Tag Archive for interesting

Chris Starr | February 20, 2012
Leave comment

5 National Fast Foods (That Aren’t McDonalds)

I watched Super Size Me a couple of weeks ago. Somehow, I’d missed it in the eight years since it’s been released. I acknowledged the terrible illness that a diet of McDonalds can inflict on a person, and I looked on in horror at the sheer amount of food Morgan Spurlock ate.

Then I went out and got a McDonalds.

It’s like crack. The McDonalds branding gets you so young that you can’t wean yourself off it, so even if the voiceover is saying “McDonalds could kill me if I continue this diet”, I’m still seeing the golden arches and associating that with happy memories.

But fast food doesn’t have to be all burgers and shakes laden with salt and sugar. There are some national fast food cuisines out there that ought to be tried and tasted.

Souvlaki

I’ve not met a single person that doesn’t like souvlaki. A lot of Greek food is pretty meh. They use filo pastry (the dullest pastry known to man) and their cheese can be hella rubbery. But souvlaki is good. You might know it as gyros. It’s just griddled meat (pork, chicken or lamb usually) served with a garlicky mayo. Yum.

Pizza

Italy gave us the pizza, and lo, it was good. You don’t get much better than a crisp, thin crust pizza from Naples. Forget your multitude of toppings, though. The real thing has two options: tomato and cheese (with basil to make a Margherita, named after a princess), or just tomato.

French fries

You Americans are wack. Not only do you rename French fries Freedom fries when France refuses to invade Iraq with you, but you also insult the Belgians, who are the ones who invented the food. It’s like foreigners calling you all Canadians. It’s not nice.

Continue reading “5 National Fast Foods (That Aren’t McDonalds)” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , , ,
Chris Starr | February 13, 2012
Leave comment

Unexpectedly Dirty Words

There are some words you just don’t use in polite everyday conversation. The N-word is one. Immediately, you’re branded a racist. You also generally don’t swear, because the strong consonsants and harsh sounds (as well as the sentiment behind them) are seen as rude.

But you’re committing much worse crimes in every day conversation, you know. Take these unexpectedly dirty words, for example.

Hysteria

The ultimate orgasm

Every time you accuse a woman of being hysterical, you’re saying that her baby place is making her insane. That’s right, people used to think that madness in women came from their womb. What’s worse, the treatment used to treat such hysteria was really dirty. A doctor would induce a hysterical paroxysm, which today we call an orgasm. I would’ve loved to be a doctor in those days.

Seminal moments

They all laughed at my boy Chris when he said the world was round

Figuring out that the world was round, and that it rotated around the sun and not vice versa was a pretty big moment. Some might call it seminal.

But they probably wouldn’t if they realised that seminal conjures up the image of a giant penis spunking its load all over society. It’s the birth of a new idea: the release of semen into the ovaries of thought.

Continue reading “Unexpectedly Dirty Words” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Chris Starr | February 12, 2012
Leave comment

History's Biggest Mysteries

I love rhyming. But sadly very little rhymes with rhyming so my attempt to write this post in verse has been scotched at its first hurdle. But that’s largely irrelevant because it’s just about the title: history has some mysteries, alright, and some of those are pretty big and scary.

We delve here into the big questions people have and answer very little – because they’re mysteries, duh.

WTF ATLANTIS?!

Everyone’s seen the Little Mermaid, and so everyone knows a little bit about Atlantis. Well, let me rephrase: people think they know about Atlantis – but the truth is that everything we think is simple supposition. It could all be wrong. No-one knows anything about it – including where the hell it is. Therefore, it’s one of history’s biggest mysteries.

WTF DEAD BODIES?!

Archaeology has a lot to answer for. It’s created a mummy’s curse which blights us even today, and has uncovered a whole cache of dead bodies in Germany, Ireland, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark. Literally thousands of bodies have been found in bogs, and no-one’s figured out why. People presume it might have been ritual sacrifices, but they don’t really know.

Continue reading “History's Biggest Mysteries” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Chris Starr | January 31, 2012
Leave comment

5 Monopoly Fun Facts

Is there anything more American than the shameless pursuit of money which is typified in Monopoly?

Maybe the KFC Double Down, but that’s a recent invention.

So I think we can safely say that until the advent of KFC’s chicken monstrosity, Monopoly was the shining beacon of America in all its glory.

