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If Richard Nixon were still alive he'd be celebrating his 95th birthday today. Though a figure who still prompts conflicting emotions, a living Nixon would surely provide interesting insight into the problems of China and the Middle East. Despite his political problems, and a general disinterest in domestic policy, Nixon had a brilliant mind when it came to foreign policy. He saw a way around the Taiwan question and, with a sudden (to the public at least) trip to China, he started the path for normalized diplomatic relations with the country. Considering the feelings in the country about Communism, Russia and the Asian continent in general it was an incredibly bold move requiring testicular fortitude rivaled only, according to Cognitive_Friction , by the guy who stole Princess Beatrice's BMW from under police protection. Stealing a car from a member of the royal family, in broad daylight, in front of a police escort...I bet the guy tore out the driver's seat and just sat on...
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Anyone who has ever attended or watched a University of Oklahoma sporting event is familiar with the school's fight song, Boomer Sooner. One can't help but wonder if the school's marching and pep bands even bothered learning any other songs, as they seem to strike up the catchy melody every 10-15 seconds during games. While the song gets annoying after the first few renditions and lends itself to easy jokes about the mental abilities of Oklahoma fans, it has a surprisingly genteel history. It was originally written as "Boola Boola" in 1900 by Yale graduate Allan M. Hirsh and quickly became the fight song of the Ivy League institution. In 1905 it was adopted by Oklahoma, and since the fortunes of Oklahoma football have fared somewhat better than those of Yale over the past 100 years, it is now associated much more with the Sooners than with the Bulldogs and its blue-blood origins have been mostly forgotten by all but the most obsessed college sports fans and the elderly...
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In 1959, East St. Louis, Illinois was a prosperous city of over 80,000 people. High-paying union jobs in the steel, rail, and meatpacking industries drove the economy and the city had just earned the prestigious All-American City award from the National Civic League. What a difference 50 years makes. Today, East St. Louis has a population of just over 30,000 people, more than one-third of whom subsist on less that $7500 per year. It has been called America's Soweto by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Along the main thoroughfare of Missouri Street, entire city blocks are abandoned/demolished/burned down and the windows of the city's tallest building, a 13-story office tower, are alternately broken out or boarded up. The traffic lights downtown are turned off because apparently there isn't enough money or traffic to justify using them. Your intrepid Commenter Admin discovered all these things today while driving back to his hotel in downtown St. Louis, MO when his GPS unit temporarily...
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When compared to a normal childhood, that of a Jalop must have gone noticeably awry at some point. Instead of growing up to become a well-adjusted menial wage slave by day/LPGA impersonator by night, we became something special, something called an automobile enthusiast. It can be hard to put a finger on what precisely was the reason for this change. It could be because your parents let you poop whenever and wherever you wanted, it could have been passed down as a recessive genetic trait. Or, it could have been the product of your environment. If your bedtime stories resembled Boosted Lego Wagon ’s take on Margaret Wise Brown’s classic “Goodnight Moon” from Diddles’ Hoon T-Shirt story , we’re guessing it was the later. Goodnight Hoon. Goodnight Garage. Goodnight General Lee jumping over the Hoon. In the great green room There was a telephone And a red balloon And a picture of- A Lamborghini Countach
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In October 1990, the New York Times ran a story warning of the dangers and hazards of the year's biggest fad, slap bracelets . The bracelets, which consisted of a thin strip of metal covered with pattered fabric that curled around the wrist when "slapped" on skin or any hard surface, were prone to tearing apart and the exposed metal strip would cut the wearer's wrists. This was, of course, back in the days before it was cool for kids to slice up their arms and wrists. Thankfully for the health of the nation's wrists this fad quickly faded, as fads do, and the slap bracelet is now a curious pop culture footnote; a minor milestone in the childhoods of millions of Gen-Y boys and girls. Several years later, another annoying and short-lived fad popped up in the world of music: ska music. Whether it was vaulted back into the limelight by the success of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones song "Where'd You Go" or just a cruel prank perpetrated upon my ears by a vengeful...
