"More than 317,000 people from 41 countries took part in the world’s largest ever survey on sexual attitudes and behaviour. The research confirmed that Greece is officially the sexiest country with the Greeks having sex 138 times a year - well above the global average of 103. Croatia (134) and Serbia and Montenegro (128) come a close second and third."

How reliable are surveys about sex anyway?

The top three countries are countries where perceived masculinity and virility are ridiculously over valued.

(NSFW) It's only a matter of time...

Lilly McElroy throws herself at men...






Photographer Lilly McElroy takes the saying literally in one series of her photos.

(Found at A CUP OF JO)

Unfortunate License Plates

This morning along the Gardiner Expressway, I passed a very expensive vehicle with an overpriced looking blonde driving it.

The plate said: Picka.
(In Serbian it's pronounced "Peech-ka")

P.S.: Make your own stupid license plate (here).

First there was:

ZeFrank's White Guy's Advanced Dancing Seminar....

Now,

The 10 Greatest Moments In White Guy Dancing History

and then there's Jack E. Brown:

The other day, I was talking to a West Indian friend of mine, and we were joking around about quirks in language that different cultures have.

The way I joke around about the way my mother says, "Tanks Got!!", or my mother in law calls Fabreeze; "Dabreeze".

He shared this with me:

"The other day I called that number (blank-blank-blank-FILM) to find out when a movie was playing. A woman answered the phone and I apologized for dialing the wrong number, and hung up and dialed again.
The same woman answered, and I apologized again.

Then she asked, "Are you from the islands?"
I was a little taken aback.
I mean, I don't have an accent or anything..."Yeah, why?" I asked.

Because you dialed blank-blank-blank-FLIM."

I fell out.

Eddie Izzard talks history...



I love how he mentions the 26 million Russians dead during the second world war...an ignored fact.

The Art of Chocolate & Candy

Repeat after me: "I am free"



(via Bock's Car)

Reality Bites



I really enjoyed looking at Dale Yudelman's quirky, worked photos.

Stealing the Bride

Stealing the bride is now kind of a traditional game at some Serbian weddings.
No one does that caveman shit anymore, right?

Wrong!

Apparently, Chechnyans (for the globally ignorant, that's not Serbia) aren't letting go of it that quickly.


"GROZNY, Chechnya — Amina Edieva's abductor stalked her like a seasoned predator. He approached the slender, raven-haired 18-year-old student on a Grozny side street, hoisted her off the ground in a tight bear hug and dragged her into a waiting car.

She screamed, kicked and scratched at the man, but he brought three male friends, a driver and two backup abductors to ensure she couldn't escape. More young men in a second vehicle trailed, on the lookout for witnesses who might try to halt the brazen afternoon capture.

But Ms. Edieva knew that no Chechen would rescue her that September day nearly three years ago. Well versed in Chechnya's bride-abducting traditions, she understood she was caught up in a centuries-old ritual in which her captor, a suitor she had frequently rebuffed, was going to force her to marry him.

"I told him I hated him," she said, but he smiled."

I guess that's one way to keep girls at home....that's scarier than the Boogyman and Baba Roga combined.

21 Memorably Inked Characters

(I'm out for the weekend)

Movable Feast Carries a Pollution Price:

"Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya."

I blame The Food Network...and Oprah. (it's a joke, don't throw down your remote)

That first line is ridiculous.
No one in Norway knows how to filet a cod?

Seriously.
If you do nothing else to contribute to saving the environment....Try to buy local for the fruits and vegetables that grow here.
I'm not always successful, but at least I try.

(Thanks for the link Diana)

Six-Words Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak

The pursuit of youth isn't always pretty



Click on picture to view an article and slide show on what some celebs may or may not have had done.

Crank That Kosha Boy



(Thanks Piika)

10 Works of Art to Make When You're Bored.

Yikes!

No.
Really.

On having a "black" name:

"My blog name is my grandmother's name, Daisy. My real name is one that would identify me very easily, so I don't use it. But I recently realized that something is missing in my online identity. While reading about The Carnival of Allies (proposed by The Angry Black Woman), I noted that I have never had to pointedly present myself as an ally to black people (not every minority; I specifically refer to black people) because they have usually assumed that I am.

They assume so, I figure, because I have a black name."

It's a really interesting blog post, with some very good examples of incidents of a racist nature that she's had to deal with.

