Who originally killed Batman's parents?

Search: who killed batman's parents

Why: I am watching the first movie (Batman). Jack Napier does it. Later, in Batman Forever (my favorite of any Batman movie, by light years), it's just some nameless jerk in an alley. In Batman Begins, it was Joe Chill, who was driven to mugging because of economic poverty.

Answer: According to the comic books, it was originally an unnamed mugger. In the 1940s to 1980s, they referred to this criminal as "Joe Chill." In Detective Comics #235, Batman learns that Chill is not a mere robber, but actually a hitman who has murdered the Waynes on orders from a Mafia boss named Lew Moxon. In the 1994 DC Universe "Zero Hour" re-vamp, it went back to being an unnamed mugger. More recently, in 2006's "Infinite Crisis," Joe Chill was re-introduced as the killer, but he was caught shortly after the murders.

This is what motivates Batman - if he knew the guy's name, he would track him down and bring him to justice. Then his parents would be avenged. But since he doesn't know, his fight against crime will always continue.

Source: Yahoo! Answers

The More You Know: This guy also says:

Joker couldn't have killed the Waynes - for one thing, he's not necessarily that much older than Batman, and Bruce Wayne was a young boy at the time of the crime. Even if he were a man at the time, Joker wasn't necessarily a criminal then - various origins have shown Joker to be a failed stand-up comic who was tricked into helping commit a robbery of the chemical factory where he was transformed.

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What do the aliens look like in "The Sirens of Titan"?

Search: sirens of titan diamond

Why: DJ is reading it. I read The Sirens of Titan many years ago. I just remember blue and yellow jelly kite aliens. (Not the Tralfamadorians, ps.)

Answer: Here is the description from Ch. 8:

There are creatures in the deep caves of Mercury.
The song their planet sings is important to them, for the creatures are nourished by vibrations. They feed on mechanical energy.
The creatures cling to the singing walls of their caves.
In that way, they eat the song of Mercury.
The caves of Mercury are cozily warm in their depths.
The walls of the caves in their depths are phosphorescent. They give off a jonquil-yellow light.
The creatures in the caves are translucent. When they cling to the walls, light from the phosphorescent walls comes right through them. The yellow light from the walls, however, is turned, when passed through the bodies of the creatures, to a vivid aquamarine.
Nature is a wonderful thing.
The creatures in the caves look very much like small and spineless kites. They are diamond-shaped, a foot high and eight inches wide when fully mature.
They have no more thickness than the skin of a toy balloon.
Each creature has four feeble suction cups – one at each of its corners. These cups enable it to creep, something like a measuring worm, and to cling, and to feel out the places where the song of Mercury is best.
Having found a place that promises a good meal, the creatures lay themselves against the wall like wet wallpaper.

Source: Flickr

The More You Know: This reminds me of the stained glass windows at Casual Corner, where I think my grandmother used to work (?), and also these 2nd Skin pads my dad used to have at his office for blisters and burns.

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Who is "The Blind Side" about?

Search: the blindside

Why: The trailers make me sad, though I suspect this story is meant to be uplifting.

Answer: Michael Oher, who currently plays for the Baltimore Ravens, but grew up in Memphis! Here is the bit about his personal life, which is all that really interests me (because football is boring). Possible movie spoiler alert:

Oher's father, murdered while Oher was a junior in high school, was not involved in his upbringing. His mother was addicted to crack cocaine. As a result, he received little constructive attention during his formative years. He repeated both first grade and second grade, and attended eleven different schools during his first nine years as a student. He also alternated between time spent in various foster homes and periods with no fixed address until he was sixteen years old.

That year, Oher applied for admission to a private school, Briarcrest Christian School, at the instigation of acquaintance Tony Henderson, with whom he was staying temporarily. Henderson was sending his son to the school in order to fulfill the dying wish of the boy's grandmother, and he decided that Oher might as well come along. Although the school's football coach was interested in Oher, school administrators did not feel that he was capable of handling the school's academic workload due to his scant educational background; however, he was admitted after he attempted to qualify for admission through a home-study program that removed him from the public education system.

A couple with a daughter at the school, Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, allowed Oher to move in with them and began taking care of his needs after becoming familiar with his difficult personal circumstances. They also connected him with a tutor, who worked with him for twenty hours a week. He eventually brought his 0.9 grade point average up to 2.65, by replacing Ds and Fs earned in school classes such as English with As earned in a series of 10-day-long internet-based "character education" courses from Brigham Young University. Later, the Tuohy family adopted him.

Here's a story about him from CBS, including interviews with Oher and his adoptive family:

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: Briarcrest has a campus in Eads? Who knew?

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How do starfish eat?

Search: how do starfish eat

Why: We saw some purple and orange starfish (purple starfish and orange starfish) on the rocks with the seals while kayaking yesterday in Monterey.

