Today at Flavorpill, we smiled after learning about John Lennon’s crazy cat lady side and members of his kitty family, including Elvis and Jesus. We were impressed with and giddy over this documentary about VHS culture and couldn’t wait to get home to watch a few tapes. We got hungry reading BuzzFeed’s list of taco-related crimes. We thought this Neil LaBute exhibition sounded appropriately subversive. We tried to imagine a world with a nationwide tooth-brushing law and lots of ponies after reading Time‘s story on Vermin Supreme. We wondered about The New Yorker‘s article on women in fashion that got under Refinery29′s skin. We wished Liquipel had been around last time we spilled coffee on our phone. We saw what happens to our luggage once it leaves our hands at the airport. We watched The Hobbit get sweded. We wanted to live like Downtown Abbey for a day. We imagined what it was like for an agoraphobic to hit the road and meet 325 Facebook friends. And finally, we loved time travelling in San Francisco with this impressive interactive map.

Oh, sure, it’s easy to hit “unfollow” on Twitter, but for some reason, pulling the plug on Facebook friends is more difficult — perhaps because the terminology of “unfriending” actually forces you to admit that your relationship with that junior-high volleyball buddy is over. With that in mind, it’s illuminating to learn what drives people to unfriend: over 55 percent of respondents to a new Nielsen survey will boot an acquaintance who makes offensive comments, while 41 percent will dismiss someone they just don’t know well (which raises the question of why they accepted the person’s friend request in the first place). Meanwhile, Nielsen also learned that the single most important factor in adding a friend is knowing them in real life — which may seem obvious, but does give us a little bit of hope that social media isn’t entirely exploding the boundary between real-world friendships and virtual ones. See the entire infographic and learn more about the study at Nielsen. [via Gawker]

Every year, the American Dialect Society chooses a word of the year — and they’re not the only ones. This week, we found out that Merriam-Webster has already chosen their own word of the year: “pragmatic,” which we’re not sure reflects the state of the nation. The American Dialect Society chooses their word of the year based on the following criteria: the word must be “demonstrably new or newly popular in 2011, widely and/or prominently used in 2011, indicative or reflective of the popular discourse and not a peeve or a complaint about overuse or misuse.” They also stipulate that “Multi-word compounds or phrases that act as stand-alone lexical items are also welcomed.” To give you a better idea: last year, the world they picked was “app.” We’ve come up with a list of a few of our nominees for possible words of the year, but of course there are many more — let us know which words you would nominate in the comments! Read More »

Remember a few years back when a blogger called Firmuhment created an illustrated guide to different websites as food? We absolutely loved it. Now Caldwell Tanner of CollegeHumor has gone the equally entertaining, although far geekier route, and assigned some of the Internet’s most popular destinations with corresponding Justice League characters; for example, Facebook with its “utility belt full of newsfeeds, sidebars, and other pointless gadgets,” is Batman, “an eccentric young billionaire whose company is used by basically everyone.” Arch nemeses? 4Chan and Tumblr. Now that you get the gist, click through to find out if you agree with the rest of his picks. Read More »

Occupy Wall Street and the deaths of Osama bin Laden, Steve Jobs, and Amy Winehouse may have been among the year’s biggest news stories — but not on Facebook. The social networking monolith has published a list of  2011′s 40 most shared articles, and none of those topics makes the top ten. While the #1 story — The New York Times‘ satellite photos of the Japan earthquake — is hard to argue with, the rest of the list includes two pieces on the “new zodiac signs” hoax, three animal curiosities, something called “Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps,” and, of course, “You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook.” Puzzle over the ten most-shared stories of 2011 after the jump, then visit Facebook’s blog for the entire top 40.

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While we’ve previously given you a look inside some of your favorite social media companies, earlier today Laughing Squid tipped us off to an interesting development; Aakash Nihalani — a Brooklyn-based tape artist who we recently featured here — has been commissioned by Facebook to create geometric paper tape installations in its new office in New York City. The results are pretty awesome, if you’re into neon-colored eye candy; in fact, we’re hoping that the decorating team here at Flavorpill HQ see this and takes notice. Click through to get a better look.

