I admit to being somewhat depleted tonight as I sit down to do this Saturday Surprise post, so I thought I’d go with a hodgepodge of humorous tidbits … I think we could all use a laugh right about now, yes?
Jeff Foxworthy, famous for his “You Might Be a Redneck If …” one-liners, often brings a chuckle. I liked the first two best.
I haven’t shared any of those funny signs for a few months … this first one caught my eye and since it made me laugh, I thought it would bring a chuckle from you also.
I always like a little quip … a short joke with a quick punch …
A HAPPY MEAL
Q: What did one cannibal say to the other while they were eating a clown?
A: “Does this taste funny to you?”
A GUMMY PROBLEM
Q: Why did the chewing gum cross the road?
A: He was stuck to the chicken’s foot.
BIRDMAN
Little girl: “Why does your son say, ‘Cluck, cluck, cluck?'”
Mother: “Because he thinks he’s a chicken.”
Little girl: “Why don’t you tell him he’s not a chicken?”
Mother: “We need the eggs.”
Of course there must be some funny animal memes, right?
A few ‘toons …
I’m sorry to cut this short, folks, but I truly am running on fumes, and anyway … it’s the WEEKEND, and a long, 3-day weekend at that!!! I know you’ve got all sorts of fun planned, yes? So do I!!! I’m going to wrestle a chair from my upstairs bedroom to the downstairs living room, and vacuum the 15-step staircase! Bet you’re jealous, huh? You’re more than welcome to come help! Have a wonderful holiday weekend and keep safe, my friends!
Grumpy Cat was rather the ‘Maxine’ of the feline world. Grumpy’s real name was Tardar Sauce, and while I always thought Grumpy was a he, he was in fact a ‘she’. I guess I just think of grumpy beings as male. (No comment from the peanut gallery here!) Grumpy’s perpetual scowl, that earned her the nickname Grumpy Cat by which the world knew her, was actually caused by a form of dwarfism.
She first achieved some level of Internet celebrity in 2012, after pictures featuring her frowning face went viral on social media, then turned into a mean-mugging meme. It wasn’t long before Grumpy Cat was everywhere. She appeared on TV, popping up in episodes of “American Idol,” “The Bachelorette” and WWE’s “Monday Night Raw.”
In 2013, Grumpy beat out “Gangnam Style” and the “Harlem Shake” to win Meme of the Year at the Webby Awards. The following year, she scored her own Lifetime holiday movie, “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever,” a two-hour spectacle featuring the voice talents of actress Aubrey Plaza as the title character. Two years later, she made her Broadway debut, a one-night only appearance in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, “Cats.” Of course she did.
In 2016, her sculpture was added to Madame Tussauds Las Vegas — and the cat was invited to curl up alongside her own wax figure.
Grumpy wasn’t a huge fan of holidays …
Under is the world’s largest underwater restaurant with a total seating capacity for 100 guests, it’s the first of its kind in Europe, and it also functions as a research center for marine life. The Snøhetta-designed dining experience only started operating on March 20th, but people are already adding it to their Norway destination lists. 
Half-sunken into the sea, the building’s 34-meter long monolithic form breaks the surface of the water to rest directly on the seabed five meters below. With the thick concrete walls lying against the craggy shoreline, the structure is built to withstand pressure and shock from the rugged sea conditions.
Known as the Golden Bridge, it stands 1,400 meters above sea level above the Ba Na hills, offering majestic panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. It appears that it is being held aloft by two giant stone hands.
It’s Williams who decides which puddings are served every Friday. Positively obsessed by pudding, she’s protective of its place at the Three Ways House. She’s also a purist, often consulting the definitive tome on the subject, Regula Ysewjin’s Pride and Pudding: The History of British Puddings, Savoury and Sweet. Who knew?
On Friday nights, Pudding Club nights, there are seven different puddings presented, and at the end of the night, each guest fills out a score sheet, voting for the top dessert of the evening. The Club has earned worldwide acclaim and has even been invited to bring their puddings to New York and Tokyo! I don’t see how anybody could possibly eat all seven, but then I could only eat about half of one anyway. Still, it sounds like fun, don’t you think?
On a normal saguaro, accordion-like pleats run vertically up its base, tracing the ribs like mountain ranges. But on a cristate, things get funky. Its “growing tip”—the apical meristem, in technical terms—flattens and elongates. The saguaro’s pleats split chaotically, forcing them closer together until they crimp, at times warping the trunk so it spirals. As the pleats smush together, they cause the plant’s growing tip to fan. The final result is a rippled crest as unique as a fingerprint.
They are rather fascinating to look at, but I don’t think I would like to spend time trekking around the desert looking for them.
Good morning, my friends, and welcome to the weekend! I almost skipped out on Saturday Surprise today, for I’m afraid Jolly is very sick, and I wasn’t sure I could do it without him. Oh no, don’t worry about disturbing him, for he is deep down in the rabbit hole at the moment. Anyway, then I came across a couple of things that had me shaking my head, saying “Who knew?”, and I thought I would see if I could do this post on my own, without Jolly’s help.
In 2017, Volkswagen sold nearly 7 million sausages, more than the number of VW-brand cars sold worldwide that year. Given their role in the recent emissions scandal, perhaps they would be better off to stick to sausages?
