(CBS Houston/AP) – Barbara Garcia, a woman who thought she had lost it all found one of the things most precious to her while being interviewed on live television – her pet dog, buried alive under the rubble of her former home. Tornado survivor Barbara Garcia was relating her harrowing tale of survival to CBS News, recalling in a deliberate voice the details of feeling her house coming down around her as the storm wreaked havoc on the area. “I was sitting on the stool, holding my dog … this was the game plan all through the years … to go in that little bathroom,” she said, recalling to CBS…Read more

(PCM) At the 2013 Memorial Cup opening ceremonies, the crowd heard an unusual version of the United State’s national anthem. You can blame it on nerves, the excitement of singing before a large crowd or not spending enough time checking out the lyrics. Alexis Normand, a jazz and folk singer from Saskatoon, sang much of the admittedly difficult song fairly well, but mixed up some of the lyrics in the middle, and kept on going with random phrases from the American National anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner,” until the finish. The crowd cheered her attempt and she later tweeted an apology. It was pretty cool of the Canadian crowd to…Read more

(PCM) Thursday, April 18th 2013 is Tax Freedom Day, the day that the money that Americans earn that stops going into the government and you get to keep the rest. From January first, until April 18, on average, every cent you will make this year went into local, state and federal taxes. Today you are free! April 15th is the day that tax returns (tax reports to the gov’t) are due. You can file for an extension here to get a few more months, but you need to make sure all monies due are paid by the 15th to avoid additional penalties. If you drive a car, I’ll tax the…Read more

The famous Inverted Jenny postage stamp will be displayed at the DELPEX 2013 Stamp Show. By Jean Woods (PCM) The Inverted Jenny is the most famous US stamp error, with the airplane printed upside-down. A single sheet of 100 stamps was purchased by collector William T. Robey in Washington, D.C., on May 14, 1918 for $24. Robey sold the sheet on May 20 for $15,000 to Eugene Klein, a Philadelphia stamp dealer. Klein had already arranged its resale to Col. Edward H. R. Green of New York for $20,000. Green had the sheet broken up, and sold blocks and single stamps to collectors, saving a few key position blocks for…Read more

by Lars Hindsley, PCM Staff Writer What is a Meme? (PCM) What is a meme and where does come from? Ask any person what a meme is and they will most likely either stumble through the question or struggle to articulate it’s exact meaning. In fact after reading this article, have some great fun with friends. Pose the question “What is a meme?” and watch how a debate erupts as they parse the specifics. So what is a meme? It’s a device for transporting an idea through culture. Do you have an inside joke with a friend or lover? That is a meme. Have you ever played punch-buggy? It’s when…Read more

(PCM) 2012 Tuesday, April 17th is Tax Freedom Day, the day that the money that Americans earn that stops going into the government and you get to keep the rest. From January first, until yesterday, on average, every cent you will make this year went into local, state and federal taxes. That was the past 107 days of 2012. Today you are free! 2013 Tax Freedom Day and Odd Tax Trivia Here TAX TRIVIA: ► The earliest known tax was implemented in Mesopotamia over 4500 years ago, where people paid taxes throughout the year in the form of livestock, which was the typical currency at the time. ► If you…Read more

On Sunday, March 11, 2012, at 2 AM, most of the United States will set their clocks ahead one hour for the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. Residents of Arizona, Hawaii, U.S. territories Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands will not participate in the festivities. About 75 countries participate with Daylight Saving Time, according to TimeandDate.com, which is about a third of the world. It’s Just a Matter of Time Mr. “Early to Bed, Early to Rise” himself, Benjamin Franklin, is credited with the idea of Daylight Saving Time, but nobody really considered his idea in 1784. Over a century later, in 1895, George Vernon Hudson reintroduced the concept so…Read more

All of the websites affiliated with Pop Culture Madness – including celebritymagnet.com, pcm-tv.com, pcm-music.com, pcmlifestyle.com, grandmagazine.com, worldofpopculture.com, and popculturemadness.com have joined Wikipedia, and many other websites to protest SOPA, and it’s ugly little brother, PIPA on January 18, 2012. What is SOPA and how does it affect me? Our friends at BoingBoing.net said it perfectly: “We could not ever link to another website unless we were sure that no links to anything that infringes copyright appeared on that site. So in order to link to a URL on LiveJournal or WordPress or Twitter or Blogspot, we’d have to first confirm that no one had ever made an infringing link, anywhere…Read more

The original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer story was written as a giveaway for the Montgomery Ward department stores by Robert L. May in 1939. In 1949, May’s story was made into a song by Johnny Marks, who also wrote ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ and ‘Holly Jolly Christmas.’ Johnny also wrote Chuck Berry’s sequel hit ‘Run Rudolph Run.’ Rudolph The Red-Nosed reindeer is the longest-running holiday special in the world (How the Grinch Stole Christmas came out in 1969, and the Peanuts Special for ran on Thanksgiving night, 1965). There have been several changes to the broadcast version over the year. Did Yukon Cornelious really fire off his guns in…Read more