List-ening

What Should Our Law-Makers Do With Their Spare Time?

2011-04-06T14:38:00.001-07:00

I vote, more of this:

Math at the Movies

2011-03-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

Here are 10 movies with (now) mathematical titles. Guesses? See mine in the comments.

2011-03-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Calgary Flames' Jay Bouwmeester has set a new ironman record for defensement in the NHL, inspiring today's list. Who are your Ironmen?

5. Brett Favre (I know... who would have thought I'd stick him at number 5!) Maybe its the fall from grace these last few years, maybe it is knowing that he was protected by some of the greatest defensive players in the league most of his 20 seasons and 297 games, or maybe it is the painkillers. Don't worry Brett, #5 is still pretty good.
4. Jay Bouwmeester He could easily extend his streak this season to well into the low 500's if all goes well. This guy is an NHL defensemen that has played 497 games, and remember perspective. Yes, football is a tough sport (played once a week). These guys are out there 2-3 times a week. Jay has played nearly 6 consecutive years in a position that a lot of players don't last 6 years in at all.
3. Jim Brown played as a FULLBACK in the NFL, before padding was even invented. Protective gear in the 50's and 60's was at best going to keep you from getting scraped up. He played a down and dirty position for 118 straight games (122 with playoffs) for 8 straight years.
2. Gordie Howe may not have played all of his time in consecutive games, but the man played for 24 straight seasons, plus an extra one in 1979 just for the heck of it. He played for a quarter of a century. Blows my mind.
1. Cal Ripken Jr. It's not just because I live next to Camden Yards now, really. Some may say that baseball doesn't take as much of a toll on a person, but let's put it into perspective. He played for 21 straight years. The only other person I know that worked for 21 years without taking a day off is my Junior High math teacher, Mrs. Pinch (who is getting a consecutive teaching starts honorarium). 2,632 games. I haven't done anything 2,632 times.

Best of NES Indie or Not--(Wish I Was At SXSW)

2011-03-15T17:11:00.000-07:00

What five games would you love to have for NES all time? Here are my 5 and the video that got me thinking:

5. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
4. Duck Hunt
3. Metroid
2. Super Mario Bros.
1. Legend of Zelda

100 Ways I Don't Want to Die

2011-03-11T08:44:00.001-08:00

Ways 3-29

I Can't Stop Playing

2011-03-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

Only enough to post this list of iconic movie objects trivia mixed with hangman... pretty addictive.

http://famousobjectsfromclassicmovies.com/

I am fascinated by those that I get and those that I don't, especially in the category of movies I've never seen. Some marketing execs somewhere need a raise.

The 10 Most Awesome Things Stuck in People

2011-03-03T13:01:00.000-08:00

10 Things Lodged Inside Of People

March 1, 2011 | 1:04 pm

http://www.holytaco.com/10-things-lodged-inside-of-people/

I was taught, at a very young age, that it’s not a good idea to attempt to swallow non-food items. I also learned, as I grew older, that it’s really not a good idea to put anything in your rectum (unless you’re in love.) The people depicted in this article did not live by those rules, and now have some sweet x-rays to show for it.

Let’s start with a coke bottle. All done drinking but can’t find a recycling bin nearby? Just hang on to that bottle until you can find the appropriate place to dispose of it. I’m sure the hospital has a recycling bin.

It’s a fork. And this person swallowed it. No joke there. Just a lot of questions we’ll never know the answers to.

It’s tough to see, but this is actually a can of hairspray (according to the site I “borrowed” this photo from.) Now this woman’s innards will stay frizz-free and in place all day, no matter how windy it is!

I find this image particularly jarring… SORRY. HAD TO.

“So I’m swallowing safety pins then I’m like ‘shit, probably should’ve closed them first’. Simple mistake. Anyone could’ve made it.”

“Katelyn, I have something really important to ask you, so just sit tight for a minute, I have to run to the bathroom.”

