Silly stuff and bluster

I know a lot of ornithologists, but I can’t think of any that look like celebrities. Perhaps that makes Emmet (Bob) Blake unique. He died in 1997, and was eulogized in an issue of the Auk, the journal of the…

Overheard by Husband as he walked out of his office building, a guy talking on his cell phone, voice at normal volume as people streamed by, “They seemed like nice people, until they showed me their Robospanker and Wheel of…

This photo was taken in the staff restroom at work. Those are scorch marks (not soot) on the wall next to the commode; you can see for yourself if you click the second image, which is an enlargement of the…

Returning home, in a plane somewhere over Lake Michigan. Turn to the partially completed crossword puzzle in the in-flight magazine. The clue, two words, five letters: “A perp would cop this.” Previous passenger has carefully filled in “AFEEL”.

First there was getting googled, a list of crazy searches that led people to this blog. Mine weren’t that funny, so I shamelessly listed some true classics from the collection at The Middlewesterner. Finally, mine became more outrageous, and one…

For many years, I have judged a middle school science fair at a very affluent private school where two close friends are teachers. I always enjoy it. My fellow judge for eighth grade biological science projects is a riot, and…

Awhile back, I wrote about the more unusual terms plugged into search engines that pointed people to bootstrap analysis. It was one of my more popular posts — and so cheap to write! — in part, I’m sure, because I…

This port-a-john on campus was getting a lot of business. From incoming freshmen.

Like most other bloggers, I’m curious where my readers come from. Many come from search engines, via some rather strange search strings. I’ve been collecting them since I started blogging, and was saving them up to post them as a…