Thanks, everyone! It was awesome meeting everyone and shooting this! I hope Mental Floss will have me back, because I'm headed there now, but if now's a bad time, I'll just sit in the corner and come up with 47 Ways To Stalk Mental Floss Without Them Realizing I'm There. It'll be great!
agreed this is my 2nd favorite MF guest host. Would not mind if he filled in every time John has important business to attend to. Hopefully John will finally get around to reinstating Pluto as a planet next.
Foster Andrews Lego is a brand name adjective. Much like Masonite. You don't have two Masonites, you have two Masonite sheets. You don't have two Lexans, you have two sheets of Lexan. Yes you can still say that you build out of Masonite, Lexan or Lego because they are materials but you don't say that you have several of them any more than you'd say "I built this out of steels" or "This is made of woods". Something is made of Lego or Lego bricks or blocks or possibly Lego sheets but never EVER out of "Legos".
Anders Öhlund But sometimes brand names become countable nouns. For example, it was at one time common to refer to a camera as a "Kodak". So you could ask all your friends, "Did you all bring your Kodaks?" (Or maybe, "kodaks". I'm not sure about that.) Language does what it wants. If "Lego" is used widely and frequently enough as a countable noun for long enough, it becomes a countable noun. Whether "purists" like it or not. Language evolution. It's a thing. Get over it.
ssppeellll I agree but it is also true that there has to be a conservative force that keeps it from changing too fast. If there are NO rules language has NO meaning. Also it makes more sense as a material than a countable noun. Not to mention the fact that the holder of a trademark has some legal right to how it is used. :-) Also my tirades are more silly exercises than they are serious :-P
LEDiceGlacier how did you not realise he left? They did make quite a big deal out of it, and had you not noticed he hasn't been on the channel for like 3 months? Haha
Elliott is great on Mental Floss. His comedic timing is on point and he has the perfect speaking pace to keep viewers interested without losing them to mumbled words
Okay, I have no idea who this guy is, but he's FANTASTIC! I'm never really too fond of the guest hosts (except Emily the science one) but this guy is funny!
When I started this video, I was kind of annoyed because John Green wasn't going to be hosting. But then Elliott Morgan popped up on screen and I screamed.
I think it's really refreshing to see Elliott like this. Don't get me wrong. He was great with the SourceFed crew, but all of their stuff is always so highly overacted and/or hyper. Y'know.. jumping, screaming, being overly excited and always a witty joke on their lips. I just think I like this even more.
Elliot! This was a pleasant surprise. There was something about his execution that was great compared to some of the other guests they've had on this show, whom seem to have trouble adjusting to the format of listing off facts.
Oh, it's not the channel I was going after. I went to Mental Floss to kidnap John Green. When he wasn't there, I figured I'd list it up a little. When in Rome, y'know? :)
I died at poison taster because of the Westeros comment! Thank you mental floss that made my day ^-^ Joffery's poison tester got fired after his wedding.
Snowmaking seems so normal to me, I see it every winter.. :D Oh, also! I heard of an unusual job few months ago - prefessional huggers. Cuddle people for comfort. Cute.
Elliott! I was so surprised to click on this video and see you (but presently so). I've been wondering what you've been doing since SourceFed and then BAM there you are. Hope to see you back again on Mental Floss.
I'm too young to get a paying job, but I volunteer at a natural history museum. I give tours and check people in mostly, but it's still a stranger job than most!
Funny story, when my mother moved down east from Quebec to Alberta (Canada) her English was quite poor. She didn't know the name for straw but she did know the brand name (Stone) so she once had to communicate to a waiter that she wanted a stone (straw) and kept repeating the word. It took her some time but eventually, and through some creative miming, she managed to get her straw.
It should be pointed out that the "Professional LEGO Builders" are just the leads on the project. They mostly design how the project should be constructed. They actually hire tens, sometimes hundreds, of laborers to do the actual building. And some pieces are made that are extremely large. The US Lego factory (most countries have a LEGO factory in them, LEGO is so popular that it's easier to just make them in the country that will buy them) is located in my hometown of Enfield Connecticut. It's right across the street from the back side of the pasture at my grandma's farm. A lot of my friends and family have worked for them doing various jobs including as LEGO building laborers. Oh, and it's not that well of a paying job... I mean it ain't horrible, it's above minimum wage, but still... it ain't the greatest, and it's pretty tough to do all day long. It's one of those jobs like "video game tester" that sounds awesome, but ends up being rather boring. Funny fact. Enfield CT and the neighbouring town of East Longmeadow MA are home to several big companies like that. Including Hallmark and Hasbro/Milton Bradley. And there's a LEGO daycare for employees of LEGO and Hallmark to send their kids that looks like it's built of legos.