Answer: When a starfish finds an oyster (or clam, or mussel), it climbs on top of it and locks its many arms around the oyster's shell. It tugs on the shell until the oyster is too tired to hold it closed anymore.

When the shell opens, the starfish turns its stomach inside out, drops it over the oyster's body, then draws it in again when the oyster is nearly digested.

Here are some creepy videos:

Source: Big Site of Amazing Facts

The More You Know: Because of the starfish's fondness for oysters, fishermen who search for oysters have always considered starfish as pests. Years ago, fishermen tried to wipe out starfish by cutting them into pieces and throwing them back into the water. What these fishermen didn't know was that every piece of a starfish can grow into a new starfish!
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Was Missi Pyle in 2 different episodes of "Friends"?

Search: missi pyle; the one with the pediatrician

Why: I just spotted her as the date with the blacklight in "The One with Ross's Teeth."

Answer: OMG no! That is a completely different woman! I always thought they were the same person!!

Missi Pyle:

Elaine Hendrix:

Source: IMDb

The More You Know: This guy mixes up the same people. Maybe it's their aggressive eyebrows? Hendrix is the mean girl who becomes nice in Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion.

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What is a praline?

Search: praline

Why: Paula Deen is making "pecan praline morsels," y'all

Answer: French, from Count Plessis-Praslin, 1675 French soldier - a confection of nuts and sugar: as

1. almonds cooked in boiling sugar until brown and crisp
2. a patty of creamy brown sugar and pecan meats

Early pralines were whole almonds individually coated in caramelized sugar. French settlers brought this recipe to Louisiana, where both sugar cane and pecan trees were plentiful. During the 19th century, New Orleans chefs substituted pecans for almonds, added cream to thicken the confection, and created what became known throughout the American South as the praline.

In Europe, the nuts are usually almonds or sometimes hazelnuts. In Louisiana and Texas, pecans are almost always used, and cream is often incorporated into the mixture

Source: Merriam-Webster, Wikipedia

The More You Know: Do you know what nougat is?

Nougat is a term used to describe a variety of similar traditional confectioneries made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, or hazelnuts are common), and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The consistency of nougat can range from chewy to hard depending on its composition, and it is used in a variety of candy bars and chocolates.

There are two basic kinds of nougat: white and brown. White nougat is made with beaten egg whites and is soft, whereas brown nougat (called nougatine in French) is made with caramelized sugar and has a firmer, often crunchy texture.

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What pun is LeVar Burton trying to make?

Search: Kunta Klaw-tay, Kunta

Why: On Twitter, he wrote:

Had surgery today to repair nerves & tendons in my finger. For Halloween maybe I'll be Kunta Klaw-tay...! http://twitpic.com/n88t4

Answer: Kunta Kinte, the character he played in Roots! Which I have never seen! Maybe I should!

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: In case you're curious about why I was looking at LeVar Burton's Twitter account, it is because it is the only one shitmydadsays is following.

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What is a peignoir?

Search: peignoir

Why: In the New Yorker story "The Godchildren" by Tessa Hadley:

Opening the windows, Vivien leaned her arms on the wrought-iron balustrade, looking out into the night like a heroine in a film. She was wearing a turquoise nightdress under a filmy lacy matching knee-length peignoir: the girls knew that she called it this. With the light behind her, she didn’t look bad.

Answer: A loose negligee or dressing gown:

Source: Merriam-Webster

The More You Know: The word literally means "garment worn while combing the hair," from peigner "to comb the hair," from Latin pectin, "comb"

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I want to see a picture of a baby goose

Search: gosling; baby goose

Why: According to Farmville:

(hot duck, "ugly duckling," beautiful swan)

Answer: Aww:

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: But is it as cute as a baby duck? You be the judge:

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What is that quote by C.S. Lewis about grief?

Search: year of magical thinking grief; year of magical thinking grief c.s. lewis; grief c.s. lewis; grief c.s. lewis quotes; grief c.s. lewis quotes didion; "I am beginning to understand why grief feels"

Why: Joan Didion quotes him in The Year of Magical Thinking, which I am listening to on audiobook, so I don't have the text in front of me. Oof, how frustrating:

Anyway, I don't mean the opening line to A Grief Observed, which Lewis wrote when his wife died of cancer:

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear.

Answer: Here is the passage:

I think I'm beginning to understand why grief feels like suspense; it comes from the frustration of so many impulses that have come habitual. Thought after thought, feeling after feeling, action after action, had H. for their object. Now their target is gone. I keep on through habit fitting an arrow to the string, then I remember and have to lay the bow down. So many roads lead thought to H. I set out on one of them. But now there's an impassable frontierpost across it. So many roads once; now so many cul de sacs.