Being a housemate to currently six, and at one time as many as ten of these furry critters, I thoroughly enjoyed these!
I am not an artistically talented person, as I’ve mentioned before, but I admire those who are. I’ve concluded, though, that some people have entirely too much time on their hands. Legos. Remember building stuff with Lego bricks? I could build a fence, or a small house (no windows, doors or roof, though). But take a look at the artistic endeavours some have accomplished with those little plastic blocks …
This cruise ship is 8.44 meters long, 1.33 meters wide and 1.54 meters high, and is made from more than 2.5 million LEGOs. The weight of it is also quite stunning because it weighs around 2 tons, that is, about 6,100 pounds!
More or less abandoned to the elements, Story saw a small resurgence in the early 1980s. Benjamin (who goes by just one name) encountered the town—on the edge of Brown County State Park and not far from Bloomington—for the first time in 1978. He saw the old general store, a house, a gristmill, a barn, and “an assortment of mostly dilapidated buildings,” on four and a half acres and for sale for $65,000. He and his wife Cyndi took a chance on the unique town and decided to set up shop in the form of a restaurant, housed in the old general store. “[It] had no indoor plumbing when we moved there, only an outhouse in back,” he says. The second floor was one large room. “Many years previous, owners had obtained a Studebaker franchise and assembled buggies up there,” Benjamin says. “Parts were sent by rail from South Bend to Freetown, brought to Story on horse-drawn carts and first-generation pickup trucks, hauled upstairs, and assembled. The final products were let down on a ramp through a door in the back.” He remembers Story being very dark, and very quiet.
The town’s current owner, Rick Hofstetter, bought the town in 1999. Hofstetter put more effort into Story, and the 40 years of care has turned into a fairly popular—though out-of-the-way—tourist destination. While most of Story’s buildings have been renovated, the village has not lost its 19th-century charm. Because it was a relatively desolate (and poor) town for decades, its original historic wooden floors, globe lighting, and tin ceilings remain. Just last month, the town was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It is called Mano de Desierto (Hand of Desert) and is the creation of Chilean sculptor Mario Irarrázabal. Built in the early 1980s, it was financed by a local booster organization called Corporación Pro Antofagasta.
The motion of hands rising from the ground is an obsession of Irarrázabal’s. His other famous works include another over-sized sculpture exploring the same idea: “Monument to the Drowned” is located on Parada 4 at Brava Beach in Punta del Este, a popular resort town in Uruguay.
The hand rises about 11 meters, or 36 feet from the floor of the desert and is the only break in the deserted monotony. Isn’t that cool? Can’t you imagine Irarrázabal spending day after day out here in the desert, on a ladder, building this gigantic hand! And can’t you imagine some less-than-sober person coming through on the Pan-American Highway and coming upon that?
During this trip to freedom, the group stumbled across a lonely bear cub that they decided to adopt. This proved to be a good move as the bear became incredibly good for morale and helped the group through many hardships that way.
Over the years the bear grew up into a fully fledged soldier. He could carry supplies, drank beer, and enjoyed cigarettes. He also enjoyed wrestling soldiers in a good-natured way. The soldiers were very attached to their furry friend, as was Wojtek to them. Because of this, they enlisted the bear into the army as a private, since the army forbade pets at the battlegrounds and it was the only way that Wojtek could come with them. He was so popular he became the mascot of his company, the Polish 22nd Transport Artillery Company.
After the war, Wojtek and his regiment moved to Scotland where they settled down and built up new lives. The men got jobs and houses and Wojtek got a new home at the Edinburgh zoo, where he lived until 1963. The bear was very popular in Scotland and there is even a statue of him there.
In Poland, he is also fondly remembered, and in 2014 this memorial statue of Wojtek was erected in Krakow. The statue was entirely funded by the locals who wished to commemorate the bear and the battles he fought in. The memorial was unveiled on the 70th anniversary of the battle and remains one of the more popular statues in Jordan Park today.
Kawah Ijen is one of several volcanoes located within the 20 km wide Ijen Caldera, but this one is special. The caldera of Kawah Ijen harbors a kilometer-wide, turquoise colored, acidic crater lake that leaks sulphurous gases constantly. At night the hot gases burn to emit an eerie blue glow that is unique to Kawah Ijen. The gases emerge from the cracks in the volcano at high pressure and temperature, up to 600°C, and when they come in contact with the air, they ignite, sending flames up to 16 feet high. Some of the gases condense into liquid sulfur, and continues to burn as it flows down the slopes giving the feeling of blue lava flowing.
… home of the Red Onion Saloon! Established in 1898 as a bordello for lonely miners during the Klondike Gold Rush, the Red Onion Saloon preserves the town’s seamy history by operating a brothel museum on site. The ground floor saloon remains a bar and restaurant, but the establishment’s days of providing additional services are long gone.
In the 1900s, the Red Onion was a popular dance hall, and the space still hosts live music events and drag shows today. There are plenty of items on display throughout the restaurant. Racy, old-time portraits of alluring women adorn the walls and visitors can enjoy a glass of beer underneath a rather extensive display of bedpans.
