Uncle Scoopy's world-weary musings about naked celebrities, sports, humor and other important, manly things.
Hey, the name of the site is Other Crap, isn’t it? We have all the latest scoop on poop. It’s the New York Post of shit. Oh, wait. Now that I think about it, the New York Post is the New York Post of shit. Well, we’re up there somewhere in the leading purveyors of shit.
They found that the participants performed significantly better on the test after pooping, and even better when they took magnesium oxide, a laxative.
He was in the center of two of the greatest sporting events of the 20th century.
Against all odds, Foreman returned to boxing after a ten-year retirement and won the heavyweight championship at age 45. It rivaled such events as the Miracle on Ice as the least likely sports achievement of the century.
21 years earlier, he had won the heavyweight belt for the first time by defeating Joe Frazier. He then lost that belt to Muhammad Ali in the famous “Rumble in the Jungle,” perhaps the most famous fight in history, and considered by many to be the greatest sporting event of the 20th century. Neither man had ever been knocked out. Foreman had never lost at all, having entered that fight with a 40-0 record. Ali came in 43-2, having lost once to Frazier and once to Ken Norton, both on decisions.
(Ali won the Rumble on a KO in the 8th to hand Foreman his first loss, and thus regain the heavyweight belt.)
Or as the kids say today, “No shit, Armlock.”
Young people are struggling with reduced attention spans and weakening critical thinking skills. Though there has been a demonstrably steep decline in cognitive skills since the COVID-19 pandemic due to the educational disruption it presented, these trends have been in evidence since at least the mid-2010s, suggesting that whatever is going on runs much deeper and has lasted far longer than the pandemic.
As usual, I have a small quibble with this list. Pyramiden is not a city, and is neither completely abandoned nor creepy. It is an interesting place that you can visit, if you are inclined to wander near the North Pole.
Pyramiden, Norway was once considered kinda-sorta part of the Soviet Union. Although technically on Norwegian soil (well, OK, Norwegian permafrost would be more like it), the Treaty of Svalbard allowed The Soviet Union to run it without supervision. Although it was not really a city, it had 1,000 inhabitants and included a library, a movie theater, a sports complex, a 24-hour store, and many other urban-style amenities. Pyramiden was one of three USSR-owned settlements on Spitsbergen that were administered according to Soviet societal norms. Because the mining operation was abandoned when the USSR was still intact, the site remains frozen in time as a model of the Glorious Workers’ Republic.
Given the site’s propinquity to the North Pole, the climate makes this a rare case where the phrase “frozen in time” is almost a literal expression.
They cleaned up the hotel and theater to hold a nostalgic Soviet Film Festival there in August of 2019, although it wasn’t exactly ready to rival Cannes, since only two dozen adventurous souls attended. The point is that it’s not at all fair to include Pyramiden on this list, because events take place there, and it is not creepy at all. Many facilities are no longer used, but it has a working electrical grid, a hotel and restaurant that have been refurbished, and tourism for hiking, snowmobiling, and tours of the complex.
I read somewhere that the complex is maintained by a caretaker staff in the winter, during which there is no daylight. What a job that must be! Can anyone say, “Here’s Johnny”?
First they came for our Venezuelan gang members, and I said nothing because I was not a Venezuelan gang member. Then they came for our naked Canadian actresses, and I said nothing because I was not a naked Canadian actress. But then they came for our naked Swedish lesbians …
I have to admit that I don’t care about the poor, the tired, or the huddled masses, but for any society to remain strong, it must retain a healthy reserve of naked Canadian actresses and Swedish lesbians.
Well, unless they are poor, tired or huddled, especially tired. If they’re so fuckin’ tired let them take a nap before they apply for a visa, instead of overburdening our limited napping facilities and taking cots from Americans.
Entrepreneur and actor Jasmine Mooney, who had a role in an American Pie sequel, says she was arrested at southern border and held in detention over an incomplete work visa
Actually, she hasn’t worked in a film in years, per IMDb, and I think she probably should be called a “former actress.” The Guardian’s article describes her as an entrepreneur in the hospitality industry. I’m not sure what that means, but that’s precisely how I would describe a hooker if I represented one in court.
Her nude career:
2009 – The Book of Love (American Pie presents)
2012 – The Movie Out Here
2014 – Kid Cannabis
2015 – Badge of Honor
As opposed to vacation spots off Earth?
This list is totally obvious, basically just click-bait. I suppose that everyone knows that there is plenty to do in Rome, Paris, New York and London. They are right that Barcelona is quite an underrated treasure. I was a little surprised that Hawaii didn’t make the list.
Anyway …
What got my attention was the inclusion of Dubai. Have any of you been there? I’m not a nightlife guy, I don’t gamble, I can find beaches anywhere, and I don’t care about the world’s largest shopping mall, so why else would I go there? Is there any reason besides golf?
I was impressed by this claim (assuming it is accurate): “It’s estimated that a quarter of the world’s construction cranes can be found in Dubai.” That’s some serious growth!
Netflix series from Italy.
While Sicily is struggling in the turmoil of the Risorgimento in 1860, the Prince of Salina reigns over his family and his possessions, convinced that even these disorders are destined to pass. He hasn’t come to terms with the idealism of young people like his nephew Tancredi, who joins the rebels risking his own life, or the ambitions of men like Sedara, a vulgar man who rides change by pandering to the nascent power of mafia criminal organizations and intends to use his beautiful daughter Angelica to get what he wants. At Don Fabrizio’s side remains Concetta, his favourite daughter, who shares his intelligence and foresight. Her happiness will eventually be sacrificed in an attempt to ensure the survival of the power and of the name of the lineage.
