Mental Floss

The Late Movies: Nostalgia Remix Videos

Chris Higgins — Thu, 23 May 2013 02:00:00 GMT

Tonight, a deceptively simple but catchy game: choose a year, grab clips from popular movies and TV, pull in popular music, and remix (with a dash of video games thrown in). These videos do just that for four years I remember quite well. It's a little scary how catchy these are -- the one from 1986 immediately made me go and buy a bunch of singles on iTunes. If you remember pop culture from these years, the nostalgia dose here may be near-fatal.

Remember 1986

A great year for music, movies, and hair. (One of those statements may not be entirely accurate.) Highlights: "No One is to Blame," Pee Wee's Playhouse, "You Can Call Me Al," "Livin' on a Prayer," Metroid (!), Highlander, "Invisible Touch," Challenger, Ghostbusters, Swing Out Sister, Stand By Me, Perfect Strangers...the list goes on.

Remember 1997

Oh my. The Spice Girls, Puff Daddy, Jewel, Hanson, Savage Garden, and..."Around the World" by Daft Punk! (Among about a zillion others.) Movie highlights include Titanic and The Wiggles Movie. Also "Bitter Sweet Symphony" mixed with footage of The Crocodile Hunter.

Remember 1999

Futurama, the tail end of 90s Hair, Madonna (again), Nic Cage (again), more boy bands than I can count, Being John Malkovich, Office Space, "No Scrubs," Freaks and Geeks, etc. An interesting mixture of stuff I don't remember (most of the video games) and stuff I loved (the movies and the hip-hop). Oh yeah, and the imminent Y2K bug!

Remember 2002

Okay, this starts to raise important questions: how old does pop culture have to be in order for us to feel nostalgic about it? This stuff is just 11 years old and doesn't quite pass the nostalgia threshold for me. On the other hand, most of this material lives in a kind of timeless zone for me -- it doesn't seem particularly old or new in my memory.

The core lesson I learned from these videos: Madonna, Nicolas Cage, and Arnold Schwarzenegger are three pillars of American pop culture spanning decades.

Wednesday is New Comics Day

Rich Barrett — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:42:07 GMT

Hello, mental_floss! Every Wednesday, I'll be highlighting the five most exciting comic releases of the week. The list may include comic books, graphic novels, digital comics and webcomics. I'll even highlight some Kickstarter comics projects on occasion. There's more variety and availability in comics than there has ever been, and I hope to point out just some of the cool stuff that's out there. If there's a release you're excited about, let's talk about it in the comments.

1. Godzilla Half Century War

By James Stokoe

IDW

Has there ever been a more exciting marriage of artist and subject than James Stokoe with his hyper-kinetic, insanely detailed manga-by-way-of-graffiti cartooning style and Godzilla with the fiery, urban debris and frothy, oceanic riptide he always leaves in his wake?

Godzilla Half Century War collects the recent five issue mini-series that shows us Godzilla through the eyes of a human adversary, a Japanese soldier named Ota Murakami, who grapples with the giant lizard over a 50 year time span.

Already deemed a Kaiju classic, this thing is indeed a treat for the eyes. Stokoe does not shy away from drawing every scale on Godzilla's body and every piece of rubble and wreckage. Plus, the radioactive coloring makes this burn off the page or the screen or whatever you choose to read it on.

2. My Dirty Dumb Eyes

By Lisa Hanawalt

Drawn & Quarterly

Lisa Hanawalt is one of the most honestly funny and unique cartoonists working in comics today. Between her star-making illustrated movie reviews for the website Hairpin and her various mini-comics over the past few years it's hard to believe that My Dirty Dumb Eyes is only her first book. Published by Drawn & Quarterly, it collects various short pieces that have appeared online like her hilarious movie reviews of War Horse and Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the delightfully odd "Rumors I've Heard About Anna Wintour."

Be prepared for scatological humor and lots of drawings of genitalia, horses and dogs (possibly all in the same drawing). Preview some of the safer for work drawings here.

3. Green Lantern #20

Written by Geoff Johns with a variety of artists

Geoff Johns has been writing Green Lantern for nearly ten years, ever since reintroducing Hal Jordan as the books protagonist in 2004's Green Lantern: Rebirth. His run on the series even continued through last year's reboot and renumbering of all of DC's 52 titles. That long run comes to an end this week as Johns concludes his last story arc, "Wrath of the First Lantern", and the overall story he's been telling about Hal Jordan all these years.

I plan to usually highlight individual books that are easy jumping on points rather than last chapters of a story arc, but, this extra-sized, specially-priced issue is jam-packed with commemorative material like a retrospective of Johns' run that make this a special consideration. Many of the artists he's worked with on this book over the years return for this issue and a special short story following the main "Wrath" story promises to blow fans minds upon reading it.

4. The Property

By Rutu Modan

Drawn & Quarterly

Israeli cartoonist Rutu Modan's debut graphic novel Exit Wounds won critical acclaim and many awards including the Eisner Award in 2008 for Best Graphic Novel. Her latest book, released this week, has already been very well reviewed and will probably end up on many "Best Of 2013" lists. It is about a woman who travels to Warsaw with her granddaughter to reclaim family property lost during WWII. Or at least the granddaughter thinks that is the reason.

Modan's clear thin line and subtle, restrained coloring has a very European feel. Her simply cartooned characters moving about within intricately drawn and well researched settings give her work a sense of reality that not every cartoonist can easily achieve.

