Holy tats



Chinese characters aren't the only images people are inking themselves with these days. Some apparently feel that tattoos are best reserved for Christian themes. If you're thinking of doing the same, be sure to check out the great ideas at ReligiousTattoos.net - a proud member of the Christian Tattoo Association.

Link via Unique Daily.

In the traditional hillbilly style

Before tapping the eXtreme market, Mountain Dew bottlers tried to corner another niche.

For instance:



And:



Some, however, are uncomfortable with the recent emphasis on sports and youth, and are making an effort to raise public awareness of the beverage's true roots:

"MyDeathSpace.com memorializes deceased MySpace users and picks up where a regular obituary leaves off."

Email of the day:



Left-wing anarchists plan to protest Monday against TimeWarner, DC Comics, and a movie theatre on 42nd Street for their complicity in releasing the movie _V for Vendetta_, which the left-anarchists feel misrepresented anarchy (if they were smart anarchists, or had jobs, I think they'd spend that evil day protesting the IRS, not DC Comics, but that's a side issue).

I, by contrast, will lead a counter-protest of anarcho-capitalists and well-wishers, sticking up for comics, free markets, "movie magic," and the sanctity of contracts (even when they are signed by a disgruntled, left-anarchist, snake-deity-worshipping comic book writer like Alan Moore).

To show your (very broadly defined) support, or to heckle, please stand beside me on the sidewalk (and wear black -- or for bonus points, also wear a large red "D" for Diplomacy, as I will to clearly show that I'm the rational one) outside DC Comics headquarters at Broadway and 53rd just before 1:45pm Monday (4/17), which is when the left-anarchists say they'll arrive (having earlier protested at the TimeWarner building) and when I'll be on my lunch hour, as alluded to in the final paragraph of Lloyd Grove's gossip column in the _Daily News_.

More on Gatorade



Via Cruel: Coca-Sek may be better than Gatorade, but Gatorade still has the market cornered on suggestive bottle shape.

Update: DEA gun safety guy suing government



From The Smoking Gun: "A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who stars in a popular online video that shows him shooting himself in the foot during a weapons demonstration for Florida children is suing over the tape's release, claiming that his career has been crippled and he's become a laughingstock due to the embarrassing clip's distribution."

Update: VIDEO LINK

More Flair Wear fun

If you haven't been to the Pieces of Flair Wear store recently, here are a couple of recent additions:

Send someone special a love letter straight from your heart with the "Hell isn't other people, it's you" teddy bear:



Or, share the message of how limited expectations can lead to greater happiness with the "Life sucks - that's why I'm having so much fun" pillow:

Be careful what you etch into your skin



Hanzi Smatter - a website "dedicated to the misuse of chinese characters in western culture."

Calvinism and the porn industry



Spring is in the air, and apparently that leads to a lot of discussion about TULIP. What's TULIP? Why it's a handy acronym to help remember the five points of Calvinism:

Total depravity
Unconditional election
Limited atonement
Irresistible grace
Perseverance of the saints

In other words, a whole bunch of fun. Now, lots of people can ramble on about the meaning of TULIP, but only in the movie Hardcore can you see George C. Scott explain the concept to a prostitute who's helping him find his porn star daughter.

So meta I can hardly stand it: the Platonic form of a blog post.

I'll eat anything that moves!



"WeirdMeat.com documents experiences eating strange food, as I travel around the world. In the end, what is weird to one, is normal to another. I want to find out why."

The March 31st entry, for instance, covers BBQ Mudskipper, Goat Testicle and Baby Pigeon.

Cadbury Egg Cake

Experiment: Replace ordinary eggs in cake recipe with Cadbury Creme Eggs and observe results.

Hypothesis: THIS IS GOING TO BE SO AWESOME

Better than Gatorade



"Since January, the Nasa indigenous community has been offering the soft drink locally and in neighboring Popayan, where it is bottled. By the end of the year, the Nasa hope to sell Coca-Sek nationwide, targeting the same consumers who drink Gatorade or Red Bull, both highly popular with Colombians.

"Advertising posters here describe the carbonated, citrus-flavored Coca-Sek as 'more than an energizer' — a buzz that just might be provided by a key ingredient, a syrup produced by boiling coca leaves.

"For six years, the Nasa have been quietly selling coca-flavored cookies, aromatic teas, wines and ointments at informal sidewalk stalls and in health food stores.

"The Nasa's coca cookies and teas attracted little attention, but the launch of Coca-Sek has ignited controversy in a country where Washington has spent $4 billion since 1999 combating the drug trade and terrorism.

