Groublogpon – The Serious Blog of Groupon

This week has provided us with a bonanza of facts. Here are two of the fanciest facts we could find.

Fancy Fact #1: Regarding The Fourth Estate Restaurant in Washington, DC, which is housed within the National Press Club.

Lounge around at The National Press Club for some great people watching and you’re likely to overhear entertaining gossip about today’s top journalists. Groupon investigative researchers recently picked up some notable gossip documenting the little rituals and superstitions that news anchors perform before going on-air each night. Here are just a few that have been divulged to us:

• Edward R. Murrow: Consumed entire roast chicken in under one minute.
• Walter Cronkite: Split wooden plank over face and screamed “Get some!” into camera.
• Sam Donaldson: Does his own eyebrows.
• Barbara Walters: Lies fully clothed in empty bathtub listening to MP3s of whale songs.
• Dan Rather: Burns a doll made of own hair while whispering, “And so it begins.”

Fancy Fact #2: Discovered while researching D’ames Day Spa, a wonderful day spa in San Diego.

D’ames Day Spa offers a variety of soothing treatments—during the day. But many clients are turning to a whole new kind of spa experience: the night spa. The services it offers are similar, but with the mystery and intrigue that could only happen at night. Here are the key differences between a day spa and a night spa:

• Day Spa: Relaxing massage treatments
• Night Spa: Gosh darn vampires everywhere
• Day Spa: Rejuvenating skin treatments
• Night Spa: Reanimating skin experiments
• Day Spa: Beautifying waxing services
• Night Spa: The wind is driving everyone insane; a mysterious figure appears on a cloud of dust

They say you learn two new things every week, and this week they are right. First, we learned this about pilates:

The Pilates Code

Pilates is an anagram for “Split Pea.” Here’s a list of anagrams for things you may find each day at Groupon.com.

• Sporting Events: Voting Serpents
• Paintball Course: Tropical Nebulas
• Restaurant Deal: Tarantula Deers
• Spa Treatment: Rap Testament
• Boat Tour: Boa Tutor

After that, some research on art led us to our second fascinating find:

Peyton St. Claire, Art Throb Extraordinaire

Excerpted from a recent Soap Opera Weekly article:

• Fans of the hit soap Factory Town will be intrigued to know that actor/hunk Peyton St. Claire has recently found an after-work hobby as a distinguished art forger. St. Claire, who stars as Sheriff Cane Harmon, is consistently able to generate indistinguishable copies of classic paintings. Factory Town producer Jane Olsen plans to introduce St. Claire’s real-life hobby into a future story line, in which Sheriff Harmon will be forced to “shirtlessly forge…something,” in order to “save or do something.”

Eagle-eyed fans may remember when Sheriff Harmon’s rival, Jericho Edgewater, purchased and then destroyed Picasso’s Guernica in a recent story line. Well, we can report that the classic painting depicting the horrors of war is just fine, as the show used an expert forgery painted by St. Claire himself! Says St. Claire, “I love forging art and also helping people.” We couldn’t agree more!

One of the great privileges of working at Groupon is the opportunity to hear the stories of the entrepreneurs whose businesses we feature each day. Behind every storefront is the story of a passionate individual who, through countless hours of grueling and thankless work, turned his or her dream into reality.

Since we love getting backstage access to cool businesses, we thought you might too. So we’re trying something new: Groupon Profiles, behind-the-scenes interviews with the men and women responsible for the businesses we love (Hat tip to Jason Fried for the wonderful idea).

Without further delay, enjoy the first installment of Groupon Profiles, featuring Shin Thompson of Bonsoiree.