The following four-letter word pairs are clues to the terms that follow, all of which fit the “_ O _ O _ O _ _” pattern. For example, the clue “make cell” might point to the brand name “M O T O R O L A,” a manufacturer of cellular telephones. Good luck:

1.  MIND GONE:  _ O _ O _ O _ _
2.  DULL TALK: _ O _ O _ O _ _
3.  HEAR NICE: _ O _ O _ O _ _
4.  PRAY HYMN: _ O _ O _ O _ _
5.  LAND GAME: _ O _ O _ O _ _

Andy Woodruff noticed that Ohio has 88 counties, so he went to work on a map application that assigns a piano note to each county. The map is a musical instrument you can play! (via the Presurfer)
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Skateboarders fly down the streets of San Francisco in the dark to connect glowing Tetris-like shapes. The points should go to the ones who don’t injure themselves!
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9 Ways Marketing Weasels Will Try to Manipulate You. Thinking rationally before you buy will save you money, especially if you decide not to buy.
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The Mystery of Hitler’s Missing Gold. They still don’t know where it is, but here are six possibilities.
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Conan the kitten doesn’t like to be left alone. And he won’t hesitate to tell you about it.
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Things you might not know about schizophrenia, in comic book form. There but for the grace of God go any of us. (via b3ta)
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8 Historical Crossdressers: Women in a Man’s World. Because in many times and places, a man’s life was a lot more fun.

The Brady Bunch debuted 40 years ago this week. To celebrate, we’re re-running Kara’s excellent story about the series, which was originally posted last year.

Here’s the story of how a show started as a typical formulaic sitcom, but grew into a syndicated monster. From the time Greg Brady got high to the reason Cindy Brady started balding, here’s a quick rundown of all things Brady you probably didn’t know.

1. In Real Life, Jan Gave Marcia the Complex

Maureen McCormick played Marcia, the eldest Brady daughter, and the object of lust of many a teenaged boy during the tenure of The Brady Bunch. What the public didn’t know, however, was that “Mo” always felt inferior to Eve Plumb, who played middle sister Jan. Eve had longer, blonder, more luxurious hair. Eve developed curves before Maureen did (and took pleasure in flaunting her blossoming physique by going braless under her tight-fitting tops in later seasons). The very slender Mo also felt that she had a bit of a tummy “pooch” and during the time the entire cast was en route to Hawaii for an exciting “on location” three-part episode, all she could think about was her horror at having to appear on camera in a bikini. Watch those Hawaii episodes when they rerun and you’ll see that Maureen always manages to hold a beach towel or robe in front of her lower torso in any bathing suit scenes.

2. Barbershop of Horrors: Why Cindy Started Balding

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We’re kicking off the new season of “Feel Art Again” with some talented female artists, since our archive is a little lacking on the female front. Today’s artist is Frances Mary Hodgkins (1869-1947), “one of New Zealand’s most loved and critically-acclaimed artists,” who was requested by reader Alan R.

1. Although Frances Hodgkins first exhibited in 1890, when she was only 21, Hodgkins considered a trip to Morocco in the early 1900s as the true beginning of her painting career. During the trip, she travelled from Tangier to Tetuan, where few white women had been, with a native caravan.

2. With her painting “Fatima,” Hodgkins was the first New Zealander to have a work “hung on the line” at the Royal Academy of Arts in England. She achieved another first when she was the first woman to be appointed to the staff of Paris’ Académie Colarossi, where she held watercolor classes.

3. According to Hodgkins biographer Alexa Johnston, the artist was apparently a big fan of food: “She painted it and sent letters home to family about it.” Some of her favorites were veal and ham pie, Turkish Delight, and cupcakes.
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If you had a rough day and need a smile, tonight’s Late Movies are for you. (Though if you had a great day and want to keep those good feelings going, you’ll enjoy them, too.) We’ve featured some of these on the blog before, but now they’re all in one place.

My wife sent me this clip, titled “My dogs greeting me after returning from 14 months in Iraq.” In case you’re reading this on the clock, it’s suitable for work, unless getting all teary eyed at your desk is frowned upon. (more…)

He’s pious. He’s successful. He’s everything Homer’s not. How well-diddily-ell do you know the Simpsons’ next-door neighbor? Take our quiz to find out.

Take the Quiz: Ned Flanders

I told Jason English the other day that my husband may be sending him flowers (or a six-pack; I guess that’s probably more likely). Because of Jason’s brilliant idea to have a mental_floss Fantasy Football league, I’ve been willing – nay, I’ve been wanting – to watch football lately. And not just for the touchdown dances, which were previously my main reasons for enjoying the sport. But I still like a good celebration. Here are some of my favorites:

1. The Ickey Shuffle might be the most famous touchdown celebration ever; the NFL even allowed Elbert “Ickey” Woods to do it without penalty in the late ‘80s (let’s see T.O. get away with that). Check out the Ickey Shuffle in this little montage of dances – if you don’t want to wait through the whole thing, he’s #4 at about 1:30.