"Chewing coca leaves, which depresses the central nervous system, has enabled Indians to soften the effects of hunger, hard work and high altitude for centuries. Franky Rios, the engineer at Popayan's La Reina bottling plant who oversees the production of the beverage, said Coca-Sek delivers the various vitamins and minerals, including calcium, potassium and magnesium, found in the coca leaf.

"'It's better than Gatorade,' he said."

Start collecting



"The Antique Barbed Wire Society is committed to collecting, preserving, exhibiting, and interpreting the historical heritage of barb wire and barbed wire related items, and enlisting interest and support for an on-going organization. The Antique Barbed Wire Society headquarters is located in La Crosse Kansas, the 'Barbed Wire Capitol of the World.'"

Ego & Hubris: the Michael Malice Story hits stores today. For those of you who haven't been following the adventures of Malice, Reason's Hit and Run has a nice summary.

Update: More Reviews

Cleveland's Plain Dealer
Metro News
Gothamist

Outsourcing at the drive-thru



"While the call-center idea has received some attention since a scattered sampling of McDonald's franchises began testing it 18 months ago, most customers are still in the dark. For Meredith Mejia, a regular at a McDonald's in Pleasant Hill, Calif., near San Francisco, it meant that her lunch came with a small helping of the surreal. When told that she had just ordered her double cheeseburger and small fries from a call center 250 miles away, she said the concept was 'bizarre.'

"McDonald's is joined by the owner of Hardee's and Carl's Jr., CKE Restaurants, which plans to deploy a similar system later this year in restaurants in California.

"Not everyone is sold on the idea. Denny Lynch, a spokesman for Wendy's Restaurants, said that the approach had not yet proved itself to be cost-effective. 'Speed is incredibly important,' he said, but 'we haven't given this solution any serious thought.'"

Soup Nazi goes national



"Al Yeganeh appreciates rules. You may be familiar with some of them. Move to the left. Have your money ready. No chitchat. Don't want to follow Yeganeh's rules? Then good luck getting his soup, as the world discovered when Seinfeld immortalized Yeganeh as the Soup Nazi in a 1995 episode.

"But for all his rules for running the soup counter, it is mostly by ignoring the rules of business that Yeganeh built a small New York City storefront into a multimillion-dollar company. Customer service, obviously, was never a priority. Free publicity he could do without. Yeganeh despises the Soup Nazi nickname and has complained that the hordes of Seinfeld fans lining up in front of his shop have ruined his life.

"Despite those obstacles and a decade after his initial fame (so much for speed to market), Yeganeh is taking his soup store national. He and a group of partners are expanding the Fifth Avenue tourist magnet (a few blocks from the modest original location) into a 1,000-store franchise called the Original SoupMan. Seventeen are open, with plans for 23 more this year in the U.S. and Canada. Yeganeh has also begun selling packaged soup in grocery stores in 14 states."

Toastacular

There you are just slopping some margarine on your toast when you could be making some contribution to the world's artistic treasury:



"The Toaster, which was made for Galeria Milano, is another work where bread is used and its symbolism is questioned."



"The Mona Lisa on Toast by Tadhiko Okawa recreated Da Vinci's Mona Lisa ... from pieces of burnt toast."



Maurice "The Toastman" Bennett created this "likeness" of Dean Cain for the "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" tv show.

Finally, visit Dr. Toast's site to learn about things like what all can be pushed through toast:

Steve auctions satanic lemon



"My friend, Dan, has a lemon tree. This tree has produced a few odd lemons in its time, but we are now convinced it was probably planted over a portal to Hell.

"The other day Dan walked outside to find this satanic yellow beast hanging from the tree, plotting its world-wide reign of citrus terror.

"This is no tiny lemon. It is approximately 5" long, has a 14" circumference and weighs just over 1 pound!! It's a lemon to be reckoned with.

"It almost appears as if a normal lemon is in the grips of a monstrous taloned fist. Or that it's trying to give us the finger. We were going to cut it open but were afraid blood might come out. So, now it's on eBay.

"To see more pix check out the auction right here."

More rap fun




BoingBoing highlights an interesting musical development - foot fetish rap:

"Snip from 'Toe Lover Poem Two,' a track from Angel Boi's self-released CD 'Toe Lover.'

'Never dripping wet or sweaty, always soft and smell sweet like berries.
'So pretty, sometimes you want to suck them yourself.
'Open toe, candy-painted, showing off whenever you are in public care.
'Dangling your feet in and out of your pretty shoes.
'Hoping someone with a foot fetish will finally notice you.'

Listen to 'Toe Lover' (M3U link) and -- wait for it! -- 'Toe Lover' en Español (M3U Link)."

This is making me wish someone would submit a foot fetish rap robot song.