But did you know that there are some strange things about this board game? Let’s take you for a whirl around the board (we won’t be passing ‘Go’, so don’t ask me for no stinkin’ money).

1. Classic Monopoly = Atlantic City

Bet you didn’t know that! All the properties on the standard old school Monopoly board are real life placed in Atlantic City, NJ. Except for Marvin Gardens. Kinda. It’s actually Marven Gardens in real life.

2. What’s the name of the dude?

Where all my hos at?!

The chubby guy! You know – that one with the top hat and the monocle and the moustache! Who is he?

Well, if you really want to know, he’s been called Mr. Monopoly, Rich Uncle Pennybags and Milburn Pennybags at different times in his life. He’s also meant to be based on real life tycoon JP Morgan.

3. You can eat it

Well, you could, if you went to Neimann Marcus when they had it on sale. Every last bit of it – money and all – was edible. Which means that it would not have lasted the entire game in my house.

Continue reading “5 Monopoly Fun Facts” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , ,
Chris Starr | January 30, 2012
Leave comment

The World's Coolest Urinals

Whizzing. That’s one thing that keeps us all the same. No matter how rich you are, no matter what you do for a job, you have to go number one every so often. Our toilet habits are the great leveller, keeping people’s feet on the ground (and hopefully away from any unsanitary puddles).

But there are some different, cool places that you can pee. I’m personally sick of the same style urinals around the world; I want something different. Which is why these things are cool to me.

The Felix Bar, Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong

Ok, so these look pretty cool. That can’t be denied. They’re black and sleek, and you can see all sorts out those windows.

But wait. Because they changed this urinal. And made it worse. Before, those black things? They weren’t there. You peed on the window. And it drained. That’s right. You got to pretend you were God, pissing on the people of Hong Kong.

Stockholm Airport

I don’t know about you, but I find pissing in nature liberating. There’s something about doing it in the open air which is good – but it can be cold. Which is why Stockholm Airport’s urinals are so brilliant. It looks like you’re peeing in a field full of flowers – but you’re not.

Middle Brighton Baths, Australia

I have dreamt of the day I could install a TV in my bathroom. Luckily, I’m still not rich/douchey enough (I dunno, it seems like the sort of thing you’d get just for Cribs) to do that. But I can go here, where there’s a TV right in the urinal.

Rothesay, United Kingdom

Public toilets in Britain are a bit of a gamble. You’ll invariably find a crack whore or gay couple going at it in there. But these ones in Rothesay are different. They’re beautiful.

Continue reading “The World's Coolest Urinals” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Chris Starr | January 28, 2012
Leave comment

Five Things You Won't Have Seen At Disneyland

Disneyland’s pretty cool, all told. There’s a bunch of cool rides, and you might get the chance to see Mickey fooling around with Minnie while Goofy looks on with disdain. But sometimes, things they present there don’t work that well.

They get scrapped, to be blunt.

It’s a shame, because it means that a bunch of perfectly sane middle aged adults are being treated as some weirdos all because they go up to strangers and say “hey, remember Captain EO, the Michael Jackson themed 3D movie in Epcot?” and get blank stares.

I’m here to tell you they’re not clinically insane. That shit happened, people.

Captain EO

“A 3D musical motion picture space adventure”? Back off on the adjectives, son. But that’s what Captain EO was. Michael Jackson stars as the captain of a spaceship with his trusty (elephant) sidekick, Hooter. It cost more than a million dollars per minute, and lasted ten years from the end of the 80s until people began realising Michael Jackson touched children. Allegedly.

Flying Saucers

Holy shit they had flying saucers. It was a cool bumper car which hovered that you’d use your weight to power into people and knock them around, and all told, it looks like the greatest thing ever.

Monsanto House of the Future

Like the Jetsons and every other piece of forward thinking from the 1950s, it’s a bit of a disappointment to live in this modern world without the jetpacks we were promised. Seemingly, the big innovation in this house (meant to show what life would be like in 1986) was microwaves.

