Remember when Verizon’s slogan demanded very directly that you “Join In”? It wasn’t that long ago, before that annoying guy started asking everyone under the sun if they could hear him now. How ’bout when McDonald’s proclaimed, “We Love to See You Smile”? That was before some disembodied voice admitted, “I’m Lovin’ it.” “It,” we were left to assume, referred to every product McDonald’s offers the consuming public. The trick to coming up with a good slogan is, well—it’s still kind of a mystery.

An article over at The Atlantic provides a list of some of history’s best and worst slogans, along with the “science” behind why some of them last in perpetuity. Classics include—”Good to the last drop,” which Maxwell House (probably apocryphally) attributes to an off-hand comment made by Theodore Roosevelt while sucking down some Joe at Andrew Jackson’s house. “Breakfast of Champions” has been the driving force behind Wheaties since 1927, when Lou Gehrig’s image graced its box covers. They also have some historically hysterical offerings (“Great national temperance beverage”—Coca Cola, 1906), and some preposterously forgettable ones from the recent past (“The way the world works”—FedEx, 1996-1998).

I think my favorite is “America’s most misunderstood soft drink,” which Dr. Pepper used in the 1960s. What are some of your favorite slogans? Do they stick in your head because they’re persistently irritating or memorably amusing?

[Check out The Atlantic's Slogans Through History gallery.]

From NPR: “It’s not easy being green. Some of us know that better than others. And, though singer, fiddler and whistler Andrew Bird knows that this is Kermit’s song to own, he decided to tackle it in a way that only Bird could, as part of a charming Muppets tribute record called The Green Album.”
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Check out this very cute tongue-in-cheek short animation on Why the Panda is Black and White (at least, in the mind of one child).
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Speaking of black and white, test yourself on this famous Zebra Puzzle and see if you are among the estimated 2% who are able to solve it!
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“Look up!” is the message for this slideshow of the world’s coolest ceilings.
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An amazing photography project by Stefano Unterthiner: animals face to face (I just had to feature the ape – and some people question why the rest of us find it so easy to anthropomorphize!)
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A silly little distraction of a game (that becomes artistic!) The black arrows attack the color arrows (which splatter on the canvas) – your clicks control how many of each appear (and where they move).
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Very cool gallery of double-exposure photographs. I remember when this would happen with old cameras – I think the effect can be created in Photoshop now (of course!)
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Feel inspired to sketch this weekend? Try out some different grips – the way you hold your pencil could mean the difference between public toilet stick figure and van Gogh (or just the difference between “meh” and “wow that’s pretty good!”)
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A big thanks to everyone who sent in links this week – keep it up! Send your submissions to FlossyLinks@gmail.com, and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter where I often post pretty pictures (like this one from NASA of the perfection of the winter solstice).

In case you weren’t obsessively refreshing mentalfloss.com all week, here’s what you missed:

1. 7 of the World’s Craziest Roads, by Haley Sweetland Edwards
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2. 10 Non–Rock Stars Who Died at the Tragically Young Age of 27, by Stacy Conradt
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3. Discomfort Food: The Strange and Twisted History of Ramen Noodles, by Bill DeMain
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4. That Time in 1979 When the U.S. Government Defaulted, by Ethan Trex
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5. The Fontastic Stories Behind 5 Common Typefaces, by Ethan Trex
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6. 10 Reasons Alex Trebek Is Awesome, by Stacy Conradt
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7. How Wildman Whitehouse Destroyed the Transatlantic Cable, by Stacy Conradt
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8. 11 Prominent Authors Who Excelled in Sports, by Conor McKeon
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9. 36 of the Geekiest Tattoos from Comic-Con 2011, by Jill Harness
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10. 5 Things You Didn’t Know About John DeLorean, by Ethan Trex