The source:
Il Gattopardo is a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. It was published posthumously by a small, relatively new publisher called Feltrinelli in 1958, after having being rejected by the biggest Italian publishers during Lampedusa’s lifetime. Feltrinelli made an extraordinarily prescient business decision. Il Gattopardo became the top-selling novel in Italian history and is now considered one of the most important books in modern Italian literature.
The same story was made into a 1963 film by the esteemed director Luchino Visconti. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannnes. Oddly enough, it starred that famed Italian, Burt Lancaster!
Italian films in that era were shot without sound, with all dialogue added in post. The Italians wisely realized that they could reach a far larger market by employing stars from France, England and the States, and distributing their films in multiple languages, especially French and English. Actors who worked on Italian sets in those days tell hilarious stories of how they would be filming an intimate love scene while sweaty workmen, scant feet away, hammered away noisily on the next set.
In this case, for example, Lancaster would speak his lines in English while filming, then dub in his own dialogue in English for that release, while others would dub his roles in other languages. The Italians were pretty good at matching the lips with similar phrases from language to language, but they did not try to match the voices, so you might see Wally Cox speaking Italian with a voice like James Earl Jones.
The Germans had a different approach to dubbing. When I lived and worked in the German-speaking countries, I was always impressed with how brilliantly they dubbed the English-speaking actors, impersonating their voices and intonations almost perfectly.
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Roberta Procida showed off one massive breast in episode 2
There is an oh-so-brief look at the bottom half of Deva Cassel’s breast in episode 4
Trivia from Wikipedia:
Despite being universally known and published in English as The Leopard, the original Italian title for the novel is Il Gattopardo, meaning “The Serval,” which refers to a much smaller species of wild cat found in sub-Saharan Africa. The symbol on the Tomasi di Lampedusa coat of arms is a serval.
There were a few on this list that I wasn’t aware of, and I had completely forgotten about Hunter Thompson’s crazy buddy, Dr. Gonzo, aka The Brown Buffalo, nee Oscar Zeta Acosta.
I don’t really trust the info in lists like this, but I hope some of these are true, like:
On average 2500 left-handed people die each year from using products designed for right-handed people.
That number sounds like bullshit, but this would make for a great murder mystery. Villain schemes to kill our left-handed hero by lending him tools. That’s why there has never been a left-handed James Bond. “Thank you for letting me use your golden chainsaw, Goldfinger. I really want to finish this DIY project before the snow comes.” Perfect crime! There’s no law against lending a neighbor your tools.
This next one might be true, but I have not researched it:
World War One officially ended on October 3 2010. That was the day that Germany paid its final reparations under the Treaty of Versailles.
Forget all that meaningful geopolitical stuff. I’m especially rooting for this one:
Goldfish bowls are a bad place to keep goldfish
I’ll add one of my own:
Jackie Robinson was not the first black player in 20th century major league baseball, and therefore did not break the modern “color” barrier.
Robinson’s specific achievement was that he was the first African-American man to play in the 20th century. Some African-Caribbean players preceded him in the 20th century, and there were even some African-Americans in the 19th.
In 1944, three years before Robinson’s debut, an African-Cuban man named Tomas de la Cruz slipped under the radar as a regular starting pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. (De la Cruz’s achievement is doubly impressive, because he wasn’t even playing in a friendly home town. Cincinnati is just about a southern city, with suburbs in Kentucky! One must wince to think of the problems he must have endured.) With WW2 raging, the majors were so desperate for players in 1944 that “Tommy” was barely noticed. Although he pitched respectably (9-9, 3.25 ERA), he was no longer on the roster once the first white guys started drifting back from the war. Coincidentally, de la Cruz also wore #42, the number Robinson would make famous.
De la Cruz was obviously a black guy, but even before him came at least three Latin-American players of mixed descent (some African included) who slipped under the racial radar: Roberto Estalella, Alex Carrasquel, and Hiram Bithorn. The ploy of having dark-skinned Latinos being passed off as foreigners and therefore not “true blacks” (i.e., those of the African-American variety) has contributed not only to the history of the sport, but to its folklore as well. You may remember the Richard Pryor character hoping to make the majors by posing as a Latino in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings.
Hiram Bithorn also owns a claim to another bit of historical importance. He was the first Puerto Rican to play in MLB, and should also be called the first Puerto Rican star, easily preceding Vic Power and Roberto Clemente, because in 1943 he won 18 games for the Cubs and led the National League in shutouts. (Clemente was 9 years old at the time.)
Fleetwood Walker was a black man who played in MLB in the 19th century. He was the first regular African-American player, as far as we know. He was the starting catcher for the long-forgotten Toledo Blue Stockings. His brother, Welday Walker, also made a few appearances for that team (18 at bats in five games as an outfielder).
The first black man to play for an MLB team for any duration (as far as is currently known) was a star Brown University player named William Edward White, who played only one game on June 21, 1879. He was called into emergency service by an injury affecting the crosstown National League team, the Providence Grays. He had a single in four at-bats, two stolen bases, scored a run, and played errorless ball at first base, recording 12 putouts.