Piss Poor

A fun and interesting collection of historical tidbits, as seen on Facebook today.  Although I'm slightly skeptical of some of them (how would a dog crawl up into a thatched roof?).

Healthy, happy, or hot

I like this formulation of "food that makes you healthy, food that makes you happy, food that makes you hot" (with a Venn diagram, of course).

The Magicians trilogy

Fantastic article about The Magicians trilogy, which actually makes me want to read the third one.

Coke MSDS

Did you know that if you spill Coke, you should provide clean-up workers with protective clothing, chemical resistant gloves, and safety glasses with side guards?  If you ingest small amounts of Coke, you should be treated with milk of magnesia or glasses of water or milk to dilute the substance.  If you ingest large amounts, seek medical attention, but do not induce vomiting.

Communal Living Lite

This sounds like it could fun, though challenging.

Cook Smarts

Have you heard of this meal planning service?  I read about it on a blog.  It sounds intriguing -- for me, the most onerous part of daily cooking is the planning and the attempts to minimize waste, and it sounds like the service does all that for you.

Women and leisure

I found this quote from a Slate article interesting, especially in light of our discussion about video games:

In her wonderful book Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time, Washington Post reporter Brigid Schulte recommends that women allow themselves to really play. "Understand that for women, there never has been a history or culture of leisure or play, unless you consider sweeping, making cheese, churning butter, quilting and knitting your kind of fun."

Goats that scream like humans

I like the bloodcurdling screams at 0:14 and 0:55.

Zentangle

Have you heard of zentangle? It's like a systematic doodle where you're repeating patterns to create a larger and coherent drawing (but not of anything, just consisting of patterns). Supposedly it's not about the final product, it's about the meditative process (hence the "zen"). I'm skeptical -- I looked into it because I tend to fill my margins with repeating shapes that turn into larger patterns, and I thought this would be a more fun and productive thing to do, but everything I've seen is focused on selling you stuff. There's an official kit, and certified teachers who teach classes, and an emphasis on "official" zentangles which have to be a specific size and following their method.

Periods

Fascinating Quora answer to the question of why women have periods even though menstruation is "a shameful waste of nutrients, disabling, and a dead giveaway to any nearby predators."

James Beard Award Finalist: Personal Essay

It starts: "The four pizzles lay sprawled out on the kitchen counter."

Marking up books

Do you mark up books? Write notes in the margins?

Sometimes I read books where I have strong reactions every few pages, and I think about blogging about them, but I always end up just continuing to read rather than stopping to type up my thoughts. (For "Lean In," I did pause at the end of every chapter to write up my thoughts, and it was annoying to keep stopping and going back.) It never occurs to me to react in the margins. But lately I've read a number of articles and books that refer to people writing their thoughts in the margins, or even just reactions like "Whoa."

Pens

I'm almost out of my second 12-pack of Pilot G-2s, and am considering switching my loyalty. I'd like a pen with smoother ink flow and one that lasts longer. I go through one or two G-2s a month. In conducting my research, I came across two pen review sites, Pen Quest and A Penchant for Paper. Don't you love the Internet?

Pleasant events

The Pleasant Events Schedule.

Arunachalam Muruganantham

Fascinating story of a man's quest to bring affordable feminine hygiene products to India.

An excerpt:

"There are also myths and fears surrounding the use of sanitary pads - that women who use them will go blind, for example, or will never get married." 

Quice?

A friend and I were discussing whether there is a word for "four times" in the fashion of "once," "twice," "trice," etc.  The conversation led us to this link (bottom line: no, there is not).  I liked this comment:

"There is a charming book by Alastair Reid, called Ounce, Dice, Trice in which (among many other kinds of wordplay) he creates novel numbering systems. From memory, one is 'ounce, dice, trice, quartz, quince, sago, serpent, oculist, novelist, dentist.'"

"How many times did she wallop him with a damp trout?  Oculist!"

Happy Chinese New Year!

Contrary to popular belief, however, it is not the Year of the Horse.

Milli Vanilli

... The Opera!  Although the description is kind of confusing.  And there will be no actual Milli Vanilli songs in it.  I am so disappointed that there will not be an operatic version of "Blame It on the Rain."

iPersonic

Have you taken this personality test?  Only five questions, and among people I know, it's been surprisingly accurate (with a couple notable exceptions all in the "Analytical Thinker" category).  I am a "Harmony-Seeking Idealist," which seems to match up pretty well with my Myers-Briggs INFJ results.

Rory and Paris

Put aside your dreams of Jess, that human sneeze; let Logan sail away on his yacht of indifference into the sunset: Rory/Paris are endgame.