When you make jokes about French people in a Parisian gift shop, they stab you in the hand with miniature Eifel Towers.

If you continue to make those jokes, they will stab you in the head with a slightly larger statue of the Eifel Tower.

“Has anyone seen my keys?… What? They’re in my eyes? Oh, thank you.”

Last but not least, probably the only thing that sort of belongs…

51 WEIRDEST TOURIST TRAPS IN AMERICA

2011-02-24T14:43:00.000-08:00

From Trutv.com
I was shocked/impressed/bothered by the fact that I have actually been to three of the places on this list. More shocking is that there are several I would go out of my way to see. Been to one? Interesting in one? Let me know! I marked mine with the link to the info on that location.

World's Largest Office Chair - Anniston, Alabama

Outhouse Races - Anchorage, Alaska

Museum of Fake Frogs - Eureka Springs, Arkansas

Don Parks' Yard of Statues and Stuff - Phoenix, Arizona

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum - Los Angeles, California

Two Story Outhouse - Crested Butte, Colorado

Timexpo Museum and Easter Island Statue - Waterbury, Connecticut

Run-over Fireman Monument - Washington, DC

Skull Silo at Frightland - St. Georges, Delaware

Gorrie Ice Museum - Apalachicola, Florida

Fitzgerald Wild Chicken Festival - Fitzgerald, Georgia

Kalaupapa Guided Mule Tour To Leper Colony - Kalaupapa, Molokai, Hawaii

Don Aslett's Museum of Clean - Pocatello, Idaho

Cube of 1 Million 1 Dollar Bills - Chicago, Illinois

World's Largest Ball of Paint - Alexandria, Indiana

National Farm Toy Museum - Dyersville, Iowa

The World's Largest Collection of The World's Smallest Versions of The World's Largest Things - Lucas, Kansas

World's Largest Barrel of Bourbon and Crucifix - Bardstown, Kentucky

Jerry Lee Lewis Museum and Liquor Store - Ferriday, Louisiana

Jerry Cardone's 7 Wonders of God Creatures - Houlton, Maine

9/11 Memorial "To Lift A Nation" - Emmitsburg, Maryland http://www.trutv.com/dumb_as_a_blog/gallery/51-dumbest-vacation-spots-in-america.html?curPhoto=21

The Porter Thermometer Museum - Boston, Massachusettes

Monument to the Dean of Michigan's Tourism Activity - Kewadin, Michigan

Shoe Fence - Downer, Minnesota

World's Only Cactus Plantation - Edwards, Mississippi

Mount Rushmore with Fake Celebrity Heads - Branson, Missouri

Montana Vortex and House of Mystery - Columbia Falls, Montana http://www.trutv.com/dumb_as_a_blog/gallery/51-dumbest-vacation-spots-in-america.html?curPhoto=27

Andy the Footless Goose - Hastings, Nebraska

Brothel Art Museum - Crystal, Nevada

Stairway to Nowhere - Chesterfield, New Hampshire

Martinka Museum of Magic - Midland Park, New Jersey

Runaway Bride 7-11 Payphone - Albuquerque, New Mexico http://www.trutv.com/dumb_as_a_blog/gallery/51-dumbest-vacation-spots-in-america.html?curPhoto=32

Sidewalk of Stars - Binghamton, New York

Tom Haywood's Self-Kicking Machine - New Bern, North Carolina

Casselton Can Pile - Casselton, North Dakota

Duct Tape Festival - Avon, Ohio

Twister (the Movie) Museum - Wakita, Oklahoma

World's Largest Pig Hairball - Mount Angel, Oregon

Schwenksville Museum Of Nostalgia - Schwenksville, Pennsylvania

Cow Vomit Rope at the Little Compton Historical Society - Little Compton, Rhode Island

