TELL ME MORE!

Happy National Peppermint Bark Day! I have a feeling that a LOT of December's random holidays are going to be Christmas-themed, which is frankly pretty played out and rather unimaginative and tiresome, but I can get behind a day all about mint-flavored chocolate.

While "researching" this day last night I discovered that peppermint bark wasn't invented until 1998, which seems very recent for something that feels much older. Even more surprising, it was invented by Williams Sonoma founder Chuck Williams when he was 83! Maybe that's why peppermint bark feels a bit...vintage...to me. This bodes well for my own continued creativity as I trudge into my golden years, though! 

Keep those ideas comin', brain!

*****

Before we get to this week's amusing links let's indulge in some of that aforementioned minty confection in honor of these December 1st babies of yore!

• Talented funny people Richard Pryor (1940), Bette Midler (1945), and Sarah Silverman (1970)!

• Talented musician and actress Janelle Monáe (1985)!

• It was also on this day in 1955 that civil rights icon Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of a Montgomery, Alabama city bus, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott that led to the broader Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Thanks, Ms Parks!

Now let's get to some amusing links!

1. The soundtrack of your life.

OK, maybe not your life, but a life. Comedian Daniel LaBelle imagines what it would be like to have a personal soundtrack to liven up his mundane existence, with a little help from violinist Rob Landes.

2. Hot Wheels never looked so cool.

I will admit to never being super into toy cars as a kid (with the exception of Micro Machines for, like, a minute in the mid-1980s), but I have and will always be super into convoluted Rube Goldberg-esque tracks like this one!

3. This art is, like, far out.

Did you know that there is a museum in San Francisco (naturally) dedicated to the art found on LSD blotter paper? Well, you do now!

4. The real reason Jack Dorsey is stepping down from Twitter...

The Bitcoin thing is a ruse! He's really doing it because his side hustle as Rasputin requires his full attention.

OK! Hopefully these little diversions helped to brighten your day! We'll be back here in your inbox on Friday with NEW ART, more random holidays, celebrity birthdays, (possibly) a new episode of the Boredwalk Podcast, and (probably) more! Until then...

Peace, love, and peppermint bark,

Matt