Friday, December 7, 2012

Best of the Week #85


Thoughts/ramblings/fun things that happened this week:
  • Have you been to The Pug this December? It looks like tacky Christmas threw up on the inside and I love it. (Example to your right.)
  • Toki Underground is still delicious. I went with the Kimchi Ramen this time. I do not regret it.
  • The Human Rights First Summit (at the Newseum), featured John McCain and Samantha Power as keynote speakers. 
    • John McCain: “Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest,” and then goes on to fault both the White House and Republicans for failing to lead on human rights, and criticize Senate Republicans for voting down the Disability Treaty. Also: “there is not just a longing for human rights but a longing for American leadership on behalf of them.”
    • Samantha Power: “We would be better off trying to fix [the UN human rights] council from the inside rather than lobbing criticisms from without.”
  • SpeedyKate and I hosted a viewing of Muppet Christmas Carol. I have had this song stuck in my head ever since. 
  • The annual CAR (Capital Area Runners) holiday party was quite the runner soiree, per usual. “Huh...I’ve only ever seen you in spandex,” was said to me by multiple people. 
  • Oh and work took a turn for the crazytown, but we released this report quoting George Clooney (no, I do not get to meet him.): "Razing a village is a war crime, and the torching of now at least 26 Nuban villages, plus the systematic destruction of crops and grasslands for cattle, is a crime against humanity. What we’re seeing here is a widespread campaign of village and crop burning.”
Enough of that silliness. And on to more silliness. Here’s your Best of the Week! It’s a bit video/music-heavy this week…so get excited!

Mariah  Carey, Jimmy Fallon, and The Roots made my Wednesday with this video.


Mustache implants. SERIOUSLY?!?
  • Turkish plastic surgeon Selahattin Tulunay says the number of mustache implants he performs has boomed in the last few years. He now performs 50-60 of the procedures a month, on patients who hail mostly from the Middle East and travel to Turkey as medical tourists.
"Pelicans Are Awesome: A Defense Of The NBA’s Best New Team Name"


  • The Pelicans are here to assure you that your mascot can have a killer instinct and local significance without appealing to a fourth-grader's sensibilities.
  • Here's a montage of pelican attacks. God, they're badass.
  • They're so noble, they're pretty much deities. During times of famine, it was said, the mother pelican would draw her own blood to feed her young, and the early church quickly adopted the pelican as a symbol for the Christ. Do you see anyone worshipping a seahawk? You do not.
I find this too funny:


Stacey Cook gets 2nd in Lake Louise Downhill World Cup. Two days in a row! (Day 1 and Day 2.) AWESOME. Who wants to go skiing???


‘Tis the season for gingerbread houses. This guy’s are awesome.


  • Will Cotton may be most famous for art-directing Katy Perry's "California Gurls" video, but to me, he'll always be first and foremost the creator of some of the most charming gingerbread houses — and chalets and cottages — the world has ever seen. Did you know he actually builds the gingerbread houses and their alpine settings and then does his paintings of them? My kind of guy.
Cutestpaw: like Pinterest but only for adorable animals. No words, only emotions.


Wise words: “A 2-Step Plan for Getting What You Want.”
  • I figured out what I wanted.
  • Then I stopped doing things that didn't get me closer to that goal.
Could there possibly be anything more addicting than this (Biscoff Cinnamon Muddy Buddies)? Maybe no…


Very stereotypical…but also accurate and therefore funny: “What If Men and Women Switched Roles at the Gym? [Video].”

A deep and important piece from The New Yorker: “A Chunky History of Peanut butter.”
  • Peanut butter, the everyman staple, which contains neither butter nor nuts (peanuts are legumes), originated as a health food of the upper classes.
  • Canadians eat it for breakfast; Haitians call it mamba and buy it, freshly pulverized, from street vendors; it is popular in the Netherlands, where it is known as pindakaas, or peanut cheese. Peanut butter is also increasingly found in the Saudi Arabian diet, thanks, in part, to expatriate oil workers. Nevertheless, it remains, in Krampner’s phrase, an “all-American food.”
And finally, this is so catchy. I challenge you to listen and not want to dance. “Every Pop Song You Could Ever Want, In One Video.”


Hope you survive your Friday and have a great weekend!