You can read a short preview of the book here.

5. Alba

By Irene Koh

albacomic.tumblr.com/

Alba is an intriguing new webcomic by newcomer Irene Koh about a boarding school in post-WWII Connecticut whose students have become afflicted by ghouls with some sort of disease that turns them into living skeletons.

Though only a few pages have been posted as of this writing, Koh seems to have started by jumping right into the action. Her black and white artwork with its rich, moody washes makes this look like a creepy horror manga while her sense of dialogue shown so far between the young heroine, Alba, and a talking skeleton hint at where the true strength of this comic may lie.

Koh adds a new page every Monday and like a number of webcartoonists recently has chosen to use Tumblr as her publishing platform. Judging by the number of likes and reblogs on each page already, that seems like a smart choice.

Meanwhile, in comics news this past week:

• Writer James Robinson announced that he will be leaving the book Earth 2 with issue #16 and will not be moving on to another DC title in its stead. Though his departure seems amicable enough he is yet another in a long line of creatives that have jumped ship from DC recently, leaving its creative stability in question.

• The Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival abruptly announced that it will no longer be putting on its show each year. According to this article on The Comics Journal, the reasons seem to involve irreconcilable differences between the festival's three co-founders.

• The Toronto Comic Arts Festival, lovingly known as TCAF, is going strong and just had one of its biggest shows ever as detailed here on The Comics Reporter. The future may be uncertain for some indie comic centric festivals but long-running shows like TCAF and SPX (the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, Maryland) have risen to the top even if they're experiencing some growing pains as evidenced in this article from The Beat.

• It was recently announced that AOL was shutting down popular comics news site Comics Alliance. However, it appears that nothing truly dies in comics.

The Missing Links: The Best YouTube Video You've Ever Seen

Colin Perkins — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:30:43 GMT

The History of YouTube

The Gregory brothers know the power of YouTube better than anyone. So they put together this very catchy video history.

New Names For Modern Emotions

Egonoia. Ambiviculty. Irridependent. You experience these things every day. Now you know what to call them.

Look Deeper

The background sometimes contains everything you need to know to unravel a film.

Moron, Your Drink Is Ready

After seeing these massive failures, maybe it would be best if Starbucks didn’t actually write customer names on cups.

The Future Is Now: 3D Printed Food

I’m all for curing world hunger, but this just feels weird.

The Top of the World Is A No-Phone Zone

The powers that be in Nepal are upset about a call placed from atop Mount Everest.

Blast From the Past: The Sleeveface

Maybe you haven’t checked out Sleeveface in a while. Take a look and you’ll see they’re still quite entertaining.

10 Artists Influenced by Edward Hopper's Nighthawks

Jennifer M Wood — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:00:57 GMT

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Right?

Disney Resorts Then and Now

Jill Harness — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:00:38 GMT

The world has changed a lot since Disneyland was originally opened in 1955, but the park itself may just exist in a magical bubble where time is only limited by the imagination.

50 Common Misquotations

Jason English — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:31:04 GMT

"Mental Floss has the best channel on YouTube" —Betty White

...is an example of a misquotation.

This week John Green discusses 50 others and what was really said.

Make Your Own Etch A Sketch

Chris Higgins — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:17:03 GMT

We've covered the Etch A Sketch toy many times before -- for instance, when Mitt Romney used one on the campaign trail, when incredible portraits were made, and when our resident explainmaestro Matt Soniak told us how an Etch A Sketch works. But now I bring you the geeky supreme -- the first video from MAKE: Inventions, in which Steve Hoefer talks Etch A Sketch history, and then builds his very own based on a review of the original patent. I'm not saying this is easy, but for a skilled maker it's possible!

Got five minutes for a little Etch A Sketch history, and to see what's behind the screen? Tune in and enjoy (but don't shake your monitor or it'll all go blank):

A Few Etch A Sketch Commercials

I love old TV commercials. Here's one from 1960-ish advertising the Etch A Sketch and Magnastiks:

To see how much advertising had changed by 1973, check out this commercial. Sadly, embedding is disabled. It's 70s-riffic.

(Via 22 Words.)

16 Simple Concepts Made Simpler on Simple Wikipedia

Arika Okrent — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:03:08 GMT

Simple English Wikipedia was launched in 2003 as a resource for "people with different needs, such as students, children, adults with learning difficulties and people who are trying to learn English." In some if its reformulations, especially of already simple concepts, there is an almost zen poetry.

Brain Game: Dear Neighbor

Sandy Wood — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:38:48 GMT

Our neighbor to the southwest has yet to pull out the mower recently, so here's hoping that the gentle telepathic message delivered in today's mentalfloss.com Brain Game Wednesday Wordplay challenge gets through.

By changing one letter in each step to form English words, and leaving all other letters in their original positions, convert YOUR into LAWN in the fewest possible steps.

Y O U R
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _
L A W N

Here is a 7-step SOLUTION.

A 7-STEP SOLUTION:

Y O U R
F O U R
F O U L
F O I L
F A I L
F A I N
F A W N
L A W N

Did you come up with a different sequence of words (shorter, longer, or the same length)? Feel free to share your solution with us in the comments below. Thanks for playing!

Why Do We Say "The Butler Did It"?

Matt Soniak — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:19:51 GMT

Reader Chris wrote in wondering how “the butler did it” became a mystery fiction cliche and who the first guilty butler was.

