Reviews Category
We don’t just report off-beat news, breaking news and digest the best and worst of the news media analysis and commentary. We give an original take on what happened and why. We add lols, satire, news photos and original content.
Why Hanging Dead Animals In Shop Windows Is Good For You And Your Free Kids
Some Londoners, shopping for meat, buy their provisions from this mobile butcher store Dec. 14, 1940, equipped to replace any branch of J. Richards, Ltd., put out of service by bombing. Paper bags like the ones carried by woman at right are rare. There is a paper shortage in the British capital and many purchases are carried home Nude.
JBS family butcher’s in Sudbury, Suffolk, was told to no longer display fresh meat in its shop window. It used to show off the fresh, hanging unplucked pheasants, deer, pigs heads and rabbits, but because someone complained that it offended them it’s all gone.
The window now features the sign: “Due to complaints, there is no window display.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Fruit of the Rhyme: 8 Songs of Fruit
THE problem with songs about food is that, well, they’re never really about food. Tasty as brown sugar is, the Stones weren’t really singing about sucrose. And when Robert Plant sings “Your custard pie, yeah, sweet and nice. When you cut it, mama, save me a slice” he’s not talking about pastries. You might say it’s a time honored tradition for rock and pop musicians to use food as symbols of sex and drugs.
We certainly can’t go through them all, so let’s narrow it down and focus just on songs with fruit in the title. Here’s a playlist that not only is interesting and fun, but also rich in Vitamin C.
1. “Apples and Oranges” by Pink Floyd
The setting is the produce section at the grocery store; however, apples and oranges are also an allusion to the differences between Syd and a girl he sees there (who, according to Syd himself, he’d been stalking for hours).
In this video, Floyd makes an appearance on American Bandstand. Syd looks absolutely stoned out of his mind, and you can tell the cameraman takes care to avoid him as much as possible.
2. “I Am a Tangerine” by Tommy James and the Shondells
Tommy has admitted that he was hopelessly wasted when he wrote this song, and that it makes no sense whatsoever. Don’t go reading clever allusions and metaphors into this one, folks. When Tommy screams “Hello Banana”, he was genuinely introducing himself to a piece of fruit.
3. “Peaches’ by The Stranglers
“Peaches” is a simple song about walking up and down the beach staring at the ladies. However, the fruit acquired a gynecological connotation by the line:
“Will you just take a look over there. Is she tryin’ to get outta that clitares?
“Clitares” being a French word for bathing suit, and I’m sure The Stranglers were well aware of how the word would get misinterpreted. Clever bastards.
4. “Tangerine” by Led Zeppelin
Led Zep were no strangers to fruity music – let’s not forget “The Lemon Song”. Page wrote this one during his Yardbirds days, purportedly about singer-songwriter Jackie DeShannon. The false start at the beginning begat an interesting urban legend – that the intro was the remnant of the “the greatest song ever recorded” but the tape was destroyed, and both Plant and Page couldn’t remember how it went. This snippet at the beginning (not in the video above) is all that remains.
It’s total bulls**t, but nonetheless it’s an urban legend that should be fostered and encouraged. Of course, when it comes to fruit-centered urban legends, nothing will compare to the “Cranberry Sauce/I Buried Paul” conspiracy.
5. “Raspberry Beret” by Prince
Theories abound regarding the meaning of this song. Many feel it’s just a simple story about a young nobody who becomes captivated by a woman who enters the store where he works. Prince was under fire from Tipper Gore over his racy lyrics for “Darling Nikki”, so he wanted to tone things down a bit. But the fact that the store is owned by “Old Man Johnson” belies a dirty subtext. After all, this is the same guy that brought you “Soft and Wet” and “Cream”.
So, what does it mean? Some think the “raspberry beret” refers to an uncircumcised penis. Others say it’s menstrual blood. I say this is may be best left unanswered.
6. “Blackberry Way” by The Move
Very much in the vein of “Penny Lane”; sort of a downbeat answer to the peppy McCartney classic. Personally, I cannot get past the “ooh-wah” bridge (at about the 1:45 mark in the video) which is lifted directly from Harry Nilsson’s “Good Old Desk”. It’s stolen so exactly, the song is ruined for me.
7. “Cherry, Cherry” by Neil Diamond
Speaking of plagiarism, “What I Like About You” by the Romantics features a guitar riff pretty damn similar to Diamond’s “Cherry, Cherry”. Of course, there’s always some borrowing and cross-pollination in pop music. In fact, you could argue “Cherry, Cherry” owes some of its melody to “Dirty Water” by The Standells.
Whatever its roots, I’m inclined to agree with Rolling Stone in calling this one of the greatest three-chord songs of all time. You’ll notice no horns or drums; that’s because this hit was actually a demo version. Adding drums, horns and other polish detracted from the energy, so they kept the original.
