Becky

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Blog of Glory

Was it a sign that while flossing last night, my gums started bleeding? No but really: as of tomorrow I'll be handing in my mental_floss jersey, perhaps to resurface at some point, in some avuncular (why not?!) capacity. So to celebrate the new era, here's a pensive shot of my parents' husky (who is looking for a home if you live in MI--and preferably on a lot of land) & here are some random "final blog entries" still glimmering somewhere out there: Wednesday, May 9th Final blog post...recap time.... READ ON

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Consequences of a less than punctual life

I've... READ ON

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Impromtu jury duty

Judging from Maggie's How To Get Out of Jury Duty & David's dispatches from jury duty (maybe: "How to Get Into Jury Duty"?), we at mental_floss definitely haven't shied away from how to cope with the litigious life. I haven't actually had to/had the pleasure to serve on a Los Angeles jury yet, but I did cast the syndicated "Jury Duty" television show last year...Maybe there's some viable conflict of interest there that would get me off the hook. But at least I haven't yet encountered "emergency jury... READ ON

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Elsewhere in ghost towns: Kolmanskop

Every time all my favorite people leave town, you're liable to find me whining about how "this place is a ghost town," etc. That feeling either fades or it doesn't, but if ghosts were sandmen, they'd be all over this town: Kolmanskop is a ghost town in southern Namibia, a few kilometres inland from the port of Lüderitz. In 1908, Luederitz was plunged into diamond fever and people rushed into the Namib desert hoping to make an easy fortune. Within two years, a town, complete with a casino, school,... READ ON

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Ships, cats, et al. in bottles

So the only other thing I'd like to add to Miss Cellania's Weird Week-in-Review is actually from a few weeks back, but still pertinent--the New Jersey kitten who was found with its head stuck inside a bottle. Which was, with the pragmatic assistance of Crisco, safely removed. But the idea of something--almost anything--inside a bottle is practically always riveting. SD Jones runs a great folk art site that boasts an impressive index of artwork in bottles, including miniature meat markets (pictured!),... READ ON

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Workplace bullies

Where was "Bully Police USA" when I needed them? My self-defense training growing up was limited to my father coaching me to "hit back" or crush hypothetical scenarios with some zinger (outside of the I=rubber; you=glue genus). Well, at the Bully Police USA headquarters, you can check if your state has anti-bullying laws (32 states do). Among those 32, the only state that received an "A++" was Delaware. If you were bullied in Delaware, you probably won't be anymore...The site also claims that: 90% of... READ ON

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Party in the fuselage! This one's on the Contras...

A friend of mine just returned from Costa Rica, where stray dogs act as sherpas & if you want to get your drink on in a Fairchild C-123 cargo plane--a vestige from the Iran-Contra affair--you can do so at a place called El Avion. It's a bar, it's a coffee shop, it's a store, and it is, my friend reports back, amazing! The Hotel Costa Verde acquired the plane for $3k in 2000, and details the journey here: We then disassembled and shipped the pieces of the Iran-Contra relic to Quepos.... READ ON

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The allure of cities with numbers in their names

Yes, there's something transparently cool about Truth or Consequences, NM, or Hell, MI, but there's coolness AND precision in cities bearing numbers in their names: Twentynine Palms, CA Three Notch, AL Two Rivers, AK Seven Trees, CA Four Corners, MT Five Points, NC Seven Oaks, TX Ninety Six, SC Last month my boyfriend and I loitered in Twentynine Palms. We tried to count the palms, but they were, somehow, scarce. Still a jolly old freezing desert time and I fully plan on going back... READ ON

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What is a dandy?

So if you haven't heard, it's that time again: The New Yorker is holding their 2008 Eustace Tilley Contest. Tilley, drawn by Rea Irvin (also responsible for the headline type) in 1925, has been famously rendered by the likes of Chris Ware, Robert Crumb, William Wegman, and others. The deadline for submissions is January 24th, and you can check out the competition here. In 2005, Louis Menand wrote about Tilley's evolution and eventual deconstruction. New Yorker readers have become used to him, but... READ ON

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Hunting with Dad

Postal service in my neighborhood isn't very consistent, so it can make for some interesting deliveries. The other day, a neighbor two blocks over walked to my door to personally re-direct a newsletter she also receives. It was touching, and perhaps something that would only happen in a small town or at least on the West Coast. And just yesterday I arrived home to see the February issue of Field & Stream on the kitchen table, and was saddened a little to realize it was merely mis-delivered & if I were a... READ ON

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