mental_floss Blog » Winslow

The Tunguska Literary Event

Winslow — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 02:29:17 +0000

Great news for fans of massive, unexplained Siberian explosions. The Tunguska Event is finally getting the highbrow literary treatement it deserves.

An article in the Guardian says that Pynchon’s new novel – his first in nine years – features the T.E. as a plot point. The Guardian says:

“A description of the [untitled] book – apparently written by Pynchon himself – has been posted on Amazon.com. It offers a tantalising glimpse of the coming work.

“Spanning the period between the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and the years just after world war I, this novel moves from the labour troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Göttingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.”

As you may know, the Tunguska Event was this huge aerial explosion in Russia in 1908 that wiped out 500,000 acres of pine trees. Lots of theories about what happened — a comet, antimatter, UFOs — but no one’s totally sure. I’ll buy that book just for Pynchon’s take on the T.E.

Bush’s potty mouth

Winslow — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:13:33 +0000

Y’all see that Bush was caught using the S-word today? (I’m using y’all since I know mental_floss started in Bama).

My personal favorite cussing by a public figure is Gen. Patton’s obscenity-laced speech. It’s crazy. The movie with George C Scott cleaned it up beyond recognition.

Interstate Redux

Winslow — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:50:33 +0000

Sometimes we at mental_floss make mistakes, or just don’t get all the facts. Over at the magazine we call ‘em “mental flaws.” Whelp, here now is, perhaps, our first mental flog (that would be a blogging flaw):

Yesterday I pontificated thusly: “Not sure how one can pinpoint the exact 50-year anniversary of our illustrious Interstate system, but today seems to be the day.”

Insert foot in keyboard, as we skip to today where I luckily discovered this fact via The Christian Science Monitor:

“On June 29, 1956, President Eisenhower signed a bill to build the Interstate Highway System — a dream of his since he crossed the US in 1919…”

And so that’s why yesterday was the 50-year anniversary, and, more to the point, why I hang my head in shame today.

Interstate Update

Winslow — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:45:26 +0000

Not sure how one can pinpoint the exact 50-year anniversary of our illustrious Interstate system, but today seems to be the day. The ARTBA Transportation Development Foundation is hosting a gala, black-tie event down in D.C. tonight that will honor everyone from equipment manufacturers and labor organizations to state transportation departments.

Headliners will be Colin Powel and Willard Scott, two people I don’t think I’ve ever seen in the same room together.

It may be too late to buy in, but at $1000 per ticket (or $20,000 for 10), I’m not so sure you’d want to. Ah, I take it back; it’s for a good cause, right? There are, after all, some 50,000 miles of highway in America. The longest being the I-10, which runs from LA to Florida. According to this website, the I-10 even has an album of songs written about it featuring artists such as Willie Nelson.
Anyway, happy birthday Interstate! May your next 50 years be pothole free!

Monkey, Noooo!

Winslow — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 21:58:32 +0000

If you were thinking of taking a nice road trip this weekend, perhaps to enjoy the good weather or to forget briefly that your life is little more than a neverending series of disappointments, one word of advice: stay away from Sikeston, Missouri. It is a DEN OF BLOOD. The reason: a monkey named Alex. He has terrorized Sikestonians for too long, eating shirts of the young and attacking even when unprovoked. In short, Alex is an angry little monkey.

And Alex is not alone. Monkeys, chimps, and simeans of all furs are aggressive and, as you may have become aware of due to the work of the Fox network, THEY WILL ATTACK. Take, for instance, the story of these monkeys who got stoned to the bejesus and laid waste to a town in India. Or this one who contracted hay fever and went haywire earlier this year in Maine. And don’t forget this guy.

So, while I wish everyone a happy weekend, I also hope it is monkey-free, for they are not friends to you and me.

Another Reason Bush Could Use to Justify the Iraq War…

Winslow — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 23:06:00 +0000

With all the official reasons having been pretty well ruled out by now, here’s a new one: WE WENT IN TO TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO CELEBRATE GOOD NEWS PROPERLY. Because, really, the Iraqi people gotta stop shooting guns in the air when something goes right. I’m as happy as the next dude that we don’t have Abu Musab al-Zarqawi practicing an obscene version of Islam and calling for American heads anymore, but the shooting at the sky bit’s gotta stop. Iraqi people, if you’re reading, you know those things come down right? At, like, 200 ft per second. That’s supa-fast. It’s a felony in most places that actually have functioning and non-dismantled police forces. So ten years on, when things have hopefully tidied up a bit, maybe you’ll have learned to celebrate like your occupiers/freedom-givers: by downing eight Miller Lites, pissing on your neighbor’s lawn, and beating the junk out of your dog.

PS–In all fairness, some Americans shoot guns in the air in the name of bonhomie.

Britney’s breeding habits

Winslow — Thu, 11 May 2006 17:49:14 +0000

I notice that some people seem annoyed that Britney Spears is breeding again.
Let me just say a couple of words in her defense. First, as far as we know, she’s never eaten her young, which already puts her ahead of rats, hamsters and some subspecies of rabbits. Second, she’s a better mom than many other people. Like, um, let’s see. Yes, here we go: The Witch of Endor, a sorceress in the Old Testament who, legend has it, made black magic potions from the fat of her own son. (Important pop culture factoid: Endora from Bewitched is thought to be named for the Witch of Endor).
So let’s give the woman a break, you know?

Rick Sutcliffe, Not Sober and Not Joe Namath

Winslow — Thu, 11 May 2006 17:00:50 +0000

My tastes are simple. I like $300 jeans and William Gaddis novels and the cuisine of Ferran Adria. But most of all, I like it when ex-athletes get ripped up drunk and embarrass themselves in front of a national audience.

The latest victim: Rick Sutcliffe, 1979 Rookie of the Year and 1984 Cy Young Award winner. (Since I don’t know how to hyperlink yet, here’s the audio: http://images.gaslampball.com/images/admin/sutcliffe.mp3) Anyway, both Rick and his beard (http://www.shaveyourhead.com/2005/Wrigley05/612_sutcliffe.jpg) were noticeably intoxicated at a recent Padres game, and hearing his sweet slurredness brought me back to one of my favorite days, not even three years ago, when Joe Namath made the clumsiest pass at a woman I’ve ever seen. And on national TV no less. The video is here (http://thatvideosite.com/view/937.html). It takes a while for the video to buffer (can a video buffer? What is buffering? I’ve just written a variation of the word “buffer” four times in 30 seconds and I’m giggling. I’m six years old. Honestly.), so here’s some transcript in the meantime:

Suzy Kolber (ESPN sideline announcer): Joe, it’s been a tough season for Jets fans. What does it mean to you now that the team is struggling?

Namath: I wanna kiss you now. I couldn’t care less about the team struggling. What we know is we can improve. Chad Pennington, our quarterback, missed the first part of the season, and we struggled. We’re looking to next season, we’re looking to make a noise now, and…I wanna kiss you!

Kolber: Thanks, Joe!

Namath: YEAH!!!

Goosebumps. I have goosebumps.

Buffer.