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Worst-Case Wednesday: How to Maneuver on Top of a Moving Train and Get Inside

With the release of the new Bond film Skyfall, I cannot help but nostalgically recall many of the insane physical feats James Bond exhibits in the Bond films.

For example, who hasn’t wanted the chance to maneuver on top of a train and try to get inside one of the cars? Possibly while fighting someone? Of course, it’s easier said than done. I’d probably lose my balance instantaneously, and fall from the speeding train. I’m definitely more of a fit for a Jackass film, rather than a James Bond one. .

Oh well, these exciting instructions from The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht doesn’t stop me from dreaming of succeeding nonetheless!

Posted by Justin Boyer

Worst Case-Wednesday: How to Evade a Stampede of Shoppers

After stuffing yourself guiltlessly on Thanksgiving, you must prepare your battle strategy for Black Friday. Every year, you run the risk of having your battle plans thwarted by a mad frenzy of shoppers. If you’re at Costco, there is also the added risk of being crushed flat by those very heavy, Hummer-like shopping carts.

I know I’ll need some good tactics to help stealthily weed through crowds of frenzied shoppers, and try to snatch any remaining boxes of the new Nintendo Wii-U.

With this advice from The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Holidays by David Borgenicht and Joshua Piven, you can even evade the craziest flock of rampant Wal-Mart shoppers on Black Friday!

Posted by Justin Boyer

Worst Case Wednesday: How to Avoid a Vampire Attack

Thanks to Twilight, people have ceased to believe that vampires are blood-thirsty murderers. Bella Swan would have been long dead if she tried dating Dracula.

Anyways, anyone watching Breaking Dawn Part 2 is far more vulnerable to being attacked by vampires after leaving the midnight showing. Who knows if vampires are studying popular culture’s opinion of vampires, and changing their disarming disguise accordingly?

It’s best not to go to the cinema unprepared, as your vampire killer might very well be wearing body shimmer! Here is some insider advice from The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Extreme Edition by David Borgenicht and Joshua Piven that will help you avoid these intelligent killers.

Posted by Justin Boyer

Six Of My Favorite Mini-Series From The 80s

I started reading comic books that I bought off the spinner racks in grocery stores in the 1980s. Back then, mini-series were going through a thing. They were important. The original Wolverine mini-series, for example, is what turned Logan from a berserk brute into a more nuanced character.

So here are six mini-series I bought back then that I’ll never forget. In chronological order.

Posted by Brady Dale

Remembering Book It!: National Young Readers’ Week

Photo via Doobybrain

Remember those childhood trips to Pizza Hut — that greasy pizza justified by the fact that you were picking up a Book It! star? Those hologram buttons proudly displayed on your Jansport? How many of you thought that this program was long gone, that the program dissolved when buttons went out of style and the Boxcar Children stopped going on adventures?

Well, believe it or not, the Boxcar Children are still going on adventures and the Book It! program is still thriving. This week marks the 23rd year of National Young Readers’ Week — an event co-founded by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. That’s right — stuffed crust meets Washington, D.C.

The Book It! program has evolved a bit since the mid-80s — minutes and books are logged online and this year, in addition to the Pizza Hut sponsorship, Book It! is partnered with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Today’s Book It! program even features a lemur named Dewey who teaches card-holding young readers how to utilize their library.

Visit the Book It! website to learn more, and relive a bit of your childhood.

Posted by Danielle Mohlman

The Comic Strip Origin of Sadie Hawkins Day

Acne-ridden and braces-clad, my nerdy high school self was always the one to ask the guy to Prom. And Homecoming. And Winter Formal. But every March, my girl-asks-out-the-guy pattern was no longer perceived as odd and was adopted by every girl in school. The Sadie Hawkins Dance. The stuff of Relient K songs. And proposals on Leap Day. But this holiday — yes, holiday — is actually meant to take place in the middle of November.

Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of Hekzebiah Hawkins — one of Dogpatch’s earliest settlers in Al Capp’s comic strip Li’l Abner. (I know, I know. You all thought I was giving you an actual history lesson.) Described as the “homeliest gal in all them hills,” Sadie was still a spinster at 35 (gasp!) when her father rounded up all the unmarried men in Dogpatch, challenging them to a foot race. The men would be given a head-start before Sadie started running. Whichever man she caught would have to marry Sadie.

Though the original race took place on November 15, 1937, the spinsters of Dogpatch loved this idea so much, they banded together to make Sadie Hawkins day an annual event, celebrated every year on the Saturday following November 9.

So ladies, this November 10th go run after a guy in an empty field. Or just ask a fella to dinner.

Posted by Danielle Mohlman