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The only state in the US to fall completely within the boundaries of Appalachia, West Virginia is a state rich in natural beauty and resources. The rugged terrain of the Appalachian Mountains has influenced the state's history in every way, from economic development to cultural identity. The culture of Appalachia has long valued rugged individualism and self reliance, traits no doubt influenced by the isolation that the mountains ensure. While industrialization and mass media have largely eradicated West Virginia's isolation today, its rough-edged image lives on through tourism marketing and the traditions of West Virginia University. In recent years, WVU students achieved notoriety for burning couches after football games, basketball games, or wherever the urge struck. In 2005, USA Today called WVU "the couch-burning capital of college football." Speaking of setting things on fire, WilliamG. had some thoughts on the new French tradition of greeting the new year with fire...
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Before P.J. O'Rourke was a semi-serious libertarian columnist he was a Gonzo journalist who penned an article for National Lampoons entitled "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink." Though a work of satire, mostly, it's not the kind of thing you'd see printed in any magazine these days. Many would take offense at his claim he won't participate in SCCA events because they won't let him drive drunk or raise an eyebrow at his support of road head. He does point out, correctly, the fastest cars are rental cars, but this would probably be lost in the support of drunk driving. Sadly, he never got this column reprinted in Car And Driver during his stint there. As Charles Barrett pointed out in our 13-year-old Jetta TDI review , Car And Driver still publishes things more overtly sexual than the typical Jalopnik post. Well, before everyone gets too wound up about corrupting the purity and innocence of a thirteen year...
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Those who came to the Internet after 2001 may not realize "The Hampster Dance" was once a fad and therefore not grasp the sensitivity an entire generation of people who once possessed Geocities accounts and Gateway computers have to the sped up version of "White Stop" from Walt Disney's Robin Hood . But there it is. A tribute to how easily amused we all are. The site was designed as part of a competition between Deidre LeCarte and others to create the most-trafficked website. Deidre, obviously, destroyed. The site became a craze, generating thousands of views daily and plenty of annoyance among coworkers, friends and neighbors of individuals who felt the need to fire up the site on a daily basis. Imagine if the competition had been to find a cure for cancer? The Hampster Dance (note, she didn't even spell hamster correctly) was one of the first Internet memes and more came as we found out in the 2009 Nissan 370z pricing story, wherein TurboWeasel named a few...
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Those who came to the Internet after 2001 may not realize "The Hampster Dance" was once a fad and therefore not grasp the sensitivity an entire generation of people who once possessed Geocities accounts and Gateway computers have to the sped up version of "White Stop" from Walt Disney's Robin Hood . But there it is. A tribute to how easily amused we all are. The site was designed as part of a competition between Deidre LeCarte and others to create the most-trafficked website. Deidre, obviously, destroyed. The site became a craze, generating thousands of views daily and plenty of annoyance among coworkers, friends and neighbors of individuals who felt the need to fire up the site on a daily basis. Imagine if the competition had been to find a cure for cancer? The Hampster Dance (note, she didn't even spell hamster correctly) was one of the first Internet memes and more came as we found out in the 2009 Nissan 370z pricing story, wherein TurboWeasel named a few...
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After their commercially successful License to Ill , the Beastie Boys produced the initially less successful but now well-regarded Paul's Boutique . The typical line on the album is it is now considered one of the best hip hop records of all time but was not understood by the public or their record company. While there is some truth to this view, and to the recognition of the album as setting a new benchmark in sampling thanks to the Dust Brothers, but it misses the negative side. The sampling is so good, mixing Elvis Costello and Sly And The Family Stone, it makes it seem easy, launching some particularly bad performances. Sure, Girl Talk and Dan The Automator can do it with skill, but don't expect Fall Out Boy's producers to be able to pull it off. Seriously, listen to "Shake Your Rump" and catch the combination of Afrika Bambaataa and Led Zeppelin in the same song. Do it wrong and they'll feed you to the bears leaving BlueRSX to make the hilarious photo captioning...