Two of the earliest examples of felonious butlers I can find are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Musgrave Ritual” from 1893 and Herbert Jenkins’ “The Strange Case of Mr. Challoner” from 1921. Conan Doyle’s butler isn’t the primary villain of the story, but does attempt to rob his employers and winds up dead for it. Jenkins made his butler the main bad guy and the murderer in the story. As far as I can tell, he was the first to do so, but it was another author, Mary Roberts Rinehart, who made it a detective story trope.

Rinehart was a successful and prolific author and playwright, sometimes regarded as the “American Agatha Christie.” One of her plays, The Bat, focused on a group of people being murdered one by one by the titular costumed killer, a character that helped inspired Bob Kane’s Batman.

In Rinehart’s 1930 novel The Door, the butler is the murderer, and while the novel is sometimes cited as the first appearance of the phrase “the butler did it,” it doesn’t appear in that book or any of her other works. While The Door was a hit for Rinehart and her sons, who released it through a publishing house they’d just started up, her pinning the crime on the butler has gone down in history as a serious misstep. Just two years earlier, critic and detective novelist SS Van Dine laid down a set of rules for crime and mystery writers in an essay fittingly titled “Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories.” Among his advice was, “A servant must not be chosen by the author as the culprit. This is begging a noble question. It is a too easy solution. The culprit must be a decidedly worth-while person—one that wouldn't ordinarily come under suspicion.”

That The Door was a commercial success while flaunting a hallmark of what some considered lousy mystery writing made it an easy target for jokes. Stories and books like “What, No Butler?” and The Butler Did It soon turned murderous manservants into shorthand for a cheap ending.

Life Imitates Art

Years after Rinehart made the bad guy butler the butt of many jokes, she was almost killed by one of her own servants.

In the late 1940s, Rinehart hired a new butler for her summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine, declining to promote her longtime chef into the position, which he had wanted for many years. One day, while Rinehart was reading in her library, the chef walked in wearing a shirt with no jacket, a violation of Rinehart’s dress code for her staff. When she asked him where the rest of his uniform was, the chef screamed, “Here is my coat!” while pulling a handgun from his pocket.

He aimed at Rinehart from just a few feet away and pulled the trigger, but the gun jammed. Rinehart ran from the room and headed toward the servant’s wing, with the chef chasing after her and fumbling to fix his gun. Rinehart’s chauffeur tackled him to the ground while the housemaid disarmed him and tossed the gun outside.

While Rinehart called the police, the chef broke free from the chauffeur, grabbed two knives from the kitchen and started chasing Rinehart again. The gardener came in from the yard and helped the chauffeur wrestle the chef to the ground again, where they held him until the police arrived.

Unlike in her story, Rinehart’s real butler didn’t do much of anything. He ran from the house as soon as the commotion started and hitched a ride into town.

Morning Cup of Links: Tornados from Above

Miss Cellania — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:00:54 GMT

Satellites bring us images and video of the Oklahoma tornados as seen from space. It looks violent even from that distance.
*
Yes, we can build tornado-proof homes. However, they are extremely expensive and rather ugly.
*
Surprising Early, Alternate Versions of Iconic Movie Posters. What didn't make the cut gives us a glimpse into the creative process.
*
Zach Galifianakis' date for the premiere of The Hangover III was 87-year-old Elizabeth “Mimi” Haist, whom he met at a laundromat twenty years ago. He's been paying her rent since he heard she was homeless a couple of years ago.
*
Steven Spielberg Is Working On A Live-Action Halo TV Series. No word yet on how long we'll have to wait for it.
*
Qantas is offering a new perk for their customers: novels designed to last as long as your flight does. The series is called "Stories for Every Journey."
*
Some people take goofing off at work to a whole new level. Enjoy a roundup of pranks, silliness, and general shenanigans in the workplace.
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In response to yesterday's story about suburban poverty, it turns out that suburbia has more poverty than cities because suburbia has more people. The 'burbs have become less economically homogenized over the years.
*
The newly redesigned Flickr offers lots of photo storage for free. It looks good, but I still can't find the button to delete pictures.

5 Questions: Maybe, Maybe Not

Kara Kovalchik — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:10:32 GMT

Bates Motel Recap: Episode 10, "Midnight"

Stacy Conradt — Wed, 22 May 2013 02:17:43 GMT

Ready for our last taste of Norman Bates for at least nine months? I'm not. I might have to switch fictional serial killers to fill the void. I hear Hannibal is interesting. But let's get to it.

For what feels like the umpteenth time, Norma is rushing into the police station with a “matter of life and death.” She’s there to rat out Abernathy, who, you’ll remember from last episode, demanded at gunpoint that she meet him at midnight with $150,000 she says she doesn’t have. She explains the whole situation to Romero, who doesn’t react whatsoever. Lady Gaga, eat your heart out—no one can beat this poker face.

A&E

“Alright. I’ll take care of it,” is all he says.

Norma isn’t convinced. She wants to know his plan, but he doesn’t think that’s necessary.
“No harm is going to come to you or your sons. You have my word.”

“That’s comforting,” she says, sarcastically.

“Yep,” he deadpans, then looks pointedly at the door. Miraculously, Norma takes the hint.

Norman Does a Favor; Norma Asks for One

Emma is staring up at the winter formal sign strung across a hallway at school.

“You look kind of pathetic,” Norman tells her, and it’s true. But the joke’s on us, because she was totally just thinking about how glad she is that she doesn’t have to get dressed up and go.

