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Mark Sutherland, the Brit who loves St. Louis.

More than twenty years ago, an intrepid Brit named Mark Sutherland left his home in southern England and, inspired by a half-hour BBC travel show that told of a city of brain sandwiches, frozen custard and "a 192-metre steel arch," plus an acceptance letter to Wash. U., ventured westward to St. Louis.

He liked it here so much, he stayed. He even composed an essay in praise of his adopted hometown which ran yesterday in the Expat section of the London Telegraph. Well, actually, he said it was the best city in America.

Within hours, of course, it went viral in St. Louis. Though some St. Louisans received it with enthusiasm, others gleefully -- that is, mockingly -- began quoting some of its choicest lines.

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Philip Thomas, left, and Andrew Hess, right, at Wash. U's engineering school lounge.

It all started on line at Steak & Shake. Washington University engineering students Philip Thomas and Andrew Hess were at the fast food joint last month with a female friend when a creepy stranger approached them and asked their friend for her number.

"We just thought there has to be a better way to deal with this," says Thomas, a senior From Cleveland, OH. And from there textreject.com, a site that gives people an entertaining alternative to giving out a fake number, was born. TextReject is kind of like the 1990s Rejection Hotline meets Texts from Last Night.

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"The Last Day of Pompeii" by Karl Briullov

End-times: Jackson County on Wednesday?

Where will you be during the Second Coming of Christ? You might want to consider Jackson County, Mo.

In the final days of the presidential campaign, a 2007 video of Mitt Romney angrily (and somewhat hastily) explaining the end-times theology of Mormonism has become an internet sensation. In the video, shot off-air during a radio show by secret camera (damn them!) Romney is asked about the Second Coming of Christ, which some Mormons believe will happen in Missouri.

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Tisha UnArmed via YouTube

No hand roll?

Well, that didn't take long.

Yesterday, we wrote about Tisha Shelton, a.k.a. Tisha UnArmed, the 25-year-old Arnold resident and viral-video star.

We caught up with her later in the day to find out what it's been like to see her video views skyrocket to 1.6 million in a matter of days. And to ask an inevitable question: Have her homemade videos demonstrating everyday life without arms caught the reality TV circuit's attention?

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Tisha UnArmed via YouTube

Yes, that is her foot on the steering wheel.

All the videos start the exact same way.

"Hi everyone. This is Tisha UnArmed and I'm here to answer all your questions about not havin' arms," says Tisha Shelton. "And as you can see, I don't have any arms."

But as she proves on a series of videos posted to YouTube that doesn't stop her from living on her own, shopping at Schnucks, driving a car, or even using chopsticks.

This was information people were apparently dying to know! Collectively, her videos have 1.6 million views and her Facebook fan page has over 2,500 fans.

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They say a picture's worth a thousand words. And high-res footage of our under-appreciated hometown set to music? Well sometimes there are no words, only love and wonder.

Last week St. Louis transplants John Pa and Matt Seilback of Anastasis Films released a neat little video about the city they love. If you haven't seen it yet, prepare to tingle with StL pride.

Here is St. Louis from Anastasis Films on Vimeo.

Read on for a Q&A with John and Matt about the journeys that led them from Korea and religious seminary and onto the Gateway City.

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Witness the havoc wrought by deep dish pizza and Cubs baseball.

The Chicago Cubs are currently rocking a 47-76 record on their way to another losing season. And because schadenfreude is one of the most powerful forces in the universe, that's something that warms the heart-cockles of untold Cardinals fans. That's a scientific fact that is indisputable, at least here in St. Louis.

So please take a moment to enjoy -- while it remains viewable on Youtube -- this graphic video of a burly Cubs fan attempting to scoop up a soft roller, and failing in a most Cubsian fashion. This is what a century (and more) of futility does to a fanbase.

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It seems to us first of all, from talking to doctors, if it's a legitimate dumb-ass comment Todd Akin does not have ways to shut that down. More »

Trip Advisor

Housekeeping has apparently relaxed their standards since this photo was taken.

A hotel in Belleville is making a name for itself in the national press -- unfortunately, it's for being nightmarishly awful. That's according to dozens of guests who spent a night at the Executive Inn and lived to complain about it.

Of 22 reviews on the site Trip Advisor (with names like "If you would like to die, stay here!" and "The only amenities were prostitutes and speed"), 21 rated the hotel "terrible." One kinder soul deemed it "poor."

"Oh sweet lord where do I begin :(," the most recent review begins. "The supposedly free wifi don't work, the tub, toilet and sinks were all clogged and backed up constantly. The water smelled like rotten fish, the ice machine was broke, there was a hooker that lived upstairs and did her job in front of her child!"

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YouTube

Gives zero fucks.

For reasons that aren't totally clear, a two-year-old YouTube clip from a murder-for-hire plot gone wrong in Kansas City is making the rounds once more on the web.

Since it is completely awesome, RFT is happy to take a trip down memory lane.

Dubbing George Cascone "World's Chillest Man," Gawker, Videogum, and BuzzFeed are all linking to the first 58 seconds of the clip, but the whole eight-minute interview is amazing, as is Dorothy Cascone's mugshot and the reason George says he probably deserved it.

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