While the cracked-face Elvis robot posted last week is going to be hard to beat, I bet if Mental Floss readers pulled together, we could come up with something even stranger!

1. Ridiculous candid shots of you as a child (or your children in wierd candid shots). Your oldest pair of underwear/sneakers/grandparents (wrinkles are interesting). Your goofy ass child birthday party pics. Sprinklers I have known. And somebody suggested bad pics, take it a step further and… a thumb must actually appear in photo.

2. Well, I’m a library reference tech, so I’d have to say… ha! TYPING! I learned nothing at school, I learned everything from books. And, um, “personal experimentation”. But my typing speed is awesome. Oh, I also learned that you can be not so good at typing or pretty much anything else at school and still go on to own one of the world’s most famous corporations, and become filthy stinking rich, like Karen D., who sat behind me in typing. I guess typing also prepared me for “Life is Unfair”.

3. Lisa Simpson – delinquent brother, brainy, unpopular. Or Martin Prince, as I am “more smarter”.
see “Life is Unfair”.

4. Nam Pla

5. My friend, the world’s most brilliant librarian, Julie B., got her behind kicked on Jeopardy!, and Alex dissed her too. Bad Host! Bad Host!

The most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. This could include short stories explaining the photo. It will give every one a new perspective on what beauty is. Also, it may provide some very inspirational stories to brighten your day.

3. Either Monica from Friends or Pam from The Office. I’m the office admin who likes art, and I’m also a clean freak who likes everything a certain way.

4. Thai food is on the top of my list, I love pad thai, but I just don’t know what else is out there. And Indian food is another one I’ve never tried because I don’t know how to order.

(2)
I’d have to say it’s a tie between the basic business class I reluctantly took as a filler elective in high school, and my all-time favorite AP Composition class, as taught by a grammar nazi who was an excellent teacher.

(4)
Jicama. Rutabaga. Other less common vegetables & fruits.

Also, foods that are surrounded by Controversy. Like olive oil. Supposedly good for you – but some doctors and diets talk trash about it. And milk – does it REALLY do a body good? Or just the bodies of baby cows?

2. On a whim, I took a tech school class on QuarkXPress in 1993. That was after graduating with a BA in Management, and working for two years in a non-management job. After taking that class, I landed a job working graphics in a print company, which eventually led to me managing the graphics department in another company.

3. None that I can think of; I have a face made for radio, and a life too boring to be entertaining to anyone but me.

4. One topic about food that always seems to come up at our dinner table is theorizing how someone figured out that certain things would make a good food product, or how combinations of different foods came up. For instance, how did someone figure out that if you roast the beans from a coffee plant, grind them up, then run hot water over the grounds, you get a tasty drink with an added pick-me-up.

2. Probably biochemisty or immunology class as I’m a bench scientist who works with antibodies.

3. My daughter has been watching Home Improvement reruns so lately I’ve been identifying with Jill Taylor. My name is also Jill, I live in the Metro Detroit area as well and myhusband is also an idiot at times.

4. How to make Indian idli.

5. Yep, American Idol. And nope, they let you see and try to get you to think what the producers of the show want the viewers to see and think. It’s not reality t.v. at all.