Nerve and IFC present The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time. (Many with video clips.)

Michael Chabon examines superhero costumes in this New Yorker article.

Garfield Minus Garfield is the blog that asks the question, "Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?"

Stuff White People Like is the blog devoted to stuff that white people like.

Charles Fawcett died in London on February 3rd. He was 92. You may have heard of him from the book and movie Charlie Wilson's War, but as this Telegraph obituary shows, the war in Afghanistan was only a part of Fawcett's amazing life. One example:

"In Paris Fawcett also took part in the rescue of a group of British prisoners-of-war who had been placed under French guard in a hospital ward by the Germans. By impersonating a German ambulance crew, Fawcett and a comrade marched in at 4am and ordered the French nurses to usher the PoWs out into the yard. "Gentlemen," he announced as he drove them away, "consider yourself liberated."

"You're a Yank," said a British voice.

"Never," came Fawcett's lilting southern burr, "confuse a Virginian with a Yankee."

Eric Rauchway explains the similarities between the Nixon and Bush administrations in this New Republic article.

Ten Star Wars Toys that Unintentionally Look Like Other Celebrities

Eric Rauchway explains how American political coalitions fall apart in this New Republic article. According to Rauchway, Republican "coalitions fall apart because they can't govern." While Democratic coalitions fail "because the party has overreached after governing successes."

The best book I've read recently is Steve Martin's memoir "Born Standing Up." In this excerpt from the book published in Smithsonian Magazine, Martin discusses his approach to comedy and his appearances on the Tonight Show. The article also includes a great story about Elvis Presley. You can watch Martin's breakthrough Tonight Show performance by following the link at the top of the article. It's worth watching, particularly because it begins with Johnny Carson wearing an amazing suit.

This New York Times article explains the origin of the fortune cookie.

"Some 3 billion fortune cookies are made each year, almost all in the United States. But the crisp cookies wrapped around enigmatic sayings have spread around the world. They are served in Chinese restaurants in Britain, Mexico, Italy, France and elsewhere. In India, they taste more like butter cookies. A surprisingly high number of winning tickets in Brazil's national lottery in 2004 were traced to lucky numbers from fortune cookies distributed by a Chinese restaurant chain called Chinatown.

But there is one place where fortune cookies are conspicuously absent: China.

Now a researcher in Japan believes she can explain the disconnect, which has long perplexed American tourists in China. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan."

The world's flags given letter grades

For the sixth straight year, Fimoculous has compiled his list of Best of the Year Lists.

Stephen Colbert voted Celebrity of the Year by the Associated Press.

Kermit the Frog covers the Talking Heads song Once in a Lifetime in this YouTube video.

The writers of The Daily Show have made a special writer's strike version of The Daily Show at a New York City picket line.

Malcolm Gladwell argues that criminal profiling is a hoax in this New Yorker article.

Follow this link to watch the first high definition television video of the moon taken by the Japanese lunar explorer KAGUYA.

As this Wall Street Journal article explains, with the increased popularity of genealogical research, the demand for the work done by historical photo detectives has increased.

"Maureen Taylor has dated a photograph to 1913 by studying the size and shape of a Lion touring car's headlamps. Armed with her collection of 19th-century fashion magazines, she can pinpoint the brief period when Victorian women wore their bangs in tight curls rather than swept back. Using a technique borrowed from the CIA, she identified a photo of Jesse James by examining the shape of his right ear."

"How the Edwardians Spoke" is a BBC documentary on how British accents have changed over the last 100 years. You can watch the hour-long program here on Google Video.

According to this article from The Hill, Democrats are optimistic about their chances in the 2008 Minnesota congressional elections.

"The entry of a trio of top Democratic candidates into races in the state’s three GOP-held House districts in the past 10 days has spurred talk of turning Minnesota into the Massachusetts of the Midwest, electing a congressional delegation that could mirror the all-Democratic slate representing arguably the most liberal state in the Union.

Whether or not the Democrats can achieve such a tall order, the state has quickly turned into a battleground, with as many as half its congressional seats up for grabs in 2008."