Source: Agenda Bender; Google Books

The More You Know: I also like this, from Didion (about husband John Gregory Dunne):

I could not count the times during the average day when something would come up that I needed to tell him. This impulse did not end with his death. What ended was the possibility of response. . . . There is no one to hear this news, nowhere to go with the unmade plan, the uncompleted thought. There is no one to agree, disagree, talk back.

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What do dyslexic people see when they read?

Search: what do dyslexic people see

Why: Laura on "America's Next Top Model" is dyslexic, but - as fourfour says:

Major props to Laura for barreling through and just kind of dealing with something that is undoubtedly frustrating on multiple occasions every damn day of her life. She didn't cry or throw a fit or give up or abuse a mascara wand -- she sucked it up and did what she was asked to the best of her ability. And with a smile! I'd walk around with a big fucking chip on my shoulder if every time I wanted to get takeout, the menu was a sea of movement that went, "bluhbluhbluhbluhbluhbluh." I think it says a lot about a person's character when they remain positive despite being branded with something that gives them a free pass not to.

Answer: Here are some types:

Here are others:

There are also some animated distortions here, including:

• Blurry
• Halo
• Rivers
• Seesaw
• Shaky
• Swirl
• Washout
  

Source: Yahoo! Answers, KidsHealth.org, Irlen, Google Images

The More You Know: A few famous celebrities who had/have dyslexia:

Hans Christian Anderson, Alexander Graham Bell, Orlando Bloom, Richard Branson, George Burns, Cher, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Tom Cruise, Leonardo Da Vinci, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, "Albert Einstein," Gustave Flaubert, Harrison Ford, Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Jenner, Keira Knightley, John Lennon, Jay Leno, Vince McMahon, Keanu Reeves, Nelson Rockefeller, Charles Schwab, Andy Warhol, Robin Williams, Woodrow Wilson, William Butler Yeats

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What is Hopi Hari?

Search: hopi hari

Why: This picture from Toxel's list of 24 Unforgettable Advertisements. It looks like a roller coaster, maybe:

Answer: A medium-sized amusement park in Brazil, 45 miles north of São Paulo! Its signs are printed in both Portuguese and a made-up language - Hopês or Hopi Harian. A page from the dicionário Hopês-Português:

• Tchau - Tchauí (Goodbye)
• Obrigado - Danki (Thank you)
• Oi - Oiê (Hey, hello)
• Que horas são? - Kuanto ki tikitaki? (What time is it?)
• Volte Sempre - Vendinovu (Come and visit again)
• Fotografia - Click click (Picture)
• Estou com fome - Mi ké hangá! (I'm hungry)
• Bem-vindo - Bom bini (Welcome)
• Eu fui - Tivi la (I went)

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: Don't miss the Hora do Horror, which I assume has something to do with Halloween!

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Did Christian from "Clueless" ever act again?

Search: clueless

Why: Kylie at 2Pz posted this, because I don't know why. I have seen just about everyone else, even if it was only in "Clueless" the TV show (I'm looking at you, Ambular).

Answer: Well, not really. Here are Justin Walker's post-Clueless credits, none of which you have ever seen:

1. Take Out (2005)
2. A.P.U.: Art, Pot and Underwear (2003)
3. The Woman Every Man Wants (2001) ... aka Perfect Lover (USA)
4. I Shaved My Legs for This (2001)
   
5. Big Monster on Campus (2000)
   
6. Born Bad (1999)
   
7. "V.I.P." (1 episode, 1999) (TV)
   
8. Splendor Falls (1999) ... aka Glacier Falls (USA: new title)
9. The Journey: Absolution (1997) .
10. Last Resort (1996)
11. Humanoids from the Deep (1996) (TV)
12. Clueless (1995)
    

Source: IMDb

The More You Know: Walker owns a Tacone Flavor Grill, which is funny because that's what I'm about to have for lunch (it is one of 3 overpriced restaurants in my building).

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Is Dumpster a brand name?

Search: dumpster

Why: In the New Yorker story "Temporary" by Marisa Silver:

After a few months, the canvases disappeared, though it was unclear to Vivian whether someone had finally bought them or Shelly had just thrown them into the Dumpster behind the ribbon warehouse to be carted away along with the giant spools of badly dyed grosgrain.

Answer: Omg yes! Who knew?

The word Dumpster came from the Dempster-Dumpster system of mechanically loading the contents of standardized containers onto garbage trucks, which was patented by Dempster Brothers in the 1930s. The containers were called Dumpsters, a portmanteau of the company's name with the word dump. However, it took the Dempster Dumpmaster, the first successful front-loading garbage truck (which used this system), to popularize the word.

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: Dumpsters all smell like rotten pizza, and they all remind me of the blacktop outside my elementary school.

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What is the definition of blasé?