...and then MetaFilter picked it up...and I have to say that some of the comments made me laugh.
What kills me is that some white people still seem shocked that others have reacted in racist ways. I dunno...it's almost as though they're denying that this sort of "in your face" racism still exists.

I find that sad, and peculiar at the same time.

Opportunist, or facetiously bitter?

Boinkology asks:
"What makes a girl a slut?"

"Is it a matter of total fucks over a lifetime, or should a woman’s age be factored in? For example: if you’ve banged thirty bros (or girls), are you automatically a ho for life? Or is thirty at thirty a different story than thirty at eighteen? Where does oral sex factor in?

We tend to subscribe to the theory that a slut is someone who’s having more sex than you are (thanks, Kinsey!) — but that definition kinda makes it hard for someone to be a self-defined slut."

...and then they link to an article about Kerry Cohen, the author of two autobiographical books, Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity and Easy.


The comments are priceless!

My personal favourite being:

Nadarine who says:
"forty-something guys in nearly 20 years? Oh, you WHORE, you. How dare you sleep with two or three guys per year? I don't know how she fit time in to write a book between all that wanton fucking."

Kerry must be over 35, and old fashioned... because from what I'm hearing and observing from younger women, an average of 2 guys a year is nothing.

If Ms. Cohen is going to be the yardstick (so to speak)... apparently, we're cultivating Super Sluts.

Over The Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole



I've always loved this version of the song...so sweet and innocent sounding.

(Thanks Cynical-C)

Sergei Kryzhanovski makes wood Carvings using the natural grain of the wood to inspire.



(From Dark Roasted Blend)

(Click on photo to see the Trailer for the film Harsh Beauty)

"The Hijdas are born with an eternal pain , fighting the origin of the flame of their flickering life.
They are kidnapped human souls imprisoned in a bottle that breaks easily.

They are biological male but with marked mannerisms of women."

"Hijdas have suitors dying to hold them in their arms, and the hijdas are adept in the art of lovemaking, its a biblical fact that comes with the territory.

Just a single touch of a Hijda is enough to set your entire erogenous zone on fire, all this told to me by a young toy boy, at Haji Malang.

But there is a flip side too , the Hijda does not relenquish his love easily..and not even androgynous God can save you from a Hijda spurned."

Senseless signage.

"Nicholas White was a thirty-four-year-old production manager at Business Week. He was working late on a special assignment and wanted a cigarette. He told a colleague that he’d be right back and, leaving his jacket behind, headed downstairs. Thus commenced the longest smoke break of Nicholas White’s life, a harrowing experience that began at around eleven o’clock on a Friday night in October, 1999.

The Business Week offices were located on the forty-third floor of the McGraw-Hill Building in mid-town Manhattan. When White finished his cigarette, he returned to the lobby, got into Car No. 30 and pressed the button marked 43. The car accelerated. It was an express elevator, with no stops below the thirty-ninth floor, and the building was deserted. But after a moment, White felt a jolt. The lights went out, immediately flashed on again and then the elevator stopped."

40 hours in an elevator...I can't even imagine.

“People tend to think that they are blogging for a small group of friends or that they are anonymous,” she said. But that is not really the case, she said, because “all it takes is one friend posting a link to your blog to out you.”

I love reading intensely personal blogs.
I really do...and I often wonder if they pay for their indiscretions if they're found out.

I know through personal experience that there are less than 6 degrees of separation.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a cute little entry about a conversation I had.
About a year ago, a family member contacted me to ask me what the hell I wrote about to piss a girl I've never even met off.
I didn't use names...but, she recognized her family in the entry and tore a strip off my family member.
It was then, for the first time that I really penetrated how far reaching my blog was.
I took the post down (even though I didn't feel that it was a terrible depiction, or even made the people in it identifiable)...however, I was concerned about how it would impact the members of my family, and their relationship with the family of this upset girl.
If it weren't for them, I would have told the girl to piss off.

Instead, I offered to speak to her, and apologize.

The stupidity of someone being angry with anyone other than me about it seemed colossal, but telling this girl I've never met would probably have only made her more angry.

I was certainly more candid in my entries years ago...and even now, I cringe when I see that someone has spent hours going through my archives...more so when they're from the Toronto area.

Certainly having a blog is a bigger responsibility than most of us care to really think about.

(Watch me get another angry forwarded e-mail)

TTC Avoids a Strike.


