2011 Year End Lists Flood In, Sometimes Bizarrely

Now that 2011 is drawing to a close, all kinds of year end best of, worst of, weirdest of lists have come fast and furiously.

Just for chuckles, I've been going through some of them, and there are some bizarre tidbits mixed in. We humans, especially in American, are a strange bunch of birds.

To the operator of one Tumblr blog
there's nothing more fascinating
than spilled Cheetos.

One of my favorite year end list was the 90 best Tumblr blogs of 2011, at least according to Buzzfeed.  I don't know if all of them are the best, but, let's just say some people have too much time on their hands.
One of them, Lonely Cheetos, is just pictures of random Cheetos, usually crumbled, dropped on the ground.

Because there's nothing more fascinating in the world than Cheetos crumbs littering the sidewalk and floor.

Another of the Tumblr sites is Onion-Like Headlines in Real Life, which looks like a collection of strange headlines from the satirical site The Onion, but are real news stories. Samples include a Captain Obvious headline: "Some Childrens Cereal Packed With Sugar, Study Finds," or just head-scratching: "Man, High on Bath Salts, Arrested in Bra, Panties, Accused of Stabbing Goat."

I'm not sure why any guy would want to kill a goat while wearing a bra and panties, but then again, I've led a sheltered life. And for the record, I don't even own a bra and panties, so I guess that prevents me from going out and killing a goat.

Buzzfeed recently had its list of the year's favorite headlines, including this alarming one: "Zombie Caterpillars Rain Death from Treetops." Luckily, it's not as bad as you'd think. You can stand under trees and survive, it turns out. It's just that gypsy moth caterpillars got a fungus, died, and fell onto other caterpillars below, spreading the disease and killing them, too. Oh.

Another list tells us the most visited articles on news web sites.  Picking through that one, I see that CNN and MSNBC had their busiest days with the Japan earthquake and tsunami in March, which makes perfect sense. But then FOX New's most viewed online article was something about Kim Kardashian having a tangle with Australian immigration authorities or some damn thing.

Apparently, to many Fox News viewers, Kim Kardashian
was the most important thing to happen in 2011

You'd think if Kardashian's tangle was one of the biggest events of the year, I'd have heard of it, but this is the first time I've become aware of it. I guess I really don't know what's important in the world. Which is a shame. Because everybody else knows that anybody named Kardashian is more important that the Arab Spring, the faltering economy, the bad reality show that is the Republican primary, unprecedented disasters, Occupy Wall Street and Lindsay Lohan.

Crime is always in the news every year, and 2011 was no exception. The best crime roundup, found on Buzzfeed, is the Top 45 Best Mugshots of 2011. My favorites are probably a fat, sweaty Batman, arrested in Michigan and a driving while intoxicated suspect with "Got Beer" tattooed in giant letters across his forehead.

Motorists Beware: Heavy Foam Warning

We had freezing rain here in Vermont last night, just a little. Enough to ice up the roads and force us to hack our way into our cars this morning.

It's just one of those things you put up with in the winter. No biggie.

At least we didn't have to deal with the road situation in Cleveleys, on the British coast near Blackpool this week. What was apparently decaying algae formed a foam that was driven inland from the sea by a severe wind storm.

So, motorists there had to drive through this:

Korean Talent Contestants ANGRY At Awesome Singer

I post these videos from time to time of talent shows in various places in the world where somebody is impressive.

Here's another one with a slight twist. It's a Korean talent show in which a young contestant does a superb, expert job singing Adele's hit, "Rolling in the Deep"

The judges in the American Idol-type show are clearly impressed. But the fun moments in the video are the glimpses of the other contestants standing on stage, who are obviously Not Happy At All they are being overshadowed by the confident young singer. Fun to watch:

She Should Have Said "No"

The time around Christmas and New Year's is the most popular time of year for marriage minded people to pop the question.

In Burlington, Vermont, one guy got way too into the swing of things. He's in jail, and presumably his betrothed is rethinking things.

According to police, and the Burlington Free Press,  Ryan Jarvis, 25, grabbed a $3,200 ring from a Zales jewelry store in Burlington mall. It was a nice 14 caret specimen, so he has nice taste. He ran out without paying for it. Guess he wanted to impress his girl.

Said girl was indeed impressed. Having no idea the thing was stolen she said Yes!, and was so happy she posted to Facebook a picture of the nice ring.

The gal's friends saw the posting and got suspicious, since the ring looked just like the one that was pictured on news reports. They pointed police to the Facebook post, who found the would be fiancee.  It also didn't help Jarvis supposedly browsed in the jewelry store for an hour before the theft, affording surveillance cameras and employees to get a good look at him.

At last check, Jarvis was arrested, but has been released on conditions. One of them is that he stay away from the mall where he allegedly stole the ring.  

According to the report in the Burlington Free Press, Jarvis told police he knew what he did was, quote, stupid. Well, yeah. Nothing like a stolen engagement ring to put the damper on a lover affair.

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when the woman learned the ring was stolen. I bet things didn't go over very well. After all, you can steal your lover's heart any time, but stealing an engagement ring probably makes love grow cold pretty quickly.

Especially if he's sentence to ten years in jail. He could face up to that amount of time in jail, which would be longer than many marriages.

Lawnmowers, Crocodiles, Weddings and Tornadoes

We devote this post to unplanned moments on routine days.

First, we go to Austrailia, where mowing the lawn got more challenging. I feel for this guy. When I mow lawns for myself or customers, I always seem vexed by balky lawnmowers, rocks and sticks in the way, errant snakes or frogs getting caught in the blades, or unpleasant weather, like snow or 100 degree heat, which can make lawnmowing a challenge.

But I experienced nothing like this guy. His lawnmower encountered a hungry critter. Watch:


Next we go to a wedding. Very nice. Beautiful blushing bride, handsome groom, nice authoritative preacher.

Then the moment comes: The preacher says "If anyone opposes this wedding, speak now or forever hold your peace."

Then the tornado warning siren goes off. Somebody objects, apparently. No word yet if the marriage is surviving. Watch and laugh:

Pathetic Walmart Closing Time Argument

Here's a video in which absolutely nobody redeems themselves.

It's Christmas Eve at some Walmart somewhere. It's 7:40 p.m. in the evening. The store closes at 8 p.m. But the manager doesn't let anybody in at that point because it's closing soon.

As you see, the manager is rude, and caught people by surprise by not letting them in before the posted closing time. The would-be customers are rude and stupid. Who waits until a little before 8 p.m. Christmas Eve before shopping? And one customer makes a totally racist crack about Mexican workers.

Everybody here is just awful. Glad I wasn't invited to any of their houses for the holidays.

Watch the sad episode and be thankful that your Christmas Eve was surely more festive than this tragic scene. Yuck!

Photo: Vermont Winter Sunset Breaks Through Clouds

As a budding weather/landscape/nature photographer, winter isn't my favorite season. The clouds are usually not that interesting. Not like summer, anyway, with the big billows and puffballs and towering thunderstorms that you see so much of

Winter usually brings a dull overcast, a lack of color and not many interesting shapes.

But you get lucky sometimes too. Like yesterday, when a setting sun broke through some of the clouds, illuminating bits and pieces of Vermont mountains while adjacent hills continued to linger under dark clouds.

So I ended up with the pretty nice image you see in this post, which shows Mount Mansfield, peeking out from the clouds, as seen from Fairfax, Vermont.