“Do you want me to go with you?” Norman asks. “I don’t mind.” Ah, every girl’s dream dance invitation. Emma gives him a withering look, which is when he realizes perhaps he could have been slightly more suave. “I’d like to,” he amends.

“You’re just asking me because I’m your friend and you feel sorry for me,” she accuses.

“Well, yeah,” Norman kind of grins.

Emma agrees to go anyway, and this whole exchange is rather adorable. Nemma!!

I’m starting to think that Dylan could give Walt, Jr. from Breaking Bad a run for his money on his love of breakfast foods. I swear, if he’s in the house, he’s eating cereal or Norma is trying to bribe him with a plate of something breakfasty. It’s French Toast this morning, and what she wants in return is NBD ... just a gun.

When he refuses, she explains that she’s not convinced that Romero is actually going to do much to protect any of them. She thinks he might even be just as corrupt as everyone else in town. Nonetheless, Dylan doesn’t think Norma needs to be armed and dangerous.

“You and a gun is a bad idea,” he tells her. Understatement of the century.

Meanwhile, Romero just might be proving Norma right. He’s pulling a duffel bag out of a trunk in a garage, and it’s filled with an obscene amount of cash.

A Series of Awkward Conversations

Norma’s taking some of her many flowered shirts to “In a Wink” drycleaners. She drops one on the sidewalk and kind of stumbles into a guy as she’s picking it up.

“Oops! Sorry!”

“Yeah, I guess,” the guy mutters. Norma is tired of this town not living up to the picture-perfect Norman Rockwell scene she had painted in her mind, and this man blowing off her perfectly adequate apology strikes a nerve.

“Screw off shithead,” she screams down the street at him.

Perhaps recognizing some anger issues, she makes her next morning errand a visit to the therapist for some advice on how to handle stress. When Dr. Kurata presses her to discuss what kind of stress she’s under, she gets a little cagey.

“Just... stuff... like... normal... life stuff...”

He asks if it’s Norman stress, but she says that’s Norman’s a good boy.

“He’s not quite a boy, though, is he?” Kurata interrupts.

“I guess he is getting bigger, yeah,” Norma concedes. To me, this shows that she still thinks of him as a young child—you don’t really say that your 17-year-old is “getting bigger,” do you?

“When you were a little girl, is this what you thought parenting would be like?” Kurata asks.

Norma doesn’t really remember.

“Do you remember anything about being little?”

Norma looks thoughtful. “My dad was very kind. The kind of guy who would smile at you all the time no matter what. You would feel like he would just take care of everything.”

Her mom? Well, her mom worked in a bakery and always smelled like cookies.

He asks if she had any siblings.

“No. I am an only child,” she says quickly, and then makes a face. “Oh, I don’t feel well. Oh, it’s my stomach. I’m gonna have to reschedule.”

A&E

At school, Miss Watson having a heated conversation on the phone. “Why do you keep calling me? Stop bothering me,” she says, voice shaking. “I said leave me alone. Eric, don’t call me again.”

Norman has walked in on the end of this conversation and asks Miss Watson if everything is okay.

“Norman, did you hear anything that I was saying?” She seems panicked. I feel like a more normal reaction would be to shrug it off, say that she was just having a fight with her boyfriend. Why all the drama, Miss Watson?

Norman denies hearing anything specific and says that he was just there to reiterate that he definitely doesn’t want to publish that story—not because of his mother, just because he doesn’t want to. Miss Watson understands. Norman’s short story is the least of her concern right now.

She asks him again to ignore what he just heard her saying on the phone; Norman promises.

Then Miss Watson steps up close—uncomfortably close—and cups one of his cheeks (face cheeks) with her hand.

“I guess this means we have a secret now, huh? You’ll keep it for me, won’t you?” It sounds oddly seductive, which is emphasized by the intimate hug they share afterward. She strokes the back of his neck with her hand, and he leans into her neck a bit, as if she smells good. Nothing about this is cool.

A bedraggled-looking woman with bruises and scratches on her face gets out of a old car in front of a rundown house. She doesn’t exactly smile at the person waiting there for her.

“Alex,” she greets Sheriff Romero. “I haven’t seen you since my brother’s service. Bit weird, nothing to bury but a hand.” So, this is Keith Summers’ sister.

Romero wants to know what happened to her face. She says she doesn’t recall. He decides to lay it all out for her: he knows that she did her brother’s bookkeeping for the sex slave business and he knows about the missing money. “Did Jake Abernathy do this to you?” he asks.

She’s not familiar with this particular name, but when Romero says he’s referring to the third partner of the sex slave business, a lightbulb goes on.

“You mean Joe Fioretti?” she starts to describe him and it turns out they’re one and the same. She reports that he claimed to be running the same type of business up and down the coast.

Romero nods, then turns to leave.

“What happens now? To me?” she asks.

“Nothing, if you keep your mouth shut.” Romero says. “Take care of yourself, Maggie.” Warm and fuzzy guy, isn’t he?

A Shot in the Dark

Emma’s walking into the motel as Norma is calling to nag the police station about patrolling the motel more often. When she hangs up, Emma apologizes for being late—she just stopped to buy a dress she saw in a vintage store (obviously) for the dance tonight.

“You’re going to a dance?” Norma asks. She’s surprised to learn that Norman has agreed to take Emma, but covers quickly. “I just hadn’t heard anything about it.”

