Links of the Day - 12/12/11

Happy monday, folks.  I won't bore you with my weekend rundown, so onto today's links.

1.  Santa Speedo Run
 An annual rite of passage for Bostonians looking for a reason to dress scantily in December, get drunk, and run 3 miles while euro holiday shoppers awkwardly gawk at them while walking down Newbury Street (for a good cause, I should add), the Santa Speedo Run occurred this past weekend.  Contrary to popular opinion, this is not me.  My doppelganger needs to lose a few more pounds and gain a lot more chest hair if he wants to accurately impersonate me, though the aviator sunglasses, "double thumbs up," and blank/stupid expression on his face definitely has several of my friends fooled.

2.  Street signs spelled wrong
This one is for my readers from Haverhill, MA.  I'm afraid you can't get any more unintelligent than that....

3.  Blackwater gets a name change
"Hey guys - you think if we just changed our name, brought in a new board of directors, and fired a few people, 99% of the US population might forget how evil we were during that whole Iraq/Afghanistan thing??"
       -CEO of Blackwater

4.  Hulk Hogan and Brutus the Barber Beefcake were more than wrestling friends? (via With Leather)

So Linda Hogan is claiming that her ex husband had a sexual relationship with his tag team wrestling mate, Brutus the Barber Beefcake.  Say it ain't so, guys (not that there's anything wrong with that).  On a personal note, I believe my "ambition" listed in my high school yearbook was "to become a professional wrestler in the mold of Brutus the Barber Beefcake."  For some reason, I thought this was funny back in 1998, most likely due what I presumed to be an obscure wrestler reference, and because I actually aspired to be a greco-roman olympic wrestler as opposed to a WWE wrestler.  Perhaps Ravishing Rick Rude would have been more funny, in hindsight.

Please feel free to provide your own innuendo joke.  Here are a few to get you started: I guess the "suplex" doesn't only happen in the squared circle.  Or....this takes the term "tag team" to a whole new level.

5.  What we really know about Ryan Braun

Excellent take on the Braun/P.E.D.s situation from @jonahkeri over at Grantland.  At this point, we all know the story.  Ryan Braun blah blah blah synthetic testosterone blah blah blah 50 game suspension blah blah blah appealing blah blah blah.  Tough bid for MLB, which considered Braun one of the poster boys for post-Mitchell Report baseball.  Even tougher break for the Jewish population, who now only have Kevin Youkilis and a retired Shawn Green to look up to (am I forgetting others?)

6.  Most shared ads of 2011 (via youtube, via mashable, via unruly?)
My favorites, in no order of significance:

#5.  There is something about the Kia Hamsters that always cracks me up; I feel like an easy crowd.  I think it has something to do with a "Hamsterdam/The Wire" reference in there, but I have still failed to connect the dots.  What if they did an episode of The Wire using those hamsters?  Instant comedy.

#12.  Pretty funny concept.  My favorite couple was the pair in pink (such a contrast from the bikers) and the 65 year old woman with her son who it appears had her first sip of beer ever at the 1:27 mark.

#13.  I still don't believe this ad is real.  If it is, it's an absolute 10 on the "unintentional comedy" scale, and rivals just about any discount furniture store tv spot.

#17.  This is just impressive.

7.  Nets owner to run against Putin
An absolute battle of the titans, this is like Ivan Drago vs Ivan Drago.  This should be interesting to say the least.  I have more comments about this, but sadly, I also have more work to do....