Month: April 2017

Where there are discounted cars to be sold, there are usually wacky, waving, inflatable, arm-flailing tube men getting potential customers pumped up about used car financing. Once known as Airdancers, these inflatable characters are beloved for their smiling mugs and great dance moves. Now you can bring that pure excitement to your pool with these incredible, much-needed floats.

Standing at over 6 feet tall, this red float is the perfect thing to get people to come to your pool. Costing only a fraction of what a real tube man might set you back, it’s the perfect budget purchase of the summer. Al Harrington of Al Harrington’s Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men Emporium and Warehouse would be so proud!

Get your own tube man on Amazon.

The Real Zorro? How tales of the bandit Joaquin Murrieta put on a mask and became a pop culture staple.
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Tips are taxable, but gifts aren’t (up to a point). So what if we gave waitresses gifts instead of tips?
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Edward Gory was a masterful storyteller and artist, and he was also a collector. Not of anything in particular that he could become an expert on, but everything.
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Rethinking Critical Thinking With the Help of Carl Sagan. One place to start would be Sagan’s “baloney detection kit.”
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Although Less Deadly Than Crinolines, Bustles Were Still a Pain in the Behind. Get a look at both and be thankful you live in the 21st century.
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A father turned two Cozy Coupes into Mad Max: Fury Road vehicles for his children. They are now the coolest toddlers in Glendale.
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Aristocrats of the 18th century were always on the lookout for something new and impressive to spend money on. For some, that meant hiring their own hermit, to entertain guests and to, let’s say, outsource their interest in philosophy.
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A Rainbow of Butterflies. They come in more colors than flowers do.

Give your flowers a little drink of bleach. They’ll thank you, we promise.

Maps are history lessons in disguise: Long ago, the New World’s states and regions received their present-day monikers from European explorers, who liked to name new lands after faraway kings, and indigenous tribes, who drew inspiration from geography, myths, or the people who occupied the area. In the maps below—created by Expedia, and spotted by Lonely Planet—you can learn the original meanings behind the names of all the U.S. states and Canadian provinces and territories. (Click for a close-up view.)

[h/t Lonely Planet]

Why settle for potato salad and sandwiches at your next picnic when you can up the ante with elaborate entrees like pistachio meringues and prawn cakes? In A Moveable Feast, food stylist Katy Holder cooks up unconventional dishes that will make it to your picnic site in one piece and that are perfect for outside feasts.

You can get the whole book of recipes on Amazon now, and check out a few of Holder’s creations with her descriptions below.

CHICKEN AND PORK PICNIC PIE

“This is a rich savory pie, the kind we used to take on picnics in England. It’s made up of layers of poached chicken, sausage meat and a bacon-and-sweet-corn stuffing, all encased in a delicious shortcrust pastry. For added flavor, I use sausage meat from sausages, rather than plain sausage meat.”

ITALIAN DELI-STUFFED LOAF

“Instead of making six separate sandwiches, make one large filled loaf and then slice it to serve — every slice is packed full of flavorsome ingredients. To save time you could buy the chargrilled vegetables from a deli or supermarket, although I usually prefer to make my own. You could also use an oblong loaf if you can’t find a round one.”

PISTACHIO MERINGUES WITH CARAMEL FILLING

“I love meringues; they’re a favorite from Sunday afternoon tea when I was a child. Instead of the traditional cream filling, I’ve filled these ones with caramel. Look for caramel in a tin in the baking section of supermarkets, or you can easily make your own caramel using condensed milk.”

PRAWN CAKES WITH CUCUMBER DIPPING SAUCE

“These prawn cakes are delicious eaten hot or cold. If going on a picnic, chill them before leaving and keep them chilled until it’s time to eat. For a barbecue, take them raw and cook them on-site, serving them hot. You could also try wrapping them in lettuce leaves to serve.”

SMOKY CORN AND AVOCADO MEXICAN BITES

“Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. This one came to me when I had to quickly pull something together for a group of friends who came round at late notice. Round tortilla chips make a better platform for the topping, but this recipe will work with triangular ones as well, although you’d probably use less filling on each.”

Excerpted with permission from A Moveable Feast by Katy Holder, published by Hardie Grant Books April 2017, RRP $24.99 hardcover.

Starbucks’ limited-edition Unicorn Frappuccino wasn’t magical for everyone: As Reuters reports, the pink-and-blue drink elicited social media gripes from sticky—and exhausted—baristas around the country, following five days of overwhelming customer demand.