Man, Elliott is like just as good as John. That's probably the SF fan in me talking though. I do feel he is one of the better guest hosts that Mental Floss has had though.
One of my favourite job titles is the Sagger Maker's Bottom Knocker. A job in a pottery factory for creating clay bottoms for special clay containers (saggers) used to put pottery in while it is being fired in the kiln. The bottoms would be made by knocking a lump of clay into shape using a special hoop as a guide. these would then be passed on to the Sagger Maker who would create the desired container to use of the firing of a specific item.
I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT ELLIOTT AND HOW I MISSED HIM WHILE I WATCHED TABLETALK AND THEN I CLICKED ON MENTAL FLOSS AND WAS EXPECTING JOHN BUT I GOT ELLIOTT THANK YOU MENTAL FLOSS
I am so glad to see you again, Elliott! I mean, I guess I could watch your channel, but somehow it didn't feel the same. Although, after clicking on this video and getting an awesome surprise, I think I may just have to go subscribe to your vids so I can get my fix of that awesome haircut.
It's weird hearing that snowmaking is a weird occupation when you have grown up in Maine, in a mountain town. Often conversations would have something a long the line of "I wonder if it is going to get cold enough for the mountain to make snow"
There are also the Lego builders employed by Lego themselves. Some build the originals of the models they sell as kits, some (used to) build the attractions at the Legoland amusement parks. One of the biggest was a replica of Mount Rushmore made from millions of bricks.
I used to have a unusual job. For 5 years I worked seasonally as a "Maze Master" (yup, that was on my contract), which involved making sure people were not lost in mazes. Especially before the farm closed for the night.
Speaking of deer urine, when I was in High School we weren't allowed to bring school bags during dead week or finals week (and anyone who did got their bag confiscated until the end of the day (like, really, we were all checked for bags walking into the school building)) because one year as a senior prank some people snuck in deer urine and covered one of the main student areas in it. Some of us questioned the legality of this, but as it turned out we accepted it because it prevented teachers from teaching new materials (which they weren't allowed to do) or assigning too much homework (which they tried very hard to do) during dead week. It was very easy to say "oh no! I forgot it in my bag and they took it!"
I liked the video and learned about a couple jobs I hadn't heard of before, but honestly a decent sized portion of these occupations aren't really unusual jobs at all, like crime scene cleaners and planetarium technicians.
My God! I just realized I'm old enough to remember when paper straws were common. They had a spiral seam like a paper towel core and got soggy if you left them in your drink too long.
I heard of this weird profession where you are a professional witness. Trained in identification of sea vessels and airplanes and often witness events like contract signings, deaths and executions, as well as births.
Thanks, everyone! It was awesome meeting everyone and shooting this! I hope Mental Floss will have me back, because I'm headed there now, but if now's a bad time, I'll just sit in the corner and come up with 47 Ways To Stalk Mental Floss Without Them Realizing I'm There. It'll be great!
You did a great job, Elliott! But next time, bring a drink and talk about it for a bit. :p
Elliott glad to see you around! DFTA Elliott
I cried when you left sourcefed :(
Hey Elliott, this is great!! You're such a good host and i'm glad you're making new rounds since leaving sf. Keep it up!
Love it! Good job, Elliott.
About time Mental Floss finds a host that's good at what he does. You know, besides John.
agreed this is my 2nd favorite MF guest host. Would not mind if he filled in every time John has important business to attend to.
Hopefully John will finally get around to reinstating Pluto as a planet next.
Pluto is a planet gosh darn it!
mommykrunk No it's not. LET IT GO.
But he's with Bill Gates, so it's okay. Hopefully on Vlogbrothers, he shows pictures and has stories.
Only, I wish he would stop whispering. It's hard to hear sometimes.
YOUR POKEBALL POSTER IS UPSIDE DOWN!!!!
Beat me to it
It's polish.
It's an electrode cyclops
One would think that a TH-cam channel all about knowledge and research would have taken the time to found out the right side up of the Pokéball.
Technically it's a ball, so there's no upside to it.