Search: blase

Why: In the New Yorker story "Temporary" by Marisa Silver:

Vivian also had to learn to be blasé about coming out of her room in the morning to discover Shelly sleeping with a man they had met the evening before—or a woman.

We have always used that word to mean something like "blah."

Answer: Eh, sort of:

1. apathetic to pleasure or excitement as a result of excessive indulgence or enjoyment : world-weary
   
2. sophisticated, worldly-wise
   
3. unconcerned

Source: Merriam-Webster

The More You Know: This is also in Titanic:

ROSE - I don't see what all the fuss is about. It doesn't look any bigger than the Mauretania.
BILLY ZANE - You can be blasé about some things, Rose, but not about Titanic. It's over 100 feet longer than Mauretania, and far more luxirious. It has squash courts, a Parisian café... even Turkish baths.

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How do people answer the phone in various countries?

Search: how to answer phone around the world; how to answer the phone languages moshi pronto

Why: "Ripley's Game" is set in Italy. What I know is:

• America - Hello?
• Japan - Moshi moshi?
• Italy - Prrrrronto?
  

Answer: Here are some:

• America - Hello? or Yes?
• Argentina - Holá?
  
• Britain - Hello?
• Chile - Aló?
• Columbia - Alo?
• Cuba - Oigo!
• Denmark - Ned Flanders or Annalise Rosencrans or whatever their full name is
• Finland - Tuula or Ossi Alho or some form of their name, or sometimes Haloo
  
• France - Allô? and Qui est a l'appareil? ("Who is on the phone?")
• Germany - Müller or Steigerwald or whatever their last name is, and then maybe Guten tag or something
  
• Greece - Parakalô! ("Please")
  
• Holland - Hallo or Met Liesje Vanden Boogard ("With Liesje Vanden Boogard")
  
• Hong Kong - Wei ("Hello")
• India - Hello?
  
• Italy - Pronto ("Ready"), and then the caller says, Chi parla ("Who's speaking?")
• Japan - Moshi moshi ("Hello") or Hai ("Yes"), and if the caller has the right number, he might say, Osewani natte imasu ("I am indebted to you for your kindness")
• Korea - Yoboseyo ("Hello")
  
• Mexico - Bueno ("Good")
• Peru - Aló?
• Serbia - Zdravo
• Spain - Diga or Digame ("Speak [to me]"), or ¿Sí?
• Russia - Allô? (the French), Da ("Yes"), or Slushayu vas ("I am listening to you")
• Turkey - Alo?
  
• Zimbabwe - 8675309 Hello?
  

Source: World Telephone Culture, Word Reference forums, AntiMoon Forums

The More You Know: No people open a call with more effusive hospitality than the Arabs. Whatever the subject of the conversation, it begins with what seems like 5 minutes of generally meaningless but absolutely essential greetings.

A ringing phone is answered: "May your morning be good."
"May your morning be full of light," the caller responds.
"Praise God, your voice is welcome."
"Welcome, welcome."
"How are you?"
"Praise God."
"Praise God."
"What news? Are you well? Your family well?"
"Praise God. How are you?"
"All is well. All is well. Welcome, welcome."

Only then might the reason for the call be mentioned. The goodbyes will take almost as long and are, again, excruciatingly polite.

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What percentage of people are left-handed?

Search: what percentage of people are left handed

Why: The Tom Ripley in "Ripley's Game" (played by John Malkovich) seems much more sinister than the desperate, bumbling Tom Ripley in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (played by Matt Damon). In Latin, sinister comes from sinestra, "on the left" (while dexter means "on the right").

Answer: For years, it was widely accepted that 1 in 10 people are left-handed. However, research studies to back up this figure are very hard to find. Recently, small studies (usually among children) have come up with figures of between 12% and 15% of the population. The most recent study has concluded that 13% of the population are currently left-handed.

It is widely believed that there are slightly more left-handed boys, with normally about 5 boys for every 4 left-handed girls. A study of 3,000 schoolchildren in London recorded an even higher percentage of boys (11.6%) than girls (8.6%). Some research has linked left-handedness to the level of testosterone present in the womb before birth, which may explain the imbalance. Another suggestion - that girls tend to be more receptive to social mores and eager to conform, so may change to the hand of their peers - seems very unlikely, as we now know that handedness is not a matter of choice, but part of our physiological makeup.

Source: AnythingLeft-Handed.co.uk

The More You Know: Other definitions of sinister:

1. Unfavorable, unlucky
2. Fraudulent
3. Singularly evil or productive of evil
4. a : of, relating to, or situated to the left or on the left side of something; especially : being or relating to the side of a heraldic shield at the left of the person bearing it b : of ill omen by reason of being on the left
5. Presaging ill fortune or trouble
6. Accompanied by or leading to disaster
   

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Who plays Edgar in "Men in Black"?

