I didn’t learn that Superman was a flavor exclusive to the Midwest until I tried to talk to East coasters about it – they first thought I was lying, and then assumed from corroborative pictures that it would taste terrible. Rest assured: IT DOES NOT TASTE TERRIBLE. Deriving its name from its red, yellow, and blue swirled coloration, Superman ice cream’s taste cannot easily be defined – the truest incarnation of Superman is not simply vanilla with food coloring. Some accounts say the red is some red fruit, like cherry or strawberry; some speculate the yellow is vanilla or banana; some say the blue is cotton candy. Different brands vary substantially in taste, adding to the mystery and controversy underlying the question, “What IS Superman ice cream?”

Perhaps due to its mysterious composition and the fact that it, well, looks like Superman, this flavor is an important part of many a childhood. This website chronicles memories of the flavor and cravers’ quests to find it again in adulthood. Only a truly magical flavor could inspire the heartfelt and emotional journeys written up here.

Another hypothesis as to the content of Superman ice cream is that the blue is another flavor called Blue Moon – a flavor also nearly exclusive to the Midwest, specifically Michigan. Though Sherman’s in South Haven, Michigan is most famous for the flavor, I have fond memories of traipsing to the Crossroads Mall in Portage, Michigan for my fix of Blue Moon. It was not a blue-colored vanilla, it was not cotton candy, it was not a blue fruit of any kind. I have no idea what it was. It does taste like blue, though.

In order to avoid writing solely about Midwestern ice cream flavors that I grew up with, let’s consider ice cream outside the boundaries of the continental United States. One of the most delectable ice cream concoctions I’ve ever tasted was a Japanese creation called mochi ice cream, a small ball of ice cream wrapped in mochi, or pounded sticky rice. Perhaps not surprisingly, when you consider that mochi ice cream is a Japanese innovation, the flavors are… rather untraditional. At least by American standards. Some of the more popular varieties are green tea, azuki (red bean paste), or lychee. Fortunately, you can buy some varieties of mochi ice cream in the United States: Hawaii, owing to its large Japanese population, has several shops that sell the confection. And Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have also begun their foray into mochi (spoiler alert: Bubbies is better than Mikawaya).

Craving weirder flavors than green tea or red bean? Japan has many, many more options in store for you. This comprehensive list offers 101 so-called frightening ice cream flavors around, from whale and octopus to tulip and garlic. I’ll pass, thanks. As frightening as Superman might be to look at, it’s endlessly more appetizing than anything involving durian or kelp.

Who knows what's coming down the pipeline? (image courtesy Troy Holden)

At the moment, this situation is like a 7^th grade student council election. Back in my day, kids running for student council representative would gather votes through making outlandish promises that would appeal to a wide swath of eleven-year-olds, ignoring completely the feasibility of those changes. Like “Free candy all day!” or “No school on Fridays!” or “The Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync will perform an acoustic set together daily in the cafeteria, with biweekly guest appearances by 98 Degrees and Ricky Martin!” Keep in mind this was the late 1990s.

So here are eight awesome things I’d like to see on Conan’s new show, with no consideration of the practicality of any of these options.

Branch out in the top of the show. One of the best segments from Conan’s Tonight Show run was his very first cold open, where he appears to be sprinting across the country from New York to Los Angeles while Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” plays in the background. And – spoiler alert – his live show begins with a hilarious video segment featuring a fat and unshaven Conan bumbling around the house in a state of depression. Why begin the show every damn time with a monologue if you don’t have to? Let’s see more craziness at the top of the show!

ROCKING OUT. The “Legally Prohibited” Tour features several musical numbers where Conan fronts the band on guitar and vocals. The crowds have been eating this up and craving more, and with good reason – dude’s got chops. Please give us more of your rockstardom, Coco.

Rock. Star. (image courtesy JasonBaldwin)

More Clutch Cargo. Conan’s Tonight Show didn’t have enough Clutch Cargo, a bit where he’d talk to “celebrities” which were, in actuality, a static image of the interviewee with an impersonator’s lips on top. Past guests included Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (JINGLE ALL ZE VAY!), so why not update the segment with inane conversations with Barack Obama, Ahmadinejad, and Snookie and the Situation?

Pyrotechnics and explosions. Let’s break stuff! One of Letterman’s famous stunts during his time on Late Night was dropping stuff off of a five-story tall roof and showing the destruction. This bit wins every time – who doesn’t want to watch a 300 lb. safe demolish a car? Conan did some of this on the Tonight Show, one example being a monster truck crushing the world’s largest pumpkin. But why not up the ante and add lots and lots of fire? BLOW SHIT UP.