Monument to the Father of Gynecology - Columbia, South Carolina

Skeleton of a Man Walking A Skeleton of a Dinosaur on a Leash - Murdo, South Dakota

illbilly Golf - Gatlinburg, Tennessee

Animatronic Bartender at the West of the Pecos Museum - Pecos, Texas

Room of Mining Disasters - Helper, Utah

World's Tallest Filing Cabinet - Burlington, Vermont

Norfolk Mermaid Trail - Norfolk, Virginia

Volcano Toilets - Granger, Washington

The Mystery Hole - Ansted, West Virginia

The Mustard Museum - Middleton, Wisconsin

Town with Population of One - Lost Springs, Wyoming

Five Things E!Online Thinks They Know About the New Batman Movie

2011-02-21T16:26:00.000-08:00

Five Things We Think We Know About the New Batman Movie

Click Here

Today 12:00 PM PST by JOAL RYAN

Valerie Macon/Getty Images; DC Comics; Neilson Barnard/Getty Images; DC Comics; Warner Bros. Entertainment

Christian Bale's back. Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy are in. The Dark Knight Rises is down for July 2012.

So, what else we got? Clues, tidbits and fake press releases. Here's where, to the best of our knowledge, the upcoming Batman movie stands:

1. Christopher Nolan Is Waiting on Awards-Season to End: Bat-butler Michael Caine told E! News on Monday that he hasn't seen a script—because there isn't a script to see. "He [Nolan] said, 'I'll finish it in two weeks,' " Caine reported. The reputed timeline, you may have noticed, coincides with the Oscars being over, and Nolan being done with black-tie appearances on behalf of Inception. (So, hurry up, The King's Speech, and win everything already!)

2. The Riddler, No; Catwoman, Yes—We're Pretty Sure: Nolan himself dismissed the notion of the green-suited puzzler making the cut. So that's that. Then last month, Warner Bros. confirmed Hathaway had been cast as Selina Kyle, aka Catwoman, although the studio never actually referred to Hathaway's character as Catwoman (even as it referred to Hardy's character by his supervillain name, Bane). It's probably nothing. Probably.

3. The Inception Reunion Is On—a Fake Press Release Confirms: There's been a lot of buzz that Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are looking to join dream-team alum Hardy. The latest official word on both actors is that they're in talks. The latestbogus press release says Cotillard is signed, and set to play Caped Crusader temptress Talia al Ghul, and that Gordon-Levitt is signed, and set to play Batman nemesis the Black Mask. Please ignore the bogus press release. (OK, how about, please try to ignore the bogus press release?)

4. The Score Is Going to Be "Epic:" Does this pronouncement seem premature considering we don't have a script, a full cast or a movie, yet? Eh. Composer Hans Zimmer said it (to MTV News), so at least it's actually true. (Unless, that is, he was kidding.)

5. Bale Is Going to Bail—After This Movie, Definitely Maybe: Here's what the unmasked man told E! News last November: "Unless Chris says different, this will be the last time I'm playing Batman." No word from the fake press-release department if Nolan has said different.

Extrodiary Roald Dahl List Telegraph!

2011-02-21T15:13:00.000-08:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8328574/Roald-Dahls-10-finest-hours.html

Roald Dahl's 10 finest hours

From children's books to dark tales of murder, there are countless moments of brilliance in Roald Dahl's writing: here are ten.

British author Roald Dahl Photo: Ronald Dumont/Getty Images

By Mark Monahan 2:00PM GMT 16 Feb 2011

Comment

1) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)

Dahl’s description of the taste of Wonka’s Whipple–Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight as Charlie eats it is merely words on a page. And yet, however many years or even decades it now is since one first read it, it still feels like the most delicious, luxuriant, succulent, sumptuous thing that any of us has ever actually eaten. The moment when Charlie sees the gold ticket peeping out from beneath the wrapper is pure magic too – has childish excitement ever been more brilliantly conveyed? And to think Martin Amis recently disparagingly said that he might well write a children’s book only “if I had a serious brain injury”. Clever fellows really can talk twaddle sometimes, can’t they.