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1. In what many UK papers are calling “the real Slumdog Millionaire,” 27-year-old Sushil Kumar, a poor government clerk from Bihar, has become the first person to win 50 million rupees (worth over $1 million), on an Indian game show. [via Guardian]

2. Earlier in the week, Keith Richards and Johnny Depp played a cover of “Key to the Highway” at the after-party for Depp’s new film, The Rum Diary. Watch a clip of their impromptu performance here.

3. Reality TV star Tonya Cooley, who most recently appeared on The Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins, is suing MTV, Bunim/Murray Productions, and her co-stars Kenny Santucci and Evan Starkman; according to her claims, the men sexually assaulted her with a toothbrush while she lay unconscious and the cameras remained rolling. [via TMZ]

4. Anger Management, the new sitcom based on the Adam Sandler comedy of the same name that Charlie Sheen has been shopping around since getting fired from Two and a Half Men, has finally found a home at FX. The network has ordered 10 episodes of the series, which it plans to premiere next summer. [via Vulture]

5. In case you’re as confused as we are by all of the recent changes, Gawker explains what Facebook’s new “trusted friend” category really means.

Bonus Buzz: Halloween Costumes No One Will Get But You

Here’s an uncontroversial opinion: I like Facebook. My affection for the social network is primarily one of laziness — I like the fact that I can just post stuff there instead of having to bother to, y’know, keep in touch with relatives and old friends. Saves hours of awkward telephone conversation. But it’s not just a question of practicality; there are wise and witty Facebook users out there (maybe you’re one of them!), people who’ve formulated the proper elixir of macro and micro, sharing thought-provoking links and posting charming photos and composing wry and pithy status messages.

But some people are, simply put, doing it wrong, and the situation is getting out of control. It’s time we get together and agree on a few common sense rules of the online road, some little irritants that are becoming more commonplace and threatening, as my teachers used to say, to ruin it for everyone. The soul who speaks up to voice these complaints risks being called a curmudgeon and sounding like some kind of Millennial Andy Rooney. So be it. I’ll take the hit. After the jump, a few not-unreasonable “requests” (hey, see what I did there?) for Facebook etiquette.

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1. Thanks to the success of Duets II, 85-year-old singer Tony Bennett is now the oldest living person to top the Billboard 200. The previous record holder? Bob Dylan. [via NME]

2. Lady Gaga is suing a Chicago-based company that has been marketing a jewelry and cosmetics line that has nothing do with her but is called “Lady Gaga by Design.” Meanwhile, she’s still waiting for the United States Patent and Trademark Office to approve her own claims on her name. [via Vulture]

3. Tony-winning actress Sutton Foster has been cast in Bunheads, the new pilot from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino. She’ll play Michelle, “a Las Vegas showgirl who impulsively marries a man and moves to his sleepy coastal town, taking a role at her mother-in-law’s dance school.” [via THR]

4. IFC has announced the premiere date for Season 2 of Portlandia (January 9!), along with an impressive list of some of the guest stars who we can expect to see, which includes Jack McBrayer, Andy Samberg, and Kristen Wiig. [via CinemaBlend]

5. Here are some photos and videos from last night’s instantly sold-out Radiohead concert at Roseland Ballroom, the first of two shows there this week. We have no idea how long the latter will stay up, so watch ‘em while you can.

Bonus Buzz: Hack Your Facebook Cover Art

You’re amongst friends, so it’s OK to admit that you cried like a baby during Mad Men’s episode The Wheel, where Don Draper pitches a serious tearjerker of a campaign to Kodak. The whole episode is full of existential drama, but someone made it smile-worthy. Eric Leist pondered the new Facebook changes and compared them to what made Kodak’s Carousel popular. “Reminiscing is a social activity. It always has been and now Facebook is bringing that activity online,” he writes. Hit the video to find out what Don has to say about the new Facebook timeline.

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