Integration with Time Warner’s other properties. When NBC merged with Universal, they acquired the rights to Walker, Texas Ranger, thus birthing one of Late Night’s classic segments: the Walker, Texas Ranger lever. Time Warner, aside from owning TBS, also owns HBO, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim, among other channels, and all of the Looney Tunes cartoons EVER MADE – so Conan will have unfettered access to that intellectual property. Conan + old school cartoons = ?

Conan, as someone else. Conan’s run on TV had actors or, more often, writers portray beloved characters, like Fed Ex Pope (Brian McCann), Frankenstein (Brian Stack), Masturbating Bear (?), the Slipnutz (Brian Stack, Andy Blitz, Jon Glaeser), and more. In these segments, Conan would play the straight one. But I’d like to see the guy take on more ridiculous roles himself – he made a hilarious Conando in spoofing overacted Spanish telenovelas, and reportedly played Slim Chestershucks, a cowboy, for his crew during their live shows in Texas. He has the chops, so let’s see some absurd Conan-fronted characters. Super hero, rock star, tax attorney – the options are endless.

More elaborate remotes. Conan shines when he improvises, and that’s doubly true whenever he ventures off of the studio lot. Because the TBS show will air only four nights a week – Monday through Thursday – the staff will have an extra empty day to plan, film, and tidy up remote segments off campus. I hear Mexico isn’t too far from Los Angeles…

Beard shaving. Conan now boasts an unemployment beard, not having shaved since he lost the Tonight Show a few months ago. It’s unclear as to whether he’ll want to keep the beard when he starts again on TBS, but should he decide to shave it, he could chip away at it over time and wean us off of the scruff. It’d be a ridiculous transition from his full beard into any one of these. Especially mutton chops. Or the Franz Josef.

A few weeks ago I leaked a sneak peek at the cover art for CHUCK NORRIS CANNOT BE STOPPED and I’m excited to officially announce that it is now on sale!

Buy: Amazon – B&N – Borders

By the time you finish reading the book, you will be able to answer the following important questions:

• Who owns all of the No. 1 pencils?
• Who won the 1993 International Jump Rope Championship while standing completely still?
• Who was Tiger Woods’ 3rd, 8th, and 16th mistresses?
• Whose TiVo only records John Wayne movies, old Ronald Reagan speeches, and Walker, Texas Ranger?
• Whose lungs are made from burlap sacks full of Beefaroni?

As always, there will be some incredible illustrated facts as well, like this one:

There are also a lot of changes coming to the website that are currently in the works and should be finished in the next few weeks. First, I’ll be moving all “Facts” related material from it’s current home at 4Q.cc, a domain name that is truly awful for anything but shortlinking these days, to a new home right here at WhatIsAwesome.com/Chuck. You’ll also be able to access “Facts” via webapp on your mobile phone browser (sorry, I can’t do iPhone/iPad apps, a certain 80s action star wouldn’t like it) as well as via Facebook. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted on those happenings.

Be sure to join the Facebook page as well to stay up-to-date with the latest happenings!

oh my god yes tell me more

Long before the days of the Frigidaire, the icebox or even a reliable means to make ice, people had to either a.) eat their food on the spot or b.) find ways to keep it from turning into a bacteria-fungus casserole at room temperature while they stored it for days, weeks or even months. Enter: curing.

Humans learned long ago that covering things in salt keeps the rot away, but it wasn’t until late in the Iron Age that we began mass-producing salt. The increase in available supply made it much more practical to use for everyday preparations like curing foods. I feel sorry for the first few generations that just covered their meats in granulated salt and left it there (dry curing) – must have been a bitter reunion when it was finally served. However, at some point in the Middle Ages we learned the technique of “brining.” Brining is submerging a cut of meat for a few weeks in a salt-water mixture (ideally you should be able to float an egg in the brine) along with some choice seasonings like pepper, garlic, coriander or whatever the local flavor may be. It is quite common to add sugar during the brining as well for an extra sweet kick in the mouth.

salt! smoke! history!

The oncologists, gun nuts and pee enthusiasts reading this may be interested to know: It used to be much more common to use potassium nitrate or “saltpeter” for brining. Saltpeter is a common ingredient for oxidizing gunpowder, can be obtained from decomposed urine and could very well give you cancer. It also has the effect of giving cured meats their distinctive reddish coloring.

Brining a cut of beef or pork brisket (or even turkey), giving it a rinse in fresh water and simmering it for several hours is called “corning” the meat. You can see where this is going, but you might be asking “Where is the corn?” Given the European roots of brining, it’s no surprise those cheeky Anglo-Saxons put a word to it – “corn” to them meant “small granule or pellet.” So in the case of cured meats, “corn” referred to the granules of salt used in the process Even up until colonial times the word “corn” meant any common grain. Thus, the maize that Native Americans introduced to settlers was called “Indian Corn” and the rest, as all the famed Etymologists of the world say, is history.