2) A Dip in the Pool (1952)

Having bet his and his wife’s life-savings that the ocean-liner on which they’re cruising will make poor progress, the doomed hero of this grown-up short story befriends a kindly old woman on deck before hurling himself overboard before her eyes in an attempt to slow everything down. He never finds out, however, that she is not quite all there – moments later, after she has watched him flailing in the ship’s ever-lengthening wake, she tells her disbelieving carer about the curious incident. “Such a nice man,” she insists. “He waved to me.”

3) Danny, the Champion of the World (1975)

The point when the 120 drugged pheasants, packed together like sardines in a pram, begin to soar out of it, only to start flopping desultorily back to earth as their still partially narcotised wings fail them. It’s one of Dahl’s funniest passages, told with a vividness and relish strong by even his standards.

4) The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (1977)

This wonderfully convincing fantasy’s extraordinary description of a candle’s flame, starting with the yellow outside, then the blue bit, with the black core at its centre. Has anyone who ever read this ever looked at a lit candle in the same way again?

5) Lamb to the Slaughter (1953)

The moment in this short story when the police – investigating the murder of fellow copper Patrick Maloney – find a formerly frozen leg of lamb in the oven, now completely cooked. This must be the only story ever written in which the cops eat the murder weapon. Genius.

6) Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972)

Vermicious knids! (With the “k” sounded, of course.) Has a disagreeable alien ever been endowed with a better name? The fact that these ovine beasties are also inveterate show-offs, and know only one word of English – scram – which they spell out in mid-air, only adds to the comedy.

7) The Landlady (1959)

Two of Dahl’s smartest tricks were his ability merely to hint at danger, and – similarly – to cut his short-stories dead before reaching a conventional conclusion. This one (first seen in The New Yorker) is the supreme example. Checking into a quiet B&B, Billy Weaver finds the last two names in the book before his ringing a vague bell – but he dismisses the thought. Every time you read this, as Billy eyes the stuffed animals in this lonely house, you will him to get the hell out. But before long, the apparently good-natured woman serves him tea “that tasted faintly of bitter almonds” (ie cyanide – another mere taste, as it were, of darkness). And, with similarly perfect authorial understatement on Dahl’s part, the story ends with her kindly answer to Billy’s enquiry as to whether anyone at all, apart from he and those other two, has stayed there in recent years. “No, my dear,” she says. “Only you.”

8) The Great Switcheroo (1974)

Dahl’s dark-hued moralising flowered particularly memorably in this tale from his most explicitly adult short-story collection, Switch Bitch. It reads like a cautionary tale for would-be swingers everywhere – over-confident studs, in particular – and the conclusion, as so often with Dahl, is as unforgiving as it is hilarious.

9) James and the Giant Peach (1961)

The moment when Aunts Spiker and Sponge are crushed by the now enormous fruit. The thrills! The excitement! The satisfaction! Revenge has never – in any sense – tasted sweeter.

10) Pig (1960)

This short story from the collection Kiss Kiss is one of the most brutal – and brilliant – things Dahl ever wrote. Essentially a cautionary tale about the morbid dangers of over-protecting children – with a nice side-swipe at vegetarianism, too – it is packed with linguistic and stylistic references to Voltaire’s Candide. But, where the French master’s masterpiece concludes with his protagonist blithely cultivating his garden, this ends with the similarly ingénu hero, Lexington, being strung up and slaughtered like the titular ungulate. In a final, jet-black nod to the Voltaire, it ends with him passing “out of this, the best of all possible worlds, into the next”.

About Hipsters...

2011-02-17T15:25:00.000-08:00

10 THINGS ABOUT HIPSTERS THAT MAKE ME SO MAD

By Dan Hopper

Everyone on the internet makes fun of hipsters constantly. It’s easy to do – hipsters are in many ways both ridiculous and annoying. In 2007, internet hipster-ridicule seemed to peak with the“Hipster Olympics” sketch video, a thorough and spot-on parody that got 2.5 million views and basically summed up all there is to ever say about hipster culture.

