Making mixed drinks last summer, I discovered something quite curious.

Lemon slices float, while lime slices do not.

I don't know why.

I woke with horror this morning to find that a horrible creature had taken up residence on TH's* face while I slept in. A long, hairy, bristly creature that is scaring my kids and making the dogs howl.

Oh, I'd seen it before. It comes around when TH relents to pressure, shaves his winter beard and, um, gets a wild hair to do something goofy.

Family-wide panic ensues. We avoid the Swamp Thing at all cost. We refuse to go into public places with it. We don't feed or eat near it. Kisses are out of the question.

Tonight, we resorted to whatever means we had at hand to eradicate the rodent-beast.

We tried shouting it off TH's face.

My little girl tried to pluck its spiny tentacles one by one as TH napped, but TH defended it with halfhearted swats. He was possessed!

In desperation, my oldest son chased it around the house with duct tape. Swamp Thing merely laughed in defiance.

Finally, we realized it was time for the big guns: We took a photo.

Hey! Could it be? Is that the trimmer I hear up in the bathroom?

For the sake of all humanity, we can only hope.


*TH = The Husband

"Grass don't grow on a busy street," so they say. Then again, it doesn't grow where there's no fertile soil, either. But I digress.

I found this image here, thrown in rather randomly among little factoids that debunk "lies your mother told you." (If you can't make it out, the tattoo is of a little guy with a lawnmower, mowing...well, you get the idea.) At that site, you will learn that we've given lemmings and elephants too much credit, birds don't cry at weddings, neither Mussolini nor Van Gogh was a true patron of public utilities, 10% is all most of us have, and lots more. Go see :-).

From the World Wide Words Newsletter:
*****
"Did you hear about the new world record score in Scrabble? Michael Cresta scored 830 points during a game at the Lexington Scrabble Club in Massachusetts on 12 October 2006. His words included quixotry, which itself claims a record as the highest recorded single turn, scoring 365 points. Quixotry: the state or condition of being extremely idealistic, unrealistic and impractical."
*****
I love Scrabble -- always have, ever since my mom hooked me on the game with all-night sessions when I was about nine. I'm a pretty traditional player and think the use of bizarre two-letter words that only pro players know kind of ruins the fun -- but still, no one in my house will play with me. So I've grown rusty...and completely wowed by a 365-pointer, let alone an 830-point game that apparently used words with some meat to them.

Or maybe I'm just being quixotic?

In tonight's World News With Charles Gibson, correspondent Robert Krulwich featured an interesting piece on why leaves fall. In simple terms, the weight of snow on leaves would stress the tree beyond its ability to survive. So the tree does what we all should do to people and things that have the potential to destroy us: It basically tells them to make like a leaf and leave. This phenomenon is a bit more purposeful than a passive fall, so Krulwich proposes a new name for this beautiful season.

Three cheers for the self respect of trees -- and for journalists who skillfully boil down the complicated into a piece that's still interesting.

Have a wonderful Get-Off-Me :-).

Despite all their efforts through the ages, alchemists just could not create gold from dirt.

However, we just might be able to brew some fine wine from a can of Welch's. I think I'll try it.

Somehow, I think pouring wine from a milk jug just won't be the same.

Somehow, I think no one will care.

Mainly because I have amazing wine-loving friends who are up for most anything.

"Put your senses to the test," says the Senses Challenge. So go ahead -- it's interesting.

BBC - Science & Nature - Human Body and Mind - Body - Senses Challenge

I scored 11/20..."not bad" but not exactly hypersensitive. I found the visual-distortion questions the most challenging.

It's a bad habit: I have an assignment and I'm doing all I can to avoid its completion. Call it ADD, mental block, or whatever...I hate that I do this.

Today's distraction: the IQ test here. It's quick. Plus, it told me I'm way smarter than average. (I guessed on three of the questions out of sheer laziness, so...maybe not...)

Work avoidance + ego boost. All in all, a worthy timesuck.