Emma produces a lacy wine-colored number and asks Norma to hold it up so she can see what it looks like with heels. As Norma holds it against herself, she pulls the skirt up to examine a spot on the fabric. It exposes the long scar on her leg, which she catches Emma staring at.

“That’s just an accident from childhood,” Norma fumbles. “I spilled some hot chocolate on my leg.”

She pulls her coat on and heads outside, where Dylan is pulling up in his truck. He hops out and hands her a paper bag, the White Pine Bay preferred method of exchanging large wads of cash and firearms. Looks like he changed his mind about the gun.
“Don’t make me regret this,” he warns, then takes her out to teach her how to shoot with the requisite beer bottles lined up on a fence.

A&E

She shoots before Dylan tells her to, which they argue about for a moment. Then she has enough sense to wonder where this gun came from.

“So what kind of job do you have that you’re carrying a gun?”

“I guard stuff,” he says, looking totally guilty.

“What kind of stuff?”

“Weed. Pot fields.”

“I don’t like that!” she whines.

He accuses her of passing judgment. “I’m 22 years old. I’m adult.”

She fires the gun again, which pisses him off even more. Finally, Dylan convinces Norma to settle down and get in the right stance and take a good aim instead of just firing willy nilly like she has been.

“I want you to squeeze the trigger,” he instructs her. “Don’t yank on it. Just gently squeeze it, okay, mom?”

She does, and nails the bottle. After a little celebratory dance, Norma looks at Dylan.

“You called me mom. You haven’t done that in like, I don’t know how long.”

Dylan looks a little uncomfortable.

“Yeah, well you have a loaded gun in your hand, Norma.”

“I’m so scared,” she admits. Dylan tells her that she just has to trust Romero—word on the street is that he’s the man in this town. She nods, then starts practicing her shots again.

Bradley and Dylan, Sitting in a Tree

Norma’s cleaning at the motel when Maggie Summers wanders up and identifies herself.

She’s not here to make trouble, though—she just wants to warn Norma that this guy going by “Jake Abernathy” is no joke. “If you have that money, give it up. I know this guy. He. Will. Kill you,” she says.

Up the hill at the Bates residence, Bradley is at the door. She forces a smile when Norman opens up, then asks if Dylan is home. Norman is clearly a little perturbed by this, but invites her in anyway. Dylan is just bringing a box of her dad’s office stuff downstairs.
“Thank you for doing this,” she says, and the two of them smolder at each other.

Norman excuses himself, shoving past Dylan on his way out.

They make small talk about how nice it is that she has her dad’s stuff back now. Dylan also managed to find that pocketwatch she had been looking for. She thanks him again.

“Well, this is it,” she says. “I won’t bug you anymore.”

Dylan laughs. “You can bug me. It’s fine. You can bug me anytime.”

Norman is listening from the other room, of course, and he has total rageface.

Norma is checking out her gun. She has it pointed at her own face and is messing with the hammer when she seems to realize what she’s doing. She flips it away from her face, which is just as well, because she might have accidentally shot something off when Norman yells this two seconds later:

“Motheerrrr! I need some black socks!” This is not just your typical teenage whine. This is Norman, totally enraged that the appropriate formalwear accessories are not within arm’s reach. Norma wonders if he checked his sock drawer.

“Oh, it never occurred to me to look in my drawer.” He laughs, but it’s biting, mocking. “Well what am I supposed to do? I can’t go to this stupid dance wearing white socks with a suit!”

“It’s not my fault you decided to go last minute to a dance! What am I supposed to do, darn some socks?” Norma says.

“I’ve got some black socks he can use,” Dylan says, stopping in the doorway.

Even with the gift of formal socks, the air between the brothers is tense. Dylan knows what the deal is and explains that he was only helping Bradley retrieve her dad’s stuff.

“I’m not going out with her,” he promises.

“You want to. Who wouldn’t?” Norman does that mocking laugh again.

"This conversation is stupid,” Dylan says.

“All conversations are stupid. Just ‘blah blah blah,’ like rats trying to find their way out through a maze. You think it has some purpose or meaning but it doesn’t.”

“OK, now you’re creeping me out,” Dylan replies.

Norman tells him to ask Bradley out if he really wants to. “I should,” Dylan agrees.

“Yes, you should!” Norman insists, brightly. “I’m fine. I’m completely, 100 percent over her.”

Norma’s Secret

Downstairs, Norman and Norma wait for Emma together. Norma asks how late the dance will go, and Norman informs her that it’s over at midnight. Norma totally crumbles at the mere mention of the witching hour.

In case Abernathy kills her—she doesn’t say this, but it’s what she means—Norma wants to tell Norman something she’s never told anybody: She grew up in Akron, Ohio. And there’s a lot more truth where that came from. “My brother used to make me have sex with him,” she tells her son. “I was like 13. And it went on until he moved out.” She barely has the words out of her mouth before she regrets telling him, but she plows ahead anyway.

A&E

Her dad was insane, incredibly violent—a far cry from that kindly man she told the therapist about. Because she knew her father would literally kill her brother if she told, Norma kept her mouth shut. Then her dad got home from work early one day while her brother was violating her. Norma jumped up so fast that the hot iron fell off the ironing board and hit her leg.

Flashback to the hissing iron that featured so prominently on the scene of Norman’s dad’s death.

Norman apologizes and hugs her. Norma cries.

