Freaky, Geeky Tattoos

My college buddy (and now Wired.com photo editor) Jim Merithew went to Comic-Con International earlier this year. At the show, we were able to finish a little assignment we'd been kicking around for months: a photo gallery of comics-related tattoos.

See for yourself in our gallery: Geek Ink: Comics Fans Show Off Tattoos.

No accordions, but still pretty wild, IMHO.

Everything's Deep Fried In Texas

The State Fair of Texas (Sept 26-Oct 19) announced this year's deep fried delicacies. The oddball treats have gained popularity in recent years, most notably in 2006 with the invention of Deep Fried Coke (pictured).

The high calorie treats are all entries in the fair's Big Tex Choice Awards. Last year's competition winner was Deep Fried Cookie Dough. In the running for this year's award are Jelly Belly Beans battered and fried in Funnel Cake, Chicken Fried Bacon, and Deep Fried S'mores. Check out the full menu here.

Photo: Stephen Witherden/Flickr

Accordionize Your Home - Part II

Are you still looking for more ways to make your dwelling reflect your admiration for the mighty accordion?

Upscale toddler boutique PoshTots offers an Accordion Desk in their store. The maple wood and veneer desk is a hefty piece of furniture and a hefty piece of change, ringing up at $5,600.

Also available, is the Brian Dresser. The 5-drawer vertical piece stands just over 3 feet tall and may make a great addition to your home office, as you accordionize your home.

The new 3G iPhone is very Boom!

The internet movers-n-shakers have started a new meme, the Supercut. Edits of video or audio down to the smallest instance of a word or phrase. The video above calls to attention how often Mac CEO Steve Jobs expresses Apple's speed with one select word, "Boom!"

Other Supercut superhits are Mr. Job's old buddy Bill Gates' use of "Uh…" in one interview, Chicago artist Chuck Jones' edit of NPR's "All Things Considered" down to only breathing (mp3 link), and for the more calloused ears, NWA's Straight Outta Compton album cut down to only the explicit content. Surprisingly catchy.

Accordionize Your Home

Is your home lacking an air of appreciation for the accordion? The first step may be to purchase this cardboard couch from Molo Design Studio. Squeezing to seat one, bellowing out to accommodate your entire family; we await somebody to mod it into a musical instrument.

Life For Sale

Another kooky eBay auction ended today - Australian Ian Usher auctioned off his life in Perth. For $399,300 AUD (~$326,135 USD) the winning bidder is receiving a house, a boat, a jet ski, motorbike, and a job as a rug store assistant. The seller is offering up his friends' friendship as well to help show the winner around as he situates himself in his new life.

ALife4Sale.com offers up in great detail everything that was on the auction block and answers frequently asked questions, including whether or not the ex-wife is part of the deal. How much is your life worth?

Garfield - Remixed

Jim Davis' cat Garfield has seen a bit of a banal existence since his creation in 1978, but recently started picking up a unique following on the internet. Instead of reposting the strips as-is, people have started giving them a surreal spin. Production house Fatal Farms re-enacts select strips in homemade costumes at LasagnaCat.com.

Garfield Minus Garfield is an incredibly dedicated site that even Jim Davis admits to enjoying. Each day Garfield is removed from the daily strip and posted at GarfieldMinusGarfield.net, resulting in what they describe as "an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life."

If you want to get started on your own oddball strip, the official Garfield Strip Creator is the way to go. No drawing ability required.

Social Networking for All

CNET UK offers up a hefty listing of the more unique social networking sites around.

Highlights start with Hamsterster where your hamster can befriend other hamsters. Both MyCatSpace and MyDogSpace are set up similarly, but also include "The Battle For Cuteness" where puppy-dog-eyes are in full force.

MatchADream gives you the opprotunity to finally join a "Dream Circle" with others that have had similar dreams. Set aside a couple hours for a ride through the human psyche by searching keywords or using the Random Dream Search.

After reading all the bizarre dreams, you should be ready for a pint. Find a drinking location nearby or share a story about your favorite brew with website Coastr.

While TDA hasn't signed up for these yet, you can always befriend us on our MySpace.

Photo: cicciopizzettaro/Flickr

Varmint Vittles

TDA is preparing to hit the road soon and thoughts of festivals and food fill the mind. Road food is always an enjoyable adventure, but throughout the US there's a growth of festivals focusing on off-kilter cuisine.

From Spam to roadkill, ForbesTraveler.com has found the most interesting events and highlights them with a slideshow.


Photo: mureena/Flickr

Japan's Down-N-Out Closet Clean-Out

If you haven't tackled your spring cleaning this year, you may want to stop the procrastination. Like a man in Japan this past week, you may sweep out more than dust bunnies.

