Oh, the (Plush) Ursinity

My esteemed colleague JWT reported earlier on the unfortunately adult behavior of Russian youth hockey players. Via Deadspin comes a heartening tale of a great holiday tradition in which adults behave like children. Behold:



I have to say I experienced a moment of tension as the woman holding a small child in one arm flung a similarly-sized object rinkward with the other.

As God is my witness, I thought teddy bears could fly.

Suicide was Painless, until the Fox Showed Up

JWT tipped me off to this piece about an unconscious Scotsman being nibbled by a fox in a cemetery. No, this isn't the setup for an elaborate kilt-related joke.

Loyal reader Nick observes:

Being nibbled by a fox at the end of a night out partying used to strike me as a successful evening. After reading that story, not so much.

The comments are worth a look as well and feature the delightfully evocative word "toffs."

Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Inside, Cowering in Fear

My mother grew up in Kansas and she would occasionally mention seeing baseball-sized hail during really strong thunderstorms. Personal experience has demonstrated that even raisin-sized hail is pretty painful, and that grape-sized hail striking the outside of an office building can render phone conversations inaudible inside.

Consider, then, the effects of baseball-size hail on an outdoor swimming pool:



OK, the commentary is a bit repetitive - apparently this year's Duuuude Convention was in Oklahoma City - but it is sincere.

I imagine this must have been what Long Island Sound looked like that time the Germans invaded...

Best Evidence Yet of the Decline of the Washington Post

The Washington Post has been going through a rough patch lately, what with the relatively inexplicable firing of Dan Froomkin (especially compared with the astronomically more inexplicable retention of Charles Krauthammer) followed up by last week's revelation that the paper was going to charge for "salons" consisting of off-the-record confabs among power brokers and including members of the paper's news staff.

And now this.

The Post's Pet Tricks Video Contest has bounced Matilda, an impossibly cute eight-week-old Corgi preying on an unsuspecting ice cube, from the competition with a highly suspicious Honorable Mention. You tell me, after sitting through some ad or other, that this isn't Grand Prize material:


The others, all admittedly cute but really not as cute as Matilda, may be found here (may have to sign in, watch ads, attend salon).

Send in the Clowns, but with a Better Driver Next Time

Those of us who have complained about crowded car rides with friends have lost the moral high ground:



However, I applaud their work ethic in sprinting onward to the big top after the accident.

In Russia, Cloud Seeds You!

The Soviet/Russian air force had/has a longstanding practice of seeding clouds in the Moscow region in advance of major holidays, on the theory that a three-day bender in the sun is preferable to one in the rain. I was unaware that dry cement was used, but I imagine that it would be effective. Provided, of course, that you took it out of the bag first.

Being of a certain age, I was of course immediately reminded of this:



Here is a very informative Wikipedia entry which, while probably accurate, is ipso facto shrill and left-leaning. Must Kurt Vonnegut be mentioned in everything?! (Welcome Instapundit readers!) It makes perfect sense for the original experiments to take place in upstate New York, where conditions for this kind of thing are almost always ideal. However, I would not necessarily rush to take credit for making it snow in the Berkshires in November.