We’ve already featured some of the geekiest baby costumes around, but let’s face it, it’s hard to have too many adorable babies in cute costumes. With that in mind, here are 15 more simply precious cosplaying babies.

Care Bear

Each Care Bear has a different power and Sarah James of Instructables’ little Care Bear has the power of cuteness. Just try not to fall on the floor when he starts sending waves of adorability your way. You can even learn to make your own adorable Care Bear baby costume thanks to Sarah.

Cabbage Patch Kid

What’s better than a baby doll? A baby that’s dressed like a baby doll, especially if it looks like one of the legendary Cabbage Patch Kids complete in the box. Debbie of Coolest Homemade Costumes made this amazing costume for her daughter-in-law, who originally only asked for a wig. Imagine how happy she was to see the whole package all together.

Marty McFly

It’s an eighties baby-costume extravaganza! In fact, I think the universe would explode with cuteness and time-warpiness if we got the baby Care Bear, Cabage Patch Kid and Marty McFly all in one room togethrt. Flickr user Goines even included the license plate OUTATIME on the back of this DeLorean push car.

Mouse Trap

I absolutely love baby costumes that incorporate the stroller or wagon that the little one will be cruising in. While Costume Works reader Michael made the whole thing himself, it would actually be pretty easy to do this on your own with a store-bought mouse costume, a large piece of wood (sand it smooth so your rodent doesn’t get scratched), a dryer vent tube, and a little paint.

In Jail

A baby in a prisoner costume is pretty darn cute no matter what, but add in a giant Monopoly square and a brother dressed like Uncle Pennybags and you’ve suddenly got a great costume that everyone can appreciate. According to Costume Works reader Rorie, the parent of the two boys, the older one, Simon, is simply obsessed with board games, especially Monopoly, and he hates it when his baby brother gets into his games. So for Halloween, he got revenge by throwing his brother in jail.

Frodo

Laura Finch’s little ring bearer might not be able to walk yet, but he’s all ready to join an adventuring party traveling to Mount Doom.

Gimli

Oh, it looks like Sean Donohue’s baby Gimli is already here to join Frodo’s adventure. He even has offered his axe –just like in the movie.

Harry Potter

With his scarf, wand and glasses, little Joe Jack here is a dead-ringer for Harry Potter. Amazingly, he only took home second place in the Mom 365 Halloween contest from 2011, but the gnome baby who won was, admittedly, rather adorable as well.

Stay Puft

This might just be the cutest rampage of New York ever captured on film. This adorable baby is the daughter of puppeteer Dan Milano, who makes Greg the Bunny.

Twink

He’s tiny, fluffy, colorful and best friends with Rainbow Brite, so what little girl wouldn’t want to be Twink? If you’re just dying for an adorable Twink costume for your favorite sidekick, Pink Suede Shoe has all the instructions you need to make this one yourself.

David Bowie

Like your little one to cosplay as a real person? Then put him or her in a leotard and tights and paint a lightning bolt on their face with makeup –bam, David Bowie costume. Sarah Ivy’s son Finn does a particularly awesome job as Ziggy Stardust with his messy red hair (it looks like she used spray hair coloring) and a proclivity for applying thick layers of lip gloss.

Harry and Lloyd

I would never think of Photobucket user tpaynex’s two Angels as Dumb and Dumber, but in their tuxedos and Mutts Cutts wagon, they are definitely cute and cuter.

Ace Ventura

Allllllrighty then little Ace. Costume Works reader Jenny submitted this precious pic of her tinny pet detective back in 2012. While they went out trick or treating, Jenny and her husband wore matching costumes, Miami Dolphins jerseys bearing the names Finkle and Marino.

Russell

With his adorable cheeks, tiny hiking boots and impressive collection of merit badges, Little Miles here is a spot-on copy of Russell from Up! I’m sure Kevin and Dug would warm up to this version even faster than the one in the movie.

Cinderella

It’s cute enough to see a baby that’s only nine months old dress up like all kinds of classic fairy tale characters, but to see Maddie actually play with the props and take on the characters she is cosplaying makes her all the more precious.  If you like any of the outfits from Maddie’s fashion shoots, you can find links to the Etsy sellers that created them on photographer Wendy Riggen’s site.

So technically, maybe they aren’t really cosplaying because they aren’t actually getting into the characters themselves, they’re just being dressed up by Mom and Dad. But when Halloween only comes once a year and babies quickly turn into kids and then grow into teenagers and, soon enough, adults, is there really anything wrong with dressing up your baby throughout the year rather than waiting for Halloween?

