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The path of armageddon?

I went to check tomorrow’s weather, and saw this:

Is it the Russians? Are we all dead?

“For some moments in life, there are no words.”

If you’re a fan of the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, you might enjoy this page, which delves into the literary sources behind many of Willy’s best quotes in the film.

They Might Be (er, are) Giants

Not all Giants fared as well as New York’s football team did this past Sunday. In fact, Giants have a stigma attached to them nearly as large as their heads, as these seven examples will reveal:

1. That’s One Big Link!

In 1961, Jimmy Dean introduced the world to the giant known as “Big Bad John” via his #1 hit song of the same name. Such was decency in our nation at the time that the radio wouldn’t play the version that ended by calling John “a hell of a man.” Instead, a second rendition referred to him as “a big, big man.” Mind you, this was decades before anyone thought of putting parental advisories on recordings, or releasing “clean” and “dirty” versions of singles. Dean also became a giant in the sausage world by investing nearly all of his music proceeds into a pork business. (Yes, he’s that “Jimmy Dean” too.)

2. Some Giants are Bright

Giant Stars should enjoy being big, ’cause they won’t be around very long. While our Sun, for instance, will stay bright and yellow another 5 billion years or so, it will then expand into a red giant for, oh, 500 million years or so. It will actually grow larger than the Earth’s orbit, meaning we’re not going to be around to enjoy the show. But once it’s done puffing out, it will shrink to a white dwarf - about the size of what would be Earth if it were still there. So if you’re going to clean your basement, now’s the time.

Continue reading They Might Be (er, are) Giants…

Wot’s… uh, the Deal?

This advertisement recently arrived in our snail mail with some advertisements and sale papers on the inside. Please explain to me why anyone would be interested in attaining a set of 45 of the 50 state quarters. I mean, yes, you can get the other five when they come out, but not in uncirculated condition. (By the time you touch them, they’re circulated.) So why get what you know is an incomplete set?

Would you buy a Beatles boxed set that had every album the band recorded except for Let It Be? Yeah, I know, Let It Be isn’t my favorite either, but still…

the Quarter Backs quiz

Thanks to the power of email sharing among trivia buffs, teachers, and coin collectors, our Quarter Backs quiz at mentalfloss.com just keeps right on rolling. Placed on the blog at the beginning of July, the quiz began to attract thousands of players every day without any specific promotion.

By the end of 2007, more than one million unique visitors had taken the Quarter Backs quiz. It’s not quite a platinum record, but we’ll take it!

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