Archive for the ‘Curious Stuff’ Category
Sequences of Integers
While I was doing a bit of personal research on sudoku puzzles today, I tripped over the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, maintained by Neil J. A. Sloane, an AT&T Fellow. You might wonder for a moment what an "on-line encyclopedia of integer sequences" might be, but the answer is indeed as obvious as it […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, The Art of Conversation
Worried to Death
A few nights ago I finished reading the book Buried Alive*, which I found fascinating and informative and generally easy to read. One should note that it is, in addition, a comprehensive and credible work concerning the topic. Anyway, some things continue to puzzle me after closing the book on the last page. These are […]
Lunar Abundance
Not so long ago, people were getting all excited about whether there might be a new planet for the solar system*, and now it seems that there are to be a new moon or two for Pluto. A NASA press release# (which has accompanying photographs showing the moons) describes things this way: Pluto was discovered […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, It's Only Rocket Science
Spam Cake II
Just a few days ago, I posted a short piece about a recipe for "Spam Cake" that came my way, and mentioned my morbid fascination for Spam — second only to my love of Jell-O and "congealed salads". Of course, we knew it wasn't likely to stop there; I wouldn't be surprised if, soon, I […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Food Stuff
Spam Cake
Second only, in the realm of strange food fascinations, to an unnatural interest in congealed salads is my fixation on Spam, the Hormel canned-meat product. I still have hanging, right here where I can see it, a Spam Calendar from 2004, where each month features a recipe illustrated by an appetizing, full-color picture. Yumm. Someone […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Food Stuff
Alphabetical Ideology
I happened to be reading some columns by Cynthia Tucker at uExpress.com, which offers political columns by about a dozen, widely syndicated columnists, when I noticed something that I thought odd. In the list of columnists "On the Right", the writers' last names began with these letters: "B", "C", "G", "G", "K", and "L". In […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Eureka!
Cheesy Dreams
Thanks to Annie at Maud Newton's blog, I got to read this fascinating report from the British Cheese Board* called "Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Cheese". With a title like that, you know it's going to be good. The thesis is simply stated at the outset: The age old myth that cheese gives you nightmares […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, The Art of Conversation
Blurbing Over
I have not written any stories in over a year now. This is a bad thing. I managed to write one that I was reasonably pleased with last year for Ron Suresha's anthology of bi-men stories to be published next year, but that's been my total production ever since I fell out of my routines […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Writing
Who Makes What Most?
What in most fetuses turns either into a penis and scrotum or a clitoris and labia can also develop into something in between. And while most babies are born with either ovaries or testicles, some are born with both, or one of each. Many cultures have categories for such in-between people; in India, for instance, […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.
Herps, Gait, & the Invention of Clothes
Today's reading from Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2004) touches on several topics (as I catch a bit on the lunch-time notes). [Speaking of naming types of animals:] Yet another informal grade name, favoured by American zoologists, is 'herp'. Herpetology is the study of reptiles (except birds) and amphibians. 'Herp' is a […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, It's Only Rocket Science
Platypus Billsight
Two selections from today's reading in Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 2004) The point is that the platypus bill is not just a pair of jaws for dabbling and feeding, as in a duck. It is that too, though it is rubbery rather than horny like a duck's bill. But far more […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, It's Only Rocket Science
Tupper Inspiration
Earl Tupper was born in New Hampshire in 1907. He came up with the idea for air tight plastic food storage containers while working at Dupont. In 1938 he founded the Tupperware Plastics Company in Orlando, Florida and in 1946 introduced his line of Tupper Plastics at hardware and department stores. Sales were dismal at […]
In: All, Common-Place Book, Curious Stuff
Surveying Elayne
I can always count on Elayne Riggs to point the way to curious, informative, and entertaining reading on the Web. I don't know how she manages to keep an eye on all her sources, but I'm grateful. Somehow, I managed to fall behind by a few weeks on my survey of her surveys, so I'm […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Such Language!
Don't Eat It!
Sometimes it irritates me when I can't remember who pointed out some blog to me that I end up wanting to point out but then, in a sort of anti-anal-retentive moment, can't point out the pointer out. There are other times when we might be better off, though. It's very, very hard, I think, to […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, The Art of Conversation
Mathematical Puzzles
No thanks to Elayne Riggs, where I saw the game mentioned, I have now wasted something near to 20% of the last two days playing a game called Planarity. She's usually such a sensible person, too, so I don't know what happened here. Unfortunately, or fortunately, this is just the type of game that can […]
Tchotchkees for Christ
I have been known, at times, to exhibit either bad taste or else an unnatural fascination for tacky things. Although I don't suffer nearly so badly as some of our friends, I do have a smallish collection of really tacky nativity scenes that I put out at Christmas time as a sort of atheist's nod […]
Give Me a Sign….
Not that long ago, Isaac came home with word that the letters on the illuminated sign outside a church he passes on the way to his commuter-train stop had been rearranged to read "My Clits Wet Is Yours?". Loads of good, clean fun, although we notice that recent advances in church-sign technology have given us […]
In: All, Curious Stuff, Raised Eyebrows Dept.