Best Of MetaFilter

Playing with cameras by magicmonkey (cc by)

MeFite yeolcoatl offers a suggestion about how to politely and respectfully tell people to put away their cameras during a wedding ceremony.

Since I study tea ceremony, I talked about the idea of ichi-go ichi-e (one time one meeting): the idea that this moment with these people will never happen again, and that that the moment should be experienced, because the feeling of looking at pictures you can have over and over again, but the feeling of being in this moment cannot ever be recaptured. I mentioned the professional photographers and that we could trust these experts to do their job, and then I asked them to put away their cameras and turn off their cellphones and invited them to share the experience of the moment with the bride and groom.

Dancers on The Judy Garland Show (1964) A few illuminating answers to a question about why some old Twilight Zone episodes can look especially creepy. Meet the term, and the MeFite, orthicon halo.

The cat is off the ledge!

I grew up without cable, and am pretty much ignorant of everything but the "classic" music videos from the 80's; please let me know what I'm missing.

An awesomely generated list of 80s videos from Ask MetaFilter. Now with playlists!

Part 1 | Part 2

Maria Callas (La Traviata)

Madamina and others outline bel canto singing to help us understand a scene in The Fifth Element.

Punchlines without jokes (cc by)

My father passed away this morning. I'm going through his file, and I came across JOKES.TXT ... which contains only the punchlines. Can the Mind please tell me the jokes?

Turns out, it could.

Rice Pudding by bgreenlee (cc by)

I ate a lot of rice pudding in WW2. Where did the rice come from?

Vintage Lion Coffee Ad by thegraphicaddict (cc by-sa)

In an AskMe trying to track down a coffee press from a screen shot MsMolly one of our local librarians, tracks down an amusing letter to the editor from an 1814 coffee nerd.

Little People 1 by bdebaca (cc by)

"I am really good at sexing small mammals." and many other job-related superpowers that MeFites have obtained.

Mutter Museum by John H. Kim (cc by)

"What other unconventional places in the world feature an equivalent mix of amazement, craziness and depth?"

From the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary by Double--M (cc by)

jamaro tells us about some interesting features of the plants we learned about in grade school.

One can also temporarily disable the insect catching ability of Drosera (sundews) and Pinguicula (butterworts) by covering their sticky surfaces with misted water or a good coating of dust but these plants' glands tend to drool their way out of that predicament within a day.

8th Night by CarbonNYC (cc by)

How do I get the wax out of this menorah?

Q: Can you help me ID this mystery building in Asia?
A: Yes! Even though it looks different today. Plus here's video of me in the neighborhood.

A Light in the Night by Zach Dischner (cc by)

MeFite Homeboy Trouble did some census data analysis of the American Community Survey to see what people were doing when they were working the afternoon/night shift.

Most of these are low paying jobs (19 of the top 20 are in the lowest quintile for wages). The top 10 occupations that are in the upper 60% for wages, by likelihood to arrive at work between 2-6 PM:
Athletes, coaches, umpires and related workers
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators and tenders, metal and plastic
Dancers and choreographers
Gaming managers
Mail sorters, processors and processing machine operators
Gaming services workers
Entertainers and performers, sports and related workers, all other
Metal furnace and kiln operators and tenders
Other teachers and instructors
Tire builders

Iguana by CyboRoZ (cc by)

Good advice for helping keep your iguana warm if the power goes out.