Cops pull over car ‘chewed up by Robosaurus’

To quote from a police report out of Canada:

Creativity: 10, legality: 0. Kelowna man loses a car fixed with a garden gate latch

It’s not the first time police have stopped a vehicle held together with duct tape and wishful thinking, but using a gate latch to close your door is a level of creativity rarely seen.

A BC Highway Patrol officer has ordered an Acura removed from the road after discovering an improvised door latch alongside a series of safety issues during a traffic stop.

On January 9, 2026, at 4:00 p.m., the police officer was doing speed enforcement on Highway #3 near Christina Lake when he stopped a grey Acura clocked at 130 km/h in an 80 zone.

“It’s amazing that this particular car could go that fast without disintegrating,” says Corporal Michael McLaughlin with BC Highway Patrol. “The owner had put in some effort to hammer out the dents and spray paint the repairs, but his car was not roadworthy. It looked like it had been chewed up by Robosaurus.”

Among a long list of required repairs, the rear window was missing and had been replaced with rebar and duct tape, and the driver’s door could not stay closed and was held together by a welded latch from a garden gate.

Jim Courier delivers for Uber Eats

The former world no. 1 tennis player stars in  a pun-packed campaign in which the term ‘living up to your name’ takes on a very literal meaning.  Also making an appearance are tennis stars Todd Woodbridge and Pat Rafter.

Link to video (60 seconds)

Link to shorts

‘The most interesting man’ is back

After a gap of almost a decade, Dos Equis has brought back its ‘Most Interesting Man in the World’ campaign.  Actor Jonathan Goldsmith reprises the role that became a sort of a cultural phenomenon.  The voiceover is as witty as ever and, as before, is helmed by Will Lyman.  And, yes, there’s also the iconic closing line (with some playful variations in the teaser ads).

   -Teaser 1: Yogurt

   -Teaser 2: Ship in a bottle

   -Teaser 3: Socks

   -He’s back

Melodrama is in the air

From the Philippines: the country’s flag carrier has a new 6 minute in-flight safety video that is inspired by the emotional narrative of local telenovelas. 

Link to video

Heinz makes dipping your fries easier

Around four months ago, Heinz noted the remarkable similarity between the shape of fry boxes across the world and the ketchup brand’s keyhole logo.  This week, once again, Heinz has drawn attention to fry boxes with an initiative that makes a compelling case for their redesign.

Link to video

Tabasco-inspired lip gloss

The hot sauce brand has collaborated with beauty care retailer Sephora to come up with a limited edition lip plumper.  To quote from the Tabasco blog:

When the plumping power of Sephora Collection’s Outrageous Plump Volume Effect Gloss meets the fiery attitude of the iconic hot sauce brand TABASCO^®, the result is a limited-edition launch that’s as bold, playful, and irresistible as the sauce itself. This unexpected partnership brings heat to the beauty world with a gloss designed to deliver shine, moisture, and visible volume.

The collaboration features Sephora’s Outrageous Plump Volume Effect Lip Gloss, infused with chili pepper extract, and formulated with hyaluronic acid to help moisturize lips, for a visibly plumper look. Behind its intense shine, the formula delivers a noticeable plumping effect on application, leaving lips smoother, fuller, and sculpted with a high-gloss finish that lasts.

Inspired by TABASCO^® Brand’s legendary sauces, the collection is available in four shades with escalating levels of plumping intensity.

Jalapeño is a clear, green-tinted gloss that applies ultra-discreet for those who prefer a subtle tingling sensation.

Sriracha offers a warm, translucent brown tone that’s smooth and balanced with a juicy kick.

TABASCO^® Red brings the heat with a bright, spicy red and glossy finish.

Extreme Heat turns things all the way up with a daring, clear black gloss, accented by plum highlights for the most fearless beauty lovers.