Just because you love a particular meal doesn't mean you want to enjoy that meal as a cocktail, but maybe I'm alone here. After all, bartender Phoebe Esmon has created a pho cocktail (for those who aren't familiar, pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup). So what goes into a pho cocktail?

To a base of gin or vodka, Esmon adds lime juice and a light homemade syrup infused with all the essential flavors that build a pho broth: star anise, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, pecan, charred ginger and onions. She then shakes in mint, Thai basil, and cilantro (producing a "lovely shade of pond water," she jokes) and garnishes with her own pickled bean sprouts and an optional float of sriracha.

Thanks, but I'll stick to my chopsicks and soup spoon to enjoy my pho and maybe I'll sip a cocktail on the side.

Link

Mikesaurus at Instructables shows you how to make your own corn cob holders shaped like animals! It involves fitting plastic toys with plain cob holders, plus they are designed so they can be fitted together when not in use. Link -via Laughing Squid

Of course, if you'd rather skip the construction project and use corn cob holders shaped like bones, swords, or unicorns, the NeatoShop has them!

Zombie Evolution by DarkChoocoolat

It's a march of deadly progress! T-shirt designer DarkChoocoolat shows us the inevitable conclusion to the evolution of mankind. Better prep that Zombie Survival Kit!

Visit DarkChoocoolat's official website and Facebook page, then visit his NeatoShop's page to buy: Link. Your purchase helps support indie artists as well as this blog!

EvoluTRON	I Am Your Father	Storm Candy Trooper	Storm Neon Candy Trooper

View more designs by DarkChoocoolat | More Funny T-shirts

Are you a professional illustrator or T-shirt designer? Let's chat! Sell your designs on the NeatoShop, earn generous royalties, and get featured in front of tons of potential new fans on Neatorama!

Port-A-Plant

Do you love plants, but shudder at the thought of being responsible for a living thing? You need the Port-A-Plant from the NeatoShop. This fantastic set comes with 3 punch-out paper pots, paper stems, and colorful paper leaves.

The Port-A-Plant requires no watering or sunlight. It is perfect way to liven-up any dark and dingy cubicle or living space.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Cubicle Toys. 

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"A gaggle of goslings?" No, let's call a group of baby geese a "Ryan of goslings." Instead of a "drove of bulls," say a "load of bulls." Don't say a "cast of hawks," but a "Tony of hawks." Jeff Wysaski has some great ideas for new plural nouns for animals.

Question: what should a collection of Neatoramanauts be called?

Content warning: some foul language in the text of the video.

-via Pleated Jeans

As The Next Web has discovered, when you type in the Bing search box "The xbox one is," you get one autofill answer -that it is amazing. Type in the same phrase on Google and here are your results: 

Oddly, when you leave out the word "the" in the search results, the Google results stay mostly the same, but the Bing results start looking more like Google's. Is the word "the" really that importand when it comes to whether the Xbox one is awesome or terrible, or is Bing just programed to try to help out other Microsoft products?

Link

Hello Neatoramanauts! Just a reminder that we've got tons of Doctor Who items on sale over at the NeatoShop. Save up to 40% on select items - hurry! Stock is limited. We ship internationally. US orders $75 and up get free shipping: Link

Your purchase helps support the blog! We thank you in advance for your support.

As Picasso once supposedly said, "All children are born artists. The problem is to remain artist as we grow up."

Storyteller Angel Yau of Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre created this touching and funny animation about her journey of not becoming an artist. Well, sort of. She's still an artist in all of our hearts.

Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - Thanks Angel!

After tomato plants were taken back to Europe from the New World in the early 1500s, people in various places considered the fruit poisonous for the next two centuries. The reasoning behind the fear of tomatoes came from several sources:

1. Rich people ate tomatoes and then died. Their fancy pewter plates were later found to be the reason.

2. Scientists of the time classified the tomato as a deadly nightshade and a mandrake -both scary terms.  

3. Tomato leaves smell awful, so one researcher pronounced the entire plant toxic.

4. Scary-looking worms infested tomato plants.

An article at Smithsonain's Food and Think blog explains each of these concerns, which lingered far into the 1800s, plus a bonus video containing a scene from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Kicki Holmén)

If a dalek once thought it was a soufle-baking girl, then it's totally possible that one might one day believe it is The Doctor. When that day comes, Megan Murphy knows exactly how the impersonator will dress -no matter which incarnation the dalek decides to impersonate.

