It's Not Like I'm Not Trying: I was hoping to have some more original content for you, and I found a couple of articles in dead tree publications that I was going to dissect, but just my luck, they aren't available on-line. Plus, I've been working on a new book review that should be out relatively soon so I'm afraid all I have to offer is another set of quickies. Mo' better stuff soon.

• Off the wall home runs - If you've ever watched ESPN Sportscenter you know they have all sorts of cute phrases to describe home runs in the highlight reels. My favorite is "Bring me your finest meats and cheeses!" Another great one: "He hits that one so deep, it's Freudian!" Heh-heh. I'm not sure about "I am Vexorg, destroyer of cats and devourer of chickens!" I'll have to give that one some thought.


• Diamond anniversary - Television just turned 75. Happy birthday and such, but judging from my last three posts (see below) TV might be showing it's age. Of course, the Sopranos starts Sunday, so maybe there's life left in the box.


• Kid Fails Science, Parents Cheer - A long article documenting the errors in middle-school level science text books. The errors range from minor typos: "...teacher's edition says a coulomb is 6.25 times ten to the eighth electrons. The correct value is larger by ten orders of magnitude. It should be 6.25 times ten to the eighteenth," to plain stupidity: "The reader is told that the distance traveled by the roller coaster in a certain time is its average speed. That is nonsense," to the truly bizarre: "...Linda Ronstadt [is] described in 1997 as a silicon crystal doped with an arsenic impurity." Alrighty then. Millions of foreign students strive to attend U.S. university every year. I guess we now know why they aren't queued up for middle school.


• Prosperous cheaters - On the other hand, maybe those students are just here because it's so easy to buy term papers. (A minor character in Apple Pie made money doing this. Just so you know it wasn't my imagination.)


• Peter Parker's snack of choice - Soon you will find Tarantula jerky at your local mini-mart. File under "E" for Eeew!


• "I can't find my mouth" - "And at the end of the night, they will even reveal what customers have actually been eating." I bet they're serving spiders.