Did you know that the Bridal Chorus (you know, the "Here Comes the Bride" music) is not usually played at Jewish weddings — because it was composed by Richard Wagner, a notorious anti-semite whose music and essays are believed to have inspired Hitler?

I didn't either; I just found it out while Googling for Jewish wedding music. So we've ditched the Bridal Chorus in favor of the popular Jewish substitute, Baruch Haba.

Sometimes once-popular names fall completely out of use because they've become too strongly linked with a particular person or character. There used to be lots of men named Kermit in the early 1900's, but the name declined in popularity over the decades, and the Muppets killed it off for good: No parents wanted to name their kid after a frog. For similar, if less amusing, reasons, you don't see many Adolphs walking around these days.

My question is this: What names still in common use today do you think are headed for retirement in the near future? My first guess is in the comments.

FOLLOW-UP:
By reader consensus, the name most likely to be retired is Britney.

The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, died yesterday at 73. Here's a video to remember him by, from way back before his music was used to sell everything from plastic bags to laxatives:


Also, consider: JB. GB. Given my prodigious endowment of pure funkitude, surely this cannot be chalked up to mere coincidence.

FOLLOW-UP:
This says it all:

About 12 years ago I played J.B.s "20 Greatest Hits" for my then teenage nephew. He was shocked to find that he recognized almost every tune- they had been "sampled", i.e. ripped off by numerous contemporary R&B and rap artists of the day. He had no idea of their origin until then.

Kind of like reading Hamlet for the first time and finally realizing where all those sayings come from.

Via kottke.org, Dark Roast lists the world's five most dangerous roads. My favorite? This little number in Bolivia:


It's called the North Yungas Road, but is more colorfully known as El Camino de la Muerte, the Way of Death. It twists through the mountainous Yungas region, connecting La Paz and Coroico. The BBC reports that in 1995, the Inter-American Development Bank named it the most dangerous road in the world. Every year, hundreds of people plummet off its steep shoulder to their deaths in the valley far below.

Yungas Road only has one lane, which handles traffic in both directions. So theoretically, you could lane-split between two trucks passing each other. But I wouldn't recommend it.

FOLLOW-UP:
Travel site EscapeArtist.com notes that this company offers mountain-biking tours along the road.

I proposed to my girlfriend tonight, and she said yes.

Resolved: The plane will NOT take off.

(See also here, here, here, and here.)

FOLLOW-UP:
More here, here and here.

ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
I'm still thinking about it, and now I can see the argument for it taking off, too. Arrgh.

YET ANOTHER FOLLOW-UP:
I think this is the best explanation I've seen so far. Here's the key bit:

While the conveyor does exert some modest backward force on the plane, that force is easily overcome by the thrust of the engines pulling the plane ahead. The plane moves forward at roughly its usual speed relative to the ground and air, generates lift, and takes off.

I'd say the engines are pushing, not pulling, but otherwise, I agree.

BoingBoing has a post on chocolate sushi. (That's chocolate and rice cookies shaped and colored to look like sushi — not chocolate wrapped up in raw fish and rice.) Here's the maker's home page. And here's another post on how to make some yourself.

FOLLOW-UP:
And don't forget your sushi pillows.

Via BoingBoing, these highly detailed sushi pillows look great. I would have expected the Japanese to have come up with something like this themselves, but the pillows are made by a pair of Americans. There's even an edamame body pillow.

A thought, while singing Billy Joel's "Tell Her About It" at karaoke. In emphasizing the need to tell your girlfriend you love her, so that she won't get all depressed and leave you, Joel's lyrics say:

Just a word or two that she gets from you
Could be the difference that it makes.

But this is clearly illogical. What Joel means is that the "word or two that she gets from you" could make the difference, not be the difference made by some unspecified "it".

Sure, "Just a word or two that she gets from you could make the difference" is off-meter and doesn't rhyme. But that's no excuse to foist nonsensical lyrics on your fans. Joel should have taken another shot at that line.

If you liked the drawings of cartoon character skeletons that I blogged about here, make sure to check out this page (via BoingBoing), which features some actual models of them made by Korean artists. For example, here's the Roadrunner:


Pretty neat.

If you're not all that excited about the ongoing soccer World Cup tournament with human players, bear in mind that there alternate match-ups afoot featuring elephants and robots. And a crow version may someday join the list.

This is neat: Wired has an article about the return of those old "Choose Your Own Adventure" books — and the article itself is written in CYOA format, with a choice of links at the end of each page.

