“This is America’s Version of the Running of the Bulls.”

Neatorama rounds up some of the darker incidents from past post-Thanksgiving Black Friday sales, including this shootout at Toys R Us.

Last year was definitely a bad year for Black Friday shoppers. On the same day, but a different coast, two men were shot and killed after an argument at a Toys “R” Us in Palm Desert, California. The women they were with were arguing – even coming to blows, according to the Huffington Post – and the fight escalated when the men discovered that they belonged to rival gangs. They ended up shooting only each other – no other injuries were reported.

Anyone Want to Trade Their Cookies for My Sandwich?

“Whats For School Lunch” is a blog focusing on school lunches from around the world, although the majority of the submissions seem to be from either the States or South Korea. Majority of the lunches from the US could be described by the word “vomit.”

Korea

Brooklyn, NY

Chile

Touch Football

With all the  controversy of late regarding Thierry Henry’s handball that assisted in a goal which helped France gain a seat in the next World Cup at the expense of Ireland, I’m reminded of Diego Maradona, a soccer legend with an infamous handball goal against England. Here are some of his quotes referencing that incident.

ON HIS HANDBALL GOAL AGAINST ENGLAND IN 1986
At the time I called it the Hand of God. Bollocks was it the Hand of God, it was the Hand of Diego (2004)

ON JULIA ROBERTS
I would do anything to see her come across the Croisette. I would cut off my hand – even the hand with which I scored against England (2008)

ON PUNCHING IN THE WINDOW OF A PHOTOGRAPHER’S CAR
I did it with the Hand of Reason (2000)

A Day in the Life of a Storm Trooper for 365 Days

Started earlier this year in April, one photographer is posting a snapshot a day for 365 days depicting the daily activities of lowly Star Wars storm troopers.

A day of fun at the beach.

Googling just like the rest of us.

Intergalactic warfare can’t be avoided.

[Via]

Round Table Dinner

One of the gifts in this year’s Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog is the “Algonquin Round Table Experience” which is a private dinner party for the buyer and their guest with the following distinguished VIPs.

Christopher Buckley
Roz Chast
Delia Ephron
Nora Ephron
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Malcolm Gladwell
Adam Gopnik
Lewis H. Lapham
John Lithgow
Anna Deavere Smith
George Stephanopoulos
Ali Wentworth

This can be all yours for just $200,000 guilt free, because Neiman Marcus is donating the proceeds from this sale to a book charity.

My ideal table of 12 would be, in no particular order: Richard Dawkins, Haruki Murakami, Bill Clinton, Jared Diamond, Andrew Sullivan, Anthony Bourdain, Chris Rock, Bill Simmons,  Assata Shakur, George W. Bush, Kristin Kreuk, and Salman Rushdie.

There’s Something Fishy About That Tuna

A recent study by researchers from Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History found that the tuna offered at many sushi restaurants ain’t exactly tuna. They ordered 68 samples of tuna sushi from 31 restaurants in Manhattan and Denver, Colorado. The result:

Nineteen restaurant establishments were unable to clarify or misrepresented what species they sold. Five out of nine samples sold as a variant of “white tuna” were not albacore (T. alalunga), but escolar (Lepidocybium flavorunneum), a gempylid species banned for sale in Italy and Japan due to health concerns. Nineteen samples were northern bluefin tuna (T. thynnus) or the critically endangered southern bluefin tuna (T. maccoyii), though nine restaurants that sold these species did not state these species on their menus.

Ah, tuna, the mystery meat of sushi.

O, and in case you’re wondering consuming escolar can result in “…stomach cramps, loose bowel movements, diarrhea, headaches, nausea, and vomiting.”

[Via]

Sarah Meet Sarah

One of Sarah Palin’s clones got loose and confronted her maker at a book signing last week in Noblesville, IN.

Mangled Medicalese

The crossword in the latest issue of New York Magazine had clues whose solutions were medicine related puns. I love puns, ergo I’ve been really enjoying this crossword puzzle. Here are the ones I’ve been able to answer.

• Pandemic caused by a colorful hat? BLUE BONNET PLAGUE.
• Old Roman’s convulsions? JULIUS SEIZURE.
• Where sick  campers are treated? IN TENTS OF CARE.
• Ailment in Camelot? ARTHURITIS.

Christmas Gift Poll

Everything Is Going To Be Alright

Installation by Martin Creed in Vancouver’s Chinatown neighborhood.

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