Police arrested a 58-year-old homeless woman that had been living in a Tokyo resident's closet for an entire year, somehow unnoticed. The resident grew suspicious after finally noticing food missing from his kitchen after some months. He followed his suspicions and installed security cameras that would transmit directly to his mobile phone, eventually sending images of a figure moving about the premises. The man had police sent immediately to his dwelling where they eventually found the woman curled up within the closet and atop a mattress she had moved into the space.

-More details at CNN.com.

Pierdiego & His Deficient Crew

This might be my new favorite band. The front man is our old pal, Hamsterman. I can't stop listening to it. And I thought TDA was wacky.

Tiny Tim Remembered #2

TDA fan Michael Butler forwards this photo of he and the brilliant song stylist. As you can see, the photo was taken in July, 1993, which is about 7 years earlier than the one with Tiny and I at the Sweetwater. I wish I had a shot of Tiny when he got down on the stage and started spinning around on his back in a frenzy as we banged out an Elvis tune. It was a great moment in rock history.

Remembering Tiny Tim

You know, we've got some folks in Those Darn Accordions that have worked with some BIG names in showbiz. I'm not kidding. Mick Jagger, Pat Benatar, Melissa Etheridge, Billy Idol, etc, but no one tops my street cred. Here's the proof. What a magical night that was backing up Tiny Tim. If I hadn't happened to find this photo while cleaning up my studio, the moment would have been lost forever. I know to some of you this will explain a lot, and upon reflection, I suppose it does.

Stranger Than Fiction

Leave it to our old pal Lawrence Welk to provide what has to be one of the more bizarre moments in television history.

Behold the Gummy Haggis

Just look at it, sitting there in all its faux meaty goodness. It's Angry Scotsman's Gummy Haggis, and it wants to be in your stomach. Which is kinda weird when you think about it.

Reminds me that I always wanted to open a restaurant called The Haggis Shack. The motto: "The Haggis Shack -- Where the Offal Ain't."

Is there nothing they won't make out of "gummy" (whatever that is)? One thing's for sure: If it's weird, Archie McPhee sells it -- check out their meat-themed goodies.

(Via Laughing Squid)

A Building That Looks Like an Accordion

Most wild architectural flights of fancy look better on paper than they do in real life. But there's no denying that architect Ken Shuttleworth's design for a London building with a pleated facade looks an awful lot like an accordion's bellows. Shuttleworth told the Evening Standard he wanted the squeezebox-shaped building to "reinstate a more coherent plan of the square as envisaged by (Christopher) Wren." Wren's monument to the great fire of London will be reflected in the accordion building's bellowslike reflective face.

Alleged Burning Man Arsonist Spills the Beans

When I'm not playing bass with Those Darn Accordions, I'm working as culture editor for Wired News. Yesterday we got a pretty funny interview with Paul Addis, the prankster accused of torching the giant Burning Man statue five days early. It's worth looking at the story just to see his crazy mug shot.

World's Oldest Chewing Gum?

It's a 5,000-year-old hunk of chewed up pink-and-gray ... made of birch bark. See the picture on the Fortean Times website (and imagine a really old wall of gum).

Farming Fun at the Indiana State Fair

Blogger skaryma's cool snapshots of weird stuff -- like the awesome display of hog oilers -- at the Indiana State Fair captures the agricultural merriment of the event. She also describes a TDA set there as having "the worst audience in the history of the world." She bought a CD and some shirts to help us out -- hope she got Squeeze Machine (and likes it).

Bat Boy Flies the Coop

The Weekly World News -- chronicler of the exploits of Bat Boy, Bigfoot and assorted extraterrestrial freaks -- will no longer spice up your grocery store checkout line. The print edition is folding, but the website will live on, according to Westword.

It's Raining Worms in Louisiana

I knew the San Francisco Bay Area had the best weather around, but I didn't know exactly what people in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, were up against. Yikes.

Freaky News Saturday

@ Genetic defect yields "whopper of a whippet": Meet the Incredible Hulk of Hounds (with pictures)

@ Beijing bonus: Buns Made From Cardboard Found in China

@ Cut in half, but 100 percent spirited: Miracle Man Walks Again (with inspirational photos)

Nessie Surfaces on Tape (Maybe)

Amateur scientist Gordon Holmes videotaped something in Loch Ness. Could it be the famous monster? See the video and judge for yourself. Kinda looks like a log to me.

If you'd like to know more about the guy who faked a famous photo and then confessed to the stunt on his deathbed, read Great Moments in Science's entry on the Loch Ness Monster. It provides interesting background on Christian Spurling, who helped convince the world of Nessie's existence with just a toy submarine, some wood putty and a respectable witness.

Zombies Invade San Francisco!

