12-year-old Colby Gage, a pitcher for his Little League in Adams, Mass., struck out 18 consecutive batters to secure a perfect game.

While a milestone, this article from News 10 in Massachussetts says Little Leagues don’t generally track such records, but it says the event of pitchers’ striking out all batters could happen “a few times a year.”

Regardless, buy this kid a drink. (Not that I condone underage drinking whatsoever.)

Check out the Social Security Web site’s database of the most popular baby names by year. Does yours rank in the top 1,000 of the last nine years?

“Christopher” happens to be quite popular, coming in at No. 9 for 2008.

See if your name makes the list here.

Acknowledging that eight brands is too many and its cost structure can no longer compete worldwide, GM attempts to ease customers’ (and 60-percent owners’) concerns by saying the only “chapter” the company is focusing on is chapter one.

I find the commercial oddly entertaining. And at the 48-second mark, the Phillies make a cameo in a photo from just after their 2008 World Series win.

So I did my research, and I determined working at FAO Schwartz and playing the giant piano is my new dream job (behind game show host and, well, any entry-level position at this point).

This thing takes skill. I admire the workers’ dexterity.

Proud to say I got 12 out of 12.

Take this quiz from mental_floss — how well do you know the slogans of your favorite infomercial items? My grandmother taught me well. I’m the proud owner of the Magic Bullet and the Turbocooker. To reminisce, have a look below.

How well did you do?

We’ve all (I hope) seen the infamous Shamwow infomercial featuring Vince, who was recently arrested for a battery charge (irrelevant to this post, but entertaining nonetheless).

Here’s the addicting commercial as a refresher:

As typical in a capitalist economy, competition arose and magic ensues. And here it is (warning: some language):

Elizabeth Gladys Dean, an infant onboard the Titanic, passed away today at the age of 97. She was the last known survivor from the ship, which sank in April 1912.

Dean was on the ship with her brother and parents. Her father died as a result of the sinking while she escaped on a lifeboat with her brother and mother.

Dean passed away exactly 98 years after the Titanic was launched. Her brother, Bertram, died on April 14, 1992, the 80th anniversary of the ship’s sinking.

Here are some additional links — mostly courtesy of Wikipedia — that are useful.

• Cut to the Chase – I did a column for TTN  in which I mentioned Dean in December 2007.
• Titanic on Wikipedia – A very thorough Wikipedia page, complete with 92 primary sources.
• Titanic: Adventure out of Time – This is a fun game I bought. CD-ROMs should come back. Here’s the archive.org page, complete with MP3 files from the game.

Photo courtesy CNN.

The passengers on US Airways Flight 1549 were lucky to walk off the plane alive on Jan. 15 after it crashed into the Hudson.

Receiving some of the items they boarded with was an added bonus.

The passengers have been receiving some items the abandoned on the sinking plane through the mail recently, as US Airways hired a recovery and restoration firm to salvage anything possible.

From boarding passes to books to briefcases to running shoes, the passengers quoted in this CNN article said the items are in near-perfect condition (minus any permanent water damage). Words in books and documents are still legible, and submerged flash drives still work.

Photo courtesy CNN.

Headline translation: Let’s meet in real life, OK? I love you. (Not a lot of people know that.)

Kids these days have dirty minds.

That’s according to an updated list of Internet lingo by the company NetLingo. Phrases like “BRB” and “LOL” are now replaced with “FMLTWIA” and “TDTM.”

To find out the explicit truth, click here. (Don’t worry — it’s only a link to myfoxphilly.com.)

According to NetLingo, about 95 percent of parents (and, for that matter, many friends whom I spoke to) have no clue what these acronyms mean.

Image Courtesy myfoxphilly.com. Just because it’s a great photo to be attached with this story.