Can pointing your car fob at your head make it work at a longer range? PC World tests “4 Stupid Tech Tricks,” and the results are surprising (spoiler: yes, by the way, pointing it at your head does apparently work!)
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From my friend Thomas, pictorial profiles of joggers “before and after” their sprint. These further prove my hypothesis that no one ever looks happy when they run …
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Chart the fascinating growth and change of Micky Mouse Through the Years. Which look is your favorite?
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Check out the incredible network of tunnels and chambers and the fascinating history of The Fleet – London’s Underground River.
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A few fantastic summer festivals from around the world such as this pirate display (that would make for a great “My Summer Vacation” story). Speaking of which, what have you Flossers been up to over these last few hot months?
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From Rob, this gallery of divers’ faces frozen in action during the World Championships in Shanghai are all just macros waiting to happen.
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For those of you who fly often and (like me) might happen to be quite tall, consider this civil way to avoid strangling the airline passenger seated in front of you. (I think I’d still be too chicken to do it, though. I just dig my knees into their back if they recline and hope for the best).
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From Holly, a new report questioning “can playgrounds be too safe?” (NPR’s news show “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me!” referenced this last week when host Peter Segal said, “In my day playgrounds were made from decommissioned WWII ordinance, and the merry-go-round was just a syphilitic whore named Mary who would spin you – and she was my best friend!)
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Stay tuned – more links tomorrow! In the meantime, send your submissions to FlossyLinks@gmail.com, and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, where I sometimes teach you Shakespearean insults.

1. Bovine Buddies

© beyond/Corbis

A British study published this month reveals that individual cows form tight “best friendships” with others cows, with whom they wile away the warm afternoons chewing cud and shootin’ the bull. When a cow is taken away from her “best friend,” her stress levels increase and her milk yields decrease. “When heifers have their preferred partner with them, their stress levels…are reduced compared with if they were with a random individual,” said Krista McLennan, a grad student at Northampton University who discovered the correlation.

2. Holy Midwives, Batman!

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Noma Bar is a graphic designer with a unique talent for symbolic illustration. Symbolic both in the sense that they utilize common everyday symbols – and also in the way that those symbols perfectly encapsulate the person they are depicting. His book, Guess Who: The Many Faces of Noma Bar, is chocked full of his thought-provoking work. Here are a few of my favorites:

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There are currently 193 member states of the United Nations, including everyone from South Sudan (added just this month) to the Solomon Islands. And of course, the United States is a charter member, but that doesn’t mean the entire U.S. is represented.

If you stop by Oregon’s Grant County, you’ll see signs declaring the region a “U.N.-Free Zone.” That’s the result of a 2002 vote in the county that banned the U.N. from the region over concerns that the body wanted to infringe on residents’ rights to own guns, take back private property, control education and establish a one-world religion. There were also concerns about the fiscal cost of belonging to the U.N. and the body’s environmental record.

Herb Brusman, the author of the measure, told the East Oregonian newspaper that the vote was “a statement to be made … [that] the less we have contact with [the U.N.], the better.”

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During Seinfeld‘s nine-year run, George Costanza held many jobs, from real estate agent to hand model, and he pretended to be just as many things. How well do you know Costanza’s colorful resume? We’re about to find out.

Take the Quiz: George Costanza’s Jobs

Paul: “I just wanted to thank you fans. Don’t know where we’d be without you.”
John: “The army, probably.”

George, speaking about their upcoming film: “This one will be in color.”
John: “Green.”
–1964 Beatles Christmas Record

So much of the career and lives of The Beatles has been documented in books, TV specials, movies, videos, magazine articles, and more. But one often ignored facet of their fascinating story is their annual Christmas records. The Christmas recordings, usually done after a regular recording session in the studio, give a unique perspective of the evolution of the most popular band in the world.

The original idea for an annual Beatles Christmas record came from the Beatles press officer, Tony Barrow (the originator of the group’s most common nickname, “the Fab Four”), who was inspired by the Queen’s annual Yuletide greetings on British radio. Barrow, whose office would be backed up for weeks with floods of fan letters for the group, thought a Christmas record might please their many fans. Thus, for the next seven years (from 1963 to 1969), the boys would record a 7-inch flexi-disc of them singing and talking, which would be mailed directly to their U.S. and U.K. fan club members.

The first few Christmas records were written as scripts, but it’s the boys’ ad-libs that make them so interesting. The records give a glimpse into the boys’ Monty Python-esque humor, a humor which is, at it’s best, hilarious and which was a key ingredient in the band’s incredible success and popularity. A popular British radio show, “The Goon Show,” featuring Peter Sellers, had a definite influence on the Beatles’ Christmas recordings. John Lennon, especially, was a devoted, inveterate fan of the show.

1963

The first Christmas record shows the Beatles’ early fresh-faced innocence as, one after the other, they thank their fans for a “gear year” and sing renditions of “Good King Wenceslas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Ringo.”

1964

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