Smart move...the public is dead sick of the shenanigans of the TTC Union and I believe that they're about two strikes away from the public demanding that the TTC be deemed an essential service.

I've noticed that since that wildcat strike that really pissed even the most reasonable Torontonian off and made people unsympathetic to the TTC Union, they've managed to avoid going on strike.

Well done.

Keep pushing the riding public over a barrel and eventually find yourself with job cuts while those who can afford it drive to work, or unable to strike because you're an essential service.

Frankly, I'd like to see the TTC eaten up by surrounding transit systems in order to make some sort of amalgamated system that actually serves the GTA.
For all the yak about the environment, there is still no move to make the GTA transit systems financially viable for commuters. One days travel in and out of this city shouldn't cost a quarter tank of gas.

Oh, if we weren't so provincial in our thinking....what things we could achieve.

Richard Cheese - I Like Big Butts



(Thanks Chris)

Miss Maisy - A Guyanese Joke

Zeichen Press has some really cool cards.

The one pictured was my favourite.

(Found at Swiss Miss)

McCall's July 1948

"This factory-built house, which can be erected in three days, was engineered by automobile technicians and will have nation-wide distribution"

'Emily Post said "All the new things in my book "'The Personality of a House' are here. The central heat control panel fascinates me"'


"Mme. Novotna, who made her American movie debut in "The Search," approved of a radio-television-record player in this modern house"

Nostalgia like this makes me marvel at how far we've come in such a short time.

How to Talk to Black People

"The U.S. Olympic Track & Field trials are being held in Eugene, Oregon, this summer. To prepare, some people there ACTUALLY started a committee to teach the city how to talk to black people."


How to Talk to Black People - Watch more free videos

Where's the Party at?



I suppose when you're a soldier in the Middle East, you've got to find your own fun.

"Older women despise it. When I say older, I mean past the age of, say, 25-ish. Unless of course they're over 25 and look younger – and for the purpose of these paragraphs, a lot younger. The younger the better. That's right, we're talking about playing in the sandbox with the Barely Legals."

Let's face it...it has more to do with being able to pull a fast one on them, than this guy wants to admit.

Older women (25-ish...LOL) don't buy that easily.
Hope he's got a lot of cash to keep his game going, because older men need it to keep the barely legals fresh.

Ink That Stinks

How drunk do you need to be to do this sort of thing to yourself?

(Link)

Why I Quit Police Work



Honestly, If I didn't know for certain that people can be this stupid, I'd think this was fake.

Don't Fuck with Love

When someone says to you:

"My son and his family are so poor...they have 4 kids, and both he and his wife are going for their MBA's...we subsidize their mortgage and my husband and I send them money every month to help them get by..."

What's the first thing that comes to your mind?

Pretty American women can't make coffee unless they're helped by matronly European women.

(Thanks Chris)

one of my favourite videos....and then there's:



I totally dressed like that...back in the day.
I remember being in Buffalo (for a New Edition concert) on Halloween and someone complimented me on my Robert Palmer costume...yeah, I wasn't dressed up for Halloween...LOL

Racism wasn't the only issue the old cartoons had...
(watch until the last parting shot at women)



...but, I still love them....

Oscar the Bald Bird

Golddiggers Unite!

This woman is why old rich guys need to make sure their golddiggers understand the "arrangement" before they marry their trophy wives.



(via Cynical-C)

Haiti meets Serbia



(Thanks Chris)

Driving in Ocho Rios....with a surprise at the end

Today's Quote:

"You just have to live and laugh—joy looks great on everybody."

-Angela Bassett-

40 Year Old Virgin - Outtakes

This would be me, if I were a TV Broadcaster...

Many Rivers to Cross - Annie Lennox on Idol



...and the song....

If R&B Songs Were Real



(Totally grabbed from Bock's Car)

You know what's confusing to me?

This morning, the 401 in Mississauga had another incident with an overturned livestock truck, and this time it's pigs wandering the suburbs instead of cows...(if Torontonians remember the cattle roundup in Mississauga last month or the month before during rush hour)

Here is what is confusing to me:
There is all this obsessing about the safety of the animals.

Weren't they headed to slaughter?

I guess the concern is there until out of the camera shot.
Who wants those PETA nuts picketing your office.

The Perils of Live Broadcasting



No.
Really.

We're Back!



...and what a great time it was!

Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Bahamas...and back to Ft. Lauderdale..with an overnight in Sarasota.