Still, almost four years later, internet lists abstractly ripping on hipsters continue to go super-viral on a near-daily basis, such as last week’s Hipster Little Mermaid Meme, to the point where the vague, niche concept of the hipster has essentially spawned more things online making fun of hipsters than there actually are hipsters (and I live in Brooklyn, and I’m not as mad at these individuals as the entire internet seems to be).

Rather than continue to point out that hipster humor is a long-exhausted, formulaic dead horse of easy viral material, I’ve decided I might as well just hop on board. Here’s my contribution to the online hipster humor zeitgeist, a list of 10 THINGS ABOUT HIPSTERS THAT MAKE ME SO MAD:

10. Their Black Glasses

What is up with those? Get some regular glasses you d*cks! “Oh, look at me, my glasses are black and all like thick and sh*t.” Tell me if you can read this: SHUT UP.

9. They Love Pitchfork

Man do they love that website Pitchfork. Buncha d*cks making sh*t music for d*cks and d*cks writing about it. Why are you reading that crap? Hipsters should go to better websites instead of sh*tty stupid ones like that one.

8. They Do Everything Ironically

Hey look at me, I’m doing this thing but I’m not actually doing it because it’s ironic! That’s what hipsters are ALWAYS like. Hey check it out, tiny Alf T-shirt! Guess what? That t-shirt sucks and so do you. And no, I’m NOT being ironic.

7. They All Do Yoga And Eat Organic

Hey wanna go to brunch, there’s this new FREEGAN place on Dumbstreet, it’s called “Place” cause it’s too cool to have a name and also everyone’s like doing Pilates there. Hey hipsters, you know what meal I love? LUNCH. Not ORGANIC magic window garden lunch, just regular lunch. It’s a meal. TRY IT.

6. They Think They’re So Cool

Laugh at things? Why would I laugh at things and smile when I can stand here like a big dipsh*t and look like I’m not caring? Oh, what’s that you got there, some really cool thing? PSHHH. I don’t care, I’m too cool.

5. They Like All This Obscure Music

Hey, have you heard of this new band, they’re called D*CKTW*T, it’s three Siberian babies and a goat with a washboard, they’re playing at this organic coffee shop I like, wanna go see them? Oh no, they released an EP now they’re too popular for me, cause I’m a hipster. UGHHHHH.

4. They’re All Rich But They Pretend To Be Poor

Lemme live in this shack with sh*t smeared all over the walls cause I’m like this Bohemian artist even though my dad’s like the President of the U.S.A. and he sends me a check for a zillion dollars every day and I pretend like I hate him and keep wearing these like super old jeans. YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE YOU HIPSTER SCUM!

3. They Hate The Mainstream

“That’s too mainstream for me, I don’t like it!” is what hipsters are always like whenever they see stuff. Could they possibly hate the mainstream more? It’s like, are they talking about Hitler or are they talking about the mainstream, I’m confused cause they hate them both the same. Like, did the mainstream molest them as a child??

2. Their Clothes Are So Stupid

Should we throw away these used American Apparel leggings and ratty teal scarf from the 1930s? No, sell them to a vintage store so some stupid hipster can buy them for a billion trust fund dollars and wear it to their vinyl wine & cheese parties. Don’t do any of that you assh*le! Wear normal things and stop being so f***ing stupid.

1. They Don’t Like Regular Stuff

“We don’t like normal stuff we only like this other stupid stuff, we’re hipsters.” Just like regular stuff instead of your stupid weird stuff, you weird d*cks! What a bunch of d*cks. UGH. Hipsters.

Is anything here that we haven't already said? Give me something more people. Post your additions. What do you love and/or hate about hipsters.

