Assorted Links

A few noteworthy articles from recent weeks:

How an Ad Campaign Made Lesbians Fall in Love with Subaru
This is a fascinating account of how, in the 1990s, Subaru discovered that lesbians loved their cars, and then created a subtle marketing campaign for them. It was so subtle that straight people never noticed, but gays and lesbians did, and loved it. Subaru also learned that IT professionals loved their cars, which is interesting, because I'm an IT professional, and I got a Subaru a few years ago. Finally, I love that the word 'Subaru' is the Japanese word for the Pleiades star cluster.

Bob Barker learned karate from Chuck Norris!! This is a great interview from 2012. Barker credits his health and long career to being a vegetarian and to getting regular exercise. He also talks about his love of animals, and shares a few funny stories about his pets, including his rabbit, whose name is Mr. Rabbit.

In August 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible along a narrow band across the United States. Southern Illinois is the spot with the longest duration of totality (2m 40s). Southern Illinois University has already started preparations; it expects up to 50,000 people on campus to watch the eclipse. "It is probably the biggest event that will be at SIU in most people's lifetime," says the event planner. A map showing the path of the total solar eclipse is here.

Bob's Burgers is an animated show on Fox about a family that runs a burger restaurant. One of the best parts is that in every episode you can see a chalkboard in the background that shows their "burger of the day", which is always some kind of burger pun. This article lists the burger of the day from all 149 episodes and ranks them according to the pun. A few weeks ago Wendy and I read over this list and couldn't stop laughing at some of them. There are so many good ones. Some of my favorite:
  • Only the Provolonely Burger (comes with provolone)
  • The Final Kraut Down Burger (comes with sauerkraut)
  • I Fought the Slaw Burger (And the Slaw Won)
  • If Looks Could Kale Burger
  • Blondes Have More Fun-gus Burger (comes with mushrooms)
  • Chile Relleno-You-Didn't Burger
  • The Cauliflower's Cumin From Inside the House Burger (comes with cauliflower & cumin)

I think the Chile Relleno one is my all-time favorite.