“Anyway. It doesn’t really matter, right? It was a long time ago. It’s just that I wanted someone to know this about me in case—in case, um. I don’t know why. I don’t know why.”

Just then, Emma arrives to pick up Norman.

“Wow. You look great,” he tells her, but he’s barely even paying attention. I mean, that was quite the bombshell to drop right before he’s supposed to have some good old-fashioned teenage fun at a dance.

“You two have fun,” Norma gushes, and sends the young not-couple on their way. They’re just out the door when Abernathy calls to remind her about their appointment.

The Winter Dance from Hell

A&E

“Everybody’s got a secret to hide. Everyone is slipping backwards,” the Chromatics sing overhead as Norman and Emma enter the dance. Hmm.
This dance looks amazing, by the way. My high school dances never looked this magical. Emma and Norman don’t realize how lucky they are to be at a high school event where the decor is more than crepe paper and flimsy cardboard cutouts from Oriental Trading, though, because neither one of them have ever been to a dance.
“It’s not too late to leave,” Norman tries, but then spots Bradley talking to her boyfriend. She sees him staring at her. It’s awkward, much like all of their post-sex encounters.

Emma says she needs a drink.

Later, Nemma are gazing at each other as they dance to “Lady in Red.” Glad to see teens are still awkwardly slow dancing to Chris de Burgh.

Oh, and let me amend that previous statement: Emma is intently gazing at Norman. Norman’s eyes keep wandering over to Bradley.
“You still like her, don’t you?” Emma asks.

“That’s ridiculous,” Norman responds.

“No. You know what’s ridiculous? Me, thinking you’d take me to the dance and see me all dressed up and realize that you have feelings for me, Norman Bates, because you do, you’re just too stupid to know it.” She leaves and tells Norman he can find his own ride home.

Then Bradley’s boyfriend asks to speak to Norman outside, where he punches him, sending Norman spinning into the cinderblock wall. His face gets the brunt of it.

A&E

Since the dance has been hideous, Norman starts walking home, even though it’s pouring down rain. Miss Watson, of all people, pulls up next to him and offers him a ride.

“What happened to your eye?” she asks.

“I got in a fight. Actually, I got punched. The other guy was fine,” Norman kind of smiles.

“Why don’t you come to my place and I’ll clean up your eye and I can drive you home.”

Danger, Will Robinson. No. No. No.

Midnight

Norma has clearly watched a lot of heist movies, because she’s at the docks, clad all in black with a scarf over her hair, carrying a nondescript bag. She ducks out of sight to see if Romero will make good on his promise to protect her, and sure enough, he pulls up a few seconds later. He’s got the duffel bag full of money from earlier and drops it on the dock just as Abernathy pulls up.

A&E

“Who are you?” Abernathy/Fioretti says, sizing up the sheriff.

The proper introductions are made.

“What happened to the cute but nutty lady who runs the motel?” Abernathy wants to know. “You kill her?”

Romero says it’s been handled but Abernathy doesn’t really care. He just wants to know if that bag on the dock is for him.
Romero nods. “You gonna run a business in my town, I should know about it.”

“Was. Running a business. Past tense.”

“Maybe that doesn’t have to be the case. You got the wrong partners.”

“Well, it wasn’t like I could put an ad out on Craigslist.”

Romero says that if “Joe” wants to keep his business in White Pine Bay, he has to go through the sheriff. And the sheriff wants a 50 percent cut.

“I put a cell number for you on a card. It’s in the bag.”

As he bends down to grab the bag, Romero shoots him four times. Abernathy falls into the water.

“Not in my town,” the sheriff mutters, then throws the bag into the water too.

“You can go home now Norma,” he says. “When I say trust me, trust me,” he says.

Hot for Teacher

At Miss Watson’s. She’s playing nurse to Norman’s injured eye while wearing a low-cut red dress. Coincidence that “Lady in Red” was just playing at the school dance? Methinks not.

“You probably shouldn’t tell anyone that you came here,” she says.

“Don’t worry,” Norman responds.

Miss Watson says she’ll drive him home right after she changes. She puts her hand on his cheek as she gets up to walk to her bedroom.

She leaves the door to her bedroom open. There’s a mirror conveniently placed so that he can see her undressing, and Oh God, imaginary Norma is suddenly sitting in the living room with Norman.

“What kind of a grown woman invites a teenage boy into her house and changes her clothes where he can see her?” she snaps.

“That’s not what she’s doing,” Norman says.

“Of course it is. She’s trying to seduce you.”

“That’s not true.”

“Then why didn’t she close the door? Because she knows you’re watching.”

“She does not.”

“Of course she does. She wants you to see her body.”

“Stop!”

“Norman. You know what you have to do.”

The next thing we see is Norman running down the road in the rain. He’s running into the Bates Motel parking lot and is very nearly struck by Norma’s car.

A&E

They hug; she wants to know what happened to his face.

“Emma got upset and had to leave and Miss Watson was gonna give me a ride and the next thing I remember I was just running on the road alone, just trying to get home.”

“It’s okay, Norman,” she says, and starts to cry. “Everything is good, Norman, finally. Everything is good. Let’s go build a fire. How does that sound?”

They walk inside. Pretty music. Shot of the Bates Motel sign.

All tied up in a pretty bow right?

A happy ending heading into the sophomore season? Norman must have run home from his teacher’s house without punishing her for leaving that door open while she changed clothes? Yeah, you know better than that. Our parting shot for the season is Miss Watson sprawled across her bedroom floor, bleeding all over her pretty lingerie from a gaping wound in her throat.