Oh, and from corned beef, the jump to pastrami isn’t a big one. Once you have a cured and rinsed chunk of meat, all you have to do is smoke it and cover it with crushed peppercorns and various other seasonings and there you have it – what the Yiddish called “pastrame,” the Turks called “pastrima,” and what most Americans affectionately call: “Holy shit that’s $3 a pound cheaper than ham!”

hello please make me a sandwich it’s important

 - Mike Beech lives in the Cleveland area and really just wanted to find out what the heck corned beef was all about.

With this in mind, I would like to tell you the story of perhaps one of the worst scientists to have ever lived. Thomas Midgley Jr. was an ivy league graduate (thanks, Cornell) and mechanical engineer who, despite his training in that specific area, chose to focus in commercial applications of chemistry.

Photo credit: chemcases.com

Five years after graduating from school in 1911, Midgley began work at Dayton Metal Laboratories (sometimes referred to as Dayton Research Laboratories), which was absorbed by General Motors and turned into one of its primary research facilities. Along with his mentor, he had discovered that a combination of lead and sodium when added to chloroethane like so…

4 NaPb + 4 CH₃CH₂Cl –> (CH₃CH₂)₄Pb + 4 NaCl + 3 Pb

…when added to standard gasoline would reduce a phenomenon known as engine knock which was apparently plaguing early motorists.

(My apologies for the chemistry.)

The additive is known as tetra-ethyl lead, sometimes referred to as TEL. It’s what years ago made gasoline “leaded.” Most people know that leaded fuel is bad, but not exactly to what degree. Midgley himeslf in 1923 had to stop all work in his lab and spend some time in Miami for some R&R due to severe lung issues associated with the dangers of working with lead. FYI, here are the effects of lead poisoning according to Wikipedia:

• Excess lethargy, abdominal pain, ^[11] headache.
• Gastrointestinal problems, such as constipation, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, or weight loss, which are common in acute poisoning.
• Neuropathy, such as muscle pain, weakness, tremors, twitches, spasms, or cramps.
• Encephalopathy, which, in extreme circumstances, is characterised by raised intracranial pressure, seizures, comas, or even death.
• Nephropathy, which occurs because the kidneys are the main route of removal of lead from the body. Acute lead poisoning may lead to development of Fanconi syndrome. Chronic lead exposure can lead to a slowly progressive interstitial nephritis. Chronic interstitial nephritis can also develop following an earlier acute lead exposure. Long-term exposure at levels lower than those that cause lead nephropathy have also been reported as nephrotoxic in patients from developed countries that had chronic kidney disease or were at-risk because of hypertension or diabetes mellitus. ^[16]
• Behavioural changes, such as inability to concentrate, hyperactivity, irritability, aggressiveness, mood swings, or insomnia.
• Cognitive problems, such as memory loss.
• Other associated effects, such as metal taste in the mouth, chest pain, anemia, impotence, and other reproductive problems.

An advertisement for Ethyl which appeared in the March, 1932 issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Click to enlarge.

The dangers of working with lead made the entire manufacturing process outrageously hazardous. By 1924, General Motors, Standard Oil (which today is more or less ExxonMobil), and DuPont had created the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation to sell leaded gasoline. Ten factory employees would die of lead poisoning between 1923 and 1924.

Ethyl Corporation headquarters in Virginia (via Flickr)

The company built a new factory in New Jersey (surprise!), but within two months five more employees suffered terrible lead-related brain injuries and eventually death. Remarkably, the company responded to this by stating things along the lines of, “These men went insane because they worked too hard.”

All of these deaths were not great PR for the company or for Midgley, so in a press conference, he poured the straight stuff, TEL, over his hands and then breathed it in for one minute, claiming he could do it every day without harm.

The State of New Jersey shut down the factory several days later and banned the production of TEL without permission by the state.

Midgley required one year of recovery from the publicity stunt.

Leaded gasoline is one of the most significant contributors to atmospheric lead and today, Americans have over 600 times more lead in their blood than those who lived prior to TEL’s introduction. It was banned in the US in 1986, though somehow is still used overseas even today.

Remarkably, Midgley had been made vice president of the Ethyl Corporation since its formation. He was relieved of this position, but remained a GM employee.

His story does not end here though.

