Way to sell a book

I love this book trailer for Meg Waite Clayton's new book, The Wednesday Sisters, made by Ashley Clayton. Brava to you both!



Okay, one more book trailer, because this one cracks me up: Meg Cabot's Eight Grade Journal

Solar System Visualizer

Cool and sciency!

Thanks, Live Granades

Signs I'm getting Really Old

The Spouse forwarded this link to me.



Smells Like Teen Spirit

as performed by the Western Branch Freshmen Orchestra.

YouTube - dancing walrus

This is my first embedding. Hope it works okay.

How It Works

I think I love XKCD


Via Shapely Prose

Stuff That Makes Me Cackle

(Another entertaining food-company name, which I similarly encountered walking to work many years ago, is the Puritan Ice Cream Company. That may not turn a native New Englander's head, but it sure sounded odd to this Midwesterner. I started a contest with some of my friends come up with the best Puritan ice cream flavors--I forget all of them, but some of the better entries were Straight & Narrow Rocky Road, Chocolate Mather, Sorbet in the Hands of an Angry God, and of course Preachers & Cream.)

Also, I just read Miss Conduct's bio, and realized she's married to Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes. I bet they're a fun couple.

On a related note, I managed to make the Spouse snort his german chocolate pie tonight. I was simply pointing out that the light glancing off the WolfOwl's blue Jello made it gleam the same color as her headband. It's a good day when I make someone else snort at dinner. And a full blown spit take is bliss.

Zombies by Mail

Lame, I know. Anyway, the gifted, charming, and culinarily canny Rax designed these fabulous t-shirts. So I wanted to post the pictures promptly as a big "thank you!"







I provide the zombies, you provide the captions.

It's All About Meme

Pro-science asks : Why do I blog?.

Let me count the whys:

1) Because I am always posting comments on other blogs that are way too long, and still having more to say. Really, way, way, way too long. So part of blogging is to edit my ideas down a bit, and part is just having all the space I need.

2) To keep the occasional friend and relation up on the cuteness that is the Offspring. Without actually forcing them to look at pictures or respond with strained laughs and rictus smiles. Really, no one has to click or comment.

3) Like the rest of my life, I can imagine exactly how great it could be if I only had more time. Unlike boxes of books I'm never going to read, it's incredibly easy to keep an infrequently updated blog. No dusting required.

4) To share my blogroll, because there are so many insanely skilled bloggers out there, and I figure every little link helps.

5) To get in the last word.*





* "mochila" [moh-chill-ah]


Five reasons, so I'll tag five blogs:

Insane Troll Logic by my doppelgangirl
Mimi Smartypants
MOM: Not Otherwise Specified
Faux Real
Atheist in a Minivan (no Possum relation, thanks for asking)

If There is a "New Atheism"...

does that mean that there can be Fundamentalist Atheists, insisting on returning to the old ways of disbelief?

I love Pro-Science because I agree on every major issue, natch, blut also because he really takes the time to elucidate the issues. Kristjan does awesome fisking on ID in particular, science in general, and he brings a clear-eyed disinterest to American politics.

Plus he gave me the link to the coyote in the Loop.

We're Like this

Last nice at bedtime Woof Woof Woofie was most taken with the word "stupidhead" repeating it over and over. Then for reasons I can't recall, the Possum said "mochila", which the Offspring and I agreed, sounded much more like a small furry rodent, suitable (only) for wearing around a woman's neck and/or shoulders, rather than a "backpack". It was necessary to spend a great deal of time playing in the bathroom with fur stoles from the dress-up box and repeating the word "mochila" in as many sentences and silly posh accents as possible. And, of course, to attack one another with the end of the stole where a face would be if this were the Ghostbusters movie where the fur attacks the woman.

I Always Felt a Kinship with San Francisco

- even though I've never been. But before today, I never knew why. Who knew the importance of good friends and some pets, in the event that you become broke and totally detached from reality?


Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Hat tip to The Countess: feel better soon!