Search: men in black

Why: I just saw Edgar pre-alien for the first time in maybe a decade. It looks like Vincent D'Onofrio.

Answer: Omg it IS Vincent D'Onofrio!! Wow, who knew. He looks like Leatherface:

Source: IMDb

The More You Know: I like how Siobhan Fallon says, "I'll tell you something right now. I know Egger, and that wasn't Egger. It was like somethin' was wearing Egger. Like a... like a suit. An... Egger suit."

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I want to see people play Tiddlywinks

Search: tiddlywinks

Why: Due to injury, Ross can no longer play rugby or "football." Should he focus on Tiddlywinks instead? According to Wikipedia:

Tiddlywinks is an indoor game played with sets of small discs called "winks" lying on a surface, usually a flat mat. Players use a larger disc called a "squidger" to pop a wink into flight by pressing down on one side of the wink. The objective of the game is to cause the winks to land either on top of opponents' winks, or ultimately inside a pot or cup.

Wtf.

Answer: Here is a nice news report: Keep an eye out for fancy Cambridge terminology: boondock, squidger, gromp, squop, scrunge, crud, penhaligon, nurdle, and the John Lennon Memorial Shot.

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: It looks like quarters + Beirut. Drinking games ftw.

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What song does Al Pacino dance to in "Scent of a Woman"?

Search: scent of a woman; tango

Why: I have heard it before. It doesn't have any words.

Answer: It is called "Por una Cabeza" (by a head [of a horse]). It does have lyrics, but I have never heard / noticed them. The song also appears in tango scenes in True Lies, Schindler's List, Delicatessen, All the King's Men, Bad Santa, and Frida.

The song was composed in 1935. Listen here. The part you will recognize starts at 0:44:

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: This movie was on when I woke up. I have never seen it, despite my pre-teen obsession with Chris O'Donnell. And guess who else is in it, dancing in that scene? Gabrielle Anwar, aka Fiona from "Burn Notice."

I am going to rewind and watch it now. Will report back.

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Why are the characters in "The Brothers Bloom" named after people in "Ulysses"?

Search: the brothers bloom

Why: It's bothering me. I don't really see the connection.

• Bloom = Leo Bloom
• Stephen = Stephen Dedalus (aka Daedalus)
  
• Penelope = Molly Bloom (Penelope in The Odyssey)
• and Diamond Dog says: "Stephen, still the grand architect. Your symbols - red for temptation, white for salvation. And our hero must face the Minotaur before he escapes the maze."
  

Answer : On the commentary track, writer/director (USC Film School grad) Rian Johnson - who also wrote Brick, btw - discusses the film's allusions to James Joyce's Ulysses:

Whereas the Bloom of Joyce's work serves as a modern analog for Odysseus, his wife Molly is representative in some ways of Odysseus's loyal wife Penelope. Similarly, Weisz's character Penelope remains loyal to Brody's Bloom throughout the film's various turns.

As another example, Penelope's sexual excitement on the train is reminiscent of the final chapter of Ulysses, an untitled episode often referred to as "Penelope", which concludes with Molly Bloom's soliloquy.

Also in the film, the Greek figure of Daedalus is alluded to primarily in the speeches by the one-eyed Diamond Dog, the stained glass window in The Curator's residence, and in the persistent tinkering actions of Stephen. Diamond Dog, who is arguably Bloom's greatest antagonist, may also be a loose representation of Cyclops.

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: Are you familiar with Molly's horny final lines? Dan has the ending on a t-shirt:

I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

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Who is the narrator of "The Brothers Bloom"?

Search: the brothers bloom

Why: He sounds like the same guy who narrates the beginning of Magnolia.

Answer: Ha-hoo! Right again! It's sleight-of-hand expert Ricky Jay.

Source: IMDb

The More You Know: He was also in Boogie Nights and The Prestige, and he played The Amazing Maleeni in "The X-Files." Remember? His head fell off.

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I want to see a picture of René Lacoste

Search: René LACOSTE

Why: I got out my boots for fall (even though it was 85 today). Lacoste was a French tennis player in the 1920s (he died in 1996). On the Zappos brand page, he recounts the history of the crocodile logo:

I was nicknamed "the Alligator" by the American press, after I made a bet with the Captain of the French Davis Cup Team concerning a suitcase made from alligator skin. He promised to buy it for me if I won a very important match for our team. The public must have been fond of this nickname which conveyed the tenacity I displayed on the tennis courts, never letting go of my prey!"

"So my friend Robert GEORGE drew a 'crocodile' which I then had embroidered on the blazer I wore on the courts."

In 1933, René LACOSTE and André GILLIER, the owner and President of the largest French knitwear manufacturing firm of that time, set up a company to manufacture the logo-embroidered shirt. The champion had designed this for his own use on the tennis court, as well as a number of other shirts for tennis, golf and sailing - as can be seen in the first catalogue, produced in 1933.