2. The Lambeau Leap is a celebration the whole team gets into. It doesn’t happen every time, but sometimes when a Packer gets a touchdown at Lambeau Field, he runs and leaps into the end zone stands. Other teams have started to adopt this celebration as well, but it started in Wisconsin. Sometimes an opposing player tries to get some love at Lambeau and more often than not gets shut down – that very thing happened to Viking Fred Smoot in 2007. But Chad Ochocinco managed to pull it off just a week ago by planting a couple of Bengals fans in the end zone seats ahead of time. Sneaky. Here’s Donald Lee doing the Lambeau Leap last season:

3. Speaking of Ochocinco, he rivals T.O. when it comes to ridiculous (and expensive) TD celebrations. He has “proposed” to a cheerleader, he has putted the football in homage to Tiger Woods, he has whipped out pre-made signs… but my favorite is when he Riverdances. You can see most of these (and lots more) in this video:

4. Steve Smith was on the same college football team (Santa Monica College) as Ochocinco, so is it any surprise that they both share a love of celebrating their hard-earned six points? Like Ochocino, he has quite a few celebrations under his belt, but I like when he turned the ball into a baby, burping it and wiping its butt. (more…)

You see them stalking the sidelines every time you flip on a game, but how well do you know where some of the game’s top coaches got their starts? Most coaches spend their entire lives coaching in some capacity, but a few of the all-time greats have gotten some interesting paychecks outside of football. Take a look at some other jobs coaches have held.

1. Tom Landry
The dapper former Dallas Cowboys coach saw some serious action in the Army Air Forces during World War II. As a second lieutenant, Landry served as the copilot of a B-17 Flying Fortress in Europe and completed 30 combat missions. On one mission Landry’s plane ran out of fuel, and the future Hall of Famer had to make a crash landing in Belgium.

2. George Halas
The man who owned the Chicago Bears and coached the squad from 1922 to 1967 was quite an athlete in his own right. He was the MVP of the 1919 Rose Bowl while playing for a team representing the Great Lakes Naval Training Station; the big win earned everyone on the team discharges from the military. After getting out of the armed forces, Halas picked up baseball and bounced around the minors for a bit before eventually getting called up to play for the New York Yankees.

A hip injury cut his big-league career short after just 12 games, but baseball probably didn’t lose a future star. Sure, it’s a small sample, but Halas only squeaked out two singles in 22 at-bats during his MLB career, good for a less-than-sterling .182 OPS.

3. Buddy Ryan
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As the “Breakfast of Champions,” Wheaties won’t put just anyone on their iconic orange boxes. Most of the athletes to appear on the General Mills cereal’s boxes since Lou Gehrig became the first in 1934 have been household names from a major sport. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Ken Griffey Jr. come to mind. But there have been a handful of exceptions to the rule. Here’s a closer look at some of the less familiar names to hit the breakfast table on boxes of Wheaties over the years.

1. Denny Brauer, Angler

After he won Angler of the Year honors in 1998, Wheaties made Brauer the first fisherman to appear on the front of the box. PETA objected to Brauer’s depiction and distributed postcards in protest that referred to fishermen as “cereal killers” and included the message, “Weenies: the Breakfast of Lip-Rippers.” Wheaties issued the following statement in response: “We certainly respect their right to object and protest our decision, but we must disagree with PETA when they say that fishing is not a sport.” According to the New York Post, nearly 75 percent of the boxes featuring Brauer were bought within the first week of their release. David Walker, the 1999 Angler of the Year, also appeared on a Wheaties box.

2. Myriam Bedard, Biathlete

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Note: William Safire, columnist and former speechwriter, died on Sunday at age 79. I have reposted this blog post, originally from October 29, 2007, as a tribute to a great writer.

In July 1969, the world watched as the crew of Apollo 11 successfully entered lunar orbit, landed, then blasted off and returned to Earth. At each step of the way there were dangers and NASA had backup plans in case something went terribly wrong — though there wasn’t much NASA could do from 384,403 kilometers away. I recently came across a 1999 essay by William Safire, published in The New York Times — thanks again for opening those archives, Times — discussing the speech Safire wrote for Nixon just in case the mission failed. From Safire’s article:

The most dangerous part of the trip was not landing the little module on the moon, but in launching it back up to the mother ship. If that failed, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin could not be rescued. Mission Control would have to “close down communications” and, as the world agonized, let the doomed astronauts starve to death or commit suicide.

Nixon aides H. R. Haldeman and Peter Flanigan told me to plan for that tragic contingency. On July 18, 1969, I recommended that “in event of moon disaster . . . the President should telephone each of the widows-to-be” and after NASA cut off contact “a clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to ‘the deepest of the deep,’ concluding with the Lord’s Prayer.” A draft Presidential speech was included.

Read more, including the text of the speech, in Safire’s piece Disaster Never Came. There’s also a Wikipedia page with links to external information, including a scan of the original memo.

(Via Kottke.org.)