Elliott is by far the best guest host you've had on here, he could genuinely have his own talk show and it would be brilliant
Big fan of Elliot Morgan. Pleasant surprise to see him hosting mental floss this week.
his Phil hair cut from the rugrats is bad ass
HAHAHA! Awesome.
Legos? Excuse me for a moment...
Bricks.... THEY'RE CALLED BRICKS! LEGO BRICKS! Lego is an adjective...
The second I heard him say "Legos", I hoped someone was mad at him. Or I was going to be mad.
not if you're British. They say building out of Lego.
Foster Andrews Lego is a brand name adjective. Much like Masonite. You don't have two Masonites, you have two Masonite sheets. You don't have two Lexans, you have two sheets of Lexan. Yes you can still say that you build out of Masonite, Lexan or Lego because they are materials but you don't say that you have several of them any more than you'd say "I built this out of steels" or "This is made of woods".
Something is made of Lego or Lego bricks or blocks or possibly Lego sheets but never EVER out of "Legos".
Anders Öhlund But sometimes brand names become countable nouns. For example, it was at one time common to refer to a camera as a "Kodak". So you could ask all your friends, "Did you all bring your Kodaks?" (Or maybe, "kodaks". I'm not sure about that.)
Language does what it wants. If "Lego" is used widely and frequently enough as a countable noun for long enough, it becomes a countable noun. Whether "purists" like it or not.
Language evolution. It's a thing. Get over it.
ssppeellll I agree but it is also true that there has to be a conservative force that keeps it from changing too fast. If there are NO rules language has NO meaning. Also it makes more sense as a material than a countable noun. Not to mention the fact that the holder of a trademark has some legal right to how it is used. :-)
Also my tirades are more silly exercises than they are serious :-P
WHO'S THE NEW GUY?
not you
Elliot Morgan we miss him on SourceFed
still havent found out the reason of why you left Elliot but i will...maybe.
ELIOT!!! been looking for you since you left sourcefed
go check out his Happy Hour channel .. it is pretty awesome
jchobbit jmahr1127 Also the Mashable channel, his Mashable Minute is usually pretty good. Happy Hour is better though, for sure.
Check out his personal channel! He does a show called Happy Hour and it's awesome :)
Didn't even realize he left. :,(
LEDiceGlacier how did you not realise he left? They did make quite a big deal out of it, and had you not noticed he hasn't been on the channel for like 3 months? Haha
Woah. Elliott, you startled me! Good to see you on Mental Floss!
No Elliot, we remember you from sourcefed.
I was excited when I saw a new episode on my feed. I was even more excited when I saw Elliott Morgan's shining face. Love you!
Elliott is great on Mental Floss. His comedic timing is on point and he has the perfect speaking pace to keep viewers interested without losing them to mumbled words
Yayyyyyy, Elliot's here!!!!! So happy to see you dude :)
First.... time I saw Morgan since SourceFed
I liked how Eliot did this one!
Okay, I have no idea who this guy is, but he's FANTASTIC! I'm never really too fond of the guest hosts (except Emily the science one) but this guy is funny!
Elliot Morgan is a great fit for this show; he did an excellent job. Thumbs up!
Elliot is the best guest host you've had.
I approve of your return. Hell, I want to see both you AND John in an episode
I usually don't watch if it's not John, but I had to this time! I love Elliott :)
YAAYYY ELLIOTT!! You were always my favorite part of SourceFed. This was a great episode!
I normally click away as soon as I see it isn't John Green, but this guy was the exception :) congratulations!
What a great guest host! Nicely done, Elliott Morgan!
When I started this video, I was kind of annoyed because John Green wasn't going to be hosting. But then Elliott Morgan popped up on screen and I screamed.
ELLIOTTT!!!! Seeing you here just made my day! Yay!
the Pokeball is upside down. ^____^
Where?
Redsoxking the painting on the wall
Thank you, that was bothering me as well.
Anna Derylo ya i jumped the gun by 10 seconds
Thank god other people noticed. I thought I went insane at first but realized others saw it too.
I love Mental Floss guest hosts, especially when I know them from other TH-cam things.
TH-cam is cool, guys.
I think it's really refreshing to see Elliott like this. Don't get me wrong. He was great with the SourceFed crew, but all of their stuff is always so highly overacted and/or hyper. Y'know.. jumping, screaming, being overly excited and always a witty joke on their lips. I just think I like this even more.
This whole video made me very happy.