To the best of our knowledge, this was the first time that a brand name appeared on the outside of an article of clothing - an idea which has since become extremely successful.

Answer: Here he is playing (my god, look at that outfit!) and wearing his stuff:

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: In addition to designing the modern tennis shirt and causing pictures like this:

(lol Colgate, omg)

Lacoste won Wimbledon twice, in 1925 and in 1928, and the US Open in 1926 and 1927.

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What poem has the line "How do you like your blue-eyed boy, Mister Death?"

Search: "blue eyed boy mr death" cummings; blueeyed boy mister death

Why: In The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion:

I took the silver clip the social worker had given my the night before from the box in the bedroom and looked at the driver's license. Eyes: BL, the license read. Restrictions: Corrective lenses.
Why make this call and not just say what you wanted?
His eyes. His blue eyes. His blue imperfect eyes.
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
I could not that morning remember who wrote those lines. I thought it was E.E. Cummings but I could not be sure.

Answer: It's called "Buffalo Bill" by ee cummings:

Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeons justlikethat

Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

Source: Poem Hunter

The More You Know: My spelling is all f-ed because I'm listening to this on audiobook. I found the right words here (on p. 40).

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What was Soupy Sales's real name?

Search: soupy sales

Why: The comedian died yesterday :( Zack loved him. Here is his review:

Soupy's show was really innovative I think. There was no audience, it was mostly ad lib, and it was just him screwing around with the crew - you hear them a lot laughing and interacting with Soupy. It was branded a "children's show" but I have no idea why, it's just him screwing around.

Answer: Milton Supman! He got his nickname from his family. His older brothers had been nicknamed "Hambone" and "Chicken Bone;" Milton was dubbed "Soup Bone," which was later shortened to "Soupy." When he became a DJ, he used the stage name Soupy Hines. After he became established, it was decided that "Hines" was too close to the Heinz soup company, so he chose the surname Sales, in part after comedian Chic Sale.

Soupy served in the US Navy during WWII. He entertained his shipmates with jokes and zany slapstick. After the war, he hosted a series of comedy / variety shows, and he got his first pie in the face on a program called "Soupy's On!" He eventually landed "The Soupy Sales Show," which featured a rapid-fire stream of comedy sketches, gags, and puns, almost all of which resulted in Sales receiving a pie in the face. He developed pie-throwing into an art form: straight to the face, on top of the head, a pie to both ears from behind, moving into a stationary pie, and countless other variations. Sales claimed that he and his visitors had been hit by more than 20,000 pies during his career.

Source: Wikipedia

The More You Know: Here is a compilation about Soupy's life to the tune of "Come Pie with Me"!

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What does Richard Ramirez look like today?

Search: richard ramirez recent

Why: News reports say DNA evidence has tied The Night Stalker to the 1984 rape and murder of a 9 year old girl in San Francisco (in addition to at least 13 others). He was sentenced to die on Nov. 7, 1989 - that's 20 years ago next next Saturday.

Anyway, I know what he looked like then, but what does Richard Ramirez look like now?

Answer: Oh, pretty much the same. Here he is in 2007:

Source: Serial Killers Ink

The More You Know: That site has an Q and A with Ramirez. Highlights:

• if you could meet any person who would it be?
  I would have like to have met Cleopatra
• what would your ideal job have been?
  a little league baseball coach
• favorite actress?
  Abigail Breslin

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What's that quote in Fargo about detective work?

Search: fargo detective work, fargo detective work quotes, "your detective work there" fargo, etc. Haha look:

Why: Eddie is a bad detective. I keep seeing results that say both Norm and Lou, but which one is right?

Answer: It is not "detective," it's "police"!!! Shoot. How embarrassing. The quote is:

I'm not sure that I agree with you 100% on your police work there, Lou.

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: At 0:35 -

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How do you pronounce the name Saoirse?

Search: saoirse pronunciation

Why: Rainn Wilson Tweet-tweeted:

How long will it take, after the film "The Lovely Bones" comes out, for the porn movie with the obvious parody title to come out?

I read that book. Saoirse Ronan will play the dead girl (Susie Salmon) in the movie due out in January.

Answer: SEER-shuh! The word means "freedom" in Irish.

Source: Inogolo

The More You Know: Seer-shuh Ronan is this little lady from Atonement. She reminds me of Eleanore when she was like 6, Y/N?

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What is BooBoo Stewart's real name?

Search: booboo stewart

Why: Joel at 2Pz posted this pic:

"OMG! Look! It's my favorite-named, soon-to-be-superstar siblings! Fifteen-year-old BooBoo, of course, plays the wolfishly wonderful Seth Clearwater in the upcoming Eclipse movie. And his sister, Fivel, is NOT a Jewish mouse, but rather an adorable 12-year-old actress who kind of LOOKS LIKE a mouse! I don't care that much about either one of them, personally, I just like writing their names. Fivel and BooBoo. HA!"

