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Disco Queen Donna Summer has passed away after a battle with lung cancer at age 63. Even though her name is always automatically entwined with disco, it was a sobriquet that she was never fully comfortable with. And rightfully so; unlike so many studio-manufactured singers of that era, Summer possessed a pure, sparkling mezzo-soprano voice and felt that she performed her best on ballads and show tunes. Here are a few stories behind some of her biggest hits.

“Love to Love You Baby”

Her first international hit is remembered mainly because Summer’s vocals were reminiscent of Meg Ryan’s restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally. After touring Europe with a road company of Hair, Summer ended up in Germany where she found steady employment as a background vocalist at Musicland Studios in Munich. Producer Giorgio Moroder and his assistant Pete Bellotte were recording a jam session with some studio musicians in 1975 when suddenly a very infectious four-on-the-floor bass drum rhythm coupled with a unique hi-hat pattern emerged. The pair wrote “Love to Love You Baby” around that rhythm and hired Summer to perform the overtly sexual vocals. Summer stated at the time that she was so embarrassed at the moans she was encouraged to create, she asked for the studio lights to be dimmed so she couldn’t see anyone in the booth.

Neil Bogart, the head of Casablanca Records in the US, received a demo tape of the song and excitedly phoned Moroder a few weeks later raving about it; he’d played it at a party at his home and his coked-up guests proceeded to get naked and amorous and kept requesting that he play the song over and over. So his brainstorm was to release an extended 16 minute long version of the song that filled up one whole album side. Moroder was skeptical but complied and the Love to Love You Baby album sold 400,000 copies in six weeks. (more…)

Mountain Lion Attacks Dog, Man Responds with Frying Pan

Brandon Arnold of Chino Valley, Arizona, was camping with a group of friends in Tonto National Forest when a mountain lion attacked his dog. Arnold tried to pull the animals apart before he realized the attacker wasn’t another dog. The campers grabbed whatever was nearby, which for Arnold was a hot cast-iron skillet. He bopped the cat in the head twice, killing it. Another camper shot the mountain lion, just to make sure. Officials from the Arizona Game and Fish Department took the big cat for testing and found it had rabies. None of the campers were scratched or bitten except for the dog, Apollo, and he’d been vaccinated for rabies already.

Kentucky Man Arrested for Leaving Son in Car

A man was arrested in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, on misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a minor. He had gone into a bar to drink and left his son behind in the car.

According to an arrest report, 59-year-old James L. Osborne was seen walking into The Electric Cowboy, a bar on Dixie Highway, near Oak Park Drive, early Saturday morning, shortly before 2:30 a.m.

Witnesses say he left a young boy inside his vehicle.

When police arrived, they approached the boy and asked him his age. It was determined that the boy was 17.

It’s likely that the son was his designated driver.

Internet Cafe Robbers Caught via Facebook

In this particular case, the criminals weren’t caught by bragging about their exploits on Facebook, but one of them logged onto the social network at the shop they then robbed! The two initially unidentified thieves went to an internet cafe in Calima, Colombia, and took an undisclosed amount of money at gunpoint. They fled on a motorcycle, but it became clear that one of them had logged onto his Facebook page before the robbery -and did not log out. The police took information off his profile and drove to his home address, where he was arrested.

Rushin’ Russian Rescued from Trash Chute

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Kara and I will be visiting the Motor City ComicCon this afternoon, which means we may be distracted by the likes of Erin Gray and Peter Tork. In the meantime, enjoy the mentalfloss.com Brain Game Free-for-all Friday challenge. Good luck!

WARD, REED, ROSS, IVAN…

Which of the following four-letter names best
completes the above list, and why?

OMAR, BONY, THOM, CARL

We humbly submit Friday’s 5 Questions quiz: With Apologies

5 Alternatives to Obama and Romney in the Presidential Race. The Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and even the Prohibition Party (among others) are fielding candidates this year.
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October 23rd Is The Worst Birthday, at least according to a chart that’s making the rounds. What’s your birthday like?
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If you are familiar with the Buttered Cat Paradox, you’ll appreciate this ad for Flying Horse energy drink. It’s the ultimate perpetual motion machine!
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And now, a painfully honest trailer for the movie Transformers, spilling all the revelations the real trailer ignored. And it gives proper credit to the many product placements. Language slightly NSFW.
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Thirteen-month-old Sage really loves goats. Not that he knows they’re goats and not dogs, but he loves them anyway.
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What happens when an astronomer goes full hipster on Twitter? Twitter goes hipster right back with #BadAstrohipster.
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The most embarrassing Wheel of Fortune failure ever. And now the entire internet has witnessed it.
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Sneakers that make you fit and 7 other misleading products. Always be wary of claims made by people who want to sell you something.
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Why is the Drinking Age 21? When I was a teenager, the laws varied by state, which made going to Tennessee a real adventure.

With 300-plus titles in print and more than 260 million books sold, the Berenstain Bears are bound to come up in conversation. Here’s how to steer a predictable discussion about teamwork and manners to one on sex and panda discrimination.

1. Creators Stanley Berenstain and Janice Grant grew up in the same neighborhood in West Philadelphia, but they didn’t meet until their first day of art school.

2. During World War II, Stanley served in the Army. He and Janice stayed in touch by sending each other hand-drawn cartoons.

3. Although they’re remembered for their bear adventures, the Berenstains also illustrated humor books for adults, including How to Teach Your Children About Sex Without Making a Complete Fool of Yourself.

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Welcome back to the game that is sweeping the nation, GUESS THE THEME! All the clips below have something in common. Leave your best guesses in the comments.

Pink Floyd – Money (more…)

You know the presidents. Do you know their back-up plans? Choose which person served as VP under each commander in chief.

Take the Quiz: Who Was His VP?

The ’40s Were a Wild Time

In honor of National Bike Month, the good people at LIFE.com dug up these photos of variations on the bicycle from the 1940s.

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There’s A Giant 860-Mile Wide Sphere of Water Sitting on Top of the Midwestern United States
In this picture – which illustrates what all of the Earth’s water looks like in one place.

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It’s About (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Time Someone Defended My (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Cursing
You should know that this impassioned defense of swearing does, in fact, contain a few NSFW verbal bombs itself.

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Or Just Tell Your Opponent to Look at the TV, Then Peek at Their Board
Apparently there’s an honest way to win at Battleship, too. For those of you with board game ethics.

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Ze Frank has been making awesome internet videos since before that was a thing. Today, I have the honor to appear briefly* in his show Chase That Happy, which is concerned with how we get happy when we aren’t. While the goal of life isn’t to be happy all the time, perhaps it is to watch Ze Frank and hope that maybe, someday, he will blink.

Representative quote: “For example I discovered Happy Typing, where you type like a Crazy Secretary in a silent film. [Frank types crazily]“ Content note: there’s some NSFW language in this video, but it’s fleeting. There’s also a mildly NSFW view of my unkempt back yard: horticulturists beware!

Frank mentions the Everything Thing, a previous video dealing with cognitive looping and anxiety, among other topics. Worth a look. Also, if you have no idea who this guy is, get educated. He basically invented the quick-cutting video blog, in 2006.

* = Shameless self-promotion alert (albeit belated to this footnote). This is what I got for tossing a hundred bucks at dude’s Kickstarter.