom-Nom-Nomicon.*  *Motto: Putting the Gore into Gourmet

Say "Hello" to the New World's Tallest Dog Posted: 03 Jan 2017 08:59 AM PST Freddy was the runt of the litter when he was born, but he's certainly grown up since then. In fact, now he's the world's tallest dog -when he stands up on his back legs, he measures a whopping 7'5" tall! Guinness announced their new record holder in late December. Anyone interested in keeping tabs on the pooch can now follow him on his Instagram page.  Via Huffington Post

Backstroke of the West Posted: 03 Jan 2017 07:59 AM PST Back in 2005, one of the earliest posts on Neatorama called attention to Jeremy Winterson's hilarious account of a Chinese bootleg DVD of Revenge of the Sith called Backstroke of the West. The English subtitles, generated from the Chinese translation, gave us a nonsensical dialogue that birthed the "Do Not Want" meme. Now we find out that YouTubers have dubbed the mangled English right over the movie. Contains NSFW language.    (YouTube link) You can see more video highlights from Backstroke of the West at the A.V. Club and watch the entire feature-length dub here. -via reddit

Man In China Has Been Using A Hand Grenade As A Walnut Cracker Since The 80s Posted: 03 Jan 2017 06:59 AM PST Walnuts are one hard nut to crack, so people use a hammer, rock or mallet to crack them open and get at the delicious meat inside, and when they find a good nutcracker they stick with it. A villager from Shaanxi province, China thought the "mallet" his friend gave him in the early 80s was the perfect walnut cracking device, until he saw it on a government flyer- and found out it was actually a hand grenade. Finding out his mallet was actually a Chinese Type 67 defensive hand grenade came as quite a shock to the man, who quickly gave it to the local police so he wouldn't get in trouble. But he would have been even more shocked had it gone off in his hand while he was bashing walnuts! -Via Popular Mechanics

Five Side Characters Who Deserve Their Own Movies Posted: 03 Jan 2017 05:59 AM PST To make one movie, writers must create an entire world of characters to interact with the protagonist. The minor characters can be as rich and interesting as the main cast, but we don't get to know them very well. Some of these characters are intriguing enough to carry their own movie, but it rarely happens. Be honest, you'd go see a movie based on the sea turtles from Finding Nemo, wouldn't you? One of the most beloved characters in Disney’s Finding Nemo is Crush. He is a sea turtle who speaks like a surfer. He helps Marlin and Dory get to Sydney Harbor so that they can find and rescue Nemo. He gives Marlin the nickname, The Jellyman and he calls Dory, Little Blue. He takes the pair on a fantastic ride along the East Australian Current. He also has a son named Squirt and a group of other turtles that he travels with. It would have been great to see Crush get his own spinoff so that we can see what his family is like and what it is like to travel along the East Australian Current. Crush is very funny and very lovable. Fans fell in love with him in Finding Nemo, and they would love him even more if he had his own movie. Read about other side characters who should be in their own movies at Unreality.

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