The Mister did a fantastic job in planning the trip and we didn't have so much as a hiccup in connecting our travelling plans...well, except when he left his super expensive camera in the back seat of the car rental in Ft. Lauderdale...but, after a healthy panic, and 30 bucks in cab fare...he got it back, just before we boarded the ship.

I'll post some video as soon as I get my bearings...

Thanks to Chris from Cynical-C for taking care of the blog...and to Tat and Jaybee for keeping the comments up and giving him love.

Pearls Before Breakfast


From the Washington Post:

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with those indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, budget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant.

Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he's really bad? What if he's really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn't you? What's the moral mathematics of the moment?

On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities -- as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?

The Contrabass Saxophone

Mischa Maisky - Bach Cello Suite No.1 i-Prelude

Play Pumps



Combining water pumps with playground toys to provide fresh drinking water to sub-Saharan Africa.

Top 10 Banned Films of the 20th Century



From AlternativeReel.com

It's Friday and I Feel Like This Kitten

Food of the Day - Sannak ji



From Wikipedia:

Sannakji or sannakji hoe is a variety of hoe in Korean cuisine. It consists of live nakji (hangul: 낙지, a small octopus) that has been cut into small pieces and served immediately, usually lightly seasoned with sesame and sesame oil. The nakji pieces are usually still squirming on the plate. It can also be served whole.

Because the suction cups on the arm pieces are still active when the dish is served, special care ought to be taken when eating sannakji. The active suction cups can cause swallowed pieces of arm to stick to the mouth or throat. This can present a choking hazard for some people, particularly if they are intoxicated. One must thoroughly chew so that no piece is big enough to stick to one's throat. Some people like the feel of the pieces wriggling as swallowed, and so will not completely chew up the particles. If you are new to eating sannakji, you should completely chew it up into tiny particles before swallowing.

Old Photos From Japan



Old Photos of Japan:

Shows photos of Japan between the 1860s and 1930s. In 1854, Japan opened its doors to the outside world for the first time in more than 200 years. It set in motion a truly astounding transformation. As fate would have it, photography had just been invented. As the old country vanished and a new one was born, daring photographers took photos. Discover what life was like with their rare and precious photographs of old Japan.

Recipe of the Day - Squirrel Melts

8 Million Hits



What's the point of guest hosting if you can't pimp your own blog?

A milestone of some sort… Thanks everyone.

And for those who are wondering who the 8 millionth visiter was, according to sitemeter they were from Kirklees in the UK. They came in to Cyn-C from google on a search for “lego famous pics recreated”. They stayed for 8 seconds before clicking on this link. Their operating system was WinXP and the browser they used was IE 6.0. Their favorite color was navy blue and they enjoy horseback riding, cricket and long walks on the beach. Their blood type is O positive. His first name is Gavin and his last name starts with the letter P and ends with the letter H. He’s had 3 sexual partners but during stories that number is inflated to 12. His father died when he was 8 by having a heart attack while trying to undo a pesky knot in his shoes which is why Gavin only wears loafers.

The Critic asks “So what does the 8 millionth visitor receive?”

Well there won’t be any money but when Gavin dies, on his deathbed, he will receive total consciousness. So, he has that going for him. Which is nice.

Gizmo the Boxing Cat

Orson Welles Drunk Outtakes

Teens Film Themselves Beating 16 Year Old Girl


From TheLedger.com:

A battered and bruised Victoria Lindsay will not be returning to public school following an incident in which six other girls have been accused of videotaping a beating of the 16-year-old Mulberry High cheerleader.

While a week has passed since the pummeling, Lindsay is still recovering from a concussion and has not fully regained her hearing and vision on her left side.

But as swelling subsides, doctors hope those will return, her parents said Monday.

“When I saw my daughter in the emergency room, I didn’t recognize my own daughter,” said Patrick Lindsay, Victoria’s father.

Almost immediately, he handed her a pen and paper to write down the names of who was responsible and how it all happened to give to police.

“She was in fear for her life,” he said. “She thought she was going to die.”

Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said Monday the argument between the teens erupted from “trash talking” on MySpace and through text messaging.

The Sheriff’s Office declined to elaborate on what specifically was said, citing its ongoing investigation.

Blogging Joël Robuchon in Vegas



Kevin and a few friends visit Joël Robuchon in the MGM Grand in Vegas and blogs about every item in the 13-course set menu. Here’s the end result:



And that was before the tip....

