Overnight Open Thread - Holiday Weekend Edition

Welcome to virtual Saturday. And don't forget that tomorrow is the official Infamous Memorial Day ONT memorial. Which I will no doubt regret having.

The Agony of Defeat

Morons of a certain age will well remember the Agony of Defeat guy during ABC's Wide World of Sports intro. Well here Lileks reminisces and does a little research: It turns out his name is Vinko Bogataj and his crash was from a 1970 skiing competition in West Germany.

Midway down the ramp for that jump, Bogataj realized that the conditions had made the ramp too fast. He attempted to lower his center of gravity and stop his jump, but instead lost his balance completely and rocketed out of control off the end of the ramp, tumbling and flipping wildly, and crashing through a light retaining fence near a crowd of stunned spectators before coming to a halt.

Meanwhile, having retired to his quiet, private life in Slovenia, Vinko Bogataj was unaware of his celebrity, and so was quite confused to be asked to attend the 20th anniversary celebration for Wide World of Sports in 1981. He was stunned when other, more famous athletes present, such as Muhammad Ali, asked him for his autograph

Weiner-gate Update: Not Just A Boobie Man
So it turns out that Rep Weiner (D-Cockpic) was also DMing a high school girl and this porn star. So at least we know that he's not a boob size-ist.

"Women Don't Lie"
Well of course they do:

I am now appalled to think that I was one of these women who thought that women don’t lie…and where there smoke there’s always a fire. Despite having raised a beautiful son, I was a sexist. Then I started doing research. There have been studies done since the 80s citing the percentage of rape allegations that are false. Some studies say as high as 60%. People who have been dealing with this for years have tried to tell us that women do lie. But we haven’t wanted to hear.

5 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Poor
And being broke is different from being poor. As my grandmother used to say - there's no shame in being poor, but there is in staying poor.

Monsterpiece Theater Presents "Twin Beaks"
Sesame Street's Alastair Cookie presents this awesome parody of the cult TV show, "Twin Peaks". I haven't seen an episode in like 15 years but I still get the references.

PR Guru: Arnold Schwarzenegger ‘Will Not Be Back’

“America right now is a very cynical place and for good reason,” Levine told me. “Arnold Schwarzenegger has gifted America with another reason to be cynical. By the way, societies that are profoundly cynical are not healthy societies.”

“Before the scandal, his political career was over (since he did such a poor job as Governor). Now, since the scandal, any kind of fantasy he may have had with a future in politics — appointed or otherwise — is non-existent. He is politically radioactive,” Levine added.

New Elevators Sort Users by Rank
In future elevators take you:

The elevators at the 13-story Curtis Center in downtown Philadelphia, are built so the most senior executives can punch into the computer that they would like to see certain employees upon arrival. When employees swipe their ID cards to call the elevator in the lobby, they can be rerouted to the boss’s floor.

Japan Perfects the Canned Beer?
With the "Beer Hour" attachment gizmo. Clearly we must close the head gap.

7 Rules To Avoid Getting Bed Bugs When You Travel

Luckily, after doing lots of research on how to proceed, I didn’t—wonderful, since the average person spends $4,000 treating their home for bed bugs. But in talking to others, I’ve found many who were not as lucky. This whole experience has made me a much more cautious traveler, and so I wanted to pass on all my learnings to you.

Women Really Do Love the Silent, Brooding Type
Which is why Adam Carolla always advises during an early date suddenly cursing and turning off the car radio during a random song. And of course absolutely refuse to talk about it. Apparently chicks dig that.

Weekly AoSHQ Commenter Standings
Top 20 commenters:
1 [698 comments] 'ace' [97.98 posts/day]
2 [607 comments] 'buzzion'
3 [413 comments] 'Vic'
4 [393 comments] 'Kratos (Ghost of Sparta)'
5 [375 comments] 'Oldcat'
6 [371 comments] 'curious'
7 [341 comments] 'Ben'
8 [310 comments] 'sifty'
9 [301 comments] 'kbdabear'
10 [290 comments] 'chemjeff'

Top 10 sockpuppeteers:
1 [104 names] 'kbdabear' [14.60 unique names/day]
2 [82 names] 'The War Between the Undead States'
3 [66 names] '18-1'
4 [58 names] 'Fa Cube Itches'
5 [50 names] 'Fish the Impaler'
6 [49 names] 'Wyatt Earp'
7 [46 names] 'FUBAR'
8 [46 names] 'logprof'
9 [42 names] 'toby928▒'
10 [40 names] 'George Orwell'

The group. Yeah.

Tonight's post brought to you by American soldiers:

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to maetenloch at gmail. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

posted by Maetenloch at 09:26 PM

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