The on-trend Frappuccino was offered at participating stores from Wednesday, April 19 through Sunday, April 23, while supplies lasted. The crème-based drink’s main ingredient appeared to be food coloring: In addition to mango syrup, it contained a hearty dusting of pink powder and a sour blue drizzle, and was garnished with whipped cream and blue-and-pink powder topping. At first glance, the sweet treat looked purple, with blue swirls—but when the drink was stirred, it turned pink, and the flavor turned tart.

The drink’s taste reportedly wasn’t anything to write home about. But thanks in part to its Instagrammable appearance, the Unicorn Frappuccino proceeded to sell out at multiple stores. The ensuing chaos prompted baristas to take to the internet to vent their frustrations: “Please don’t get it!” a Colorado-based barista named Braden Burson complained in a since-deleted Twitter video. “I have unicorn crap all in my hair and on my nose. I have never been so stressed out in my entire life.”

“It’s a great drink,” Burson later added in a Facebook message, quoted by the AP. “But it is difficult to make when there are like 20 fraps all at once both front and drive thru.” (Starbucks promised to reach out to their disgruntled hire and “talk about his experience and how to make it better.”)

Meanwhile, Reddit was clogged with complaints from stressed food service workers (including one who was forced to whip up 56 Unicorn Frappuccinos for a single order), along with exultation from workers whose customers opted for simpler orders, or whose workplaces had run out of drink ingredients. One user even christened the infamous treat the “Frap from hell.”

To the relief of many baristas, Starbuck’s Unicorn Frappuccino promotion is over. That said, they are likely the only company employees clamoring for the mythical beverage to go extinct: Starbucks received “tremendous positive feedback” for the drink, according to a spokesperson, and company shares closed up 0.9 percent at $60.61 on Friday.

[h/t Reuters]

Need a reason to get up from your desk? Scientists say each step we take sends a boost of blood to our brains, making us feel sharper and better overall. The research will be presented today at the Experimental Biology 2017 meeting in Chicago.

It’s no secret that exercise makes us happy. It raises our heart rates and floods our bodies with feel-good hormones. But until quite recently, scientists had not considered its effect on the flow of blood to the brain, or how that flow might affect our state of mind.

Researchers at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) began by studying the hemodynamic (blood-moving) effects of pedaling a bike, then looked at running. They found that both activities increased cerebral blood flow, as the impact of each footstep on the ground or pedals squeezed athletes’ arteries, sending a pulse of blood to the brain. The effect was especially pronounced in runners, whose feet hit the ground hard.

The scientists wondered if the same might be true of walking, with its relatively gentle footfalls. They hooked 12 healthy young volunteers up to heart monitors and ultrasound machines, then set them walking on a treadmill.

Sure enough, even a casual stroll boosted blood flow to the volunteers’ brains. The effect was significant, somewhere between the low-impact ride of cycling and running’s hard steps.

“What is surprising is that it took so long for us to finally measure these obvious hydraulic effects on cerebral blood flow,” first author Ernest Greene said in a statement. “There is an optimizing rhythm between brain blood flow and ambulating. Stride rates and their foot impacts are within the range of our normal heart rates (about 120/minute) when we are briskly moving along.”

The authors believe these boosts of blood—and therefore oxygen—to the brain may help clear our heads and lead to an “overall sense of wellbeing during exercise.”

Rejoice! After a bleak and drippy winter, the good feelings and mouthwatering aromas of grilling season are nearly upon us, which means that now is the time to perfect your recipes and technique. We recommend you start by bettering your burgers with one very strange addition: ice cubes.

Master Chef judge Graham Elliot knows a thing or two about grilling. He says the best burgers are simple, juicy, and flavorful, making the meat the star of the show. And while it may sound extreme, he suggests eschewing seasoning altogether.

“People always end up doing the same mixture for a burger as they do with meatloaf or a meatball, they put all the pepper and onion in it,” he told Fox News. “You don’t want to do that. You want it to be just straight meat.”

Straight meat on the rocks, that is: Elliot’s secret to keeping burgers juicy is to fold an ice cube right into the center of each one. “Make your patties, then put your little ice cube in there and then when you grill it, it keeps it moist and keeps it from getting dried out.”

You can get Elliot’s own burger recipe here.

Don’t feel like cooking? Check out our list of the best burgers in all 50 states.

[h/t Delish]