Truth Tickets

From Sweden: the organisers of Göteborg Film Festival 2026 are offering visitors a chance to earn tickets by passing a real lie detector test.  To quote from the promotion page on the festival website:

What is the truth worth to you? With that question, we’re putting the value of honesty to the test. That’s why we’re introducing a new way to pay for your festival pass: with truth. As a visitor, you can book a “Truth Ticket” that you pay by telling the truth, while connected to a polygraph, during a live lie detector test, in front of an audience. If you complete the test you receive a Truth Ticket, if you fail you receive nothing.

Link to promotional video

Better Safe Than Neutered

Santa’s lead reindeer is told to take a back seat in this Christmas short.

Link to video

Man arrested under 19th century anti-duelling law

To quote from a report out of Japan:

Japanese authorities applied an 1889 anti-dueling law to arrest a man over a fight that resulted in his opponent’s death in Tokyo’s red light and entertainment district, police said Friday.

The face-off took place in September on a street in the Kabukicho area of the capital after the suspect “and the dead man agreed to fight each other,” police spokesman Mitsuhiro Hirota said.

Tokyo police on Wednesday arrested Fuzuki Asari, 26, on suspicion of having “conspired with someone else” to have a duel and causing injury resulting in the death of his 30-year-old adversary, Hirota said.

The 1889 law stipulates that “anyone who has engaged in a duel shall be punished by imprisonment for no less than two years and no more than five years.”

Nabokov, on writing in English

An excerpt from his 1956 essay ‘On a Book Entitled Lolita’:

My private tragedy, which cannot, and indeed should not, be anybody’s concern, is that I had to abandon my natural idiom, my untrammeled, rich, and infinitely docile Russian tongue for a second-rate brand of English, devoid of any of those apparatuses—the baffling mirror, the black velvet backdrop, the implied associations and traditions—which the native illusionist, fractails flying, can magically use to transcend the heritage in his own way.

Christopher Walken encourages real life connection

It’s the first in a series of spots for Miller Lite.

Link to video

Fight Back

The Director’s Cut of Swisscom’s spot from last year, featuring a Hollywood-style portrayal of how a cyber threat might be warded off.

Link to video

Walrus penis bone stolen

To quote from a report out of New Jersey:

Donkey’s Place in Camden is well-known for its iconic cheesesteaks, so good Anthony Bourdain once called them the best in Philadelphia despite their location across the Delaware River.

The South Jersey bar and restaurant is perhaps less renowned for its antique walrus penis bone.

Owner Rob Lucas Jr. told NJ Advance Media that Donkey’s Place has kept a walrus baculum — a bone in the penis of many mammals — behind the bar for as long as he can remember. The popular conversation piece sits alongside a megalodon tooth and several other artifacts.

Diners often come in for cheesesteaks and drinks and ask about what the peculiar bone is. Bartenders let them take a look and a guess before revealing the answer.

But last week, a customer stole the phallic favorite, Lucas said.

“The bartender handed it out for them to figure out what it was. She went to the back to do something else and then one dude stole it,” Lucas said. “We got his picture, but I don’t think he’s from around town.”

The Happiness List

Meat & Livestock Australia’s latest annual ‘Summer Lamb Campaign’ playfully challenges the country’s ouster from a top ten ranking on the World Happiness Index.

Link to video

The Last Letter

From Denmark: a touching spot to mark the end of postal deliveries by the state-run service, PostNord.

Link to video

Penile misadventures in 2025

A short selection from Barry Petchesky’s latest annual listing, compiled from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s database of emergency room visits.

Bit by a spider on the tip of his penis.

Accidentally poked his penis while cleaning penis with a toothpick.

Put his penis in one of the holes in a shopping cart. Lacerations to penis.

Placed a plastic tea bottle neck around his penis around 10pm this evening at the instruction of his girlfriend and is not able to remove.

Was trying on a halloween costume and there was a string irritating his penis in the costume so he took scissors to cut the string and accidentally cut his penis.

Had eaten mushrooms, began to experience the hallucinations. He removed clothes, rolled around in vegetation, walked up to nature center nude. He broke through the glass with his forehead. After he exited the nature center he crushed his penis in between “a rock and a hard place.”

RIP Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Fan edit of the best of Senator Clay Davis in The Wire