Photos

It’s funny how words change in meaning. A 1990 fashion headline tells us, Givenchy and Valentino Revel in Luxury. Now, the 2007 photo caption below informs us, Revellers wrestle in chocolate…

I started noticing a couple of months ago that every news photo caption we had from the running of the bulls in Pamplona contained the word revellers, even when folks were about to revel under a bull’s hoofprint stamped on their faces.

I did a caption search and found 200 shots of revellers from the past 90 days, mostly of people wallowing in mud, beer, foam, wine, sweat and worse. I don’t know, but it seems to me revelry was more fun back when you didn’t have to be hosed off afterwards.

Revellers wrestle in chocolate during the one-week, round-the-clock Sziget (’Island’) Music Festival on an island in the Danube river, in Budapest August 13, 2007. REUTERS/Laszlo Balogh

The photo taken by a Reuters photographer of maintenence on Big Ben would make a wonderful jigsaw puzzle!!! Let me know when it happens.

Debbie M.

Okay: GBU Editor

REUTERS photo by Stephen Hird

Quick quiz: mayonnaise is a common ingredient in…

a) a margarita cocktail
b) spaghetti
c) fondue
d) pancakes

Sorry, this was sort of a trick question. We’ll accept “none of the above” if you’re a regular human being, or “all of the above” if you’re a “mayoler” - a mayonnaise-obsessed fanatic in Japan.  So, settle back, mix yourself up a very dry “mayotini,” dunk your doughnut in a family-size jar of Hellmann’s, and read Yoko Nishikawa’s report:

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“Mayoty Dog”, which tastes like the vodka-based cocktail Salty Dog but is served in a glass with mayonnaise on its rim instead of salt, is pictured at the “Mayonnaise Kitchen” restaurant in western Tokyo, August 9, 2007.  REUTERS/Michael Caronna

When I was growing up back in Indiana, we had a few firm rules in our home. No eating candy in the morning, always make your bed, and never put a live cobra head-first into your mouth. My sister did that once, and let me tell you, our mama wouldn’t let us play in the snake drawer again for a month!

This is why I was so shocked to see this photo. Hasn’t anyone ever told him that cobras do not work well for flossing, or that when a cobra and a human tongue go up against each other, it always ends up pretty much the same way?

Well, that’s where flouting the rules will get you. I’ll bet he doesn’t make his bed, either.

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Snake charmer Sajal Biswas puts the head of a cobra into his mouth at a roadside in Agartala, capital of India’s northeastern state of Tripura, August 8, 2007. REUTERS/Jayanta Dey

Identical twin sisters Connie (L) and Kendra Millar from Niagra Falls, Ontario, pose under matching umbrellas during the final day of the 32nd annual Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio August 5, 2007… REUTERS

I noticed a spelling error in a cutline for one of your photographs. The city is actually spelled Niagara Falls, not Niagra.

Heather

Unfortunately, this is the second spelling correction we had to do for that series of photos: GBU Editor

Reuters has hit a new low! You have a photo tied to the New Jersey triple murder story, but someone took it upon themself to allow an advertisement that does not have a “click to close” button or “X” on it right in front of the picture!

Michael L.

That wasn’t a human decision, it was a bug in a new slideshow program. It’s been fixed: GBU Editor

Okay, this is a no-brainer. It turns out Chinese police arrested three traffickers who tried to smuggle 12 teenagers out of the country by passing them off as martial arts performers from the famed Shaolin Temple. You know, the guys who do impossible stuff like the man in this recent posting, the amazing stuff you see on TV and in the movies.

I mean, it may be easy to pass yourself off as a dentist or a florist, but let’s all put our heads together and see if we can imagine a way to spot dudes who are dimwitted enough to claim to be Shaolin martial arts performers.

“Okay boys, listen up! Nobody leaves here until the back of their head touches both their ankles. Then we’ve got the pitchfork test, the very big headache test, and the walking up the 16-foot wall test. If you pass all those, bon voyage.” Here’s the story:

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A Chinese Shaolin monk performs during a show in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality June 22, 2007. REUTERS/Stringer

Blog guy, I’ve been reading your advice about things such as belly dancing, contortionism, snake handling, voluntary mutilation and other respected careers, and I’m wondering if you could suggest some areas of study that I might not have considered?

Have you thought about the field of competitive beauty pageantry? We have some photos from a “school” in Bolivia that prepares young women for a long and rewarding career of tiara-wearing. If you can smile for no reason whatsoever, and your name ends in an “i” even though it probably shouldn’t - Bambi, Brandi, Randi, Candi, etc. - you may have royal potential. Think about it.

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Models receive instruction in etiquette from a teacher at Producciones Gloria beauty school in Santa Cruz August 8, 2007. Producciones Gloria is Bolivia’s leading school for beauty contestants and models, and prepares girls from Paraguay as well. REUTERS/David Mercado

Anybody in advertising will tell you, do what you can to hook the customer. Now, take this watermelon salesman in the picture. I’ll bet buyers flock to him, because he’s got an act.

“Judy, we’re not getting our fruit from those other guys with no melons on their heads, and not even from that fella with only one melon. No, we’re doing business with the one who can balance two melons, until somebody comes along who can do three…”

Of course, maybe it’s all just a sad trick. What if that’s just a very elaborate haircut, or he has a spike through the melons, or what if they’re some of those fancy helium melons we’ve all read about? All we know for certain about this dude is, he arrives at the market looking like this, in a car with an open sunroof. Hmmmm…..

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A Palestinian vendor balances watermelons on his head to attract customers in the West Bank city of Ramallah July 30, 2007. REUTERS/Loay Abu Haykel

The next time you walk into Saks Fifth Avenue, let your nose direct you to the sales counter.
    The upscale retailer will soon start selling two perfumes named for its New York flagship store: Saks Fifth Avenue for Her and Saks Fifth Avenue for Him.
    The scents were created by Bond No. 9, a New York perfume house that makes fragrances dedicated to the fashion capital’s neighborhoods. For instance, its line of scents include Chinatown, Chelsea Flowers and Coney Island.
    “This marks the first time a specialty store has ever commissioned a perfumery to design scents,” said Deborah Walters, Saks Fifth Avenue general merchandise manager for cosmetics.
    The fragrance for men has an aqua scent with touches of Sicilian bergamot, amber and cedarwood, while the perfume for women includes jasmine and smooth vanilla, a news release said.
    The fragrances, packaged in bottles patterned after Saks Fifth Avenue’s white-on-black logo, will be available at Saks stores nationwide and at Bond No. 9’s four New York outlets. The fragrance for men will debut in September, with the one for women arriving in October.
    As you might expect, the perfumes will cost a pretty penny: $125 for a 1.7 ounce bottle and $185 for the 3.4 ounce version.