In the 1930s, refrigeration technologies were not that great. In fact, refrigerators often used a toxic and combustible combination of gases that had an unfortunate tendency of killing or otherwise severely injuring unsuspecting users. From 1919 to 1980, General Motors also owned Frigidaire, the appliance brand. After the TEL debacle, GM charged Midgley with discovering a safe chemical for use in Frigidaire refrigerators and freezers.

Along with his mentor from Dayton Research who worked with him on TEL, Charles Kettering (the same Kettering of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York), the two set to work on what was to become dichlorodifluoromethane. I’ll space that out for you so you can actually read that: di chloro di fluoro methane. Because chemistry is just full of really long naming protocols, the duo gave the compound the name … Freon, the first chlorinated fluorocarbon, or CFC.

That’s right, the same guy who came up with leaded gasoline also created CFCs, you know, those things that are supposed to be destroying the ozone layer and all that. Talk about the sequel being better than the original. CFCs were banned in the US 64 years after they were developed, in 1994, but given their chemical properties will likely still remain in the atmosphere for quite a number of decades.

For having improved the quality of life so much, Midgley was the recipient of a number of prestigious accolades, including the Priestly Medal, the highest honor from the American Chemical Society, two honorary degrees, induction into the National Academy of Sciences. In 1944, he was named president of the American Chemical Society.

While Midglely was probably not completely aware of the destruction that his creations would wreak upon the earth, his life would end in a glorious amount of karmic irony.

He contracted highly disabling polio at the age of 51 in 1940. Being an inventive sort, Midgley built a rigging of pulleys and ropes which would raise and turn him over in his bed. On November 2, 1944 while trying to use the contraption, he had become entangled in the ropes and was strangled to death.

I think that story wraps itself up quite nicely. It was condensed in a video made for the Live Earth concert events in 2007 in this video:

Neurologist. Yes, there is such a thing as a remote brain surgeon!  A Nevada Hospital is looking for a full-time neurology physician.  Benefits include:  $500 signing bonus; W2 salary; medical, dental, vision insurance; enhanced 401k plan; continuing education allowance; professional dues and licensure allowance; generous vacation/paid time off; paid travel.  Amazing!

Getting paid to wear shirts. In this up and down economy Jason Sadler has started outsourcing wardrobe (namely shirts)! He has been wearing a different shirt everyday in 2009, taking multiple pictures throughout the day, blogging, tweeting, and facebooking all over the internet. You do the math $1, $2, $3…$365! He is making a killing from home!

Metal Music Blogger. Finally get paid to Rock, from home!  This is a great occasional writing gig for a metal music fan who is very knowledgeable about the genre and who (ideally) already attends concerts and festivals. Ever wanted to get paid to talk about music? Here’s your chance!

Hello Kitty Online Community Manager. This full time position is being offered to a knowledgeable and passionate Hello Kitty fan anywhere in the world! Offered by the gaming company, they are hiring an online community manager for all things Hello Kitty.

Magazine publisher, Hugh Hefner. So this list is obviously not in order. Working from the Playboy mansion, with the parties bunnies, cars, pools, animals, and everything else any Playboy could ever want is by far the best work from home job ever! In 1953, Hugh raised $8,000 from 45 investors to launch Playboy. Work clothes: robe!

Toishanese Interpreter. What is Toishanese you ask? Well it is a dialect of Cantonese mainly spoken in and around Taishan, a county-level city situated southwest of Guangzhou on the coast of Guangdong province. Don’t live in or around Taishan? Work from home! International interpretation services hire for tons of different languages, including Spanish, French, German, and some exotic languages like Toishanese too!

Virtual Juror. Did you like being on a jury but hated getting up early and driving to the courthouse? This is for you! Telecommuting Jurors review information, answer attorneys’ questions, and provide feedback on cases. Must be over 18 and a US citizen, but what a sweet gig!

So there you have it. If you’ve always wanted to quit, or just got laid off. There is a job for everyone, and your office can be your couch!

If you’re from out of town, you’ll in all likelihood get to Gibraltar by plane, landing at Gibraltar Airport. From the air, it looks quite standard:

A view of the other half of the runway shows something else:

At first glance, it doesn’t look like there is anything particularly remarkable. Let’s take another look at the airport at another time of day though:

“Is…. is that traffic?” you might ask yourself. And you’d be right! Gibraltar Airport is a drive-through airport, literally. The airport is actually right in the city center of Gibraltar and the street which runs across the runway, Winston Churchill Avenue, is closed every time a plane lands or takes off. Check it out:

Pardon the ads, the goods are after the jump.

(credit)

Relieving stress in the office

A series of stupid stunts

Andrew Zimmern. Enough said. (Possibly NSFW)

And a general round-up of stupid to last at least a week

Gaurab Chakrabarti is rational.