Answer: BooBoo (the boy) is Nils Allen Stewart Jr. He was born in Jan. 1994.

"Fivel," not Fievel? (the girl) is Trent Heaven Stewart. She was born Nov. 1996.

The also have siblings named Maegan and Sage. Honk-shuu.

Their dad - actor (surprise!!) Nils Sr. - styles his hair like this:

Source: IMDb

The More You Know: Have you read about the Glass family? Boo Boo is a girl and Zooey is a boy. Wrong:

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What is the song that goes "I walked right into a bakery shop"?

Search: "walked right into a bakery shop"

Why: I just remembered that was the first part of our summer camp version of "Shave and a Haircut."

Answer: Listed as "another donut song," it goes:

Well, I walked around the corner
and I walked around the block
and I walked right into a bakery shop
and I picked up a donut
and I wiped off the grease
and I handed the lady a 5 cent piece

Well, she looked at the money
and she looked at me
and she said, "This nickel is no good to me,
There's a hole in the middle
and it goes right through."
Said I, "There's a hole in the donut, too."

Thanks for the donut
You bet!

(Last line sang to the tune of 'Shave and a haircut - two bits' or 'Shampoo' or 'Shut up' or whatever.)

This is not, by the way, "The Donut Song" by Burl Ives.

Source: This random page on FortuneCity

The More You Know: Watch some kids sing it!

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What is the song in the Cadillac SRX commercial?

Search: cadillac srx commercial

Why: It is Katrina's favorite TV show. The song goes, "Falling, falling, falling............"

Answer: "1901" by Phoenix! Listen to it here!

Source: SoCal Cadillac

The More You Know: When Mia and I were DJs, we got a single of "Run, Run, Run," which I like, I don't mind telling you. It also contains the lyrics, "You didn't catch me falling, falling, falling....."

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What's the song in the Jeep Liberty commercial?

Search: living in a dream jeep commercial

Why: I just saw it. The voice kind of sounds like Sheryl Crow, but I know it's not her.

Answer: "In a Tree" by Pricilla Ahn! Listen to the rest of the song here:

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: Here are the lyrics to the part in the commersh:

Living in a tree
Yeah, that's where I want to be
When the world falls down.
No one can say nothing
Which I guess means they'll say something
But I won't be around.
I'll be in my tree
Living free
As any child would wanna be

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Is it catty-cornered or kitty-cornered?

Search: catty-corner origin

Why: People where I grew up say "catty-cornered," but in college, Leah (from Wisconsin) said "kitty-cornered."

In case you are all, "WTF?" a catty-corner is a diagonal. Like in this artwork, the lamppost is catty-cornered from the Sizzlin' Chicken:

Answer: Neither! The correct spelling is actually "cater-cornered." The word cater comes from the French catre / quatre, "four." An obsolete word cater meant "a four-spot of dice."

Source: Phrases.org.uk

The More You Know: Guess what other awesome word has the same origin? Cattywampus! Go South!

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What is St. Elmo's fire?

Search: st elmo's fire

Why: In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Ruth Black tells Oskar:

Static electricity buildup is so mammoth on top of the [Empire State] Building that, under the right conditions, if you stick your hand through the observatory fence, St. Elmo's fire will stream from your fingertips. Lovers who kiss up there may find their lips crackling with electric sparks.

I assume she's not talking about that movie (which I have never seen).

Answer: Well, it's very complicated. In short, it's a weather phenomenon that occurs when there is a significant imbalance in electrical charge, causing molecules to tear apart, spark, and glow blue. The effect is similar to what happens inside a neon tube or in a plasma globe. The blue "flames" often manifest on pointed objects, like the mast of a ship, a steeple, or the wing of an airplane.

St. Ermo's fire is named after St. Erasmus or St. Ermo, the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors. Sailors believed the fire was a sign of salvation from the saint, since the phenomenon occurs most often toward the end of a storm. St. Ermo probably looked like this:

Source: How Stuff Works

The More You Know: From WeatherNotebook.org:

In 1947, General Electric engineer John Anderson undertook an interesting demonstration of the fair weather electrical potential. The Empire State Building is a well grounded structure, and thus the whole building has the same potential as the ground. Standing on a high floor, Anderson extended his arm from an open window. The strong potential difference between the atmosphere at that height and his arm still at ground potential made his finger tips glow from the potential-generated ionization, a form of St Elmo’s fire.

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I want to see the video for "The Youth" by MGMT

Search: mgmt the youth

Why: Eric Wareheim (from "The Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!") is in the Har Mar Superstar video for "Tall Boy." He also directed the video for "The Youth."