Link Via The Mary Sue

Ice cold Coke in a bottle is wonderful, but the Colombia division of the ad agency Ogilvy & Mather has gone even further. It made and served bottles of Coke made of solid ice. I'd love to try that!

You can watch a promotional video at the link.

Link -via Unconsumption

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So this little fox may not have been smart enough to keep its head out of the jar, but at least he knew that these humans might just be kind enough to help him out of his predicament. While I'd like to think he'd learn his lesson about trying to lick the good stuff out of the bottom of jars, John still gets his head caught in our giant plastic jar of cheese puffs all the time, so I can't say I expect more from the fox.

Via Geekosystem

Kathy and her boyfriend went to a wedding in Hamilton, Ontario. Not knowing the wedding couple that well, they presented a basket of food items as a gift. After the wedding, the bride texted Kathy to ask for a receipt because one of the couple was gluten-intolerant. Then it got weird.

“I want to thank you for coming to the wedding Friday,” it begins.

“I’m not sure if it’s the first wedding you have been to, but for your next wedding … people give envelopes. I lost out on $200 covering you and your dates plate . … and got fluffy whip and sour patch kids in return. Just a heads-up for the future.”

Kathy was shocked but then made the mistake of engaging in an email exchange about the incident.  

Gift-givers: “… to ask for a receipt is unfathomable. In fact it was incredibly disrespectful. It was the rudest gesture I have encountered, or even heard of.”

Newlyweds: “Weddings are to make money for your future … not to pay for peoples meals. Do more research. People haven’t gave gifts since like 50 years ago! You ate steak, chicken, booze, and a beautiful venue.”

Gift-givers: “It’s obvious you have the etiquette of a twig, I couldn’t care less of what you think about the gift you received, “normal” people would welcome anything given, you wanna have a party, you pay for it, DON’T expect me to.”

Newlyweds: “You should have been cut from the list … I knew we were gunna get a bag of peanuts. I was right.”

Kathy then turned to a local Facebook group to see who was in the wrong. The consensus they received was that the gift was lame, but the bride was unbelievably rude for complaining about it. The bride maintains that she was shafted as Kathy and her boyfriend were one of only two guests that didn't give them at least $150 in cash, as was expected in their culture. Oh, there's more to the story you can read in the Hamilton Spectator. What do you think? I was raised to believe that gifts are never expected, required, or requested, but always appreciated, no matter how small. Link -via Fark

(Imzage credit: Barry Gray/The Hamilton Spectator)

Tis more serious than the fashion police! Fashion designers Dolce and Gabbana have just been found guilty of tax evasion by an Italian court and sentenced to more than a year in jail:

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were accused of having transferred control of their brands to a shell company in Luxembourg in 2004 and 2005 to avoid paying Italian taxes.

Prosecutors had argued that setting up the Luxembourg company Gado -- an acronym of the surnames of the two designers -- while the company was operating out of Italy was a bid to defraud the state.

In her closing speech, prosecutor Laura Pedio said there was "rock-solid proof" that the duo had committed "sophisticated tax fraud".

Well, perhaps they'll come up with a new and chic line of prisonwear: Link

Volume Control Chill Pacifier

Who says baby accessories have to be boring? Turn up the fun with the Volume Control Chill Pacifier from the NeatoShop. This hilarious silicone pacifier features a "volume knob" design. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more great Baby & Tot items. 

Link

(YouTube link)

How many times have you moved house and used the "friend with a pickup" method instead of hiring professionals? I've done that, and now that I have a husband with a truck, it's payback time. Owen Weber produced this video disguised as a truck ad that's really a commentary on the process. -Thanks, Owen!

Image: Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock

Obesity is now officially a disease.

The American Medical Association has formally declared obesity as a disease, a move that effectively defined one third of adults and 17% of children in the United States as being sick.

The Los Angeles Times report:

The AMA's decision essentially makes diagnosis and treatment of obesity a physician's professional obligation. As such, it should encourage primary care physicians to get over their discomfort about raising weight concerns with obese patients. Studies have found that more than half of obese patients have never been told by a medical professional they need to lose weight — a result not only of some doctors' reluctance to offend but of their unwillingness to open a lengthy consultation for which they might not be reimbursed.