Pequeña Amy Winehouse

Runway Accident

The Exciting Game of Career Girls



A board game from 1966:

It's called "What Shall I Be?", and I imagine that when the Bay Shore, NY-based Selchow & Righter Company sent it to toy store shelves in 1966 that they saw it as a progressive step. "Let's get our little American girls ready for the wide-open working world!".

Deutschland, 1929



A huge and stunning gallery of Germany circa 1929.

Photos of the Construction of the Empire State Building, 1930-1931




Wonderful pictures. Just don't look down.

Question of the Day

What does Marsellus Wallace look like?

(I refuse to post anymore links until I get some answers)

Radmila's Vacation Videos

Radmila just sent me a link to her YouTube page where she is putting up videos of her and The Mister enjoying their vacation. Enjoy.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Speech at the Atheist Alliance Convention



Part 2 is here.

The Jesus

How to Make a Rose from Maple Leaves



Very cool.

Disney Propaganda: Out of the Frying Pan into the Firing Line

Dusty Windshield Art



From here.

Bob Dylan - Like A Rolling Stone 1966





There's a slight possibility that he is under the influence of an illegal substance during this performance.

Sculptures Made From Steel Drums



From The Haitian Spirit.

50 Most Beautiful Subway Stations in the World



See below which subway systems double as the world's longest art galleries or in which systems you can find stunning underground palaces, museums, aquariums, comical statues, computer-generated evolutionary architecture ... or just passenger-friendly and beautiful underground stations.

Kidney Stone Photographs




A gallery of kidney stone photos.

Richard Pryor: Gun Shop

The Richard Pryor Show - Gun Shop Sketch, 1977. Featuring voice overs by Tim Reid & Robin Williams.

Taking a Subway Ride in Tokyo

I have nothing but the highest respect and admiration for the Tokyo train system - but even this fine system running like clockwork has its ... all » limits. This video was taken in 1991 and things have improved somewhat due to increased trains and (more importantly) flex-time being allowed at many companies, but even now, when something throws the trains a little off scedule (someone taking the express checkout from life by jumping in front of a train, etc.), then things can be as shown in the video. 30,000,000 is a lot of work to move about!

Glenn Gould plays Bach

Copacabana Scopitone



(via PCL Linkdump)

Louis CK learns about the Catholic Church

Students Make a Case for Carrying Guns to School

Trying to make colleges into the Wild West:

After deadly shootings at schools in Illinois and Virginia, 12 states are considering legislation to allow guns on college campuses. Stephen Feltoon, a director for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC), is part of a movement that says college students should have the same gun ownership rights as others.

Feltoon says he purchased his first gun for recreation. "Now I own it for defense," he says. "I can take a firearm anywhere that's not a college campus, a liquor establishment, or any business that posts a 'no gun' sign. When am I carrying it? That's the beauty of conceal and carry. You'll never know until I need it."

The Quantum Sleeper



Nothing could make me feel safer than sleeping in an oversized coffin:

The Quantum Sleeper Unit is a high-level security system designed for maximum protection in various hostile environments

Quantum Sleepers can also be fitted to provide protection from destructive forces of nature such as tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes and floods.

The Quantum Sleeper is the ultimate in protection, entertainment and communications, “ ALL ROLLED UP IN ONE”.

A 911 Call About Race in America

Time Tales



Found photos from pre 1930's to now.

(Link)

Itzhak Perlman - Schindler's List

The Mister and me will be travelling over the next week or so.
By Friday, we'll be in a warm place.

I might post a couple entries before we leave...I might not.

In the meantime, Chris from Cynical-C will be guest blogging for me....Thanks again Chris!

Truth vs Relationships

"That’s the ENTIRE key to getting a guy to tell the truth. It has to be a part of his character from the get. If you create an alliance with someone, you have to start with the proper foundation, or you’re building your house on sand… if not QUICKSAND.

Women have lots of completely wrong beliefs about relationships that make them susceptible to the simplest deception."

The Maury Povich
Home Paternity Test



ouch.

(from Boinkology)

StoryCorps

A site with sound bites of everyday people telling stories about their lives. I listened to quite a few stories and I found them interesting. Some people are too impatient for this sort of thing, but I find the small stories of people worth reading. It's why I'm addicted to blogs. Maybe you'll find them interesting too.

The featured story today is Julio Diaz the guy who was robbed on a subway platform in the Bronx and treated his mugger to lunch.

(Link)