ArtieShaw

I want to find my younger self and tell her that "one day you will enjoy listening to Wil Wheaton read you stories." She will, of course, reply: "Unlikely."

A colleague of mine claims to be friends with some game officials. He also claims that they will privately acknowledge that there's a small native population of cougars in areas south and east of the Great Lakes. They are strongly dis-incentivized to acknowledge this publicly for a number of reasons.

1. Cougars in Ohio? That probably means that they're some sort of sub-species with endangered status.
2. Scary for locals? Sure. But the odds of an attack on human by a privacy-liking predator (who have plenty of tasty deer to eat) are vanishingly small.

Basically, it just means a lot of paperwork and hassle for them with little to no positive effect.

In the unlikely event one is killed and the carcass can't be denied, it's always a "rogue male who wandered out of their native habitat in the UP or Canada somewhere." (Somehow swimming solo across lakes Michigan and Eerie, or maybe hitching a ride on a ferryboat seems more reasonable than the obvious conclusion that there is a small breeding population).

ETA - On one hiking trip in Ohio we found a deer's spine and pelvis up in a tree, about 8 feet off the ground. Maybe a human put it there, but I can't think of any animal (that's supposed to be here) that would have. Weird shit.

This is delightful. The whole thing is worth a read, but I want to leave this here.

In 2022, a writer... attempted to raise a red flag, noting that all three of the celebrities (Wozniak, Chuck Norris, and Lance Bass) who endorsed Reece Lewis declined to confirm ever knowing him

Anecdotally, the people I know who bitch about this sort of thing are usually the people who no one wants to interact with.

I mean, maybe if you weren't a screeching harpy who can't let anyone finish a sentence, you wouldn't find this to be a problem, Noreen. (Noreen is the_worst_.)

I remember that show being nearly unwatchable.

I did see the first few seasons, but then again I was alone in a new city, living in a shitty basement apartment. I had nothing better to do or watch. No internet. No cable. Couldn't even stare out the window. Nearest friends were an hour's drive away. It was television of desperation.

Sorry for the late response - I just got back from travelling to meet that side of the family. But unfortunately, I don't remember the lyrics. She introduced it a long time ago and she stopped being MC of Christmas a few years back. We didn't get to enjoy it this year.

I just made this up on the spot, but it was in this spirit

Oh God above, sweet lord of mine
How much you love your children.
Oh God above, sweet lord of mine
How much you love your children.

You sacrificed, your one true son
to save us earthbound sinners here...

--and so on --

Rejoice, repent! We praise your name...

Off the top of my head:

• That little triangle embossed on your plastic container says it has been / can be recycled.
  https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled
  https://www.earthday.org/plastic-recycling-is-a-lie/

-Anything involving babies and incubators is immediately suspect. (Or babies and bayonets, for that matter).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony

-And this one is pure conspiracy, and I know it's not what you asked for... but it's ridiculous and 'tis the season. My mother in law is convinced that the lyrics to "Oh Christmas Tree" (O Tannenbaum) were changed by people who wanted to erase the true and original lyrics. By who? Big Tree financiers? Communists who are stealing Christmas and replacing it with trees?

Anyway...

The original lyrics, according to this conspiracy, praise God and never mention trees at all. It's completely ridiculous and always ends with the whole family singing along with the "true lyrics" from a badly photocopied paper that she hands out. I hope this doesn't come up again this year because it really makes me want to fight. Which would make me the bad person, because who initiates fights on Christmas? The next couple of days are going to be tough.

I liked him in News Radio, but I would also have said the same about Andy Dick. Come to think of it, both of them played idiot savant characters so maybe it was just the genius casting in that show.

He was also perfectly cast in Fear Factor. It was like something he was born to do.

It's funny how small towns offer a sense of security, even if it isn't really warranted.

We moved to a small town about 15 years ago. It was right after a fairly brutal murder of a local teen. And it was just a few years after the murder of a local man by his roommate. That one didn't get as much coverage, but he murdered him with an ashtray in a fit of anger. Locals were still happy to tell us that no one locks their doors.

Since then, we've had two double murders, a SWAT situation where four neighboring police forces came to town to help local police kill the guy barricaded inside his home, and a sad story of a young man who went missing in December and was found murdered the next spring. There was also the time a local man randomly attacked two out-of-town women with a baseball bat and was stabbed with a screwdriver by a neighbor. And I feel like I'm forgetting one more.

Even after all of that, police had to call everyone in town and tell them to lock their damn doors after a rash of burglaries. The thieves were just walking around trying doors at random and being very successful.

Granted - my town is unlike the one in the article because it seems like the attacks in Nebraska were both random. That would be unnerving. What I do find funny (in the WTF sense) is that every time my town has another murder, double murder, or riot, the people seem to forget all the ones that came before. For a town of 3000 people our per capita murder rate must be pretty high, but everyone feels totally safe.

/r/ancientcoins

Interesting mix of people, most of whom were chill. Always something new to discover. And they were pretty open to discussing the elephant in the room: much of everyone's collection had been looted at some point. The only notable exception to that was an AMA by a Jr. Sales Person from Harlan Berk. He got roasted.

The rest of this is just me ranting about coins.

Coins are a relatively new invention. The first recognizable coins were made in Lydia (modern day Turkey) around 600BCE. For perspective, Egypt's Old and New Kingdoms did not have standardized, metallic currency. (which is a shame - considering Egypt's art, their currency probably would have looked awesome).

Greek coinage emphasized art and sometimes local trade items. For example, if your city was famous for its horses your coins would probably feature horses.

Celtic coins often looked like their artists were eating every mushroom they could get their hands on.

Roman coins emphasized political power, and had a lasting impact on the rest of coinage in the west. For example, they standardized putting the Leader's head on the obverse, and an uplifting design on the reverse. Sometimes they'd put the Emperor's wife on the front, which is always fun. (Curiously, Canadians that I've talked to about this are obstinate that the Queen is on the back and that the Bluenose/Loon/Beaver/whatever is on the front.)

Of course China had its own monetary progression. Ant Nose Money and Spade Money, for example, preceded the round coin with square hole that has been prevalent for the past 1200-ish years. India produced some really cool square coins. Japan minted one and two "Bu" coins that were rectangular during the 1800s - and although that's stretching the definition of ancient, I think they're cool.

So yeah, I miss being subscribed to COIN FACTS.

Early 80s. I think they peaked in 81 or 82.