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I’m a sucker for a good disaster movie.  Films like “The Day After Tomorrow,” “Children of Men,” and “Independence Day” were all fascinating and disturbing, but ultimately safe and cathartic ways to examine our fears about the end of the world. There’s a new disaster flick to add to the list, and if the pre-opening buzz is any indication, we’re in for quite a ride with “2012.”  The new film by Roland Emmerich focuses on the interpretation of the Mayan calendar which predicts that the current life cycle will end on December 21, 2012, speculating that a worldwide apocalypse will ensue.

Let’s face it — though scary, most “end of the world” prophecies are easy to dismiss.  I mean, so many have come and gone throughout history with nothing to show. Just within the last decade, there have been a handful of predicted apocalypse scenarios.  According to Nostradamus, we weren’t supposed to make it past 1999, and even if we did, Y2K was sure to do us in.  Why should  the 2012 prediction be any different?

Well, for one thing, the Mayas were different from, and perhaps a bit more knowledgeable, than some other doomsday foretellers. The Mayan calendar is almost as advanced as our own at predicting astrological phenomena like eclipses and alignments — a pretty amazing feat considering that they didn’t have access to telescopes, satellites, and the other advanced technology that we have at our disposal.  The Mayas chose 2012’s solstice as doomsday based on astronomical observations predicting a squaring-off between the powerful forces of Pluto and Saturn — a phenomenon that, according to my understanding, will indeed occur around that time.

But, to be fair, this same cosmic occurrence has happened many times before, most recently between August 2001 and May 2002, and we came through it just fine.  Much of the hype about 2012 is actually just that: hype.  Even modern Mayas are discounting the validity of the interpretation of their ancient calendar. But no one can deny that we, as a society, love a bit of suspense.  Fueled by Internet speculation, sensationalist authors and scientists, and, of course, the upcoming Hollywood blockbuster, anxiety about 2012 is certainly on the rise and will probably continue to pervade popular culture…at least until 2013 and the next big apocalypse prediction.

Do you believe in the Mayan prophecy regarding Dec. 21, 2012?   And if you knew it were true, how would you like to spend your next (and last) 3 years on earth?

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Hey Guys,

The World Series, the Super Bowl, and college basketball’s March Madness are three of the biggest events in sports. They’re all so popular, that it’s hard to imagine ‘em being called anything else. Each term is now a part of the average American’s vocabulary, but who deserves the credit?

According to various sources across the Web, the Spalding Guide, a magazine put out by the sporting goods company, was responsible for coming up with the name “World Series.” Why the word “World,” when the first baseball teams were American? According to a blog from Road Side Photos, the National League’s Chicago squad and the American Association’s St. Louis team could both be considered champs back in 1887. So, “a more grandiose name was required to describe the postseason showdown” between the two leagues. The name “World Series” stuck.

The Super Bowl has an even more interesting history. A blog entry from Doc’s Sports explains that it was Lamar Hunt, one-time owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, who coined the phrase. Mr. Hunt came up with the “unofficial nickname” for the NFL-AFL World Championship Game after watching his daughter play with a “Super Ball” toy. After a few years, the name Super Bowl officially replaced the more formal “World Championship Game.”

And what of March Madness? Slate.com hosts an excellent article on how the name came to exist (and all the legal battles that would later ensue). Back in 1939, a chap named Henry Porter wrote an article called “March Madness” for the Illinois High School Association. Slate explains that “the phrase was confined to Illinois high-school ball until 1982, when CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger used it during his network’s NCAA tournament coverage.” The phrase “Final Four,” meanwhile, was coined by Ed Chay, a sportswriter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

On a somewhat related note, I’d like to pose a question to you guys–how did an Academy Award get to be named an Oscar? Got any ideas? Please leave a comment and link below.

Thanks for reading,

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Thanks to everyone who submitted a Halloween Yamster or Avatar image during last week’s outage—we loved going through everyone’s submissions and had a hard time picking just one winner. As a result, we’ve chosen one Grand Prize Winner (congratulations, Cameron!), and three category winners.