Elliot's hair looks like it's slowly running up the sides and back and just collecting on the top. Seriously, look at him through the years.
he calls it the 'Mackle-Morgan' :))
W
Elliot! This was a pleasant surprise. There was something about his execution that was great compared to some of the other guests they've had on this show, whom seem to have trouble adjusting to the format of listing off facts.
You already have two channels, let us have John Green.
He's in Africa, though.
Oh, it's not the channel I was going after. I went to Mental Floss to kidnap John Green. When he wasn't there, I figured I'd list it up a little. When in Rome, y'know? :)
your comment has no logic - john has over 2 channels!
Agreed
Isn't John Green on like 15 channels now?
Elliott finally gets more than a minute!
Gotta love how integrated the entire TH-cam community is.
3:38 You forgot to put a quarter in the Staff Pork Chop Party Fund!
Mr Morgan! It's good to see you again. I hope you can stay a while.
ELLIOTT. You were my favorite on sourcefed!! I MISS YOUUUU.
wasnt going to watch this until i saw Elliott's name in the description lol
... and the term AstroNOT was invented.
I see what you did there.
Every time someone besides John is on Mental Floss I feel like Brick Tamland from Anchorman "You're not Ron"
The look on my face! Nice to see you Elliott!
I died at poison taster because of the Westeros comment! Thank you mental floss that made my day ^-^ Joffery's poison tester got fired after his wedding.
My favorite human on my favorite show (other than his). Life doesn't get any better.
I just want to say that, having spent over four years as a planetarium technician, that job was not only unusual, it was *awesome*.
"You can never have too many Legos," ya, unless they're on the floor
You guys should get Elliott to guest host more often! He fits the brand and has a lovely voice .
Snowmaking seems so normal to me, I see it every winter.. :D
Oh, also! I heard of an unusual job few months ago - prefessional huggers. Cuddle people for comfort. Cute.
Elliott! I was so surprised to click on this video and see you (but presently so). I've been wondering what you've been doing since SourceFed and then BAM there you are. Hope to see you back again on Mental Floss.
If someone had to replace John, this guy could.
I'm too young to get a paying job, but I volunteer at a natural history museum. I give tours and check people in mostly, but it's still a stranger job than most!
- So what do you do for a living?
- Oh, I'm a fake astronaut.
xD
Elliott is fantastic on this show! Hope he makes more appearances :)
Funny story, when my mother moved down east from Quebec to Alberta (Canada) her English was quite poor. She didn't know the name for straw but she did know the brand name (Stone) so she once had to communicate to a waiter that she wanted a stone (straw) and kept repeating the word. It took her some time but eventually, and through some creative miming, she managed to get her straw.
ahhh I love Ell! I miss him of SF, please bring him back again here on Mental Floss!!
ELLIOTT MORGAN!!! I have not watched SourceFed since you left! Never the same anymore.
I move that Elliot should host more often.
Woo! Elliott!! Miss you on SF! Glad you're still doing your thing!! Going to subscribe to your channel ASAP!
I love Elliott!!!! But I do miss him on SourceFed =(
It should be pointed out that the "Professional LEGO Builders" are just the leads on the project. They mostly design how the project should be constructed. They actually hire tens, sometimes hundreds, of laborers to do the actual building. And some pieces are made that are extremely large.
The US Lego factory (most countries have a LEGO factory in them, LEGO is so popular that it's easier to just make them in the country that will buy them) is located in my hometown of Enfield Connecticut. It's right across the street from the back side of the pasture at my grandma's farm. A lot of my friends and family have worked for them doing various jobs including as LEGO building laborers. Oh, and it's not that well of a paying job... I mean it ain't horrible, it's above minimum wage, but still... it ain't the greatest, and it's pretty tough to do all day long. It's one of those jobs like "video game tester" that sounds awesome, but ends up being rather boring.
Funny fact. Enfield CT and the neighbouring town of East Longmeadow MA are home to several big companies like that. Including Hallmark and Hasbro/Milton Bradley. And there's a LEGO daycare for employees of LEGO and Hallmark to send their kids that looks like it's built of legos.
You may also know Elliott from Sourcefed... DON'T FORGET YOUR ROOTS!!!
Man, Elliott is like just as good as John. That's probably the SF fan in me talking though. I do feel he is one of the better guest hosts that Mental Floss has had though.
This guy is a really dynamic host. I'd like to see him on Mental Floss again.
the pokeball picture is upside down...
