Supercuts are fun, but supercuts that make a melodic song are even better. Dustin Ballard, also known as There I Ruined It (previously at Neatorama) compiled incidences of the term "cold beer" in country songs, and there are a lot of them, particularly in "Bro-country" from recent years.
The notion that country music is full of cliches goes way back. Recall the 1975 song "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" with the bonus verse. Then in 2015, Gregory Todd demonstrated how formulaic the music itself had become with his 6-song mashup. It turned out those songs were written by the same group of composers. Probably on an assembly line.
Meanwhile, enjoy this short but amusing mashup that serves as a tribute to the importance of cold beer. If you pay attention, you'll see a clip from Bo Burnham at :37. It's from his 2016 parody song that makes the same point.
The first time I saw Devil's Tower was in 1977 in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In 2013, I finally got to see it in person. The mountain in Wyoming is a national monument, but it's less of a mountain than a 867-foot stone pillar rising from the relatively flat land around it. Its sheer sides draw 20,000 mountain climbers every year, and many more tourists. The Lakota Sioux call it Mato Tipila or Bear’s Lodge. How did this amazing rock come to be there?
The scientific answer is that it's a laccolith. It's not a volcano, but it was still formed by volcanic activity in a convoluted process around 50 million years ago. The Lakota story behind the rise of the sacred Mato Tipila is even more interesting, involving seven little girls who were being chased by bears. Read both stories and more about Devil's Tower at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Justin Meissen)
What does food say about the nation that prepares it? This is the starting point for research by Óscar Cabral, whose article in Frontiers in Political Science examines the menus of 457 state dinners presented by Portugal between 1910 and 2024. Cabral treats menus as political documents that express trends in Portugal's internal politics and diplomatic objectives over the course of a century.
The starting point, 1910, is fitting because it is the year in which a revolution permanently overthrew the 800-year old monarchy. In a press release, Cabral explains that although Portugal has not had a clearly defined "culinary diplomatic strategy" since the foundation of the Portuguese republic, certain trends are clearly evident.
For example, during the nationalist Estado Novo period, state dinners offered less of the traditional French cuisine and instead emphasized authentic Portuguese foods. This trend culminated in a 1957 state dinner offered to Queen Elizabeth II with a menu designed by Portugal's most respected ethnographer at the time.
-via Discover magazine
Rakugo is a Japanese form of comic storytelling. Katsura Sunshine, originally from Toronto, spent years in an apprenticeship learning the art of Rakugo, and now lives and performs in both New York City and Tokyo. He is in a special position to compare and contrast Japanese culture with Western culture with humor in both places. What seems like a lesson about whichever nation he's not in at the time comes with a punch line.
After watching this funny tutorial on language, I went to Sunshine's Instagram page and watched lots of clips that were just as funny. Some of his stories are about the language and social mistakes he made when he first went to Japan, and how strange his cross-cultural life is now. For example, people are surprised at how well Sunshine speaks English. They guess he's from some European country that is known for blonde hair (although his hair can be any color). Even explaining the art of Rakugo becomes a funny sketch. -via Laughing Squid
Mike Judge's finest character creations are perhaps Beavis and Butthead, the stars of the entertainment franchise that bears their names. Yes, these two teens from Highland, Texas have delighted generations of fans since their initial appearance in 1992, ultimately appearing on 298 television episodes and 2 feature films).
Entertainers such as Beavis and Butthead sometimes produce children's books to demonstrate that their artistry extends beyond the screen. Hence this parody of the works of Dr. Seuss.
Lumbass the Dumbass by Dr. Beavis & Dr. Butthead#BeavisAndButthead #DrSeuss pic.twitter.com/EkBTt1qKFd
— Badgerclops (@beeclops2) November 13, 2025
Content warning: crude and juvenile behavior typical of Beavis and Butthead.
-via reddit
Since its initial publication in 1947, the picture book Goodnight Moon written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd has enchanted and haunted generations of readers.
Could you sleep in such a room? Even if the spectral old woman in the room whispering, "hush"? Let's find out by staying at this special hotel suite at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. Fast Company reports that guests can book it from now until February 28 with prices that start at $399 a night. Amenities include a copy of the book, a bunny plush, and themed cookies inspired by the bowl full of mush.
Photo: Marriott
We rarely get to see an x-ray of a broken bone that cannot be straightened at least a little for the picture. This one has two broken bones, but the metal plates inside just bent at a 90 degree angle. Redditor tubatheist shared this image late last night. How did it happen?
Was on a nice leisurely bike ride - shoe laces got stuck on my bike pedal and wrapped around multiple times over. Fell off as I was braking to get them unstuck. I never want to get on a bike again 😫
Ouch. The plates were from four years ago, when he broke that arm slipping on ice. The real kicker is that this is the third time this arm has been broken. The first time was when he was only nine years old. The next time tubatheist renews his health insurance plan, they are liable to require a separate policy for this arm since it has proven to be a risky limb. Always double tie your shoes before riding a bike, and tuck the ends into the shoe. Read more reactions at reddit.
'Tis the season for British retailers to roll out their expensive and lovingly-crafted Christmas ads, for which they've spent the majority of their advertising budget for the year. They are usually designed to tug at our heartstrings. This one is a "mini rom-com" featuring British comedian Joe Wilkinson and movie star Kiera Knightly.
Phil is mourning his previous love, who must have died because of the line "It's what Shelly would have wanted." Then a miraculous meeting happens in front of a grocery store cheese counter. As their relationship blossoms, it appears to be centered around food, down to Kiera making cookies that look like Phil. That's because this is an ad for Waitrose, an upscale British supermarket. The unlikely but heartwarming story, with some understated British humor, even has a Star Wars touch at the end. The comments are full of Joe Wilkinson fans who congratulate Knightly on being cast alongside him.
