Apologies for the long drought between blogs. Has the world produced less news of interest, or have I been delayed by my crippling donut addiction? Let’s pretend it’s the former. But for now, I offer some shiny information baubles that have caught my eye. The Green Fairy Lives I’ve always had a fascination with absinthe, the only alcoholic drink (that I know of) to come with its own supernatural mythology. And what a deliciously creepy mythology it is! The drink itself is supposed to be infused with "la fée verte,” or the green fairy, a tormentor of the mind and soul—one happily … [Read more...]
Dragon Con Has That… Je Ne Sais Quoi
Dragon Con is over. Long live Dragon Con. The 2018 con is in the books. 80,000+ attendees, over a thousand panels and events, and exactly one Ewok/Thanos cosplay mashup (that I saw). For those of you who don’t know, Dragon Con is a pop culture convention that combines artists, makers, and fandom from just about every conceivable media and gaming iteration in history. Four days across multiple massive buildings and several city blocks that dominates a fair chunk of downtown Atlanta and utterly baffles the random unaffiliated drivers who find themselves stuck behind colorful human traffic … [Read more...]
I Brought a Damselfly to Show and Tell
Breaking news: I took a picture with my iPhone. I’ve brought it to class today in hopes of making you like me more. I loved show and tell as a kid. I once heard Kristen Lamb say blogs are “show and tell for adults,” and I definitely took it to heart (possibly a little too much). Last Sunday, I went on a solo hike in North Georgia on the Pine Log Creek Trail, a 4.5 mile loop hike that features a small abandoned quarry reclaimed by nature in a particularly lovely way. Here’s my orientation-flipped pic of the reflective water effect at the quarry: I’m always hoping for a glimpse of … [Read more...]
An Urgent Report on Terribly Important Things
As the days and weeks go by, certain news stories, trivia bombs, and random developments in the Weird catch my attention. When these items reach a critical mass in my brain (i.e., I’m about to forget a bunch of them), I rush here to share. My mind can hold about as much information as a single fortune cookie strip at any one time (excluding the lottery numbers), and not a byte more. So… Important Cold War Dental History Update It turns out the secret agent cyanide tooth is a myth. I always suspected this—you’d kill yourself biting into an almond--but it still hurt when Mental Floss … [Read more...]
Play Date with an Adorable Blob
Last month, I fulfilled a long-held wish to see the West Indian Manatee in its natural habitat, the various rivers and lakes and hot springs of central and southern Florida. It was a wild success. A friend and I drove two kayaks to the Crystal River and got on the water at a public park put-in about a mile from Three Sisters Springs. It was both early and quite cold—the best conditions for seeing the manatees. The water from the springs stays a constant temperature all year round (still fairly cold to us, just not to them), and they congregate during the winter months to keep their body … [Read more...]