Ikr! I thought I was the only one to notice it!
Planetarium technicians are looking for faults in their stars.
Anybody? No?
Totally original joke.
ELLIOTT. WUT. I was not expecting that and my day is vastly better.
The pokeball picture is upside down and it's bugging me.
Poison testers? They better have an excellent worker's compensation program. XD
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it.
Nice job Elliot
One of my favourite job titles is the Sagger Maker's Bottom Knocker. A job in a pottery factory for creating clay bottoms for special clay containers (saggers) used to put pottery in while it is being fired in the kiln. The bottoms would be made by knocking a lump of clay into shape using a special hoop as a guide. these would then be passed on to the Sagger Maker who would create the desired container to use of the firing of a specific item.
I typically don't enjoy hosts that aren't John Green but I feel like this guy did a really good job with Magic Wall interaction and good inflection.
As someone who remembers some of those thin and waxy paper straws of my youth, the whole "pinching the straw" thing at a soda fountain is a lost gag.
I officially started liking this guy when he said 'bump their widdle heads'.
Make Elliot Mental Floss' official guest host!!!!
And you know what? I'm a planetarium technician. BAM!
Wonder what poison tester get paid. Lol some strange jobs lets build Legos yeah😬👏
"This week, John shares some unusual occupations." John looks weird today. Maybe it's the new haircut. Or his new shirt. Or not being John at all.
I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT ELLIOTT AND HOW I MISSED HIM WHILE I WATCHED TABLETALK AND THEN I CLICKED ON MENTAL FLOSS AND WAS EXPECTING JOHN BUT I GOT ELLIOTT THANK YOU MENTAL FLOSS
I am so glad to see you again, Elliott! I mean, I guess I could watch your channel, but somehow it didn't feel the same. Although, after clicking on this video and getting an awesome surprise, I think I may just have to go subscribe to your vids so I can get my fix of that awesome haircut.
It's weird hearing that snowmaking is a weird occupation when you have grown up in Maine, in a mountain town. Often conversations would have something a long the line of "I wonder if it is going to get cold enough for the mountain to make snow"
There are also the Lego builders employed by Lego themselves. Some build the originals of the models they sell as kits, some (used to) build the attractions at the Legoland amusement parks. One of the biggest was a replica of Mount Rushmore made from millions of bricks.
Medical students are so grateful to our fake patients. We are so nervous too that I bet it is a bit entertaining for them as well!
ELLIOTT IVE MISSED YOU SOOOOOO :)
I used to have a unusual job. For 5 years I worked seasonally as a "Maze Master" (yup, that was on my contract), which involved making sure people were not lost in mazes. Especially before the farm closed for the night.
OMG ITS ELLIOTT! That was a nice surprise :D
Speaking of deer urine, when I was in High School we weren't allowed to bring school bags during dead week or finals week (and anyone who did got their bag confiscated until the end of the day (like, really, we were all checked for bags walking into the school building)) because one year as a senior prank some people snuck in deer urine and covered one of the main student areas in it.
Some of us questioned the legality of this, but as it turned out we accepted it because it prevented teachers from teaching new materials (which they weren't allowed to do) or assigning too much homework (which they tried very hard to do) during dead week. It was very easy to say "oh no! I forgot it in my bag and they took it!"
Elliott! Those fake patients are called SPs or Simulation Patients!
Still, happy to have you on Mentalfloss
I liked the video and learned about a couple jobs I hadn't heard of before, but honestly a decent sized portion of these occupations aren't really unusual jobs at all, like crime scene cleaners and planetarium technicians.
ELIOT!! I need your sarcasm again. Miss you man SourceFed SourceFedNERD
Elliott?! I miss you at Sourcefed! Keep up the good work
My God! I just realized I'm old enough to remember when paper straws were common. They had a spiral seam like a paper towel core and got soggy if you left them in your drink too long.
Great episode!
#15 Frog Picklers, you mentioned pigs, put a quarter in the staff BBQ piggy bank!
Those posters are awesome. Good job to the set designers (Danica?).
Can this video become the thing that gives us Dirty Jobs back?
I heard of this weird profession where you are a professional witness. Trained in identification of sea vessels and airplanes and often witness events like contract signings, deaths and executions, as well as births.
I'm here for the dog food tester position.
1:13
Seriously, don't elect anyone who wants to eat me. Arrest them, please.
came for John, stayed for Elliott.