8. “Dear Delilah” by Grapefruit
I could have ended this playlist on top with “Strawberry Fields”, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” or “Blueberry Hill”. Instead, I’ll invalidate the entire premise of this article and offer up a song without any fruit at all in its title. The band’s name is certainly fruity enough, though. Grapefruit was of the hallowed 60s tradition of bands naming themselves after fruit (ex. Moby Grape, The Lemon Pipers, Strawberry Alarm Clock… not to mention Apple Records). In Grapefruit’s case, John Lennon actually named them after Yoko’s awful 1964 book.
Grapefruit’s singer is a member of the amazing Young family – the same clan that spawned AC/DC (Malcolm and Angus Young) and The Easybeats (George Young). Grapefruit had the full support of The Beatles, but couldn’t achieve the success they no doubt expected.
You might say that everything was going peachy keen at Apple, but they wanted to be top banana, and ended up with sour grapes.
(insert sounds of crickets chirping)
Sorry. A fruit pun was bound to happen at some point. My sincere apologies.
Posted: 10th, March 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comments (3)
Newspaper Juxtaposition Laugh-In: Why are Surbiton’s Starlings Disappearing?
ANY idea why Surbiton’s starlings are vanishing?
Spanish TV Station Moves Germany Into Poland, Belarus Into History And France Into The Sea
A DEGREE in geography and journalism sounds like it would be useless. But Spanish TV channel Telemadrid could do with a such a graduate. Either that or it could do with some kind of system that allows a reporter to access a massive data via a computer. (Call us, Google, we have ideas.)
In a report on Ukraine and Europe’s gas supply, the broadcaster featured the following map:
Read the rest of this entry »
1943: Olive McDonald Brands The Casting Of A 3-inch Mortar-Bomb
FLASHBACK to May 5th 1943:
Olive McDonald, branding the casing of a 3-inch mortar-bomb, at a factory somewhere in England, on May 4, 1943.
Posted: 9th, March 2014 | In: Flashback, Photojournalism, Technology | Comment
Little Nemo: Watch The Film And Read The Adventures Of The Most Sublime Comic Strip Hero
EVER read Little Nemo, the comic strip about the lad’s fabulous dreams?
The strip ran from October 15, 1905 to April 23, 1911 in the New York Herald.
Read the rest of this entry »
Charles Koch Of Koch Industries Hates Cronyism – Gives Son Top Job
The Koch Industries Inc. headquarters is shown Monday, Nov. 14, 2005, in Wichita, Kan. In an announcement Sunday, paper products giant Georgia-Pacific Corp., the maker of Brawny paper towels and Angel Soft tissue, is being acquired for more than $13 billion by Koch Industries Inc., the nation’s second-biggest private company. (AP Photo/Larry W. Smith)
CHARLES de Ganahl Koch is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is co-owner, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.
In 2010, he told the Wall Street Journal: “Corporate Cronyism Harms America.”
In 2014, he added in an interview with the Wichita Business Journal:
You name it, in every industry we have this. The successful companies try to keep the new entrants down. Now that’s great for a company like ours. We make more money that way because we have less competition and less innovation. But for the country as a whole, it’s horrible. And for disadvantaged people trying to get started, it’s unconscionable in my view. I think it’s in our long-term interest, in every American’s long-term interest, to fight against this cronyism.
Read the rest of this entry »
1960: ‘Girls’ Take Stretch Breaks At Tokyo’s Sony Factory
FLASHBACK to August 30, 1960:
Young girls at Japanese radio manufacturing plant in Tokyo, stretch in unison to the beat of a man blowing the whistle. The stretch break takes place twice a day and, according to company officials, raises the efficiency of the girls who assemble the miniature parts of transistor radios. The girls use microscopes to insert needle-like parts into the radios.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 9th, March 2014 | In: Flashback, Technology | Comment
16th Century German War Guide Teaches How To Make Flying Cats Bombs (Photos)
YOU’RE looking at an illustration from a 1530s manual on warfare. The advice is to “set fire to a castle or city which you can’t get at otherwise”.
One way of achieving this is with a flaming rocket cat. You can also surprise the enemy by using doves as instruments of death.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 9th, March 2014 | In: Books, Flashback, Strange But True | Comment
The Sun’s Utter Balls On Jeremy Forrest And Gemma The Teenage Teacher Fancier
THE teenager who at 15-year-old fell for her 30-year-old teacher Jeremy Forrest has “dumped him for another teacher”.
So says the Sun of the teenager was abducted by Forrest and taken to France.
Back on in October of last year, the Mirror had other news of the girl known only as ‘Gemma’:
We knew policemen were getting younger but are 16-year-olds now working as teachers?
Read the rest of this entry »
The Women’s League of Health And Beauty: Nazis, Pilates And The Birth Of The Keep-Fit Movement
THE Women’s League of Health And Beauty were there to help:
Mary Bagot-Stack founded the Women’s League of Health and Beauty in 1930 when her daughter Prunella was just fifteen years old, but when Mary died at a tragically young age in 1935, Prunella was called upon to continue the work of the League. Not only did she continue the work but she watched the League spread from Britain to Canada, Australia and Hong Kong, with a worldwide membership of 170,000 women by 1938. Around this time, fitness, movement, keep-fit and physical recreation for women was spreading throughout Britain and becoming something of a national phenomenon.
