Whittle It a Little, It’ll Fit

Odds and sods I look at regularly, just because they amuse me. I hope they do the same for you. Incidentally, I found this page’s title on Greg Ross’s Futility Closet (it’s somewhere on this page) in a mini-article which also includes the delightful sentence in Icelandic: Barbara Ara bar Ara araba bara rabbabara. Ross points out that this, “besides being fun to say, is spelled with only three letters. It means “Barbara, daughter of Ari, brought only rhubarb to Ari the Arab.”

Futility Closet » The Sleeping Cupid

Monday 1 April 19:29:49 UTC 2024

A young Michelangelo once aged a sculpture artificially to bring a higher price. He began working on a sleeping cupid in 1495, at age 20, apparently inspired by a sculpture in the Medici Gardens. At the advice of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco he aged it falsely to resemble an antique and then passed it on to a dealer, who sold it … [Link]

Weird Universe » Peanut Butter with No Jelly Candy Bar

Monday 1 April 15:45:49 UTC 2024

Any product endorsed by Vincent Price is aces with me.

[Link]

Weird Universe » Stocking-Repairing Beetle

Monday 1 April 11:16:24 UTC 2024

The "Aprilscherz" (April Fool) of an unnamed German magazine, as reported in Life (Apr 4, 1938):

[Link]

Futility Closet » The Drunkard’s Paradox

Monday 1 April 7:28:33 UTC 2024

Qui bibit, dormit; qui dormit, non peccat; qui non peccat, sanctus est; ergo: qui bibit, sanctus est. He who drinks sleeps; he who sleeps does not sin; he who does not sin is holy; therefore he who drinks is holy. [Link]

John Gordon Ross

A Man for All Reasons