A couple of notes:

Alex Romero is the name of a baseball player who tested positive for doping last year. It probably doesn’t have anything to do with this character’s name, but you never know.

Miss Watson was wearing a necklace with the initial “B” on it. Might we have our mysterious “All my love, B” from Bradley’s dad’s letters?

See you in 2014, Motel guests!

18 Outlandish Uses of Real and Fake Body Parts on Etsy

Therese Oneill — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:24 GMT

For millennia, artists have been using the human body as a source of inspiration. Here are some of the more innovative uses of the human body, actual and symbolic, available for purchase on Etsy.

10 American Movies That Won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival

Rudie Obias — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:00:39 GMT

The 66th annual Cannes Film Festival is in full swing. Although Cannes is an international film festival, flicks from the United States often win the festival’s grand prize. Here are 10 American movies that won the Palme d’Or Award.

The Missing Links: The Amazing Surfing Dog

Colin Perkins — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:30:30 GMT

K9 Hang 10

Ricochet is a golden retriever that can surf, and uses that skill to touch the lives of others in amazing ways.

They Can Make An Entire Audience Disappear

Pop culture is packed with illusionists that are less than magical.

Green Plants on the Red Planet

Even if we can get humans to Mars, will we be able to grow food?

The Index Card Internet

The Mundaneum was a project that sought to document “the entirety of human knowledge on 3-by-5 index cards.”

Like A Big’A Pizza Pie

The delicious history of pizza is sprinkled with lots of tasty innovations. And some rather unnecessary ones, too.

Cheaters Never Win

Except that a lot of times, they do.

10 Absolutely Amazing Tipping Stories

Jill Harness — Tue, 21 May 2013 18:00:04 GMT

We hear a lot of bad stories about cheap tippers and even cruel tippers (like the pastor who refused to tip because she gives God 10 percent), but it’s a lot rarer to hear about excessive and genuinely kind tippers. Fortunately, such people are out there.

Tips for Keeping your Tenement Tidy (in 1911)

Arika Okrent — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:00:02 GMT

Mabel Hyde Kittredge, activist and founder of the hot lunch program for public schools in New York, was the Martha Stewart of tenement living.

38 Wonderful Foreign Words We Could Use in English

Bill DeMain Haley Sweetland Edwards Romy Oltuski — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:31:40 GMT

Sometimes we must turn to other languages to find le mot juste. Here are a whole bunch of foreign words with no direct English equivalent.

1. Kummerspeck (German)
Excess weight gained from emotional overeating. Literally, grief bacon.

2. Shemomedjamo (Georgian)
You know when you’re really full, but your meal is just so delicious, you can’t stop eating it? The Georgians feel your pain. This word means, “I accidentally ate the whole thing."

3. Tartle (Scots)
The nearly onomatopoeic word for that panicky hesitation just before you have to introduce someone whose name you can't quite remember.

4. Mamihlapinatapai (Yaghan language of Tierra del Fuego)
This word captures that special look shared between two people, when both are wishing that the other would do something that they both want, but neither want to do.

5. Backpfeifengesicht (German)
A face badly in need of a fist.

6. Iktsuarpok (Inuit)
You know that feeling of anticipation when you’re waiting for someone to show up at your house and you keep going outside to see if they’re there yet? This is the word for it.

7. Pelinti (Buli, Ghana)
Your friend bites into a piece of piping hot pizza, then opens his mouth and sort of tilts his head around while making an “aaaarrrahh” noise. The Ghanaians have a word for that. More specifically, it means “to move hot food around in your mouth.”

8. Greng-jai (Thai)
That feeling you get when you don't want someone to do something for you because it would be a pain for them.

9. Mencolek (Indonesian)
You know that old trick where you tap someone lightly on the opposite shoulder from behind to fool them? The Indonesians have a word for it.

10. Faamiti (Samoan)
To make a squeaking sound by sucking air past the lips in order to gain the attention of a dog or child.

11. Gigil (Filipino)
The urge to pinch or squeeze something that is irresistibly cute.

12. Yuputka (Ulwa)
A word made for walking in the woods at night, it’s the phantom sensation of something crawling on your skin.

13. Zhaghzhagh (Persian)
The chattering of teeth from the cold or from rage.

14. Vybafnout (Czech)
A word tailor-made for annoying older brothers—it means to jump out and say boo.

15. Fremdschämen (German); Myötähäpeä (Finnish)
The kindler, gentler cousins of Schadenfreude, both these words mean something akin to "vicarious embarrassment.”

16. Lagom (Swedish)
Maybe Goldilocks was Swedish? This slippery little word is hard to define, but means something like, “Not too much, and not too little, but juuuuust right.”

17. Pålegg (Norweigian)
Sandwich Artists unite! The Norwegians have a non-specific descriptor for anything – ham, cheese, jam, Nutella, mustard, herring, pickles, Doritos, you name it – you might consider putting into a sandwich.

18. Layogenic (Tagalog)
Remember in Clueless when Cher describes someone as “a full-on Monet…from far away, it’s OK, but up close it’s a big old mess”? That’s exactly what this word means.

19. Bakku-shan (Japanese)
Or there's this Japanese slang term, which describes the experience of seeing a woman who appears pretty from behind but not from the front.