See the zombies set upon a mall and a Disney store in search of brains (no luck)! Watch a zombie take a Scientologist stress test! Witness an actual zombie wedding! Lots of, um, tasty bits in this fun photo gallery that documents the zombies' descent upon foggy Frisco last Friday. (Hilarious captions, too.)

That's the kind of stuff that makes this city fun.

Cat With Wings?

Is this photo of a winged cat real? Kinda makes me question the horny Chinese granny that Ananova reported last week.

Granny Grows a Horn

You've gotta see the picture of the Chinese grandmother with the 5-inch horn growing from her forehead.

Cool Nessie Garden Hedge

The BBC's got a picture of John Dobson's 15-foot-high hedge handiwork, plus video of the Englishman in action trimming the topiary wonder.

See the Red Sheep of Scotland

Yesterday I told you about an art student who's painting roadkill. Now witness the red sheep of Scotland. Historically, farmers dyed the animals for easier spotting. Now it's apparently becoming a fad to decorate your livestock: Be sure to check out the cow covered with images of Andy Warhol's face.

Grad Student Turns Roadkill Into Art

The Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat has the scoop on Jessica May, a 24-year-old art student who dresses roadkill in tiny clothes and sometimes even does the deceased critters' "nails." A picture of May painting a deer corpse accompanies the story but, sadly, there's no gallery of her audacious artwork.

Beer Taster Sues Over Dream Job

Some guys have all the luck. A Brazilian guys lands the ultimate 9-to-5 -- as a beer taster -- then gets a $49,000 payout when he sues his employer. Ingrate!

Freak Yourself Out

... with a very wild online optical illusion. Probably not recommended for anybody who's susceptible to migraines or epileptic fits.

(Via reddit)

Self-Made 'Superhero' Patrols Tempe, Ariz.

"Who is Citizen Prime?" asks an Arizona TV news station. The answer is: an "anti-crime activist on a mission reminiscent of The Guardian Angels, but with a comic book flair."

The news report includes video of Citizen Prime working the streets in his $4,000 superhero costume. Unbelievable.

Now That's Some Cheesy TV

Cheddarvision.tv could only be better if it broadcast out of Wisconsin rather than merry ol' England. Read up on the brains behind the cheese-watching webcam in The New York Times' in-depth story on cheddarvision.tv (and other notorious webcams).

World's Tallest Man Marries

The world's hairiest fellow plans on getting hitched, but the world's tallest man beats him to the matrimonial punch. And they're both from China ...

China's Freaky 'Great Dragon' Project

Developers are building a 13-mile-long dragon made of cement and steel and (eventually) covered with "5.6 million scales of jade or gold-coated bronze." When finished, the giant hilltop dragon will hold trains and clubs, the developers say. Those Darn Accordions officially wants to play the grand opening.

World's Hairiest Man Getting Hitched

No photos (or even a name) of the woman who will marry hirsute Yu Zhenhuan. But plenty of pix of the 30-year-old man, described as a "successful musician."

See Spiders on Drugs

No accordions, just wacky fun in this under-two-minute video diversion on YouTube. (Caution: Contains slightly offensive language and, obviously, drug references.)

Burger Tips Scales at 123 Pounds

Those glutton-baiting goofballs at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearsfield, Penn., are at it again. The restaurant's new Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger weighs 123 pounds, packing 80 pounds of beef, a couple pounds of banana peppers, 160 slices of cheese, five onions, 12 tomatoes, 33 pickles and a pound each of lettuce, ketchup, relish, mustard and mayonnaise between the bulging twin faces of a 30-pound bun. The price? $379.

This beats Denny's previous effort by a country mile. Get the full story on the newborn monster burger (along with a juicy photo) at pennlive.com.

It's Obviously Time for a Career Change

This whole blogging thing ain't working out, so it's time to put on my pink jumpsuit and my boogie shoes. When you've got it, flaunt it!

(You'll pay for this, Rogers.)

Sinkhole Swallows Homes

I know Mondays suck, but things could be worse.

World's Longest Moustache?

Ram Singh Chauhan started growing his moustache in 1982. His philosophy: "Whatever endeavour we take in life, we have to work very hard for it, we have to struggle and toil hard for it. The moustache has to be tended and nurtured just like a baby."

You've gotta see the picture at The Sun. (Plus you'll get tips on moustache maintenance.)

Braniac's Breakfast-Themed Tattoo

Atop a formerly bald pate sits a tattooed depiction of "bacon, eggs, sausages, beans and even cutlery." Not as cool as Clyde's foo dog ...

Skating Robot Elephants!

This post-World War II invention has to be seen in action to be believed. Maybe Paul saw one in person as a youngster -- apparently one of the three elephant automatons created by Frank Stuart saw duty at Hudson's department store in Detroit.

(Via Table of Malcontents)

Boater's Worst Nightmare

If you see one of these, it's time to turn your bass boat around. Pronto.