Move over Don Pardo

Slate has a really fascinating article on the men and women who do commercial voice-over work, and the changes happening within the industry (for example, more celebrities lending their voices - Jeff Daniels for Duracell, Gene Hackman for Lowe's, Julia Roberts for AOL, and more emphasis on "real people" voices instead of the old-school "Voice of God" baritone announcer-types).

Lots of sample clips and amusing voice descriptions ("Versatile voice: warm authority to intimate seduction to caring "real person". Upscale sophisticate and perky best friend also part of the mix.", "Specialty Voice Types - Dry wit, Big Announcer, Dripping sarcasm, Slow serious") at Voiceovers Unlimited as well as Voicebank.net, two voice talent agencies.

Five bucks, five bucks, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when it comes to you?

Best Buy admits, in so many words, that rebate offers suck, and will begin phasing them out over the next two years. The author also relates his tales of rebate woe involving a TiVo, and reveals THE QUESTION you need to ask when customer service is giving you the runaround.

On the other hand, this guy seems pretty excited about the whole process.

Zip it, zip it good

Understanding the sometimes cryptic Zippy The Pinhead comic strip in 6 easy lessons   (via J-Walk)

Star of P.T. Barnum's "What-Is-It?" attraction: Zip The Pinhead

Schlitzie The Pinhead



Artist James Mundie collects and creates reproductions of sideshow and circus artifacts

So all you fly mothers, get on out there and dance

This video for DJ Format and crew's "3 Feet Deep" is done in the guise of a Dance Dance Revolution game, and it may just be the. Best. Video. Ever.

(via Metafilter)

Open up and say 'Moooo!'

What's that? You say you just got out of veterinary school and on the first day you opened your new practice in the rolling countryside of Scotland you got a call from Old Farmer MacCready saying that his Number One milkcow has an intestinal blockage, and that's the one day you missed in veterinary school because you went out the night before to drown your sorrows after Scotland's devastating 2-1 loss against Romania? Is that what your problem is? Well, is it bunky?

Well, fret not my bovine-rectum-examinationally-challenged friend! Just grab a handful of... experience using the U. of Glasgow's bovine rectal palpation simulator. We truly are living in a Golden Age..

As they say, a picture's worth a thousand words.



(via Boing Boing)

You call it corn smut. We call it nasty.

A new low edition of Steve, Don't Eat It! where he enjoys the Mexican delicacy Cuitlacoche a/k/a Corn Smut, a black fungus that infects corn fields, making the kernels bulbous as they swell up with spores. Yeah, that's right. Infected corn.

Seriously, would you eat something that looked like this?



Mmm! Who's hungry?

You can still get one. They're just not two bits anymore.

This one's just for us guys out there.

How to get that perfect shave

I've used disposable razors and foam out of the can my whole life, but reading this really makes we want to give the old double-edged cartridge blade a try. But don't even start with me on straight razors. Those things give me the willies...

Further shaving links:

classicshaving.com
shavingstuff.com
PodShave - The ultimate iPod mod! (check out the dates in this article)

From the March/April 1972 Mother Earth News:

How to Use a Straight Razor -*shudder*-

The catalog comes in a plain brown wrapper

Despite what you may think, it's perfectly safe to send Grandma over to KnobsnKnockers.com

And although Ingleside Vineyards has a motto of "When it is time for something special", their URL of IPWine.com does not exactly inspire a ton of confidence. Nor do I want the folks at IPAnywhere.com visiting my house anytime soon.

Cut me, Mick!

Alrightalrightalright... I admit it. Having never seen the original Rocky, I didn't recognize the reference when someone told me they were naming their new blog "Cut me, Mick!". All I could think was maybe it was some kind of Rolling Stones sado-masochistic thing. Obviously I was a bit off the mark.

In an effort to bone up on my pugilistic chops, I visited the Rocky soundboard (click on the Play This Game link there). Oh and, hey, if it's so famous a line, where the heck is it on this soundboard? Huh, smart guy?!

For those of you Teeming Millions out there who have seen, lived, loved and cherished each individual everlovin' frame of the Rocky franchise, I'm betting you haven't seen whatever the hell this is.

Yo.

Time's a-wastin'

And here's why...

Defend Your Stronghold, which is quite similar to Defend Your Castle. In both you are pushing back wave after wave of stick-figure fury.

In other Doppelganger-type games, Nevashut is similar to Subservient Chicken. Type in commands for Sanjeevs. Entertain him enough and he'll give you one of his "special" Pringles canisters. For the impatient and/or the cheaters, here is a list of all the words that he will respond to.

Finally, draw a pig and learn what kind of personality you have. (via Sarcasmo)

Couldn't they just maybe brew up some Folger's or something?

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.
The Beatles - "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

Snopes explores the validity of the legend that part of the process of determining that a Pope has died and is not merely sleeping calls for him to be tapped on the forehead with a silver hammer.

(thanks, Tim "Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em" Jablonski!)

Wing Sings

Whether she's belting out Dancing Queen or I Want to Hold Your Hand, there's only one Wing. Thank God. And all this time we thought it was Adam Sandler who couldn't carry a tune.

PS. I think I just discovered my new wingtone, er... ringtone.

(via Boing Boing)

Chad rerun

I posted this quite a while ago, but considering the date today, it's worth taking a second look at Chad, the Cross-Country Googler Prank.

It's not just a bad browser anymore

IE also stands for Improv Everywhere, an improv group in New York that does public performances that are a cross between Punk'd, Candid Camera and Whose Line Is It Anyway?

New Cheerios explores whether in a taste test between two identical substances, will people still have a preference?

The Amazing Stuntmen risk their lives, so you don't have to!

Best Gig Ever gives an ego boost to the up-and-coming band Ghosts of Pasha

True dat

Lisa:        Dad, I think that's pretty spurious.
Homer:  Well, thank you, honey.

The Simpsons -- Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amazing-But-True Facts to know and share! Here are but a few:

·Molecularly speaking, water is actually much drier than sand.

·In an effort to improve the nutritional value of its "Shamrock shakes," McDonald's colors them with broccoli extract.

·The volume of water that the Giant Sequoia tree consumes in a 24-hour period contains enough suspended minerals to pave 17.3 feet of a 4-lane concrete freeway.

·If the current trend continues, by the year 2215 midgets will outnumber "normal-sized" people.

·Winston Churchill was born with a third nipple, which he removed himself with nail-clippers at the age of 14.