The Peace Boat representative I blogged about here is dead. Kumar Lewis was killed in Nairobi, Kenya last month, in what a friend tells me was "the senseless result of a botched robbery attempt."

Yes, we had our differences when it came to politics, but Kumar was a good person who radiated optimism and cheer to all those around him — even Bush voters. His commitment to peace was deep and sincere, and makes the news of his death all the more appalling.

A memorial website for Kumar has been set up here.

The mad genius behind PimpMySnack is better-known for making giant versions of store-bought candy and junk food, but he recently tried his hand at making the world's biggest sushi roll:


Too much rice! But his heart's in the right place.

I blogged recently about how Chinese intersections can turn into hopelessly frozen traffic jams. In the comments on that post, I noted that James Surowiecki, in his book The Wisdom of Crowds, says that heavy traffic is one situation in which the collective, uncoordinated actions of large numbers of people may not yield a beneficial result.

But sometimes they do. BoingBoing links to a YouTube video of an extremely busy intersection in India where the motorists seem to be organizing themeselves themselves just fine, thank you very much.

Reuters reports:

One third of French people say they are racist, a French human rights watchdog said on Tuesday, after a survey that showed an increase from last year in the number of people who acknowledged being racist.

Some 33 percent of 1,011 people surveyed face-to-face by pollsters CSA said they were "somewhat" or "a little" racist, up 8 percentage points from last year, according to an annual report by the National Consultative Commission for Human Rights.

This must be that sophisticated, enlightened European mindset I've heard so much about.

If you're wondering what to do with all those Legos you've been buying to support Denmark against the ongoing Mohammed cartoon protests, why not use them to build a working pinball machine?

Via TechEBlog, Pinball News reports that Gerrit Bronsveld & Martijn Boogaarts from The Netherlands built this full-size, functional game with 13 separate Lego Mindstorms RCX computer units to control the circuitry and mechanics.

According to the creators, the machine is "99.99%" made of Legos — except for various sensors and motors, and, of course, the ball. It was playable by visitors to last October's LegoWorld exhibition in the Netherlands.

Majikthise says she's "trying to to quit eating octopus for ethical reasons." I'd advise her not to watch this video (via Pharyngula) of blogger Eddie Lin trying (and failing) to chow down on a plate of still-wriggling tentacles. Eddie writes:

You see, one doesn’t grab live tentacles. They grab you. And they grab the plate and the sauce dish and the slices of garlic. In fact, the suckers suction on to anything they contact. If you are able to dip the tentacle into any of the three escorting sauces (a chili paste with raw thinly sliced garlic and jalapeno peppers or the pink, sweet and spicy sauce or a salt and pepper vinegar), then, congratulations, you cleared the first hurdle. Now try getting the thing to come off your chopsticks and into your mouth. This is not a passive piece of toro sashimi we’re talking about. This is an entity that does not want to be eaten alive, dead or otherwise. This is, perhaps, even a thing that would happily take you down with it if it were big enough.

I actually tried this dish once in a Korean restaurant in Tokyo. As I wrote in the comments on Apostropher's blog here, it's truly disturbing to chew something that's furiously trying to grab hold of your tongue and teeth.

Back in New York, I stopped by the Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker Street. This is the place that was recently featured in "Lazy Sunday", the Saturday Night Live rap video spoof by Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg:


Sales at Magnolia are way up after "Lazy Sunday" became an Internet and MSM phenomenon, but none of that extra revenue flows through to the hourly-wage employees. And, judging by the guy behind the counter, they're sick and tired of fielding questions about the video; he told me that about 5 or 6 people come in and ask him about it every hour.

The cupcakes, by the way, are pretty good.

Seen in a Washington, D.C. souvenir and toy shop:


Heh. Why settle for a mere Power Ranger when you can have a Higher Power ranger? The Jesus in question appears to be this one, made by Accoutrements, which says:

Everyone has a different take on Jesus. Muslims saw him as a prophet. Buddhists say he was enlightened. Hindus consider him an avatar (the incarnation of a deity in human form), while Christians hail him as the Son of God. But, wherever your theological compass points, you will agree that this is the coolest action figure ever made. Each hard vinyl Jesus Action Figure stands 5" (12.7 cm) tall with posable arms to reach toward the heavens and wheels in his base for smooth gliding action!

Accoutrements also offers a large selection of other unusual action figures, including Moses, Beethoven, Einstein, Freud, and Cleopatra. Collect them all!