Lady Prunella Douglas-Hamilton, formerly Prunella Stack, on Jan. 12, 1939, leader of the Women’s League of Health and Beauty.
Read the rest of this entry »
LSD Reduces Anxiety In Terminally Ill Patients
A volunteer undergoing LSD research project at an honor camp in Viejas, California, Sept. 6, 1966.
THE Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease presents Peter Gasser’s work with LSD. The paper, called <” href=”http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/Documents/90000000.0-00001.pdf”>Safety and Efficacy of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-Assisted Psychotherapy for Anxiety Associated With Life-threatening Diseases, and researchers concluded that when terminally ill patient were tested with the drugs their anxiety”went down and stayed down”.
Would you take LSD, or approve its use on a loved one? David Nutt, the former UK government drugs expert, said in Nature Reviews Neuroscience – “Effects of Schedule I drug laws on neuroscience research and treatment innovation” was evidence of the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo”.
He says drugs, including what tabloids call mind-bending substances, could be beneficial to mankind.
Small clinical studies of MDMA, which was originally used in the USA in the 1970s to improve communication in psychotherapy sessions, suggested that it could play a highly beneficial role in the treatment of PTSD patients. The paper’s authors said the drug could also help with “end of life anxiety” and couples therapy”…
LSD, meanwhile, was widely researched in the 1950s and 1960s, with more than 1,000 papers investigating outcomes for more than 40,000 patients, with evidence suggesting that the drug might be an effective treatment for alcoholism, before bans on the drug around the world ended further research.
Read the rest of this entry »
Today Is When Every Oppressed Male Asks Power ‘When’s International Men’s Day?’
TODAY is International Woman’s Day. What’s that , you say. ‘When’s International Men’s Day?’
A swift search of the web revels that it’s on November 19.
The female-dominated web has allowed men’s day to have its own website.
It’s in the same category as:
Read the rest of this entry »
Lydia The Flying Great White Shark Puts Cornwall On Summer Alert
THE DAILY Star has chilling news: Lydia is coming to the UK. Lock up your flippers and stick a plug in the sink.
The tabloids work in cycles.
The first signs of the impending summer are, in order:
a) Great White Shark Spotted off Coast
b) Madeleine McCann spotted on land
c) Lucy from Brighton spotted on beach
d) Killer heatwave spotted in space
Read the rest of this entry »
1978 Letter About Vermin In Jimmy Carter’s White House
IN 1978, there was an infestation of mice in Jimmy Carter’s White House:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, March 2014 | In: Flashback, Politicians | Comment
That Moment When Kurt Cobain Met Courtney Love
WHEN Kurt Cobain met Courtney Love, it made it into this biography:
Already infamous in Portland, Love was holding court in a booth when she saw Kurt walk by a few minutes before his band was set to appear onstage. Courtney was wearing a red polka-dot dress. “You look like Dave Pirner,” she said to him, meaning the remark to sound like a small insult, but also a flirt. Kurt did look a bit like Pirner, the lead singer of Soul Asylum, as his hair had grown long and tangled — he washed it just once a week, and then only with bar soap. Kurt responded with a flirt of his own: He grabbed Courtney and wrestled her to the ground.
Love is…
inger Courtney Love and her daughter Frances Bean Cobain pose as they arrive at a gala on Feb. 8, 2007, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Love, the widow of the Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, says she intends to sell most of his belongings. “I’m going to have a Christie’s auction,” the 42-year-old singer tells the AOL music Web site Spinner.com. The rocker committed suicide in 1994.
Spotter: Kottke
Posted: 7th, March 2014 | In: Celebrities, Flashback | Comment (1)
Getting To Know Stepan Bandera And What He Means For Ukraine’s Fight With Russia
A partisan veteran from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army carries a portrait of Ukrainian Insurgent Army leader Stepan Bandera during a march in Kiev. Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2005. The supporters of the Red Army veterans were rallying to protest against calls by Ukrainian partisans to receive official recognition as World War II veterans. The partisans from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought against both Nazis and Red Army soldiers during World War II in a bid to create an independent Ukraine.
ARE you familiar with the name Stepan Bandera?
He was the Ukrainian Insurgent Army leader Stepan Bandera who fought against both Nazis and Red Army soldiers during World War II in a bid to create an independent Ukraine. On October 15, 1959, he died. He’d been poisoned on a Munich street by the KGB.
Read the rest of this entry »
11 Gastro Abominations From The Mid 20th Century
THE mid-century palette was vastly different than it is today. Much of what we find advertised in vintage cookbooks and magazines seems nauseating by today’s standards. I’m sure the same will be true of our current tastes when viewed fifty years from now. This gastronomic sea change certainly makes for an interesting browse through recipes and food adverts from yesteryear. Here are a few exceptionally foul examples.
MEALS IN A MOLD
As a general rule of thumb, I prefer my meats not to be suspended in a freakish mold of gelatin and psuedo-mayonnaise. But I’m funny that way. However, I will say the pimiento used for the fish eye is a stroke of brilliance.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 7th, March 2014 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, The Consumer | Comments (3)