Continue reading “Five Things You Won't Have Seen At Disneyland” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Chris Starr | January 26, 2012
Leave comment

Five Crazy Hoaxes

I really wanted to start this post with a video of The Osmonds’ ‘Crazy Horses’ (with the hope that you’d listen to it as ‘crazy hoaxes’) but felt that might’ve distracted you from the matter at hand…

HOAXES! The world is full of them, especially around April 1st. Humanity cannot live without pulling the wool over someone else’s eyes and managing to trick them into believing something which simply isn’t true. Take these five hoaxes as a good example:

Dutch TV show promotes cannibalism

I swear sometimes the Dutch are just permanently high. After all, it would explain the premise behind a show they aired in late 2011 where two hosts pretended to undergo surgery to remove a bit of muscle (including one from the ass), fry it with a chef and eat it. There’s been a massive to and fro as to whether it was a hoax or not, but for the sake of humanity I hope it was.

Life exists on the Moon (in 1835!)

You know how scientists still go back and forth today about whether finding a tiny molecule of frozen water means that something is living on Mars? Yeah, well people had that debate about the Moon in 1835. For a laugh, the New York Sun published a story that unicorns, beavers, humans with bat wings and goats all lived on the Moon. People believed it.

Semen travels by bullet, impregnates virgin

Maybe this is how Jesus came to be. In 1874 Dr. LeGrand Capers (that’s your first hint, right there) submitted a paper to a medical journal detailing how some sort of JFK-level trickshot with magic bullets got a girl up the duff.

Turns out that a bullet was fired into a guy’s balls in the middle of a battle. It passed through his testicle, supposedly picked up some semen on the way, then lodged in a woman’s womb. Both were treated for gunshot wounds, and the girl became preggo.

Continue reading “Five Crazy Hoaxes” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Chris Starr | January 21, 2012
Leave comment

What the Dickens? Five Strange Facts About Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was a boss.

He managed to write what seems like an endless stream of novels which totally still mean things today (even if he put stupid named people in them). His vivid imagination and speedy writing style means that the novels – originally presented in parts in literary magazines, just like a modern soap opera – still ring true today.

But like every genius, there are some flaws, and some strange facts to know about him.

Dude was epileptic

Put him in a disco and he would not be happy. That’s a crude joke, so I’ll counter it with something touching, informative and not insulting to those who suffer from this illness. Many of his characters in his novels were epileptics – most famously, Oliver Twist’s brother.

He was a bad parent

Well, he wasn’t a terrible parent, but he did have an unfortunate habit of giving his children funny nicknames. Like Plorn.

I don’t know.

Continue reading “What the Dickens? Five Strange Facts About Charles Dickens” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , ,
Chris Starr | January 20, 2012
Leave comment

Jesus killed the Olympics and other stories

As a Brit, I’m pretty psyched about the Olympic Games. After all, this is our year to host the international sports event, and it’s kind of a big deal. So what if no-one cares about the male volleyball or any kind of synchronised swimming, and that it will bankrupt our already poor country? It’s the Olympics, man!

But you might not know these interesting facts about the all important Games:

Jesus killed the Olympics

No word of a lie – this is totally and entirely true. When Greece was invaded by the Romans, they were then forced to conform to Christianity (which the Romans had been casually moved over to from their pagan religion). The Olympics was viewed as too unchristian, and so was scrapped in 393 AD.

Continue reading “Jesus killed the Olympics and other stories” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Chris Starr | January 14, 2012
Leave comment

The Weird Origins of 5 Everyday Words

I’m a bit of a budding amateur etymologist. That means, essentially, that I need a life. I like the history of words, and how humans came to use them.

Sometimes looking at the origins of some of our most commonly used words throws up a few surprises: like these five, for example.

5. Boobs means underage girls

For a worrying proportion of the online population, this will come as no news…(I just vomited in my mouth a little). However, it’s true: some etymologists believe that boob came from a Latin word – puppa – which meant little girl.

4. OMG isn’t a teenage (or modern) invention

In fact, it’s more than 100 years old (from 1907) and was invented by John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone,who was a British navy admiral. Weird enough for you? He – according to the master of these matters, the Oxford English Dictionary – used OMG first in his memoirs.

Weirdly, it was exactly like a teenage girl today would: reporting on the hot gossip, almost squealing with excitement. “I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapia — O.M.G (Oh! My God!) — Shower it on the Admiralty!”

Continue reading “The Weird Origins of 5 Everyday Words” »

Category: Joe Crazy | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Page 3 of 512345