29 Things Young Designers Need to Know

2011-02-16T14:41:00.001-08:00

This Week, I Am Delivering My Take on the Crunchie Awards

2011-01-11T17:11:00.000-08:00

Category 1:

Best Internet Application

Chartbeat

Chartbeat seems like a great resource, if you are a somewhat successful group starting a site. The problem, for me, is that it is a charge servicde. I hate to always proclaim my love for Google, but I get similar service free with Google Analytics.

Greplin

This service seems like it could be worth someone's while... if that someone was really into internet toolbars. I recently professed my befuddlement of internet tool bars. It is like voluntarily accepting spam. Man, here I go again, but... in Chrome, my browser is my toolbar.

Pandora

Let's just start with the fact that Pandora is the "Music Genome Project". It is a human experiment in musical preference. Unlike 3 out of 5 of the sites on the list, Pandora is still relatively free. It also is cloud to the point of starting to eliminate the need to even own music, or the drive space to contain it. It is simple and clean, available via browser or phone app, and downright fascinating to watch it calculate your music preference. I have a Rihanna station that now plays everything from Coldplay to Miley Cyrus, to Blackflag, because I use it as my primary rating station.

Rdio

So, let me get this straight, Rdio: You are Pandora, minus the free service. Why would I use you?

Ujam

Ujam quickly makes one feel like a musical genius and remedial at the same time. This application lets you post your personally-created songs to FB and share them instantly.

The interface is slick and clean, but the suggestion is to use the intro screens if your a musical amateur. There are some problems with shockwave crashes, but overall this is a fun site that allows a new level of musical interaction with the web.

OVERALL PICK: Pandora still rules.

Rollingstone's Biggest Musical Disasters

2011-01-03T10:27:00.000-08:00

Really... we are still talking about Courtney Love being a disaster. I think she is enough disaster that she doesn't even count any more. But it is fascinating to know that not only did "Hole" tour but, also released and album.

Click here for the 10 other musical disasters of 2010.

RIP Grant McCune

2011-01-02T09:01:00.000-08:00

The world lost a great special effects artist this week with the passing of Grant McCune. Here are his top five contributions (in my mind). Add yours too!

5. Jaws (he is uncredited for it, but he made the first toothy terror)
4. Ghostbusters II
3. Spaceballs
2. Batman Forever
1. Star Wars Episode IV (If you like R2-D2...thank McCune)

Boy Wonder Wins Again

2010-12-25T09:01:00.000-08:00

Outlaws and Cowboys

2010-12-21T17:11:00.000-08:00

I am so jazzed about the remake of True Grit that I needed a top 10 Westerns list. Please take note... original True Grit is absent. I fully expect the Coen Brothers' remake to bump someone. Now that I think about it... there is a theme of avenge in my choices... but you decide. Post your choice by clicking the numbered blurb.

By Request, Best Holiday Films

2010-12-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

I had a special request to do a list of top holiday films. Now, there was not specification on which holiday, but since I am sitting next to my Festivus Pole, I am inspired by...wait, nothing in general. So the question is, what are your top holiday movies of all time?

Dear Goalies, You are Amazing. Socially maladjusted, but amazing.

2010-12-05T06:58:00.000-08:00

Today's list is inspired by this amazing save, courtesy of the Boston Bruin's Tim Thomas. I tried to play goalie once in a scrimmage in high school. It was hard, lonely, and frustrating. So here is to you goalies, even if you say annoying things like, "It's always the goalie's fault last."!

Tim Thomas:

Classic Patrick Roy and Chris Osgood

Martin Brodeur

Eddie Belfour

Tony Esposito

And of course, the greatest goalie of all time: Deni Lemieux

Things I Am Really Good At Without Really Trying

2010-12-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

What comes natureally to you... put your modesty aside.

Snow Scence

2010-12-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

I'm getting pretty homesick seeing all the snow that going around MT and NM, and since all we have here is RAIN, TORNADOS, AND FLOODS, this list hit me. The Telegraph recently released this list of the greatest snow scenes in movies. Check 'em out and leave your snowy-wintery movie favorites in the comments section.

Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)

When we see a snow-globe fall from Kane’s dying fingers to shatter on the stairs, it sets up cinema’s greatest metaphor for the life unlived. Childhood days of sledding are a dreamy, white-shrouded vision, but one sealed off behind glass, an idyll the tycoon can no longer access.

It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

The sheer quantity of snow in Capra’s holiday classic required a pioneering special effect. The traditional white-painted cornflakes made too much noise, so 6000 gallons of the fire-fighting chemical foamite, mixed with soap and pumped through a wind machine, were used instead.

The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)

They were warned, the Torrance family, that winters in the Overlook Hotel would be fierce: the snowdrift comes right up to second floor windows, enabling Danny to be pushed out and run into the maze to hide. It’s here that his dad gets lost for good, following tiny footsteps into a frozen void.

Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)

Lucky for Phil Connors that there’s always snow on Groundhog Day, or how else would he perfect the art of ice sculpture? Ramis’s immortal time-loop comedy is partly about being stuck in one climate and learning to make the most of it – constant slush is no one’s idea of fun.

White Christmas (Michael Curtiz, 1954)

“May all your Christmases be white” is a long-abandoned dream here – but less so in Vermont. Irving Berlin’s song has become more famous than the film it belongs in, though he came up with the melody on the set of Top Hat (1935), and used it first in the Crosby-Astaire vehicle Holiday Inn (1942).

The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)

From its famous opening, with a helicopter inexplicably chasing a dog across Antarctic wastes, John Carpenter’s shape-shifter shocker is the coldest, bleakest, least cuddly of monster movies. If you made a snowman out of this stuff, chances are it would mutate and try to eat your head.

Fargo (Joel Coen, 1996)

Anyone who’s never been to North Dakota, and knows it only from the Coen Brothers’ indelible fable of criminal bungling, would be led to expect an entire population saying “Yah, you betcha”, and a flat white horizon as far as the eye can see. Pack a parka: there’s no escape.

The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)

Not too hospitable, the planet of Hoth – when you’re not being gored by the Abominable Snowman-like Wampas or besieged by AT-AT walkers, you’re falling to your knees in an appalling blizzard, and being forced to spend the whole night curled inside the guts of a ripped-open tauntaun.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Peter Hunt, 1969)

James Bond does like a ski chase – there are more in The Spy Who Loved Me and The World is Not Enough, and that one on a cello in The Living Daylights – but all pale next to the scale and momentum of his escape from Blofeld’s Alpine hideout. Those Arctic shenanigans in Inception owe it a lot.

Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990)

John Hughes, who wrote this merrily slapsticky Yuletide home-invasion romp, has been called the Frank Capra of his age, and had a similar thing for the white stuff (see also: Planes, Trains and Automobiles). Here it lends blanket assurance that nothing too awful will befall Macaulay Culkin.

McCabe and Mrs Miller (Robert Altman, 1971)

You don’t get much more anti-heroic, not to mention slower, than the climactic gunfight in Altman’s downtrodden frontier western. It’s all furtive trudging, hiding behind rocks, and bullets in the back. The elements lent a hand: heavy snow fell for nine days while they shot it.

Touching the Void (Kevin MacDonald, 2003)

Ascending the near-vertical west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes wasn’t the problem for Joe Simpson and Simon Yates: it was coming back down. Crawling over a glacier with a shattered knee, Boney M playing in your head, and only melted snow keeping you alive, is the very definition of delirium.

Time Out (L’emploi du temps) (Laurent Cantet, 2001)

Laurent Cantet’s Golden Lion-winner, a searing study of mid-life crisis, swathes the screen in white, suggesting the blank page that downsized consultant Vincent (superb Aurélien Recoing) finds himself looking at, as he keeps pretending to occupy himself in the Franco-Swiss Alpine hinterland.