20. Seigneur-terraces (French)
Coffee shop dwellers who sit at tables a long time but spend little money.

21. Ya’arburnee (Arabic)
This word is the hopeful declaration that you will die before someone you love deeply, because you cannot stand to live without them. Literally, may you bury me.

22. Pana Po’o (Hawaiian)
“Hmm, now where did I leave those keys?” he said, pana po’oing. It means to scratch your head in order to help you remember something you’ve forgotten.

23. Slampadato (Italian)
Addicted to the UV glow of tanning salons? This word describes you.

24. Zeg (Georgian)
It means “the day after tomorrow.” OK, we do have "overmorrow" in English, but when was the last time someone used that?

25. Cafune (Brazilian Portuguese)
Leave it to the Brazilians to come up with a word for “tenderly running your fingers through your lover’s hair.”

26. Koi No Yokan (Japanese)
The sense upon first meeting a person that the two of you are going to fall in love.

27. Kaelling (Danish)
You know that woman who stands on her doorstep (or in line at the supermarket, or at the park, or in a restaurant) cursing at her children? The Danes know her, too.

28. Boketto (Japanese)
It’s nice to know that the Japanese think enough of the act of gazing vacantly into the distance without thinking to give it a name.

29. L’esprit de l’escalier (French)
Literally, stairwell wit—a too-late retort thought of only after departure.

30. Cotisuelto (Caribbean Spanish)
A word that would aptly describe the prevailing fashion trend among American men under 40, it means one who wears the shirt tail outside of his trousers.

31. Packesel (German)
The packesel is the person who’s stuck carrying everyone else’s bags on a trip. Literally, a burro.

32. Hygge (Danish)
Denmark’s mantra, hygge is the pleasant, genial, and intimate feeling associated with sitting around a fire in the winter with close friends.

33. Cavoli Riscaldati (Italian)
The result of attempting to revive an unworkable relationship. Translates to "reheated cabbage."

34. Bilita Mpash (Bantu)
An amazing dream. Not just a "good" dream; the opposite of a nightmare.

35. Litost (Czech)
Milan Kundera described the emotion as “a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.”

36. Luftmensch (Yiddish)
There are several Yiddish words to describe social misfits. This one is for an impractical dreamer with no business sense.

37 & 38. Schlimazel and schlimazel (Yiddish)
Someone prone to bad luck. Yiddish distinguishes between the schlemiel and schlimazel, whose fates would probably be grouped under those of the klutz in other languages. The schlemiel is the traditional maladroit, who spills his coffee; the schlimazel is the one on whom it's spilled.

We compiled many of these words in these three posts from 2011 and 2012.

5 Legendary Art Trials

the mag Clay Wirestone — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:13:52 GMT

Taking masterpieces to court is a tradition as old as the legal system. So is letting them off the hook.

The Cocktail Chart: The Signature Drinks of Fictional Icons

Maureen Monahan — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:11:26 GMT

Want to drink like your favorite character? Now you can. Pop Chart Lab has created this handy chart brimming with recipes for the signature drinks of several unforgettable characters. Whether drinking to cope with a regrettable past (Dick Whitman, aka Don Draper, likes a classic Old Fashioned), bulk up (Rocky Balboa’s super-manly all-egg Protein Shake), or waste your flighty, privileged life away (lookin’ at you, Daisy), you’ll be in good hands with this exhaustive guide.

12 Things We've Enhanced With Caffeine

Amanda Green — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:00:36 GMT

What's the buzz? Caffeine's now available in just about everything.

Brain Game: Second-in-Command

Sandy Wood — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:23:52 GMT

The U.S. presidency is a common theme of our mentalfloss.com Brain Game Tuesday Test Time challenges, but today's offering drops down a step. Good luck!

Calvin Coolidge would qualify for today's list if his first name weren't John (Calvin was his middle name). So not including Silent Cal...

How many U.S. Vice Presidents' first and last initials
were the same letter of the alphabet?

Here is the ANSWER.

QUESTION:

How many U.S. Vice Presidents' first and last initials were the same letter of the alphabet?

ANSWER:

FOUR. Hannibal Hamlin, William Wheeler, Charles Curtis, and Hubert Humphrey.

Thanks for playing! Tomorrow, it's Wordplay Wednesday.

T-Shirt Tuesday: Gatsby Liquors

Erin McCarthy — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:38:44 GMT

Every week on the day after Monday, we're releasing new shirt designs in the mental_floss store. Today, it's Gatsby Liquors. Whether sharing one with an old sport or an unrequited love, Gatsby Liquors are truly great. So are the other Gatsby products in the mental_floss store—there's an iPad cover and a literary notecard set.

And that's not all! Spend $75 in the mental_floss store, and get 1 penny shipping! Starts today, ends on May 23—Lucky Penny day—at midnight PST. No coupon code is required.

Did you know that you can submit t-shirt slogans? Bogart T. from Menlo Park, California, came up with this idea. He gets $125, a free shirt, and eternal "I designed a mental_floss t-shirt!" bragging rights. If you have a funny t-shirt slogan, you can submit it here.

Troy McClure Film or Actual Terrible Movie?

Ethan Trex — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:32:00 GMT

You may remember him from such hits as Christmas Ape and Christmas Ape Goes to Summer Camp, but how well do you remember Troy McClure’s other projects? Can you tell which of the following titles come from the filmography of Springfield’s favorite screen icon and which are the real-life dregs of IMDb?