Past AMA documents have referred to obesity as an "urgent chronic condition," a "major health concern" and a "complex disorder." The vote now lifts obesity above the status of a health condition, disorder or marker for heightened risk of disease — as high cholesterol is for heart disease, for instance.

"As things stand now, primary care physicians tend to look at obesity as a behavior problem," said Dr. Rexford Ahima of University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. "This will force primary care physicians to address it, even if we don't have a cure for it."

The decision, which was voted for by the members of the AMA, was controversial - it overrode AMA's own committee who recommended against reclassifying obesity as a disease (it noted that many people with high BMI are actually quite healthy).

Would it lead to "medicalizing" obesity and lead to more reliance on drugs and surgery rather than lifestyle changes? Does this mean that you have a pre-existing medical condition that would lead to higher medical insurance costs or denial of coverage altogether?

What do you think? Did the AMA do the right thing?

POLL: Should we classify obesity as a disease?

• Yes
• I don't know!
• No

My kids love to come to the NeatoHQ (for one, they get to roam the NeatoShop warehouse, which is filled with toys), but they'd probably still get jealous of five-year-old Malalai who practically grew up in her mom's workplace: the Afghan air force's helicopter!

Here's what Col. Latifa Nabizada, the first female pilot in the Afghan air force, said:

There was a need for us to fly and we flew a lot of missions during our pregnancies. Despite that, I managed to bring Malalai into the world well enough. [...]

Unfortunately, there was nobody to take care of my daughter at home and there is no kindergarten in the military. So most of the time I took Malalai with me in the helicopter. She has grown up in a helicopter - sometimes I think she's not my daughter, but the helicopter's daughter!

She was almost two months' old when we first flew together.

BBC's Outlook has the story: Link

The following is an article from The Annals of Improbable Research.

by Philip O’Leary
Boston College

For those working with the Celtic languages, the definite article looms large. The problems it creates are in no way balanced by the fact that the Celtic indefinite article creates no problems at all because it doesn’t exist. I recently finished co-editing the two-volume Cambridge History of Irish Literature. After five years of work, I and my colleague Margaret Kelleher saw the end in sight, particularly when Cambridge announced they would provide the index. That index, imposing in its length and detail, duly arrived. With its arrival, the end of the project quickly receded from our field of vision, to be replaced with another six months of work -- almost all of it the result of the Irish definite article (or articles, as will soon become clear).

That definite article in the singular is An, and when we looked at the proofs of the index for the first time and saw that the letter “A” went on for several pages we knew at once what had happened -- entry after entry began with An. All would need to be rerouted to their proper places under the initial letter of the following noun.

(Image credit: Flickr user One Tree Hill Studios)

An vs. An, and Worse

Nor was the job to be that simple. First of all, there were also a few entries misplaced under the English definite article “An” and under the Irish interrogative particle An (as well as titles in the interrogative misplaced under the initial letter of the word following this particle in various titles).

Moreover, Irish has a vocative particle A, which created further confusion for the indexers, who understandably enough saw it as an indefinite article and accordingly ignored it as they alphabetized those entries. Needless to say, the plural form of the definite article, Na, created its own chaos down the road in the “N” section of the index. And, to add to the confusion, since this was a history of Irish literature from its beginnings, it, and its indexers, had to deal with earlier forms of the language (and of the definite article, which can appear as – and this list is by no means complete – in, int, ind, a in the singular and ind, in, int, inna, na in the plural.

All bad enough, but it gets worse.

(Image source: Learn Irish)

Like all the Celtic languages, Irish is characterized by mutations of the initial letters of words caused by the words or particles that precede them. Thus the feminine definite article changes b to bh, c to ch, d to dh, f to fh, g to gh, m to mh, p to  ph, and t to th. What then does one do with an entry on “the cow” – an bhó? Should it be under b? bh? b(h)? The masculine article is less problematic, although it does prefix t to words beginning with a vowel, leaving the problem of where to put “the father” – an t-athair.

Incidentally, that hyphen is a useful device here as other Irish verbal particles can also create troublesome mutations. Ár nathair can mean either “our father” or “our snake,” perhaps explaining St. Patrick’s eagerness to get those confusing serpents off the island before they created major theological problems for his mission. The hyphen solves this problem, but can leave one wondering whether an t-athair should be filed under “T.” The proper listing would be “athair, an t-”.