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Cooties, for those who were deprived of a childhood, is a fictitious condition with no clear symptoms (other than intense shame) typically afflicting children under the age of nine. Though having Cooties doesn't seem to cause many problems, scientists have developed a cure. By the simple application of a circle, followed by another circle, followed by to two pricks (often called dots), someone can be cured of the disease or prevented from getting it. In Canada, according to Wikipedia , the inhabitants use a variation of this wherein the same treatment provides an indestructible lock against the disease. The cause of the difference has been hotly debated, with most assuming it occurred merely because Canadians are unable to form a convincing rhyme. Contrary to urban legend, the shot will not prevent you from contracting chlamydia, though the disease is cheaper than a new SRT4 as JPech noted. You can pick up chlamydia for even less money than that, but that wouldn't be a good deal...
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Born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Ernie Hudson has had an interesting career. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Hudson became the resident playwright at Concept East in Detroit. While at Wayne State University Hudson formed the Actors' Ensemble Theatre where black writers and actors were able to workshop and produce their plays. He later studied and graduated from the Yale School of Drama. Despite his extensive stage training, he's best known for his tv work on the HBO show Oz and film work as Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbusters and the sequel. We're huge fans of Ghostbusters and, as we learned in the Giant Asimo Robot post, Ash78 is also a fan. Alan Mulally: My mind is totally blank. Bob Nardelli: I didn't choose anything... Both: (turn to look at Wagoner): Rick? Wagoner: I couldn't help it. It just popped in there. Mulally: What? What "just popped in there?" Wagoner: I... I... I tried to think... Nardelli: LOOK! [they all look over one side of the roof...
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Anne Heche has admitted to a fractured past which contributed to psychological issues including multiple personality disorder. She claims an alien and/or a reincarnation of God named Celestia would speak through her, but in a different language. She was gay but then, apparently, she wasn't gay. As opposed to just being bisexual. She named her kid Homer. She's a bit hard to follow, but Barbara Walters attempted to understand her and Celestia in a confusing and bizarre interview. It was one of those fascinating events the world couldn't stop talking about. We knew, at the time, no one would forget September 2001 because of the crazy interview with Anne Heche. Of course, history has placed a different memory with us and few remember the nonsense news we were concerned with in early September. Before the Carpocalypse we were concerned with the 2010 Chevy Camaro and Truck Nutz , as TurboBrick reminds us. Of course, the Carpocalypse now has us merely worrying children will no longer...
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History has given Henry L. Ellsworth a bad name. We were reading a book of Harry Truman's speeches from the 1948 campaign when we noticed a reference to the commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office who, essentially, said the patent office didn't need anymore money because everything had already been invented. This is because, in a report before Congress, Ellsworth said "The advancement of the arts, from year to year, taxes our credulity and seems to presage the arrival of that period when human improvement must end." He didn't mean to say the time had arrived and, actually, made a number of suggestions towards improving the administration of patents. He was also, as the first head of the US Patent Office, instrumental in providing support for the creation of the revolver and an early believer in the power of the telegraph. Sadly, that one remark is often taken out of context and he's pegged as someone who didn't see the future coming. Of course, not everyone...
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The film His Girl Friday , Howard Hawkes' adaptation of The Front Page , is a film known for innovation. Ignoring the replacement of a woman as the reporter character, the film was one of the first examples of Hawkes' signature dove-tailing style of dialogue, which has characters beginning lines as another finishes one, a style now much replicated. Even more interesting was the use, mostly in ad-lib, of references to the construction of the film itself. Often called metafilms, films like 8 1/2 and Adaptation rely partially on the viewers understanding they are watching a films. This is similar to Brecht's "epic theatre" but without the purpose of alienation. In His Girl Friday , Cary Grant's character mentions a character he plays in another film, makes reference to his own given name and even makes reference to the character played by Ralph Bellamy by saying "He looks like that actor...Ralph Bellamy!" Since this isn't the purpose of the film it is...
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