Answer: Here it is!

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: Well, I guess that settles my Halloween costume. Now I just have to learn that dance.

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What happens inside a cocoon?

Search: what happens inside a cocoon

Why: The other night on "Ugly Betty," some old lady made Betty watch a butterfly come out of a cocoon.

Answer: Lots!

1. When the caterpillar has eaten enough, it turns into a pupa. It stops eating, finds somewhere safe, and becomes very still. Pupa never eat and seldom move at all.
2. It molts its skin the same as it does when growing, but instead of another larval skin, it secretes a thicker, stronger pupal skin. Generally, the pupa then breaks out of the old larval skin, though in many moths, the pupa remains inside the old larval skin. You can often find the remains of the caterpillar skin around the tail of a Butterfly pupa.
   
3. A lot of the caterpillar's old body dies. It is attacked by the same sort of juices the caterpillar used in its earlier life to digest its food - it sort of digests itself from the inside out in a process called histolysis. Not all the tissue is destroyed, however; some of the old tissue passes on to the next stage.
   
4. Special formative cells called histoblasts - until now dormant in the larval body - come into action. They form a new body out of the soupy mess that the digestive juices have made of the old caterpillar body. They do this using histogenesis, which is the same biochemical process that all insects use to turn food into part of their bodies. They make a new heart, new muscles, new digestive system - everything.
5. During this whole time, the butterfly or moth can't excrete anything, so all the waste products accumulate. When it emerges from the chrysalis, it leaves behind a reddish-brown meconium that is made up of all the nitrogenous waste.
   

Source: Yahoo! Answers / EarthLife, Learner.org

The More You Know: Have you ever seen a glasswing butterfly? I just love them:

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What's a langoustine?

Search: langoustine

Why: In the New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs essay "Program Notes" by Yoni Brenner:

A brilliant exhibition of cascading motifs and shimmering orchestration, “La Mer” was a deeply personal project for Debussy, who had long been fascinated by the sea, having roomed with a langoustine at university.

Answer: A tasty little crustacean also called the Norway lobster!

A langoustine is a marine crustacean which looks a little like a miniature lobster and a lot like the river dwelling crayfish. Its proper name is Nephrops norvegicus. It can grow up to a foot in length and is prized for its delicious tail meat. Smaller langoustine have their upper parts discarded and their tails used for scampi. Larger langoustine are sold to be cooked whole. Then the meat from the tail and, in larger specimens the claws, is eaten either as part of a more complex dish or straight from the shell. They are a common feature in the traditional French bistro seafood platter and a very important element in Spanish cuisine.

I momentarily thought this was related to the word "lagniappe," as in the Louisiana Lagniappe that has this billboard all over Destin, FL:

but then I realized the G and the N are switched. Turns out a lagniappe is a little extra gift when you buy something, like the 13th roll in a baker's dozen.

Source: BlurtIt

The More You Know: There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Jesus.

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I want to see the cover of "The Luxe"

Search: the luxe

Why: In the New Yorker Publishing World article "The Gossip Mill" about Alloy Entertainment ("Gossip Girl," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," "The Vampire Diaries"):

A proposal package from Alloy contains not only the first act of a book; it also includes a proposed cover image and a document known as the "what comes next" - a detailed summary of the subsequent two acts... For "The Luxe," editors so liked the cover mockup - a photograph, torn from a bridal magazine, that showed a girl with cascading locks wearing a billowing pink satin gown with a strapless bodice - that the Alloy team reproduced the image, more or less exactly, for the book-cover photo shoot.

Answer: It looks like this! Buy it here!

Source: Google Images

The More You Know: Alloy has churned out a veritable buttload of "Gossip Girl" spin-offs and copies, including:

• "The A-List" - about a group of students at a Beverly Hills high school ("Gossip Girl" in Los Angeles)
• "Private" - about a group of girls in an exclusive dormitory ("Gossip Girl" at boarding school)
• "The Insiders" - about a gang of male high schoolers who live in downtown Manhattan ("Gossip Girl" with boys)
• "Hotlanta" - "Gossip Girl" with African-Americans
• "The Clique" - about a group of nasty middle schoolers in a wealthy Westchester County suburb ("Gossip Girl" for tweens)
• "The Luxe" - "Gossip Girl" set in the Gilded Age
  

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I want to hear the Bend Sinister song "Time Breaks Down"

Search: bend sinister youtube

Why: This appeared on my Facebook:

Answer: Here it is!

Source: YouTube

The More You Know: Hmm. I dunno about Neutral Milk Hotel, but the beginning of that song reminds me of Augie March, especially the song "Little Wonder":

And the other parts sound like Fall Out Boy / My Chemical Romance / Panic! at the Disco.

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