The Frozen Dead

When I was a kid and we only had five channels, it seemed that "The Frozen Dead" was on every Saturday.

This movie came out in 1967, the same year I was born, and apparently was snorted at even then, for good reason.

It involved frozen Nazis, a beheaded house guest, and most fascinating to little kid me, a pegboard full of disembodied arms that would move when commanded.

In this era of 500 channels, how is it I can't find even one showing "The Frozen Dead"? Truly, our world is poorer for it.

What cats think

Man, truer cat words were never spoken. (I Can Has Cheezburger link.)

No-Knead Bread gets even faster!

I've raved about the uber-popular No-Knead Bread, popularized by the New York Times. You used to have to start it the night before you wanted to bake.

No longer. Now there's an even quicker version. And a whole-wheat version of that faster version.

Swirlmallows

When I was in college, I had to create a product and then do a whole advertising campaign around it. I created flavored marshmallows, called Kissmallows, the idea being that you wanted them to melt into your cocoa and they would add a little extra flavor.

Of course there have been fruit-flavored marshmallows for a long time, but I never saw Swirlmallows until this weekend, when I picked up a bag of chocolate-vanilla Swirlmallows. They are all kind of melted together in the bag, and they were on a marked-down shelf. I guess they were a limited-edition...maybe they're on their way out.

Oh, and searching for "Swirlmallows" led me to this Cookie Frog "recipe." Heh.

At the Taco! Taco Doritos!

Somehow I just want to sing the title of this post to "Copacabana."

Anyway, PCJM is still the first result when you search on "Taco Doritos," and people are still finding that ancient post and commenting on it.

So I may as well try and update it by announcing that tonight I bought a bag of Taco Doritos at Safeway. The bag has that kind of weird Halloweeny scratched-in-the-restroom-wall font and proclaims "They're Back!"

We tried them, and they tasted fine to me, but Rob says they're still not the same. I fear it's like Jell-o Pudding Pops...when something gets yanked off the market, they lose the recipe or destroy the equipment or something. Then when popular demand brings the product back, it's a lame imitation of the original and never again attains the popularity it once had. Kind of like the new "90210."

Also, remember when Doritos bags were uber-basic, like this? Now they're all blazing colors and screechy fonts and if they were music, they'd be death metal.

Shameless plug

My husband wrote an app for the iPhone! It's called Zip Code Decoder, and if you buy it from the iPhone store (for a measly $1.99), it tells you what zip code you're in as well as the nearest four other zip codes to you.

This may seem like kind of a novel bit of randomness, but his idea was that it would come in handy when you wanted to use one of the many online apps that require a zip code -- ones that give you movie listings and the like -- but when you were not at home, so had no idea what your zip code is. (I know zip code is properly writtten ZIP code, but man, that bugs me.)

Plus it is kind of fun to just be riding around and to know when you travel from your zip code into your friend's zip code. But then I am easily entertained.

It apparently works for postal codes all over the world, too. Yay, Rob!

Loving Care Sez Yer Old

Matt of Scrubbles fame has some of the best Flickr sets I've ever seen, many highlighting a retro theme or showcasing vintage ads.

His Housewife Magazine Ads of the 70s set is one of my favorites, including "Loving Care Sez Yer Old" (apparently everyone over 25 must dye their hair), these Stepford Wife Breck Girls (I totally remember that ad series), and some really bitchin' pink bell bottoms...from Sears!

Thanks, Matt, for sharing all these.

Monster mash

Matt at X-Entertainment is running his always-entertaining Halloween Countdown, and he spotlighted the Halloween Play-Doh Party Kit.

Says Matt: "I first thought that this Play-Doh “Halloween Party Kit” would end up being one of those things with a really cool box and really boring contents, but I was so insanely wrong that I feel I deserve some length of jail time."

I'm also intrigued by Matt's take on the Cocoa Krispies Haunted House Kit.

Cookie time

Not Martha taste-tests Oreos, Hydrox and Newman-Os.

I think I'd put Oreos at the top, but Newman-Os are pretty darn close (RIP, Paul Newman). Hydrox to me don't even belong in the same taste test. I'd probably rank all the other chocolate sammich cookies in your grocer's aisle higher than the Drox.

Creepiest show EVER

BBCA documentary called "My Fake Baby," about real women who pretend to be moms to super creepy realistic baby dolls.

UGH. I can't even look at the photos on this page without shuddering.

1970s decorating on a budget

I say I miss the 1970s just about once a week, but then I look at remnants of that decade and think "Hmm, maybe I don't really miss it as much as I think."

Do not do not do NOT miss the chair shaped like a giant mouth with teeth. Yeah, that won't traumatize the kids. No wonder our generation is so alienated.

Candy corn Corn Pops

Too bad they don't make these candy corn-flavored Corn Pops anymore. But I guess you could just eat a bowl of sugar instead.

A-tar-i!

I love this: Modern video games if they had those quaint Atari box designs we all loved in the 1980s.

(Via Boing Boing.)

Halloween's version of the Yule Log

Instead of having the peaceful Yule Log burning on your TV at Christmas, you might choose to get your Halloween fun started early with this DVD that plays spooky (?) Halloween scenes, such as graveyards or random pumpkins.

Matt of X-Entertainment reviews it in his usual hilarious way.