Feminine/Masculine Awkwardness

(Image credit: Flickr user random letters)

The feminine singular article has no effect on a following vowel, but does, in certain cases, prefix t to nouns beginning with an s. (Unfortunately, the Irish word for “ant,” seangán, while beginning with an appropriate s, is masculine, denying us the convenient mnemonic an t-seangán.) The plural article in both genders prefixes h to nouns beginning with a vowel, creating a new problem since Irish really doesn’t use h except to indicate this mutation (and for a handful of often exotic loan words like héileacaptar (helicopter), hipirglicéime (hyperglycaemia), holograf (holograph), or homaisiogót (homozygote), none often heard in pubs. Thus, for all practical purposes, the h listing in a careless Irish index could include nothing but misplaced plural nouns.

Still, for all these potential pitfalls, Irish indexers can take comfort that they don’t have the problem faced by their counterparts in Wales: the Welsh definite articles y and yr could create a situation whereby readers could leaf through and index of the first 24 letters of the alphabet before meeting up with a noun at all.

_____________________

This article is republished with permission from the July-August 2006 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!

Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.

Pancake artist Nathan Shields is stepping up his game. Not only do his pancakes realistically depict dinosaurs, but one also comes with an articulated jaw!

Why does the pteranodon say, "I know, I know"? Click on the link to find out.

Link

King Richard I of England invaded the island of Cyprus in the year 1191 as part of the Third Crusade. He ordered a castle built there, but it only lasted thirty years before an earthquake destroyed it, and it was never rebuilt. The site of the ruins turned out to be an amazing opportunity for archeological research -in its toilet!

As castles go, Saranda Kolones had a pretty poor run. But two University of Cambridge researchers recently realized that, precisely thanks to the castle’s short use, a priceless treasure had been left behind in the Saranda Kolones’ bowels. One of the centuries-old castle latrines (read: ancient toilet), they found, was still full of dried-up poo. That feces, they thought, could provide valuable insight into what kind of parasites plagued the former residents’ guts. And because only 30 years’ worth of waste clogged the ancient sewage system, those parasites could provide specific insight into what ailed medieval crusaders. The researchers rolled up their sleeves and collected samples from the dessicated cesspool.

They found plenty of parasites, almost 900 years later. They identify them for us, and describe how they would have affected the Crusaders, in an article at Surprising Science. Link

(Image credit: Anastasiou & Mitchell, International Journal of Paleopathology)

Chances are, you've ran across one of George Zimmer's famous Men's Warehouse commercial on TV. Well, not anymore: the founder and spokesman for the men's suit company has just got fired.

The company announced the termination in a blunt statement ... and explained, "The board expects to discuss with Mr. Zimmer the extent, if any, and terms of his ongoing relationship with the company."

Sounds like a pretty nasty breakup. 

Link

German artist Tobias Wüstefeld reveals the terrifying reality of the Mario universe. His contribution to the We Love 8bit Art Show in Vienna placed Mario's adventures on animals skulls. You can view more photos in the series at the link.

Link -via it8bit

A subdivision just outside of Austin, Arkansas is in a tizzy about one neighbor who installed two toilets on poles high above the fence and signs that say "Trailer Park Coming Soon." Some residents complain that it has affected their property values.

"Who is going to buy a house where you see signs about a trailer park coming soon? It borderlines harassment. However, if you own property you can do with the property as you please," said Lonoke County Sheriff John Stoley.

Stoley said it all started with a disagreement between a property owner and the developer building homes adjacent to his land. What exactly upset the property owner is still a mystery, but in March, he placed two toilets on two approximately 20-foot poles and nailed spray-painted signs to his trees facing the developer's property with the words "Trailer Park Coming Soon."

Though neighbors claim they can't sell their homes due to the unattractive new displays, toilets in trees are not illegal.

"This is the city limits here. Where the signs are is in the county, and there is no ordinances prohibiting signs in the county on a property. It's not threatening. It's nothing criminal at this time," Stoley stated.

Neither the owner of the toilets not the property developer would make a statement. It's things like this that cause some people to sign draconian HOA agreements. Link -via Arbroath

Intrepid local heroes. Battles from long forgotten wars. The Great Squirrel Stampede of 1822.

These are all historical events that deserve commemorating, and that's exactly what Hamilton County, Indiana, is going to do:

Dave Heighway knows all about [Indiana's Squirrel Stampede].