Thanks again for your patience during the outage and for all the great submissions.

If you didn’t get a chance to submit a Yamster, or want to take a look at some of the other nominees, be sure to stop by the Flickr pool, found here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/answershalloween/pool/

Grand Prize Winner – (500 points)

Cameron

Category Winners – (100 points)

Spookiest, X-Ellen-X

Best Effects,TechOfAJob

Best Classic Costume, ☸ ☥ ♡ ☮ ☯,

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Photo by elana

As the leaves on the trees transition from green and gold to bright oranges and reds, my cravings shift from ice cream and cold sandwiches to soups and baked goodies. It’s time to fire up the oven instead of the barbecue, and to bake with reckless abandon. Along with the perk of fresh baked bread, cookies, and pumpkin muffins, the house smells delicious and the heat from the oven cozily warms up the place.  I especially like to add cloves to my autumn dishes, for that slightly warmer, spicier flavor. Fall cooking combines the delicious with the necessary. Our house isn’t all sugar and carbohydrates, however–I’m also a soup fiend.

There’s nothing that warms the body and soul like a bowl of soup on a chilly day, and I’m a fan of soups from around the world. I make borscht with fresh beets from our community-supported agriculture (CSA) box, which is enough to convert any beet-averse person to come to the purple side. I have my own version of chicken soup, where the secret ingredient isn’t just love, but also liberal amounts of ginger, a jalapeno pepper, and garlic. It comforts the soul, soothes the stomach, and is just what the doctor ordered whether or not you’re feeling under the weather. Just this last weekend, I was at the New York State Sheep and Wool festival, and had the most amazing lamb and barley soup, which I’m hoping to replicate at home.

I’m also experimenting with a recipe for Pho, the Vietnamese beef and noodle soup, but I haven’t quite perfected it yet. I love experimenting with recipes, because when they work out well, it’s amazing, and when my experiments in gastronomy end up to be disasters, they make for great stories.  We have a fully stocked take-out menu drawer for just these types of occasions.

What are you cooking this fall season?

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Hey Guys,

Halloween is upon us, and if you’re anything like me, you’ll want to watch a few scary movies to help celebrate. This year, I wanted to have a kind of theme to the spooky madness, so I decided to watch movies that have at least one thing in common–the Wilhelm scream.

The Wilhelm scream is an iconic sound effect that’s been used in dozens of films that have little else in common. It was originally used in a film called “Distant Drums” starring the late, great Gary Cooper. The “scream” can be heard when a character is torn to pieces by an alligator. There’s nothing particularly amazing about the scream, and it might have languished in obscurity had it not been for Star Wars sound wizard Ben Burtt.

Hollywood Lost and Found offers up an interesting blog post on Burtt’s fascination with the scream. Burtt had been hired to create the sound effects for Star Wars (the original). While at Warner Bros. Studios hunting for different effects, “he found the original “Distant Drums” scream.” Burtt called it the Wilhelm scream in honor of the character that bellowed the scream in another movie called “Charge at Feather River.”

In the years since Burtt first inserted the scream into Star Wars (you can hear it when Luke Skywalker shoots a Storm Trooper in the Death Star), the sound designer has put it in a slew of other films, including the Star Wars sequels, and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” But Burtt isn’t the only audio expert to slip it into films. Other sound designers have used it in films ranging from “Batman Returns” to “There’s Something About Mary” to “Aladdin.” Indeed, the Wilhelm Scream has become one of Hollywood’s ultimate “in-jokes.” Or maybe it’s just a cliche. Either way, you can watch a compilation of many of the screams here.

So, what Wilhelm films will I be watching on Halloween? Surprisingly, not that many of ‘em are horror flicks. However, “Poltergeist” definitely hits the mark. And, if I get desperate, I can always watch “Howard the Duck.” That one’s about as scary as they get.

Thanks for reading,

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