Is Brad Pitt A Vampire, Too?

So by now, you’ve all heard this crazy story about a Civil War era photo featuring a man who looks eerily similar to actor Nicolas Cage. The owner of the photo seems to think Cage is a vampire who has walked the Earth for all eternity … or some such insanity. Anyway, we flipped through our Digital Gallery of 700,000 images, and found this 1857 photo from our Manuscripts and Archives Division that includes a prisoner who we think bears some resemblance to Brad Pitt (or maybe Mark Wahlberg). It’s not QUITE as close as the Cage image, but c’mon - it’s not bad. We also found images that look similar to Matt Damon and Gerard Butler. Let the conspiracy theories begin.

Lil Wayne Better Than Charles Dickens … Sort Of

In a hilarious post yesterday by The NY Times blog “The 6th Floor,” The New York Public Library was a finalist in a “minimalist, midsummer Sentence Of The Week.” The writer narrowed six nominees to two finalists:

1 - “The handle of this letter opener is the paw of Charles Dickens’s pet cat Bob.” (The New York Public Library exhibit “Celebrating 100 Years”). (Photo above by NYPL’s Jonathan Blanc)

2 - “My picture should be in the dictionary next to the definition of definition.” (Lil Wayne)

The results: “Lil Wayne refreshes a cliché by making it eat itself. Charles Dickens’s cat-paw letter opener is an instant classic among literary factoids — made infinitely better, somehow, by the fact that the cat’s name was Bob. It’s a tough call, but in the end I’m going with cleverness over reportage.”

The winner - Lil Wayne. Oh well. As they all say, it was an honor just to be nominated.

Honey Badger Don’t Care … But You Might

Did you know that The New York Public Library has a photo of the honey badger in its collections? While we’re quite sure “honey badger don’t care,” we figured you might, so we’re trying to lighten up a slow Monday by sharing it. The honey badger - made famous by a hilarious viral video that Huffington Post dubbed “the best nature video of all time” - is also known as the Ratel, and it is featured on this cigarette card in our George Arents Collection. The card was published sometime between 1922 and 1939, and as you can see from the details printed on the back (shown below), the Ratel likes to eat honey, has loose skin, feasts on poisonous snakes, and is basically immune to bee stings. So the video is totally right! The honey badgers are just CRA-zy!

There IS Life After Keith Richards!

You can’t always get what you want - but in this case, we did. You may recall the story of legendary Rolling Stones rocker Keith Richards accidentally killing an orchid belonging to Marie D’Origny, deputy director of our Cullman Center For Scholars and Writers, when he visited the Library last October. He had a cigarette in Marie’s office with the window open, and the combination of smoke and frigid air was deadly for the delicate flower. Keef was very nice about the whole thing, signing the plant’s pot (AKA - his makeshift ash tray), but Marie still lost her orchid. Fast forward a few months, and under Marie’s green thumb, the orchid has been reborn! Look how well it’s doing! So, all in all, it’s a happy ending! All are satisfied.

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

While we do hope that you see some pretty spectacular fireworks today, we at NYPL most certainly do not advise that you follow the example of this 1904 Calendar from Burr Macintosh monthly magazine in which a child inexplicably snuggles up to “an explosive.”

We love our Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection, but, sometimes…  the things people liked in the past really blow our minds.

We at NYPL hope your cookouts this holiday weekend are more cheerful than this one. Believe it or not, this is actually sheet music for a popular song from 1891 composed by Solomon Toombs. The sheet music is currently located in the music division of our Library For the Performing Arts.

I so iz not a baby! This image is from our 1939 World’s Fair collection, and shows a woman holding her kitty during the Fair’s cat show (this collection is highlighted in our critically acclaimed Biblion iPad app, which you should download for free). Happy Caturday! Love Caturday? Love this blog? Love NYPL? Send a letter to NYC elected officials and show your love! We need to fight a potentially crippling $40 million budget cut and you can really help! It literally takes 30 seconds of your time so go for it. Thank you loyal cat lovers!

Now we know what the Easter Bunny does when he’s not on duty. It’s all in this crazy German novelty card, published for Easter in 1909 and currently in our Mid-Manhattan Picture Collection. Thought we’d share for Easter 2011. If you have time between egg hunts, check out more Easter cards from our collection.

It’s a St. Patty’s Day Caturday! Dusty the cat (whose mom is a Tumblr author) gets into the spirit of things and you can, too, at NYPL. We have an exhibit called Ireland America: The Ties That Bind opening Monday at our Library for the Performing Arts. We also have plenty of Ireland-related programming planned for kids and adults this week and beyond at most of our locations, so browse through the Library’s events site and find something fun for you!

Two cats for the price of one - Cat In The Hat and one of our famous lions. It’s a double-dip Caturday. OK, OK, I know we already posted a pic of Cat In The Hat in front of our lion (which was picked up by Gothamist), but c’mon. Can you really ever get enough of this? And, besides, in this one, he’s dancing a little bit. That changes everything. Just as a reminder, the Cat In The Hat was at NYPL’s landmark 42 Street building Thursday as part of Target’s Read Across America launch. So read a book today. About cats. Happy Caturday.