"There is one paragraph that talks about a great squirrel migration in 1822," he said.

As the Hamilton County historian, he's been educating all who would listen about the 1822 and 1845 stampedes where migratory squirrels destroyed cornfields as they trekked across Indiana.

"I read that. I thought that's crazy. I actually thought, that's nuts," he said.

He told the Hamilton County Leadership Academy and members secured a grant to start work on a mockup for a fiberglass squirrel. In fact, the group would like to see a half dozen of these in all eight Hamilton County communities.

Kevin Rader of WTHR chased down the story: Link

Sunglasses with Bow and Stars

Are you looking for the perfect warm weather accessory? The Sunglasses with Bow and Stars from the NeatoShop are sure to light up your life. This great pair of adult sunglasses features a star pattern and 3-dimensional bow. The Sunglasses with Bow and Stars is available in: 

• Red
• Black
• Pink
• Yellow
• White
• Blue

The Red, Blue, and White styles are sure to be a hit at any 4th of July bash. 

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more festive Eyewear!

Link

Geeks and nerds will argue until the end of time about the difference between a geek and a nerd. After all, they are just words, and usage varies with context, community, and era. Burr Settles at Slackpropagation conducted an extremely nerdy (or geeky) word experiment by plotting the instances of certain words as they appear on Twitter, gauging how often each word appears near the words "geek" or "nerd" and plotted the frequencies on this graph. A noble experiment, to be sure, but you have to consider that Twitter itself is a community that does not necessarily represent typical geeks and/or nerds, much less all people who use the English language. Of course, you are free to classify such a quibble as either geeky or nerdy as you wish. The most sensible statement about the argument comes from xkcd, although your mileage may vary. Link -via the Presurfer  

I've never thought of the Ood from Doctor Who as delicious, but I'll bet that Chris-Rachael Oseland's dinner rolls will make me want to get a secondary brain. She used Hawaiian bread dinner rolls for the skulls and dough died with maraschino cherry juice and bourbon vanilla for the tentacles.

Link -via That's Nerdalicious!

Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website. This article was selected for what would have been Moe Howard's 116th birthday.

Moe Howard, the face-slapping, eye-poking leader of the Three Stooges was born Moses Horwitz on June 19, 1897, in Bensonhurst, New York. Early in his youth he got the nickname "Moe" and adopted the middle name Harry. Moe was the fourth of five sons born to Solomon and Jennie Horwitz. Brother Samuel ("Shemp") was two years older and younger brother Jerome ("Curly") was six years Moe's junior.

While he was growing up, Jennie Horwitz loved to have young Moe's hair styled in a feminine-looking "Buster Brown" haircut, complete with girlish curls. The girly-looking mop top haircut caused poor Moe to get into an inordinate amount of fights at PS 163 in Brooklyn. After one bloody nose too many, Moe took shears and carefully clipped off his curls, one by one. This left him with a fringe of long forehead bangs, his future trademark as the bossy leader of the Three Stooges.  

Early on, Moe displayed a very quick mind and had an uncanny ability for memorizing anything, an ability that would later come in handy and help make him a "quick study" with scripts. Moe got the show business bug early and at PS 163 he made his acting debut (as well as directing) The Story of Nathan Hale. He soon became a frequent truant, preferring to catch plays at the local melodrama theaters around town. Moe would sit up in the high balcony, rest his chin on a rail, and "select the actor I liked the most and follow his performance throughout the play."

After graduating from PS 163, Moe dropped out of Brooklyn's Erasmus High School after only two months to pursue a career in show biz. He started hanging around the Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, running errands for many of the famous actors and actresses of the era. He was to appear in many silent films for Vitagraph, earning from 50 cents to a dollar a day.

In 1909, Moe met another acting hopeful named Ted Healy and the two became close friends. In 1912, Moe and Ted joined Annette Kellerman's aquatic act as "diving girls," a job that lasted through the summer.

In 1913, Moe and older brother Shemp started singing in a quartet (Moe sang baritone; Shemp sang lead). Moe and Shemp sang every night until about 9 or 10 PM in the family room at Sullivan's Saloon, until Solomon found out and put an end to it.

In 1914, Moe found employment acting on Captain Bryant's showboat Sunflower. He developed his chops as a thespian on the Sunflower for the next two years, acting in various melodramas. By 1917, Moe and Shemp developed a blackface act and trod the boards of Vaudeville together for the next five years.  