Meet Me in St Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

It’s not all trolley songs, jollity and tinsel. Minnelli’s evergreen musical plumbs the depths of despair when the distraught Tootie (Margaret O’Brien) savagely lops the heads off her snow people. “Nobody’s going to have them! I’d rather kill them if we can’t take them with us!”

The Sweet Hereafter (Atom Egoyan, 1997)

A school bus, a frozen lake, a slippery bend: snow-fond novelist Russell Banks (Affliction) wrote the source for Egoyan’s haunted drama about a terrible accident in British Columbia. Ian Holm’s hearse-chasing lawyer proposes a suit, but the town’s emotional deep-freeze takes some thawing.

Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)

Burton’s gentlest film — yes, the one where Johnny Depp has blades for fingers — reaches its peaks of pathos when toytown suburbia turns wintry, and Edward bends his talents to fashioning the exquisite sculpture of an angel from a block of ice, while his sweetheart Winona Ryder gawps on in astonishment.

Dr Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)

Has there even been a better excuse to put Julie Christie in sable hats? Costumier Phyllis Dalton inspired a fashion revolution here, but Lean and cinematographer Freddie Young don’t stint on the chill, doing for a trek through the glacial Urals what they did for the desert in Lawrence of Arabia.

Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner (Zacharias Kunuk, 2001)

It’s impossible to forget the scene in this one-of-a-kind Inuit epic where the hero runs for his life, completely naked and seemingly for days, across the frozen wastes of the Canadian Arctic. It also wins the prize for snowiest interiors, given that most of the dramatic intrigue centers in and around igloos.

The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin, 1925)

Chaplin’s Tramp turns Klondike prospector in this classic silent comedy, full of helter-skelter snow chases and marauding bears. Inside his shonky cabin, which ends up tipping off a cliff, he performs several of his most famous routines, including the dance of the dinner rolls and the serving of boots for supper.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Andrew Adamson, 2005)

It’s been winter for some hundred years in Narnia, thanks to the curse Tilda Swinton’s White Witch called upon the land. This does allow her to rock the glam-villain stylings of a frosty warrior-sorceress, and to have a chariot drawn by polar bears, so you can understand why she was tempted.

Got To Find My Way Onto This List By The Next Alumni Summit

2010-12-01T07:42:00.000-08:00

Teach for America’s Most Influential Alumni

BY: JENINNE LEE ST. JOHNNovember 29, 2010

Ahead of Teach for America's 20th-anniversary alumni summit in February, a look at the influentials who have emerged from the ranks of TFA vets.

By now, the story is familiar: Wendy Kopp dreamed up Teach for America for her Princeton senior thesis and then raised $2.5 million to launch the program in 1990. The first class of 500 rookies teaching in low income areas seeded an alumni network that's now more than 20,000 strong. While critics argue that two-year stints aren't long enough for idealistic young adults to have a real effect before heading off to, say, law school, nearly two-thirds of TFA alums remain in education, half of those as classroom teachers. In this, the 20th year of a program that has taught more than 3 million kids, we look at the careers of 19 Teach for America veterans. Some are now recognized education rock stars; others support the cause in more subtle ways.

Check out Fast Company's List to See Who's Who.

Things I Wish I Were This Radical At...

2010-11-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

So This kid is.... get it, 6. Watch and then remember what I just said... 6 years-old...For realz.

So what are the things you would love to be this good at 6 or 60, that just haven't happened yet? Click on the comment blurb to leave your list in the comments.

Great Characters From TV History

2010-11-08T09:08:00.000-08:00

I really thought my list here would end up with more childhood characters, but oddly, these are all fairly recent. So question: What are the five best TV characters of all time. While you are here, click on the blurb to leave your comment, and feel free to make a donation to Donor's Choose to help Alan out!

Gross (5)

2010-11-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

Public Toilets are fairly gross, but maybe not the worst. What grosses you out? Leave your five in the comments section.