November 13th is St. Brice's Day. Have you ever heard of Saint Brice? He has nothing to do with story aside from the date.
It was on St. Brice's Day in the year 1002 that England's King Æthelred II issued a decree that all Danes in the kingdom should be killed. This meant all Scandinavians, or more pointedly, Vikings. This was a couple hundred years into the Viking Age, and England was suffering from Viking raids in the north and east and an extortion scheme that taxed all of England. But Scandinavian influence had been spreading to England for some time, and there were Danes who had settled in England for generations and knew no other home. These were mainly the people who were slaughtered during the St. Brice's Day Massacre.
The killings were carried out locally, and brutally. The massacre only lasted a day or two, as far as we can tell from archaeological finds. But the repercussions were swift. The ruler of Norway, Sweyn Forkbeard, set to England for revenge and eventually ended up as its king. Read about the brutal St. Brice's Day massacre at Utterly Interesting.
(Image credit: Alfred Pearse)
Ben Newell builds terrariums and aquariums and gets up close and personal with the tiny creatures that inhabit them. as you might guess, the trick is in gentle moves and food. In the video above, he makes friends with a tiny jumping spider named Earl that he's had for several months now. There are a couple of scary moments in the video that add just the right amount of drama, but Earl is fine. In later videos, we find that Earl, who is a female, met a potential boyfriend named Toejam, who was quite a dancer. That didn't work out, and now Earl's new boyfriend is a spider named Tom Selleck. We wish them all the happiness in the world.
You'll find a lot more vignettes from Earl's life at Newell's Instagram page, and longer videos that give more details (in case you want to befriend spiders, frogs, and lizards) at his YouTube channel. -via Boing Boing
When the people of Texas overthrew the Santa Anna's shackles of centralist tyranny and established the Republic of Texas, General Sam Houston served as the second President of the Republic.
President Houston's government was located in the sixth and penultimate capital of the Republic--the nascent City of Houston. Pictured above is the Presidential Residence in 1837, a year after independence.
The Texas historical X account Traces of Texas informs us that the famous naturalist John J. Audubon visited President Houston and his cabinet in this home. It was a rough but serviceable home. A current Google Street View of the location at 405 Main Street reveals significant construction since 1837.
The beloved movie Toy Story went into wide release on November 22, 1995, so I will soon be 30 years old. At the time, it was hailed as the first all-computer-generated feature film. As such, it opened the doors to what animated movies would become. Toy Story was a big hit- not so much because of the CG, but because it was a great story. That's what Pixar does.
Still, when you think of a CG movie, you think it was produced digitally and then digitally recorded, sent to digital theaters and transferred to digital home video, where you watch on your digital high-definition flatscreen TV. That may be how movies are done today, but in 1995, the process was different. In order to be shown in theaters, the digital files had to be recorded on analog film, as that was how theaters showed movies. Even if theaters had been digital at the time, computers didn't have the capacity to record or transfer an entire feature film. As film buffs know, analog film has a different look, so the Toy Story digital files had to be tweaked to make the movie look correct on film. And then tweaked again when the raw files finally could be used to view the movie. Read how those processes changed what we see when we watch Toy Story, at Animation Obsessive. -via Damn Interesting
The Running Man is a 1987 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the man who runs. I don't know what prompted Screen Junkies to pick this movie from the past to critique, but there are clues in the narration. I never saw The Running Man, but from this video it appears to be a precursor to The Hunger Games and Squid Game dressed up in 1980s neon spandex. It's also a satire on modern bread and circuses for the masses while the power elite behind the scenes get away with everything. The Running Man features athletes like Jesse Ventura and Jim Brown, who fit right in, and some unlikely casting in game show host Richard Dawson and musician Mick Fleetwood. Should you pull out The Running Man and watch it again? I don't know, it might give you a nostalgic laugh or maybe a sense of dread about our modern world. Pick your own poison.
Update: rcxb set me straight. There is a new movie version of The Running Man opening this weekend. I am embarrassed over how that flew under my radar.
We know that people in Turkey love cats, and take care of the numerous strays as well as their own pets. This is not a new phenomena. A palace built more than 500 years ago had cat doors to allow free access for wandering felines.
Topkapı Palace in Istanbul was built beginning in 1459, as a headquarters and residence for the Ottoman sultans. In the mid-19th century, another palace was built for the sultan, and Topkapı Palace was made into a museum in 1924.
The palace was outfitted with a series of cat doors, which allowed resident pets to pass through the palace unobstructed, even though passage for humans was severely restricted according to one's role. As the palace has been undergoing a restoration project, it was announced that the cat door in the external entrance to the Karaağalar Quarters, where those who worked in palace security lived, has been restored, allowing cats to once again enter the palace on their own accord and wander unrestricted as they always have. It was one of the final projects of the restoration, and now human visitors will be allowed back into the museum as well. The cats took full advantage of the access, as their ancestors did. Many of the cats are known to the palace, as you will see in an article about their return. -via Metafilter
The What If? series by Randall Munroe and Henry Reich (previously at Neatorama) has returned to form with a theoretical question that would surely lead to the death of everyone on this planet. Humans have learned to concentrate light into a small space to produce lasers, which can be very dangerous depending on their power. What if the sun did that, with all its power? What if the star concentrated all its light and heat into a single laser beam the diameter of, say, a meter? As you might guess, this is not good. Yet how each of us would die depends on where you are when it happens, and what would happen to the planet itself might surprise you.
All in all, we would prefer the sun to stay the way it is, radiating heat and light in all directions, and sending us just the right amount to power life on earth.