In 1922, Moe resumed his acquaintance with old friend Ted Healy. Soon Moe, Ted, and Shemp formed the earliest version of the Three Stooges act, an act which was to last, in various forms, for the next five decades. Comedian/violinist Larry Fine joined the act in 1925 and for the next seven years, the act would feature Ted Healy as "the boss" of the act, bullying, slapping, and eye-poking Moe, Larry, and Shemp.

Moe also met future wife Helen Schonberger (cousin of legendary magician Harry Houdini) in 1925. The two were married on June 7, 1925. Their daughter Joan was born in 1927, and a son, Paul, followed eight years later.

In 1932, Shemp left the act and kid brother Jerome ("Curly") joined up as the third stooge. After making a few mediocre films and shorts at MGM, the boys split from Ted Healy, with Moe assuming the role of the irascible, punishment-dispensing leader. "The Three Stooges" were now officially formed and would be together, in various forms, making shorts and feature films, for the next four decades.

Much like his onscreen character, Moe was the leader (and businessman) of the team in real life, making most of the group's decisions. Moe was also very tight and careful with his earnings, while Larry and Curly were free spenders. But unlike his dominating screen character, in real life Moe was introverted, serious, very nervous, and had a hard time relaxing.

Like many men brought up in that era, Moe had a hard time showing his love to his family. "I recall that my father rarely kissed my mother, and I rarely kissed them. Expressing our love for one another was difficult," Moe was to recall. Instead, as a way of expressing love, he would shower them with gifts. His son-in-law Norman Maurer nicknamed Moe "Wholesale Charlie" as he loved to buy his wife and kids clothes by the dozen. This conflicted with his usual parsimonious ways, but showering his family with gifts of clothing brought him great pleasure.

Moe also enjoyed traveling. He and Helen visited countless cities around the world, Moe being treated like royalty by his fans everywhere he went.

Moe worked for many charity organizations. He was a member and three-time president of the Spastic Children's Guild, starting in 1944. Just as with his own family, he derived great pleasure out of giving gifts to the children and loved to watch their faces as they opened their presents. Moe Loved playing Santa Claus for the Guild's palsied children at Christmas. He committed Curly and Larry to hundreds of benefit performances whenever and wherever asked.

"He was a very sentimental man and wrote me hundreds of love poems when we were first married," Helen recalled. "On our tenth wedding anniversary, the phone rang and a strange voice on the other end asked me if I would take Moe Horwitz for my lawful wedded husband. The voice then proceeded to perform the entire wedding ceremony, with me on one end and Moe (the mystery voice) on the other… at the end of the ceremony, in a beautiful baritone voice, he sang 'Oh Promise Me,' the song sung at our wedding."

Moe's large range of interests included gardening, hooking rugs, and ceramics. He collected coins, stamps, and even tried his hand at wine making. An excellent amateur chef, he cooked a mean lasagna and cioppino, neither of which he ate himself; he just cooked them for his beloved wife to enjoy.

For exercise, Moe liked to golf and took a brisk two-mile walk early every morning. Moe also liked to attend football games, the fights, and midget auto racing. He enjoyed listening to barbershop quartet music and his favorite song was "How Deep is the Ocean."

Moe's favorite Three Stooges shorts were You Natzy Spy (1940) and I'll Never Heil Again (1941), two shorts in which Moe parodied Adolf Hitler. He though Micro-Phonies (1945) was the best Stooge short with Curly and considered Out West (1947) the best Shemp short.

Asked about watching Three Stooges shorts, Moe said, "How strange it is that people can laugh at comedians who are dead and never give it a second thought. At the same time, it's good to think that Shemp and my kid brother Curly are still remembered."

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During his last years in the 1970s, Moe made several classic appearances on the then-popular talk show The Mike Douglas Show and frequently toured the college campuses of America, lecturing, doing Q&A sessions, and screening the ever-popular Stooge shorts. He still loved to golf and attended his beloved ceramics classes twice a week.

While working on his autobiography, then titled I Stooged to Conquer (later released as Moe Howard and the Three Stooges), Moe Howard died of lung cancer on May 4, 1975, a few weeks short of his 78th birthday, and one month shy of his 50th wedding anniversary. His beloved Helen died five months later.

Moe was once asked how long the Three Stooges would go on.

"Forever is a long time, but with a little luck, we just might make it."

 
See also:A Sincere Homage to Larry Fine and Whatever Happened to Curly?